Week 13 was filled with many heart warming and inspirational moments with my students and teachers at Oley Valley. I got to experience my first FFA banquet, where I learned so much from the advisor standpoint and how much responsibility the officer team has in ensuring a successful night. I also finished teaching my Plant Science and Horticulture classes, which I have been teaching for about 2 months. They were a great group of students who always challenged me to provide them with hands-on instruction to learn from. As I near the end of my student teaching experience, I can say that my confidence in the greenhouse house has definitely increased from when I first started. This week has shown me how fast time goes by, as I realized I will be saying good bye to both my students and cooperating teachers very soon. I've learned so much about what makes a great program and I have made connections and friendships with everyone at Oley that I will definitely miss as soon as I leave.
On Tuesday, four Oley Valley FFA students competed in the Regional Public Speaking competition. A freshman, Leah Walters, placed 3rd and will be moving on in the Creed Speaking LDE. During the competition, I got to judge the Extemporaneous speakers alongside Nell Barbour, a fellow cohort member of mine. It was a great experience and the speakers all exemplified their passion and knowledge for agriculture. Mrs. Rice also set up to meet with another Ag teacher to pick up new animals for our program while at the competition. So, on the hour long car ride home, we got to hold 3 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs! Needless to say, the students had a great day at the competition and I am proud of all of them for furthering their passion in leadership and agriculture.
The FFA officer team has been preparing for their annual parent-member banquet over the course of the last few weeks, and their hard-work payed off this past Thursday. All of them did an amazing job of representing their chapter and showing all of their family and friends the awesome activities they do throughout the year. Students were also recognized for their achievements in many different competitions by receiving awards and plaques. I was asked to say the advisor role during the opening ceremony which I was happy to be included in. There were around 220 people in attendance and it was great to see how a banquet is ran from start to finish. Mr. Deysher and Mrs. Rice joke around saying that it takes 3 days to set-up and 1 hour to clean-up, which was definitely true on Thursday. The officers recognized me in front of the audience and thanked me for making learning fun and for being their student-teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better group of students to teach me about running an FFA chapter and for always making sure I was included in their activities and meetings. It was a really nice honor to be recognized alongside Mr. Deysher and Mrs. Rice and I am truly grateful for the students at Oley for showing me how an awesome program is run. The banquet quickly made me realize that I will being say bye to these students in two short weeks and I am going to be very sad to leave them, but I know they will do amazing things in their futures.
Week 14 is going to be an easy one for me because Oley gets the whole week off for Easter break. This time off will give me the opportunity to finish up some assignment for Penn State and make sure that my last week at Oley is a good one. I am in the process of updating Mrs. Rice's bulletin board to market the Ag Ed program. This has given me a chance to look back at all of the pictures I have taken through-out the span of my student teaching to aid in my reflection. I just can't believe how fast time went and I really had a great experience student teaching. During my last week, I will be teaching Food Science again and will only have 3 days of instruction. I am going teach them a micro-unit on microbiology so hopefully I can squeeze a quick lab in there. Although I am looking forward to graduation, I am not ready to say bye to everyone at Oley Valley yet!
Thanks,
Lauren :)
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