Finding my role at ACES & SLLC

“I know one thing, I like the kids.”  This is what I told Mrs. Bier during the State Legislative Leadership Conference.  Her response was “That’s the only thing that matters.”  It is obvious that my cooperating teacher has quite a bit of wisdom and I agree with her, as long as I care about the students then I have the potential to be a great teacher and FFA advisor. 

Speaking about being an FFA advisor, it was a pleasure acting as one at both ACES and SLLC.  Shippensburg FFA took a busload of students to ACES and Mrs. Bier organized all of the logistics and directed me with how to check students into rooms and taught me the ropes of being an advisor.  At SLLC I took the training wheels off and

Mrs. Bier directed me to organize the logistics of the conference.  It was very beneficial to have the opportunity to first observe and then facilitate.  At SLLC I was responsible for registering the students, checking them into the hotel, touching base about our schedule and our plan for the day, debriefing about the day’s events and debates held during the conference, and even planning our field trip once the conference was complete.  The field trip was to visit an alpaca farm in Carlisle.  While there we learned the history of alpacas and how they entered into the United States and we even had the opportunity to feed and walk the soft gentle creatures.  It was a pleasure to interact with and learn more about the four students who attended this conference.

In addition to helping keep track of students and caring for their well-being, Mrs. Bier and I also participated in professional development events such as inquiry based workshops, AET, and even helping to judge proficiency award applications.  It was pretty neat to learn about everything a teacher is expected to do at a conference.  Even though the expectations can be overwhelming at times I remind myself of the quote from the beginning “I know one thing, I like the kids.”