Pura Vida de Costa Rica... de nuevo!

Uh oh, another language. Don't let the title turn you away! Translated (literally) it means: Pure life from Costa Rica... yet again!

Pura Vida is a common Tico term that basically means "life is good" or "hey, all is good."
Tico is a term that means "Costa Rican".

If you aren't familiar with my global blogging tendencies - let me warn you that I often include language references to the countries I visit. Mind you, I haven't been to a lot of countries and haven't done a lot of blogging in different countries, but I did do a lot of blogging about my study abroad at EARTH University this past summer - which just happens to be located in Costa Rica.

So now you know at least 2 new Costa Rican terms and a few words of Spanish! This is an "education" blog, after all... what would it be without me teaching something?

Okay, but really, here I am in 80-90 degree sunny weather, living in a DIFFERENT part of Costa Rica with a DIFFERENT host family (than 2 years ago) and working with a DIFFERENT University. So there are a lot of new things, and a lot has happened in the past 5 days, but things are going well overall.

Let me just tell you about my week. Then you can scroll through the photos at the end of the blog. Photos will be a big thing here, since many people don't know what Costa Rica looks like - and people constantly ask for photos :)

I arrived in country on Sunday night, leaving only 2 days to recover and pack and mentally prepare after I left my awesome placement in Wellsboro. I definitely didn't mentally prepare myself enough, because when I arrived on Monday at my placement site (Universidad Tecnica Nacional, UTN in future references), I learned that there really were no plans for me to be a student teacher there. But before I delve into this confusion, let me give some background:

My major, at Penn State, is Agricultural and Extension Education (AEE) - this major is not in the College of Education but rather the College of Agricultural Sciences. Starting about 2 years ago, I considered the idea of student teaching abroad, something that had never been done for someone in my major. The College of Education has a short term student teaching abroad program set up with Indiana University, but they have never had AEE students, and has hardly had anyone outside the majors of Elementary Education or English Education - two majors that are fitting for a student teaching experience abroad, when you could easily work with primary students by teaching English.

Due to my previous experiences in Costa Rica; short term immersion in 2012 and EARTH study abroad in 2013 (see blog posts from August 2013 and prior); I felt that my Spanish and knowledge of Costa Rican agriculture would suffice for some sort of global teaching experience here. Everyone else thought this would work well, and my advisor has been working with me to develop this experience through the College of Education program. The Costa Rican office of this program is located here, in Atenas. The students who come to student teach here (not just from Penn State) usually work with a local public elementary school that has a strong English language program (and obviously strengthened by frequent native English speaking student teachers). Because of my unique situation of teaching agriculture, the director of the program here searched for a more appropriate placement. UTN is the nation's technical university (translated: National Technical University) which focuses on a variety of degrees in technical areas (food technology, animal production, veterinary assistance, accounting, etc.). Because of its proximity and agriculture focus, I was placed at UTN for what would be a student teaching experience, but it is not one you would normally expect.

The plan for working with UTN, which was told to me on Monday, is to assist several different courses in the agricultural sciences, talk with the professors, and see if I would be able to eventually teach a few lessons between them. Because this is such an unusual occurrence (based on the looks I get when I explain it to the professors), I am treading lightly on this concept. It is also challenging to think about "teaching" students who are my age, and furthermore difficult due to the fact that classes only meet once a week. However, we are taking it slow and I am attempting to work with classes that I have more content knowledge in, so that I may be more available to assist and teach.

Nonetheless, it was a challenging and, at times, discouraging first week. But I did have some awesome experiences so far! So what else did I do this week, other than brainstorm how to maximize this experience (stay tuned for more discussion)...?

Monday night I met my host family - a very kind, and large, family that kind of shares 2 houses. One of the daughters of my "host mom" is expecting her 3rd child within the month, so it will be exciting to be around for a birth! I already promised to take some photos for them when the baby arrives :)

Tuesday was my first day of observing classes: in the morning, I was able to tour the facilities a bit with one of the professors, helped water the worm beds (vermicompost), and observed a class of veterinary assistance students brand dairy cattle! It was quite interesting to see first hand, especially since these girls were to be milked later that day. This practice is done in the tropics as a less expensive method to keep track of cattle, especially since almost all cattle in the tropics are grazing cattle (usually don't have access to much grain). Tuesday afternoon involved me observing a basic chemistry lab - first year students were testing the conductive properties of various chemicals by inserting a split wire (which was attached to an outlet and light bulb fixture) into the liquids. Sounds like fun, right? It actually was kind of fun, and due to my background in chemistry, I found myself already jumping in to help some students with concepts of the lab.

Wednesday morning was in the food processing lab -  I didn't take any pictures here, but the students made a pineapple juice mixture by: weighing, cutting, pulping, pasteurizing, and packaging 15 pineapples worth of juice. These were big pineapples... and it was neat to see the processing facilities after a few semesters of being a Food Science major. I was dressed in official food lab garb - hair net, white shirt, white pants, and white boots. I felt so official.

Wednesday afternoon brought me back to the chemistry lab, same professor as before, same lab as before - different group of students. I continued to help out with the content and am discussing with the professor about the possibility of teaching a lab in a few weeks! I liked working with the kids in the lab and seeing them get excited about chemistry... I even considered a career change to chemistry education! Just kidding :)

Thursday morning was in another food processing lab - this one is called carnicos: meats lab. Again in (fresh) food lab apparel, I observed students calculate, grind, mix, and fill casings with chorizo sausage meat. The professor told me that they were going to be slaughtering some goats later on in the morning... so after a meeting with my supervisor at UTN, I returned to put my lab swag back on and help skin a goat :) It was fun, and the professor seemed a bit surprised at my skills - I didn't tell him I had skinned various deer in my day, as deer hunting is illegal in Costa Rica. (note: I will not post photos of the butchering process... if you want more information about it, contact me). Thursday afternoon was supposed to be an animal nutrition lab, but there was a mix up in the schedule, so I didn't attend this lab, but rather re-organized my schedule and went home a little early.

Friday! Here we are! I can't believe it's Friday already... I know this time will go fast, but I was hoping to plan some sort of activity, and if anyone knows about Tico Time, they would know that 6 weeks is barely enough time! Instead of visiting UTN today, I visited the local private primary school that student teachers normally work with, maybe to see if I could work some agricultural education in to what they do. It was a cute little school nestled on the side of a hill and it has a gorgeous view. I got to witness the 20th anniversary celebration of the school - crazy hat day! The kids made me smile with all their crazy little hats... see photos below :)

Sorry for such a long blog post! I may post more frequently to keep them shorter... there are lots of things up in the air here in Costa Rica, so I hope to have more exciting things to share soon! Stay tuned! And, as promised... here is a plethora of phone photos.

Oh how I missed Tico food... time to keep of the weight!

A view of the UTN campus - dairy, chem labs, and food processing labs on left. Meat labs on right.

New biogas technologies - a professor is studying the use of the methane from their digestor on these appliances

The ladies leaving the milking parlor... they milk about 50 cows of various breeds (as you can see)

The "furnace" for heating the branding irons!

Several of the dairy cattle in the corral: the dairy production instructor is about to brand one in the far back

UTN used to be the "Latin American School for Livestock" - only about 6 years ago the name and purpose changed to focus more on technology and various other majors.

I went on a bit of a walk on Tuesday to explore the campus and fields. It was worth it.

Students in the chem lab, learning about polar bonds, electronegativity, and conductivity

Sign for the university from the road. I take a public bus (it's a souped up school bus) for a bumpy 30 minute ride each day to get to UTN!

The slaughter area of the meats lab - pretty interesting machinery.

Students in the food technology major, making chorizo

From today - a view from the primary school close to my house that student teachers normally work with

Crazy hat day at the school :)

The facilities at this local pre and elementary school are very nice. A bit nicer than the other public schools I have visited.

Students have their own cubbies! I remember these days :)

Whole school assembly! All 140 kids, grades PreK through 6, convening to award the crazy hat winners

One of the best moments of this week - spending some time on this mountain side (I had to scale the hill that the primary school is located on) and looking out on the Lord's splendor. This is one of the reasons I love Costa Rica.

The Final Week... in PA at least!

While there was minimal sleep, heightened stress, and unexpected issues, this week was the best week of my entire Wellsboro experience.

I actually don't know where to begin... so I guess I will start from last weekend. Sunday was a wonderful day, as I got to spend the afternoon with new family friends - they have some gorgeous children and a beautiful home, and we had a wonderful time watching Beauty and the Beast and eating brownie sundaes :) I know I should have been preparing for my final week, and that I stayed up entirely too late for several nights as a result of it, but it was probably one of my favorite experiences outside of school so far. It truly brings home the phrase "you only live once." And I am constantly reminded that we don't earn value in life by the things we do and the lessons we plan, but by the relationships we build and the people we impact. But I'll come back to that thought later...

So, here's the low down. I am going to summarize the days of this past week and include photos for each (if I have them) so you can get a  feel of the craziness that occurred. It was epic.

Monday fun day, the first day of craziness.

My second supervisor visit occurred - but only for half the day. Nonetheless, it was good to have my supervisor see me in my last week of teaching and give some more feedback. I definitely still have room to improve, but was proud of his remarks of my growth so far.

He was willing to take over Parli Pro practice during tutorial for the afternoon... so I let him have the kids! It was quite a surprise for them when they were forced to participate in a mock meeting: even the ones who were not really interested in Parliamentary Procedure! The Dr. Foster level of energy was contagious and a few became more interested in the activity... so maybe we will have a full Parli Pro team after all :)

After school, I had to kick Dr. Foster out quickly, as I needed to run 40 minutes up the road to pick up 2 pig digestive systems for a Tuesday dissection... I got to know the local butcher and was able to make it back to Wellsboro for the Spring Wellsboro Agriscience Advisory Committee meeting. While a smaller committee, they discussed some good things and areas of improvement for the program and its curriculum (to reflect career fields).

Dr. Daniel Foster, everyone. The "Special Guest" Parli Pro Expert. 

Tuesday - a "down" day

Tuesday wasn't really a down day, I just mean that there wasn't much outside of class to prepare for or participate in. However, classes themselves were interesting - I had 2 pig digestive systems for both sections of my Animal Science 1/2 class. While there were a few squeamish students who did not engage (and received alternative work), the vast majority of students were either cutting into/identifying or recording observations of the true (fresh) monogastric system. 

Tuesday afternoon included a CASE lesson on plant parts - the students identified what parts of a plant identify with each veggie of a salad. I'll help you out if you're confused... lettuce = leaf of the plant, carrot = root of the plant, celery = stalk of the plant, broccoli = flower of the plant. It was cool, even if only a few students actually ate the healthy educational resources at the end. 

And, for the final day, we trekked to the horse barn for Animal Science 3/4. This time to apply Monday's concepts about horse feed and teeth. The girls cleaned the feet of a pony and observed her old lady teeth.

Pigs have a monogastric system similar to humans. Note: this photo contains graphic content... if you are already looking at it and are grossed out, I guess I apologize. But as I said to many students, suck it up, it's just organs. They're inside you too.

I'm the one in the blue jacket. This little Pony, Star, was pretty cooperative for us!

Wednesday. And the real world begins.

It had been planned for several weeks that my cooperating teacher would be taking some students on a field trip on Wednesday. There was a community event about an hour away called an "Ag Forum" and, although it was a lot of adult-like discussion, they invited a few blue jackets from surrounding FFA chapters to attend. So my teacher took 4 students to the all-day event, and I had a sub to give me moral support as I taught a full day of lessons. I even got the keys to the ag department! It was a good experience to be "responsible" but not nearly as much of an experience as Thursday... stay tuned.

In Animal Science 1/2, we continued talking about ruminant digestion and I realized that my lesson on ruminants was a bit too long/complex for these students... regardless, I moved on in my digestion unit. Natural Resources finished up a simulation game about aquatics systems and I brought in some special guests for a discussion of equine sports in Animal Science 3/4. I had fellow student teacher, Emily Urban, record herself talking about her specialty - Olympic Eventing! And I showed off a few of my other friends' skills as I talked about endurance riding and some other English riding styles.

After school, preparation began for Thursday's special event: 8th grade recruitment day! Again, I will talk more about that later.

I was told last week sometime that I should save the date for Wednesday, 6 PM... It was to be a surprise. I was with my cooperating teacher after school, preparing for Thursday, when some of my students came back into the classroom. I was then driven, with these few students, to a local burger/wing restaurant and was met by the FFA Officer team!!! It was a wonderful dinner and a lot of fun to just spend some time with them. They are really a great group of kids and I will miss them dearly... I almost cried, but held it off.. at least until later in the week.

Thursday - the day of all days. The true Ag Teacher Preparation day.

8th grade recruitment in past years took place at the middle school - the CTC programs would travel down and take a few images/objects to represent their programs (drafting, wood shop, mechanics, construction, ag science, culinary) and hope to lure in some 8th graders to register for their courses the following year.
This year, however, was different. The 8th graders (all 120 of them) were to come to the high school for the afternoon - and cycle through the 6 CTC programs in 30 minute rotations. That's 3 hours of 8th graders, folks. With just 2 minute breaks between groups. It was expected to be a hectic day. But my cooperating teacher had it together - we were going to really lure the 8th graders in with the following activities:

• bringing the 8th graders into the classroom to watch the recruitment video that my peers and I made in the fall
• a student preparing a floral arrangement in less than 10 minutes, based on skills he learned in class and perfected at a local floral shop placement, to represent the plant science courses
• another student brought 2 heritage breed month-old lambs to show off the animal science aspect of the program
• our FFA chapter president was to talk about FFA
• they would get to "make their own ice cream" by shaking up the ice/salt mixture to freeze the pre-made cream mixture (food science at its finest)

Thursday was also the day that a fundraiser was to be delivered: 50 flats of fresh strawberries from Florida.
The plan was to have my cooperating teacher facilitating the recruitment activities and myself still teaching in the classroom, as we still had normal class during the recruitment time.

That was the plan...

Then I got the call on Thursday morning. Thursday was the first day in 6 years that my cooperating teacher took a sick day. It was pretty bad.

So I kicked into save-the-day mode and met with her husband at the school to get the keys, some instructions, and a new plan for the day. I kind of made sub plans for the substitute who came in (and had no idea what was going on), but was able to have the classes work semi-productively while flipping between the lab and classroom during the recruitment day.

While I was trying to get stuff together before the noon arrival of the 8th graders, the strawberries arrived and we had to get all 50 flats from one end of the school to the other (and upstairs to our room).

3 hours, 128 middle schoolers, 3 gallons of ice cream mix, 6 floral arrangements, and 2 lambs later, I breathed a sigh of relief. Recruitment day was a success. Although I felt weird introducing myself as the student teacher on my second to last day, I knew that it wasn't me that the 8th graders would remember. It wasn't me that brought the day together. It wasn't me that made it all happen...

It was my students.

From the moment when I told my 3 helpers (and 6 group tour guides) that my cooperating was sick, they knew it was serious. As I asked and they volunteered, everyone stepped up and helped set up for the event. One student prepared the ice cream mix, some of my boys brought all the strawberries up without me even noticing (since I was teaching a class), another student showed up unexpectedly to advocate plant sciences, and our presenters did an awesome job at talking about the Agriscience program and FFA chapter. It was pretty incredible, considering my rock star cooperating teacher couldn't be there, and I was overwhelmingly proud of and thankful for the outstanding students that I've had the privilege to work with over the past 7 weeks.

My student completing his floral arrangement, which he would give as a prize to someone in each group who answered a question correctly about photosynthesis... WOHOO ag literacy!

My other student and her two adorable Tunis lambs: Shish and Kabob. They certainly got a lot of attention from the 8th graders. 

Thursday is a day I will never forget, and while I am really sorry about how sick my cooperating teacher was and upset that she missed recruitment day, I am thankful for her and for the program that I was able to be present and that her students did such an awesome job at pulling it together! 

Friday. Cry day. 

Then came the last day... 7 weeks, 65+ students, 6 classes and countless memories later, I knew I needed to say goodbye. So, in place of giving lessons from the units that we were in, I had a "value added" lesson on Costa Rica, its agriculture, culture, and ag education, planned for my classes. 

I started each class by speaking to them in Spanish for at least 1 minute... then, after some appalled facial expressions and comments about not understanding, I would switch back to English to talk a bit about my experience in CR and why I am returning. Given time in some classes, I also talked about some careers and majors that Penn State, College of Ag Sciences, has to offer. 

But then that moment came, in each class, when I had a heart to heart. I told them, in complete honesty, that they were outstanding students, and that I felt extremely blessed to have such a positive experience with them. I never really had any severe problems with any of my students (as student teachers are so often warned about) and sincerely got to know at least one thing about each one of them during my time here. 

Whether it was: playing games on a bus, eating dinner at Hoss's, taking photos of them in class, helping them with proficiency awards, answering questions about swine production, teasing them about poop (digestive systems), comforting them when they were hurt, baking them cookies (both real and fake), researching answers to questions, explaining a concept one-on-one, or simply smiling and saying good morning, I know that these students provided the perfect opportunity to be a real teacher. 

Teachers do more than just teach. 

While lessons and content are important, at the end of the day you truly realize that it isn't what you taught that made an impact on those students - it was how you saw, heard, spoke to, and treated them. Teaching, especially in agricultural education,  is about loving kids. I pray that God used me to truly teach during these past 7 weeks. 

I wasn't lying to them when I told them yesterday that they each made an impact on my life. I will never forget this experience and I hope I never forget each of their names, faces, and beautiful personalities. 

While I previously was unsure if I wanted to teach agriculture in a formal setting, I now know that I would LOVE to TEACH AG! 

Even more, I love everything about my student teaching experience so far: my new christian family, the school, the town, the challenges, the climate, and my cooperating teacher... but the thing that I found I loved (and love) the most was, of course, the students. 

I don't know if I will be applying for a teaching position right away, but I do believe I am further encouraged that I would fit within the occupation. 

I don't know when I will come back to Wellsboro, but the sense of home that I have there is overwhelming, and I know I must return... Maybe right after graduation to help get ready for State Convention! 

I don't know what the next stage in my student teaching semester will bring, but it certainly won't be the same as my time in Wellsboro. 

My flight leaves for Costa Rica tomorrow... while it may be warmer in Atenas than in Northern PA, I will never forget the blessed warmth that my time in Wellsboro brought me. 

Wait, only one more week in Wellsboro?

No way. That can't be right... I was supposed to be here for 7 weeks! That means that it's almost the half-way mark of my final semester as a Penn State student...?
Whoa.
So here I sit, on this last Sunday in Wellsboro, reflecting on yet another crazy and blessed week of student teaching. But rather than talk too much about what I did, let me show you!

My Animal Science 4 girls got to go to the barn 3 times this week to see and evaluate the school nurse's horses for: body condition scoring, weight, and proper handling/haltering

Super cool guest to NRM class: Sheri Baity, a professional coyote caller (and maker!) see her website. She had the students make their own game calls out of pen tubes and reeds, then gave them (and me!) hand-made maple crow calls!

See/hear Sheri in action as she "makes a movie" for the coyotes to call them in :) Probably the most amusing and unique guest speaker I've ever seen (or had in to a class)

Stationed by the owl... I got to be the adviser for our chapter meeting this week! Reppin the #PSUaged14 @TeachAgPSU swag!

Students in my NRM class presented on wildlife species for their unit assessment! This student was able to get a hold of a young (stuffed) raccoon from the DCNR office where he works!

Moving though the digestion unit, we did some fingerpainting of the monogastric system in Animal Science class

A pretty exciting opportunity to see experiential learning - for the culinary students! Friday teacher pasta buffet luncheon!

So it was a pretty eventful week, even if it did go by super fast! I learned more and more this week as we moved through more of our nutrition/digestion unit in Animal Science 1/2, ecology and wildlife interactions in NRM, public speaking prep and "dos and don't dos" of presentations in FFA/Leadership, and food safety and processing in Ag Sci 1 (super cool!) - not to mention more equine science with the Animal Science 3/4 girls (barn included).

What did I learn? You mean more than the fact that I love these kids and am going to miss them dearly when I leave this week? Well, I learned that PREP is super important. I found myself up a bit too late several nights this week, preparing lessons for the next day, when they should have been planned and organized the week before. This was especially noted when I didn't adequately prepare for and practice a lab for the An Sci kids on digestion and absorption. When we practiced the lab the morning I planned to do it - it didn't work. Whoa, time for a back-up lesson! But really, I need to learn how to plan for labs better. Duly noted!

I also learned a lot from the wisdom of other local teachers when I met some cohort members and fellow northern tier teachers at a "New and Beginning Teacher" meeting/dinner on Tuesday night. It was cool to talk like one of the teachers, yet still gain a lot of wisdom and perspective from them, now that I am in their shoes!

Wednesday brought the monthly FFA meeting, where I got to (FINALLY) respond to the question, "why by the owl?" - oh, how I had been dreaming for the day. But I also noted that member participation was a little low, as discussed with my cooperating teacher, and the officer team was truly leading the meeting/discussion. Something I know to be a common theme in many FFA chapters, yet a difficult one to bring up and create solutions for.

Wednesday evening almost brought a break down, due to some stressful planning and some unsuccessful lessons from that day - but my beloved room mate made me dinner (and packed me lunch for the next day!) and I was able to re-focus on my contentness (Philippians 4:11) for a good day on Thursday. It ended in a department meeting with all 6 members of the science department. I got to witness, first hand, the value that the school and the science department places on agriscience... I'm learning more and more about the struggles that ag programs have to endure!

This coming week, my LAST WEEK, I am excited to continue with some units and start some new ones! Here's a preview into what we will be doing this week!
Animal Science 1/2: digestive systems, continued! Ruminant, avian, and the dissection of a monogastric system (and perhaps the use of some enzymes from that system for the previously unsuccessful digestion lab!)
Natural Resources: closing up some student wildlife presentations and entering a fisheries and aquatics unit!
Ag Science 1: closing up a food safety/processing unit ("Edible Agriculture") and exploring a mini-unit in plant science!
FFA/Leadership: STUDENT SPEECH TIME!! WOHOOOO I AM SO EXCITED TO HEAR THEIR SPEECHES!!! (we only have this class 2 times this week)
Animal Science 3/4: some more about horses! Hooves, teeth, cleaning, tack, riding types with an additional barn visit!

Wow. I cannot believe that, exactly 1 week from this moment, I will be landing in Costa Rica for another 8 weeks of amazing experiences... I can seriously say that I will miss this place, however, and all of the people and experiences that the Lord has blessed me with for the short time I've been in Wellsboro.
Stay tuned for more awesomeness in agriscience education!

National FFA Week... a true ag teacher experience.

"You're finally getting the hang of this - you're starting to see what it's really like."
As I was standing dead on my feet after 5 straight days of craziness, and we talked about what time we should arrive the next morning (Saturday - we decided on 7 AM) to load the 26 kids up for a 3 hour drive to a conference, my cooperating teacher commended my survival and appreciation for the craziest week I've experienced yet - National FFA Week.
I was pretty pumped for this week for a while, wondering what it would look like from the eyes of an "adviser" of an active FFA chapter, but realized from her words on Monday morning ("it's gonna be a rough week") that it would be a bit more chaotic than what I expected... FFA activities every day (most of which were not fully planned due to a snow day the previous Friday), several meetings, a trip to Hoss's, and a weekend leadership conference in Harrisburg. And this is all on top of the full load of classes I was teaching last week (many of which just happened to involve quite a bit of prep). Needless to say, sleep was minimal, action was constant, blue and gold were starting to blur, and I was having the time of my life.
What is National FFA Week? Well, it is a week-long tradition that "began in 1947 when the National FFA Board of Directors designated the week of George Washington's birthday as National FFA Week in recognition of his legacy as an agriculturist and farmer. (FFA, 2014)" We recognize FFA as an outstanding organization that positively influences the lives of our agricultural youth through student-run activities, community events, and promotion of the program.
So this week was fun - mainly because I have a lot of energy when it comes to FFA and because I love seeing the students take charge. Some of the activities that the Grand Canyon FFA developed were:

• Daily 'spirit' day themes: Monday (flannel/boots), Tuesday (camo), Wed (tractor color t-shirt), Thur (Carhartt - one I was missing out on because I left mine at home), and, my FAVORITE - Friday (blue and gold day, goodie bags for official dress wearers :) ) 
• Lunch activities: bubble trouble (see photo), sunflower seed spitting, corn guessing, feed sack races, and ag trivia
• Daily ag trivia over the announcements 
• Teacher appreciation breakfast for all school teachers
• Daily teacher gifts (a food product with facts about that food product)
• Banners and flyers in the community
• A news announcement
• Meet your State Officer night at Hoss's (in Williamsport, an hour away)
• a chapter officer meeting 

Bubble Trouble - fetch a piece of gum from under a pile of whipped cream and blow a bubble... which is almost impossible due to the dairy disintegrating the gum

Part of Friday's goodie bag for wearing OD (official dress - FFA jacket and proper attire). I was SO pumped to see so much corduroy! And I was pretty excited to participate in blue/gold day with my gold skirt and blue button-up. 

It was pretty sweet to be an "adviser"... and it was crazy, constant motion. But it didn't end with Friday! We went to the ACES state FFA leadership conference in Harrisburg yesterday and returned today. 26 kids in tow, all super excited for being in hotel rooms and the dance (which was hilarious to witness from the other side), and we had quite a fun weekend. 

Students participated in workshops run by state FFA officers and other leaders then got to jam out at the ACES "Sweet 16 bash" dance. I am proud to say that I (and my cooperating teacher) successfully led our bashful students to the dance floor... and I may have done a bit of dancing myself, just to have a bit of fun (and demonstrate some line dances). But the drama that went on with other chapter boys asking our girls to dance and vice versa was quite hilarious to witness. It reminded me of my FFA dance days... the golden days. 

Anyways, after "lights out," I got to be a real ag teacher and prowl the hallways in observance of any rule breakers or loud rooms on "night watch." Nothing too exciting happened, except when I fixed the 2nd hotel toilet of the evening (assisted by my coop teacher, of course) in the room of some giggling girls. We returned to the north today, after a stop at Bass Pro Shops (a Grand Canyon FFA ACES tradition). 

I loved seeing the "Grand Canyon" jackets all over the place - they were my kids!

So what else happened this week? Well, TEACHING of course! While I spent the majority of my "teaching" blog talking about FFA, I am totally unashamed because FFA is part of my teaching experience! That's how cool we are in agricultural education. But anyways, for those wondering what we did in the classroom this week that successfully kept me up so late. 

Monday was catch up from Friday, when 3 of my classes were supposed to have quizzes. The freshman class got to make the rose flower arrangements that my cooperating teacher was going to make with them on Valentine's day. And my cooperating teacher also was the "guest speaker" of a lesson on goats and sheep for the AN SC 2 class. 

Tuesday AM brought us to school at 6:30 AM for the teacher breakfast, and I was trying to prepare for a lesson on feed labeling for pet foods, in addition to my first official lesson on PUBLIC SPEAKING for the FFA/Leadership class! I think I am having the most fun with these lessons, mainly because I love public speaking and because there is lots of flexibility in the class. I was so surprised on Tuesday when I sneakily made all 12 students stand and deliver a 30 second extemporaneous speech on why they love the FFA before asking them if they were afraid of public speaking. 90% said they were, then were appalled when I told them they just gave an extemp speech! It was perfect! Then, rather than complaining when I told them we would be doing public speaking, they seemed excited! It was so encouraging! We spent time brainstorming speech topics and discussing the steps in preparing a speech which we continued Thursday. Also on Thursday was my lesson on speech "stickiness" - AKA the ability to make speeches and ideas meaningful and memorable. Taken from the book, "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath, we discussed the acronym SUCCES (simple, unexpected, credible, concrete, emotions, story) as a core for a memorable speech. I surprised myself at the effectiveness of my improvised method of teaching the U of SUCCES when I took the book and slammed it on the table in front of a student. He was surprised, it was unexpected, and it regained their attention. It was priceless. So basically, I am super pumped for this continued unit on public speaking, even if they aren't so good at working outside of class. 

Wednesday brought a guest speaker - our local wildlife conservation officer from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, to speak to my Natural Resources class about his position and wildlife management. It was cool to engage the community in the classroom, especially since the officer's daughter was in my next period class! 

Mr. Rodney Mee, local WCO, speaking about his career

Thursday was a bit crazy. Mainly because I stayed up so late Wednesday to prepare for it - a friend came over and we baked up my animal science interest approach: screw up cookies :) We were discussing rations in animal feed, so I started the class by giving them a very disproportionally baked chocolate chip cookie (i.e. 1 cup of salt instead of sugar). Some facial reactions allowed me to segway into the point that the proportion (quality) of a specific animal feed is key to its success in animal nutrition! Then I gave them legitimately baked cookies to make up for it :) I was also preparing for an equine lesson on anatomy - the first lesson where I was truly able to engage the whole group of students (who I sometimes struggle with).
Another highlight of Thursday was preparing the agar for a Friday lab. I MADE AGAR! It was not only exciting because it was the first time I made it from scratch, but also because of the unit for which it is used - FOOD SAFETY! This is my CASE ag science 1 class, and they were doing a food safety lab where they swabbed samples of ground beef (1 cooked sample, 1 refrigerated sample, and 1 room temp sample). I really like food science, so was excited for this lab and unit.

Preparing petri dishes with my freshly made agar!

Students in my Ag Sc 1 class, conducting the ground beef lab... so cool.

So now that you've read all that, let's reflect. I was super thankful for this crazy week (even if I am still recovering from it) because it really showed me how insane yet fulfilling it can be to serve as an agriscience teacher/FFA adviser. I got my first "We love Miss Hoover" note on the whiteboard on Thursday, and beamed with pride when I saw a member put on his newly ordered jacket for the first time on Tuesday. I didn't sleep much and wanted to cry a few times, but loved it. It's been an awesome week to realize that, no matter how demanding a career can be, it really does pay off if you are 100% invested. 

I was told by my teacher that I was really blossoming in the classroom, and that my lessons were really improving to meet student needs. I know there are some areas to still improve (connecting content to real world, grades, homework, and LFS activities), but I am really feeling comfortable here and am super sad that I have to leave Wellsboro in just 2 weeks... but before I go too much deeper with my thoughts about it all, I will sign off and leave you to ponder a Bible verse that I thought I would struggle with during this time. I felt like I would be constantly looking forward and not enjoying this student teaching experience as much, but I find that I truly am content with where I am, even if I do have to leave in 2 weeks - I am going to fully devote myself to this opportunity right now and grow from every second of it. 

Philippians 4:11

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

I am content (and even more, overjoyed) to be here - be content with where you are too!!

There's no such thing...

...As a "normal" week in agricultural education. Every week is unique and fun and crazy and unexpected (hopefully not in a bad way) but nonetheless, things are constantly changing.

This past week was a bit different. Why? Here are a few key points:

• The honeymoon stage of student teaching (actual teaching) has ended. There's nothing wrong with this - it just means I am buckling down with work and starting to confront some issues and areas of improvement. 
• I got "supervised" (cue scary music) on Tuesday. My dear professor/adviser/supervisor Dr. Daniel D Foster came up to the great North and watched/complimented/advised on several helpful points... but we can come back to that. 
• Sunday last week = winter FFA officer retreat, complete with ICE FISHING! 
• NATIONAL FFA WEEK PREP! (stay tuned)
• There was ANOTHER snow storm that took the great North and caused an early dismissal on Thursday... But then again, what should I expect? 
• I had planned for a "sub" (AKA my cooperating teacher) to teach on Friday, due to a PSU seminar for us, but school was canceled! (boooo snow)
• I went to a faculty meeting! Wohoo...? 
• I visited one of my students at his SAE placement during the busiest time of the year for them... see more below.
• A new friend and fellow student (at Mansfield) who is earning her Master's in Library Science, served as my first GUEST SPEAKER for my FFA/Leadership class, as she shared mass media communication resources for my students (which they will need for their super cool project). Shout out to Angie for putting in time to speak to my students, even if it was cut short due to the early dismissal! 
• My house mate was at a conference all week, so instead of being all alone, (after much convincing of my parents) I brought my cute dog, Bella, up to live with me for the week (see photos). 
• And today I went snowshoeing!! Finally!!! 

So now time for some deep(er) reflection:
It really was a great week, overall, even if it wasn't the most fun and exciting. More work, less sleep, more problems, more critical thinking, more seeking of advice... it all equals more real TEACHING experience!

One of the major areas I struggled with this week is... grades! How do I assign them? Who gets the highest grade? Does anyone get 100% on an assignment? Am I too hard a grader? Do I hand back all assignments, graded?

While rubrics are a key aspect of grading larger assignments, I must say that, even with rubrics, I still struggled in this area. This seemingly simple set of questions brings up an even bigger concern...

Academic level variability. What does that mean? Well, there are classes in schools, like general science, college prep biology and advanced English, that have a pretty consistent student group in each class when it comes to expectations, academic vigor, and completion of assignments.

What about ag classes? Well, we get all of the students of all grades and all academic levels. While this is one of the beautiful things about agricultural education, it can also be a curse - how do we gauge the level of content we can teach? How do we grade, given such variation in one class? How do we make sure that we are ENSURING SUCCESS for EVERY STUDENT?

Now you know why teaching ag is such a big deal? It takes dedication, patience, and a sincere desire to make a difference in the lives of students. I am seeing more and more how this can make the world of difference for a student. Now let's see if it can start happening in my teaching...

In addition to this sincere critical thinking, I was excited/nervous/super prepared to have my first "supervisor visit" on Tuesday. Dr. Foster came in for the day and observed all my classes, giving small bits of feedback between some of them then sitting me down for a sincere and elaborate discussion of improvement areas. He was proud of me in general (yay!) but wasn't afraid to lay down several areas of improvement. I am thankful for his honesty and dedication to my success, so that we can truly reach student success. Some of my key improvement areas include: proper introduction of daily objectives, a cognitive connect (showing how this really matters), walking and talking (a no-no), really focusing on the students (note previous discussion) with positive reinforcement.

Considering I am such an advocate of positive reinforcement over negative (type 2) punishment, I am surprised at how little/effectively I use it. I mean, really, how much can one "good job" or "I am proud of you for participating" or "hey _(insert student name)__, you did great today" really make in a student's life?

The answer is: I have no idea. But if it can have any possibility of improving their attitude, making them feel valued, or just increasing our rapport, WHY NOT?!? After all, I know I feel valued when my very own professors congratulate me/encourage me. And how else can we show the love of Christ in the classroom? Definitely another deep area of reflection this week...

Let me share some photos (I have a lot this week) before talking some more. Enjoy!

National FFA Week prep! Students signing "thank you" notes for all the teachers!

We got to use the "spirit" week banner for the "theme" days of National FFA Week... I am personally excited for Friday because the members were encouraged to wear their CORDUROY!! (I wish I still could)

So, on Wednesday, after my first "faculty meeting" (filled with interesting bureaucratic discussions), I went to one of the local floral shops with my cooperating teacher to conduct an "SAE Visit" of one of my students/FFA officers. This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for floral businesses, and it was awesome to see my student IN ACTION as he took phone calls/orders, prepared arrangements, dealt with customers, and moved efficiently around the shop. Its exciting to think that, via this agricultural experience that he chose in the fall to increase his SAE hours, he could: a) apply for an FFA proficiency, b) compete in the state Floriculture CDE, c) pursue a degree in horticulture, and/or d) find a successful career placement in the industry due to his hard work at this floral shop. The owners boasted of his great skills, maturity level, and ability to learn quickly, and I swelled with pride on behalf of my cooperating teacher as I thought about how the agriscience program has positively impacted him. It really was a cool experience.

Where the "magic" happens in the floral shop

I was drooling over some of these gorgeous flowers in the cooler 

My student, pulling an order for a customer

My friend, Angie (Ms. Martinez), speaking about digital communications and web 2.0 resources!

It's been quite a crazy week - but hey, welcome to a thriving agricultural education program. 3 circles and all, a truly dedicated program shouldn't allow much breathing room (especially with such a dedicated teacher, like my cooperating teacher). And when you have that moment of realization that a student is growing, benefiting, and achieving from the program, you realize that it all is truly worth it.

A few more photos from the week...

Bella enjoying the "blob" - a massive piece of furniture that resembles a cushony bean bag

I had mammal pelts from the PA Game Commission this week.. and this coyote really intrigued her

A lot of firsts up here in Wellsboro!! A friend from church took me snowshoeing after he and his wife hosted me for lunch - there have been so many amazing blessings here. 

It was pretty awesome to break through 15 inches of snow... a work out, but a fun time.

Real Life. Real Students. Real Teaching.

Week 3 of my internship seems to have flown by, but probably because it was the first week of my actual teaching experience. It's hard to believe that I will be flying to Costa Rica in just 4 weeks to mark the halfway point of my last semester at PSU!!! I knew it would go fast, but I guess when you really are enjoying it, it disappears before you know it!

Wellsboro has been treating me well, I have been inducted with my first snow day this week due to a 12 inch dumping of snow in less than 12 hours... But I guess we should start from that first day.

Monday was, teaching-wise, a great day. As I took over all classes this week (new marking period), I am now teaching: Animal Science 1, Animal Science 2, Natural Resource Management, Intro to Ag Sciences, and FFA/Leadership (an every other day class).

Monday brought some difficulties as well... I found out that one of my students (in the small An Sc 2 class of just 6 students) was in a serious accident over the weekend. She was life-flighted and is still in an induced coma due to brain swelling, but seems to be doing better, thanks to prayers and support. Her story was published by various news stations, so I thought I would share this awesome fundraising site one of her friends made for her medical expenses. I have learned a lot, just within my first day of teaching, about what it means to be a TEACHER - someone who KNOWS their students - rather than just someone who teaches. My cooperating teacher was revealing the ability to work with other students who were struggling with the situation - a level of sensitivity not usually seen in a classroom. I was humbled and pushed to think deeply about the experience and how wide our responsibilities stretch as agricultural educators.

Other than great life lessons, my actual teaching lessons seemed to have been going as planned, but I am still adjusting to proper timing for activities in these frustratingly short 42 minute periods... sometimes I go too long, then I overestimate time because I went too long and finish a minute or two early. But I am growing each day, so we should be pretty timely within a week or so!

This week included a spectrum of activities for my classes - from lectures about the nutrient groups (carbs, lipids, proteins, etc.) in An Sc 1 to a calorie lab where they burned food to measure its energy and from a CASE lab on testing soil pH to PA mammal ID stations for the NRM class (see photos), we had a little bit of everything this week.

Tracks and Wildlife Notes for the student-centered mammal ID lesson

The coyote station was pretty decked out

I love these vintage wildlife ID posters from PGC - they've been around for years but aren't being distributed anymore :(

I definitely learned that, along with the story above, knowing your students is key to a successful experience (let alone effective classroom management). When you know that a student, for example, is proficient in chemistry, you can call on them to answer a question you ask to the whole class about a chemical reaction. When you know a student is unashamed to share their knowledge, it helps keep the class moving. I also can see that rapport truly does improve student motivation... thus knowing them allows them to do better!

Another major learning opportunity this week was to reflect on my philosophy of homework and out of class assignments. While my cooperating teacher does give homework occasionally, the students aren't really used to it. I have designed a bit of homework within my units (not too much, but a bit more than they are used to). While several upper-level students are used to this load, the diverse array of learners in an ag classroom poses a true challenge of homework and assignment expectations. I am still pondering how to overcome this struggle and, with the help of some of the other science teachers in the school, am gaining perspective on different homework philosophies.

It has been a great week! I learned that preparation is always necessary, especially when we did that calorie lab that I had not performed prior to having them do it (thus I planned for an inappropriate time allotment) - so DO LABS YOURSELF before you have the students do it!

I am excited for more struggles and growth opportunities, and, even more, I am excited to continue to get to know my students over the next 4 weeks! It will go fast, I can definitely tell...  

So, to close out this blog of first week of teaching (for real), I will include some images from my first snow day (Wednesday). I was able to shovel the driveway, catch up on some work, make some carrot cake cupcakes, and finish my photography website!!!

Fred in a foot of snow... 

Happy Fred after an hour of shoveling :)

I never thought of carrot cake batter as appealing...

But they sure tasted yummy :)

May you have a blessed week and remember to enjoy every moment you have and live for every opportunity you're given.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God; which is why we call it the present." ~Bill Keane