3, 2, 1, Montana Here We Come!

 The Countdown is On!

    I am so excited to say that Krista and I are less than two weeks away from our teaching immersion in Kalispell, Montana! Over the past few months, we have put so much time and effort into planning our teaching immersion and I am so excited to finally be able to see our work come together! As we count down these last few days, I've decided to share a count down with you all that captures my final thoughts before departing for my teaching immersion!

Krista and I by the Lion Shrine at PSU:
an image we are very excited to share with our students in Kalispell!

3 Things I'm Excited About!

Learning from my students!

    I am so excited to deliver five days of curriculum to the students in Kalispell, Montana. The lesson plans that we are delivering focus on global agricultural citizenship. Of course, in order to be a good global agriculture citizen, we first need to be aware of the agriculture that is present around us. Even if we are over 2,000 miles away from home. In this particular situation, chances are, our students will be more educated on the agriculture surrounding Kalispell than we are. 

    Being able to teach in this environment is the perfect opportunity to practice teaching my students while also allowing myself to learn from them. As educators, one of the most important things we must take with us is the desire to continue learning. Having my first formal teaching experience in a scenario where I will be able to learn from my students in such a unique manner is the perfect opportunity to cultivate my desire to learn as I teach!

Documenting my experiences!

    During my teaching immersion, I will be documenting my experiences in many ways. Of course, I will create a blog post documenting this journey, but I will also be creating "FlipGrids" to share with other preservice teachers in the GOALs program as well as taking a lot of pictures! Not only is this teaching immersion an amazing college experience, but it will also be a great tool to use when teaching global citizenship in my future classroom. 

Working with agricultural educators with a different background. 

    Throughout our time in Kalispell, Krista and I have allotted a large amount of time to observing classrooms and attending CDE practices. During this time, we hope to absorb as many teaching techniques, tips, and tricks as we can! This will be my first time observing a teacher from another state, and I am very excited to see how differently classrooms are managed in another part of the country! Growing up in Pennsylvania, most of my observation hours have taken place in areas with backgrounds that I am familiar with and I am very excited to learn from educators with a different background!

H.E. Robinson Ag Education Center
The building we will be teaching in during spring break!

2 Things I am Nervous About!

Seeing my curriculum come together. 

    Over the past few months, I have spent what feels like countless hours working on my lesson plans and the materials that will accompany them. While I feel confident in the material I have created, I feel as though it is only appropriate to be nervous to deliver my lesson plans for the first time. Like most of the nerves I have going into this experience, this revolves around the idea that this will be my first time teaching a lesson in front of a classroom. However, I do know that the more I review these lessons, the more confident I will be going into my teaching immersion!

Leading a classroom.

    This will be my first attempt at managing a high school classroom. As a young preservice teacher (especially as one who will be shorter than most of her students), it worries me that my students will not be as receptive to my classroom management techniques as I would hope. Of course, like most skills, classroom management will get better with time. I also know that we will discuss classroom management prior to our departure and I am sure these nerves will ease with time!

1 Question I Have for Everyone Else!

How do you plan to document the questions you may encounter during this teaching immersion?

    While we spend our time both leading and observing a classroom, it seems to be almost inevitable that we may encounter some situations that will foster questions that we hope to ask when we return to our classroom after spring break. How do you plan to document these questions so that you can remember to ask them once we return? 

The trip we will be making from State College, Pennsylvania to Kalispell, Montana!