Tech Talks in education!: Reflecting on the 2019 TLT Symposium

"Technology is the collection of techniques, skills and methods used in the production of goods or services or to accomplish an objective." Knowing this how can you connect the used of technology and a classroom?

On Saturday March 16th the #psuaged20 cohort had the opportunity to see the newest research emerging from Penn State at the Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium! This event was attended by hundreds of students and professors from the university to learn about how we can better our classrooms.

The morning was kicked off with learning about the best advancement in technology, duct tape! Dan Heath, co-author of "Made to Stick" was the keynote speaker and he discussed making things stick with students. From Heath's speech I was able to realize that information isn't going to stick with my students because I talked about the material. It is a patchwork of duct taped resources and experiences that I will give them the lessons I am trying to teach. These lessons might not even be specific content, but skills for the rest of their lives!

After Health's keynote we were able to attend several workshops to look at new technology being released! I attended Adaptive Learning: Multiple Perspectives Learned Through Pilots at Penn State and Open Educational Resources: Moving Beyond the Basics. Between these two workshops I gained insite on different websites to use differentiate the ways my students can receive materials such as textbooks. Helping students learn how to navigate these websites was also highlighted throughout the day since most students would need a way to be taught how to use the websites.

Throughout this experience the biggest take away for me was how important professional development is and that it doesn't always have to be with the same content focus as myself. I learned a lot from the engineer professors and how they are utilizing websites(that are designed with questions based on students content knowledge) to help with conversions for their students. The profession of teaching as a whole can learn from each other. We all can manipulate resources to help fit our needs but, don't all need to reinvent the wheel!

Finding My Place

The famous question I keep getting from family, friends, peers and professors is
 "where will you student teach?"

This question to many outside of the world of education seems like an easy question to answer however; it is more complex than just naming a random school.

In order to even come up with a list of schools I would like to visit I had to talk to reflect on what I wanted in a cooperating center. What will grow me as I transform into a more confident teacher?

I remembered an activity we did in class one night that made us look at strengths and weaknesses as it related to ourselves as professional educators. It was from that chart I started building characteristics of a cooperating teacher and school that will help me strengthen some skills and traits needed to be an educator.

From that class I realized I want a school that I can:
Work with middle schoolers
Gain confidence
Grow my content knowledge in plant science, agricultural mechanics and natural resources
Work with students in their Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE)
Work with students in FFA committees

With these basic starter set of goals that I want to get out of my student teaching internship I can now look at some programs and know what questions to ask when I make these visits.

Gave students customer service scenarios at Bald Eagle to react to!

I have started my visits at Bald Eagle Middle and High School and had a great day working with students in Mr.Biddle's class! After one visit down I am excited to check out a few more schools before making one of the hardest decision thus far in my education.

Who's Ms.Gagné

Hello there and welcome to my blog!

My name is Amanda and I am currently "tagged to teach Ag!" What does being "tagged to teach ag" mean?

This means that several years ago I decided that I wanted to be an agriculture teacher to help share my passion for agriculture with students!

It is one thing to say I want to be a teacher and another to hike that mountain to be a teacher. I started my hike back in 2014 as a state FFA officer for the Connecticut FFA Association where I sat on a committee with other FFA members from around our country and looked at how to get students from the "tagged" stage to the path to being an educator. From serving on committees while being in Connecticut to now being in my 3ish year at Penn State I have had quit the hike up this mountain to being an educator.

At Penn State I am part of the elite 11 graduating in the 2020 cohort from the agriculture and extension education major! I have had quite the experience at Penn State so far.

I have done many facilitation gigs such as going to Virginia to facilitate with Dr.Foster and Ms.Boltz (#Psuaged19) about parliamentary procedure, going to Indianapolis to facilitate my workshop "Superhero Strengths!" to hundreds of FFA members from across our nation and working with several state FFA associations to facilitate to FFA members focusing around several topics.

When I am not studying and focusing on teaching I spend a lot of time in the barn. I love teaching horseback riding lessons to children (especially equine therapy). I have a few beginner students currently when I am home. I grew up in a large city in Connecticut! I am about an hour from NYC and 30 minutes from Connecticut's capital.


I love learning about urban agriculture. When working with local high school agriculture programs I find it very interesting to watch students find a connection to agriculture that is not production! I feel this is a great way for students to find a passion for the agriculture industry and a hook to get them to want to learn more!

In this blog I will be sharing more about my journey to being the best agriculture teacher I can be and I hope you will join this journey with me!