Student Teacher Visit

I actually had the opportunity to visit both Beth WInklosky at West Perry High School and Manny Catala at Pequea Valley. Interestingly, they both paid a visit to Greenwood to watch me teach, so I was in a unique situation where we could compare and contrast our schools and teaching styles.

West Perry is nearly three times the size of Greenwood, with about 120 agriculture students. I enjoyed my visit with Ms. Winklosky, and was able to watch her teach animal science, leadership and an ag mechanics class. Beth has a wonderful connection with her students and enjoyed working with them in the classroom. She really communicates her expectations clearly and sees that they are met by her students. Her favorite thing about student teaching is the connections she can make with her students and watching them succeed.








My second student teacher visit was at Pequea Valley with Manny Catala. Pequea valley is larger than Greenwood, with about 230 students in the program and about 80 active FFA members. It is a school in the southern region of the state and is a two teacher program. Unlike West Perry or Greenwood, Pequea Valley has a mandatory Agriculture Biology class in 10th grade. While at Pequea Valley, Manny had the opportunity to teach classes in Power Technology, Horticulture, Intro to Ag Mech. Agribusiness and Agriculture Biology. His favorite thing about student teaching at Pequea Valley is his awesome students and friendly and connected school staff. He least enjoyed teaching Power Technology, as the content can be tricky to master in that class. Manny taught in a lecture style, but did a great job with breaking up the pace of the class with whiteboards and think, pair, share activities. I enjoyed seeing the animals and fish at Pequea valley too, as I can see that as being something I would have in my own program someday. When asked what he perceived as the biggest difference between Greenwood and my teaching and Pequea and his teaching was, he said that I was a little more traditional in my teaching. He said I was more paper and chalkboard based than his teaching style, whereas he is more likely to integrate technology in the classroom. I had a very positive visit to Pequea Valley and got to see the awesome things Mr. C was doing with his students.