Where is the Time Going?

Another week in the books at my favorite place, Kennard-Dale High School. This week was a short week at Kennard-Dale, but as always it was a great week with our students.

This week offered a slower week, with less activities after school each day. This week was great for me, because I actually felt very prepared for, I think the first time all semester. I went into the week with a lot of my classes already prepared and that really took a lot of stress off me this week.

One of my favorite activities this week was creating a lab activity for my students in Animal Care and Management. My students get tired of taking notes and I get that. I have been struggling with creating fun and different instructional activities, except on Monday I came in with a new idea and it worked well. I wanted my students to learn about the various aspects of pork production as we were concluding our swine unit. So, I decided instead of me standing up and teaching my students through a power point, I would provide them with information, and they would have to read through and find the important information that was essential for their learning.

I created 6 stations around the classroom. Some stations had an article that students had to read through, and one station even offered a chrome book and instructions to a national pork organization that students had to check out. I provided my students with a note sheet that they had to complete by the end of class as they made their way through each station.

Overall, I enjoyed this activity as I believe my students enjoyed the act of just being out of their seat and moving around the classroom. Creating different instructional activities is something I put a lot of thought into and something I hope to continue through my teaching career.

Each day at Kennard-Dale is a day of growth and a new beginning however, this week brought one aspect of teaching to an end. This week was the end of our third marking period at Kennard-Dale. Our students got out of school early on Thursday, and Ms. Smith and I stayed at school to complete our end of the marking period duties. We finished putting grades in our online data base as well as provided comments to our students for their progress thus far. This was a great process to help with, as it allowed me to be accountable of the evaluation and assessments that I am taking of our students as well as identify areas in which I hope to help some students improve on.

Next week will offer another short week at KD, however I know it will be a great week with great success. As the weeks progress and my time as KD gets shorter and shorter I find that I am growing more attached to my family at KD. I dread the day of when I eventually have to leave our students and Ms. Smith.

But I try not to think about that too much yet!

Ms. Timmons

Changing Lives

On March 10th, I had the opportunity to accommodate 5 students to our local public speaking contest in York County. In Ms. Smith and I's FFA Leadership class, Ms. Smith required our 5 students to participate in a public speaking contest. So as part of our class, our 5 students were ready to give their speeches at our local CDE.

This is something, I admire about Ms. Smith in which she strives to create a connection of CDE's into our classroom instruction, and she does a great job of this. This is a quality I hope to take with me to my own program someday.

Ms. Smith was unable to attend this event, so I as well as a teachers-aid took our 5 students to the contest.

This was one of the most impactful events of my entire student teaching experience. At this event, I had the opportunity to lead our students and to encourage them, maybe when they needed it most. Ms. Smith and I had worked with our 5 students to help them select a topic for their speech as well as guide them in preparing and practicing their speech. I felt confident in our students when we left for the competition on that Thursday afternoon.

When I speak publicly, I am always nervous. I get nervous about little random things everyday, so I could only imagine the nerves that our students were feeling on the van ride to the contest. As we were driving I felt it was important to pump our students up and to make them feel confident in themselves by praising them and giving them positive reinforcements before they gave their speeches. We were ready to go! Our students were ready to go and to share their voice with others.

When we arrived at the contest, I guided our students to the proper room and we all signed in and were all ready to go. This is when the nerves really set in, when we just sit and anxiously wait for each contestant name to be called. I continuously told our student "You got this! You are ready! You WILL do great!" As each of our students went one at a time to give their speech, I felt like an anxious mother (how about older sister) waiting to hear good news. Anticipation gets the best of me, dang-it!

Finally, all of our students were done giving their speeches and it was time to get results. We had 3 students in senior prepared, and two students in conservative speaking. So I went with our students to hear the results and as they were standing up front, I could see the anticipation getting to them as well. Finally the results were given.

In senior prepared out of 6 total contestants, first place was earned by our student Lydia. Fourth and fifth place  was earned by Jenna, and Bailey. I can not express the happiness I felt when I heard their names being called in that order. They did so well!!

In conservative speaking, Brooke earned first place and Shayna earned second place. Again, the proud teacher moment took over. So Lydia, Brooke, and Shayna are moving on to the next contest on April 5th.

I'm not sure who was more relieved when the speeches were over. Either myself or our students giving the speeches. I was anxious for them to find out how successful they truly are.

As we left the competition with our heads held high, I have to say how proud I am of our students in which they congratulated the other contestants in each of their categories as well as thanked the judges for their comments and feedback. (Again a trait of Ms. Smith's leadership that inspires me each day)

On our way back to school, we had family conversations. Family conversations are conversations we always have in the van or when we are all sitting at the dinner table together. It is just a time of reflection as our little family and a time to just be in the moment with each other (again credits to the wonderful ASmitty). This particular family conversation was really beneficial to me, because I was able to lead it and guide our students to really reflect on their experience and see the value of winning and losing.

This was a turning point for me, because reflection is often an item on my "to-do" list that sometimes gets missed. However as an instructor and a leader to our students I want to demonstrate to them the importance of reflection, refinement and changing the future.

I'm proud of our students. And at this point, I feel as though they are changing my life as much as I am hoping to be changing their lives. They make me love what I do each day. They make me find the confidence in myself. They make me strive to be a better leader for them. They make me better in everything I do. Mostly, they make me want to keep changing lives each day!

I feel truly blessed to be at Kennard-Dale with Abby Smith and to be learning from her, with the hope of being half the amazing agricultural teacher she is one day!

~Ms. Jenna Timmons

All the Journey's of FFA

Last Sunday, Ms. Smith and I loaded up 7 of our students and headed to Harrisburg of the State Legislative Leadership Conference (SLLC). I have only attend once, and that was as a facilitator last year. So this year was a new adventure with Ms. Smith and our students.

I enjoy the overall purpose of SLLC and how it really teaches our students to have a say in the legislation that occurs within our community and state. At this conference each of our students were given a 'bill' that they were going to describe and place on the house or senate floor for debate. Our students enjoyed this process in which they got to take a stand and fight for something that was of relevance to them.

One of our students discussed the accessibility of hunting in handicap equipment. Another student talked about wind turbines and the acreage required for them to operate on.

On of my students and I's favorite parts of SLLC was community service on Monday. Ms. Smith and I took our students to the Hershey Gardens and we were able to serve the community through clearing off an embankment. The embankment that we cleaned off will be covered with a beautiful grass allowing for a beautiful environment to add to the gardens. I was proud of my students for their willingness and commitment to serve others through this activity. I was proud of my students for taking time to not think about themselves and their needs for a few hours, and instead help others. This was a great day for bonding and serving.

Additionally, on Tuesday Ms. Smith, myself and our students got to meet with our local representatives for breakfast as well as we visited our representative at the Capital. This was great for our students to become acquainted with the individuals who speak and represent us. I enjoyed being able to have conversations with these two individuals as well as know that they are here for us. And they are trying to create a better environment for our future generations. I know our students enjoyed just being able to make a connection with our representatives have them hear our voices for a few hours.

Also while at the Capital, we received a tour of the building and got to see where all decisions are made within the capital building at Harrisburg. This was fun for myself as well as our students because our students usually do not leave Fawn Grove, so this was an eye opening opportunity for them to become involved in a greater community.

I always enjoy going on FFA trips with Ms. Smith and our students. I love the extra time outside of class that I am able to spend with our students as well as with Ms. Smith. All the time we spend together makes me feel more at home at Kennard-Dale and with our students and Ms. Smith. I am so thankful for each day and for all the memories I am making.

~Ms. Timmons
"Each day is an opportunity to grow. Each day is an opportunity to touch a life. Each day is a blessing."

The Busy Life of an Agricultural Teacher

Another busy week completed at Kennard-Dale High School. Another week of loving what I get to do each day with Ms. Smith and our students.

This week held a lot of events for the Kennard-Dale Agricultural program. I'm learning how to adapt and move on my feet as I continue through my teaching experience. On Tuesday, our power at school went out during first period. I had to learn how to teach my second period, Vet Science class with no power. I am so thankful to have power on a daily basis. Because of the power outage, students were dismissed early. Ms. Smith and I spent the rest of our day preparing for the upcoming week and getting materials for our teacher appreciation day on Wednesday.

Wednesday offered a very, very busy day. During our Animal Care and Management classes, a student of ours, Lydia, prepared her Teach Ag Essay Contest lesson and she presented her lesson to our two classes. Lydia taught our students about swine nutrition. Lydia has raised swine for the past 8 years, so she is basically our class expert. It was great  for me to work with Lydia to help her prepare her lesson plan and materials as well as be the "teacher" in the front of the classroom. Lydia did an excellent job with her lesson! She provided our students with notes and a presentation on various nutrition based on a swine's stage in life. She then conducted a feed tag activity using real feed tag labels. Overall, I was so proud of Lydia for her ability to teach an impactful, yet educational lesson to our students.

Also on Wednesday my studets in Horticulture II had a guest speaker visit our class and give us some guidance on our landscape design.
We invited a local landscape architect to help us create a design for our school courtyard. I as well as our students gained valuable insight from our guest and we will be having Ms. Yost visit us again in a few weeks to help us continue through implementation of our landscape design.

By Wednesday afternoon our FFA student's treated our faculty to an ice cream bar to show our appreciation for all our faculty and staff do at Kennard-Dale. I love that  Ms. Smith sees the value in others and shares that with our students to allow our students to serve others.

Continuing through the day,Wednesday evening lead to an advisory board meeting. This was the first advisory board meeting that I have ever attended. From this meeting I gained the magnitude and importance the community has on our Kennard-Dale agricultural department. I liked that we met with our advisory board to discuss improvements that could be made to our program, as well as identifying needs that our community has of our agricultural students. Additionally, I found the it useful to use our community members as resources for information which can be very impactful to our program.

One other note to make. I compliment Ms. Smith for all she does each day. However, on Wednesday night she demonstrated the leadership that I feel an agriculture teacher should possess. Ms. Smith demonstrated to me the importance of sharing our love for agriculture and our dedication to agriculture, to our administration. If we as agriculture teachers want to make a difference I believe we have to be willing to make that impact and make the difference ourselves, and Ms. Smith does this each day!

I felt inspired meeting with individuals who have the same love of agriculture as myself and have the same trust for our future agricultural generation in our students at Kennard-Dale.

We concluded our week with planting seeds and cutting in our greenhouse. I love being able to plant the seeds and eventually reap the benefits of a beautiful flower in a couple of weeks. My desire after this week, as every week is that I am planting a seed here at Kennard-Dale and in some way making a difference for beautiful growth in the future.

~Ms. Timmons

"It's my job to help all my students belong...This means part of my job is to educate the wider community about the needs of a child who may be perceived as 'different' to help them become embraced as part of the community." - Gayle Hernandez

Crazy Beautiful Life of an Agricutlural Teacher

Another week of joys and struggles in my favorite book of student teaching. This week was yet again another crazy week for myself, Ms. Smith and our students at Kennard-Dale. We had a lot of after school activities this week, and that lead to a lot of fun, excitement, and stress.

I love this craziness, in which I feel as though I function best when life is crazy and there are so many opportunities to look forward to. I also feel that during this time of craziness, is the best time for me to realize the things that matter most about teaching and the amazing support system I have in my cooperating teacher.

The beginning of this week was great! On Monday, Ms. Smith and I took seven students to a local butcher shop in our country for our meats evaluating CDE. This was the first time I have ever participated in this event, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Ms. Smith taught me how to determine the cut grades for the various cuts of meat as well as gain some valuable insight from the butcher himself. Our students also did well, which is always exciting.

As the week continued, Ms. Smith and I conducted an SAE visit with one of our students at her horse farm. (More to come on that fun adventure). We also had a benefit dinner for our FFA Chapter at a local restaurant. That was an enjoyable evening, just being able to spend time with our students and their families outside of the classroom. I have found the truth in building a rapport with my students to gain their respect and trust. I feel that as I spend more time with our students we are continuing to build great rapport and each day, I feel more at home at Kennard-Dale.

By mid-week my energy crashed and so did a lesson. This was a great turning point for me in my development as a teacher, however in the midst of the moment I did not find it to be beneficial at all. I was teaching a CASE lesson to our Intro to Natural Resource Management and Agriculture course when it all fell apart. I struggle with CASE curriculum. I find that it is hard for me to read a lesson plan, determine how I will teach it to our students, and then figure out how the whole lesson will come together.

On this particular day, our students were doing an ecosystem activity in which each student was an organism and they had to demonstrate how producers and consumers make the entire system function. I struggled with understanding the activity and I feel that I did not explain it very well to my students. The end result was an activity that did not offer the correct explanation of the energy cycle through an ecosystem. With my frustrations, I concluded class offering to my students that we will simply re-work the activity and re-do it tomorrow.

After class ended I confided in Ms. Smith and she offered the simplest advice that meant the most. Ms. Smith reminded me that not every lesson is going to be perfect, not every lesson is going to work. That is part of the process, that is part of the learning. As simple as this is, it was an important lesson for me to remember.

I feel that my struggle this week not only made me stronger as a teacher but it made me stronger by breaking me down. After my failed lesson I was able to put myself together finish the day and then the next day, our students, myself, and Ms. Smith re-worked our activity and everything fell together just fine.

The week continued to get better, as our Horticulture 2 students are preparing to plant seeds in our greenhouse. And we ended the week, receiving our strawberry fundraiser orders. Even with my setback this week, I am thankful for the journey and for all the knowledge that I am gaining through this amazing experience!

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart"- Colossians 3:23

~Ms. Timmons