Professional What?: The Ins and Outs of Professional Development

Jess Barnhart (#Psuaged20) and I in California
for the NAAE FAST Symposium

As a equestrian who wants nothing more than to become a better horseman I attend seminars at local fairs to learn more about technique and style from trainers. This past February/March I went to the World Horse Expo and spent countless hours watching a wide range of trainers talk about their method or philosophy for training and riding different disciplines. Everyone built off each other, had some varying in opinion but, overall I took something away from each workshop to try with my horse.

The education profession is no different. If I want to stretch, grow and morph into a better educator I cannot stop with the bare minimum of obtain my degree from Penn State and my level 1 teaching certification from Pennsylvania. I have to connect with others and be open minded of what I can take back to my classroom.

What professional Development have I done?

Penn State's Center for Professional Development does an excellent job of exposing pre-service teachers. I have attended several conferences including

PA FAST Symposium learning about Break Out Boxes

• PA Future Agriscience Teacher (FAST) Symposium
• NAAE(National Association of Agricultural Educators) FAST Symposium
• Several on campus agricultural workshops through the Penn State College of Agricultural Science
• Domestic Study Away in Montana to engage with agricultural teachers, students and business
• PAAE(Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators) Summer Conference 
• FFA Alumni Regional Conference 
• SAE for All 
• Teach Ag! Twitter Chats
• Penn State Teaching and Learning Symposiums 
• I will be attending a CASE AFNR Institute this summer.

Professional Development throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since my student teaching journey has switched online I have been engaging in online professional development. NAAE has been offering online webinars focused around different topics such as teaching about local cooperatives and teaching agricultural mechanics online.

Facilitating a leadership workshop in Montana 

These webinars are the perfect spot for a pre-service teacher to not only take away some great instructional materials but, to make connections within the organization. I plan to attend the NAAE Region IV teach chat later this week for the same reason. I currently do not have my own classroom and my time at Weiser is coming to an end quickly but, I am building relationships with others which is just as important for a young professional entering the classroom. Other educators are just as valuable to me as the content in the workshop.

Agriculture educators do an amazing job of staying connected via the Ag Ed Discussion Lab on Facebook, the Communities of Practice on the NAAE Website and on twitter. I see the value in connecting with these individuals in the profession now so, I can become part of the network of people who can help other young educators entering the profession down the line or get support for myself as I enter my first classroom next year.

I have also engaged in other unique forms of professional development since the pandemic. I have had the opportunity to gain some "badges" on FlipGrid by connecting with educators from across the US who use the app. I also was able to engage in a twitter chat to help share how I use FlipGrid and see other uses for the app.

Finally I have been getting some agricultural content certifications through Penn State Extension. Professional development is not just to improve my teaching skills but, to better learn content. These certifications are helping me gain content knowledge in my weaker areas such as plant science, entomology and forestry.

Final thought on professional development 

Photo from the NAAE National Convention 2019 

No one is ever "developed" enough. That is the same mind set as I do not need to be a life long learner. I value professional development and the different opportunities I have been given so far. Throughout student teaching I either used lessons I had learned while at the NAAE Convention, I got from other educators on communities of practice or from my cooperating teacher.

There is no reason to re-invent the wheel all the time. The way to learn about these cool ideas that others have are mainly though professional development webinars. We are blessed in agricultural education to have several groups supporting teacher professional development and I cannot wait to continue to seek these opportunities throughout my teaching career.

Week 14: How I Got to my Why

Growing up with anxiety when you gave no idea what it is or why you feel that way is the worst. You are constantly unsure of why you have the emotions you do. When no coping skills are learned you tend to obtain other mental illnesses such as eating disorders or OCD in your adult/teen years because you think some of those behaviors can mask the emotions being felt.

Confidence Building Exercise 

When we connect children with a wide arrange of mental illness to horses you can help them process what is going on in their life without rehashing out traumatic experiences. When I was in high school, my SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) was working with rescue horses and assisting with therapeutic riding. Since schools have been closed due to COVID-19 I have been able to spend more time doing what I love, teaching therapeutic riding lessons. 

Therapeutic riding and working with the younger kids on the farm is what made me want to become an educator. Watching a student pick their horse for lessons, canter their first lap and conquer things in the saddle that they didn't think they could is the best feeling in the world to me

. It brings me joy that I get to work with students again on the farm again. 

What does therapeutic riding mean?

I work with a range of children from ages 4-18. Their first lesson is them picking the horse in the field. We do meditation in order for the horse to pick the patient. A horse will pick up on body language and personality. When we relax ourselves and open ourselves up to other a horse picks up on it and will come to you. Once the patient and the horse have chosen each other we can then work on trust building, confidence, focus and much more through leading the horse through patterns. Each day we have a goal of what we want to accomplish or realize through the work with the horse. Doing this will help add coping skills to the patients tool box as they overcome challenges with the horse. We can look at why and how we overcome those challenges and connect it to challenges in our own life.

My clientele?

Walking patterns in theraputic riding

I am currently working through the program with 4 individuals. I have some who just started and are picking their horses and some who are getting into the riding stages of therapeutic riding. At the moment everything is by appointment in order to cut down on people at the farm during the pandemic.

Connection to my student teaching internship?

I became an educator to help students who are at their lowest points realize they can. I want to turn the "I can't moments" into "I can moments." I realize these opportunities will not necessarily be my daily routine throughout my career but, is a main reason I wanted to pursue education. Working with my clients I am picking up signs of different metal illnesses and understanding how the brain of that child works. By having this information I can better help students in my classroom who might need a little extra motivation to get going.

Week 13: The Main Entree

Cooking is not one of my strong suites. I have been known to successfully burn a grilled cheese every time I cook them but, since the quarantine I have been cooking my family dinner every night.

My sister Christina and I

My sister is definitely more "kitchen oriented" than me. She thinks of everything from each ingredient measured perfectly, what ingredients we need from the store and more importantly the meal itself. Over the past 3 weeks she has taught me a ton about preparing the main meal plus the sides. 

 My sister focuses on the the main course with appetizers (usually a cheese platter), the sides and dessert. I mainly focus on that main meal. I want the chicken parmesan to be perfect and everything else will fall into place. 

Now how does cooking connect to lessons is a valid question you may be asking at this point. When I had 80 minutes with my students everyday I was focused on different activities that all added up to make the students have several take aways from the lesson. Now I am focused on the main parts of the content.

What did I teach?

This week I continued entomology with the Introduction to Agriculture classes by having them watch an insect pinning demonstration by Mr.Serfass, having them investigate insect body parts and common pests.

What did I learn?

With everything being taught online I need to make sure more than ever that my students are getting the big picture. If they are not getting the big picture then I cannot expect them to learn or retain other parts of the content.

What do I mean by this? I cannot expect them to memorize methods of pest control and have them care about pest management if we do not look at the impact it has to an industry that they care about.

This is something that I never thought of till now or at least consciously thought of. Since switching to online I have had to pull the main ideas out of the units and teach that instead of everything I had wanted to do in a unit. I had to be flexible with what was being handed in and as long as the big picture of an assignment was taken away by the student that was a win.

Goals for next week?

Next week we have 2 days of teaching and then spring break. I want to take the days I have for spring break and obtain a Penn State Extension Certification in an area of agriculture that I am not as familiar with to help me grow as a professional.

 

 

Week 12: How Do You Build the House?

As a State FFA Officer I had the ability to host some cool workshops. When it came to communication I always used the same activity.

The House without clear directions

I had 2 members facing away from each other. One member was the drawler and one was the master builder. The master builder would describe a house and the drawler would draw the house. 

The directions seemed clear: Draw one line in the center of the page, then draw another line off that one to the right. Then draw a line off that one straight up. Then draw another line to the left. Then draw a triangle over all the lines. Then draw a rectangle in between lines 1 and 3 that you drew. Draw a circle on the new rectangle and boom you have a house! 

Although reading that I am picturing a drawling of a simple house it never came out that way. 

This week I really got to hone in on one of 5 skills we discussed about being an effective teacher. Last semester, we deep dived into 5 principles of effective teaching and clarity was one of them.

What did I teach this week?

This week I started my entomology unit online with 2 sections of Introduction to Agriculture. I used online resources such as Flip Grid, Google Slides and a modified lab to get started with what insects are, insect ID and insect adaptations.

What did I take away?

• Up until know I was able to answer all questions by a simple hand raise. I tend to forget small details on assignments such as where to hand it in. This week i was able to catch myself a little more doing this because everything has to be electronic.
• I also had a day or 2 where I had to redo my instruction set because it was not as clear as it could be. Overall, this is a new challenge for everyone because it is easy when i can show students where to find resources and materials before they start but, now I can not do that as easily. 
• Lessons/assignments with the fewer steps or transferring from several places are the best.

 Goals for this week?

The House with clear directions

• Have someone in my house read my directions before posting them and see if they can figure out how to do the assignment. This way it adds less confusion on the student end and is someone who has no idea how my class is set up.
• Host more opportunities for conferences that I can either do a small lesson online at or allow students a chance to ask questions.
• Sign off more frequently. I have found that since I am now quarantined in my house and teaching from my house I do not really "sign out" of schoology or my email. I have this idea that I need to respond back right away even if it is 7 or 8 at night. I always struggled with work-life balance but, I really now need to come up with a system to sign off for a little bit.

Week 11: Distance Learning

What is harder than student teaching you ask? Student teaching from 249 miles away, to an online audience when the world looks like it is about to end...

How has Conrad Weiser adapted to schools closing?

With the state mandate to close all public schools for 2 weeks, Conrad Weiser has switched to an online learning platform. We are currently posting materials via Schoology for our students and they have 24 hours to log on and start working. We are taking attendance via the use of a discussion board and holding student accountable through grading assignments.

What does an online lesson look like?

At midnight everyday a new folder unlocks and my students have till 10 am the following day to go on and respond to a discussion board posting to be marked "here" for attendance. I use the discussion board either as a "bellwork" or as the place for students to provide their thoughts on something they read.

Over the past few days I have tried a few things such as students connect CDEs to the class content, a transgenic manipulation simulator and Nearpod. Nearpod seems to be the most successful at this time although there are some glitches at times.

My goal is to keep pushing out the new content while being mindful that the students are essentially now teaching themselves the content.

Ways to improve my online classroom

I normally teach for 80 minutes and have time to achieve 4-5 objectives. Moving online has shortened that to about 1-2 objectives posted a day. The students are now teaching themselves the material and it becomes harder to accomplish all the content we would get done as a class in the virtual environment.

I want to try to incorporate different online sources such as Pear Deck, virtual field trips and FlipGrid to make it more interactive for students to want to engage in the content. I think providing an article/video with a "game" to help reenforce the material is a good way to  sure I am limiting how much content I am putting out but, helping make sure the content gets chunked and started to be place into the long term memory.

Collaborate with other educators. It is important to remember none of us are alone and we all have similar struggles. Using social media, webinars and other resources online to connect with other educators at this time is essential to help better prepare myself to teach online.It is a new and scary environment for all of us but, as a profession will navigate through it.

Week 10:Calming the Curiosity

When students walk into my classroom I want them to know a few things:

1. I hear their thoughts and concerns 
2. I value their opinion
3. I want them to think outside the box. The sky is the limit.

This week the biggest concern in my students minds was focused around the Coronavirus. That was the first question I was asked at the start of every class, "Do you think we will close?" and "What is going on with the virus?" were two main questions I would get. 

This week I learned really fast how to address their concerns, value their input but, curve their curiosity.

What did I teach?

Intro to Ag playing Journey 2050

Introduction to Agriculture: This week I used Journey 2050, an online farming simulator, to teach about agronomy, international agriculture and sustainability. We would start class by discussing a topic such as plant nutrients. Then we would play the level on the simulator that coordinated with the topic (there was 5 levels) and then we compared the countries the simulator highlighted. The simulator allowed them to farm in Kenya, India and Canada. After discussing the countries we would connect it back to their lives in Berks County, PA.

Current Topics in Agriculture: This week I wrapped up the vet science unit by doing fecal exams, parasite ID, suturing and horse evaluation. The class did a review using Kahoot! and Gimkit to study for their exam that was Friday. I had the exam set up identical to the vet science contest, minus the team event.

Parliamentary Procedure CDE: Over the past few weeks I have been coaching a Parliamentary Procedure CDE team. This week we deep dived into motions and started doing mock meetings.

Viewing a fecal exam for parasites

What did I learn?

What I learned this week was not direct take aways from the lessons I taught. The best practices I learned this week was from other things happening in the world that affected my classroom.

1. Be honest: I found that instead of not answering questions it was better to be honest with the information I had. Rumors were flying around the building and it eased their minds that I was reading emails directly from administration (with Mr.Serfass present for questions). This was the students knew what to expect and were never blind sided.
2. Empathy: I always knew teachers needed to be empathetic but, this was a good situation to exercise this. Instead of shutting down conversations I let them ask questions and realized that they have never lived through something like this (neither have I) but, I am an adult that they can trust and I should be understanding of their fears and emotions on the situation. I shared with my class that they are not alone as I fear for my parents who have poor immune systems back home. This allowed them to realize it is okay to be worried.
3. Not all the lessons I will teach will relate to agriculture: I have always heard that as a teacher you teach other skills that are not necessarily academic. This week was one of those weeks. As rumors progressed it was a great time to discuss reliable sources and social media etiquette. We talked about not sharing screenshots of text messages that we are unsure are true on social media, how to get the most up to date information and what was going on when Pa called a "state of emergency." Overall, the conversations were short but, helped teach the students about what was going on in their lives and our world. 

Goals for next week:

Continuous versus non continuous sutures

 

1. Clarity: I foresee us not having in person classes next week and need to provide clear instructions for online learning to occur. I have laid out lessons that I can do in person or online already and look forwards to implementing either.

SAE Fridays: An Inside Look

The pathway for SAE for All

Agricultural Experience (SAE) is an essential part of student success in my agricultural program. I have students working on a large range of projects that are helping them connect agriculture content and essential workplace skills. Some students are conducting research using the wet/dry lab, animal rooms and greenhouse, some students are working at home or with a business with animals or plants and some are looking to start their own business.

SAEs are student lead and teacher managed project that helps connect my class to possible careers. Since several of my students have their projects at school, I give them one day a week to work on their projects. While the students are working, I walk around and meet with them one on one.

How does my class look on SAE Fridays?

On Fridays I split the class by doing a review of what we talked about this week, usually a Kahoot! or Gimkit, and then we break out to work on SAE projects. My students really value the time they have to work with their projects. I allow students to work in any part of the agriculture department. As they are working I filter through the rooms and meet with students individually.

The Meeting

As students are working I go around and meet one on one with them. I am mainly seeing where they are at in terms or research or progress since the last time and how I can help.

This looks different for each student. I have 3 students tearing down small gas engines. For these students I might spend some time helping them ID parts and function of those parts. For some students doing research in the lab I might see what materials they need from me and what their procedure is. I have several students still exploring a topic they want to dive into with agriculture so, I might ask them what they read this week and how it relates to their career goals.

The 3-Circle Model of Agricultural Education

Keeping students on task

Everyone is at a different stage of their project. Some research is on hold while others are in their prime of their experiment. It is important to keep everyone engaged during this time we are working on SAE.

I currently have a class assignment where students are reading a scientific journal of their choosing and summarizing the methods and results from that research. Ideally this article would connect to their SAE. If they are at a pause in their research then I allow them to work on the journal for this week.
 I also want to start incorporating some ideas of the SAE for All guide in the foundational SAE stages that I saw while at the NAAE Conference. This included having students do mock interviews, apply for jobs and work on resume/cover letters.

My SAE Vision

SAE is an essential part of agriculture education. I use this piece to have students learn valuable skills needed for the workplace. They keep records that are graded on the Agriculture Experience Tracker (AET) website. They have written a report on their project as part of a professional skills unit to show how what they are doing can connect to a possible career. I see SAE as a way for me to connect students to the world outside of the walls of my agriculture department although most of the research and projects occur in my agricultural department.

I have found that I can be very hands off with students and their projects. If I let them become curious, they amaze me. The students come up with amazing ideas for their project and it is important for me to show them how they can achieve that goal. Not every project idea is possible but, if they can think of it then I want to see how we can get as close to their idea as possible.