One of the first times I considered being a teacher was in elementary school when I watched, for the first time, my very favorite movie: Kindergarten Cop. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an undercover cop who is trying to find a criminal's ex wife through their child, so he poses as a kindergarten teacher. I seem to be the only one who enjoys this movie, but it's because the first time I watched it it just kept getting better and better. That's sort of how my journey has been in agricultural education.
The first scene of Kindergarten Cop is filled with action, suspense, drama, and….Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, it doesn't seem like it could get much better. That's how my high school perception of being an ag teacher was - just with less violence. Watching my ag teachers do what they do best seemed like it couldn't get much better. As soon as I got to the University of Kentucky I quickly realized there is more to teaching than I thought (and it definitely gets better).
If you haven't seen Kindergarten Cop, I highly recommend you do so. It may seem odd to compare my journey to a Schwarzenegger comedy, but it's true. Kimble, his character, goes into teaching blind. He's doing what he loves, working as an undercover cop, but with this case he learns about the love that goes along with teaching. He learns how to make teaching his own. How does he do this? He turns 20 kindergartners into "deputies" and makes them run drills. They absolutely love it! I am positive that the reason they love it is because their teacher, someone they all look up to, loves it. He's putting his passion into his students. THAT'S when he starts seeing change in his students. That's what my goal is - to bring my passion into each student I have. I saw a glimpse of that today when I taught my very first lesson to real students!
I taught the basics on fertilizers, nutrients, soil sciences and plant deficiencies to an agriscience class at Locust Trace. My confidence and excitement rose and rose the whole way to the school, and then plummeted. I got nervous very unexpectedly when it dawned on me that these were REAL students. This wasn't a presentation in class, I wasn't teaching my peers for practice, this was legit. During the first five minutes I knew the students didn't care about nitrogen, phosphorous, or potassium. I started to wonder why I was even teaching this lesson. Then I remembered my passion. I remembered my dorky love of all things agriculture and I remembered my high school agronomy team and how much it meant to me. I remembered my teaching philosophy: I want my passion to seep into my students. At that moment I decided nervousness had no place in the classroom, but passion needs to be overflowing each students' cup - even if it has to be about plant nutrients. I can't pinpoint exactly what I did to start showing passion, but I know I did. I know I got more excited about what I was talking about, I got more conversational, and I got more personable with the students. I made them realize WHY they needed to know this stuff. The key is to not just teach your students that phosphorus helps plants flower, but to help them understand that if your grandma calls you and tells you her jade plant won't bloom, you can tell her exactly what fertilizer she needs to buy.
Joyce, one of Kimble's co-teachers in Kindergarten Cop, gave him his first piece of teaching advice: "Kindergarten is like the ocean. You don't want to turn your back on it." I'm here to say that high school is like the ocean too! Nervousness got the best of me at the beginning and I didn't worry about turning my back on the students or not. I quickly learned that in order to be an effective educator, you have to keep your students focused. Not only so everyone is in an environment to learn, but it also causes your students to respect you. Being nervous made my teaching poor, but being passionate made my teaching retainable and understandable. Once the ball got rolling and students got interested and excited there was no time to even think about deviating from the lesson. Learners were definitely engaged, and a couple were a little too engaged. I asked a lot of questions throughout my lesson and two students wanted nothing more than to be correct in answering every single one of them. These exceptional learners were appreciated, but I had to ensure I kept focus on the silent students in the back. To do this I made them feel like they were on the same level as the exceptional learners, which they ended up being. There is a student in Kindergarten Cop that everyone picks on. He's the most disliked boy in the class, but Kimble pays extra attention to Zach. He pushes him harder than his other students. That's what you have to do to those silent learners in the back. Kimble coaxed Zach into doing just a few more push-ups and made a spotlight for him when he did. I chose a silent learner and put a scenario in her head - something she could relate to. Her understanding of the material greatly increased once we both figured out how she needed to learn it. Throughout the rest of my lesson, I made sure to include a scenario style explanation to include her. It worked! During review at the end she answered just as many questions as our little overachievers.
After my first time teaching real students, it's like getting to that next part in Kindergarten Cop. The part where you say "it REALLY can't get much better this time!" I'm finding new "scenes" in my agricultural education journey every day. The closer I get to teaching, the more excited I get, and the more I think it's impossible for it to get much better. I can't imagine how I'll feel during my final scene.
