First Days of School!!!

On the first day of school people, whether they admit it or not, always feel some sort of emotion towards it. Whether it is the excitement of the adventure of starting another year or dreading that alarm clock blaring that they know will come. I felt excited and anxious as it is my last first day of school as a student in the foreseeable future. How do I define myself after this year, since I have been a student for the majority of my life?

But I also saw the flip side as my teacher friends, new and seasoned, post facebook statuses about how excited they are for the first day of school and how ready they are to teach agriculture. Nicole Weaver from Twin Valley High School posted a status about starting her 10^th year of teaching and expressed her excitement for the new school year but also thinking about her previous students that she has had and all the different stages of life they are in. Tons of previous students posted on it thanking her for being their Ag teacher and saying what they were doing that day. Some are starting grad school, some are going into teaching careers themselves and asking for advice. It is great to see how one person can affect so many people, and that it stays with them many years down the road.

Mike Woods at Cumberland Valley High School stated that he was excited about his new teaching partner, Darla Romberger who recently graduated from Penn State in Ag Ed. He also said that he is ready to keep helping their program grow and expand and continue to change lives through agricultural education.

Other teacher status yesterday on my newsfeed came from Kristy Brubaker who just graduated from Penn State this spring. She said that today was the best day of school that she has ever had, and is excited about the classroom and the students.

None of these teachers had anything negative to say and are excited about ‘creating positive agents of change’ which is a phrase commonly used in the Penn State Ag Ed Program. Seeing these other teachers' successes, makes me more excited about when my role will be reversed, and I will be standing in front of the classroom rather than behind the desk as a student.  I know that myself and the rest of the 2014 student teachers are up for the challenge that follows that first day of school and are ready to be Penn State Ag Ed ROCK STARS!

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!

Jeanne Case

Student Blogger

2014 Dover HS Student Teacher

Twitter: JRose_Case

Brubaker's Big Picture Review - Annville-Cleona Awesomeness

When beginning my first week of student teaching, I was expecting to ease into all of my classes having a feeling for each of the students after a week of observation. To my surprise, I was extremely wrong! My cooperating teacher told me “you’ll only understand the life of an Ag. Teacher if you experience it the real way.” The first day of the marking period, a week after my arrival, I began teaching all of my classes. At first I was confused as to why I would be given such a work load,
but I would not change it for the world!

The best memory from my student teaching experience was dissecting the stomach of a cow during my Introduction to Agriculture class. To engage my students from the beginning of the experience, I explained the idea of using a real cow stomach for the dissection  to observe the different components. The responses I got from there students were unreal. “Why would we want to know the parts of a stomach?” or “That sounds disgusting, count me out”. As the days got closer to the dissection, students in other classes were asking if they could come to our dissection day because they were hearing it could be pretty awesome! It was amazing to see how the impact of a few students who were extremely interested could change the minds of the rest of the students in the classes, as well as those not enrolled in agriculture courses. The best part of the dissection was knowing that my students had such an interest in the lab, they all diligently worked on their lab packets and could identify the parts and explain their functions. This moment allowed me to know; the students learned something new and were excited and interested in the content!

Another great memory with my students was participating in their FFA events and providing them support every step of the way. Two events the students at Annville-Cleona High School participated in were Public Speaking and ACES conference. The students who were involved in the Public Speaking contest made me believe it is 100% possible to train a group of dedicated students to succeed and accomplish their goals. It was the best opportunity to watch my students develop into great public speakers starting from a stuttering, eye clutched to the paper, nervous individual. The students were dedicated and spent multiple hours reciting and practicing their speeches. ACES was also a memorable moment because the students were capable of representing their school while including me in their learning experience. It was awesome watching the students network with other chapters and include me in their experience!

My experience has been more than I had ever imagined and flew by! It is awesome to see how the components of Agriculture Education can merge together and change the lives of students. I believe that Agriculture Education has the ability to change a student’s life and mold them into a confident, goal setting and accomplishing individual.

To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of student across the glob by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter @TeachAgPSU, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PSUTeachAg.

Submitted by:

Kristy Brubaker

@kristylane

2013 Student Teacher

Annville-Cleona High School