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.