PSU Teach Ag! Society Welcomes You Back to School! #agedu

Since it is the beginning of the school year, the Teach Ag! Society would like to welcome you to the new school year! If you have never heard of Teach! Ag Society, we are a group of motivated agriculture education students who do activities involving the Agriculture Education major and complete other educational events throughout the year! You don't have to be in the major to join this awesome organization! If you don’t know the officers, we would like to introduce you to the team.

2014 Teach Ag! Society Executive Team

President:
Ms. Jillian Gordon,
 2015 Student Teacher,
 @jillianpsu

Vice President: 

Ms. Laura Metrick,

2015 Student Teacher,

 @Its_Laurabeth

Secretary: 
Ms. Cassidy Cheddar,
 2015 Student Teacher,
@crcheddar

Membership Secretary:
Ms. Janae Bickhart, 

2015 Student Teacher,

@JanaeBickhart

Treasurer:

 Mr. Tyler Schaeffer,

 2015 Student Teacher,

 @TylerDSchaeffer

CFFA Liaison:

Ms. Deanna Miller,

 2015 Student Teacher,

 @deannapsu15

Social Committee Chairs:

Ms. Amanda Forstater,

 2015 Student Teacher, @CityAggie

 Ms. Katie Andrews, 
2015 Student Teacher, @klandrews_24

Prof. Dev. Committee Chair:

Ms. Rea Ianson, 

2015 Student Teacher,

 @rnianson08

Fundraising Committee Chair:

Mr. Howard Poole, 

2015 Student Teacher,

@howie_plumcrazy

Outreach & Comm. Service

Ms. Rachel Telesz 

2015 Student Teacher,

@rachie12rach

Ms. Olivia Murphy-Sweet, 

2015 Student Teacher,

@OSweetMurph

If you see any of the officers or committee chairs, feel free to stop by and ask them questions! We just had our Welcome Back Picnic, so keep in touch with our future events!  Keep checking your Teach Ag Tuesday Email Blast's (to be added to the listserv email foster@psu.edu)  for more information and when our meetings are going to be held!

 Become apart of the Ag Ed TEAM!

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 

PSU AEE Students help with FFA Food Stand at Farm Show

Any food product with this label is grown in PA and
supports local farmers!

What unifies all humans? If you guessed FOOD than you are correct! When the Pennsylvania Farm show comes to Harrisburg, people come for the exhibits, shows, events, but also to eat the amazing food that is only there for one week out of the entire year! Cheese cubes, pizza, milkshakes, fried mushrooms, and so much more are all PA Preferred products that are sold.

PA Preferred has been working with several food booths for a common goal. They feel that is their duty to restore thousands of PA companies to only sell products from local farms to support the economy as well as the farmers who grow the products. One of the stands that works with PA Preferred is the FFA Foundation Food Stand. Tyler Schaeffer, as well as myself, had the privilege to be the mangers over the week of Farm Show. 

Top (left to right) Kelsey Paulus, Olivia Murphy-Sweet, Dave (Ice Man), Shannon Christie,
Bottom (left to right) Ali Emig, the Nittany Lion

From open to close, FFA members from all over the state, came to work with us at the stand to make some FFA dollars. From working they could save money that goes to their chapter to go on trips at a discounted price. One of those students Ali Emig from the Cumberland Valley chapter said, “I work here every year with my chapter. It is a great way to make friends as well as money to use on trips! I hope that when graduate I can still come back to work because the relationships you make here with people last a lifetime. I am still friends with a girl I met freshman year of high school!” She worked all week to save up money to go to Washington and Oregon with her chapter for their spring trip. She will also be going to the Penn State branch campus Mont Alto in the fall.

State FFA Officer, Lena Bioni
working at the FFA Food Stand

During the week it was awesome working with students and their teachers to make the week a great success. We raised over $30,000 dollars at the stand during the course of the week. Tyler and I also received a scholarship from working through the FFA foundation.

To learn more about the Pennsylvania State Farm Show visit www.farmshow.state.pa.us. Or if you are interested on being a manager for next year you can contact Mark Lowery at mark.lowery@newholland.com

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   

National FFA Parliamentary Procedure Career Development Event Reflection

L-R Tyler Scheffer, Olivia Murphy-Sweet, and Doug Masser

I was fortunate enough to travel with Penn State to the 86^th Annual FFA National Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. There were over 62,000 FFA members in downtown Louisville for a week celebrating agriculture and FFA. This year, I had the honor to be a judge at the Novice Parliamentary Procedures Competition for the Society of Agricultural Education Parliamentarians, be an assistant with the Senior Parliamentary ProceduresCareer Development Event for national FFA and work at the Penn State booth to promote how amazing our school is. Now, this may sound hectic and busy, but I was able to be a part of a national conference and make an impact on the lives of the students that were there.

Students competing in the Final Rounds

During the Novice Parliamentary Competition, students have to demonstrate a knowledge in Roberts Rules of Order (the bible of Parliamentary Procedures), good debates that are prevalent to the motion at hand, make the motions that they were assigned to, which is on a card in front of them, and have 3 debates. Although there are more rules and regulations regarding the competition, the students have the opportunity to show us how well they work as a team to get a meeting completed in under 12 minutes. In addition, they also have a written test and oral questions after they presentation their meeting to the judges. The national winners this year were from the San Luis Obispo chapter from California. They blew the judges away with their presentation and their knowledge.

Another Penn State student, Tyler Schaeffer, a coach of the Cumberland Valley’s National Parliamentary Procedures team, has a tremendous respect for this competition. “I feel that the Parliamentary CDE is one of the best competitions that students can test themselves. It demonstrates teamwork, communication skills, makes them understand parliamentary knowledge, and develops leaders.” This is more than just a competition. It is preparing the world for future leaders who understand the proper way of how to run meetings and have reinforced better communication skills.  

View of the Parliamentary Procedure room

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
2016 Student Teacher 
@OSweetMurph