Finishing up my third week as a student teacher brought some highs and lows. First, I need to clarify something. I have a B.S. degree in Production Horticulture and I have found that a lot of people don't know what horticulture is, and those who do associate it with floral design and landscaping. Now, this becomes a problem for me when I tell people that I studied horticulture because I don't particularly like cut flowers and I am highly critical of the North American obsession with lawns. So for those of you reading this, horticulture is more than floral design and landscaping. My passion is for fruit trees and vegetables, mushrooms and compost, and much more.

That being said, I have been struggling through a unit in the horticulture class that is on floriculture in which, yep you guessed it, I am teaching about floral design. It was difficult to get the students to be engaged when I don't have passion for the subject. After some critical feedback from my cooperating teacher, I designed a couple of lessons that really went well. The students were engaged, they were having a good time, and even I was having a good time. I believe that learning should be fun because learning is fun! And so that is something that I learned this week. Even if you are not passionate about a subject, find a way to make it fun and I believe there is almost always a way to make things fun.

Working with some silk flowers in the lab