Week 7 - Halfway Mark!

And just like that my cohort members and I are halfway through our student teaching experience! It's crazy to believe that in just a few months we'll be walking at graduation. But before that - there is so much more to experience and learn! Here are some highlights from National FFA Week at Penn Manor:

Hoss's Night!

Meet Your State Officer event at Hoss's: On Tuesday a group of us (#girlsnightout) went to Hoss's to enjoy an evening of FFA friendship! Our evening was full of all-you-can-eat soup/salad/ice cream and many laughs. It was my first time going to Hoss's for Meet Your State Officer night and I really enjoyed it.

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon: Every year the Manor FFA chapter hosts a luncheon for teachers and students to thank them for their support of the program. FFA members were a part of every aspect of hosting the luncheon - students roasted a pig, made pulled pork, made homemade ice cream, set up the room, served food, and more. It was awesome to see so many teachers come to the luncheon, and there were many teachers who said that this is a day they look forward to all year. It just goes to show the importance of giving and expressing thanks and that it doesn't go unnoticed.

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon

Awards Night: Manor FFA members have the opportunity to apply for various chapter awards each year, and interviews are one component of the award application process. On Thursday evening, community members volunteered their time to serve as interviewers for the various award categories, and students rotated through and interviewed for each award they applied for. I got to sit in on the proficiency award interviews and I was amazed at what these students are accomplishing through their SAE projects. It was a great opportunity for students to start developing their interviewing skills, and I enjoyed seeing the community come together to make this event happen.

My first experience at ACES!

This weekend I got to experience another FFA event for the first time - ACES! On Saturday morning, Mr. Fellenbaum, Ms. Glock-Cornman, 7 bright-eyed first-year FFA members and my self loaded up into the van and headed off to the conference. Here are some highlights from the weekend!

1. Catching up with Ag Teacher friends!

This weekend was a great opportunity to catch up with some of my ag teacher friends and cohort members, as well as get to know some of the other ag teachers in PA! One of the things I love most about Ag Ed is that we're truly one big family, and it's great to see such strong friendships among colleagues. I laughed a lot this weekend and am looking forward to next time!

2. Professional Development!

While students were participating in their own workshops, we got to attend a workshop by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation! The workshop was all about one of their programs: Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs). MWEE's are a program structure that educators can use to guide students in learning about environmental science topics such as water quality, nutrient management, and more! There are four essential elements to MWEE's:

1. Issue Definition
2. Outdoor Field Experiences
3. Synthesis and Conclusions
4. Action Projects

MWEE's are learner-centered, inquiry-based, and often involve community engagement - sounds a lot like ag ed, doesn't it? The health of our watershed affects everyone who lives in it, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is eager to be a resource for classrooms. 

3. The chance to spend time my students outside of the classroom.

ACES was a great chance to get to know some students that I have in class better, as well as make connections with FFA members that I don't have in class! We sang, we laughed, enjoyed meals together, and learned together.

Having fun at ACES!

Student Teaching Week 6!

This week was full of exciting learning opportunities! I know I say time is flying by every week, but it's hard to believe that we've been student teaching for 6 weeks! Here are some highlights from this week:

1. I started teaching Introduction to Agricultural Mechanics this week!

Identifying potential hazards!

This week I started teaching the welding unit in Intro to Ag Mech! It was awesome to see the students  finish and test their plumbing squares from the plumbing unit earlier this week. A lot of hard work and problem solving went into their plumbing squares, and you could see the pride in their faces when their squares didn't leak. On Wednesday, we began our welding unit. We covered safety, parts of the machine, and how to set up the welders. It's interesting to experience the differences in planning required for Intro to Ag Mech and CASE Intro to AFNR. I'm utilizing interactive notebooks in Ag Mech, and I'm looking forward to trying new notebook activities. Next week will be a lot of fun - students will be striking their first arc!

2. On Friday my cohort members and I got to sharpen up our interviewing skills!

I spent the day in Happy Valley on Friday for our student teaching seminar where we got to participate in 6 different mock interviews! We had an awesome group of volunteers who work in school administration, Penn State Extension, and the ag industry come for the afternoon to conduct the interviews. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to practice my interviewing skills and receive helpful feedback from experienced interviewers. I definitely feel more confident about interviewing now. It was also great to catch up with my cohort members and talk about everything that we're learning this semester!

Keep an eye out for a blog post on my first experience at ACES! Happy National FFA Week everyone - I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone celebrates and advocates for agriculture and FFA next week on Twitter!

1/3 Checkpoint - 5 weeks of student teaching!

And just like that - I'm already 5 weeks into my student teaching internship! Time is flying - and I'm learning so much along the way! We had a snow day and two 2-hour delays this week, but the week was crazy busy nonetheless. Here are some things that went really well this week, some of the things that I learned, as well as some areas to improve on:

Interest Approach - success!

My interest approach on Friday is something I am excited about this week. On Thursday I tried an interest approach to convey why learning about the FFA creed was important. While it wasn't a complete flop, I know the students didn't get a whole lot from it. So I tried again on Friday, but this time I showed students examples of other creeds and had them write their own personal creed. Then I asked them to think about how their beliefs influence their life. We had a really great discussion about the importance of creeds and I was really excited because I could tell they "got it".

The importance of Advisory Committees.

Don't have advisory committee meetings just because they're a state requirement! This week I got to experience my first advisory committee meeting at Penn Manor and see how advisory committees can play a key role in your program. It was awesome to see people working together to help make the ag ed program the best it can be. There were discussions about a variety of topics and you could tell everyone was truly invested in the program. They're also working on adding new committee members that are involved in other areas of agriculture that are not currently represented. I think this is a great idea because it gives you a variety of perspectives and will help make the program stronger as a whole.

Goals for Improvement:

1. Schedule time for a wrap-up/conclusion at the end of class. 
2. Continue to improve on giving time limits during class to complete a task.
3. When asking important/planned questions, give students time to think and share with a partner, or write down their answer, before expecting an answer.

Student Teaching Week 4!

It's hard to believe we're already 4 weeks into the semester! This past week was full of growth and fun experiences! Here are my takeaways from the week:

CASE is a teaching tool - not a one-size fits all curriculum.

This semester I have the chance to co-teach CASE Intro to AFNR with Mr. Fellenbaum. It has taken some getting used to when preparing for lessons. I honestly think it's sometimes a little harder to prepare for a CASE class because it's prewritten curriculum. I say that because it's easy to read over the CASE materials and feel like you're prepared for the next day - when really you should be reviewing your content knowledge and anticipating what questions students will ask. It's also important to keep in mind that CASE is just a teaching tool and you shouldn't always be teaching the lessons exactly as they're written. I feel like I've gotten better at planning/preparing for the CASE class and asking questions beforehand to make sure I'm prepared. One thing I would like to continue to improve on is incorporating/adding different activities into the CASE Intro to AFNR class to address more of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. One thing I tried the other day is having students take notes by doing a gallery walk. Essentially the notes for the day were posted around the room and students walked around to take notes. It was an effective and simple way for students to get up and move around - plus it is a nice change from taking notes via PowerPoint.

SAE's are AWESOME.

This isn't a new revelation for me, but the more I experience in the world of Supervised Agricultural Experiences, the more I believe in their power of fostering student growth and success. This week I went on an SAE visit to visit with a senior who is a 4th generation tobacco farmer (check out my blog about it here!). It was awesome to see and hear about how much that student has learned through his SAE project over the years. In my Intro to AFNR class, students began exploring the world of SAE and will work on planning their first SAE project this coming week. It was so much fun to see how excited some students got as they looked through the SAE Idea cards and began picking out ideas that appealed to their interests. I'm looking forward to seeing where their SAE projects will take them this semester.

Thanks for following this journey with me, I'd love to hear your thoughts!