Visiting Elizabethtown!

On March 20^th I had the privilege of visiting Ms. Bry Kenno at Elizabethtown High School Agriculture Department.  I was excited to see Bry because her posts that were on Twitter seemed so cool!  She always had great illustrations of aquatic systems or mechanic projects and even things like students driving their tractors to school.  After serving as a CFFA Officer with Ms. Kenno I had no doubt that she would continue being a wonderful leader as a teacher.  My expectations were definitely met and exceeded during my visit!

The day started with her planning period and then we jumped right into agricultural mechanics, lunch, natural resources, and agriculture business management.  Bry shared with me that she co-teaches the mechanics class with Mr. Anderson and she is focusing heavily on learning the materials to share with students.  As I entered the shop it was clear that all safety procedures were clearly followed and students knew their expectations.  I was also offered safety glasses as soon as I stepped foot into the shop.  I walked around and asked students to share with me their progress and describe what a good weld was. 

Lunch time was equally thrilling, even though there were no students joining Mr. Anderson, Bry, and myself it was great to have life talks with Mr. Anderson and to hear his journey about why he is involved in agriculture education and how he budgets his time.  My former teammate from my state FFA officer year, Sarabeth Royer is a graduate of Elizabethtown and she has always spoken very highly of Mr. Anderson and it was great to learn his “tricks of the trade!” 

The natural resource class was awesome, students were raising fish and went to the aquatics room and caught, weighed, and measured the fish and then they were able to calculate the data.  A few of the students were slightly defiant to Ms. Kenno and she acted as though nothing happened but she was quick to verbally reprimand the students upon the return to the classroom. Even though she was nervous, it was clear that she was in charge and she was to be treated with respect.  The students quickly buckled down and were on task for the duration of class. 

In the final block, ag business management, students were able to research topics and talk about marketing techniques.  They then utilized the classroom iPads to compile relevant information for an agriculture product that they were creating a poster advertisement for.  Bry shared with me that she was nervous about teaching ag business because she does not have a lot of fundamental knowledge in it, but it is obvious that she works hard outside of class to improve her understanding. 

In conclusion, I wish I had more time to see other student teachers because everyone in the co-hort has their own flare or style and it would be neat to see their personality shine through and connect with the students.  Visiting Bry was a great experience and it was fascinating to compare her school and student teaching experience to my own in Shippensburg!