#psuaged15: Morgan Campbell explains her unique, chaotic, awesome, student teaching experience #teachag

Each week, the Penn State Ag Ed Roars! Blog will highlight a student teacher that is out in the field teaching and learning valuable experiences that they can use in their future! Morgan Campbell (@mcamp400) is teaching at Mifflinburg Area High School under the supervision of Mr. Chuck Kessler in Mifflinburg, PA.

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Morgan Campbell (@mcamp400)

If you would have asked me four months ago what student teaching would be like, I would have given you an idealistic picture of perfectly planned units, well-behaved students and flawlessly executed lessons. To say the least, my student teaching experience has been far from my expectations…. And that’s okay!

In the short five weeks that I have been at Mifflinburg Area High School, I have been thrown my fair share of curveballs. Not only did I begin teaching my third day there, but I also picked up four additional classes within the first three weeks. Many of the units that I had planned had to be majorly overhauled and I found out that I would be picking up some additional units later on. Throw in some schedule changes and snow days, and you have a recipe for panic… and that’s what I did!

Morgan Campbell teaching in a shop class.

Anyone who knows me can assure that I am extremely detail-oriented. I thrive on structure and I like to know exactly what I am doing, when. This combination of changes and alterations had me feeling very overwhelmed, but after taking a step back, I realized that rarely (if ever) does anything go perfectly as planned in education. Mr. Kessler has said it once, and I’m sure that he will say it again; “education is about being on Plan B or Plan C”. I am finding more and more truth in these words as I gain experience at the front of the classroom.

While these changes have caused a bit of chaos thus far and the idealistic picture in my mind has faded, I believe that embracing these changes is helping me find my feet as an educator. I am being stretched (far) from my comfort zone, but this has prepared me for the realities that a teacher faces on a daily basis… and for that I am thankful!

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!

Olivia Murphy-Sweet

2016 Student Teacher Candidate

Blog Editor

@OSweetMurph