Week Fourteen: A Final Farewell

Well, here we are. If you've been reading along with me along my student teaching journey, you know that the last thirteen weeks of my life has had its ups and downs. Get comfy and settle in, because this blog is going to be a little lengthy, this is a recap of week fourteen and an overall reflection of my student teaching internship. 

If you asked me in January, this blog post felt years away; however, by Wednesday this week, I was dreading Friday afternoon and ultimately this blog post. I did not want it to come so quickly, but time does not slow down for anyone, especially not a student teacher!

Making blue and gold floral arrangements

Week fourteen was a busy one, maybe even the busiest one yet! Monday and Tuesday were spent prepping for the FFA banquet on Wednesday night. For the Plant Science class, that meant making the floral arrangements for on the stages, for the FFA officers, it meant memorizing their speaking parts, and for the advisors, it meant gathering last-minute supplies, selecting award winners, and working out the logistics of the event. 

Tuesday came as a surprise to everyone and was a virtual instruction day! Yay... This was certainly not an ideal situation, but it is better to be safe than sorry so the students and I stayed home as the school finished its contact tracing protocol.

Miss Guise's banquet survival kit

Wednesday rolled around and the contact tracing was finished so sports and after-school activities could resume, which was good news for the FFA banquet. Officers began to arrive around noon to decorate and practice their lines, by 5:30 we were ready for guests to arrive. I often get called the mom of my cohort, so of course, I was prepared when three students had runs in their pantyhose (Dr. Curry and Dr. Ewing, that's what the clear nail polish is for 😉).

I had never seen an FFA banquet prior to Wednesday night, but it was a really neat experience. I did not expect to feel my heart swell with pride for my students as they received their awards and were recognized for their FFA and academic achievements, but at the moment I realized how mothers must feel when their children graduate or take their first steps. 

A big thank you to the Cumberland Valley FFA members for inducting me as an honorary member of their chapter - I can now say I'm an FFA member! The officers also secretly assembled this beautiful parting gift and I cannot wait to hang it in my classroom. 

Rounding out the week on Thursday and Friday my students wrapped up their service project making breast cancer awareness masks in honor of a fellow CV teacher. This was neat to see this project conclude as we had the final GLAGreads (see my last blog post for more information) meeting talking about the book Teach Boldly, using edtech for social good. Thursday and Friday were also the last time I saw my students face-to-face or on Zoom, so we took class photos or screenshots. Ms. Case also very discretely organized a surprise and had students write me goodbye notes and words of encouragement on their final days in class with me. I enjoyed reading the students' messages which ranged from jokes to multiple students claiming to be my favorite student to one student saying they thought I would make a good mother. Kids, they say the darndest things!

Which is the perfect transition to the second portion of this blog post which will focus on my student teaching internship overall. Keep reading for my three biggest takeaways!

Connections / Content

"Sometimes the things your students need the most has nothing to do with what's on your lesson plan" - Anonymous

Making connections with students was definitely my biggest area of growth over the past fourteen weeks. I began my student teaching internship in a very matter of fact manner. As soon as the bell would ring, I started teaching. After all, we were here in school to learn, right? Well...yes, but. As I came to learn student connections are at the center of a great lesson and classroom environment. As time went on, I would begin class more casually by asking students what they did over the weekend, have a student share about a recent FFA event, or just let the pre-class chatter continue for a few more seconds. 

By the end of the semester, I knew what students had jobs at which local businesses, which students had international experiences, what clubs and organizations students were involved with outside of FFA and this list goes on! This is important, because I was able to capitalize on these relationships to connect classroom content to students' lives or things they were interested in. 

The best example I can give and the ah-ha moment for me as a teacher was when I was teaching planograms to my Food Science class. I casually asked, "Has anyone heard of a planogram before? Or used one?". I was expecting all no's because quiet honestly, I had to google what a planogram was and do some of my own research before class. But several of my students raised their hands and were able to share with the class a definition and examples of how they used planograms at their part-time jobs at Party City and Taco Bell. At this point, I just threw my lesson plan out and let the students share because their experiences were way better than what I had planned!

 

Me Time

Hi, my name is Nicole and I'm a work-a-holic. And if there is one lesson I am glad I learned while student teaching, it was how to have a work-life balance. If you know me, this was not an easy lesson to learn, but I am so thankful to Ms. Case for reminding me to work at school and not at home. Every week, it was our goal to have the next week's assignments and lessons prepared before we left on Friday, which meant my entire weekend was freed up for non-school related things (mostly, minus some grading). 

I discovered that taking a walk after school helps me decompress and transition from "do-it-all teacher" to "normal person". Hiking and kayaking are also favorite past times of mine and I realized that I did not have to completely abandon these pastimes while student teaching. This semester, I even took up crocheting and by the end of my student teaching I had an entire t-shirt rug made for my dog! I am so thankful that I was able to learn this discipline now as a young adult rather than late in my career. 

Here by the Owl

As a non-FFA member, it was my goal to learn as much about FFA as I possibly could. Cumberland Valley FFA far exceed what I was expecting to learn. I was able to assist with fundraisers, officer meetings, committee meetings, community service projects, the All-In Conference, Public Speaking Contests, National FFA Week, Career Development Events, banquet and so much more! 

I am now even more of a believer of the National FFA Organization and all of the great opportunities it provides to students. I am looking forward to implementing some of the things I have learned at Cumberland Valley to my new Agriculture Education program. 

Some things that I will take with me:

• Student FFA accounts, students earn money based on number of fundraiser items sold for FFA events and conferences to reduce their cost to attend
• Officer and Committee Chair structure, having active committee chairs to support the officers spreads the work out evenly and involves more students
• FFA Calendar in the hallway, this keeps all students up-to-date with what's happening 
• Ag Openhouse, showcases all fo the great things happening in the Agriculture Department to the community, other building teachers, and parents

To Ms. Case, Ms. Rombreger, and CV Ag Sciences - THANK YOU! 

Thank you for answering the call from a desperate student teacher in need of a placement. I know that none of were excepting things to work out this way, but they say everything happens for a reason! 

You have showed me not just what it means to be an ag teacher, but also what it means to be a friend, a mentor, a coach, and a manager of the chaos! Thank you for being apart of my Teach Ag journey and helping me grow into the teacher I am today. 

 

To #PSUAgEd2021 - Ladies, you are by far the strongest group of people I know and I am so glad that we decided to tackle student teaching together. I am inspired by each and every one of you - Alyssa, your ability to remain calm in stressful situations; Emily, how you wove your two majors together to provide a unique learning experience for your students; Maddie, your ideas for connecting with the community and other partners; Megan, your compassion and empathy for your students; Katie, your willingness to try new things - like the recipes I would read about on your blog; Michaela, the way you took inquiry to the next level in your Food Science class; and Elise, THE queen of ag mech - enough said.

I am so excited to see what the future holds for each and every one of you. LET'S GO GIRLS! (For those of you who don't know, Man! I feel like a Woman by Shania Twain was our cohort theme song😂)

So, where do I go from here? On May 9th, I will graduate summa cum laude from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural & Extension Education and minors in Environmental Resource Management and International Agriculture. I will graduate as a Schreyer Honors College Scholar and a Graham Fellow. I am extremely grateful for all my professors, friends, and supporters (Mom and Dad, here's a shoutout for you💗) who have pushed me to get to this point. 

From here, all roads lead to the small town of Millville in Columbia County where I will be starting a brand new Agricultural Education program of my own! This Nittany Lion is about to become a Millville Quaker! Stay tuned for more blog posts as I being my first year teaching middle and high school agriculture!