Britton's Blueprint

Being a member of Northwestern High School, I am able to see so many students that have so many different SAE's. The Entrepreneurship SAE is what I am going to mention in this blog. It was in the middle of summer, and my first time really meeting some of these students one on one with Mr. Honeycutt. I realized very quickly that some of them didn't know how to feel about me giving them advice on their animals/ projects. I can honestly say that this is the SAE that I am most familiar with, I raised beef cattle for my SAE projects while I was an FFA member. I feel as though I can really relate to these students that are doing this type of SAE project. While on My SAE visits we saw a few different Entrepreneurship SAE's. These projects varied from beef cattle, goats, lambs, dairy, and hogs. I have shown goats, lambs hogs and beef cattle. I gave the advice that I knew about the species, and I talked to them about their feed, and their different buying and breeding systems....

This week my students will be planning a virtual garden, these students will need to pick their plants, and then create a garden. They could use google slide, or another platform. While I am planning this material for my student to be working on this week, there are a few questions going in my head.  When we were in the classroom there were questions asked by me, the students would get about 10 seconds to think on the question then I would ask for responses. I am having a really hard time doing this virtually, I have been using google forms as part of their classroom experience. If I could tell that the students were not putting in the brain power to answer the question the way that I expected I would ask another question until we got a better class discussion.  It is really hard for me to have class discussions virtually.  I think that with everything happening around them can they work clear minded on their school work? probably not, I mean I can't. I keep ...

With everything that is going on in the world, we have all been affected by this unforeseen craziness. This craziness has become the new normal. I never thought I would be doing online instruction. I am a person that does not really like to use technology a whole lot in my classroom, we are usually hands on. With me teaching though my computer, it is really hard to preform hands on instruction. I don't want to say that I was afraid of the online instruction, but I kinda was. Who am I kidding I still am. Something else I am afraid of is heights. So here is a story about how I got over that fear. I was at Kevin's work one evening and his co-workers were power washing a camper. Since I was the lightest and smallest one their they asked if I would be willing to get on the roof to power wash it. I know that I would be uncomfortable up there... but how many times have I talked students into leaving their comfort zone, to do something amazing. In my head I just kept saying, if my st...

Over the past couple of weeks of not being in the classroom, but generating enrichment lessons though google classroom: I have learned a lot. These things that I am learning from those that I am "stuck" in quarantine with will be subjects that I can expand on with lessons with my students someday. These things could be body work on a vehicle, or learning large scale diesel mechanics. I learned that the more body filler you use the better, you can always sand off the extra, but when its too late you can't add more. This lesson I took to heart, just like teaching, you can always put a lot of effort into your lessons but when the class is over, that 42 minutes is over it is over. You really need to use each and every minute of those 42 minutes because you don't get more minutes if you need them in a one day setting. The next lesson I learned was about diesel mechanics. Always make sure your trailer and truck is greased. The grease is a lubricant that keeps things run...

As most of you know that my fiance works on the pipeline, he meets a lot of people. That being said, I don't usually get to meet all of the people that he comes into contact with. Usually I only hear stories, or what they do and where they might be from. For those of you that don't know much about the "pipeline" people come from all over to work on gas sites. Kevin (my fiance), travels to different gas sites  to sand-blast and paint the different parts of the gas well. In order for him to do his work properly there is a paint inspector to measure the amount of paint that is on the pipe. Each company requires a different amount of paint on the pipe, well-heads, and valves. I never get to meet the inspectors, but they seem to be really cool people from all over the country. As I went to Kevin's work this past week to take him dinner as he would be painting until after 9pm. I pulled in and to my surprise his inspector was still there. I was actually able to talk ...

This past week has been nuts, as a teacher I have been super busy planning and modifying based on maple season. Sap runs on warmer days with cooler nights, so we have been having a good last few days here in Erie county. When it is time to boil, its ALL hands on deck. Thus means modifying lessons in order to have the needed help to keep the maple process happening. I have learned to really like maple production, and all the students seem really interested in it as well. When I don't have students in the woods checking maple lines we are in the classroom doing other cool things. Something I learned about tapping trees is that being tall is an advantage. Me I am 5 feet 2 inches and at some points I felt as though my rips were stretching trying to teach the taps. I actually said that out loud while tapping trees, about stretching my ribs and still not being tall enough. Mr. Honeycutt laughed, which caused some students to fully realize that I am not average height. When the s...

Talk about a long day, I get to the school around 7 in the morning, and usually I leave around 4 in the evening. For those of you that are unfamiliar it is maple season, that means longer hours, because of boiling the sap to make the syrup. Maple syrup is a huge thing in this part of the state. I learned that there are students that are actually willing to stay late and help boil the syrup. Once you start boiling you can’t stop until all the sap is boiled. It is really amazing to see all of the community members step up with not only help, but with advice as well.  Yes the 7 to 11 was hard, but it was super fun and I learned a whole lot about maple production. My question this week is : how long is too long to stay after school and work on school stuff? How do you set your limit?