Being from the South Central region, I never attended a PAAE meeting until I became a student teacher at Penn State University. So, I was coming in with fresh eyes to this meeting. I roughly knew what to expect being able to attend the summer PAAE conference in July of 2023, but I knew it would be different. I knew that it would not have fun workshops, but more of an informative meeting tone. Still, I was excited to go and be a part of something bigger than myself as an agricultural educator. I was excited to socialize with those whom I considered to be legends in this career field and to learn from them.
Some might say, "Well, all of that information could have been in an email. What's the point?" It is more than just gaining information that you might not have known if you have been super busy focusing on your own career and life, like student teachers just trying to survive, to read the information in the weekly emails that go out. It is more than just showing up for attendance's sake and to check something off of a checklist. While I did both, I learned more than I could ever have imagined at this PAAE meeting.
First, I learned about an icebreaker activity that would go well with middle schoolers and that I want to try with students in the future. This icebreaker activity was to go around and say our name and one thing that we would bring to an FFA banquet based on the first initial of our first name. "Hi! I'm Emily Jay and I'm bringing the envelopes." Nothing works well for an "e" name. Still, you could apply this to the classroom and change the scenario to something in agriculture to test out what the students already know about agriculture or the topic that you will be learning about in that class that day. It could also work well to help peers and you, as the teacher, learn students' names in the class at the beginning of a new course or new year.
Second, I also love the Bingo activity that was played during the meeting to keep people engaged and focused on what many deem boring. I, however, was fortunate to see this being played during the Region 6 NAAE Conference meeting that the PAAE graciously paid for us student teachers to attend. It still worked for both meeting settings! How do you play this bingo? Well, every person gets a blank bingo card with a free space. Then, before the meeting starts you write down any words that you think will be said during the meeting. If anyone says the word that you wrote in one of the bingo boxes, you can cross it off. Continue this process until you get bingo and those with bingo get prizes until all prizes are gone. This Bingo idea is something that could be added to any class when you are going through some lecture material or anything that you think students might think is boring to bring out student engagement. You could have students write down words, phrases, ideas, definitions, or statements that they believe the teacher will go over or cover on a topic in agriculture. In this process, the teacher is able to understand students' prior knowledge on the topic to expand on it, but also what misconceptions are out there that you might also need to address.
Thirdly, I also learned what student resources are out there on the PA FFA Foundation page that could benefit my future students. Along with that, I learned how to look at these meetings through a student lens to figure out what I can do as an agricultural educator to help them and the chapter succeed. This also means being willing to socialize and collaborate with other chapters in the area, region, and state and learn from them.
Sure there is more that I could talk about, like the Ideas Unlimited Award which I want to enter with a lesson from student teaching, but I might just be hear reciting the whole meeting to you. Hence, I learned more about how meetings like PAAE and NAAE help to promote collaboration and innovation, but also give you and model activity ideas that you can bring back to your classrooms!
Remember: The next time you are invited to a "boring" meeting, think again! There is so much more deeper to a PAAE and NAAE meeting than you might realize. Just go already!
Just Keeping It Veal,
-Ms. Emily Jay
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