Deer Research SAE

When it comes to SAE's there are many opportunities out there and they are all very cool. However, with me being an environmental science nerd I geeked out a little when I was able to visit a student who was doing a research SAE on food plots for deer.

To get there we had to request a time that would work best for both the student, his parents, and Raylene and I. with both of this student's parents working at the school it wasn't entirely difficult because we all had similar schedules. We went up on April 3rd. to see the fields.

He took two areas of land and planted two different types of feed to see which feed attracted the most deer. He was also looking to see which field, in particular, the larger bucks preferred. the way he accomplished this was by setting up trail cameras after he planted the seed in their respective fields. The first plot was growing clover and beans and the second field was growing a mixed seed that was created by the white-tail institute.

This was a fairly new SAE idea so there were some kinks to work out, however, the student seemed to have a pretty solid foundation as to what he wanted to do. When it came time to suggest things we discussed where the best placement would be for the trail cameras and how he would go about identifying each individual deer that came into the fields so that he could keep a record of how often deer are going into either field. This student also used AET to keep his records on his feed plots

That's all folks!: Student Teaching week 15

This week has been an emotional one for me. I did a lot of wrapping up and some end of the internship fun activities with my students. I made sure to get pictures with as many students as I could. I know I am truly going to miss teaching at Juniata Valley. Wednesday I said goodbye to my afternoon classes. Then Thursday I said goodbye to my morning classes and officially said goodbye to Juniata Valley. During the banquet I was awarded the Honorary Chapter FFA Degree and I could not be more humbled, it was something I did not expect in the slightest.

I could not be more thankful for the experiences I was able to have at Juniata Valley. The support system from everyone there is so strong. I helped with setting up with banquet this past week and was able to help in the process of choosing the new Blue Juniata officer team. It was a tough decision.

For this week there were a couple very big highlight labs the first one I  have to mention is when I took my natural resource students down to the river to check our macroinvertabrate nets. Thankfully, they were successful and the students were able to experience what real life macros look like.

I was also able to do my Boone and Crockett lab with my natural resources students. They measured and scored Mule deer, White-tailed deer, and Pronghorn antelope.

The last highlight I would like to mention is we did behavior testing in mice. There were 4 stations. The first was to see what brain dominance the mouse may have. The way you test this is by watching which way the tail curls after each time you set it down. If the mouses tail curled to the right your mouse was left brained, if it curled to the left it was right brained. the second station was testing hyperactivity in the mice by putting them down in a box that had a grid on the bottom of it and you would trace the path of your mouse and observe how quickly it moved. The third station was your stereotypical timed maze. The fourth and final station was seeing how long it would take your mouse to climb onto a raft after you set it in water.

I am so proud of every student that walked through those Ag doors and I am going to miss them all greatly. I could not have done this without the help and support of many people in my life, to them I say thank you and I am excited to see what my future has in store!

PAEE in Philadelphia

Before the start of my student teaching, I was offered to attend the Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Educators (PAEE) with Dr. Curry. When I saw this opportunity come to light, I jumped on it. I was super excited to be able to learn even more about environmental education and how I could further use it in my classroom.

While there, I attended workshops that were not only interesting but super helpful. My main focus was on insects and macroinvertebrates. I started off with a workshop called why do we LOVE to HATE bugs? This workshop opened me up to how I could and should approach teaching content matter like insects. There's a stigma against insects, so to get people to truly appreciate them you need to be careful with how you go about wording your information and how you would go about introducing these "scary" insects to your classes.

When it came to macroinvertebrates I was thrilled to discover that there is actually an AWESOME website you can go to called macroinvertebrates.org that will allow you to look at all the different families of these macros. This website really allows you to look at all the fine details of these tiny creatures.

Lastly, it wasn't all about bugs when I went there though. A couple other takeaways I had were first off, some really cool apps that can help you identify things outside whenever you are unsure about what you are looking at. Secondly, I learned that in Philadelphia there are a lot of really cool programs to push for making Philidelphia a greener place. It was awesome to see the efforts that Philidelphia is making. Who would have thought such a big city would have such a big push for a greener world.

PAAE in The SouthCentral Region

I had the opportunity to attend a meeting for the Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators for the SouthCentral region during my Student teaching internship. This meeting was full of so much information. When it came time for Penn State to talk, they started to talk about the up and coming cohort and the programs for new and beginning teachers program. As I listened that's when it really started to sink in that shortly I would be graduating and starting a career of my own. It was truly a surreal feeling. After attending this meeting I realized just how important it is for Agriculture educators to stay connected because even though all programs are different, we still all work as one. Agricultural education is unique in the way that it can be so different and all the same at the same time. With the connection of The National FFA organization students from all around can meet each other and look deeper into the vastness that is agriculture. Hopefully, when I become an agriculture teacher in my own program I will be able to have the opportunity to be an active member in PAAE because it is such a crucial part to keep that Ag Ed connection alive across the state.

4 students and ACES

Even though I was in FFA as a high school I never attended conferences. So, for the first time I attended one of those conferences from an advisor standpoint. We took 4 students down to Harrisburg to attend the ACES conference. When I first got there I ran into some familiar faces that I felt like I hadn't seen in forever. It was nice being able to connect with my cohort members again.

The teacher workshop was based on the NOCTI which is basically the exam

that students that go through the Ag Ed program take if they complete the program within their school. The workshop was insightful on how to quickly gain data from the scores your students get on the exam and use those scores to see where you can strengthen your own program as well as the individual student. Being able to connect this data would make it easy to figure out an SLO plan.

During dinner on Saturday night, it was fun to see the students really get into embarrassing the advisor. I somehow got lucky enough that I wasn't elected to go up. However, some of my teacher friends weren't so lucky. It was fun to watch them and see the students cheer on their advisor. There isn't anything quite like the relationship between students and their teachers. It makes me so happy to see the connection everyone in that room had. 

I'll never forget big moments that I share with my students during this student teaching experience. I am forever grateful for having the opportunity to get to know every single one of them and all the diverse personalities they have. No matter where my career path leads me I will cherish every connection that I make.

Manny at Pequea!

One of the opportunities I was able to take advantage of as a student teacher is going to see another student teacher in action! The cohort member I went and visited was Mr. Catala. His student teaching placement is at Pequea Valley High school. When I went there were multiple things that Manny had responsibilities for that I could relate to, however there were other things that Manny was able to do that were different from my day to day student teaching life.

While visiting Manny I took from it that Pequea is much more technology driven than Juniata Valley. One of the activities that the students were doing while I was there was measuring the amount of CO2 that crickets release through cellular respiration. IT WAS SO COOL. they put the crickets into little tube with sensors in them that detected the amounts of CO2 that was being released.  Like me though Manny was teaching a wide range of subjects. Everywhere from plumbing to animal science to plant science. 

Another thing I have to note about Pequea is they started implementing a system called smart passes. Smart passes are digital passes that a student fills out on their phone and a teacher gets a notification when a smart pass is filled out so they can keep track of who's out, where they are and how long they have been gone for. Very cool! 

It was nice seeing another student teacher in action. While there Manny got his acceptance email into the peace corps! I am so excited for him and everything that his future holds. After visiting it made me ponder on just where all of the members of my cohort may end up. I'm sure each and every one of them will do well no matter where they go.

The last week with a Friday: Student Teaching week 14

This was my last full week of classes... can you believe it? next week I will be writing my final blog for student teaching and saying my goodbyes to the students of Juniata Valley. Even though I'm starting to think about how I am going into my last week, there are quite a few things that happened this past week!

On Monday for my small vet classes, I was given the opportunity to bring in my dog for students to go over animal behavioral training and practice palpating for physical examinations. They really enjoyed doing tricks and working with Keika. Having a live animal really changed up the dynamic of the class and student interest was definitely peaking!

On Wednesday Raylene and I took the Blue Juniata officer team to the Huntingdon County Vo Tech where they presented opening and closing ceremonies at a luncheon that hosted the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding. They all presented very well, and Russell Redding was very kind and made sure to touch base with all of the officers, The Blue Juniata President was even offered to sit at the reserved table in the front of the luncheon.

On Thursday I had my natural resources students present information about trout to the 1st grade at the elementary school, the elementary students have been following the stages of life of the trout, since Raylene participates in trout in the classroom. My students were able to enhance the 1st graders knowledge about the fish they have been watching for a couple months. The trifolds my students created will be displayed at the fish release, so that the public can also get more information on the Trout that are being released into their waterways. Also on Thursday Raylene and I hauled ourselves down to Harrisburg for the south-central PAAE meeting, I didn't realize how many of my cohort were student teaching in my region. It was nice seeing them all. However, what I really enjoyed was even though PAAE is for Agricultural Educators they opened up a small portion with the state officers to allow FFA students to be involved, which any time you can involve students, I personally think it's a win.

On Friday I only saw my morning classes because the 3rd marking period celebration was underway. Even though these celebrations take away from instructional time, I think they are an awesome idea and a good way to keep students motivated. It promotes good behavior and it allows the teachers to thank the students for being the best that they can be. Yeah, it's nice to be appreciated as a teacher, but the students deserve appreciation and reward for the hard work they do as well.


last week of student teaching, here I come!