2019 Student Teacher Check-In with Manny Catala (@MCatala35)

Manny Catala is the current student teacher at Pequea Valley.

We stay in close contact with our student teachers while they complete their student teaching experiences and cap off the Agricultural and Extension Education degree! As part of staying in touch, we love to showcase what our student teachers are up to while they get to try out what they've been learning at Penn State! Our next Student Teacher Check-In is with Mr. Manny Catala, teaching at Pequea Valley High School alongside Mr. Doug Masser (@MasserD), a recent alumni of Penn State's AEE program in 2012.

Time sure does fly! Manny has been student teaching at Pequea Valley for 9 weeks now, and through this time he's gotten to go through a variety of learning experiences. Manny shares that one of the things he's learned in regards to his relationship with his students is that small conversations can make large impacts. He shares that talking to his students has been very important to his success: "The more I get to know my students and their interests, the easier it is to engage them in the content." He also shares that his favorite part of student teaching has been having these one-on-one conversations with his students. This gives Manny a chance to build his relationship with them, and also serve an educational goal by allowing him to help them with their class projects in a more personal way.

Manny instructs students at Pequea Valley High School.

Challenges are inevitable when you start your student teaching experience, so we wanted to know what some of the challenges were that Manny had to face when he arrived at Pequea Valley in January, and how he was able to overcome them. He told us that it was challenging for him to work with students who simply weren't motivated. "A way I try to handle this is building rapport with my students and creating a fun environment for them in class."

Manny has the opportunity to teach a variety of classes, including Power Tech, Large Animal Science, Ag Biology, Horticulture, Intro to Ag Mechanics, and Ag Business. Being able to teach across a wide range of subjects affords the chance to be involved in some really neat opportunities. "... I am able to expand my content knowledge and see what I like and don't like." His favorite class to teach is his Ag Biology class because he has been able to build a strong connection with his students there.

Lastly, Manny shares that it's important to enjoy your time student teaching; "...It goes by fast so appreciate the time with your students and learn from your mistakes."

We appreciate Manny sharing his wisdom with us, and we wish him the best of luck as he powers through the rest of his student teaching experience at Pequea Valley! You can follow Manny through the rest of his student teaching journey by keeping up with his blog, 'Manny's Manual'. 


Want to read more about Manny?

• September 2018 Student of the Month

 

 

Hunter Kauffman

Team Leader, @TeachAgPSU Communications

Wildlife and Fisheries Science

College of Agricultural Sciences

Second Year Series: The Experience of Jasmine VanSant

We are often times looking for new inspiration or motivation to be successful in the classroom as an educator. One of the best ways to get inspiration and motivation is to ask questions for current educators to answer. Our current educator featured in the blog is Jasmine VanSant. She is one of two educators at Pequea Valley High School in Lancaster County. Jasmine is part of the #psuaged15 cohort, and has been teaching for two years.

Jasmine believes that the most inspiring moments she has had were from students succeeding in both inside and outside the classroom. She enjoys seeing students show an animal for the first time at the fair, receiving their FFA degree, and watching students successfully complete a welding project. "Its these “aha” moments that encourage me to stay in this profession because of the direct impact that it has on our students." Her second year of teaching she focused on learning from her experiences during her first year to improve her teaching strategy. She has taken more responsibility in her second year as serving as one the advisors of the Lancaster County FFA Association. 

Every agricultural educator has a great moments that they can look back on and view them as their favorite moment. Jasmine's favorite moment is when she gets to take students on trips and events. "It allows you to connect with students and build rapport with them. It also allows students to really see how much you care about them by dedicating your time to set up these opportunities for them and take them to new learning environments." In her past two years she has learned more than she can imagine. It requires a lot of heart and determination. Even though it takes sweat, tears, and time the results of impacting students lives outweigh the hardships.

Every career there will be struggles involved, but as an agricultural educator all those struggles come on at once. She believes that there is always a struggle balancing school life with personal life in which she still struggles to separate. "It's easy to get overwhelmed with all the things that you need to accomplish and complete but you do need some “you” time or another outlet to take your mind off of the work that you need to accomplish." Her one piece of advice is to enjoy the rollercoaster ride and hang in there. Never stop improving yourself, get involved, and attend PAAE Conferences to get additional improvement for your curriculum. "There are times that you don’t feel that you are an effective teacher or that you can’t do it all, but just know that you make a difference by just being YOU! Without YOU there would not be an Ag program or class."

Thank you Jasmine for your words of wisdom, and we wish you the best of luck to advance your curriculum and impact the students in your classroom.

Luke Kerstetter

Student Blogger

Twitter Handle: @lmkerstetter96

2020 Agricultural Education Student Teacher

Program of the Month: Pequea Valley High School #studentsuccess

In Pennsylvania we have over 150 FFA chapters that represent the Blue and Gold at its finest. There is one chapter that has stood above the rest this month to become our October Program of the Month. This month Pequea Valley High School, is that program.

Student's in the Lab at Pequea Valley High School

Pequea Valley High School was chartered in 1956. Since then it has been under the supervision of Mr. Doug Masser and Mrs. Jasmine VanSant. Pequea Valley has a large array of classes and opportunities for students that are in the FFA program. They currently have 30 students working on SAE’s which is higher than previous years and have even started a program for agriculture internships with local businesses  where students will have paid positions for course credit as a senior capstone course starting in the Spring of 2016!

Pequea Valley High School’s Agriscience Program offers a wide array of classes for their students to take including:

Introduction to Agricultural Sciences

Introduction to Agricultural Mechanics

Biological Students in Agriculture Science (Mandatory Ag Class for all 10^th grade students)

Horticulture

Natural Resources

Animal Science

Veterinary Science

Food Science

Foods Unwrapped

Agricultural Biotechnology

Power Technology

Welding

Precision Agriculture

Agricultural Topics (Independent Study in Agricultural Education) 

 

Students at Churchill Downs during FFA National Convention

Some of their latest chapter accomplishments are highlighted below:

1^st Place Small  Gas Engines Team (FFA Activities Week 2014)

4^th Place Agricultural Mechanics Team (FFA Activities Week 2015)

Pequea Valley High School has done a great job in the past and we can’t what is yet to come for this chapter. Under the supervision of two Penn State Alumni, we know that they are in good hands! Congrats again for being Program of the Month Pequea Valley High School!

If you would like to contact them for information about the program you can reach them at these social media outlets:

Program Twitter: @PVAgEd

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

Doug Masser (@MasserD), #psuaged12: New Agriscience Teacher at Pequea Valley!

Doug Masser, new teacher at Pequea Valley!  

Doug Masser (@MasserD), a 2012 Penn State honors graduate, has been busy since leaving Penn State! He will complete his Master of Science in Agriculture Education at the University of Idaho in the summer 0f 2014 with research focusing on describing agriculture program supporters and their roles in agriculture education programs, effective teaching strategies and coaching behaviors of CDE coaches. His activity caught the eye of Pequea Valley High School and their current senior agriscence teacher, Mr. Clair Witwer enough to hire Doug to be a part of their agriscience team for the next school year!

Doug has always been interested in agriculture. Growing up in Pitman, PA (located in Schuylkill County), he helped a lot on his family’s fruit and vegetable farm. Whether he was on the farm or out in the woods exploring the ponds, trees, and streams near his house, it made him develop a sincere passion for agriculture. He attended Tri-Valley Jr/Sr. High School where he met one of his mentors, Gretchen Dingman, a Penn Sate AEE Alum, who was his agriculture teacher for 5 years. After completing high school, he knew that he wanted to go to school for Agriculture Extension and Education. “ I believe that agricultural education provides the best model for teaching students and from my experiences, nothing is more rewarding than watching your students grow professionally, as leaders, and personally and lead successful lives. It is because of the great students I will get to work with that makes me excited to teach ag!” 

Doug at a teacher conference with
other great PA Teachers!

Clair Witwer (the current teacher at Pequea Valley) is excited on adding on a second teacher to their Ag Science and Technology Department. Mr. Witwer stated, "I am very excited to have someone of Doug's caliber coming to Pequea Valley. I have been a single teacher department for most of my career and I am looking forward to having someone to help. As we entered into the interviews, we were looking for someone who shared the philosophy of the department and the district. As we went through that process, it became very obvious that Doug was the fit we were looking for." 

Pequea Valley currently has 135 students studying agriscience, but the addition of the new teacher, plus new courses that they will be able to provide, will increase their numbers to 300 students! Pequea Valley also has been awarded as Distinguished School from Apple. 

Doug is excited to have a school that focuses on Agriscience and Agricultural Mechanics. Since they are both different topics, they can bring in a variety of students to be a part of their program. Doug states, “He has done a tremendous job building the program there, and together we both can continue growing the program and including new classes. I am excited to work with Clair on expanding the Agriscience Fair participation of our students and to infuse my strengths in plant science and leadership into the program.”

As far as their facilities go, they have a 24X40 greenhouse, two agriscience classrooms equipped with the hoods, water, gas, etc., to conduct hands on labs in many classes, they have a huge agricultural mechanics laboratory, and an area for aquaculture! Doug has endless possibilities that he can take advantage of because of what the school has to offer!


Doug at the University of Idaho!

Through everything , Doug remembers Penn State as his beginning point in his educational career. "Penn State provided me with the opportunities to become an effective teacher. Whether it was formal classes, workshops, or Ag Teacher conferences, the teacher educators at Penn State (Dr. Foster, Dr. Ewing, and Laura Sankey Rice) modeled what it means to be a great teacher. They also inspired me to work hard to make a difference in the lives of students. I know that the skills and experiences I gained at Penn State prepared me to be a successful agriculture teacher."

Doug’s Penn State and University of Idaho family wish him well as he starts another milestone in his life! In the future we hope to check back in with him and see how much he has progressed at Pequea Valley High School. Congratulations Doug Masser!

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 

"You're an Ag Ed Major? So you want to farm?" Tales from Tressler

Imagine yourself walking into Ferguson at 6:00 am with 16 other people. Breakfast food and drinks line the wall of room 214 waiting to be consumed by the sleepy, yet hungry college students. You pile your plate up with bagels, fruit, and powdered doughnuts and pour yourself a cup of hot coffee. You turn around and notice that at every desk there is a folder. You open it up and bamm…. It’s everything you need to know for your senior year as a student in the Agricultural Education and Extension major, but the one thing you want to look at the most is ‘the list’.

Ms. Tressler with Pequea Valley FFA members

As an Agricultural Education and Extension student, I was way too excited and anxious to take a look at ‘the list’. The list shows all the potential schools in Pennsylvania that would welcome student teachers for the spring of 2013. It’s the school you will be spending about 3 ½ months of your senior year teaching at. It’s a pretty big deal to say the least. Picking the school took careful consideration. It’s not something you can just close your eyes and point to a school on a piece of paper. You have to do your research. What kind of program do they have? How will I benefit in the end? What do their facilities look like? What’s their average class size? Where are they located? These were just a few of the questions that I asked myself. But then there were questions that stuck out more than others…

Should I go to a place where I'm comfortable with the subjects? That was what I originally wanted. I looked at different schools that had animal science and horticulture programs that were going to be taught during the time I would be teaching. All I knew was that I did not want to go to a place that had Ag Mechanics being taught during the time I was there. It wasn't my strong subject, and I was terrified. As much as I was hesitant to have Pequea Valley as my #1 on the top of the list, I knew that I would benefit more from being in a strong Agriculture Mechanics program than I would at a strong Animal Science program. This whole experience at Pequea Valley was me being out of my comfort zone. I looked at being at Pequea as an opportunity; an opportunity for me to be out of my comfort zone and to learn more about Ag Mechanics. Besides, that was my biggest weakness. So, I sat in front of the panel and explained my reasoning as to why Pequea Valley would’ve been the best fit for me. I want to be the best teacher I can possibly be. If my students want to learn about Ag Mechanics, then I need to have knowledge about that specific area. If I didn’t, I would be hindering my students. I wouldn’t be that well-rounded Ag teacher. It’s the end of my student teaching experience, and I still get asked the same question from time to time….

“So what are you majoring in?”

“Agricultural Education and Extension.”

“So you want to farm or something?”

2013 PSU Student Teaching Cohort

It saddens me to know that many people in our society do not know about Agriculture Education and how it molds students to be positive agents of change; how a total Ag Ed program includes Supervised Agricultural Experience, FFA, and Classroom Instruction and what that actually means; how teachers have students walk in as followers and leave as leaders.  We are teaching the future educators, doctors, lawyers, scientists of tomorrow.  While some may say, “they don’t need to learn about agriculture”, they’re wrong because we don’t just teach a subject in a classroom. Agriculture teachers are so much more. We inspire our kids to be something more. We see the potential in every student and try and bring that to the surface so students can see for themselves what they are capable of. We make a difference. These educators can make that small spark that’s deep inside a student turn into a roaring blaze. Agriculture educators aren’t just teachers; we’re advisors, role models, counselors, motivators, engagers, and when needed, a person to just say “Let’s do better next time. I know you can do this.”  

Submitted by:

Ashley Tressler

@aet5099

2013 Student Teacher

Pequea Valley High School