Hired! Teacher Candidate Sarabeth Royer Hired at Athens Area High School! #psuaged16

To say Ms. Sarabeth Royer was “Tagged to Teach Ag” at an early age is an understatement.  Growing up on a dairy and poultry farm, her parents were her first teachers. Sarabeth's parents encouraged her, guided her, showed her, and let her learn on her own. As a teen, Sarabeth's Ag teachers took the reigns. “They believed in me before I believed in myself, and pushed me to try harder, go farther, and achieve more.”  Sarabeth has the opportunity to do just that at Athens High School where she has been hired as an Agricultural Educator!  Congratulations Sarabeth!

Ms. Sarabeth Royer & Mr. David Stienfelt

Athens is where Sarabeth student taught with the guidance of Mr. David Steinfelt, who she will now call a colleague, and teach alongside.  Sarabeth was hired as part time agriculture, part time science.  She was drawn to Athens even more after student teaching there. “I was just blown away by the community. While student teaching at Athens I felt very welcomed and I knew that I wanted to find a school that was as closely knit to their community. At first, I was very hesitant of teaching science part time, but realized that I really enjoy science and that there are so many teachers who teach subjects they weren’t originally planning on teaching! Plus, Biology and Agriculture are very much intertwined.” 

While at Penn State Sarabeth held animal science and international agriculture minors and was extremely involved in campus organizations including Teach Ag! Society, Poultry Science Club, Dairy Science Club and Navigators to name a few! She also served as an Ag Advocate for the College of Agricultural Sciences. These all led her to an incredible student teaching experience at Athens, where she really learned “it’s all about the students, the community and the small victories of everyday teaching.”  This will continue to serve her well. 

One of the many quotes Sarabeth lives by!

Athens Area High School is home to largest FFA chapter in Bradford County.  Mr. Steinfelt has classes in Introduction to Agriculture, Horticulture, Ag Mechanics I and II and SAE/FFA Leadership. Sarabeth will be teaching Animal Science and Veterinary Science along with some Biology classes. “This is exciting because in the past, the high school has primarily had Science teachers that taught Animal and Vet Science, so it will be nice to have two Ag Teachers at Athens.”  Sarabeth is excited to continue working with Mr. Steinfelt and the diverse and welcoming Athens community. From getting her FFA jacket through the PA FFA Alumni Jacket Campaign, to growing flowers, learning how to drive a  tractor and keeping records on her chores for her Supervised Agricultural Experience, she is ready to help her students do the same.  “I hope to always keep my classes relevant so having any type of certification for my students would be ideal. I also would LOVE to see that Athens Ag Program expand even more and embrace their everyday victories.”

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.

Kayla Hack

Student Blogger

Twitter Handle: @hackkayla

2017 Agriculture Education Student Teacher

Hired! Teacher Candidate Janae McMichael Hired at Lampeter-Strasburg High School! #psuaged16

Hometown. A place we know, with people we know- a place that has seen our best and seen our worst, a place of familiarity and expectations.  A place some of us are lucky enough to go back to.  Mrs. Janae McMichael (Herr) received that opportunity to go back to the place she calls home.  Teacher candidate from the class of 2016, Janae McMichael will be teaching at Lampeter-Strasburg High School! 

During her time at Penn State Janae was an agricultural business management minor and was involved in Teach Ag! Society where she served as the President and chair of the Domestic Study Away, which she attended twice in Colorado and Mississippi.  She served as a Teach Ag! Avenger for Penn State Teach Ag! and Ag Advocate for the College of Agricultural Sciences.  She was also involved in Collegiate FFA.  Janae student taught with Mr. David Bittner and Mr. Greg Erb at Midd-West High School where she learned how to effectively and efficiently incorporate technology and involve community members and stakeholders.  Janae said she hopes to “actively seek opportunities to do the same.”

She was “Tagged to Teach Ag!” in some of the same places she will Tag others to do the same thing.  “Growing up on a generational dairy farm certainly influenced my passion for production agriculture, but my involvement in 4-H and FFA helped cultivate that passion focus more so on the future of agriculture.”  She credits her Dad and her Agricultural Educator, whom she will teach alongside, for being “incredibly influential individuals in helping me solidify my career choice in agriculture education.” 

Janae and her students at Midd-West

Lampeter Strasburg is a two-teacher program where Janae will teach alongside Holly Oberholtzer.  Together there are 180 students in the program.  The Agriculture Program has courses in Veterinary Science, Agricultural Science, Landscape and Plant Design, Agricultural Mechanics, Welding, Electricity and Small Gas Engines. 

When thinking about teaching in the same school where she grew up, Janae reflected on what she looks forward to while teaching.  “The opportunity to give back to the community that I grew up in; the challenge of helping my students discover the immense amount of opportunities that agricultural education allows for its students; playing a role in preserving the rich heritage of agriculture in our community; changing students lives.”  Janae will be well on her way to challenging her students and giving them opportunities to grow; in her classes, as well rounded students as she strives to work on cross curricular projects while meeting the needs of the community she calls home.

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.

Kayla Hack

Student Blogger

Twitter Handle: @hackkayla

2017 Agriculture Education Student Teacher

Domestic Study Away Day 5: Rising above the Challenges! #PSUAgEd2TN

Editors Note: The following is a reflective observation from different students participating in #psuaged2TN, our domestic study away program. Halee Wasson (@wasson_halee), a sophomore and member of #psuaged18, shares below.  This incredible event is made possible by the generosity of the CHS Foundation.

As I reflect upon the last day Penn State Teach Ag! Society explored Tennessee’s Agricultural Education Programs, I find myself referencing the following quote: “Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.” As a student I am constantly learning; which is why I find education valuable, since I can take what I learn in the classroom and connect it to an experience I am participating in at that time.

On Friday May 13^th, Penn State Teach Ag! Society traveled to Clarkrange High School in Clarkrange, Tennessee to explore their Agricultural Education Program. Clarkrange High School is located in the small community of Clarkrange in Fentress County. After visiting metropolitan schools earlier this week, this visit was a great way to wind down, and participate in a rural school experience. The size of CHS’s student body is around 300 students, with an average graduating class size of 60 students. Although small, Clarkrange’s Career Technology Education (CTE) program provides many opportunities for their students to explore and expand their knowledge in career fields related to their interest. We were given a tour of all these CTE programs by Mr. Lee Little (referred to as Mr. Lee); who was the past Agricultural teacher, but is currently serving as the director of the CTE program. Although we enjoyed learning about all their programs, our biggest interest was at our last stop of the tour—the Agricultural Education Program.

During our time in Clarkrange’s agriculture classroom we were able to engage with students and teach them about the many opportunities and careers in the agricultural industry. With the class sizes being no larger than 14 students, we taught our lesson in pairs of two. This provided the other Penn State teacher candidates who were not teaching time to engage in discussion with Mr. Pat Little (referred to as Mr. Pat); who is the current agricultural teacher. Mr. Pat is an amazing individual who is never short of words for the subject he is passionate about – teaching agriculture! Passion and dedication is truly the driving force behind the success of this program.  Every question we presented to Mr. Pat or Mr. Lee was answered with stories of their personal experiences pertaining to the subject matter. These men truly devote themselves to bettering their students, school, and community. They have many successes that they can claim; however, Mr. Lee pointed out, “Although successes are important, failures are just as important.” Like all programs, Mr. Pat admitted to challenges that are presented in his rural school and community.

Though I never personally experienced the challenges Mr. Pat presented, I was thankful that I was able to understand the impact of the issue from learning about it in my rural sociology course. As you may be aware, the percentage of the population living in poverty has fallen, but rural areas still continue to be home to a large majority of the nation’s poor. This is due to many factors, but I feel the most important contributor that was pointed out by Mr. Pat is the rural brain drain. A brain drain is when many educated/professional people leave an area and move to another area that potentially provides better living conditions, more job opportunities, and better pay. In return, this leaves behind those without education or ambition, and prevents the area from growth, socially and economically. Due to this, sometimes school is a better place for a student than at home which is why Mr. Pat finds it important to make the experience a positive one. He does this by ensuring every opportunity presented to students is available to all. This provides students the chance to grow and better themselves.

As a future educator, I feel I have the ability to instill knowledge and ambition to create an intrinsic motivational experience while students are enrolled in my program. Overall, I hope that if I am provided the opportunity, I can create an impact in a rural school through passion and dedication like Mr. Lee and Mr. Pat. The stories shared with us were great reminders why we chose our future as an agricultural educator—for the students.

Follow along with our experience on Twitter by using #PSUAgEd2TN!  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. 

Halee Wasson

2018 Student Teacher

Agricultural & Extension Education

@wasson_halee

Domestic Study Away Day 4: Learning by Doing #PSUAgEd2TN

Editors Note: The following is a reflective observation from different students participating in #psuaged2TN, our domestic study away program. Matthew Snyder (@snyder6878), a junior and member of #psuaged17, shares below.  This incredible event is made possible by the generosity of the CHS Foundation. 

On Thursday the Penn State Teach Ag! Society and I had the opportunity to visit Cookeville High School. After arriving at the school we were treated with great hospitality. A lunch was served and we shared fellowship with the current Cookeville FFA members.  Building relationships and rapport with students is extremely important, in a one-day visit, but more importantly in our own programs.  As we look at having our own programs it will be important to engage students and consider their viewpoint, this will help us as we create our own programs and class content. The main purpose of this trip is to broaden our professional network and create relationships, so our future students have better opportunities. I believe we accomplished one step of that at Cookeville. 

Facilitating our lesson at Cookeville High School

While at Cookeville, our group was able to do a little learning by doing.  We facilitated one of our lessons on American agriculture by region. We started off by giving the students the needed background information through a fun interactive warm up exercise, and then moved into the “meat” of the lesson. The students were placed in groups that correlated with a region of the United States and asked to research agriculture commodities in their respective region. We then moved to the creative portion, the creation of a commercial to promote agriculture in each region. We were blown away with how creative some of these groups were. One group even created a cow costume in the short time they were given. Every teaching opportunity has helped to develop us as professionally. We also learned a lot from team teaching this lesson. It requires a much higher level of communication when you have seven teachers running one lesson. One thing I took away from the experience was that I need to slow down my instruction and make sure all students understand what is expected of them.

Learning by doing, Matthew teaching part of the lesson.

After teaching our lesson and touring their facilities, we had the opportunity to talk engage in a small professional development training focused on dual credit courses within agriculture. One of the Cookeville Agriscience teachers, Ms. Jackie Vester has been very successful in implementing these types of courses.  Ms. Jackie Vester and Ms. Patrice Watson, Director of Early Post-Secondary Education at the Tennessee Department of Education led this conversation. She explained the differences, similarities, pros, and cons of both programs. This discussion gave our entire group a better understanding of what programs are out there for students and how they can be used to boost college and career preparation. After this meeting, I feel much more confidence in giving students advice on scheduling these types of classes. High school students do not always know what they need to know or what they want. As teachers we need to take them under our wing and point them in the right direction. After having this conversation, I feel much more confident in advising students on what dual credit and dual enrollments they should pursue and what it might be like to teach one of these courses. Students are extremely busy these days so they might need advice on time management as well.

Here is a Day 4 Video created by Rose Cowan!

Follow along with our experience on Twitter by using #PSUAgEd2TN!  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. 

Matthew Snyder

2017 Student Teacher

Agricultural & Extension Education

@snyder6878