The Chronicles of Becoming an Ag Educator

Today I spent the day learning what it was like to be a Seal at Selinsgrove Area School District. It was exciting to visit Macy (Ms. Fisher) as we have a long history of friendship. You see Macy and I's friendship started when we were both serving as county dairy princesses. We continued to keep up our friendship through the years running into each other at FFA events. It was that same passion for agriculture that brought us together as friends years ago that brought us back together at Penn State. I was excited to see that passion show through as Macy taught the next generation of agriculturalists. During first block Macy taught her Building Construction class about plumbing. When she told me before class she was in the plumbing unit I was expecting to see them soldering or working with PVC. Instead she took it back tot he basics and went over something I completely over looked during my plumbing unit, she went over how to properly use a ruler. Properly using a ruler is someth...

I have said it time and time again, community is key to a successful agriculture program. This week I was shown numerous times the importance that the community can play in a program. This weeks' curriculum would not have been complete without some key community members coming together to provide students with first hand insight. We just entered our electrical unit in Ag Science 3. Students spent a few days learning about electrical safety. They also took a look at how power is generated from a power plant and pushed through power lines to a home. It worked out perfectly that the local electricity provider PPL was able to come give a demonstration for our students. PPL has put together a Live Line Electrical Safety Exhibit to educate the public on electrical safety. The exhibit was extremely informational, adding to the content students previously learned in the classroom. They explained to students why birds can sit on power lines without being electrocuted and offered safety ti...

During my student teaching experience I have faced a lot of "feel good moments." Often times those feel good moments come from my students. These moments usually catch me off guard and continue to give me the "why" for teaching. My students have a way of knowing when I need to hear and feel some positive vibes coming from them. This week I was over joyed to hear a student tell me "Ms. Kuhlman I really enjoyed learning today, thank you for making class fun." I had another student share that they were glad they got to know me. This week I had the opportunity to get some other positive feedback from someone else in the school, the principle. You see, one of our assignments was to interview with an administrator as if we are applying for a job at the school. I think this is a great assignment allowing each of us as student teachers to continue to develop ourselves for when the opportunity arises for a "real" interview. This assignment probably ha...

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...

Lets talk about fears, there’s a lot of fear in the unknown, the fear of the “what ifs.” There are many fears that as a person we have to face in our everyday life. As a new teacher that list of fear continues to grow. The typical fears of what if a lesson doesn’t go right, what if my students don’t grasp the concept, and the list could go on. Over the last several weeks I have been facing the many fears of the unknown in teaching by taking them head on. Student teaching has given me the chance to try out new ideas in the classroom with little fear as I always have my cooperating teachers, university supervisor, and mentors there to ensure me that regardless of the outcome of that specific lesson it will be okay. Coming into the profession there is one BIG fear that i’m still unsure of and i’ll have to figure it out for myself, the fear of making the life and work balance happen. Over the last several years at Penn State we have had some great opportunities to meet some of the BEST ...

I have always been impressed with Pennsylvania FFA's State Legislative Leadership Conference. For those of you who are not aware SLLC is a conference for FFA members to investigate and amend pieces of real legislation while utilizing parliamentary procedure. In addition, students will gain leadership skills, participate in a community service activity, and meet with legislators. This conference is unique and truly gives students a glimpse into the legislative process. Over the years I have experienced SLLC from many different views. Years ago as a student I learned so much about the legislative process, that extended far beyond what I had previously learned in a Civics and Government Course. I then helped facilitate SLLC as a State FFA Officer. Each experience offered me something more to learn, however this SLLC was truly one for the books. This was my first SLLC experience as an FFA adviser. I continued to learn right along side my students and also enjoyed my time interactin...

Activities on activities on activities, this week was all about application. Over the last several weeks there has been quite a bit of content knowledge given to my students and this week was there chance to apply what they learned in a variety of ways. This is one of the many reasons that I love agricultural education as it provides students the opportunity to practice what they have learned, hands on. I believe it is vital to give students opportunities to learn in a variety of applications to truly meet the needs of all learners. There was a wide variety of application happening across the board this week, making the week fly by even faster than normal. In agsciences 2 and 3 this week students worked diligently on their shop projects. In agscience 3 some students finished up copper square projects as others finished up their combination squares. This presents a challenge I am currently trying to work through. How do I ensure all students are on  the same page with their pro...