Experiencing Mid-Winter Convention as a First Day Student Teacher

               Everything I have worked towards the last three and a half years is finally here: student teaching. To say that I am excited is an understatement! Last night I experienced the typical “first day of school” jitters but once I stepped foot into the classroom today, all of my worries went right out the window. Walking into what will become my classroom for the next fifteen weeks, and seeing my cooperating teacher for the first time this year, gave me the reassurance that I made the right career choice. I belong in the front of an agricultural classroom, changing the lives of students and impacting them in a positive way.

        My first day of student teaching started off unexpected but appreciated with a two hour delay! Upon arriving to Elizabethtown this morning, I observed Mr. Anderson’s first period agricultural mechanics class. Once class was over, 20 FFA members, Mr. Anderson, Mrs. Thoman, and I traveled to the 86th FFA Mid-Winter Convention at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. Five Elizabethtown FFA members were receiving their Keystone Degrees and six members were receiving their first year jackets from the PA FFA Alumni Association.

          Attending Mid-Winter Convention was a bitter sweet moment for me. This was the first time I attended the convention since receiving my Keystone Degree in 2011. I was so proud to watch five of my future students walk across the stage and receive the award, as well as watch six of my future students put on their FFA jacket for the first time. Even though I am not officially the FFA advisor of these students, I was still very proud of their accomplishments. I will have the opportunity to work with these students over the next fifteen weeks, both in class and in FFA.

          Watching the ceremony and listening to the accomplishments of the 337 Keystone Degree recipients and watching an arena full of FFA members putting on their jackets for the first time gave me that burning feeling in my heart that reassured me agricultural education is where I belong. Experiencing the ceremony from a different perspective, that of an advisor, made me so excited to acquire a teaching position and become an FFA advisor of my own chapter one day. I cannot wait to start positively impacting the lives of FFA members as an actual advisor and agricultural educator. I cannot wait to see what the semester, and my future, holds! Here’s to an awesome start of the semester and hoping the rest of my student teaching experience is just as amazing!