A Day in the Life of a Homesteading Teacher
Or... my trek in the world of education (mine and others) & all the joys & trials that come with it.
Friday, April 26, 2024
1st Grade
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Germination Chamber
SFA put on a germination chamber and succession planting workshop. It was on a farm 30 minutes from Mankato, and I was free, so I went! Only two others besides me attended, so we got a lot of one-on-one time and finished early. Even though most of the information is for gardening on a massive scale, I took a lot of notes and can apply most to our homestead.
This is a seeder for a 128 plug tray. Dan, the farmer giving the talk, made it himself. There are two plexiglass layers with holes that line up perfectly over the plug spaces (bottom is stationary, top is moveable). You move the top layer so the holes aren't lined up, dump your seed on top, shake the tray so a seed goes in the hole, and then move the top layer to line up the holes. The seed drops perfectly into the tray saving tons of time seeding. (He also made a block with tiny pieces of dowels glued on to press holes into the soil in the plugs. Once the seeds are in the holes, he dumps some soil on top and smooths it out with his hand.)
This is the outside of the germination chamber. We got a handout with instructions on how to build one, and it doesn't seem that hard. Get an old fridge or freezer that still works. Buy a temperature timer and a humidity timer. Install them on the outside of the unit. Drill a hole to feed the cords/probe through.
Inside the chamber, put in two crockpots filled with water. The one with the lid on gets hooked up to the temperature gauge, the one without the lid gets hooked up to the humidity gauge. The gauges turn the crockpots on/off depending what the internal temp is. If it gets too hot, the gauge will turn the fridge on. He has his trays stacked on top of each other in order of which seeds germinate first. So he only needs to check the top tray. Once just one seed 'pops', he moves the tray out to be under grow lights in his shop or to a greenhouse. The rest won't be far behind. Then he watches the next tray.
Here is his growing setup, all materials from Home Depot or Menards.
This is the lettuce washing station. Lettuce goes in the orange buckets, it gets set inside the barrel, he turns on the spin cycle and away it goes!
Taking it Easy on a Half Day
- Devotion
- Spelling worksheet (I did read-aloud while they worked... that choose your own adventure book)
- Silent Reading
- Hymn Quiz
- Reading their class reading book Mr. Lemoncello's Library
- Reading the reading book with Mrs. M's class
- Track and Field Practice
- Dismissal
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Back in 5th Grade
It's Mrs. M's original due date today.
She took the day off and I subbed. It was nice to be back at Mt. Olive, especially on a Wednesday for chapel. The kids were pretty chatty all day (not just my class, seemed like most other classes). They were definitely excited to see me, and excited to hear that I will be back tomorrow afternoon (for Mr. N).
Funny moment from today: I overheard two little girls in the bathroom discussing a club they were starting:
"When do you think we should have it?"
"I don't know."
"Probably a Saturday or Sunday. Well, Saturday is cleaning day, so maybe Sunday. We can play and eat peanut butter sandwiches!"
Even though it's the end of the year with mixed up schedules because of testing/track and field practice/field trips, Mrs. M managed to craft a normal day. We did all the usual things, although we substituted handwriting for morning PE since track and field practice happens three days a week at the end of the day (every day but Wednesday and Friday).
Her class is reading aloud Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I read quite a few chapters of that today. I haven't read the book since middle school, and it kind of sucked me in... I might have to pull out my copy at home and finish it...
Mr. N's class didn't have a new read-aloud book, which Mrs. M had mentioned, so I brought a Choose Your Own Adventure book and an Encyclopedia Brown. We did Encyclopedia Brown today and will do the CYOA tomorrow. They had fun trying to guess how Encyclopedia solved the crime.
In homestead news, I purchased supplies to make goat tie-outs, so we can tether our goats to the lawn without a pasture fence. Since they haven't been tethered before, I want to start on a day I can keep an eye on them so they don't get tangled up. Tomorrow might be the day.
There's rain in the forecast for Friday and no more cold weather after Monday, so G and I want to get our garden in to take advantage. However, we need a fence before we expose our seedlings to the wild. Since I'm just teaching a half day tomorrow, our plan is to install the fence in the morning before I have to go in, and then plant after both of us are finished with work for the day. Hopefully the fence won't take super long. It's T posts and electric wire, so I'm optimistic! Although, projects always seem to take longer than anticipated... I guess we'll see!
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Sourdough Experiments
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Belle Plaine
Last night, I got a text message around 9:30pm (from the MLC graduate who was going to be the long-term sub for Mrs. M before we knew she would be back) asking if I was free to sub in a 5-6th grade classroom at Trinity in Belle Plaine. She was subbing somewhere else and the school had exhausted all other options and were desperate.
My plan had been to spend the day tidying our house to prep for hosting our church small group (like a bible study, but we talk about Pastor's sermon and then pray for each other), but I can do that after school, plus G could tidy before going to work, so, I said yes.
Thankfully the principal was still awake and responded quickly to my texts. Arrive at school at 7:30, students arrive at 8, school ends at 3:10. Okie dokie.
It was a very early morning... It's a 50min drive, and I left home at 6:30am to make sure I was on time. When I arrived at 7:20, the door was locked as I had suspected. I found out later the principal had arranged for another teacher to keep an eye out for me at 7:30, but since I was early she wasn't watching. Thankfully a student saw me and let me in. The school isn't very big, so I found the 5-6th grade room fairly quickly.
No sub plans on the desk. There was a pile of student worksheets for the day, and after further examination of the room I found their assignment board filled out and the order of subjects written on the board. I figured I could teach based off that. I poked around for the teacher's manuals to familiarize myself with their curriculum.
A few other teachers popped in to say hello. The kindergarten teacher recognized my last name... her son is the 5-6th grade teacher at Risen Savior, the school attached to our church! The principal found me too; he had additional plans with detailed notes for the day from the 5-6th grade teacher. Nice. That definitely made the day smoother.
The kids have been good today. I made sure to crack down on anything sketchy right away. A few tried to be sneaky with games on their computers during worktime. There were lots of quizzes, worktime on projects, and studying for upcoming tests. I basically only taught catechism and 6th grade math.
One cool thing this teacher has is an economic system. He has a set aside class for it on Friday. Along with that, he pays his students 'salaries' for doing their class jobs for the week. They can earn 'money' for doing jobs and write checks to him and to other classmates for various things. One girl sold her classmates Oreos for class cash. And if they misbehave or are irresponsible with items, they receive a fine. At the end of the year they can use their remaining money to buy actual stuff. Pretty neat! It definitely helps them learn money usage!
Penelope
Spring is popping up all over the place! I planted a few more bulbs down where Bekhor is buried, along with an arborvitae shrub that survived the pot over the winter (that was from one of G's garden center rejects we'd planned to feed the goat, but they maxed out their coniferous greenery eating, so we let it sit). As I dug, I noticed a few feet away this little guy poking through.
Last fall, I had planted a bunch of bulbs, not sure if they would grow or survive the deer. This one did! I haven't seen any others yet. I wonder what it will be?
The swans are back. I caught them taking their morning bath. We had a very stormy/rainy day yesterday and they weathered the storm in our pond. Maybe they will stay and make their nests?
We had food and water for her (both of which she appreciated) and some logs to block the rain. G saw her inside right away in the morning when he left for work, but when I checked in the afternoon, she was nowhere to be found. We haven't seen her since. I hope she comes back, but even if she doesn't, at least we could give her a meal and some water.