During the past week, #psuaged23 traveled to Las Vegas for the 75th annual NAAE Convention. This was such an impactful experience, and I am very excited to unpack the trip with you.  On Monday, the group met at the State College airport, where we all greeted each other after spending Thanksgiving break apart. It was so great getting back together! We flew to Philly and then to Las Vegas and had quite the adventure getting groceries for the week.  On Tuesday, the convention began! The cohort attended FAST, the Future Agriscience Teacher Symposium. During this session, we learned about how to have meaningful conversations, how to incorporate inquiry in the classroom, and about how important IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and access) is in our future agriscience classrooms. At the end of the day, we got to eat at Flaming Fajitas and Reflect about the characteristics an effective educator and how our perspective has changed throughout the semester.  On Wednesday, ...

On Friday I traveled to Shippensburg High School, my student teaching site, and I was able to teach a lesson that was based on one of National FFA's Life Knowledge Lessons. Specifically, my lesson was titled "What are the benefits of Character and Integrity?".  I taught a 40 minute lesson to Mrs. Bier's Ag Leadership class, after getting the chance to sit in on the chapter's FFA Meeting during FLEX.  Overall, I think the lesson went very well. I was excited to have my first official student teaching lesson be to the students I have gotten to know over the last 6 months. The Ag Leadership class has 8 students, each of which are the chapter's officers.  Bellwork We started the lesson with bellwork tying this lesson to the lesson I taught during their officer training where we talked about their strengths and weaknesses as an officer team. The students were able to share how they have been using strategies that we discussed to to fulfill their officer duties.  In...

 Last week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Milton Area High School on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for my Micro-teaching Assignment. For this assignment, we were tasked with teaching three lessons that fit where the class currently was in their curriculum. I was assigned Mr. Bittner's Food Science and Safety Class!  On Monday, I observed with Mr. Bittner and started to get to know his Food Science and Safety class. I was excited to learn that he has a TA for this class, and got to know Talen throughout the week as he helped the class through setting up and executing our many Labs. I also got a chance to get to know Mr. Bittner and some of the other wonderful faculty at Milton. Mr. Bittner started this Program 5 years ago, and has created a very exceptional facility and course offerings. Throughout this whole experience he was very honest and inspiring as he shared his "tricks to the trade".  On Wednesday, I was able to jump right into teaching, and introduc...

Last week the PSUAGED23 cohort and a group of master educators met for the AgriScience Inquiry Institute at the BJC. This was such a great experience where we not only got the chance to mingle with and collaborate with some great Agricultural Educators, but also dive into the essential pillars of inquiry. The activities that we participated on both Thursday evening and Friday were measured based on to what degree we had met each pillar. These were: engagement, evidence, explanation, connection, and communication.  Throughout the course of the event we did so many fun labs that I hope to incorporate into my plans for student teaching. These included things like "Batteries that Make Cents", "What factors lead to food insecurity?",  "Battle of the Beaks" and more! These labs were not only challenging but also led to some deep thought as we served in the role of the student.  My favorite activity of the Institute was where we determined regions' food secur...

This week, I was "on the road again", this time with my Cooperating Center, Shippensburg High School! We traveled on a charter bus, and left on Tuesday morning with our sights set on Indianapolis, Indiana. It was great to be back with students and continuing to make the transition to "behind the desk".  On Tuesday, on our way to convention, we were able to stop and visit Ohio State's "Waterman's Dairy Center". This was a great experience, and the students' expertise was able to shine! I loved seeing the members relate the tour back to their own personal knowledge.   On Wednesday, we traveled and toured Beasley's Orchard, learning about how agritourism is able to keep farms going despite their hard times and bad crop yields. There was a corn maze, a bale tower, apple cannons, and lots of fun photo ops that we were able to take advantage of.  We also attended Opening Session on Wednesday with a very inspiring message from Tamika Catchings. Sh...

Friday Kicking off on Friday, October 14th, I flew to Des Moines, Iowa with the Global Teach Ag Network Facilitator Team to begin preparing for the World Food Prize Foundation Global Guides Conference. Our first interaction in Iowa was with a past Global Guide, Ernest Schiller. We spent the afternoon with him and talked about his work with Rebuild Nepal Education Foundation. This was a great opportunity to meet someone with so many wonderful experiences to share and advice to give! Saturday  Saturday was full of facilitation planning and flip chart making. I worked with Grace, my fellow senior intern and Allyson, a Grad student from Mississippi State to make over 120 flip charts as a way to track the sessions throughout the week. We made flip charts including essential questions, session goals, warm ups, and wrap ups to prepare for the sessions that began on Sunday. We also traveled to the Downtown Farmers market for lunch and enjoyed Pupusas from El Salvador. Next, I was able to t...

 This week for AEE 412 lab I was able to jump back into the teacher role after being away last week and highlight the International Agriculture Unit that I have written. This week's task was to teach a Problem Solving Approach Lesson using one of the 4 strategies. These include Fork in the Road, Factors Possibilities, Effect Cause, and Situation to be Improved.  We had some technical difficulties at first in lab and what was supposed to be orange in my slides was purple...oops! Despite these technology hurdles, we powered through! I was able to introduce a scenario where students were tasked with stepping into the shoes of a Smallholder farmer in Eastern Africa and make decisions about what crops to continue growing. My students (#psuaged23) worked hard to come up with 2 possible solutions, a list of 4 factors that affect both solutions, and facts relating to each solution's factors. I was very impressed with their creativity and International Agriculture knowledge, and I cann...