SAE Night

At the end of January, Pequea Valley hosted an SAE night for current members to work on their AET record keeping books. The event started right after school at 2:25 and lasted until 5:30. Before the event, I had to brush up on working with AET. My last exposure to it was in 2016 in AEE 311 so after spending five minutes on the site; I quietly became familiar with it. 

We had about 10 attend with various types of projects such as: working at a fish hatchery, horticulture operations, dairy operation, etc. The students that came in the majority of their projects were in placements that I have observed. 

The structure of the event was pretty relaxed. Students came in grabbed a checklist and start updating their books. What I noticed with some student is that they forget to update their books daily or even weekly, so they spent a lot of time looking through calendars and pay stubs. The checklist that they had walked them through what they needed on AET. Such as their profiles, skills developed, and the number of entries.  As students were making these updates, Doug and Jasmine would sit down with each student asking questions about their projects and clarifying any issues that they had, especially when it came to the financial section. 

Overall the event was a success! This would definitely be something that I would do in the future! It's a great way to get students record systems updated and be promoted a chapter social event. Students were able to get the feedback needed along with tons of candy and pizza. 

Hatching Chicks!

 Today we set up the incubator for our eggs! We have 11 eggs that were donated by a community member that students will monitor until they will hatch. We are unsure what type of chickens they will be but that surprise adds more fun for the students.

When I was in high school we had hatched eggs in class too. Every day we would have to check the humidity, temperature, and rotate the eggs. I remember everyone wanting to do this so they would rush into class just so they can be the first. It was a little competitive back in my chapter!

For students who don't necessarily have an ag background, this is a cool way from them to see a small part of live agriculture. They get to take ownership of caring for the eggs and hopefully see the benefits of them hatching.

After we hatched the eggs in high school, I can't remember what we did with the chicks.  A question I have for any teacher who is reading, what do you do we classroom animals? My thought was to see if students would like to take them home. After signing permission slips from a parent or guardian but how do you know if the chickens are going to be cared for? Or what happens if they no longer want the chicken so they bring it back? I'm curious to hear what you all do with temporary classroom animals!

Sense of Gratitude!

Woah! Can't believe it been five weeks since I started student teaching! It amazes me how much time flies by when you are enjoying it! This week I taught a total of three classes: Large Animal Science, Power Technology, and Ag Biology. All of these courses are content heavy! When planning it can sometimes get a little stressful. One thing I don't worry about is my skills in relationship building because, to everyone else, I am known to be laid back, energetic, and full of enthusiasm. Relationship building was never an issue for me.

It wasn't until this week that I start worrying about it whether or not I am forming relationships with

my students. Have I been too focused on content that I forgot to get to know my students? Have I built a wall around myself?  It's true that sometimes I struggle with finding that line between being a teacher and being too laid back. All these thoughts were running through my head, so maybe I did build a wall in fear of crossing that line and not getting the respect I needed as a teacher. I had to take a moment to reflect and think about my past interactions with my students. Had I done enough? I remembered all their names within the first week of classes, we've talked about their interest, and in class, we make jokes and laugh. With it being only week three of actually teaching I felt I had a solid foundation. Yet, I still second guessed myself. 

It wasn't until this week that I think I may have found that line. Last Friday I've I had a student say "Mr.C I appreciate how relatable you are" and other students in the class agreed.  This was from a group that I see every other day and only had for about two weeks so you think the rapport hasn't been established. This was a massive moment for me and I was extremely thankful for that comment. It was a realization that the wall I've built wasn't as high as I thought it was. It was a good indicator to know that I am on the right track! Now that I've set a solid foundation.

I am looking forward to strengthening my relationship with my students.

For my virtual mentors or anyone else who reads my blog; how do you strengthening relationships with students without forcing one on them? 

ACES!

Last Weekend, I joined Pequea Valley FFA for a trip to Harrisburg for ACES, which was a two day, one-night conference. Our trip started Saturday morning with us loading into the red Pequea Valley vans.     It was a smooth ride to Harrisburg for about an hour and 15 minutes from Pequea. We left early enough that we were able to stop at Chic-fil-a for lunch! Which seemed to be a favorite for PA FFA members, since there were ten other chapters there!

Check-in went pretty smoothly with our members; we brought five members to ACES, so the numbers were easy to work with.  Members had workshops all day and teachers had a workshop on NOCTI scores, where they were provided insight on how to analyze scores.   I sat in for a bit of the presentation then left to work on lesson planning with Olivia. It's great to talk to fellow cohort member because they understand what you are going through and sometimes need to vent.

Dinner was a unique opportunity! I got roped into embarrassing your ag teacher activities. It wasn't too bad the only thing I had to do was try to come up with questions as fast of possible! I ended up placing second (thanks to state office). The student seemed to enjoy this activity! Mainly because you get to see another side of your teacher!

Doug and I were signed up for night checks with students. That was an exciting experience. We only caught one student out of their room and had to tell a couple of rooms to quiet down. Walking through the halls made me remember my time in FFA and the excitement of staying at hotels with friends.  So noise was expected, but for the most part, the students were respectful.

Overall, ACES was a great experience! Students seemed to love this conference. As an advisor, it's a great conference to bring first-year members. It's not long at all plus member receive a ton of information and participate in a relaxed community service event.

Weather Trifecta

This week was exciting, to say the least! Monday morning started off strong! I was able to finish my lessons on time and had no issue what so ever! Then Tuesday came around with bone-chilling weather and snow! Pequea decided to send everyone home by 11'oclock to try to avoid the storm, so my lesson was cut short. On Wednesday we had a two-hour delay so again had to shorten lessons. Then Thursday we had a snow day! This week was a weather trifecta of early releases, two-hour delays, and snow days!

One thing I learned from this is you can't control the weather, but one thing you can control is your response to mother nature. At first, I was little flustered and panicking about covering content; not knowing what keep or to cut out.  I was worried that my students would think that I am unprepared and not knowing what I am doing. As my students were entering the room. I realized that my students have no idea of what my instructional outline looks like. It was a friendly reminder, even at week three, that I am in control of what I cover. This is comforting and also terrifying!

Snow will not slow you down! Thursday I spent the night with Lancaster Ag teachers on grading student's SAE record books! Every year they hold a record-keeping contest for Lancaster students SAE projects. It's a great way for students to get feedback and make adjustments for state convention!  This was such a cool experience because I was able to see another side of Ag Ed; behind the scenes of student achievements. The more I traveled down this path of agricultural education I realized that student achievement is like an iceberg. Student success may be the cap of the iceberg above the water, but there's whole lotta ice below the surface supporting the cap, this contest serving as a chunk of ice.  I am excited to dive deeper into ag ed to see how I can get my future students to achieve that iceberg cap.

My final thought for this week is a question for my virtual mentoring team. How do you make sure you don't get caught up in cancelations and delays?