Advis{HERR} Adventures: SAE Visits

This student teaching internship obviously creates a lot of unique experiences for me. Some of them intentionally placed throughout the program, others occur organically as I daily progress through this journey. One of these strategically placed experiences is the an SAE visit with one of my students.

One of my first encounters with Midd-West FFA students was this past summer when I participated in several different SAE visits, you can read more about those here. I had an opportunity to host an SAE visit with one of my students that I now know much better then I did the students I met with back in the summer.

Meet Corey. Corey is a hard-working student who recently moved into the Midd-West School District. I appreciate Corey for his willingness to accept responsibility, dedication to assignments and innovative mind.

Midd-West FFA has taken on the responsibility of maintaining the flower beds around the original school sign that sits outside of the administrative building. With a recent addition of a newer school sign outside of the high school, the folks in Buildings and Grounds were looking for some landscaping to be done.

Corey jumped on the opportunity to be the lead on this project. With his previous experiences in CAD Design and Landscape Design, he created a partnership with the Midd-West High School Tech Ed teacher to utilize their software to draw up the design for beds around the school sign. Buildings and Grounds gave Corey and the Midd-West FFA a budget to spend on plants for the bed.

During our meeting, Corey and I discussed the potential for various types of plants to grow in the beds, dimensions, slope and other concerns that may arise in the future of this project. We headed inside from the chilly weather and discussed some goals for Corey to set in the next few months. Corey keeps his records in AET, where members are evaluated on a bi-monthly basis for maintained progress and valuable entries.

Corey has plans to perform a soil test to identify the type of soil he'll be working with at the sign and continue to identify plant varieties that would be a good fit for the needs of this project.

Simply put, I'm excited to get to participate in the progress of this project alongside Corey over the rest of my time here at Midd-West. He's got an immense amount of potential and will surely do big things!

Simply put, I shared in my blog post over the summer about how thankful I am to be in a position where I am a catalyst of impact. SAE Visits allow for just that, impact that stretches outside of the classroom. One of the very many unique components of school-based agriculture education!

Until the Next Advis{HERR} Adventure, K. Janae