Shipping Out from Shippensburg!

From the Beginning...

Ms. Holtry preparing trays for Horticulture

Hello everyone! Thank you for coming back again and checking up on me. Just like that, my student teaching experience is coming to a close. It has been a crazy 15 weeks here at Shippensburg, with everything from a new middle school club, teaching Small Gas Engines for the first time, and helping to design the presentation the students gave in front of the School Board. 

Looking back at those first few days of student teaching, I cannot believe how much I have grown. Just last week, I was liturgist at church and felt very little nerves getting up in front of the congregation since I have been in front of a classroom for so many weeks. My confidence level moved me from spending 10 hours reviewing the content of my lessons, to be confident in the lesson that I have prepared.  

A Small Gas Engine Group Removing the Flywheel

Throughout the last 15 weeks I have learned so much content as well, specifically, in Small Gas Engine. The course was a big stretch for me, with not a lot of content knowledge or experience prior to teaching the course. With a pretty great class of 12 students, I was able to work them through the systems of the engine and through tearing the engine down! In the classroom, we learned about the ignition system, compression system, and the carburetion system. Then, in the shop, each pair of students got their own engine and were tasked with following lab packets to successfully teardown their engine.

Grants were another big take away from my student teaching experience. I was able to write a National FFA Day of Service Mini Grant. I learned a lot about the grant writing process and all it entails. I was so excited when we were successful, being awarded $400 and making 20 tie blankets, donating them to the Orrstown Personal Care Home. 

Ms. Holtry giving Mrs. Runshaw, a family friend, a tie blanket at Orrstown Personal Care Home

Another grant that really impacted my student teaching experience was the one I received from Penn State to go toward my Horticulture students' final project. At the Pennsylvania Farm show back in January, I really enjoyed the mini-landscape design boxes, and the way they incorporated the design principles that I was covering in my Landscape Unit. When discussing what I could potentially use the grant money for, Mrs. Bier agreed that this would be a wonderful addition to the Horticulture class. My last unit for the students was Landscape, and so their final project of the course was designing and making their mini-landscape design with a partner. Also, I had the chance to offer extra credit for the students after having a contest for the best designed box, voted on by the faculty and staff of the Shippensburg High School. Please enjoy their beautiful final products below: 

Some of my other great take aways from Student teaching come from working closely with the Chapter's Officers. During Student Teaching, I had the chance to teach Ag Leadership, which allowed me to interact with them every single day, as well as run an asynchronous course. During this course we had the chance to work through Public Speaking, International Agriculture, and many of their officer duties. Each student successfully wrote a speech from start to finish and presented it to the class. I was so impressed at their passions showing through their topics. The INTAG unit also went so well! I am so impressed at how much the students interacted with the content and were willing to discuss the topics. One student even mentioned an interest in minoring in INTAG in college next year! 

SDG Posters from the INTAG Unit

Some of the officer duties we were able to complete in Ag Leadership included planning for meetings, beginning to plan the banquet, planning National FFA Week, planning for their School Board Presentation, and planning and executing their Service Learning project of Ag Literacy at the School District's Elementary Schools.  

Ms. Holtry at Nancy Grayson for Ag Literacy Presentation from the Officers who read The Day the Farmers Quit

Overall, student teaching was an experience that allowed me to grow and learn so much. I cannot thank everyone enough for their time and effort spent to turn me into the Ag Teacher that I want to be. 

If you are a future student teacher, here is my advice: 

• Take a deep breathe, take everything in. It may not seem like it now, but these 15 weeks will fly by. Countdown the days, you won't believe how fast they go. 
• Get to know your students, you don't know how much that influences the way that they respect you. 
• As you begin to plan what lessons you will be writing in the Fall, my biggest piece of advice is to not over plan. When writing your unit plans, set yourself up for success by including your ideas for each lesson, so you have something to pull from when you are lesson planning in February or March. 
• Do not over plan and wish you wouldn't have spent time planning for things you might not like when you get to that lesson. Personally, the first Unit for each class seems to be a best practice. 
• When it comes time to apply for your dream job, never sell yourself short, you never know when you will be the perfect fit!  

Okay, Ms. Holtry...What's Next? 

I am so very excited to start teaching on my own. I feel like I have found my teaching style, and I can't wait to go out and execute it! 

Graduation is my next step...coming quickly on May 7th at 1pm! I cannot wait to walk across the stage with the best cohort I could ever ask for! 

...To the End!

I just want to take the time to thank each and every one of you for investing in me and supporting me over the last three years of my college journey. It has been a wild ride with lots of hard work, and lots of pushing toward the end goal! 

The dream job is in sight! Stay tuned for a first day of teaching update! 

Here's to the Whole Tree and officially being Ms. Holtry, 

Ms. Holtry