Small Victories

Being hard pressed to find topics to write about in this most noteworthy of blogs, I finally fell upon some inspiration. Today as some of you know was the Ag Olympics at Ohio State. During the event I managed to place second in the bale toss competition. After the dust cleared on my close second place finish I was overcome with pride in the fact that I hadn't expected to do well and that I had contributed some good points for my team. In reality having a far bale toss is not a real wowing activity, especially since much of the outcome relies on some luck. Also where am I going to take that victory? Not to the hay barn. If the competition was on proper technique I would have failed miserably. So why did I feel so good?

Well I like to think of myself as a victory junky. (Not a Charlie Sheen joke) On a regular basis I try to set myself up for small victories. Maybe I will be at work and I will attempt to make the ball of tape we just pulled up into the trash can across the ballroom, or have a marshmallow catching competition with some block students. No, I’m not just trying to stroke my ego; I don't think it is that big. But small victories can definitely help you maintain your self-esteem and confidence. It's also doesn't hurt to grow your reputation as you perform awesome tasks of random and not so random.

In a teaching setting I feel giving students that small victory on a regular basis is important. Whether it would just be a simple, "great job Johnny!", or having a student take the lead on an important project. Let the students know that they are doing good work, or they have your respect, or that they have the respect of the class.

I am hoping that this is the start of a multi-blog series on my thoughts on victory and defeat. I am simply fascinated of the different components of how victory and defeat can make a person feel. Some planned topics are: Blaming in Defeat, Humble Defeat, Being the Observer, Winning with Style (and without style), Moving the Bar, and the Moment.

"You taught me victories sweet even deep in the cheap seats"

-From Cape Canaveral by Conor Oberst

From the Nosebleeds,

BEEF, BEEF, BEEF, BEEF ...!

How Neat is That?

Hello C-Deckites,

Yesterday on my constant search for things to use when i'm teaching, I stumbled upon this youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm3JodBR-vs

Now you watch this and say to yourself, why on earth would Matt Elsass show this video in a classroom of high school students. It has no credible educational information. While this is all true, sometimes the most important part of a lesson is the interest approach. If you can't hook students into the idea, the day might as well be over. I mean one of the secondary principles of interest is humor. I feel that it is ok to introduce humor to create interest as long as you, yourself can properly convey humor. There is a fine line when trying to be funny in a classroom.

I personally feel that when opening a forestry or wildlife unit, I could have students rolling on the floor and then learning to content in no time at all. I'm curious to see what others think about using humor in the classroom. Honestly some of the best teachers I had in high school were the ones I could laugh with.

From the Nosebleeds,

Elsass

One Great Trip

Hey All,

This weekend I went with the Ag Ed Block to the Greene County Career Center. It was an amazing experience. We got to meet students in all of the different types of career training classes. I personally sat through the Advertising and Design class for about two hours and had a blast with Ms. Patton and her students. In two short hours they had me sketching windows in AutoCAD and making 3d Lego models in inventor. It was great. We also sat through some wonderful seminars held by the GCCC staff about interviewing skills, school moral, IEPs, and cultural competency. We also got a look of some of their technology. One piece that was specifically awesome was their smart board. I have never been a big proponent of the smart board but this was the nicest one I had ever seen. It was bigger, sleeker, and more functional. This experience changed my outlook on career technical schools forever.

From the Nippert Stadium Nosebleeds,

Elsass

The Learning Curve

Hey all,

So this quarter I am continuing my education in order to become an Agricultural Educator. I am in the block, a group of Ag ed classes that prepares you to student teach. While it is really busy, especially if you are involved here on campus, I am quickly finding out that all the work will be worth it in the end. We have gotten a taste of teaching high school students and the experience make you feel like your doing somehting important which is exactly what I was looking for in this profession. I just got out of my technology in education class and have been thinking of what my ideal classroom set-up would be like. I have some background using the Ohio Unions sweet technology so it might be lofty. I will attempt to stay resonable though.

- Projector hooked up to a tablet PC or Ipad that I could carry around the room.
- Decent ceiling speakers with a CD player and an 1/8th inch aux in.
- Copier in the corner for endless amounts of handouts
- and maybe a 37 in flatscreen hung in another corner of the room for a better picture when I show videos.

...Ideal...

From the Nosebleeds
Matt

Welcome to the C-Deck!

Welcome to life from the C-deck! This is the first hopefully bi-weekly post about my life! Hopefully as you start to follow you can learn alittle about myself. We will start with some basics. My name is Matthew William Elsass and I am an agricultural education major at The Ohio State University. I'm in such organizations as the Agricultural Education Society or AES for short, and Farmhouse International Fraternity. I also work at the Ohio Union building working in the AV department as a student manager. Its been a busy week and its only Monday, right now i'm just working for the weekend.

From the Nosebleeds,

Elsass