What I Want in A Cooperating Center



If you can’t tell by my first blog post, I am a huge planner. I enjoy carrying my agenda and calendar everywhere I go. When we got a calendar on the first night of AEE 295 I was beyond excited that I could start to plan out my time spent with the #psuaged23 cohort! 

 

Our cohort has a lot of fun adventures ahead, yet I think the one we are all looking forward to most is that special time next January when we will depart from Happy Valley to our very own cooperating centers. Each of us will choose an agriculture program to spend 15 weeks student teaching. I cannot wait for this exciting experience where I get to really step into the role of the teacher in the classroom for the first official time. 

 

The assignment I am currently completing is determining what I am looking for in a cooperating center. I’ve had the chance to reach out to quite a few schools here in Pennsylvania, and before I decide which three schools will be on my list, I have compiled a list of must haves for my number one school. 

 

Classes

As far as classes go at my number one school, I would like to have the opportunity to teach a wide variety of classes. Specifically, I want to teach Ag Mechanics, Floral Design, Leadership, and Animal Science. I have a background of Ag Mechanics and have some previous knowledge, but I would like to strengthen my ability in teaching the subject and have more than enough content than to be dangerous. I never got the chance to take a floral design class in high school outside of our Intro to Ag class, and so I would like to learn how to instruct such a specific hands-on task and learn the ins and outs of ordering in flowers and other inputs. I also never was offered a leadership class at my home high school. I am very interested how a course like this is organized and who it is offered to. I also want to know if this is focused on the officers of the chapter and what material should be covered in a class like this. Finally, I would like to be able to teach about something I am very passionate about: Animal Science. I want to be able to create hands on projects that tie into my own personal experiences during this class.

 

Program

My home Ag program had a total of 4 teachers at the high school level and 1 teacher at the middle school level. If you read my first blog post, you know that my high school was very big and very diverse in so many areas. I hope to find a small-town school with a one Ag teacher program. I feel like this will be of value to me if I have an opportunity to take over my own one teacher program someday. I would also like to have a cooperating center that has a very deep relationship with their surrounding community and industry with lots of support.


 

FFA

I want my cooperating center’s FFA chapter to be very involved in state and local events as well as in their community. I think community involvement helps to reinforce the things we will be teaching in the classroom and prove that the knowledge is useful. I think it is important that the chapter has a regular schedule for meetings and other fun chapter centered events. I think SAEs are also very important and I hope to learn how to directly incorporate them into my lessons in the classroom. 



 

Teacher

I don’t think I have ever met an Ag teacher that I couldn’t have learned from. My main goal is to find a teacher at a cooperating center that is very relatable and completely loves their job. I want them to be very organized and someone I can make a permanent relationship with. They should be comfortable with being my role model even into my first year of teaching. I hope my teacher will also have lots of content knowledge they are willing to share. I think a teacher from a one teacher program will offer strategies of how to best manage time and correspond with other local agricultural educators. Overall, I want this classroom to be comfortable and a place where I can help to inspire students. 


Here's to part of the Whole Tree,




Elizabeth Holtry 





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