Britton's Blueprint

When you think back to the last time you were a student, how did the teacher keep you thinking? How did they keep you engaged? I know that my teachers would always ask questions in hopes to keep me engaged. There were the teachers that would ask too many questions, and I would get frustrated. What do you remember thinking when the teacher would ask an open ended questions in the class? How did you use to feel if you got called on to answer the question.    I know that this is something that I am going to struggle with as an educator. I am worried that I will ask too many questions and frustrate my students. I don’t want to ask too many questions. I am afraid that my students will be able to predict my teaching, and know when I am going to ask a question. I don’t want to call out a student to answer a question, because what if they don’t know or get nervous? I imagine that I will use the “phone a friend” strategy. I just have a feeling i'll be asking questions and the same stud

Today was my interest approach lab, where I was instructed to come up with an interest approach that was between 5 and 10 minutes long. We all know how much I love cows, so I thought I would do something with cattle.. but what could be a good interest approach. What is more interesting than the ruminant digestive system? I am sure that most of you have heard that cows have four stomachs, part of that rummer is true. The stomach is actually one unit, but has four different compartments. Mind Blown! I thought for a while how to make an interest approach about the digestive system, then it hit me, a puzzle! Who doesn't loves puzzles? The students were given the task of putting the pieces in the correct spot, they had five minutes to do so. I then gave the students a blank cut out of the digestive system with all the pieces, they laid their pieces in the correct places on the blank cutout. If the lesson were to have continues I would have had the students make their puzzles into

This is a topic that I seem to struggle with as a learner, "Group Work". I really do not like working as a group to complete a project, I would much rather do it on my own. Because of this mindset, I think I am going to struggle to get my students excited about working in groups or teams. Think pair share, this is the only method that I feel comfortable with as part of my lesson. I realize that this is something that I need some advice on.Think pair share is a group thinking activity where the students have time to think on their own. Then the students are paired up to think as a team, to share ideas, then students share with the rest of the class in the form of a discussion.   What are some other methods to make group work, and or group thinking something that students don't mind as much? I do find myself using this method, when writing my lesson plans for my upcoming student teaching internship. I am just concerned that there are some students that will not contribute

Good afternoon, welcome to your 6th period introduction to agri-science class. I am Ms. Bracken your agriculture education teacher. As my students came in the door I greeted each one of them individually. I remember that the initial connection between me and my favorite teachers happened at the door. I welcomed my student by name and asked how they were doing today. For the first day of school, its seem pretty typical to have a section of the lesson where I would go over the different expectations and the management practices of my classroom. I just believe as a teacher that it is more important for my students to get to know me first. I think that if I make a connection between me and my students, they will be able to learn better from me. I might be tooting my own horn, but I really loved my activity that led to my students getting to know me. I had written questions about me, I had the answers written on note cards. Each student got three answer cards, which means that each st

I want you all to close your eyes for a second, picture the last time someone told you that you matter, and what you do is important. What feeling did you have? Now think about a time when you told someone else that they matter, and that you appreciate them?  In the world of education we as the teacher(s) have one of the most important jobs in the entire world. We have the job of inspiring others to be better, to try harder, to get interested in learning, and to use their knowledge. As teachers we are building the world, we are building people. I know for me I had some really influential teachers in my life, one example being my first biology teacher. I was in 10th grade, when the guidance office is trying to get you to decide what path you wa nt to take to get you to you career goals. I decided that biology is what I wanted to take biology 1 as my science that year. I also took chemistry that year, but that

What do I want my students to know? and How do I want them to get the information? These are the questions I find myself pondering while I create objectives for my upcoming lessons. I struggle with wording the objectives so that they sound different. I seem to always start with the same "students will be able to", and that's not me. I do not want to sound the same to my students. Is there a way around this?  If we take the time to think about the word connections, what do you think of? Some of us might be thinking the connections between people. Some might be thinking about cell phone service. Me I am thinking about electricity connections and to make those connections we need connectors. Now you may find yourself asking why I might be thinking about electricity and wire connectors (nuts). For some of you may or may not know that there are three major different types of wire connections which are  light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy duty wire connectors. The light duty c

This is a challenge for me, how will I keep my students engaged? And How will I keep myself confident?I think that the most important thing for an agriculture teacher to do is to be confident. If you are confident the students are less likely to second guess you, but if you are not confident they may not learn the most from you. I have to challenge myself to understand that not knowing something is okay, and I WON'T know EVERYTHING about agriculture and that is okay.  The concept that worries me most about my journey of student teaching is the idea of keeping my students engaged. I might be speaking for myself, but maybe we all can agree that this is a challenge. Especially with the distracting technology that seems to be stuck to our fingers most of the time. The first principle of teaching and learning is organization and structure of subject matter. I think that this is a HUGE part of how students can be kept engaged and how they learn the best. If it is clear how the