Teac{Herr} Tales: South-bound and down!

I count myself blessed to have the opportunity to have experienced a diverse range of secondary agriculture education programs across the state and nation throughout my time as a student at Penn State. Those experiences such as the Domestic Study Away or Collegiate FFA CDE judging events have certainly helped mold me into the agriculture educator I am today and taught me to geek out a little bit when I get the chance to step foot in a new program.

I took a day off from my stellar Midd-West kiddos and headed South to Kennard Dale High School in York County, Pennsylvania where I spent the day with my #psuaged16 team mate, Ms. Jenna Timmons and her cooperating teacher, Ms. Abbie Smith. Without surprise, Ms. Timmons and Ms. Smith greeted me in the office with a warm, Ram-country welcome as the day got off to a great start.

I had the opportunity to work along side Ms. Timmons in contextual teaching lab last semester and enjoyed the opportunity to watch her teach in that setting. I was excited to experience her growth as an educator now coming to her cooperating center. I have always admired Ms. Timmons respectful, sweet and passionate demeanor and she proved no different during my visit. She praises and encourages her students well, another admirable trait she possesses.

Ms. Timmons taught a wide range of classes during my visit, ranging from Animal Care & Management, Veterinary Science Horticulture 2, FFA Leadership and CASE Intro to AFNR. This allowed me to watch her teach a diverse selection of students and content. 

The class sizes at Kennard Dale are much smaller then those at Midd-West and I appreciated seeing the many differences in classroom management and organization between my classroom and Ms. Timmons. My smallest class is currently 18 students, Ms. Timmons smallest was 4. Pretty substantial difference! That small class sizes allow Ms. Timmons to have very conversational class time as well as make for an appropriate setting to call her higher level classes to higher standards. This allows her to help develop critical thinkers.

Quite possibly one of my favorite things I heard Ms. Timmons say was “I don’t know, I’ll look it up.” Afterwords, she proceeded to jot down the students question so she could catch them up with more information on the topic later. It was a great reminder for me - we truly don’t have to know it all. Let’s learn alongside our students!

Simply put, it was great to be in Ms. Timmons and Ms. Smith’s very well organized classroom and get the chance to observe and encourage one of my peers. 

Simply put, my visit with Jenna challenged me to communicate more efficiently in praising and encouraging my rocking kiddos. It also challenged me to own the things I don’t know and accept the challenge. 

Until the next Teac{HERR} tale, K. Janae