Second Year Series: Laura Metrick's (@Its_LauraBeth) Experience

It has often been said that the agricultural community around us is quick in developing connections among each other as well as being a close knit group. With this in mind our featured educator Laura Metrick is using this aspect in creating a classroom environment that develops connections between students, students to community, and student to teacher. Laura is the current agricultural educator at Conneaut Area High School in Crawford County. Laura is part of the #psuaged15 cohort, and has been teaching for two full years.

Laura had started her teaching career out at Union City Area High School opening up a brand new program. She taught there for two full years, and now teaches at Conneaut Area High School where she student taught. Her most inspiring moment as a teacher was working with her two square dancing teams preparing for PA State Farm Show. In this moment there were several students from very different backgrounds, but they all communicated and worked well with each other. She stated, "It has just been so refreshing and a great reminder that in the “Ag Room” anyone is welcome no matter what and when we work together good things happen." She has changed things up in her teaching style to be more effective in the classroom. She strongly believes that getting to know the students is key and that catering lessons to their needs has helped the behavior and grades of the students. 

Laura's favorite moment as an educator was taking students to the National FFA Convention this past year. This was the first year she went as an advisor, and she enjoyed getting to plan the trip and experience. "Getting to bond with the students I took along," she exclaimed, "...witnessing them experience the convention was super rewarding!" 

In the past two years that she has been teaching she has learned more than she expected. Laura learned that some of the best lesson come from places that one would never expect. She also believes that there are not lesson fails just unexpected learning opportunities. One of the biggest struggles she has faced is replacing an agricultural education legend. "Following in the footsteps of an outstanding educator who was there for 35 years has its many benefits but also its challenges," she exclaimed. 

One piece of advice she has for incoming teachers is to not be afraid to reach out and ask for help. She is not sure how she would have made it through her first year without reaching out to local Ag teachers in her area, her student teaching cohort, and the resources at Penn State. "We all have the same goal of student success so if you are ever struggling to come up with an effective teaching method, brainstorm some new fundraising ideas, figure out tours for your next FFA trip or just need someone to talk to just reach out! We’re all in this together!" We are looking forward to see how you lead the next generation of students into understanding and developing a passion for agriculture.

Luke Kerstetter

Communications Team Member

Twitter Handle: @lmkerstetter96

2020 Agricultural Education Student Teacher

January 2018 Student of the Month: Kaitlin Liszka (@KaitlinLiszka)

Each month we like to highlight students that have gone above and beyond in the agriculture education program at PSU! We are proud to announce that Kaitlin Liszka was selected as the January's Student of the Month! Lets learn about her adventure and accomplishments so far.

Kaitlin is currently a sophomore in the Agriculture and Extension Education major. However, she has an interesting story of how she ended up in this major. She had attended Ohio State University majoring in Animal Science, but while she was there she realized that there was a place for her in Agriculture Education. This caused her to transfer to Penn State, and had switched majors to focus on Agriculture Education rather than just animal science.

Her plans after graduation are not set in stone because she knows that life plans change, but her current plan is to become an Extension Educator. Her passion is to teach agriculture is driven by the realization that there was a large disconnect between farm to plate. She states, "As I went through my classes it became more and more evident to me that I was more passionate about making sure that everyone could understand why we feed cattle grain than figuring out how much grain we needed to feed the cattle, so when I transferred to Penn State I also made the decision to change my major so that I would be better equip to follow my passions." Her goal as an educator is to create educated consumers, and equip the public to be able to understand the food system to make educated decisions when they buy their food. She stays motivated towards her major by being a part of experiences that allow her to get a glimpse of what she will do once she is graduated.

Kaitlin is also active outside of class in several clubs and organizations including LEAD Society, Collegiate Cattlewomen, Global Teach Ag!, and Cedar Heights RSO.

Fun Facts about Kaitlin:
Hometown: Jamestown, PA
Graduation year: 2020
Birthday: December 8th, 1995
Favorite PSU class: ASTRO 1
Favorite places to eat in State College: Otto's
Favorite athletics team/sport: Steelers
Favorite hangout on campus: The Creamery
Favorite thing at PSU: The Creamery Ice Cream
Agricultural Program Activities: 4-H
Twitter Handle: @KailtinLiszka
Instagram: kait_liszka21

 Luke Kerstetter

Communications Team Member

Twitter Handle: @lmkerstetter96

2020 Agricultural Education Student Teacher

You Don't Want To Miss This! #GLAG18 Is Almost Here

Are you interested in "globalizing" your agriculturally-focused instruction?  The Global Learning Conference in Agriculture is designed to help you create global learning opportunities for students in any agricultural discipline.

What is GLAG?

The Global Learning Conference in Agriculture (GLAG) Conference is designed to help you create global learning opportunities for students in any agricultural discipline.

GLAG is aimed towards current secondary, post-secondary, and pre-service agriscience educators of all disciplines, extension educators, and vendors and stakeholders in global learning, but anyone is welcome to register! The GLAG program believes that purposeful, meaningful global learning can occur on and off campus, and that there should be coordination from all levels of agricultural education to ensure maximum student growth on the global competency continuum.

When:

Events for #GLAG18 will be taking place the entire week of January 22nd to 26th. The week-long conference concludes with the LIVE session held on Friday from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST. Check out the 2018 Conference Agenda for more information.

Where:

#GLAG17 featured a host of guest speakers such as
Keegan Kautzky (Left) from World Food Prize.

• Online! Daily activities via Zoom (see the 2018 Conference Agenda for Zoom links) covering an array of topics related to diversity, professional development, global connections, and global agriculture.
• LIVE Conference: Online via Adobe Connect (Link received with #GLAG18 registration).

Benefits of registration:

For your registration fee, you will receive:

• One of only a limited number of spots in this year’s Global Learning in Agriculture conference on January 26, 2018 [Note: To ensure the best experience, we are limiting capacity.]
• Opportunity to attend presentations on best practices of globalizing curriculum on campus and best practices for conducting immersion experiences.
• Access to a virtual vendor fair in which you can collaborate with businesses and programs that are interested in helping you achieve your program or individual growth goals.
• Win fabulous door prizes, before, after and during the event!
• Finally, registrants who have registered for the All Access Pass for $50 received an exclusive “Conference in a Box” with critical materials (and wickedly awesome cool stuff) to have an enjoyable experience. All conference boxes have been claimed, but there's still time to register for Digital-Only access!

Note: Penn State students should email teachag@psu.edu to learn about scholarship opportunities.

So, how do I register?

• Digital Only access provides registrants with access to all conference activities, but does not include a "Conference in a Box".  Digital Only registration is available until Thursday, January 25th. Select "Digital Pass Only" on the registration form to select this option. Digital Pass Only Registration is $25.

Need any more reason to attend? 

Our Keynote Speakers during Friday's LIVE session are Appiah Boateng, founder and Executive Director of 4-H Ghana, and Trent McKnight, founder of AgriCorps. The title of their talk is "Transforming Global Agriculture Through Youth Engagement". Want to learn more about them? Click here.

Don't miss out; see you at the conference January 22nd to 26th!

_____________________________________________________

 

Hunter Kauffman, Student Blogger

Wildlife and Fisheries Science

College of Agricultural Sciences

Email: hlk5120@psu.edu

Instagram: kauffman_hunter