Week Thirteen: All-In for Ag Ed

Hello, blog-readers! I am coming down the home stretch of my student teaching internship and I am excited to share with you some highlights from my week. 

This week, my Environmental Science classes related the concepts they learned in our Climate Dynamics unit to the documentary, Before the Flood. And in Introduction to Agriculture, my freshmen students explored the internal body systems of animals by completing a small group project which ended with them giving a short presentation to the class on Friday. Since my course load is a little lighter, I was also able to observe Ms. Romberger's Ag Construction class this week as her students were wrapping up their pallet projects. 

However, what I am most excited to share with you was my experience at my very first FFA conference! In a regular year, Pennsylvania FFA holds several conferences for students to participate in:

• State Convention - held in the early summer, students compete in state-level CDE and LDE contests
• Agricultural Cooperation Establishes Success (ACES) - held in the spring, students participate in workshops to learn more about becoming an effective leader
• State Legislative Leadership Conference (SLLC) - held in the spring, students learn about the legislative process and attend congressional meetings with their representatives to discuss agricultural issues
• Mid-Winter Convention - held at the PA Farmshow, first-year members receive FFA jackets
• Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) - held in the fall, students attend workshops to learn more about the officer roles and responsibilities 

This year, these conferences were put on hold and eventually moved to a virtual format. Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because Pennslyvania FFA was able to create a new conference - the All-In Conference! The All-In Conference has two tracks - a gold (upperclassmen) and a blue (underclassmen) track. Students could participate remotely from home or bring their laptops to school and join the Zoom meeting in the company of their peers.

To encourage students to come to school, log on and have fun with FFA members and advisors, we asked students to arrive an hour early for dinner and fun and games! We had 25 students sign up for an evening at fun!

Wednesday night students played two icebreaker-style games to get to know each other - this was one of the very first in-person FFA events for the year so many students did not know each other. The leadership committee lead the way with games of Who Am I? and Three Things in Common. Thursday night, the activity was a scavenger hunt around the Agriculture Department. We used an app called Goose Chase, and even though we encountered some technical difficulties, I would definitely use this app in the future. Students were assigned missions and they had to read the clues, determine what the answer was, and then take a picture with their phone. 

Overall, the students really enjoyed the conference there were laughs and jokes (one including a yam, that's a story for another blog!). For the upperclassmen, it was a time to see their peers outside of class, and for the underclassmen, it was a great way for them to meet the chapter officers and learn more about what FFA would usually be like. From the teacher's perspective, it was a little strange to be a part of a virtual conference since students would log on to Zoom, put their earbuds in, and we were left with a silent room. But, it's not about me and I was able to write a lot of lesson plans during this time 😏. Thursday I even broke out my popcorn maker for a special All-In Conference surprise, compliments of the chef.

#PSUAgEd2021 - How did you participate in All-In Conference with your students?