Teaching Principles of Agriculture: An Observation Study

On Tuesday, November 10th I visited Mrs. Ewell at Hearne High School. The first class I observed was her second period Principles of Agriculture class. She has 9 students in this class including 1 new student that arrived today. In total there are 6 boys and 3 girls. The new student was obviously very nervous, but Mrs. Ewell was very accommodating and welcoming towards him. The class started by the students answering their daily challenge questions. What part of the flower attracts bees and other pollinators? What part of the flower supports the anther? What part of the flower holds the ovules? Every Monday the students get new vocabulary words, and their challenge questions always relate to those vocabulary words. I really liked the way Mrs. Ewell created a fun way for the students to remember the meaning of each word.

Mrs.

Ewell had to get on to 1 of the boys for continuously making racist comments. She made him settle down by making him her assistant for today’s lecture over flower dissection. It seems as though Mrs. Ewell has not really found a classroom management strategy that works for this class. The students were not out of control, but if they were a little less rowdy, more could have been accomplished. She did not put much force into making the students participate. Although this is frustrating, I think it is a good decision because some days that may not be a battle worth fighting. I admire that Mrs. Ewell took the time today to do a hands-on lab with the students. I know she can get irritated with their behavior at times, but I could definitely tell they enjoyed today’s flower dissection. It gave them a chance to relate the vocabulary words they have been using to live flowers. The only thing I would do differently with the flower dissection is make sure to mention the safety precautions necessary when dealing with the sharp

objects.

Mrs. Ewell’s third period class is Livestock Production. The class consists of 4 African American males. She had to start the class by threatening a student with a write-up if he took his phone out 1 more time. The students were spread out in all 4 corners of the classroom and Mrs. Ewell sat at her desk to make announcements regarding the upcoming pig sale. This layout only worked because of the number of students in the classroom. These 4 students are required to come to the pig sale Friday night because they have no other opportunities to handle live animals in the classroom. This led to discussion away from the lesson Mrs. Ewell was planning on teaching because she realized she had not talked about the correct way to handle animals. They began to discuss the humane treatment of animals and why it is important to always treat animals with respect, but to especially treat them with respect when they are handling them in front of customers at the Hearne FFA pig sale. Then they got out their note packet over animal breeding and reproduction. There is great potential for the students to learn in this class because of the minimal number of students. Mrs. Ewell is able to have full control of the classroom and go into abundant detail during the lessons. I could tell Mrs. Ewell is much more comfortable in this class than she was in her second period class. Sitting in this class made me realize the benefits of having a fewer number of students in the classroom. A few of the benefits are; things take less time there for you can accomplish more, it costs less to run projects per class, and there is more one on one time. However, when the class is small, you are benefitting a fewer number of students.
The third class I observed was fifth period Principles of Agriculture class. This is a junior high class consisting of 4 boys and 6 girls. There are many different students in this class then the students that were here the last time I observed Mrs. Ewell. She said the families in Hearne are constantly moving from one town to another. The junior kids have been so disruptive walking from the junior high campus to the high school campus that they must be walked over by an administrator. The beginning of class was spent answering challenge questions. She uses the same set of challenge questions that she uses for the high school principles class. The students were given 5 minutes to study for their vocabulary quiz that will take place on Friday. Mrs. Ewell does a great job of constantly walking around the room, and praising students that follow directions. One thing that I think works really well for Hearne is their dress code. I think a dress code is 1 way to put all kids in a consistent environment and helps with the issue of kids judging each other because of their clothing. There was 1 boy in this class that had duct tape around the waste of his khaki pants because he had no belt to keep them from sagging. Mrs. Ewell has formed a much better relationship with these students since the first time I was here. In my opinion, good relationships provide a better mutual respect between the teacher and the students. The students spent the remainder of the class dissecting flowers. They must find each part of the flower and place it in the specified area on their worksheet. In order for the students to get credit for today’s lab, they must get Mrs. Ewell to initial their dissection worksheet once they feel it is complete. Mrs. Ewell has changed her classroom management plan for her after lunch classes since the last time I visited. Previously she seemed to be on a go with the flow type of management, and she only took action when things got too far. Now she is using a 3 strike system. The 3 strike system is on a class and individual basis. She was even able to get school administrators to agree upon the 3rd strike leading to the students going to ISS. This class got very close to earning a class strike, but after a warning they straightened up their behavior.
Mrs. Ewell’s sixth period class was another Principles of Agriculture class. This high school class consisted of 7 boys and 1 girl. The majority was African American, but a few of the students were Hispanic. Mrs. Ewell said this is her toughest class to get through because the boys can often lose focus and get out of hand. She heavily uses her new 3 strike policy in this class, and she said some days it is more effective than others. This class did the same activities as the other principles classes by answering their challenge questions, studying vocabulary words for 5 minutes, and completing the flower dissection. She has 2 students in this class that are FFA officers. Mrs. Ewell is having issues with her FFA officers because only 2 of them are currently passing all of their classes. For many programs, failing classes would result in being kicked off of the officer team. However, I think that kicking these types of kids off of the officer team would only result in more trouble. I also think that some of the kids could care less if they are on the officer team or not and there are no other FFA members that care enough to replace them. I have realized that many of my philosophies on agricultural education would be different if they were based on the environment at Hearne High School. I was pleasantly surprised with how this group of students reacted to the flower dissection. I think it is an efficient and inexpensive way to teach the topic of flower anatomy. Two students came in at the end of class that Mrs. Ewell had already counted absent. One of them was late because he had gotten in trouble in a previous class, and the other one was late because he had to change into a collared shirt to follow school dress code. Mrs. Ewell did an excellent job of catching the 2 students up so that they quickly got to the same step as the other student. A couple of the students were playing around with the scalpel so Mrs. Ewell had to remind them of the basic rules of lab safety. Technically, the students should have been reminded of the lab safety rules before the lab began. At the end of class Mrs. Ewell had to raise her voice at a boy for having foul language.
The fifth class I observed of the day was Mrs. Ewell’s Floral Design class. The Floral Design class consists of 10 girls and 3 boys. She had already told me multiple times that this is the class she looks forward to all day. However, I could tell that they were in rare form today. It took 5 minutes to get them all in the classroom and under control. The topic of today’s lesson was sympathy flowers. Mrs. Ewell started the lesson by telling the students that they do not have to take notes today, but if they start to act up then she will make them get their notebooks out and take notes. Because this class is usually on their best behavior, Mrs. Ewell does not really have a classroom management plan for them. As a teacher I realize that there will be somedays when I can’t control even the most well behaved class. The only thing that will prepare me for those bad days is to set standards and a classroom management plan at the beginning of the school year. In this class there is 1 pregnant girl. The other students have no respect for her because she is treated differently than everyone else. While the girl was away at the bathroom, Mrs. Ewell had to give the other students a quick talk about treating her with more respect. While she was talking to them, I was reminded that counseling is yet another role that an agricultural science teacher must play in the student’s lives. I think Mrs. Ewell handled the situation well and the students definitely responded well to her talk. Mrs. Ewell wrapped up the lesson by talking about professionalism in the sympathy floral industry. Even if these students do not grow up to be florists, the lesson of professionalism when dealing with death will come in handy. The students had much better behavior towards the end of class then they did at the beginning of class. Mrs. Ewell did not let them get under her skin, and the students responded well to that.