Wintertime Slump

It is that time in the school year, where I feel in a slump. For no real reason other than cooler days spent watching Hallmark movies and drinking hot chocolate seem more appealing than teaching. I remember during my credential program a graph they showed for first year teachers.

While I'm not convinced I'm completely at the disillusionment stage. I feel like I'm at the intersection of frustrated and concerned. As with many years, changes on campus have created a "funny" feeling with many individuals. The sense of uncertainty and unknown plagues both the teachers and students. While reading an article about teacher slumps, this paragraph resonated with me:

"We have no precise analytic definition of the teaching slump, let alone a consensus among scholars about how to use the concept for research purposes. And yet it inhabits the inner and public lives of teachers, cutting a wide emotional path between the "bad day" and "burnout." Slumps have a life cycle. Often they're the last station before cynicism: the settled conviction that my passion for teaching and yours for learning are beyond repair." From Savor the Slump article.

While I know that my passion for teaching and students is not beyond repair. I feel like I need to focus on the amazing things my kids are doing and the opportunities they are creating for themselves through Ag education to help pull myself to that rejuvenation status like in the graph.

Amazing things happening now:

1. Canned Food Drive & Sonoma County Secret Santa Program: All my kids are pumped to donate items to those less fortunate. I think this speaks volumes to the type of kids I have in class. They feed my soul with their giving hearts and constant "give more" attitudes.
2. Changes from National Convention: Since attending National Convention, my officers changed our December FFA meeting from making gingerbread houses to a service project of making blankets to donate to the local senior center. They got all kinds of awesome ideas after watching the founder of Kid President's keynote speech. Watch his latest video here: Kid President Speaks from the Heart
3. One of my students created an awesome Ag Education program for grades K-8. She is calling it "Seeds for Students". She goes to the classes, presents about the importance of seeds and food production. Then each student gets to plant a seed to take care of at school and eventually take home. If you have an instagram, you should follow @SeedsforStudents

 

From Kid President, I feel like I just need the reminder to be awesome and treat everyone like it's their birthday...

Serious Success

My first summer at Healdsburg I took five of the seven FFA officers to a day retreat in San Francisco at the botanical gardens. They spent  some of the day planning, creating goals, and working on a reflection of what worked previously and what they would like to do different. 

A common theme, among all of them was that they wanted to be taken more seriously on the sectional and regional level. They each had individual plans for how they thought that should happen, but having never been extremely successful themselves, they were so unsure about how to get there. 

Weren't they cute?! They look so tiny...

I figured out very early on, that the important thing for these kids was going to be figuring out how to make them the most successful in the shortest period of time. I decided that making them better leaders, more professional at events, and amping up their SAE's would be the quickest way to help them. Which would then allow them to seek out leadership positions in the section and region, while being recognized for their efforts with state degrees and proficiencies. 

I would really like to say it's been easy! It definitely hasn't... There has been a lot of paperwork, a lot of late nights, a lot of early mornings, a few tears, some arguing, and countless signatures (those damn applications). 

Seeing a kid's potential and pushing them just enough for them to realize that they can do it, is difficult. There's a fine line between pushing so they see their own potential and pushing them so far it creates resentment. Sometimes I still lose sight of this, and I have to stop, backup and reevaluate. 

Bottom line:

I want them to push themselves, 

I want them to be successful, 

I want them to be well-liked, 

I want them to be professional, 

I want them to be passionate, 

I want them to gain life skills, 

I want them to want it.

Last Saturday at our North Coast Spring Regional Meeting and State Degree Ceremony, my hopes and their hardwork came to fruition. The last two years of hardwork paid of... For me and for them.

My most proud moment was after we had collected 3 regional proficiencies (2 state finalists), regional star administrator, 2 state finalist speakers, 2nd place program of activities, and 6 state degrees... Both of my students slated for regional office were elected!! 

It was a great day for Healdsburg FFA, as a program, for the students individually and for me too (I know, slightly selfish). And the reason I feel like the day was so successful was not because of the ribbons, certificates, or plaques won... But because my kids finally felt like they had been taken seriously... That's a win all by itself! 

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." -Vince Lombardi

They all were pretty awesome! And the looked sharp! 

State Degrees

Proficiencies

The 2015-2016 NC Regional Officer team (with my two kiddos!!)