All Good Things Must Come To An End!

I've been sitting here the past two days working on wrapping up my assignments and getting ready to head back to Penn State to be with my cohort for the next week and all I can think about is "Wow, how did I actually do all of this in such a short time?!"  If I think back to my very first day in front of my Ag Foundations class, I remember be nervous and anxious and hoping that they wouldn't hate me.  If I think back a short time to Friday which was my last day in front of that same class, I remember be nervous and anxious and hoping that once I leave them and go to my own program, I will do just as well as I did with them.

I really enjoyed my time at Selinsgrove Area High School and learned SO much from Mrs. Fry and Mr. Swineford.  I asked them over and over again, "Do I really have to leave?"  I was so happy there and felt so connected to the students, the staff and the community.  Even though it was hard, I knew that I had to leave:
1. Because I had to come back to finish out the semester to get my degree.
2. Mrs. Fry and Mr. Swineford needed to have their classes back to finish out the year.
3. I have to go and find my place in the Ag Ed world with my own program.

When Miss. Fisher almost drops the cake after the students say Don't drop it Fisher! 

All that being said, I did have an absolute amazing time during my student teaching and feel like I have learn SO much from the students and staff at Selinsgrove.  I have some advice for those who are or think that they want to teach Ag.

There is NO such thing as a dumb question!
There is also no such thing as too many questions.  When you are looking for a place to student teach and once you at finally started into your teaching experience, as any and all questions that you think of.  This is a time that you need to learn as much as you can and questions are the best way to do that.  Also if you don't ask questions yourself, how can you expect your students to ask you questions.

Take Risks!
Don't ever stay in the safe zone!  As a student teacher, this is the time to takes risks and make mistakes.  If these risks go right, then you have an amazing lesson and if it happens to go not as planned, then you get to learn and grow from it.  My cooperating teacher took a risk on me by allowing me to come teach there and it paid off big time!  I took a risk by agreeing to teach ag mechanics and again it majorly paid off!  I loved that class and now I want to teach at least one mechanics class at whatever program I find myself at.

Find a way to connect!
Connect with your students, your cooperating teachers, your school staff and your community.  It will only make your time there easier and more fun!  These are the fun little quirks that make each of the people you work with unique and each of your students an individual.  Find the thing that makes your students them and play that card to your advantage.  A student is much more likely to work with you and do what you ask of them when they know that you care about them.

Laugh!
Always find something to laugh at once a day.  This could be by having the joke of the day, by bringing up a funny story or trusty me your students will say and do the craziest things!  And make sure you right the funny, the sad, the bad and the good memories down.  These are the moments that you will wish that you can remember forever so keep a notepad close by to jot down notes.

I will never be able to say thank you enough to everyone at Selinsgrove Area High School especially Mrs. Fry and Mr. Swineford!  They agreed to take me on and helped me to learn and grow as an educator!

THANK YOU SELINSGROVE!! 

Action Research Project

Please take a look at my first action research project and infographic.  I have learned a lot through this project and realize how important it is for teachers to have clear and well define Student Learning Object project.  This type of research is only beneficial to both teacher and students as it will help teachers to realize where they can improve their teaching methods and where students need more instruction.  Based on my research, I have found that students' test scores are high when they review using a more structured method, such as a lab.  The students who used their creativity to make their own model of a flower still hit the 70% mark on the quiz however, they seemed to be more focused on what their model looked like than learning the parts and functions.  Whereas the flower dissection lab, asked students very specific and content based questions such as, locate the part of the flower that produces the pollen and answer the following questions.  Below you will read more about my Action research project on my infographic.

Another Unique SAE!

For this visit, I decided to visit another very active freshman member, Tony Royer.  Tony has become very active in just a short time and has even been awarded a spot on the 2018-2019 Selinsgrove FFA

officer team as the treasurer.  This seems very fitting as he is learning a lot about money management through his placement SAE at Dressler's Farm.

Tony, left, was just awarded Star

Greenhand Degree at the banquet.

Tony is only one of the high school students that is employed by Dressler's Farm which is owned by Selinsgrove FFA alum, Kevin Dressler.  Kevin's farm is mostly vegetable production where he sells the tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, herbs and much more at local farmer's markets, vegetable auctions and at his own farm stand.  He also has many different small animals that he raises to sell privately or at the local livestock auction.  These include chickens (of all shapes and sizes), rabbits, quail, pheasant, guinea pigs, ducks and goats.  All of these aspects play a part in Tony's SAE. 

Tony has many responsibilities at Dressler's Farm which vary depending on what time of year it is.  During the winter months, there is no field work to be done so most of his job requires him to care for the animals and towards the end of winter start seedlings in the greenhouse.  As the weather warms up, there are more jobs to be done.  Tony helps to prepare the fields by making sure all rows are clear of plastic from the season prior and helps to keep the plants happy by transplanting them into bigger containers until they are ready to hit the soil.  Once the summer is in full swing, Tony works more to help pick the crops and package them for the farm stand.

Field clean up is a lot faster when you can put the plastic in the wagon! 

In AET, Tony keeps track of all the time that he puts in at work and records all of his hourly wages.  This is a great SAE for Tony to have as a freshman and this is an experience that he can continue as long as he is employed there.  This is also a great SAE that will help him to later earn degrees and proficiencies. 

Tony will have lots of work here in a few days when these all need transplanted!  

SAE Visit

At Selinsgrove, the Ag Foundations class is made up of primarily freshman but also has a few sophomores mixed in.  Part of their classwork is learning how to use AET for record keeping which means that everyone must have an SAE that they can add entries for.  I had already seen many of my upperclassman's SAE projects over the summer and talk with them about their goals of how to grow or expand that SAE. 

For this visit I wanted to focus on the student's in the Ag Foundations class and see what it looks like when you are just starting your SAE and beginning that record keeping process.  Now I myself have been through this start up phase of learning the lingo of what is an expense, what is non current capitol, etc. however, when I did record books it was the older versions that were in an excel document; not in AET.  So I wanted to learn my way through AET with one of the students who was just learning it all too.  

I picked to visit with Maddie Haupt who is indeed a freshman at Selinsgrove.  Maddie is new to the

Maddie, center, wants to put the jacket she just go to good use! 

FFA chapter however she has already hit the ground running and has become actively involved.  She even received her FFA jacket at the PA Farm Show in January and hopes to put it to very good use, very soon.  When Maddie was talking with Mrs. Fry about what she should do as her starter SAE, she couldn't think of anything but she knew that she wanted to become even more involved with the chapter and learn all about what the chapter does.  So Mrs. Fry and Maddie decided that her SAE would be completing the Selinsgrove FFA's chapter scrapbook for this year. 

Now this is a pretty unique SAE in my mind but when you think about it, this is a great SAE to start with.  It helps Maddie to record how many hours she is putting into the scrapbook, what type of expenses can be tied up in completing the book and of course helps her to sharpen her record keeping and organization skills.  This SAE falls under the Exploratory SAE category and is a project that Maddie will not be expanding on for next year.  However this works great for both Maddie and the chapter since there is no reporter this year on the officer team.

How many laptops can we use for one SAE visit?! 

The Selinsgrove FFA chapter decided last year that they would steer away from the giant scrapbooks that other chapters usually make.  They have moved their scrapbook to be done completely digitally.  Maddie upload pictures to the chapter's Snapfish account and adds them to digital page templates where she can add captions and digital stickers to embellish.  Once Maddie is finished with the book, she just hits print and in a few days, a package comes to the school.  Inside you would find a book that is reminiscent of a child's hardback book.  It is bright, colorful and has all of the pictures printed right in the book instead of glued to paper or pages in the giant heavy FFA scrapbooks.

Maddie works very hard to make 

sure that the pages are just perfect! 

Since all of Maddie's work on the scrapbook is done digitally and Selinsgrove is a one-to-one school, we were able to meet for her visit over lunch in the Ag room.  I have an hour long lunch where I was able to sit with Maddie and she showed me how she puts pictures in the book and how to add all the extras to the pages.  We also were able to look at her record book on AET at that time too since it too is digital.  We talked about how many hours she had logged so far and how she never though that it would take so many hours to completing this book.  

I actually really like the idea of having freshman or new students to the program start off their SAE journey with a smaller task that might take only a few weeks or months.  This is a great way for them to learn where to enter things in AET and just be able to click around and get comfortable with the system.  Now that being said, I think that this could have a downfall because depending on what these records are kept on, the student might not be able to apply these hours towards proficiencies or degrees later down the road.  

SAE are graded on two different levels at Selinsgrove.  For the beginners in the Ag Foundations class, Mrs. Fry makes them have 4 entries per month (1/week)  that they receive a grade for.  It does not have to be a long, elaborate post but they do need to say what they did/how much it cost/ etc for it to count.  If you are in your second year or more of SAE, you are enrolled in the SAE class that students receive credit for.  This class requires students to fill out the application for an SAE grant in the fall, the application for a proficiency in the spring and over the summer you get to have an SAE visit with either Mrs. Fry or Mr. Swineford.  

Week 14 Student Teaching

Week 14 ...... I can't believe I just finished my 14th week of student teaching and now I am planning and getting ready to complete my very last week of student teaching.  I am full of excitement to be dome and move on to the next part of my journey but I also am saddened that I have leave.  I feel like just yesterday I was teaching my first class and now I have blinked and am right in front of the finish line; this is crazy!  Even though I have been at this for 14 weeks, I am far from an expert in anything yet and this last week was still packed full of learning moments.

We picked one of the windiest days of the spring to do Adopt-A-Highway 

Maple Syrup!
My Ag Foundations class started this project way back at the beginning of the plant science unit and this week we finally were able to see it come full circle.  I had never even tapped a tree before student teaching let alone boil the sap to make syrup but now I can say I have done it all!  We ended up having to pull our taps a few weeks ago simply because our trees were giving so much sap that we ran out of containers to store it all in.  We ended up with around 65 gallons of sap when we pulled our last tap, which is more than Mrs. Fry has had so far! 

One bucket down, many more to go! 

We started our boiling process on Monday and finally on Friday we finished up the process and ended up with a little over a gallon of syrup.  The students were part of the process the whole time.  They singed up in shifts to come down and stir the sap and keep an eye on it.  They also strained the sap before we boiled it just in case we had any bark pieces in the sap.  Each day they would come in  and ask if we had syrup yet right after they commented on how the shopped smelled of this odd sweet smell.  Now after all those weeks of collecting and all those hours of boiling, they will finally get to taste the syrup!  This was a learning experience for both students and Miss. Fisher.  I can't wait to try this out in my own classroom someday!

All that boiling gave the students a great maple syrup facial. 

Sparks Fly!
I have finally started to teach welding!  This was the unit I was the most excited and afraid to teach all at the same time.  I have not welded much prior to student teaching so I knew that I wasn't the best welder but I love to weld.  After the first day I learned how to strike an arc, I have been hooked!  This is why I was so excited to teach it to my freshman class.  I remembered being in their exact shoes, nervous that I would do something wrong but extremely excited once I ran that first, ugly bead across the steel.  However, I was still slightly afraid simply because I had never taught anyone to weld before.  I was afraid that I wouldn't explain it right, or that I would forget to tell them something important and finally that I wouldn't be able to help them since I had only done it a few times before.

Best way to practice welding is by welding; let's burn some rod!  

Turns out I didn't need to worry about any of that.  I made sure to make myself a list of steps and notes that I had to go over and broke the process down into several small steps at a time.  I was able to talk them through the process just fine and not only were they all able to strike and arc but it looks like most of them are going to have some really nice beads to turn in at the end.  We will continue to welding this upcoming week as well as learn how to set up and shut down the oxy-acetylene tanks.  I was terrified in the beginning of this all when I found out I had to teach shop classes since I never had them in high school but now I know that I LOVE teaching Ag Mechanics and shop classes!

Disclaimer: Helmets were worn at all times during photo shoot!  No student teachers were harmed in the capturing of these photos :) 

This week is going to be the hardest week of student teaching hands down because with every passing day, I will know that it is ending.  I know that I have to move on and find my perfect fit but I am dreading Friday afternoon when I have to leave them all; the students, the staff, and my cooperating teachers.  I am going to take in every second of this week, laugh the hardest, and when it's all done cry the hardest!  Here's to you Selinsgrove Ag Department, let's make my last week the best one yet!!  

Interview Practice!

I was able to get in some interview practice with the Administrators at Selinsgrove High School.  Both the principal, Mr. Parise and Assistant principal Mr. Roman conducted my interview prior to school beginning a few weeks ago.  Overall, the interview went great and I was able to walk away with a lot of great tips and pointers for next time.

1. Mr. Parise and Mr. Roman have a go to list of questions that they use for preliminary interviews and I was asked those same questions.

• First off, tell us a little about yourself and why you were drawn to teach this subject?  
• Can you tell us your policy on cell phones in your classroom?  
• How would you incorporate technology into your instruction?  
• What experiences have you had to help you become the teacher that you are today?  
• What do you believe to be your strongest characteristic while teaching?  
• What do you believe is your weakest characteristic while teacher or where you need the most improvement?
• What would you do the curriculum and your lessons to modify them for all types learners?
• What would a hybrid class look like for an agriculture class?  
• Talk about the types of assessments that you implement in your lessons?

2. I do feel that I was well prepared for these specific questions.  I feel that these were questions that I could pull from my experiences to answer.  The only question that I was not sure how to answer was the one about the hybrid class.  I was not sure what they were calling a hybrid class so I first had to get some clarification on exactly what they see a hybrid class as.  

3. A lot of the questions I had for my administrators were about how I did during the interview which we talked about after the "formal" part was done.  However, during the interview I only asked two questions:

• What is the biggest characteristic you look for in a great candidate?  
• If a candidate brings a portfolio to the interview, is there a better chance of them to get the position?  

4. I was impressed in how calm I kept myself during the interview as well as how well I answered the questions.  I though that the interview would be much harder and intimidating however, it was very relaxed and it was like we were just having a conversation about teaching.  

5. I don't know that there was anything that didn't impress me about the interview process.  We did do it kind of spur of the moment so I didn't have everything with me for the interview such as my portfolio or copy of my resume so I wish that I myself was more prepared for the process. 

6.  I think that my weakest aspect of an interview is when I have the opportunity to ask questions.  I never really have any that I want to ask in the moment; I always think of them like an hour later.  I need to get a list of good questions that I could use at any school but I also need to find some that are specific to the school I am applying to.  I also think that I could use some work on the vocabulary and buzz words of the teaching world.  For example, I wasn't 100% sure what a hybrid class was during this interview.  I need to make sure exactly what the difference is between flipped, hybrid, homebound as well as many others.  

 

Professional Development Time!

As teachers, our duty is to deliver content and knowledge to our students and help them to become

life long leaners!  This means that they are always looking for new things to learn or new ways to develop new skills.  Well not only do we strive to have students who at life long learners but we also strive to do just that; continuously learning!  We do this through professional development events and finding opportunities to expand our knowledge pool.  I am not 100% sure how this works for other teachers within the school but I know for a fact that there are endless opportunities provided to the Agriculture Teachers here in Pennsylvania to grow as educators and develop new skills.

One of those opportunities was during the State Legislative Leadership Conference in Harrisburg.  This conference is held for FFA members to learn more about the legislative process and how a bill becomes a law.  The students have a packed full weekend of workshops and caucus meetings.  Meanwhile, the Ag teachers and FFA Advisors who bring the students to the conference also have a packed full weekend, filled with professional develop opportunities.

Soybean Fun!
This workshop was sponsored and presented by the  Pennsylvania Soybean Board.  During this time, I was able to learn about where the majority of the soybeans are produced in our state and that the Northern part of the state is beginning to stride in production.  However, most of the farmers in the Northern Region are new to soybean production and the Board is working to provide these farmers with assistance and information to help increase not only their yields but also their knowledge bank.

We also talked through the life cycle of a soybean plant and the major nutrients that these plants

require.  The number one use for soybeans in our state is for livestock feed, specifically dairy cattle feed and is a driving source for dairy farmers in our state.  While learning all of these great information about soybeans, we also completed a lab that could easily be done in a classroom.  We created candles from the wax that we get from soybeans.  You could also have students create their own soy crayons with the lab just by adding dyes to the wax.  This would be great to implement into a Biotechnology class, plant science class or a Foundations class.  Each of the teachers who attended, received a bag at the end filled with the supplied needed to complete the lab on their own as well as many other lesson and lab ideas that help to promote the importance of soybeans!

Proficiencies as Far as the Eye Can See!
I was also able to help judge and score the Proficiency applications that FFA members across the state submitted, hopeful to advance to the state level.  These proficiencies are available for any member who has complete one full year of a keeping detailed records for the Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) and is a way for those students to be recognized for their hard work.  It was really interesting to look over these applications and see the unique projects that students across the state are engaged in.  It also was really helpful to look over the rubric and to see exactly what is looked for on these applications.

Visiting Manheim Central

On Tuesday, April 3rd I had the opportunity to go visit my fellow cohort member, Miss. Angie Becker at her cooperating center of Manheim Central.  I would have loved to go visit all of the members of our cohort and see what rock star things they are doing at their programs however there were 3 big points that drew me to visiting Manheim.

1. Adult Education Program
If you are involved with agriculture education or FFA in the state of Pennsylvania it is a well known fact that Manheim Central has a very strong adult education program that teacher Deb Siebert is very passionate about.  The Young Farmers organization at Manheim is extremely strong in membership which is made of farmers and other agriculturalists in the Manheim area that come together to discuss current events in the agriculture industry, work towards certifications and brainstorm ideas of how to support other farmers and the youth leadership organization (4H and FFA) in Lancaster county.  I was curious to see the school and environment where this blooming adult education program stemmed from.

Great visualization of what Urban Encroachment is! 

2. CASE Curriculum
Selinsgrove does not teach using the CASE curriculum and it no secret that I am not completely comfortable with the curriculum which was another reason that drew me to go visit Miss. Becker.  Manheim does utilize the CAE curriculum for their EEE class that all freshman take as a science credit.  This is a really great idea to incorporate this curriculum into your program as a science credit that also doubles as a recruitment material.  They are able to get all of the freshman at the school into the Ag room and they are able to see what other classes are doing as well as hear about the opportunities of SAE and FFA.  This class is also a perfect example of how agriculture directly applies to other classes such as science.  This class teaches students about the environment, ecology and how they connect to agriculture.

3. Three Teacher Program
My home program was a single teacher program that grew to having an additional teacher who taught  ag classes a few periods of the day but for the most part I only ever knew what it was like to have one teacher.  When I was looking at schools to student teach at, I knew that I wanted to see a program that had multiple teachers and what that dynamic looks like.  Selinsgrove has two Ag teachers that I have been able to work very close with and who have a great relationship and balance to their program.  Manheim has three ag teachers!  I was curious to see what it looks like when you have that additional person.  As the saying goes, many hands make for little work, which is true.  With three Ag teachers, it does help to cut down on some of the work load and responsibilities but I wasn't sure how that balanced looked until I saw how great Mrs. Siebert, Mrs. Anderson and Mr. Werning worked together at Manheim.  They each are able to take a different pathway of the program and offer more class options for the students to take.  Mr. Werning teaches the Ag mechanic courses, Mrs. Anderson covers the animal sciences and Mrs. Siebert is the plant, environmental and ecology expert at the program.  I used to think that I wanted to be a single teacher program since that is what I had only known.  Now I see that a multi teacher program is able to provide more class options for students and splits up the work load for those teachers a little.  It was nice to see how these teachers collaborate and work together.

Injections Lab for BQA certification! 

On top of going to check out these three aspects, I was also able to see Miss. Becker feel right at home teaching some animal science and help a class of her students work towards a certification for Beef Quality Assurance.  I also did this with my students so it was really fun to see her students engage in a similar activity as mine did.  I also got a personal tour of their greenhouse and see all of the varieties of tomatoes that they will sell in the May at their Heirloom Tomato Sale.  I loved my day that I was able to spend with Miss. Becker at Manheim Central High School's Ag program.

Regional PAAE Meeting - Northern Region

On April 4th, I was able to attend the Northern Region PAAE meeting.  This was a time where Ag teachers from the schools in the northern region of the state.  I was able to ride with the teacher at Mifflinburg, Mrs. Spurrier.  I was able to talk with her about my student teaching experience and about what I should be looking for when looking at jobs to apply for. 

Once at the meeting, I was able to connect with #psuaged18 cohort members as well as other teachers from the northern region.  There were some familiar faces but I also was able to meet so many other teachers and finally connect the face to the school.  Growing up as a member from the South Central region, I knew most of the schools and who taught there but when I went to think about the teachers and schools I knew from the northern region, my list was much shorter. 

We were able to hear from PAAE President, Neil Fellenbaum about what the upcoming summer conference and about the Ag Ed Showcases that were held at Bald Eagle and Cumberland Valley high schools.  We also heard the new updates for FFA from Mike Brammer as well as the new ideas about SAE from Carole Faye.

This meetings was overall a great evening of connecting with the Ag Ed Family that I finally get to be a part of.  I have been waiting to be an Ag Teacher for a long time and I finally have that dream in reach and to be welcomed into the profession and all of these teachers, feels amazing!  These people will not only be my colleagues but also my mentors, my friends and my Ag Ed Family!

Week 13: Student Teaching

This week was short and fast and this week I was able to learn to vital lessons for an Ag Teacher.

So many hanging baskets!  The greenhouse is getting fuller by the day! 

Lesson 1:  You HAVE to make time for yourself and your family!  
This week started with having a day off from out spring break and with that spring break I was able to travel home and visit with my family.  It is very easy to get swept up in the hectic and chaotic schedule as an Ag teacher and if you let yourself be completely and utterly be consumed by your job, you can shut out family unintentionally.  I believe that I have done a good job of keeping good balance during my student teaching experience however, I realize how easy it is to get too busy. 

Speaking for myself, I know that I am so passionate about what I do and for helping these students to be the best version of themselves that it becomes extremely hard at time to say "No" however, we also need to make sure that we are the best version of ourselves as teachers.  Having time to be with family or to just go a do something for yourself, will help to keep that vital balance in our lives and to keep us on that path to become the best teacher we can be for our students. 

The students in Ag Leadership were able to teach their peers with the Teach Ag Essay Content!  

 Lesson 2:  Tying up the loose ends!  
This week I had three of my units all coming to a close at one time.  I though that this would make my life a lot easier since we were going to end what we are on and move on to the next thing.  Simple right, give a test or collect the projects/rubrics and grade them all; wrong!  This made it a lot harder for myself.  Not only did I have all of those projects and tests to grade then all at the same time but I also failed to realize that for shop classes, you need to plan for time to clean up and prepare for the next project. 
We had just finished our electricity wiring projects and it was time to put all of the supplies and materials away so we could move onto plumbing.  The students did a great job of keeping the shop clean as they worked on their projects however now it was time that we had to organize all of the supplies and tear our projects apart.  I failed to ever think that part of the unit through.  It wasn't the end of the world, we just took a day to clean all of our electrical materials up but I did take a day away from my fool-proof schedule. 
With every class, no matter if it is a shop class or not, you always need to give yourself a day at the end of a unit to tie up any loose ends from the unit.  This could be to clean up supplies like I talked about, it could be for extra time for student presentations (because they always seem to take more time than planned)  or this could be just to wrap up any more questions or ideas about the topic at hand and to transition into the new one.  I will always plan for a day to tie up loose ends, if you don't need it then you can easily move on but always give yourself some cushion time.  

Science Classroom Visit

On Friday, March 9th I was able to visit Mrs. Hepner who is one of the chemistry teachers at the high school.  During this lesson, students were learning about Lewis Dot Diagrams and Periodic Trends.  I had so much fun watching her teach and would like to talk about some of the rock star moments I noticed.

1. There's a joke for everything!- She is so energetic and fun in her classroom!  Everyday she has a joke of the day and students are to come to class with a clean, school appropriate joke to start the class off with.  This is an idea I am SO stealing.  It is just a really fun way to start the class and it allows for each student to show their personality by bringing a joke they find funny.  Not only is there a joke of the day, but she makes so many jokes through out class and it just gives the room this fun and laid back environment.  For example, they were talking about different elements on the period table that day and she said why don't we take a moment to look at the element gold and as she was writing the symbol for gold on the board, she's like Ah!, You stole my gold (gold's symbol is Au)  It was funny and a great way for students to remember gold.

2.  Teamwork makes the Dream work!- I know cheesy line but it is true!  In Mrs. Hepner's class, everyone must take their turn and have the opportunity to show what they know.  An easy was to do this, is have students volunteer (sometimes volun-told) to go to the board and answer practice/homework questions.  You also can simply have them pick the next element we are going to look at.  That way everyone is able to have their voice heard.

3. Posters are our friend! - I had never seen so many posters on the walls in my educational career but it was such a good thing!  She was able to reference these posters so many times during the lesson and they were ones that she has made herself with simple rules of chemistry and rules of her classroom.

4. Think smarter, not harder! - Chemistry is a subject that students can really struggle with and Mrs. Hepner helps students not only understand the content but several times within the short time I was in her room, I saw many students have "Ah-ha" moments and then ask probing questions to dig deeper into the content.  She definitely does not just give away the answer to her students and promotes inquiry based learning and critical thinking skills.  If a student does not understand, she helps the student take a step back and look at the content in bite size chunks and then help them put it all together.  It's like portion control but NOT spoon feeding!!!

Mrs. Hepner does a great job of incorporating enthusiasm, clarity, variability and business-like-behavior into her lesson.  If I was a student, I would love to go to her class everyday and learn chemistry (and I hate chemistry).  She was able to keep my attention and delivered clear content all while have so much fun.  I think that a new teacher or student teacher would be lucky to have her as a mentor to look up to no matter what content area they teach! 

Week 12: Student Teaching

This week was a blur!  It was banquet week at Selinsgrove and every Ag teacher knows what comes with that.  Banquet is an evening where all of the students and members are showcased and we get to celebrate their achievements from the past year.  The week of the banquet can be hectic, fast passed and emotional.  Seniors are leaving, new members are growing into leaders, and the new officers step into their roles.

All of the Selinsgrove FFA members at the banquet!  

This banquet was more emotional for me than I thought it would be.  I have been through many, many banquets over the years but never have I been to a banquet as a student teacher.  I have become so connected and attached to this group of students in such a short amount of time that the banquet made me realize that I won't be around to see the underclassman grow and achieve so much more.  It jump started all the emotions that are going to be wrapped up in my last day and I am not ready to say goodbye to all of my students! 

2018-2019 Selinsgrove FFA Chapter Officer Team with PA FFA State President, Nathan Moyer and PA FFA State Vice President Thomas Gabel 

Thankfully we do still have a few weeks until I do have to leave them, however I know that it will be a hard day.  I think it will also be hard day for my students.  During the banquet, they surprised me by taking time to recognize me and talk about all of the fun things we have done this year.  I did not expect for them to do this since I am just their student teacher but I have learned that there is not such thing as "just a student teacher."  Each of them have shared some of their favorite memories from their time with me there and I have realized that I have made an impact on the students!

Look at all those chapter  proficiency winners!  

After the banquet, I talk to a few of the students and told them that they did not have to recognize me; their answer "Of course we did, the banquet is to recognize all the members of Selinsgrove and you are one of us!"  I truly have become one of them and feel as if I have been there for years.  I know that it will be a sad day here very soon but I know that I am leaving the students at Selinsgrove with some new knowledge, new skills and most of all fun memories!

All of the Greenhand Degree recipients :) 

Sorry, thinking too much about the end when there is still so much to do before that day comes!  We have to wrap up the Ag Leadership projects, start learning some plumbing content and skills in building construction and the freshman are going to start welding this week!  We also have to boil our syrup, get the greenhouse filled and ready for the plant sale, and head the Regional Public speaking contest!   So much to do, in such little time!

My very first Parli Pro Team!  Will never forget this group of great kids!  

Week 11: Student Teaching

This week was packed FULL!  It flew by faster than I can even remember.  We had a judging contest, SLLC, a visit from fellow PSUAG18 student teacher, Young Farmer's Regional Banquet, and an event for National Ag Day.  So with no further ado, let's dive into this busy week.

We started the week off by taking a small group of students up to State College on Saturday for the Spring Judging Contest hosted by the Penn State Dairy Science Club.  This was a great opportunity to connect with three of my students and be able to connect with other Ag teachers.

I had to opportunity to go to the Regional Meeting for the Young Farmers Association

Thursday evening.  It was great to mingle with these fellow agriculture enthusiasts and

hear of how much they support their local farmers!  

Hit the ground running the next morning, Mr. Swineford and I loaded up the van and took 7 members to the State Legislative Leadership Conference.  I had such a great time at the conference!  I had such a great time with the students and I felt like I was there as their actual teacher.  I have been able connect with the students now for 11 weeks and we were able to joke and laugh together.  We had such a fun time during our community service helping to clean out a pond.  Seeing them have such a fun time while doing this and connecting with the other chapter who were there with us made me feel like a proud teacher!

Selinsgrove FFA members hard at working during our time of service 

during SLLC!  

The last day of the conference, I was able to meet Representative Keller at the Legislative breakfast.  It was refreshing to see his passion for what he does as well as his support of agriculture, education, and most importantly the combination of the two.  He took us on a tour of Pennsylvania's capitol and told the members about his job as a legislator.  Our students were very excited afterwards and couldn't stop talking about what they had learned at the conference and how they all could be legislators in the future.

Representative Keller with members from the Midd West and 

Selinsgrove FFA chapters during the Legislative Breakfast at SLLC.  

After getting all of the kiddos back home from the conference, I had to prepare to get back in the classroom on Wednesday.  Little did I know that my day back at school was going to be a crazy and hectic day.  We had a two hour delay that morning, so we headed to school with shortened schedule but I became a lot shorter.  We turned around and go sent home early so students were rushed through lunch and they were headed back home by 1:30.  So I wasn't able to really teach much that day which means that I really only taught on Thursday this week.

Preparing for our day that we spent with the Kindergarteners!  

 Thursday was a special day as well.  Mrs. Fry was out writing curriculum for the day but I had a substitute with me as well as Miss. Becker, the student teacher at Manheim Central High School.  Part of our experience is that we get to go visit one of our cohort members and what how they teach, their classroom environment and get to check out their programs.  Miss. Becker chose to visit us at Selinsgrove.  She was able to watch the Building Construction students finalize their wiring projects, the Ag Foundations classes complete a lab about fertilizers and nitrogen content.  The Parli Pro team was even able to practice for Miss. Becker and get some feedback on their performance.  I hope that she really enjoyed her day with us at Selinsgrove because we enjoyed having her!!

Ag Foundations students working on their lab to determine the

amount of Nitrogen in potting soil.  

Friday I was with the rest of my cohort in a professional development day where we were able to digitally connect via Zoom.  We had a meeting with the Penn State Teach Ag Team and each of us were able to talk through one of the lessons we have done so far that didn't quite work out the way we thought it would.  I actually had a hard time finding a lesson to pick as usually Mrs. Fry or Mr. Swineford talk through each of my lessons with me about what went good and what could be fixed for next time.  I was able to find one that I wanted a little more feedback on and was really happy with the remarks that my peers gave me!

While I was not in class, my Ag Leadership class were busy promotion Ag Literacy as part of National Ag Day.  They had been preparing this week to head to the Kindergarten classes to read a book and help them to realize that both Plant and Animal Agriculture are responsible for producing all of the food we eat.  This was a part of the Farm Bureau's event for National Ag Day and Ag Literacy.  They supplied each of the classrooms with the book Tyler Makes Pancakes and our members went to read the book and play a game of bingo with the students to help them learn about how all of the ingredients for pancakes come from Agriculture; just like all the food we eat!

Learning all about how we get the ingredients for pancakes!  

Headed into this week, we have another busy, busy week.  I have a visit at the beginning of the week from my supervisor, Dr. Curry, and I am excited for him to come see me in action since I have grown over the past few weeks.  We also have many students who are going to put themselves in my shoes and all Ag Teachers across the nation as they are going to teach a class as part of our Self Concept unit.  To round out the end of our short week, we have our banquet! I am super excited to see all of the hard work of planning come together and see the expressions on the students' faces when they are recognized for their dedication and effort that they have put forth all year!

Check back next week to hear how all of this goes!!

Week 10: Student Teaching

Oh no!  We have hit week 10, that means that this is slowly coming to an end :(  I don't really want this to end.  I absolutely love my school and my students and really wish I didn't have to leave them.  I am surprised how connected and attached to these students I have become in such a short amount of time.  Most of my students have started to realize that it will soon be time for me to say my goodbyes and they ask all the time if I actually have to go; when we still have 6 weeks together.  I try to not think about it because  I know we each have to move on from this experience and find our place where we fit in the puzzle of ag ed, so I am going to make sure that we have a ball together in the last few weeks of it!

One of the last meetings I will get to be a part of :( 

Now that the I had to be all sad and sappy, I need to talk about how this week went.  This week was filled with lots of hands on learning.  The students in building construction have advanced from their wiring boxes to wiring walls.  The students thought that wiring was pretty complicated when they had to complete the circuits on their boxes but now that we have made out way to the walls, they are telling me that it is a lot easier.  They have been flying through wiring all of the duplexes and lamps together and all they have to do now is to connect it to the breaker box and test! 

Working on our walls!! 

We also had a guest speaker come into the class this week to talk about masonry.  I was able to step back for a block and let him teach them whatever he wanted about the careers and what you do as a mason, to my surprise he actually brought mortar and block for the students to actually try laying block.  They instantly thought "Oh that easy" as they watched him smear some on a block but as they started to do it themselves, realized that it is not easy at all.  This was great because some of the students realized that this is not easy but also that it was kind of fun.  It was a nice break from their electricity projects and still had a great hands on application for them.

Micro lesson on masonry.  

The Ag Foundations classes have been digging deep into the plant science unit and this week we learned about germination, pollination and propagation.  We did a really fun activity to learn about pollination where student snacked on cheese balls through out the class the only rule was that they COULD NOT wipe off or lick their fingers.  Later in the lesson I had groups of kids be each kind of pollination: wind, water, animals, insects.  So the wind group could only remove the pollen (cheese ball dust) from their anthers (fingers) by blowing on their finger tips like wind blows pollen around.  The water group dangled their fingers in cups of water, the animal group quickly brushed their fingers across a paper towel like a bird quickly brushing by a flower, and finally the insect group were rubbing their fingers on a fluffy bath towel just like a bee covered in hair rubs against the anthers.  The kids loved this activity 1. Because they got to eat and 2. it really helped them to visualize and understand how each type of pollination works.

Going on location for class today; to the greenhouse! 

The freshman also finally got to get out of the classroom this week as we went to the greenhouse for our propagation lesson.  They each were able to get their hands in the soil and cut up different plants like potatoes, petunias and garlic.  All of the students really liked this but there were a few that this really sparked their interest in plants.  They found it so cool and amazing that you can get a plant from cutting the parent plant up and sticking it in soil.  Being in a new environment however meant that I had to think through exactly what I needed to tell the students before we transitioned to the greenhouse.  I had to make sure they knew what we were going to do, what safety precautions to follow, and that we are going to respect the equipment and plants out there.  I never realized how many directions and other details I needed to include in the lesson just because we were moving locations.

Propagation lesson was a success!! 

This upcoming week is going to be packed full with SLLC at the beginning of the week, a visit from Miss Becker and a day of PSU Ag Ed work at the end of the week.

This is a terrible picture, but I ended my week by attending the 

spring band concert where 8 of my students blew my socks off

with their talents!! 

Week 9: student teaching

Week 9 of student teaching has taught me a very big lesson; you always have to be on your toes!  You never really know what could happen in a day so as a teacher you should always be on your toes and prepared to roll with the punches of the day.  This could be many different thins from exciting news, equipment malfunctions and just everyday surprises.  This week was sure to deliver!  When I started into this week, I knew we would be doing fun things in class and lots of activities but I had no idea what the week all would hold for me. Monday was a day full of electrical wiring, flower dissections and mock meetings; pretty regular day.  

Surprise!  Not exactly what you want to walk into on a Tuesday morning; water everywhere! 

Well Tuesday was sure to hold something special for us.  When Mrs. Fry and I arrived to school Tuesday morning, she opened the classroom door to an enormous puddle of water on the floor.  We quickly realized that the fish tank in the back of the classroom, that was home to our growing finger length Brook trout, had pumped about 40 gallon of water onto the floor overnight!  Thankfully not all of the water pumped out of the tank so the fish were still swimming around in about 3-4 inches of water however now all of that water now needed to be cleaned off the floor.   So Mr. Swineford, Mrs. Fry, one of our dedicated custodians, one of our tech ed teachers and myself quickly got to work to clean it up before our first class came in. With two mops, two shop vacs, and two giant fans it didn't take us too long to get it cleaned up and dry but definitely was not something we had planned to start our morning off with.  

Such a good clean up crew! 

Thursday was an exciting day for many of the members of the Selinsgrove FFA.  It was the SUN Area public speaking contest.  Mrs. Fry had been working with many of the members on their prepared speeches and our creed speaker.  My task leading up to the contest was to teach and couch the Parliamentary Procedure team.  This was the very first parli pro team that I have couched and I was very anxious the day of the contest.  I knew that they had been working hard and had came a long way since our first practice but I still knew that this was their first contest and my first time couching; wasn't sure we were completely ready to be honest.  After their presentation, they told me how terrible they did and how they knew that they were not going to do well.  Finally at the end of the day we go the results of all of the contest and the results were great!  We have two Senior Prepared speakers, two Conservation speakers, one Extemporaneous speaker and a creed speaker all qualified to go to the Regional Level.  All we had left to hear was the Parli Pro results and out of three teams, the Selinsgrove team took FIRST place!! I was so excited and proud of my students!!!

My very first Parli Pro Team!! 

The moment you learn that you just place 1st in Parli Pro! 

All of the Selinsgrove FFA Public Speaking Contestants!  

There were also many times throughout the week when students were able to surprise themselves.  I had one student who at first thought he would never be able to figure out how to do all of the wiring projects for electricity and this week he was the first of his classmates to finish them all!  Not only did his light bulb light up when we tried his 3-way switch but he face did too!  I also had a student this week who has really dug deep into our plant science unit and everyday I get to see his face when he has his Ahh - ha moments.  I curious to see what surprises this week holds for us in the classroom!

The Ag Foundations classes learned about how 

plant cells and animal cells are different this week 

and built their own models of plant cells out of 

different shaped pasta!  

Week 8: Student Teaching

Plants, Parli Pro and Pacing; that is what surrounded this week of student teaching.  This past week flew by and I mean really flew.  Seems like just yesterday was Monday and I was introducing the freshman to plant science by going out to tap trees and now we are at the end of the week where they are able to tell me the parts of the flower and building models of them; it's crazy!

The 3 Ag foundations classes as I just say have moved on from animal science and now we are diving deep into plant science.  We are collecting sap from the sugar maples out front of the school and each day a pair of students are responsible for emptying the buckets.  Once we get around 55 gallons of sap we will be taking a day to boil our sap and turn it into syrup.  This of course leads to them asking me everyday, "Do we have enough now?"  I simply ask them "Now do you think that these two buckets are 55 gallons?"

Tap that tree!  Mrs. Fry helps to show what angle 

to drill the hole at for the tap.  

It's great to see them so excited about this project and the are so interested in plants.  They had a great Ah-ha moment the other day when we were learning about the xylem and phloem of a plant.  When the realized that the phloem carried the food of the plant which is sugar, I saw 13 faces light up and say "Oh so that's the sap we are collecting, it's coming from the phloem of the tree!"  I was so super proud that they were beginning to think deeper than Oh the phloem carries food and connecting it all together!  Next week we are going to go one step further and talk about photosynthesis and how the trees and plants get that sugar in the first place.

The freshman classes aren't the only ones who are hard at work learning about plants.  I have started teaching the horticulture class as well and we are in full greenhouse production mode this week.  We spent the week transplanting seedlings like tomatoes, impatients and  herbs into trays of 6 packs and by the end of the week we had 800 petunia plugs arrive that we needed to transplant into hanging baskets.  Each of the students were definitely getting lots of hands on learning having those hands covered in soil!

Poke hole, put in plug, fill in with soil, REPEAT!  Working hard to 

get all of the petunia plugs planted.  

From Plants to Parli Pro.  My week was also packed full of parliamentary procedure which is the rules that are set forth that should be followed during a meeting.  My Ag Leadership class is going to be wrapping up their unit on Parli Pro this upcoming week.  During class we have being learning the basics of what it is and how we use but we also get to have a lot of fun by having mock meetings which gives students the chance to show what they have learned and have some friendly debate. I also have been practicing everyday this week with our Parli Pro Team. 

This team will be competing at the area contest this week and we are trying to get in as many practices as possible!  This is a new team who are new to Parli Pro but have come a long way in the short amount of time that I have been coaching them.  Several of them have already told me that they will be happy with however they place, they are just happy that they know more about Parli Pro and how to use it.  "Now I know what I can do at a meeting and how to do it properly!" was what one of my students and team members told me on Friday. 

My new up and coming Parli Pro team just getting ready to practice. 

I am glad that this has sparked an interest for them.  Parli pro can be a very intimidating thing for many students.  There's a lot of rules to remembers and you have to know exactly how you can make a motion but once you learn the basics it is actually very fun!  While teaching them about it and helping the team to practice, I can't help but think back to my days on the Parli Pro team and how much fun it was for me.  I love being about to share stories about my days of competing at the National Convention in Parli Pro and the students really love hearing about it!  

Finally this week, I have went back to my old ways and not in a good way.  The past few weeks I finally felt like I was getting better at my pacing but this week was like I took 2 giant steps backwards.  The students still learned a lot and had a lot of fun but I just wish that I would have done a better job of my pacing this week.  Part of it was that we got into a really great discussion which is always a great reason to be off track but other times I just didn't push them enough so that we could move on. 

I have learned that, it can take them a very long time to write down just a few simple sentences and I am always waiting on them to finish writing.  I don't want to give them super simple notes where they don't have to do anything, I also don't want to move on and them not have the notes they need but I have to find a way to make this go quicker because we are spending too much times just waiting on people to finish writing.  I am open to any ideas of how to make this go smoother.

The building construction students are always

working hard to complete their projects.  

This week is going to be so exciting with having the Public speaking contest and seeing how the members do at it.  I also am eager to see how much sap we will collect on Monday after the weekend and to see our plants in the greenhouse to pop up through the soil and grow bigger.  My building construction class is getting better and better each day with their wiring projects and I can tell that we will soon be putting up the walls and moving to the more advanced wirings.