Specialty Crop SAE visit: Tobacco

Today I got to learn more about a crop that I previously knew nothing about: tobacco. Lancaster County produces most of the tobacco grown in Pennsylvania and is a common cash crop to see on farms. Mr. Fellenbaum and I went to visit Jonathon, a senior in the Penn Manor ag program and a 4th generation tobacco farmer.

Jonathon and his sister, Renee, stripping tobacco.

Jonathan is an active FFA member and will complete Penn Manor's Ag Production program when he graduates this year. He has been developing his Placement and Entrepreneurship Specialty Crop SAE projects since he was in middle school, and currently has his Keystone Degree. We went to visit his SAE project on his family's farm, where they grow 26 acres of tobacco every year in addition to other crops. It was easy to see how much Jonathon has learned over the years. He talked me through the entire process of producing tobacco including pest management, why you have to top the tobacco plants before they flower (the plant can focus its energy on growing the leaves instead of a flower), cutting and drying the plants, and finally stripping the leaves. I also got to see how the leaves are graded and sorted as they are stripped. Producing quality tobacco is both a science and an art, according to Jonathon and his dad, and it also takes a lot of time and hard work.

Before the visit, we planned the date with Jonathon and Mr. Fellenbaum and I talked about how he has grown his SAE over the years. I would evaluate Jonathon's SAE project based on learning that is evidenced both during the visit and through his AET record books. At one point during the visit, I asked Jonathon what is the most important quality/characteristic he's developed by producing tobacco. He immediately answered, "taking the time to do things right the first time." Jonathon keeps records on his project in AET and will be applying for a proficiency award this year. In the Penn Manor ag program, SAE's are a part of the class grade. In addition, students earn 1 SAE credit per year by investing at least 120 hours into their project and keeping record of it. SAE visits also make up a part of students' evaluations, and the four ag teachers here at Penn Manor divide and conquer SAE visits over the summer. 

I really enjoyed visiting Jonathon and learning all about his SAE project. It's truly awesome to see students get excited and teach you something they love learning about!

Week 3 of Student Teaching: Check!

This week I completed my first full week of teaching! State testing finished up on Tuesday, so I'm teaching a full 90 minute block now. I think I'm still getting used to the schedule of an ag teacher because I'm exhausted every day, but I'm learning lots! Here are my takeaways from the week:

1. Always stay one step ahead of your fastest students.

On Wednesday our goals for the day were to finish up the activity from the day before, set up AET accounts, and start the next activity. After the Warm-up, I talked about our goals for the day and had everyone get to work on finishing up yesterday's activity. Some groups finished much faster than everyone else. I was planning on doing a group demonstration on how to set up AET, but I realized that probably wasn't going to work out well. Thankfully, we were able to send kids who were done back to the back tables to work with Mr. Fellenbaum and set up their AET accounts. Some students who already had AET accounts also helped their classmates. After class I talked with Mr. Fellenbaum and while everything worked out, I should have probably had everyone set up their AET accounts first thing in class. After I could have briefly introduced the next activity so that when students finished the activity from the day before they could have immediately began their next task. This coming week my goal is to take my planning one step further and make sure there is always something for faster groups to work on. On the other hand, I also learned the importance of giving students time limits for tasks. Without time limits, students feel no pressure to stay focused and activities can often take longer than they need to. While you don't want anyone to get left behind, you  also can't make the rest of the class wait on one person/group to completely finish up. Including times in my directions will hopefully keep everyone moving and more focused.

2. Building relationships with parents is important.

Thursday night was Parent's Night at Penn Manor, which means that parents have the opportunity to visit the teachers their child has for the semester and learn about the classes they're in. I really enjoyed meeting some of my students parents and talking with them. As a teacher, parent's night is a chance for you to share about what ag ed is all about (aka - Intro to the Three Circle Model 101) as well as getting to know more about your students through their parent's perspective. At one point during the evening a couple came up to me to talk about their daughter, whom I have in my Intro to AFNR class. She is taking the class because she LOVES horses and wants to take the Animal Science classes offered through the Penn Manor ag ed program. They wanted to know more about my experience at Penn State, and if there are many job opportunities in the animal science/equine industry. I was so excited to share about various paths/careers you could pursue in the animal science, as well as share about opportunities at PSU for students interested in Animal Science. Ideally, teachers and parents should act as teammates that are trying to help a child grow and succeed. I'm looking forward to meeting more parents in the coming weeks!

My Science Classroom Visit!

On Wednesday (1/24), I had the opportunity to visit and observe Ms. Beaver's College Prep Biology class, which is comprised of mostly 10th graders. The students were conducting an Organism Response to Stimulus lab that day, where they determined how worms responded to various stimuli (drops of water, sugar water, salt water, and diluted vinegar) and then analyzed why. It was neat to see how nicely ag classes and science classes complement each other!

Students conducting their stimulus lab!

At the beginning of class, Ms. Beaver used a fun way to split the students up into lab groups. She made up a sentence and gave each student a word, and then they had to find their partner who had the same word. Ms. Beaver provides her students with Unit packets that include all lab/task sheets. Students had just learned about the scientific methods, so for this lab they wrote their own hypothesis. Ms. Beaver made sure everyone's hypothesis was an "If... then..." statement, which made me think back to some of our IBI workshops! The students were very focused on their lab, and I really enjoyed seeing everyone's reactions to handling worms. It took some students a lot of courage to touch their worm! I noticed that Ms. Beaver was engaged throughout class by checking in with groups and making sure everyone was staying on task. She gave clear directions and when students asked her questions, she would redirect them with a question or tell them to check their lab packet again. Ms. Beaver says she tries to include at least 3 different learning activities during class on non-lab days, so it sounds like she incorporates variability into her classes. I definitely think Ms. Beaver facilitates learning instead of just giving away info.

Students always had something to do - when they were done with their lab they went back and worked on their review sheet that was already in their unit packet. I liked the idea of unit packets, it basically serves the same purpose as Google Classroom but on paper. That way students are responsible for keeping their packet materials and if they're absent, they already have their make-up work.

During my visit Ms. Beaver and I talked about some of the classes I'll be teaching as well as what she teaches. It was fun to talk about how much the biology classes and ag classes overlap. Right now, the science classrooms and ag classrooms are far apart (and believe me when I say that, Penn Manor is a HUGE school). But starting in 2019, a new school is being built and they are putting the science and ag classrooms right near each other, which will hopefully open up all sorts of opportunities for collaboration!

I really enjoyed meeting Ms. Beaver and visiting her Biology class. I'd love to hear ways that you and the science department collaborate together at your school!

Week Two: I am officially teaching!

Hello everyone! Week two is officially complete! It's hard to believe how quickly time is passing. This week was a bit abnormal for a few reasons. First, students only had a two-day week. Students had Monday off for MLK day and Tuesday was an inservice day. Then we had a snow day on Wednesday. So Thursday was the first school day of the week and my first day teaching a class (Intro to AFNR). Also, students are in the middle of state testing, so that means block length is shortened from 90 minutes to about 50. Even though there were only two days of school this week, there was a lot to learn an experience! Here are my lessons learned/questions from week 2:

Community is required for a successful ag program.

This week I had the opportunity to attend Penn Manor's FFA Alumni meeting. I enjoyed the meeting because it gave me a chance to meet some more community members as well as see how invested the ag ed program and community members are in each other. There were alumni members from different generations as well as the current FFA President. I always think it's neat to see people serve something larger than themselves, not for personal gain, but because they believe in the purpose of whatever it is they're serving. The alumni take charge of various events throughout the year to help/benefit the Penn Manor ag ed program, and once again it just goes to show how important it is for an ag ed program to be a part of their community. I'm really looking forward to becoming even more involved with the Penn Manor community during my time student teaching.

Agricultural Experience Tracker.

On Thursday at the county FFA meeting, I helped the other ag teachers judge AET records at the county level. I have had a similar experience judging proficiency award applications at the national level in one of my Ag Ed classes. The experience is really valuable for me as a future ag teacher because it teaches you how to fill out AET records correctly so that you can teach your students correctly. Record keeping is an important skill to have and it provides opportunities for awards and such through FFA, but sometimes I sense that it's hard to motivate students to take their record keeping seriously. For all of you experiences Ag teachers out there: How do you promote intrinsic motivation in students to maintain a quality record book?

It's the little things.

Penn Manor just started spring semester this week, and since we have block scheduling that means students start all new classes. I'm teaching an Intro to AFNR class comprised of mostly freshman.  I've been working on learning the names of everyone in the classes I am/will be teaching, and I'm getting pretty close. I also have to keep reminding myself that not all of these students know each other because of how big the school is (whereas in my high school everyone knew everyone). The students in the Intro to AFNR class have been very reluctant to engage and answer questions the past two days - I think it's mostly due to it being the first week of the semester. Towards the end of class while everyone was putting their stuff away I started asking kids what they had planned for the weekend. It was really neat to see their faces light up as they began talking to me about things they had planned and things they were interested in. They also seemed more relaxed and comfortable. I'm looking forward to seeing what next week brings!

Week One at Penn Manor!

And just like that, week one of student teaching is coming to a close. This week was the last week of the fall semester for Penn Manor and after enjoying the upcoming long weekend, the students will start their spring semester classes and I will start teaching my first class. While much of this week has consisted of wrapping up fall semester classes and taking finals, I have learned a lot and really enjoyed my time at Penn Manor this week! Here are some key takeaways:

Assessments should be more than just regurgitating facts.

With all of the finals going on this week, I got to experience how the four ag teachers here at Penn Manor administer final exams. While all the exams were unique in their own way depending on the class, all of the exams required students to do more than just memorize everything they learned and spit it back up on paper. For example, in the Intro to AFNR class, students researched world hunger and then wrote a report on how what they learned in class could be used to reduce/stop world hunger. In the Construction class, one part of the exam required students to lay a corner of concrete blocks correctly. Students in Animal Science picked a species and wrote an entire management plan for that animal. I liked that all of the finals for the ag classes really allowed students to demonstrate their knowledge as well as required them to take what they learned and make connections/apply it in a situation. This goes back to how important it is to begin with the end in mind, and then make objectives based on how you will evaluate them.

Students taking their Engines I final exam.

Sharing office space and classrooms has its perks.

At Penn Manor, the four ag teachers share an office and then take turns using the classrooms depending on everyone's schedule. While this requires a little more organization and moving around throughout the day, I think it has some valuable benefits. First, sharing an office makes it much easier to communicate throughout the day. If everyone had their own classroom, you might not see each other as much. With the shared office set up, however, you can easily discuss events coming up, how you will encourage a student to try a new CDE, etc. For me as a student teacher, its nice because the mornings and afternoons are a great time to ask questions and discuss things with everyone.

Goals for Next Week:

1. Learn all of my student's names ASAP in the Intro to AFNR class that I'll be teaching! #RapportIsKey
2. Accomplish my planned objectives. Time management is something I've been working on all last semester, so hopefully getting to know the class and establishing a routine will help me continue to get better!
3. Keep asking questions and for feedback. I feel like I've been doing pretty good at this, but I need to keep telling my self to ask questions because sometimes I have a hard time admitting to myself that I need help with something. 
4. Be bold and try something new. I just want to make sure I'm making the most of this student teaching journey. It could be as simple as trying a new learning activity next week. The awesome (and sometimes scary) thing about student teaching is that I'm very much an amateur. So this is a good time to experiment and see what works and what doesn't! The whole point of this experience is to grow, and to grow I need push myself outside of my comfort zone.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what next week holds! Thanks for following me on my journey, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Student Teaching Day 1: My first trip to Farm Show and Mid-Winter Convention!

And just like that, my first day of student teaching is in the books! We spend the day at the Farm Show and the FFA Mid-Winter Convention. Not only was this my first day of student teaching, but today was also my first trip to Farm Show and Mid-Winter Convention! Since I wasn't in FFA in high school and I lived a couple hours away, I just never made the trip down to Farm Show... until now. This year's Farm Show theme was "Diversity in Agriculture" and I thought it was perfect theme for PA agriculture. The day was full of new experiences and lessons learned.

I got to watch three PM students show their pigs!

Student safety is number one.

I know this one seems obvious, but yesterday I got to experience this in the context of the possibility of having an early dismissal on the day you're supposed to be going on a field trip. It was neat to see the communication going on between administration and teachers while discussing their plan in case of an early dismissal. This also shows how important it is for teachers to have a working relationship with their administrators.

The FFA Jacket. 

Students getting ready to wear their FFA Jackets for the first time.

It was awesome to see all of the first year ag students put on their blue corduroy FFA jackets for the first time. You could see the anticipation in their eyes, their eagerness to put them on, and their sense of pride as they zipped up that jacket for the first time. Those jackets will mean something different to each student as they continue on their FFA journey, but I hope they all use their time in FFA to grow and achieve great things. Just as Victoria Herr said (I'm paraphrasing), FFA doesn't make students leaders. It equips them with the skills and knowledge they need to be a leader. It was also great to see all of the Keystone Degree recipients go up on stage to receive their degree. Each of those students put in a lot of time and effort to get their Keystone degree, and it was neat to see how much students can achieve in just a few years. I look forward to becoming an Agricultural Educator so that I can work hard to help grow students into leaders like the ones we saw yesterday.

Have conversations with students.

I really enjoyed seeing some of the students I already knew from our trip to National FFA Convention as well as getting to know other students! I don't think it matters so much what the conversation is about, but more importantly that you listen to what they have to say and build that relationship. Plus, learning things about people helps you remember their name (which is good, because I'm typically bad with names). I'm really looking forward to having those students in class, and having conversations with the rest of my students!

Overall, it was a great day and I can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds!

Congrats to Penn Manor's Keystone Degree recipients!