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!