2nd Annual Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA 14 - Day 7 (Last one!): Wrapping up!

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things” –Henry Miller 

Colorado is a beautiful destination. With many diverse landscapes and significant landmarks, Colorado boasts many popular attractions. On day 7 of the Teach Ag! Society’s Domestic Study Away adventure, we experienced a few of those popular attractions, including the Garden of the Gods National Landmark in Colorado Springs, as well as the downtown Denver area.

Exploring the Garden of the Gods proved to be a truly remarkable adventure. The vast landscapes and the huge rock formations provided great hiking and even better views. Wildlife, including birds and deer, in their natural habitats made the trip even more enjoyable. The Garden of the Gods Visitor’s Center provided lots of information about the landscape and its history. It also featured a gift shop and a café.

Around noon, we traveled to Denver. Dr. Foster had to depart for the American Association for Agricultural Education National Research Conference.  Upon his departure, we voyaged to downtown Denver with our other chaperone, who we fondly have referred to as Dr. Mom (Dr. Foster’s mother, Dr. Billye Foster). In downtown Denver, we explored the city and devoured some outstanding food from The Cheesecake Factory (a first-time experience for many on the trip). Most importantly, we spent a great deal of time bonding with one another. The city was eye-opening, and allowed many of us to reflect upon and appreciate where we come from and what we have at home.

Tomorrow, we will be waking up in Colorado one last time. We will make the long trek back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Upon our arrival, our small Colorado family will return home, but we will leave one another with much more than fantastic memories. Thanks again to CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences for supporting this effort.

    

Writers:

Morgan Campbell

2015 Student Teacher, Mifflinburg, PA

@mcamp400

Jill Gordon

2015 Student Teacher, Ridgemont, OH

@jillianpsu

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 6: The Wild Wonderful West

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day! 

 

The Penn State Teach Ag! Society team woke up in beautiful Estes Park Colorado excited for an adventure. We started off the morning reflecting on the past week at the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Under the direction of Meagan Slates, 2014 PSU AEE Graduate and Laura Metrick, 2015 Student Teacher, we discussed the four schools that we visited, and compared the school facilities, scholastic goals, and FFA programs of all four of the schools. Upon reflecting on these four incredibly unique programs, we proceeded to enter the park.

Rocky Mountain National Park is hard to capture in words. The beautiful landscape is undeniably different that our much smaller “mountains” at home in State College PA. The drive up the mountain provided many beautiful spots to stop and admire nature’s splendor. We were also able to get some great pictures with the Nittany Lion. The mountains, wildlife, and trees were a truly relaxing morning after a week of traveling.

After eating a delicious lunch at a Barbeque Restaurant in Estes Park, the team continued to travel to Colorado Springs. In order to avoid some construction on other roads, we took a picturesque detour throughout more mountains. One of the Park Rangers at the Rockies had described it as “beautiful from Peak to Peak.” This windy, but beautiful road led us to an unexpected stop at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave near Golden Colorado. This last minute stop was not only beautiful, because the gravesite is at Peaks Mountain, but also very informational. Buffalo Bill, being an important part of developing the west, is a very interesting person. From his service in the US army to his famous Wild West Show, Buffalo Bill led a dynamic life. The Museum was fun and enlightening.

We then continued the rest of the drive to Colorado Springs, and finished out our day eating at Rasta Pasta, where when the waitress says, “yeah, that is a little spicy,” what she really means is “you might want to drink milk with that because you will be sweating your pasta is THAT HOT.” Our Saturday deviated from our original itinerary quite a bit, but this only added to our adventure here in Colorado. We cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

We really appreciate the CHS Foundation and Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences for their support of our learning adventure!

 

Written by:

Sarabeth Royer

2016 Student Teacher Candidate

@sb_royer

Nathan Repetz

2017 Student Teacher Candidate

@N8_Repetz 

2nd Annual Teach Ag! Society Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14: Day 5 - The Learning Can't Stop!

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

The vast differences in agricultural education programs across the state and nation is fascinating.

Today, we visited a career and technical center run under the direction of Lauren Hort. There are ten schools in the district that can send students to the technical center. The agriculture department consists of a fully functional floral design shop and greenhouse. Students in these classes have the opportunity to engage in real life situations as the floral shop and greenhouse run as a business and sell their products to the local community. Touring the facility, we could see the hard work and dedication the students had for their classes. The greenhouse was open the public, and it was awesome to see students in action. Next, we toured the animal facility. We were greeted by a goat named Eugene who roams the facility. Everything in the facility is used as part of a class. Chickens, hogs, and cows are all part of the program found on school property. A unique aspect of this program was that a few students are on the school district payroll and in charge of different chores to manage the facility all year long.

 

Ms. Holt's organization shined in her classroom when she shared with us her system for notebook checks, classroom procedures and the layout of the classroom. Also impressively, one hundred percent of her students have a Supervised Agriculture Experience using the online record keeping system. It was cool to hear that all her students are getting involved in different ways.

After checking out the program, we departed to Golden, Colorado for an agriculture industry tour with  the Coors-Miller brewery for a tour. This turned out to be more of an educational experience then expected as we learned that more of the processes benefit agriculture then we were aware! The barley mash not used in the final product is sent to a farm used to feed cattle as brewers grain. It was interesting to see agriculture in yet another part of life! 

After the brewery tour, we headed to Estes Park for the night. On the way, we got a chance to view damage from the September 2013 floods. It was surprising to see the amount of damage that still exists today even after the hard work and amount of time put into recovery.

Throughout our travels today and this week, we have been able to see the diversity and importance of agriculture in many ways! We are looking forward to our last few days on our great Colorado adventure.

A huge thank you to the CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences for supporting our adventure!

 

Written by:

Laura Metrick

2015 Student Teacher, Conneout Area Schools
@its_LauraBeth

Meagan Slates

2014 PSU Graduate, New Penn Manor Agriscience Teacher
@Meagan_PSU

2nd Annual Teach Ag! Society Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 4: Thrill of Accomplishment

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

Throughout the week, the group has been involved in numerous amazing tours and meetings with Ag Educators across Colorado. Today was a completely different type of experience that generated much excitement in the group! Our group of Penn State Teach Ag! students would be helping with a service learning project to build community gardens for the Monarch K-8 school. We were given directions prior to the start of the day to have background on the building and situation of the school. These community gardens were being put in because of a grant from the USDA Farm to School Program that was obtained by the teacher at Boulder Valley Tech School, Heather Riffel. We would be helping put in the gardens, and then plant different flowers and vegetables for the students to maintain throughout the summer.

When we got to the school, everyone was excited and ready to take on this task. Everyone knew what needed to be done, and the last addition to the exciting education mix was the  7th & 8th grade students from Monarch. They busted out of the door and excitedly ran to us. We broke into groups with the first task of determining garden bed placement.  There were a few students who jumped up right away and came up with an awesome idea of putting all of the gardens into an "M" shape that would represent the Monarch school. Witnessing this display of student ownership and student voice happening in real time was eye opening, because the students wanted to invest their own time and effort into this project. They wanted to own it, and that's what made it so important for them to make their own decisions. Once the idea was accepted, we laid the raised beds into the M shape which looked great.

Working through the day, we cycled in different classes and grades of students. Our Penn State Teach Ag! group worked with 4th, 7th, and 8th grade students from Monarch. All of the students were motivated to work and it was very easy to complete the gardens. Along side of us were the high school agriscience students from Boulder Valley Tec. They were the experts who knew the ins and outs of the raised beds. They also calculated and created the drip line irrigation system. It was a simple, practical, and efficient system which impressed the Penn State students the most.

We started the morning with no raised beds in the small area we had, but by the end of the day there were six raised beds planted with numerous plants and flowers, with a working irrigation system. The transformation was indescribable to someone who was not there. The whole day was a total success and so many students were impacted by taking ownership of the gardens and getting their hands dirty.

From a future educator's perspective, we couldn't believe how amazing the day turned out. We had so much fun and the benefits that service learning could provide to any class, not just an Agriculture based one. The day was the very end of the long process that the teachers had to go through to get everything in place and complete all the behind the scene work that was crucial to everything else running smoothly. Our Penn State Teach Ag! students enjoyed the day and the impact that we made on the school and community. This day was by far the best one experienced so far. Everyone left that school with a better outlook on agriculture and creating a sense of community.

We are so thankful to have the support of great partners like the CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences that helped make this co-curricular learning opportunity a reality.

                                                      

Written by:
Mike Petrun
@PetrunMichealG
2014 Penn State Teach Ag Graduate


Tyler Cremeans
@TCMeansAgEd14
2014 Penn State Teach Ag Graduate

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 2 - Winning with Cam the Ram!

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

Cam the Ram & Nittany!

After an evening of enjoyable food, good Ag Ed company and inspiring big dreams for the future, the group was ready to start another day full of adventures. Our morning began at Colorado State University, as we met with faculty and staff of the Agriculture Education program there, they shared with us the various options within the teacher preparation program and the areas in which the education team predicts growth and faces challenges in the program. 

After a brief orientation, an Agriculture Education student and Colorado State University Agriculture Ambassador, Emily, gave us a tour of the beautiful campus. The campus holds a lot of unique stories and history from the layout of the sidewalks to the direction “Cam the Ram” is facing. (Cam faces his head towards University of Wyoming while his rear faces University of Colorado; Colorado State University’s two biggest rivals.) We grabbed a bite to eat at the Emily’s favorite; Beau Jo’s and hit the road for Windsor High School.

Windsor HS overview!

Windsor High School is a two teacher program with approximately 175 students enrolled in their secondary Agriculture Education program. Teaching a variety of classes within four different pathways including animal science, veterinary science, plant science, and mechanics, their fairly new facility brings lots of incredible opportunities to students in the more urban area of Colorado the school calls home. The group is privileged to expand our network with teachers like those at Windsor High School and enjoyed quality fellowship, advice and tips and tricks from those well-seasoned in the occupation. Both educators shared some creative fundraising ideas that the FFA Chapter puts to use – a topic that all Agriculture teachers, to-be or current, are always interested in discussing! The students there were wrapping up some stellar Agriscience fair projects that we enjoyed viewing before beginning the beautifully scenic drive towards our home for the next few days, Boulder.

We checked into our hotel and ended our evening with dinner with Mr. Mike Womochil, the director of Agriculture Education in the state of Colorado and Mr. Scott Stump the director of Career and Technical Education in Colorado. Both of these men play a key role in the future of Agriculture Education in Colorado and have unique visions for the programs across the state. They shared with us the Colorado Cluster of Career and Technical Education and discussed with us challenges and successes they find within the field. To end our day, the floor was opened for some inspiring discussion and question and answer time across the group. Penn State Teach Ag! Society members and Domestic Study Away attendees value partnerships like those we’ve established with these two incredible gentlemen who are passionate about the future of Agriculture Education not only in Colorado but across the nation.



Thank you again to the CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agriculture Sciences for helping make this wonderful learning opportunity happen!

Written by:

Janae Herr
2016 Student Teacher
@KJHerr17

Bryanna Kenno
2015 Student Teacher
@bkenno4

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away! #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 1 - Small School Success & Big Picture Vision

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

Sunny and 75 degrees to snowy and 35 degrees has been a blast of fresh air for Teach Ag! Society's Domestic Study Away! This week, thanks to help from the CHS foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences,  14 Penn Stater's headed out west to Colorado to tour it's awesome schools, beautiful sites, agribusiness's and so much more to learn about how much of a need we have for agriculture educators and what different states can offer!

PSU Major Selfie #TeachAgDSA14

The adventure started with an early morning, leaving from Pittsburg International Airport and then landing in Denver, Colorado. As we drove through Colorado, we traveled to Prairie High School in New Raymer, to learn about their new state of the art school as well as their awesome agriculture education program! This school had geothermal heating, a new agriculture mechanics laboratory, natural lighting in all rooms with the regular lights, brand new touch screen computers, a room where students can take college classes through a camera with an professor on TV monitors, and plenty more awesome gadgets that made this school a gem in this Colorado area.

PSU AEE Major Janae Herr
jumping in to participate

As we toured the agriculture shop, we were able to see a class that is not typically in most schools. Mrs. Lure, the agriscience teacher at the school taught a class where students can sign up to learn how to artificially inseminate cows. With a class of 7, 6 being freshman and 1 sophomore, these students were in the cattle chute actually getting their hands dirty! Ms. Lure even has the class final to be able to properly demonstrate an AI procedure on 2 cows and if you wanted extra credit you could do up to 3 more! These students were able to get-hands on learning that will help them with their futures in a heartbeat. As we kept going through the school, the superintendent gave us awesome pointers about what he looks for in future teacher candidates as well as what we can do to be successful.

Prairie Superintendent (and former Ag Teacher) Joe Kimmel sharing wisdom

After we said our goodbyes, we departed to Colorado State University where we dined at their annual ATA banquet. They were very welcoming and had great food! After we ate, they proceeded with a presentation that literally blew all of us out of the water. The agriculture education program has designed, and will implement in December, a new building that will be a hub for agriculture educators: a Center for Agricultural Education in Colorado. See the inserted video below for a virtual tour. The building will consist of teaching rooms, a study lounge, a media commons, a work shop to learn hands on teaching strategies, and so much more all for future and current agriculture educators. As the plan is implemented, we hope to check back in to see what Colorado State has done, and potentially if we can bring that idea to Penn State!

This week is going to be a blast! Check back in everyday to see what Teach Ag! Society is up to!
The Teach Ag! Society Crew would also like to send a shout out to CHS and the College of Agriculture Sciences for helping us get to Colorado for our Domestic Study Away!

Written by:
Olivia Murphy-Sweet
2016 Student Teacher
@OSweetMurph

Jeanne Case
2014 PSU Graduate
@J__Rose

Allison Hoover (@allihoov), Inaugural AgriCorps Volunteer! #Liberia

Allison Hoover

The semester is wrapping up, student teachers are coming back to Penn State, and graduates are on the hunt for jobs! One student however, knows exactly what she is doing and it is a lot different than what most normal graduates would do! Allison Hoover (@allihoov), has been hired to be one of twelve, first time volunteers to work with AgriCorps in Liberia for a year!

For as long as Allison can remember, she has wanted to travel. She has studied abroad in Costa Rica and has traveled to Thailand and Cambodia which have all opened her eyes to new opportunities and has prepared her for this experience. When she was hired by AgriCorps, she discovered that she would be working in Liberia. Liberia is a small country (about the size of Pennsylvania) located in the western coast of sub-Saharan Africa.


The volunteers will be placed in different villages in Bong County which is northeast of the capital city of Monrovia. The mission of AgriCorps is to serve the impoverished and food insecure communities of Liberia by empowering youth with agricultural education. Allison will be working with local secondary schools teaching science with the agricultural content. They will be serving as experts in youth leadership and development by designing 4-H clubs, be developing school gardens, and design programs to empower the youth in skills that would be similar to an SAE experience.

Allison is looking forward to seeing Africa in all of its beauty! It has so much cultural history and geographic diversity that she can’t wait to immerse herself in it. She also realizes that it will be a lot different than what she is used to. The challenges with not having any family or friends there, no running water, or luxurious comforts for a whole year will be hard, but she knows that it is the right plan for her. “One thing I learned in my student teaching experience is that I love teaching kids… especially in the setting of agriculture education. There are countless beautiful souls in this world, and I will get to meet, grow, and establish friendships with them.”

Allison is going to do great things in the future and through her hard work and passion, she is going to make an impact in every life that she touches in Liberia! We all at Penn State wish her luck in her success and can't wait to hear the amazing stories that she will bring back home with her! Congratulations Allison!

If you would like to learn more about what the AgriCorps has to offer, and if it is right for you, please click on the provided link or check out this blog!

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
Student Blogger
Teach Ag! Avenger
Twitter Handle @OSweetMurph
2016 Agricultural Education Student Teacher 

Catching up with #psuaged14 member Annette Sprenkel about her student teaching!

Annette Sprenkel, 2014 Student Teacher

The members of #psuaged14 have completed their student teaching and our back on campus to enjoy time together and wrap up their experiences before walking across the stage at graduation! This week we are catching up with Annette Sprenkel. 

Annette (@AnnetteSnook) grew up in Middleburg, PA where she was an active member in the Midd-West High School agriculture program. She just finished her student teaching at Juniata High school where she taught a total of 14 units reaching 119 students.

She chose Juniata High School because she wanted to experience a program different from the one she grew up in. She was familiar with a two teacher program that was both males and Juniata was a one teacher department run by Mrs. Jessica Morgan. This and many other factors drew Annette to Juniata. She stated “There was also something about the community and students that was different from other places I visited; it just felt right at Juniata. Turns out this was the best/most important decision I've ever made!”

Along with the units she taught, Annette did coaching in public speaking as well. Check out the promotional video she made!

After 15 weeks in the classroom Annette’s greatest take away was that “no matter what you know and how good you can teach, it is nothing if you cannot connect to the students! Making relationships is the most important AND rewarding thing you can do!” After student teaching, her future goal is to teach Ag forever!

Read about Annette's student teaching experience on her blog "Where I've Been, Where I'm Going"

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

Student Blogger

2015 Student Teacher

@Its_LauraBeth

Learning about the Peace Corps from #AEE400 #GlobalExperience

As the year is coming to a close, with finals approaching and summer in the air, it is nice to reflect about what this year has helped me accomplish. One of the highlights of my semester was taking the AEE 400 course which has opened my eyes to many new things. Over the span of the class, we had to pick a pen pal from either Malaysia or the PeaceCorps or do research on a country. Although they were all awesome opportunities I chose the Peace Corps Pen Pal project and it has opened my eyes to a lot of awesome opportunities.

After selectingmy project, I was introduced to Tia Sandoval who is stationed in Nepal in a small village in the district of Syangja. She has been there for over a year and a half now and is doing some awesome projects! Hired to be a Food Security volunteer to implement things such as agriculture, health, and sanitation, she has taken her role in Nepal to new heights. She has been working on gender equalities by starting a GLOW camp, which stands for “Girls Leading Our World” where she has brought 40 girls, ages ranging from 12-18 to learn about leadership, goal setting, confidence building and so much more! 

She has hosted an environmental day, initiated a youth group, and implemented an off season vegetable production plastic tunnel nursery! She has also done a lot by learning to live with what she has and to find resources to help the community gardens. “I didn’t bring anything with me, but I was able to go to agriculture offices that provided seeds in different parts of the year. I wanted the families to actually save their money and grow their own vegetables instead of spending all of their money on food and not on the family.”


While she has been in Nepal she has also traveled to different countries. She went to India for Christmas, and is also planning on going to Malaysia in July to get out of the monsoon weather that will be happening in that time. On her way home she is also planning on stopping in Europe to see the vast differences there.


 Tia has truly opened my eyes to many new things and has made me think about all the various opportunities out there for anyone! If you want to get involved with getting a Peace Corp volunteer pen pal, learning about developing countries, and meet real people who change the world every day, I highly recommend taking AEE 400 Education in Ag in Developing Nations in the spring of next year!

Olivia Murphy-Sweet

Student Blogger
Teach Ag! Avenger
Twitter Handle @OSweetMurph
2016 Agricultural Education Student Teacher 

  



#psuaged15 member, Amanda Forstater (@cityaggie) explores Trinidad!

Amanda Forstater, a graduate student in Agriculture and Extension Education and International Agriculture and Development, spent her spring break in the Caribbean visiting Trinidad & Tobago off the coast of Venezuela. Amanda (@CityAggie), a 2015 student teacher, went on this trip with the

Penn State INTAD 820 course.

Amanda Forstater in Trinidad and Tobago 

While in Trinidad & Tobago, Amanda expanded her professional network, learned about Caribbean agriculture and experienced many once in a life time opportunities. With a trip focused on agriculture, Amanda toured local farmers’ markets where she talked with farmers and sellers and even bought local products. She toured farms and met with farmers, visited the beaches and even a farm in the tropical rain forests.

She expanded her professional networking by meeting with faculty and graduate students from the two main universities there - University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Trinidad & Tobago (UTT). While there she had the chance to discuss her research at PSU, their research and the hypothetical grant proposals her class is writing as a class project. She also met with one of their regional extension offices, a representative of their Agricultural Society, and a representative of the Coffee and Cacao Industry. She stated “I got to explore the city and learn about their culture and how the history of the country has shaped what it has become today. I also enjoyed all the wonderful scenery and food that was available there.”

Amanda’s greatest take away was realizing how important agriculture is on a daily basis and that we are all globally connected in many ways. With a future in Agriculture Education, Amanda will be able to use this experience to become a future educator to her students. She will be able to help them to understand different people and areas culturally and understand how we are all connected agriculturally. She said “this experience was beneficial to me personally in so many ways, not only in learning about the culture and the agriculture, but also in getting to better know my professors and fellow graduate students and preparing for my future.”

One of the papaya farms Amanda visited on her trip to Trinidad and Tobago over Spring Break!

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

Student Blogger

2015 Student Teacher

@Its_LauraBeth