National Teach Ag Day!

"If you want to try something, now is the time to do it" 

Krista Pontius

What better way to celebrate National Teach Ag Day than with some professional development? Today, I virtually attended the Future Agriscience Teacher (FAST) Symposium. 

Here are some of the topics. programs, and resources I learned about.

Inquiry-Based Learning

If there was ever a champion of inquiry-based learning, it is Krista Pontius. She shared so many great resources from the AgI2 curriculum as well as ways she makes her classroom student-centered. I think inquiry-based learning will be difficult for me to implement because my natural instinct is to help students, even if that means giving them the answer. But that is the complete opposite of the purpose behind inquiry-based learning and Krista says to fight that desire with everything in you because the results will be AMAZING!

Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE)

As a student teacher, I will be teaching two CASE courses: Natural Resources & Ecology and Plant Science. While this is not a curriculum I entirely familiar with, it is my goal to become more familiar by the time my student teaching ends. However, I learned that CASE offers certification for preservice teachers at a reduced cost and I hope to take advantage of that opportunity.

Nearpod

Dr. Robin McLean (aka the Nearpod expert) shared many activities that can be conducted in live Nearpod sessions or student-paced Nearpod sessions. This will definitely come in handy as most schools are either hybrid or remote. Dr. McLean also showed us the teacher's view in Nearpod and there are a lot of great tools for immediately assessing which students are on track and which students may need extra attention. 

My Local Cooperative

Again - more resources! I hope to deep dive into these ready-to-go lessons and activities. I'm not quite sure where I will use these resources just yet, but I know it will fit somewhere. I hear so many times DO NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL, so here's to gathering these resources, determining what I can use in my classroom, and saving time and energy. I like the sound of that!

Ag Ed For All

Dr. Cleveland shared many insightful perspectives about how to create a more inclusive classroom in the midst of a global pandemic, time of racial unrest, and economic strain. 

We are all in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat"

I am excited to add a new book to my reading list, Culture Responsive Teaching and the Brain, which comes highly recommended by other FAST Symposium attendees and Dr. Cleveland.  

But perhaps the thing that left the biggest impression on me was the fact that there are at least 80+ other college seniors preparing for student teaching during this unpredictable time, just like me! It was refreshing to feel like I was not alone in this endeavor and that there were students, current agriculture teachers, and program managers across the nation that have my back. We will make this work, someway, somehow and I am ready to dig in and get to work.