Growing for the Future

For our second SAE visit we headed to see Alyssa Hargraves. Alyssa is a senior at Central Columbia and an active FFA member. Alyssa is an avid hunter and fisherman. She truly loves all things outdoors. Alyssa received her Keystone degree this years through keeping SAE records on her work with developing food plots and running a deer management program. Alyssa hopes to continue her love for the outdoors as a Wildlife Biologist, she was also recent accepted into Penn State!

Due to the "off season" for Alyssa's SAE we chose to meet at Keller's Taxidermy. We discussed her SAE and future goals as we scored her buck from last fall for the Buck Pool put in by the agriculture program at Central Columbia. I was impressed by Alyssa's buck harvest this year and it was evident that she has put much time into her deer management program. It was fitting for us to meet at Keller's as she gets her deer mounted there each year. Alyssa shared that she puts in a lot of work over the summer months in preparation for the upcoming hunting season. She shared with me pictures from the work she had done this past summer. Her goals are to continue to grow her food plots as well as the deer population around her home.

Prior to the visit Mr. Brown and I reviewed Alyssa's AET record books and scored it using the AET approved score card that Carol Fay provided. All SAE programs are scored on completion and utilizing the score card. In addition, we want to see that students are striving towards the future of their SAE program. Specifically for Alyssa we agreed with her goal to continue to expand the size of her food plots where possible. We also suggested to her to start thinking about diversifying her crops to ensure proper nutrient management for the soil being used. We hope that Alyssa will continue to keep records on her work and strive towards obtaining her American FFA Degree.

Thank you for sharing your unique SAE with me Alyssa and Good Luck as you pursue a career as a Wildlife Biologist. Also congratulations on your acceptance to Penn State! We Are!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rising Stars At Central Columbia High School

Image
Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE) are an important entity to agricultural education. As I mentioned in previous blogs a true agricultural education program is comprised of three very important components; Classroom/ laboratory instruction, FFA, and SAE. SAEs are programs created by students to explore their interests in a specific agricultural area. These programs allow for a hands, on real world experience, while developing life skills. Students can choose one of six different SAE areas to develop their program around. “An SAE is a catalyst for personal growth, career development, and responsible citizenship that leads to individual, group and societal benefits not possible through formal education alone” (“Jig Saw.”2005) SAE is truly a unique aspect of agricultural education, allowing students be creative and cultivate their own learning. Students at Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania are doing just that, developing programs that are pushing  them outs
Read more

Developing a Team

Image
Forming, Storming, Norming , and Performing , where are we at in the process of student teaching? I took some time this week to reflect on our studies this past fall. We learned about Bruce Tuckman's model and discussed how the model would look in our future classrooms. We discussed how these are the stages to making an effective team, my team may seem a little different than maybe a sports team, never the less my students, my cooperating teachers, university supervisors, and myself make a great team. As my time at Central Columbia is coming to a close here in a just a few short weeks I found it only fitting to take a look back at how far we have come over the last 13 weeks.  Forming: While we started forming long before the first day of student teaching, the majority of events took place during my first few weeks of student teaching. The first few weeks were pretty laid back, all of my students were polite and well behaved, still trying to figure out how to act arou
Read more

The Final Act: Who Do I Aspire to be as an Educator?

Image
On the journey to becoming an agricultural educator each student is required to complete a 15 week student teaching internship. During those 15 weeks we will work with a cooperating agricultural educator at that school. In order for each individual student and cooperating teacher to have the best experience possible it is important that each of us create a positive connection prior to student teaching. One way Mr. Curt Turner and I are working to establish our working relationship is through reading  Juggling Elephants   by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig .  Just as there is more to the ring master than a long red coat and a top hat, there is much to be said about an agricultural educator beyond the lab coat. The last few chapter of “Juggling Elephants” really had me saying “yes!” this is the kind of teacher I want to be. I will challenge myself to be the master of three very important rings (the three-circle model that is). While I am still trying to figure out who exactly I want t
Read more