From a Teacher's Mouth to the Horse's Ears

 Lessons From My Time At Miracle Mountain Ranch

I have taken a lot of paths to find my passion in Agricultural and Extension Education, but none like that of Miracle Mountain Ranch (MMR). As stated in an earlier blog, I attended MMR for their School of Discipleship program, which lasts from one to two years. Here you not only learn to grow in your relationship with God, but you learn how to utilize this knowledge and faith in everyday tasks and while building relationships with others. For me, I was able to take this information and apply it to riding horses and teaching horsemanship lessons/trail rides. An experience that gave me memories that would last a lifetime and helped me to overcome challenges in my life that I thought I had dealt with years ago. Moments that helped me to decide that teaching agriculture was my destiny. 

Today, I would like to share some of those teachable moments (as we called them at MMR) with you all. Since this is more of an agricultural education-based blog, I will share those memorable teaching moments that I learned while wrangling trail rides and assisting/leading horsemanship lessons throughout MMR's summer camp. Here are four: 

Lesson #1: Be Watchful

Always watch what your students are doing, but not in a creepy way of course. This is one of the main points for teaching students on horses because safety is everything when riding. When you have students that do not know how to ride or understand horse cues and you are not watching, dangerous things can happen. You, as the teacher/instructor, need to watch to help your students in the safest and best way possible. This tip is not just for horsemanship classes, but can be applied to when you are teaching an ag mechanics course or when you bring animals into the classroom. On the other hand, being watchful of your classroom every day will help you to see when students are having a rough day or not comprehending the topics that you are discussing in class. It will make you a better teacher in being able to assess the needs of your class/students and provide the help or resources that they need to succeed in life. 

Lesson #2: Be Creative

When you are teaching a topic that you have taught so many times, you can kind of get stuck in the same old rut, in what is comfortable. This does not always help the vast amount of students, who learn in various ways, every single year. Some will pick the information up right away and others will need that idea or topic explained multiple times and in various ways before it finally clicks that next time that you say it the way you said it the very first time. For instance, my first horsemanship class had been learning the basics of riding horses with posture and commands for the first two days. However, they still needed some more practice in this area before we could move to more advanced riding, like trotting, for their safety. So, that night I thought about how I could make simple tasks that they thought they had mastered more fun. I landed on a theme: a rodeo. I created a pattern that the riders were going to follow to help perfect the basics of posture and commands while I became the announcer that would call out the moves as if we had an audience (which really ended up being the assistant). The students worked on their turns by walking the barrels and so much more. In the end, they loved it and became better riders because I was able to get creative with the basics. Another example came from trying to get the riders to put more pressure on the horse with their legs to command the horse to move from a stop to a walk to a trot. Most people, especially kids, are afraid of hurting the horse, which results in light pressure and breaking gait. So, I would get creative and try to relate this information in a way that they could understand better. I would say: "I want you to squeeze your legs around the horse like you're squeezing a lemon to make lemonade." or "I want you to squeeze your legs like you're trying to hold a soccer ball between your legs as tight as you can get." You might have to use several different analogies several times, but at some point it will click and you will get the rider to keep the horse in gait. It always worked. Thus, be creative in finding what your students need to learn and utilize it in a fun, exciting way that everyone will enjoy! 

Lesson #3: Be Encouraging

Everyone needs encouragement from time to time, especially students. Especially those that might not get that kind of affirmation at home. They need to know that they are doing well, improving upon skills learned. That someone is noticing and caring. It can be as big as giving out awards or prizes or super simple as orally commending the individual around others. This is something that I became more conscience of as I taught that first horsemanship class with the rodeo. I was giving encouragement to each student/rider on their riding skill and improvement, but what I didn't realize is that I had focused on one student over another. Both were about middle school age and both were receiving encouragement, but when you start to focus on one, the other notices. Once I started focusing on encouraging all of the students in the same ways, all of the students improved on their riding and loved coming to lessons during the week. You have to find the perfect balance of encouraging people/students when they need it and how much you do so. You don't want to encourage one or a group of people so much that everyone else thinks that they are your favorites and that anything that they do won't matter. The balance is key and it might take some time to figure out what that balance is. It might even change from year to year with a new group of students, but it is essential to be there and available for all of your students. They need to know that you care about each and every one of them for who they are and comparing against others. That kind of encouragement goes a long way!

Lesson #4: Never Give Up!

You will have tough days. Ones that will make you want to give up and hand it over to someone else that you think is better than you, more qualified than you. Never give up! Quitting doesn't help the student and it certainly does not help you to learn from this challenge. Even though the student is your priority, you, as the teacher, still end up learning a valuable lesson that will stick with you forever and help you with the next student that has a similar problem. When you solve the problem and find that solution, it is rewarding. It reminds you of why you chose this profession in the first place: to help students learn about agriculture, but most importantly reach their full potential. I have one story about this topic from MMR, which happens to be one of my favorites. During this horsemanship lesson, I was assisting a beginner class, which meant I helped the instructor to see all riders (those that she could not see) to ensure safety and be there to give individual help to those students that needed it. It was the first day of the summer camp week and there was this one boy that had never, ever ridden a horse before. He was excited, but also nervous. We instructed the students on how to lead their horses to the arena, which they all did very well at. Now, the next step was to teach them how to mount a horse and assist them one by one in doing so. However, when it came for this boy's turn, he freaked out so much that he was certain that he did not want to ride; he was scared. This held the class up for a little while, but then I decided to move to the other side of the arena with the horse and talk to the boy. Of course, at that time I didn't exactly know what was wrong because he was so excited to start the lesson. So, I asked him what was wrong, trying to figure out a way to help. I tried everything that I could think of to reassure him that everything would be fine and that riding the horse would be safe. I even used my own personal experience/teachable moment of something that I was afraid of and how I overcame it due to my trust in God and trust in others. In addition, the boy's camp counselor tried to convince him that there was nothing to be afraid of. Nothing was working! Yet, I was determined to help him overcome this obstacle because I believed in him and knew that riding horses was one of the main reasons why he came to camp. Finally, an idea clicked: I would start him off baby step by baby step. I asked if he would like to pet the horse and then lead him around a little. While he was doing that, I would just talk to him and talk to him about the horse, even what the others in the class were doing. Then, I asked if he wanted to try and sit on the horse and he was finally willing to do so as long as I was holding the lead rope and making sure the horse did not move. After a couple of minutes, I asked if he trusted me enough to lead him and the horse around part of the arena while he was sitting on the horse. He agreed and we moved step by step that first day until he was reigning the horse by himself with me right beside the horse everywhere they went. By the next couple of days, he was riding the horse all by himself with the rest of the class and loving every minute. He went from being completely scared of riding to riding the basics all on his own! That is because I never gave up. I never gave up trying to find a solution to the problem. Sure, I asked for assistance along the way, but I never stopped working hard for the student. Most importantly, I never gave up on the student because I knew what his fullest potential at that moment was even when he didn't. Seeing all of the boy's growth was all worth it! So, never give up; you got this! 

I could spend more time talking about my experiences and what I learned from these moments of summer camp and MMR, but we might be here forever. So, if there is anything that you take away from this blog, remember to: be watchful, be creative, be encouraging, and never give up! Your students depend on it; they depend on you. You being the best that you can be for everyone and still be able to be you. Experience and reflection are helpful tools to do so. So, go find a summer job (MMR might be looking for some more summer staff) or an internship! Go ask your cooperating center if you can crash course a lesson one day before school lets out! Go get some experience in order to be the best you can be for your groups of students! Just go and have fun! 

Just Keeping It Veal,

Emily Jay

Speed Dating for Student Teaching Sites

 As we get closer to finishing our junior year at Penn State University, it is time to start looking toward the future. A time to reflect on who we want to be as agricultural or extension educators and where or who we learn from. In some areas, you just know what you want, but in other areas, it takes time to know what those needs are. Not because you don't know or haven't thought about that area of concern, but because sometimes you just need to see agricultural programs in action before knowing what works for you or not. Therefore, this is why student teaching site observations are necessary before deciding where we want to student teach for the spring of 2024. 

Now that I vocalized what I wanted in a cooperating teaching site in the previous blog, it was time to go observe some agricultural programs in action! Those that I visited were Big Spring High School and Middle School FFA/ag programs and Athens High School FFA/ag program. These two schools were chosen due to suggestions given based on my wants within agricultural programs that I discussed earlier. However, the main reason for these two school district selections was the ability to experience both a well-developed high school and middle school ag program. So, what did I learn or observe at each place?

Big Spring High School

The day I traveled to the Big Spring area (which is in Newville, PA) I spent half the day observing the high school and half the day observing the middle school. While I was at the high school, I was able to observe Mrs. Fulton's plant science and ag mechanics classes. In the plant science class, the students were starting to transfer seedling trays of vegetables that were bought to bigger commercial trays in order to start growing such plants in their greenhouse for their plant sale fundraiser in the spring. It was truly exciting to see how many of the students were jumping at the bit to help out and volunteer to manage tasks. Not one person was slacking or goofing off! As for ag mechanics, I was able to observe the students' electrical wiring unit. At the time, the juniors at Penn State were also going through the same unit so I was able to brush up on my skills as well as understand how another ag teacher approaches the same unit in a different way. For the class, everyone could choose who they wanted to partner up with. Once groups were made, each group could start to work at their own pace to accomplish a series of wiring tasks, like lighting a switch to a light or a switch to a duplex to a light. Also, in between Fulton helping students within a class, I was able to ask her many questions about these specific classes, but also about how their program runs. Here, I was able to learn about how the teachers deal with students that IEPs, what FFA and program events that they participate in, what type of technology they use to take attendance or build assignments on, and much more. Plus, I received a tour of all their facilities, which include two classrooms, a shop area, a greenhouse, and a food science lab. It was also National FFA Week and so I was able to see a short officer meeting that they try to do at least once a week. It was through this experience that I was able to see how Fulton handled the situation where one officer was blocking another officer from the group messaging system. Overall, I learned a lot of information about the high school program that I will take with me in the future and wherever I end up for student teaching! However, the one thing that I wish I could have seen would have been to observe Mrs. Nailor's classes because she was absent due to an educational trip. 

Big Spring Middle School

Here, I was able to observe two different classes, which at the moment I can't remember their specific names. The first class used a CASE curriculum lesson where the students were measuring, folding, and tapping boxes made out of paper, which helped them work on specific measurements. The second class ended up sharing some of their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects. One student built a cat playground from materials around the house! During my tour of the facilities, I was able to take a look at their hydroponics towers, where students were planting a mysterious crop to observe, identify, and care for. Plus, I was made aware of this interesting program called PA Trout in the Classroom. Mrs. McIntire is able to purchase trout that was just hatched or about to in order for the students to observe the life cycle of trout. Once the trout are too large for the classroom tanks, the class and program create an event to invite the community to come and learn about trout and watch their release. This is a program that I never knew existed, but would love to implement it in my own program in the future. What a great way to educate the students and the community about agriculture! Continuing the observation, I also asked many questions to get a better sense of the program. I loved the fact that Mrs. McIntire is dedicated to her students first and foremost, wanting them to succeed and reach their full potential! 

As for both middle school and high school, I love the fact that they try to include each other in as many events as possible. For instance, due to it being National FFA Week, the high school invited the middle school over for a movie night. 

Athens Area High School

Then, I went to Athens Area High School, where I got to observe ag mechanics (both an intro and more advanced class), animal science classes, and an AFNR class. I was also able to see both Mr. Steinfelt and Mrs. Alderfer teach courses to see how differently they teach subjects. Interestingly enough, both informed me that they usually don't assign homework for the students unless it is about bringing something in for class. I found this intriguing because as someone that was always used to homework, I never thought about that being an option within the classroom. It could make lesson planning more challenging in order to figure out other ways to make sure that they are understanding the materials and expanding upon them. How could I measure success in a unit? Other things that I loved to see on my visit were the hydroponics and aquaponics systems, seeing so many pets in a classroom, and the beginnings of a greenhouse plant sale. The one ag mechanics class was also working on electrical wiring, which (like Big Spring) was great to refresh my own knowledge on the subject as well as how others teach the material. The other ag mechanics course was finishing up their unit on plumbing. I think this would be a great unit to add to my unit plans in the fall for ag mechanics! In addition, Steinfelt mentioned an event that the high schoolers were signing up to do, which was having an ag literacy day by reading a book to the elementary schoolers. This is a great way to add ag curriculum and knowledge to younger generations (something that I am supper passionate about)! On the other hand, one drawback is that I was not able to visit the middle school agricultural program to see how it runs. 

Overall, all sites were a blast to go visit, wishing that I could student teach at either placement! It was after these reflections of each visit that I was required to fill out a student teaching application to explain my wants, rank my potential student teaching sites, and explain why. Then, within a week of application submissions, all juniors prepare for student teaching interviews. The interviews are with all staff members of the agricultural and extension education major in order to help place us at our student teaching site, but also to help us get at least one practice of how agricultural education job interviews will look like. As for mine, I did pretty well. Although, I did learn that during interviews I need to focus on eye contact, asking questions, not rambling on in my answers, and always bring a portfolio. Now, all of us are just waiting to hear our final student teaching placements in order to start the next step of this process! Can't wait to share it with you all soon!

Keeping It Veal,

Emily Jay