Checking out the Chickens: On-Farm Employment SAE Visit

One of the main things that sets agricultural education apart from other education fields is our three-circle model of classroom & laboratory instruction, leadership development through the FFA, and our Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE's). I believe that SAE's can be the easiest or hardest part of the model to implement, and that difference all relies in how you (as the agricultural educator) can package the opportunity for your students to develop real-life, hands-on work experience in the field of agriculture outside of the typical 8am-3pm (insert whatever hours your school operates) school day.

Many of my students have a Supervised Agricultural Experience, the majority being Entrepreneurship or Placement. Here at Tri-Valley we conduct almost all of our official SAE visits over the summer, especially those of our students who have entrepreneurship projects as many of them exhibit at the County Fair over the summer. Since I'm new to the community we decided to go check out some of our students' SAE's, starting with one of my students who has an on-farm placement.


Meet Nathan - Nathan is a junior in several of my ag. classes and also our Chapter Treasurer. One of my favorites in the classroom (don't worry there are several), he is always ready for a good time and seems happiest when working in the shop with the other boys. His main employment is with the Zimmerman's on a poultry and beef production farm, where he has many daily tasks but the biggest responsibility is the daily culling of the chicken flocks in the four chicken houses.

Now I will begin by saying that before this visit I knew very little about poultry production. I was just starting to teach my poultry science class and so I was just starting to learn about the poultry industry and as I was to learn on this visit, the poultry industry plays a big part in my part of Schuylkill County. So my SAE visit first started with a driving tour of Pitman, one of the main towns around Hegins (where the school is located) and where Mrs. D and several of my students live and work. It was a beautiful February afternoon, cold but sunny, and a perfect day to spend driving through town learning the town landmarks and seeing where several of the farms are located.


There were no preparations to be made ahead of time other than scheduling the visit and remembering to bring jeans and boots to wear, and as we drove up a slight hill flanked by fruit trees we arrived at the Zimmerman's. After introducing me to Sam, Nathan's boss and one of the farm's owners, Nathan, Mrs. D and I loaded up into the golf cart as Nathan drove us to our first chicken house to begin his shift.

Now Nathan did forewarn me about what I would experience walking into the chicken house but nothing could prepare me for the immediate fogging of my glasses and overwhelming smell of ammonia as we entered the massive but tiny (and fluffy) flocks of over 2,000 chicks per house. Nathan's job was to walk through each of the chicken houses and collect any deceased chickens, and also cull any chickens that were not reaching the level of health and growth they should based on their age.


I was amazed both at how much Nathan could know about the birds' health by looking at them and also by Nathan's ability to explain everything he was doing and how everything operates to me. Nathan is usually one of my students who doesn't always want to talk and participate in class so it was a great experience for me to see him in his element explaining how he monitors the chickens' health when to me they all looked like a massive group of walking yellow fluff-balls.

Having to evaluate the program, it was clear that Nathan was learning skills along the way. He was not just picking up dead chickens as it might first appear. He was learning how to monitor the chickens' health via physical signs, how to selectively cull birds before issues could become worse or birds could use up many resources, and learning about how the business production works as a whole. His tasks changed based on the season and appeared that he continued to grow in responsibility.


His biggest recommendation for improvement was to improve his record keeping skills. He had been keeping his records in his hard-copy record-book. We suggested he move over to the online AET system so he could update it on his phone while he was at work, and getting him to switch over is a work in progress.

Overall, at Tri-Valley we "grade" their overall SAE program on their record-keeping skills and some students are better than others. We also grade it based on the interactions we have with students at their placements or with their entrepreneurship projects at Fair - can the students explain what they are doing and the reasoning behind it or are they just completing tasks, and it seems that most students are doing a good job at finding projects that work for them and also allow them to grow in some function.

Overall, I had a great first visit for the semester, and learned a lot about chickens and my student Nathan, and I'm looking forward to my next visit.

The Day I Learned to Hate #SnowDays...: Week 3

So this week has been crazy, not because a lot has been going on, but because not much has been going on. Thanks to our current stream of overhyped snow storms, this past week has really only been 2.5 days. First, a snow day on Monday and a 2-hour delay on Tuesday, both of which did not seem to bring the heavy snowfall we were expecting (though you do have to be extra pre-cautious when some of your students and staff have to travel over or around the mountain to get to school). And now to end our week, we now have a three-day weekend thanks to another snow day today (though I think this weekend we may actually get a snow storm, so if my kids get their wish we may have a four-day weekend).

So after this short week where I was only able to see my 8th graders for three classes and my Vet Science class once, I have come to a conclusion: I hate snow days. As a student I remember loving days off, late arrivals, and early dismissals due to weather conditions, no matter how I had to travel, but now as a teacher I hate them.

So current and past teachers I ask you - how do/did you ever get anything accomplished in class?!

Thanks to our most recent schedules I am about two days behind in my class schedule, and instead of picking up my next class Monday I may have to start mid-week, but that's assuming the incoming snow storm bypasses us and we're able to have class Monday. Now on the one hand, some people may look at it this way, I have an extra day to my weekend and some extra time to prepare, and that's true, my snowy weekend will be filled with lesson planning and pushing ahead.

Hopefully they think this is as cool as I do...

But picture this, you stay late at school Thursday night because you are super excited for the lesson you have planned the next day for your Vet Science class. You have all the materials ready, you've planned out your lesson, and you are getting excited just thinking about how your students will react when they figure out what's going on. Friday morning comes, you get the phone call at 5:30am, schools will be on a 2-hour delay. Slight panic, you look out your window then check your bell schedule. Wooosh, it'll be ok, based on that day's delay schedule you won't get to see your 8th graders which is a little sad but you get your Vet Science class first period of the day. So you're getting pumped, hoping they think it's as cool as you do and not corny. You take advantage of your extra time that morning, clean up the apartment, figure out your outfit for the day and get ready. But then it happens, you get the second phone call, school's canceled. And now you're bummed, and that's when it hits you and you leave your old student-mindset -  you hate snow days.

Now while I am bummed that I didn't get to see my students react to my (hopefully) awesome Vet Science lesson, I won't ruin the surprise for you and will instead wait to explain more about the lesson next week after my students get to experience it (whatever day that may be now). Though I will share a picture sneak peak of some of the materials I prepped for class.

So I again ask, current and past teachers - how do/did you ever get anything accomplished in class?!
The weather continues to throw off the schedule and as I look ahead to the many days Mrs. D. and/or I will be out of the classroom due to pre-service and/or FFA requirements I don't know how teachers are able to accomplish what they do. Looking ahead to every day I have to plan for a substitute to be watching my students, I'm anxious about what I'll be able to accomplish as I'll be restricted to certain types of media and a lack of shop utilization for those lessons. With all the extra responsibilities of an FFA Advisor, I'm not sure how any teacher, let alone ag. teachers, are able to accomplish much during the winter months (or whenever their location has extreme weather).

Now amidst all this snowy madness I still had quite a few highlights this week. First, my 8th graders continue to be the highlight of my mornings. They continue to let more of their personalities show, and their career interests range from agricultural to law enforcement! One of my favorite moments of the week was when I was questioning them and getting them to name the 8 career clusters within the agricultural industry (which according to National FFA are animal systems, plant systems, agribusiness, food products and processing, biotechnology, environmental systems, natural resources, and power, technical, and structure systems.)

The last system they had to guess was food products and processing, so I asked them what they do at least two or three times a day and one of my boys threw his hand excitedly in the air and shouted "learning!" It was that moment where I got that warm and fuzzy feeling and I told him I loved his answer and that I hoped they were learning more than that in a day. Now yes, they did figure out that I was referring to food but I loved his answer! I can't wait to see what my students come up with next week.

Looks like an Assignment Throne!

Now my 8th graders were already my favorites, but it was my senior shop boys who really surprised me this week. Of all the students I was most worried about reaching it was them; they tend to lead the behavior of the classes and are much more proficient in the shop than I'll be in a long time. But this week I think a core group of them finally accepted me. The past few weeks I have been using a box lid as my "turn-in" box; I hadn't had a chance to pick a tray up yet and it was functional. This week some of the boys were looking for projects to complete in the shop, so among some other things on the to-do list Mrs. D. asked them if they could build me a box; simple, three-sided with a lip at one end, just so it could hold assignments. Two of these boys willingly accepted and decided to build me a three-level box. Now while I appreciated their effort, the box was thrown together and while I was willing to accept the very un-pretty box, she thought they could do better.

Well some of their classmates agreed. A different group of boys picked it up the next period, looked it over and said "we can do better," and better they did. I now have a three-level, open-topped box, sanded and clear-coated drying in the shop to use next week to start collecting assignments. The students took a lot of pride in making it, continuing to fix it when something wasn't to their liking (some of them are perfectionists), and asking if it met my liking. This gave me a chance to talk to them in the shop and get to know them better, learning what they're doing after graduation and even catch them dancing and singing while cleaning up when they thought Mrs. D. and I weren't watching.


This week, even though it's been short, I've really been able to see the sweet side of my normally, loud and tough "shop" boys, from the dancing and pride in their work I mentioned earlier, to a moment I witnessed in the hallway in between classes. The teachers stand in the hallways during class changes, and one day as I was watching some of my boys walking down the hall towards ag. class, one of the younger special needs students was walking farther away down the hall holding his aide's hand. Suddenly he let go of her hand and rushed ahead to grab my student's hand and walk with down the hall. Now some students may not have reacted positively to this sudden grabbing and this situation could have gone downhill fast. Instead, my student acted wonderfully, not even batting an eye as he held onto the younger boy's hand, continuing to walk down the hall with him until the aide caught up and took the boy to their original destination.

This may not mean anything. But both Mrs. D. and I saw it and to us it was one brief moment of sweetness, and as she put it - "sometimes they can be real sweethearts." So as I go into the next twelve weeks of student teaching at this place I have grown attached to, with students I willingly claim as mine, I'm remembering this - even during those moments in class when they can be knuckleheads, acting up and sometimes just getting under your skin, these students are not just great kids, they're my great kids.

Looking forward to the next twelve weeks, more classes to teach, and hopefully less snow!

Exactly what my students were probably saying... Should have listened to them.

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.