Pesticide Certification

It is sad to say that we are a short 5 weeks away from being done with our student teaching experience. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned much.

My horticulture class and I have been working through the Penn State pesticide manual for the past 2 or 3 weeks in preparation for our approved Private Applicator licenses. I have enjoyed working through this unit because I got a much more thorough understanding of pesticides and the little details. When I told the students taking the exam that I was taking this with them, they really perked up.They were much more motivated to learn. I did the review questions throughout the book with them and learned so much from teaching this subject. For my lesson plan exercise at the delta experience I drew "pesticide safety" (originally I drew nanotechnology but Mr. Seaman had mercy on me). Completing the lesson plan in the allotted time was much more doable because of teaching this material. It was fun sitting with them taking the exam, I could tell they were liking it. They were all smiling and looking at me and each other. They finally got the concept that we are a team. (I like to tell my classes that :-))

For the last few weeks, the landscaping class and I have been working on putting in a block walk way in the green house. We are now moving into their drawing projects. This class is only 35 minutes long, so it is difficult to get much done not having the full 80 minutes. This was the first time I actually put in a walk way -- more things I am learning.

The beauty of that greenhouse right now is almost at full capacity. We just got hundreds of flowers planted in ornamental hanging baskets which are hanging around the 2 plant rooms in the green house. When they bloom it will look amazing. Then, the middle of one of the rooms is a pretty big hydroponic system we made with 30-40 healthy heads of lettuce growing out of it. We recently picked 10 heads of lettuce and I made a salad for a faculty meeting (mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, dried cranberries, and citrus vinaigrette if you are wondering). Then in the other room (the room with our walk way) we just finished installing tables to cover the greenhouse. We have geraniums covering all of the tables.

In the final room of the greenhouse, the animal science class has their animals. They are doing a project where they have to have at least 2 animals and raise them for 6 weeks. They are required to feed and water their animals every day and log it, and clean their cages or pens. The object of the project is to find some factor with your animal you want to measure, such as weight. One student has scorpions, and he is measuring their body growth. I love that greenhouse. (I will post pictures next week)

This was my second to last week with my Ag Science class. I just finished the aquaculture material, and have one more week with them until I go to Engines. I am quite sad about this because As Science has been my favorite class to teach. It was rewarding to actually hear some moans and groans when I said it was my last week teaching them.

Environmental science (or what as a wise university supervisor said, "the bloc class from hell) has taught me so much in the field of classroom management. There are a couple students in the class with IEPs that require a teaching aid to accompany them throughout the day, so she is obviously in my class every day too. She is Mr. Abma both told me that I show much more confidence in dealing with the "bad" students, and have much more control of the class. It is really a shame though because this is such good material and they do their best to make it a drag.

I am loving every minute of this experience, and now that the days are getting longer and the weather is getting nicer it allows for more opportunities to do outside lessons. I am working on planning a few.