Beyond the Classroom

This week was a short week at Kennard-Dale High School. Our students and I returned to school from Easter break on Wednesday, and on Friday I attended a conference at Penn State. While the week was short for me, it was still packed full of fun!

On Wednesday I began a new unit in animal care and management. I began a unit on poultry science. This is a unit of instruction that is a little out of my comfort zone as it is an animal science unit, which is not my strong point. However, I feel rather confident with the poultry unit because I have previous experience working in a layer hen poultry operation. As I began teaching this unit, I felt as though I was able to better connect to the unit because of my experience working at my relatives chicken house.

As a result of my connection to the industry I feel I am better able to convey an importance of learning this material to my students and I feel that they then have a greater understanding. I am looking forward to continue my unit of instruction on poultry. I am very excited to do numerous laboratory activities with my students and get them thoroughly involved in this unit.

As much as I enjoy being in front of the classroom, I also love the aspect of agriculture going beyond the classroom. Throughout my student teaching internship, I have found that being an agricultural educator does not end at 2:36 when the bell rings. The past few days Miss Smith and I have stayed after school to conduct officer interviews for next years officer team. In addition, on Thursday Miss Smith and I were accompanied by 5 students to attend the York County Agricultural Recognition Banquet presented by the York Country Agriculture Business Council.

At this banquet Miss Smith, myself and our students had the opportunity to engage in conversations with other agricultural educators, community members, local 4-H members and our Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding. We also had the opportunity to listen to a great speaker who shared her agricultural experiences with us. As Miss Smith and I walked away from the banquet I think we both felt refreshed and rejuvenated from the great speaker. I was so grateful to have attended the event with Miss Smith and our students.

I love all the time that I get to share with Miss Smith and our students. They remind me each day of the potential I have and the reason I love my job!

"Don't struggle to be a better teacher than everybody else. Simply be a better teacher than you ever thought you could be."- Robert John Meehan

~Ms. Timmons