DIY - CDE Resources

One of the assignments during student teaching was to develop a DIY project (Do It Yourself) that would aid to our development as teachers but also benefit our cooperating centers. To figure out what I should do for this project I decided to go back to the three-circle model. I believe that student teaching in general will help me improve upon the circle of classroom & laboratory instruction, and that my experiences working with students throughout the semester would help with SAE, so now that leaves the circle of FFA.

As a student I was very involved in FFA in my local chapter and took part in several state and national activities, but my time in FFA was very focused – I picked one or two things and I worked on them again and again each year to improve. One such example is in the Career Development Events and that is where I got my idea for my DIY. I decided to develop “CDE’s-In-A-Box,” resource kits to help train and prepare students to compete in several different Career Development Events.

When I was a student I only competed in the Livestock Evaluation CDE, and while I have helped judge and facilitate a few different CDE’s during my college career, they have mostly been the public speaking contests and not technical skills, so that is where I decided to focus. I planned to compile resources for at least three different CDE’s to help serve as a starting point for ag. teachers when beginning to train a team.

Based on the preferences of the students at Tri-Valley the CDE’s I compiled resources for were: Livestock Evaluation, Poultry Evaluation, Veterinary Skills, and Wildlife. These resources were compiled from a variety of different sources including Communities of Practice, various State FFA Associations, the National FFA Association, and several state universities and extension services. My students were also involved in the process, as they complied resources for the Poultry Evaluation CDE through a group project.

The original idea for the project was to create boxes and/or binders of the various resources; however, after discussing it with my cooperating teacher we decided that digital versions would be much more helpful and easier to distribute amongst students. So before I left to head back to campus I left her a binder full of the physical hard copies of the resources the students had found for Poultry Evaluation, in addition to a USB drive full of digital versions of all of the resources found for the various CDE’s, among other helpful documents. 

Hopefully, the resources are helpful for the students and Mrs. D and they will be used quickly as some of the students will be competing in several of those CDE’s at the regional contests at the end of the month with state convention in less than two months. At the end of each school year the FFA members also host and participate in an Ag Field Day, a daylong Ag Olympics event and sometimes one of the events is a portion of a mock CDE, possibly one of the ones they now have training resources on.

Week 14: Testing, Testing, & More Testing

I've felt like this next to last week has brought a subtle but anxious feeling, almost like the calm before a storm. This is not meant in a negative way, but I think that's how some of my students and I felt knowing that soon the classroom would be one person less.

This week was the beginning of every student's and teacher's least favorite season of the year - standardized test season. With the 8th graders taking their PSSA tests and the preparation for the upcoming Keystones going into hyperdrive, many of the teachers, including Mrs. D, were proctoring exams so I got the chance to take over the Ag. Sciences II-IV classes a few times, of course just confusing the students again about when I was actually leaving.

By this point my Vet Science students were quickly finishing up the Anatomy & Physiology unit, giving us just enough time to complete the whole unit before I leave next week. This week we learned about the muscular system and I was excited to hear that for some of my older students in the class our class was lining up nicely with their Anatomy class, reinforcing some of the material. To learn and review some of the muscles of the dog my class played "Pin the Muscle on the Doggy," which I think my students really enjoyed.

In my Ag. Science I class my students are wrapping up their tool-box constructions and they are all looking great, with some a little more unique looking than others. A few hiccups the past few weeks with equipment not functioning properly, including the jigsaw and planer, delayed some of the students' progress but they all pushed through it, finding new ways to (safely!) complete tasks without (much) complaining.

I can't believe I only have one more week here...

Week 13: Back from Easter - Now Only 3... & PAAE Time

Having arrived back refreshed from a great four-day weekend at home for the holiday, it felt strange to come back and only be teaching three classes and I wasn't the only one who thought so. Now that student teaching was quickly coming to a close I had handed back the reins on most of the classes to Mrs. D but I was keeping the Ag Science I class, the Vet Science class, and our 8th graders up until the end. It felt strange but nice to be able to sit back and observe how Mrs. D taught again and see how she has adapted since some of the changes I enacted in the classroom. It also gave me the chance to talk more with other teachers in the building and learn from their experiences in education, regardless of the subject they taught.

This week was also the Eastern Region's PAAE spring meeting, so Wednesday night Mrs. D and I headed off to Lancaster to meet up with the other teachers in the region and talk about how we could continue to improve our profession. That night was spent focusing on topics such as the new NOCTI standards that are in progress to (hopefully) better align the NOCTI exams with the standard content taught with PA ag. education. We also discussed several upcoming or in the works ideas for professional development, including the XLR8 programs for experienced teachers, continuing efforts to strengthen advocacy for agricultural education, and professional development focused on technology use in the classroom and the importance of having an "AET Guru" to improve our state and local chapters' system of SAE's. While student members don't have the power to vote on any issues, it was still great to get to experience teachers taking control of their own professional development and working towards improving ag. education across that state as a whole.

Now to wrap up the week I am heading to Round #2 of Banquet Season - heading north to join Mrs. D for the Line Mountain FFA Banquet and I'm excited for another chance to pick up some new things about banquet planning and checking out another ag. program.

Week 10: #SLLC15 & Full Load of Classes

This week was crazy busy!

My week actually started bright and early Sunday morning as Mrs. D and I took a group of four great girls down to Harrisburg for the three-day State Legislative Leadership Conference (SLLC). During this conference the students attend leadership workshops focused on developing them as aware and active citizens and teaching them about the legislative process. The students are even split up into the House and Senate and go through mock reviewing of current bills relevant to them, including safety features of school buses, hunting regulations, and standardized testing. This provides the students the chance to learn about the process and see how and why it takes so long for certain regulations to go into effect, giving them a greater appreciation of the process.

The students weren't the only ones in workshops developing themselves - teachers were too. The first day at the conference was spent reviewing and grading Proficiency Awards from across the state. As a student who never went through the process of actually completing a Proficiency myself, this was really helpful to se how the applications are put together and how teachers score them. It was also just really exciting to have a chance to "see" the variety of SAE projects across the state from livestock and crop production to agribusiness ventures to research projects.

The next round of professional development involved learning about how to advocate for yourself and your agricultural education program. The culminating piece of the conference is a breakfast meet-and-greet with our representatives at the capital building, so this workshop focused on the reasons advocating is important, the best ways to approach advocating, and how to create simple one-page documents that serve as physical value-added documentation of why someone should support you. Essentially a one-page, front and back handout that uses stats and pictures to show why your individual agricultural education program is awesome.

Once all the workshops were finished we got back together with our kids and enjoyed a wonderful day of community service. Everyone at the conference was split up at various locations to perform community service - we were located a nearby senior living center where we got to enjoy the wonderful weather while outside landscaping. My girls seemed to have a lot of fun and everyone was in high spirits all day. It was a great chance for me to get to interact with some of my younger students who I hadn't had the chance to interact with too much yet, while also allowing me to strengthen the bond with one of my older favorite students.

While I had a great time at SLLC there was the rest of the week to teach! Going back to school to teach the next few days was exhausting as both myself and my students hadn't yet recovered from our trip. The next few days went by without a hitch as I continues to teach a full load of classes. My students and I got to start our weekends a little earlier than normal as a freak snow storm caused us to have an early dismissal on Friday, and while no one wanted winter to return, everyone was very excited to start the weekend.

Trip to Twin Valley: The Other "TV"

One of our assignments during student teaching is to visit another student teacher at their cooperating center. This visit gives us the chance to see another program different than the one we're student teaching in and provides us the chance to see each other in action and pick up tips from one another, and personally I think it adds some extra support as it gives you the chance to go be the cheerleader for another member in your cohort for a day - something I think every student teacher needs every now and then.

Never-ending Humor @ Twin Valley

For my visit I decided to take a trip down to visit Toby at Twin Valley, also known as "the other TV."

I chose to visit Toby for several reasons:

1. My home program, Saul, is a 12+ teacher program and Tri-Valley is a 1 teacher program, so at Twin Valley I would get the chance to see the dynamics of a 2 teacher program
2. Tri-Valley operates on an 8-period schedule while Twin Valley utilizes block scheduling
3. At Twin Valley they have the use of an attached greenhouse
4. At Twin Valley some of their classes utilize the CASE curriculum

So Monday morning I headed into school with Toby bright and early...well not so bright and early as we received more winter weather, but after a two-hour delay we made it. 

What kind of equipment is this?...

The day started out with Toby's Introduction to Ag class, consisting of mostly 9th graders. This class utilizes the CASE curriculum and that day the students were completing an inquiry-based lab learning how to identify various scientific lab equipment that they would need to know how to use to conduct future labs. The lab was set up as a scavenger hunt, with the equipment laid out at different stations around the shop and the students had to complete a worksheet matching the identifying the equipment by matching the descriptions of the equipment's function with the chosen equipment based on appearance and prior knowledge alone. While this was an individual assignment, Toby encouraged the students to talk to one another and ask questions to determine the correct answers. Due to the shortened class period the students would be reviewing the equipment lists the next day. Overall, I think it was a fun lesson for all involved, and it was evident that the students had to really think about what they were seeing and reading to identify the equipment.

Not many of our bears would survive...

Toby's second class of the day was his Natural Resources class, and even if you did not know of Toby's background in environmental education, his passion was clearly evident in his teaching. The topic of the day was habitat requirements and learning how this can affect how well an animal survives. First we took some brief notes on the topic with Toby using his background experience to add perspective, then we played an activity where we role-played as bears and had to obtain enough resources to support ourselves throughout the year. This was a great activity and taught the students about carrying capacity and resource management.

Last class of the day was Horticulture. In this class there were a lot of different things going on. There was a group of students working in the greenhouse with Mrs. Weaver, helping to prepare it for the plants that would be arriving within the next week. In the classroom, there were also several students working on floral arrangements and some students catching up on past work due to weather-related absences. Toby worked back and forth between the students in the classroom and checking on the progress in the classroom. This class showcased Toby's ability to be flexible!

Overall I had a great visit with Toby and Mrs. Weaver and it was very evident that the students were enjoying learning from them and that he had a great rapport with his students. Visiting was a great day and left me refreshed to go back into my own classroom. I can't wait to see all the great things Toby continues to do.

ACES 2015: An Ag Teacher's Week does not end on Friday

A normal teacher's week may start early Monday morning and end late Friday afternoon, but such is not the life of an Ag Teacher. Their week may very well include six, if not all seven days of the week, multiple times throughout the year. This was one of those times.

Every spring the PA FFA hosts the Agricultural Cooperation Establishes Success Conference, better known as ACES. This was a conference I always enjoyed as a student as it was a night away from home, but this was my first attending in my "Advisor" role. Spending that Saturday and Sunday with 8 of my students was an event I had been looking forward to for awhile.

Being located not too far away from Harrisburg has its perks as our drive didn't start too early that morning, though with 8 students, 2 advisors and all our bags, we did need to take two suburbans, which meant some of my students were lucky enough to have me as their driver (good thing they knew the way).

Once we got to Harrisburg it was time to check in, put the bags in the rooms, and of course pass out the always important conference t-shirt before opening ceremonies. After opening ceremonies, it was time for the advisors and students to split up for a few hours. While the students headed off to workshops to engage in leadership development and SAE exploration, the advisors headed off to our teachers' workshops. This year the workshops focused on inquiry-based learning lead by several teachers who had participated in the DuPont AgriScience Ambassador trainings. Our lab activity focused on "fishing" snack fish out of a pond following specific limitations. This was a great activity and I could see it being used to teach a number of concepts, including carrying capacity, sustainability, the tragedy of the commons, ethics and much more. Engaging in this activity supported the saying "teachers make the worst students," as throughout the activity some teachers didn't read and/or follow the directions, leading them to make up their own rules, but everyone was fully engaged and all of us picked up something different from the activity, which I think highlights the diversity within agricultural education.

After the workshops it was time to meet back up with my students and enjoy a great meal together. This of course meant lots of teasing about desserts, and never-ending comments about the mashed potatoes that my students say they wait all year for, but first an impromptu lesson in how to tie a tie. Just goes to show that you don't need to be a boy to know how to tie a tie (guess I should learn soon).

After dinner was some time to catch up with fellow teachers and student teachers, and several of my students from home and Governor's School. After some quick catching up, now was time for the true social portion of the conference - the annual dance. All of my students were required to be at the dance for at least the first portion to check in and be social, but then were allowed to go to their rooms if they wanted. All of my students chose to stay though only a few actually danced. So what did the rest of us do? The timeless classic - played cards.

I got to spend the rest of the night talking with my students while playing cards, catching up some more with fellow student teachers, checking in on my students on the dance floor every so often to make sure everything was PG, and otherwise enjoyed a relaxing evening. Once the dance ended my students headed back to their rooms for lights out, while Mrs. D and I joined several other teachers on the nightly "courtesy corps," making a couple rounds and making sure all the students on our designated floors were quietly going to bed and not disturbing the other hotel guests.

The next morning we enjoyed another great meal, enjoyed some thoughtful reflections from the State FFA Officers, and participated in a simple community service project - writing letters thanking our nation's veterans, wounded warriors, and currently deployed service men and women. Overall, we had a great conference - I was able to interact with my students outside their comfort zones, stretching themselves to learn new things and meet new people. Everyone went home that day with great memories and new friends and while I was extra tired knowing tomorrow was Monday, it was a good refresher and boost for going back.

Snow Days, Weight Days, & Beefstick Days, Oh My! (Week 2 Cont...)

Sounds like our students

In addition to getting used to my teaching schedule this week I also learned that A-days, B-days, and 9^th period Club days are not the only things that affect my students and their schedule. We also have snow days, “weight days,” and beefstick days. Snow days seem really obvious at how they affect your schedule, but it’s not just the time difference; the students also act different. The teachers joke that you can predict the weather based on how rowdy the students get, and sure enough, today about the time that the students upped their rowdiness level was about the time our weather forecast upgraded from a “weather advisory alert” to a “winter storm warning.”

Don't wanna mess with the Dawgs

The weather is only one factor, the next is “weight days.” Many of the students in my ag. classes are athletes, predominantly wrestlers. Since we are in prime wrestling season, my students moods and behaviors shift based on their “weight days” where they make sure that they are within their weight range to compete. So for instance some days these past weeks some of my boys have been grumpy because they have to shed weight before a competition; other days they are stuffing their faces because a meet has been rescheduled due to weather.

The Coveted Beefstick Cabinet

This brings me to the next kind of days – beefstick days, or really beefstick week. One of the fundraisers for the FFA chapter is the sale of beefsticks in the ag. class. We can sell before and after school everyday, but because of school nutrition requirements we can only sell during the school day for one week per month, hence beefstick days. Students are very motivated by food, and even when they have to pay for it, they will work (a little) harder if they can buy a beefstick.

This is just some of the fun things I’m becoming a part of here at Tri Valley, including attending my first FFA meeting this afternoon. While I may be from the largest chapter, I’ve never attended an FFA meeting with over 20 students and thanks to Tri Valley’s 9^th period club schedule, every Friday we hold FFA meetings in the auditorium with at least 50 students. Today after moving through our agenda, introducing myself and advertising some of the FFA activities coming up over the next few weeks we watched part of Nick Vujicic’s keynote address from this past fall’s National FFA Convention. Even watching it on youTube, after seeing it in person I still enjoy his message and hope that the students are pulling something of it too. Hopefully, his message of accepting others and loving yourself and pushing yourself further to accomplish great things can be a message to theme my semester with Tri Valley.

Mid-Winter Convention, Come Icy Rain or Shine

Attending the PA State Farm Show has been a tradition for me for the past nine years; it’s how I mark my birthday each year. Usually this involves a multi-day trip chaperoning Saul livestock kids, but this year was a little different. While I did manage to visit the Farm Show Sunday to catch up with Saul and watch my kids show their market lambs (4 sale lambs and a Master Showman!), the big difference was knowing that I would be chaperoning a new bus full of Tri Valley students that Monday to attend the Mid-winter FFA Convention. At least that’s how Monday was supposed to go.

Instead of chaperoning a full bus load of Tri Valley FFA members I spent my Monday morning first preparing for a two hour delay, and then finding out that because of the rain coating our area’s roads with ice that I would be experiencing my first official “snow day.” While my school and many others faced school cancellations there was one common theme amongst my cooperating teacher and other FFA Advisors across the area – come rain or shine they will celebrate their students’ achievements at Mid-winter. So while the majority of my students enjoyed their day off, Mrs. Dingman and I loaded up in her car and headed south towards the Farm Show Complex. Tri Valley had one first year student receiving their own FFA jacket thanks to the state alumni association’s jacket campaign, and while she couldn’t make it due to the weather, we were able to pick up her jacket for her and bring it back. We were also there to recognize two of our seniors receive their Keystone FFA Degrees, and while only one of them was able to make it, it was really cool to watch her walk across stage and help take dozens of pictures for her obviously very proud parents.

Attending this year’s Mid-winter Convention was very similar to each of the past year’s I’ve attended as a chaperone, except it felt more official this year; now that I’m officially the chapter advisor (in-training) those are “my kids” and I felt different to be down on the arena floor and watch as the hundreds of students went across stage. Watching the students receive their Keystones or zip up their first personal jacket was a little nostalgic, reminding me how much I love my own blue corduroy hanging in my closet.

This Farm Show was also extra special to me because I got to bring all three of my groups of “kids” together – as I got to celebrate my hometown kids showing over the weekend and then congratulating them as they earned their Keystones, and then was able to introduce some of students from Governor’s School to my Tri Valley FFA member so that they already know each other before running into each other at FFA conferences this spring. I’m really proud of all of my “kids” and can’t wait to enjoy their interactions together at future FFA events. Hopefully, by mixing my three groups together I can help them form some friendships across the state. At the very least I have multiple chapters I’ll be cheering for at this year’s state convention.

Here’s to a successful Farm Show (complete with milk shake) and the beginning of the next fifteen weeks, feeling like an official “big kid.”