PA FFA Fall Leadership Conference: #psuaged15 gets their #TeachAg Swag on!

FFA Members working on a group activity during
one of the officer workshops. 

On October 1st, the students from the 2015 student teacher cohort (#psuaged15) along with their shadow teachers from the 2016 student teacher cohort (#psuaged16), Dr. Ewing (@jce122) and Mrs. Rice (@LauraSankeyRice), headed to Altoona to facilitate workshops at the PA FFA Fall Leadership Conference! The Penn State students facilitated six different workshops at the conference which was held at the Blair County Convention Center.

The purpose of this conference is to teach and reinforce the different duties of the FFA officers and to jump start new members of the FFA. It also gave the pre-service teachers at Penn State the opportunity to gain "real life"experience by interacting with the students and teaching the various workshops.

Cory Scott (@CJScottAgEd),  one of the pre-service teachers, stated "attending my first FLC was an amazing learning experience. Getting to spend over 2 hours working with a group of students got me really pumped to student teach next semester."

Hannah Harris and SaraBeth Royer facilitating
the treasurer workshop!

The group of Penn Staters were responsible for creating and facilitating lessons for the officers that attending the conference. Each group was made up of two or three pre-service teachers and a shadow teacher. The shadow teachers were underclassmen enrolled in the Agriculture and Extension Education program

The workshops were facilitated by:
President: Jill Gordon, Kate Basset and Rachel Speicher
Vice President: Carly-Jean Schaffer, Howard Poole, Megan Kellar and Mason Tate
Secretary: Morgan Campbell, Jasmine Graybill, Jenna Moser and Kelsey Henry
Treasurer: Bryanna Kenno, Hannah Harris, Toby Neal and Sarabeth Royer
Reporter: Janae Bickhart, Rea Ianson, Laura Metrick and Janae Herr
Sentinal: Deanna Miller and Cory Scott
Catch-All: Rachel Telesz, Amanda Forstater, Cassidy Cheddar and Erin Yoest

The FFA Members and facilitators during the
Reporter workshop

After the workshops, the Penn State students got the chance to talk with current FFA members and advisers over lunch. While reflecting on the day, many topics were discussed including areas for improvement and areas that went well.

Deanna Miller (@DeannaPSU15), another pre-service teacher stated "I learned that even with the best planning, you sometimes need to change the direction of your lesson to better suit your learners. 

Overall, the conference was a great experience for all of the Penn State students. From writing out the lesson plans to facilitating the
workshop, a lot was learned!


To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog!

Laura Metrick
@Its_LauraBeth
Student Blogger
2015 Student Teacher