National FFA Week: Student Teacher Style

           After a fun and exciting weekend at ACES, I was anxious to be back in the classroom. I had a great bonding experience with the students who attended the conference and was excited to have them back in class! On Monday in agricultural mechanics, my class was over in the ag shop welding lap welds after a demonstration. This was their first day welding lap welds and I was impressed with some of the welds they were creating. In aquatic resources, I had a surprise guest presenter come to class: a waterways conservation officer from the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission! Since I will be taking my aquatics class stocking in April as part of my community based unit of instruction, I brought in Officer Jeffrey Schmidt to do a presentation about the stocking procedures. Students were very interested in the presentation and expressed their excitement regarding the stocking trip to me after class. I am very anxious to stock as well! I ended class with a review guide for the test I will be giving tomorrow to finish out the water calculations unit. My Monday night ended with my attendance at Elizabethtown’s ag advisory council meeting. The meeting was the third one of the year. Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Thoman filled the members in on current events in the ag program as well as provided a tour of the facilities. It was refreshing to see community members involved and interested in the ag program.

            On Tuesday, we were in the ag shop welding lap joints again. I was practicing as well and several of my students watched as I welded. I thought it would make me more nervous but I think it actually made me do better! I made sure to slow down and maintain my arc length to show them good welding skills. Some of them can weld better than I can but I will never admit it to them! In aquatics, I went over the water calculations study guide and gave my students several minutes to prepare for the exam. As students finished their exams, Mr. Anderson took them to the aquatics lab to clean fish tanks. I stayed in the classroom to catch up the handful of students who have been absent the last few days. I was very appreciative of his help while I assisted the other students. I think it was beneficial to have that one on one time to catch them up, especially since they were struggling with the math concepts. The students understood the concepts better once I worked with them and it made me feel like I fulfilled my purpose!

            Wednesday was a busy day as FFA Week carried on. The students in ag mechanics were in the shop for their last day working on lap welds. I was very impressed with their work and the final welds they were turning in. In aquatics, we started our unit on water quality. I am very excited for this unit because my students will be able to physically carry out water tests and measurements. I am hoping to incorporate a lot of hands on work in this unit! To end the day, ag business cleaned the shop and began preparing for the 10^th annual FFA Week Pig Roast. Thursday morning started off bright and early at 3:45 as I headed in to the school to help Mr. Anderson start roasting the pig. I brought donuts, milk, and orange juice as we put the pig on the roaster and started preparing for the day! State FFA President Katie McLaughlin also joined Elizabethtown for the day and helped celebrate National FFA Week!

            15 hours and one heck of a pig roast later, I left the high school and headed home Thursday night. I was overcome by emotions, probably due to the lack of sleep the night before, but it was one of the best days I experienced at Elizabethtown so far. I was impressed by Mr. Anderson’s hard work and dedication to the pig roast, his fellow staff members, his students, and the agricultural program. The shop came together nicely and it turned out to be an awesome event! My students were wound up in both of my classes, probably because most of them were excited for the pig roast. I think I finally mastered wait time though which was exciting! Mr. Anderson told me that I waited the perfect length of time for students to quiet down and pay attention... and it worked! I had two successful lessons that day despite their excitement and chattiness. In ag mechanics, my students constructed welding joints using crackers and squeezable can cheese. They loved it! In aquatics, we continued our introduction on water quality. After the actual lesson, I had students select one of four possible impactors on water quality, research it, and then create a poster about their findings. Students enjoyed the project and several of them loved the fact that they were able to color!

            On Friday, I visited Manheim Central with Megan Keller and Mrs. Heather Anderson. Megan had her planning period first block where she prepared for her day. During second block, Megan taught her intro to ag class using CASE ANFR curriculum. Students wrote speeches about current issues in agriculture. In third block, students were working on building bird houses with hand tools in ag mechanics. After lunch, Megan and I talked about student teaching so far as Mrs. Anderson taught the agriecology class. Megan will be picking this up on Monday. As I look ahead to the coming week, I will be picking up my last class and will therefore be teaching a full load. Students will be welding T-Joints in ag mechanics, continuing with water quality in aquatics, and begin supply and demand in ag business. Next week will be a shortened week with a half day on Thursday and no school on Friday for students. Mr. Anderson and I have parent teacher conferences Thursday after school and Friday morning, a first for me.

            Overall, celebrating National FFA Week this week was an experience that I will never forget! It was awesome to see so many Elizabethtown FFA members excited about FFA week. The week was tiring but definitely worth it. This week reminded me why I wanted to become an agricultural educator in the first place. I also enjoyed interacting with FFA members that I do not have in class while getting to know the FFA officer team better. All of the early mornings and late nights make it worth it when you see so much support and appreciate for agriculture education and FFA.