Final Project Presentations

Today in class we did our final project presentations. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and happy that I learned a few new things. Blogs seemed to be the topic of choice but it seemed that most people had new and different ideas of how you could utilize them in a classroom. I liked the ideas John mentioned with keeping track of SAE projects over the summer months. Or Maria who talked about sharing experiments and activities with family members and also having students read blogs and respond on current agricultural issues. Jed and Brad made great points about it being motivating to students and mentioning how we could share what our chapters or groups where doing with the community.

Another topic was Smart Boards and I appreciated the power points and content based information that Aaron showed us on the smart technologies web page. Liz also had a great idea in implementing the smart boards that some schools have into community activities such as the counties Quality Assurance Program that is held at the high school. Jeremy had a good presentation on document cameras and pointing out and new and more cost efficient technology. I also loved the pod cast that Courtney's younger sister put together on her SAE, specifically the music choices. Jena discussed flip cams and gave some great reasons for use in a high school agricultural program in helping you to report back to the school board and community on your chapters activities and trips. Gregg mentioned YouTube and I learned about youtube.com/edu which is something I look forward to discussing. Kayla also showed a video that was really interesting in showing us the changes in the way that students are learning and how new technologies can and should be used to help. Kara and Megan both did presentations on Paint.net which was interesting to see how it actually worked for someone in creating a display of sorts. One last project I really enjoyed and would like to mention is Katrina's webpage, this was really neat to see a free web hosting service and how it worked while she was also able to give us an idea of what it took to set up.

Overall I really enjoyed the final project presentations and was glad to learn some new things and get some new ideas for using technology in education.

So the quarter is coming to an end and I can say it has truly been an adventure! Last week I had the opportunity to teach at Marysville. I really enjoyed my time there and had a great time visiting with my cooperating educators and students. This really helped to get me more excited about the fall and student teaching.

This past weekend I was able to go home as well and celebrate my sisters' graduation. They graduated from Ben Logan on Friday night and then we had their graduation party on Sunday afternoon, it was a great chance to go home and see a lot of family and friends. On Saturday I was also able to drive down to Dayton with my dad and watch 2 cousins and a close family friend run the the regional track finals in both the 4 x 200 and 4 x 100 relays. They are going to state in the 4 x 100 and will be in Columbus running on Friday so I am hoping to get to go watch. If you didn't know us Terrill's are champs!

I am also getting ready to head to FFA Camp at the end of the week. I am working at FFA Camp this summer on camp staff and first session starts Monday! This seems way to early, but sure enough we are headed to camp on Friday to begin the summer!

Banquets of the Fortnight...

So as many of you know we are entering the two week period that houses both the CFAES Recognition Banquet and the AES Banquet. Which I have decided to fondly call the "Banquets of the Fortnight" to add a little wit into my blogging attempts.

After an awesome trip to Pennsylvania for seeing some very diverse, interesting, and thought provoking agricultural education programs I came home and immediately began on what was a weekend of way to much homework. During that time I also attending the Relay for Life on campus where myself, Maria, Jed, Gregg, and Kayla represented the block well into the wee hours of the morning despite our mounting assignments. It really was quite a fun night.

Then this week has amounted to homework, class, and practice for CFAES Banquet and when that banquet ends the focus will immediately be switched to AES's banquet and of course SGAD (don't worry Kayla I haven't forgot!) I hope that everyone else is as excited as me for the banquets and has their "Into the Wild" theme attire picked out for next week.

Week 5 Begins!

As week 5 begins I am looking forward to State FFA Convention this weekend and leaving for our Pennsylvania block trip on Sunday. This week we are being given the opportunity to judge at the State FFA Agri-Science Fair on Thursday which should be a great learning experience. Then Friday and Saturday I am working with Registration for convention. I am excited to spend a lot of time at convention. It is always a great time to see lots of great people.

Then on Sunday the block students are leaving for Pennsylvania. I am pretty excited for this trip and am looking forward to seeing a lot of neat and different programs than I have been exposed to before. My biggest fear though of being away for four days is all of the work we have due at the end of next week and beginning of the following. I have been both dreading and looking forward to the month of may for a while now. I am both looking forward to some of the big fun events like Convention, Pennsylvania, CFAES Banquet, AES Banquet among others. Although these all seem like great events and they are they all come with there own amount of stress and preparation in addition to all of my assignments I have due in between.

Butler Tech Trip and Beginning Week 4

This past Thursday and Friday we traveled to Butler Tech Career Center in Butler County, OH. While we were there I was able to learn more about how Career Centers and satellite Ag programs work. It was defiantly a beneficial trip. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go on a SAE visit with a teacher and also being able to shadow the students in their labs. John and I shadowed in the Automotive Technologies lab where students worked on numerous aspects of vehicles. It was a great experience to see how the instructor managed this lab with 25 students all working on about four separate vehicle project. We also got a new pair of safety glasses out of the experience. :) I even found them still in my purse when I went out to dinner last night!

After returning from Butler Tech I came home for the weekend which is always great. Saturday I went and watched my sisters softball games. I then went with Samantha as she got ready for her prom at Ohio Hi-Point, which is the career center she attends for cosmetology. That evening aside from working on homework and college banquet script I was able to spend some time with my dad and go to dinner. Now today I will work on homework as much as I can until I leave to come back to Columbus for a meeting this evening. Then it's back to Logan County for me for the night to teach Pork in the Classroom at Benjamin Logan High School tomorrow.

The Block Goes To Camp

This past weekend the block traveled to FFA Camp Muskingum. I absolutely love FFA Camp so this was a great chance to visit camp while also learning with our fellow students. While we were at camp we had a couple big opportunities. First we were able to do our first district officer training with the district 8 chapter officers who were visiting camp for their district banquet. Jena and I worked together with the chapter vice-presidents and were able to get them interested in making some personal changes and improvements to their chapters program of activities. Another fun thing we did at camp that helped us in team building and trust was participating in the high ropes course. The high ropes course was a highlight for most of us I think as we were able to test our limits and work together in helping everyone. Overall our first block trip was defiantly a success and will for sure leave a lasting impression and memory for all of us.