SAE's They are important!

Supervised agriculture experiences aka SAE's are a crucial part of developing students in agriculture. SAE's not only allow the students to have autonomy over their own projects, but it also gives them hands on real world experiences that they will always remember for the rest of their lives. while with Ms. Russell I went to the Huntington county fair. I did this visit on August 5th. This was the end result for multiple of her student's SAE'S. There were students there to show animals they had raised and projects they had done in order to submit and be judged. While shadowing Ms. Russell I felt a really strong sense of community that she had built with the students, the parents, and the people around her. It almost seemed as though there wasn't a person there that she did not know. She went around ensuring that her students were prepared to show their animals in the show ring.

Before they had got to this point Ms. Russell had gone to a lot of her student's homes and made sure that their animals were ready for fair. everything from hogs, to goats, to cows. making sure they had correct weights and could qualify. You could tell that she had a sense of pride in her students and was very happy to be there with them. She knows a lot about animal sciences and how an animal should look, weigh, feel, and behave in a show ring. You can tell that she has many years of experience with students. However, teachers are life long learners and even though she knew the majority of what was being done she not only taught, but learned from her students as well.

                                                   
To see the youth putting in effort for something they worked for and are proud of isn't something you can find in a simple classroom setting. these projects took hours of labor and record keeping in order to get them to the point that they needed to be at in order to present their SAE projects at the fair. SAE's add a sense of support between the student, their family, and the Agriculture educator. SAE's allow parents to incorporate themselves into their child's education to some extent.

Also, while at the fair the FFA did one of their fundraisers which was a raffling off a tractor that they had restored in the shop at the school. it came to them in pieces and they put it together. To see what students put into projects, both with SAE and FFA involvement is impressive.