My Ag Ed Journey

Back to School Week Fall 2019 RTL Reflection This has been an exciting and stressful week back to school. During this week we did our first pre-teaching lesson of the semester. I was feeling alright before my scheduled lesson but as soon as I started my mind went blank and I forgot what I wanted to say. I knew what I needed to say but I felt like I couldn’t get the words out. Through my classmates and instructors, I found that I did better than I thought I did. I know that I still have a ways to go but I look forward to seeing how I progress through this semester. One of the things that I did notice rewatching my lesson is that I appeared less stressed than I felt during the lesson. However, in spite of this, I had trouble deciding what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. Due to this, the main question that I have is how do I keep myself calm while I am giving a lesson? Even when I feel I know the material well or I am simply very interested in the topic I have troubl...

Why agricultural education? This is a question that I have been asked quite a few times already and I know I will be asked again. As I mentioned in a previous post I did not grow up with an agricultural background. I have always been interested in animals, plants and the world around me in general but I didn’t take part in agriculture-related activities growing up. This is due to myself and my family being misinformed on what different programs, such as 4-H, involved. As I’ve continued on through school I have learned more about the different forms of agricultural education and I have come to the conclusion that this is what I want to do. While I have not always known what I wanted to do there were two things that I knew for sure. I wanted to do something that in some way involves animals and I wanted to help people. At first, I had thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, as I’d thought this would be the best way to accomplish these goals. And while it is true that I would be working w...

Going to the TLT symposium was an interesting and fun experience. Attending talks about different ways professionals are using technology to help their students learn was very informative. While I did know that technology is useful for education, I didn’t realize how many uses there were for technology. There are also so many ways to use the same type of technology for slightly different purposes. I enjoyed getting to learn how technology has been used to create a better learning environment. Both by providing easy access to educational material and the opportunity for students to experience what they are learning about. Similarly, to the professionals presenting at the TLT symposium, professionals in the agriculture field also use technology to spread awareness for what they do. By using some of the technologies presented at the symposium I think that we can further agricultural outreach, literacy and awareness. While none of the technologies discussed were directly related to agr...

What do I want in a cooperating center? Prior to this semester I hadn’t thought about it very much, and I’m still not entirely sure exactly what I am looking for. However, there are a few things that I know I would like in a cooperating center. The first is a well-rounded program. I am still learning about agricultural sciences myself and I would like to gain experience teaching the different components of agriculture. By student teaching at a program that has a variety of subject areas I also hope to increase my understanding and comfort in teaching these subjects. Second as I did not come from a school that had an agriculture program, I would like to go to a cooperating center that has a good FFA chapter and does well in SAE. I have learned a bit about how FFA chapters and SAE programs are conducted but I have yet to see one in action. I feel that seeing how a teacher runs these components of agricultural education and assisting the teacher will help me to learn how to run these ...

Hello everyone, my name is Abbie Smith and I am an Agricultural and Extension Education major at The Pennsylvania State University. I am excited yet worried about my future as an Agricultural Educator. I am hoping to one day become an excellent teacher-- someone that my students know they can come to if they are having problems in school. I know that it will take a lot of hard work to get to that point, but I am ready and willing to work towards this goal. I’ve always known that I wanted to do something that helps people in a way, but I was never quite sure what to do. At first, I wanted to be a veterinarian, but I quickly decided that wasn’t for me. I doubt I’d have the stomach for it. I kicked around some other ideas as I got a little older: an architect, an environmental engineer, and even a wildlife conservation officer for a short amount of time. Later, during my time at the DuBois branch campus of The Pennsylvania State University, I realized that what I really wanted to d...

Rare  Marine Mammal on the Road to Extinction For my first blog post I wanted to inform you about the bleak future of an endangered species you may not have heard of. This species is the vaquita ( Phocoena sinus ), which, according to the World Wildlife Fund, remained unknown to science until 1958, and little over a half a century later is in danger of extinction (Vaquita). The vaquita is the smallest cetacean; marine mammals such as dolphins, porpoises and whales, in the world, measuring around 5 feet in total length (Goldfarb, 2016). A study from the Porpoise Conservation Society estimates that there were around 5,000 vaquitas in the 1930’s, with a ninety percent decline between 2011 and 2016 alone. In fact, more than half of the population has been lost in the past three years alone (Save). The vaquitas population decline is not helped by how specific its habitat is, vaquitas are only found in the northern most part of the Gulf of California where the waters are fertile. Acco...