Second Year Series: Carly Rippole's (@CarlyJeanBean) Experience

Throughout our lives we find ourselves in the depths of our passion for whatever it is. In that passion we develop our minds to shape and change the future. Agricultural educators are known to have a type of passion to teach and give knowledge so that they can change the minds of our future generation. They help students find their passions and our current educator featured in the blog, Carly Rippole, is one of those educators. She is one of two educators at Derry Area High School in Westmoreland County. Carly is part of the #psuaged15 cohort, and has been teaching for two full years.

In her teaching, Carly has been most inspired by her students when they themselves find their passion. In this case their passion could be for the day or for their future career. She enjoys having students come up to her before or after class to show her something they had found or what they are excited about. "Seeing them love learning and see them get excited about different subjects or topics really helps fuel me and makes my little teacher heart so happy!" There is so much to take in during your first year of teaching, and in the second year often times teachers will change something about their strategy to become more effective. In her second year her strategy of dealing with discipline has been more consistent than her first year. "It is hard to keep track of everything your first year teaching but as you move through the year you find what you need to prioritize in your classroom. That can differ between one class and another."

Agricultural educators often have favorite or most memorable moments about their students. Carly's favorite moment was when several 8th grade students who had earned their Discovery Degree had ran for officer positions and then were placed on the team. Those students had also talked about earning their Chapter Degree. From Carly's two years of educating she has learned something very valuable. She explains, "I am not perfect and there are times when I have to sit back and think, what went wrong and how do I fix it for next time." She has had struggles throughout her two years. Some of her struggles include taking things to heart instead of letting it go, labs falling through, copier jams, and just overall bad days. Carly states, "It can be hard to shake it off and come to school the next day with a clean slate and be ready to go.  I really try to debrief on the way to and from school, that is my time to let it go!" 

One piece of advice that she can give to those who will be starting their first year of educating is that it does get easier. She simple states, "You are more comfortable with your classroom, faculty, families and curriculum. You got all the scary transition stuff out of the way. Relax a little bit and use your time and spend it on things you wanted to get to the previous year." 

We are all excited to see where your career will take you, and how you will use your passion to help students find theirs! 

Luke Kerstetter

Communications Team Member

Twitter Handle: @lmkerstetter96

2020 Agricultural Education Student Teacher