On Tuesday, July 17, I was able to travel to Maryland to attend the Washington County Agriculture Expo and Fair. This event is the main event that students participate in with their SAE projects from Boonsboro High School. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the fairs being so early in Maryland, I was unable to attend a traditional SAE visit. However, I was able to connect with our retired chapter President at the Agricultural Expo and Fair to discuss her SAE project with her dairy cow. I learned through this SAE visit that she is incredibly passionate about the dairy industry and enjoys showing her jerseys at the expo and fair each year. Ms. Cashell went over some questions that she would generally ask during an SAE visit and also provided me with a prompt that I have seen other agricultural educa
tors in Pennsylvania use throughout their SAE visits. However, Ms. Cashell uses an approach that I admire by allowing students to take responsibility for their SAE projects and explaining their projects instead of prompting with questions. The question sheet that I was shown is only used if students are a lull in conversation and are unsure of what to say next. Our retired chapter president was incredibly insightful in explaining to me how she cares for her cows and what she does to prepare them for the show at the Ag Expo and Fair since I have never been involved with that process. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay to watch her show her dairy cows, but was incredibly thankful for her insights and detailed explanations that she was able to give me regarding her SAE project.
tors in Pennsylvania use throughout their SAE visits. However, Ms. Cashell uses an approach that I admire by allowing students to take responsibility for their SAE projects and explaining their projects instead of prompting with questions. The question sheet that I was shown is only used if students are a lull in conversation and are unsure of what to say next. Our retired chapter president was incredibly insightful in explaining to me how she cares for her cows and what she does to prepare them for the show at the Ag Expo and Fair since I have never been involved with that process. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay to watch her show her dairy cows, but was incredibly thankful for her insights and detailed explanations that she was able to give me regarding her SAE project.
While attending the Ag Expo and Fair, I was also able to attend a portion of officer training for the new officer team. I was able to help them scoop ice cream at the fair as well as participate in some team building activities. The team created t-shirts with sticky notes to one another describing things that they admired about the other team member and something that the other members of the team should know about them- such as needing space from one another every once in awhile. I was able to participate in a minute to win it challenge with them where they had to pick up an M&M with a straw and place it on top of another straw across the pavilion. I really enjoyed these team building activities which included working together, sharing admirations and struggles with one another, as well as having a little bit of a competitive side to them!
I was so excited to attend the Washington County Ag Expo and Fair- almost to the point that I did not want to leave!
I cannot wait to begin my student teaching journey at Boonsboro High School in the Spring of 2019!
Kayla,
ReplyDeleteSAE’s are such an important part of Ag, it’s super awesome to see what your school’s students are doing! I’m interested to see if Maryland has any differences from how Pennsylvania does things!
Kayla, so glad that your visit to the fair gave you the chance to do an SAE visit and get firsthand experience in conducting a chapter officer leadership training! It sounds like you got some great resources for your SAE toolkit. What were your most useful takeaways from seeing the officer training and what activities do you plan to use with your own students?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback Ms. Morey!
DeleteI really liked the idea of having the tshirts for each officer and having them write down strengths and weaknesses. I think that the best think about officer training is getting the team to work together and bond as one unit instead of individuals.