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.

Getting the 'Big Desk": Administrator Interview

One of the most nerve-wracking parts of the job search for me is the interview. I have a pretty good idea of what kind of program I am looking forward but I still really nervous every time I have to prove to someone that I am the kind of ag. teacher they are looking for. To try and help with this fear, one of our assignments was to have a mock interview with one of our administrators.

For my interview I met with Mr. Hall, the principal at Tri-Valley Jr./Sr. High School and we had a mock interview mixed with a discussion about interviews and hiring in general. Using some of the standard interview questions for hiring at Tri-Valley along with interview questions I had brought along to prepare for an upcoming interview I had, Mr. Hall and I went back and forth with the questions. First, he would ask me a question and I’d answer it as if it was a real interview, but then we’d talk through my responses and what he thought was good and what could be reworded or elaborated on.

When we would talk about a question involving “how would you react to the situation of…” whether it was about parent interaction or classroom management Mr. Hall said that you always have to remember one thing – you have the Big Desk. He said that when answering questions related to those scenarios and or responding to those scenarios in reality, he said always remember that you as the teacher have the Big Desk and you know what you are doing. He said part of having the Big Desk is having the confidence in what you are doing, relating back to having confidence when interviewing.

Mr. Hall also took the time to share with me stories of his own interview experiences, both as the interviewer but also the interviewee. Based on his experiences he said the major thing to remember about interviews is that they should always be a two-way street. The interviewer should be determining if the interviewee is the best candidate for the position while the interviewee should be determining if the placement is the best position for themselves. He said this is where the importance of good questions lies as the right question can sometimes tell the interviewee a lot about what the interviewer is not telling you about the position/placement.

Overall, I had a great time talking with Mr. Hall. We discussed how I was enjoying my time at Tri-Valley and how much he has learned and is still learning about agricultural education. Working in his school has been a joy this semester and I only hope that wherever I decide to teach that I am lucky enough to have administrators who are at least half as supportive of their ag. programs as he is of Tri-Valley’s.

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 11: A Quick Week & Sweet Professional Development @ Shady Maple

The weeks are continuing to fly by. 

I have been teaching the full load of classes for a little while now but on Monday I had the gang all to myself as Mrs. D was out for the day. The students took some advantage of that, hiding in the shop when I didn't know they were there and we had one instance of students damaging another's project, but luckily it was all fixed and the students were back to getting along by the end of the day. 

Tuesday was another day out of the classroom as we had the chance to take four of our girls to the Area Public Speaking Career Development Event. We had students competing in the Sr. Prepared and Conservation speaking contests while Mrs. D and I, along with the other ag. teachers served as judges for the other contests. I got the chance to judge the Extemporaneous Speaking CDE where the students draw three topics, then choose one of those three to prepare a 6-8 minute speech with only 30-minutes preparation time. The topics can cover anything within the realm of agriculture and that day I got to hear about alternative energy, sustainability, urban agriculture, and biotechnology. For me this was a great experience as I not only got interact with other ag. teachers but also had the chance to listen to students and get a sense of what they are learning in their ag. programs, learning something new about agriculture with every speaker I judged. 

Wednesday and Thursday were normal days of teaching. My Ag. Science I 9th graders were finally all moving into the shop after completing all their safety tests and were now moving onto constructing their too-box projects, teaching me the important lesson of having eyes in the back of your head - especially when you have 16 students all use power tools and stationary machinery at once in the wood-shop. Yikes!

In addition to teaching, Wednesday night also made for a sweet reunion with several of my fellow student teachers for some professional development. That night was our areas's New & Beginning Teacher Workshop, a professional development opportunity offered by Penn State. Gathering together at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord in Lancaster, it was a night of sharing resources, and stories, and collaborating together to learn how to improve each of our individual programs while also forming contacts and connecting the newer generations of teachers with experienced teachers, all while over a delicious meal. I know that I walked away with several valuable resources, both digital and physical, and formed better connections with teachers. 

This was also another opportunity for me to get to interact with the newest ag. teacher in the area from Pine Grove. Pine Grove is one of the closest ag. programs to Tri-Valley and had just hired a new ag. teacher right before I began student teaching. As her closest neighbors, she has interacted with Mrs. D quite often, which allowed me to work with her as well and I think adds a nice element to my student teaching experience. The new teacher is originally from a more biology-focused background and is still learning about the wonderful world of FFA, so interacting with her has been greatly beneficial for me as she is able to trade notes with me on her teacher preparation program and her classroom teaching strategies while I, along with Mrs. D, am able to teach her about FFA and about the diverse possibilities within ag. education.

Overall, the week wrapped up nicely with another Friday back at Penn State for a day of mock interviews and peer review of lessons. Can't believe it's only a few weeks left!