Most Hated Yet Rewarding Assignment on Campus

For the last three months my students have worked on a project (in addition to all their regular work) that has become the most hated yet rewarding assignment on campus. And I only say hated because they haven't finished it... 

The Agriscience project that I do with my all my classes is basically a science experiment on roids... No really, it's certifiably a crazy difficult project!! 

So what's the point? Why do I make my kids to a project that no one else does on campus? Why do I encourage them not to work with a best friend on the project? Why do the need to write a research paper?  

Um well short answer: Because they need it and I love it... 

Really though, a semester for doing agriscience projects is one of the most rewarding times that students spend in my class. Although I'm sure they might disagree currently, as their projects are due tomorrow.  The sigh of relief and accomplishment as they hand in the final paper is something unmatched. 

Seriously, the paper ends up being 12+ 

page research paper.  Students create a problem or question, set up an experimental design, conduct research, execute the experimental design, collect all the data and reach conclusions based on their findings. It's hard, it's complicated and yet they all survive!!! 

My favorite part about the project is the process. Watching kids who have never really conducted any research at the beginning of the semester, develop into kids that are thinking critically about agriculture and science, is amazing. They surprise themselves with how much they learn! And it's not just the research and data collection, they also learn how to use computers to their benefit, how to work together, how to read instructions, how to respond to feedback, how to take constructive criticism and how to ask questions in order to make their projects better. 

Now, there is usually some type of argument (between kids), crying and malfunction with spray glue at some point in the process but they all live to tell the stories. I love that the instructions and guidelines are the same yet for every student, yet they all create a different idea/project. Recently one of my students presented her project at the school board meeting and the board was shocked at the level of difficulty and inquiry type learning she had done with the project. Last week my VP, brought some admin from other schools into my class to show them the agriscience boards from last years projects. I love this because it just gives my Ag department, one more opportunity to be unique and stand out in a positive way. As my principal says, we're "moving away from cows and plows". While we are still learning about "cows and plows" in class, I love knowing that this project is raising the bar for my students.

I've recieved numerous texts, calls and emails this weekend from kids asking for clarification to make sure their project is perfect. At the end of the day, not all their projects will be A's but they will all be able to say they completed a project. 

Kids are finishing up papers tonight and we'll start display boards this week! I am giddy to watch them work together this week on their boards. 

I'd be lucky to have two division winners again in 2015... Fingers crossed! 

Thankful for November...Being Over

As I happily sit doing nothing but watching Hallmark Christmas movies on this last day of break, I am reminded of all the things I am thankful for...

Everyday in November, leading up to Thanksgiving I wrote what I am most thankful for:

1- Completely thankful for my job! It's the greatest profession that mixes agriculture, education, leadership, travel and high school kids!
2- Long plane rides... I really appreciate those 3+ hours of sleep while flying high
3- Good substitutes while I'm gone... They really are the shiz!
4- I'm thankful for kids who want to do more, they are my kind of people...
5- I so appreciate good school secretaries! They really are the best for chatting and listening to any needed venting... I love my school secretaries and attendance ladies!
6- I am so blessed to have a nice house... I love my house, my yard and the history that goes with it!
7- I am so thankful for a profession that has the opportunities to meet up with friends and go on cool industry tours... Today was at Neves Roses in Petaluma.
8- I love days I get to see friends from far away! Especially when we get to laugh a lot...
9- I'm forever grateful for Sundays that allow me to stay in my pajamas... They are rare and I love them!!!
10- Feeling pretty grateful that kids are willing to show up on non-school days for practice... No school today, yet no complaints about coming to school to work on opening & closing...
11- Pretty simple... Veteran's Day! 
12- I hate Opening & Closing but I LOVE these crazy kids and am so thankful for their dedication and drive!
13 - I'm grateful that kids feel like they can sit down and talk to me. Sometimes teachers forget kids have bigger issues at home than a missed assignment
14- I love and am thankful for mom&pop restaurants, where the owners know your family because you've been going there for a bazillion years... It makes dinner much better!
15- I really love being part of an organization that centers around Italian heritage and food... 
16- I am thankful for all the things I've learned being surrounded by a bunch of Italian ladies... Life skills people... And mostly food!
17: Thankful for kids that spend time with me after school to make sure everything is just perfect for the banquet tomorrow...
18- Thankful that my momma got to go home from the hospital!! Too much time spent there in the last week... So grateful my aunt can help her at home rather than her staying in the hospital longer...
19- I feel so blessed to be able to train public speakers through FFA experiences... Tonight one of my kids presented to the school board about her agriscience project that went to Nationals... Very cool
20- I'm thankful for the phone... Yep! Because without it I wouldn't be able to talk to my parents on a daily basis... I do love our chats!
21- Thankful for long drives and good friends!!! Love ya Amber!
22 & 23- It's a big one so it gets two days... I am incredibly thankful to have great friends all over the state that I get to go visit... They're pretty amazing!
24- I love that I have a job that allows me to be off school for the whole week
25- I'm so grateful that I get to have a craft day tomorrow with Heidi! Gonna be so fun!
26- Thankful for a solid day of laughing, sewing, chatting and crafting for the holidays!!
27- Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am thankful for each of you! Hope your day is blessed! I am a lucky girl and get to spend today with a table full of characters
28-30- I feel so incredibly blessed for supportive parents. They are the bestest ever, plain and simple! 

But now that I've been thankful, I can honestly say I AM SO READY for December!

I love December and the entire holiday season... I love the smells, the foods, the clothing, the weather and the holiday attitudes that many people have. December to me, brings out the best in people. Well not all people, but if it doesn't bring out the best in you then you suck and there is not much helping ya! 

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards, baking cookies, decorating the tree, spending time with friends, seeing houses decorated, watching Hallmark movies, seeing the Nutcracker, buying gifts for others and doing good deeds. November is a month of thankfulness but December is the month of giving to others. 

This year for our Sectional FFA night, we are working at the Redwood Empire Food Bank. I am so excited as many of my students have never done anything like this. This is what December is about...

Before Thanksgiving break, it was announced that my class won the Canned Food Drive with 759 cans. This is what December is about...

My students are also going fulfill hearts for the Sonoma County Secret Santa Program, last year we fulfilled over 40 hearts. This year hopefully we get closer to 60... This is what December is about...

Even the simple, Pay it Forward, at Starbucks in the Drive Thru is something.... Make sure you plan to do something for others this December. Don't do it for the recognition, do it for the warm fuzzies!

Side Note: I did go Black Friday shopping with my bestest friend... Didn't buy much, it was just a fun day hanging out with this momma of 2... Love her! 

Opening & Closing

What is opening & closing you may ask? It's a sectional contest for FFA members of all ages, that wish to learn and memorize the opening and closing parts for running an FFA meeting. It's completely scripted... 

I can without a doubt say this is my LEAST favorite contest to coach. I'm not sure why I have this great hatred for opening and closing but it literally drives me up the wall. 

Reasons I hate Opening & Closing: 

1. You're teaching novice, advanced and officer teams, all the parts to open and close a meeting-- yet in reality only the officers open and close a meeting for an entire year. 

2. It creates robots... Kids who memorize word for word information, LAME.

3. With all this memorization, let me just tell you it becomes incredibly boring to watch practices! 

4. Tap once, Tap three times... Mr. President this is not difficult to remember! 

5. Hair... Please dear lord, brush your hair children! You are showing up to look professional, which means if you rolled outta bed you should check yourself! 

6. Boys- Yes, button the dang top button of your shirt and learn to tie a proper tie.

7. Day of the contest, it is quite literally the most boring day of sitting around and waiting. 

8. We added Parli Pro to our Opening & Closing for officers this year... To be funny or serious? That is the question... 

9. Our contest is during the day... Yep another sub to prepare for! 

10. Our contest goes past noon... Yet, we don't get lunch (um yeah that sucks) 

All in all, I know the positive things about opening and closing. The hope is to get kids more involved with the sectional level, get more experience public speaking, try something new, meet new people and yada yada yada... 

Mostly, I go with flow (although not quietly) with the contest because kids love it. They might be scared shitless on the van ride to the contest but on the way home they are crazy hyped up! That to me is an FFA success, regardless of how excited I am about it. 

Positives for the day... 

My kids had fun

They won some ribbons

I made them play games

They met new people

They worked as a TEAM

Big game of concentration... Sitting and being anti social is not an option when you roll with me. 

Advanced Team- Emily was Outstanding Vice President 

Officer Team- Tony was Outstanding President and Emma was Outstanding Secretary

Aren't they precious?! 

Living to Serve

So I've been on an unintentional hiatus... I've been extremely busy at school with meetings, new curriculum, and then adding in personal life stuff, life is just been a little crazy! 

Last week I was fortunate enough to take seven students to the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Now this convention draws over 60,000 FFA members and is the largest student leadership conference in the country. Now this means that we get some pretty good speakers, who talk about agriculture, leadership, and just doing more. 

Two of my favorite speakers were from large companies. The COO of Monsanto and the president of Elanco, we're both informative and really fascinating to listen to. I personally enjoyed both speeches, because both men spoke about how we are going to feed the world. They talked about how FFA members in the room are going to be responsible for feeding, not only our country but our world. Whether they become farmers, or research scientists, they will need to figure out how to do more, feed more, and produce more with less. 

This is such a valuable concept for not only high school students but individual consumers to grasp. We live in the United States-- we live in a country of choice. Most people don't have to worry where their food comes from, if it will be safe, or if we'll have enough to feed our family each day. Sadly there are people that struggle with this on a daily basis. 

During national convention, I had our chapter participate in a National Day of Service organized by the National FFA. Anyone who attends the convention is able to sign up for one of the service activities. Although the service activity that directly related to food and packaging meals was already filled, I was able to sign our kids up for a project that allowed them to plant trees in underdeveloped neighborhoods of Louisville. They had a great time and it was a prime opportunity to give back. 

I think more kids need the opportunity to participate in community service activities. I also think that service activities that are directly related to food and hunger in communities are essential. At our officer meeting tonight we discussed all of the upcoming community service activities that the officers would like to do. I'd be lying, if I said I wasn't impressed with each of their suggestions and ideas to facilitate activities that give back to the community. 

From the Sonoma County Secret Santa program to working at the Redwood Empire Food Bank, collecting cans and nonperishable food items as well as setting up a blood drive, these are just some of the activities that the officers have planned. It really warms my heart, that the students I have, that are so fortunate in so many ways, are the first to want to do community service for others. I feel like they really listened to the speeches given by the Monsanto and Elanco presidents and how it is becoming their responsibility to feed the world and contribute to their communities. They want to do more, give more and serve more...

"Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others."

Just another reminder of why I'm thankful for my job and students... 

Before they headed out to plant trees... 

Some of the kids at the Expo! #weareffa 

The day I hope never comes...

I feel like the average high school doesn't usually have to deal with tragedy. I think for most kids in high school, they go along complete their four years and rarely ever think about losing a friend or multiple. 

Unfortunately this creates kids that think they're invincible. As a teacher I overhear all kinds of crazy stories. And I think to myself how lucky many of my students are because they never have had to deal with a tragedy or a death among classmates. But I also think because of that, they lose reality of what actually can happen when they put themselves in bad situations. And not all tragedies even come from bad situations. 

Most kids don't think twice about what they do on the weekends, who they hangout with or the choices that they make. Because nothing bad will ever happen.... Right??? 

When you're in high school you don't focus on the big picture... Because well you don't have to! Making decisions on a Saturday night rarely gets you thinking about how they could affect the rest of your life. Trust me, I was in high school not that long ago (okay it was a little while ago). But what about those Friday or Saturday nights that change your life forever??? 

When I was a junior in high school, I lost one of my favorite people that I had known and been friends with since sixth grade. You know those guys in school that are popular, super athletic, always seem to have a good day, and everybody just loves??? That was Keith. 

I'm met Keith in sixth grade after I began attending Eagle Peak Middle School. Now this middle school is about 10 minutes out of town and I knew about six people when I started. Keith was one of the first people that I became friends with because we sat next to eachother in English. He always had a smile and was always super friendly. So duh! We needed to be friends.

This time of year always reminds me of Keith. Football season and cross country season... Throughout middle school and some of high school he dated one of my close friends, so he was always kind of around. Plus his mom was my bus driver a couple years.

Keith was a runnin fool... 

As you grow older, and go to a larger high school (in our case), people you are friends with change. That's normal, but there's always those people that kind of have a part of your heart, they're just good people that will always say hi and always be there if you need to talk. That was Keith. 

Keith and his story, changed our high school class forever. I still remember getting the phone call that he had tragically passed away. It was surreal for my friends and I. And while we were juniors in high school and a lot had happened since six grade, losing a classmate was something that affected the way I viewed the rest of high school. And it affects the advice I give to kids in the classroom now. Life can be short. It's possible not to get second chances, redos, or do overs. Accidents and some bad choices don't just affect the people they harm they can affect an entire population. 

In this case the population was our high school. Keith's funeral was and still is the biggest funeral I have ever been to (and I've been to my fair share). People sat everywhere. It was also one of the most sad funerals I've ever been to.  Story after story and people sobbing, all trying to understand why we lost someone so young, so unfairly. 

I know my friends and I still miss Keith on a daily basis, and we carry his memory with us wherever we go. Our graduation he had been gone a year and a half. It had never rained in June, as far back as our principal could remember. It mostly was a dry day. We all sat out on the chairs during the ceremony and at one point, the skies opened up and it just down poured. We were completely soaked, but everybody laughed and looked around at each other, because we knew that that was Keith's way of being with us on graduation day. 

Kids today act invincible.... 

"Nothing bad can happen"

"It's all just for fun"

"We'll be fine"

"Don't worry"

I hear that every Friday as I tell kids to "have a great weekend and make good choices". But at the same time it's scary every weekend wondering if I'll see them again on Monday morning. Thankfully the answer has always been yes. Heaven forbid when it's not.... 

I hope the day never comes where I have to go to school on Monday and find out I lost a student. I pray every weekend that my kids make good choices. So many of my kids are "my kids". Well, I'm not old enough to have kids in high school but I still care about them like they're my children. Not all of them have supportive families or tell their parents everything about their life. Some need those teachers that support them, talk to them and are there for them. That's actually my favorite part of being a teacher. 

It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J.K. Rowling

It's Gonna Be Okay...

Last week we had our Chapter Officer Leadership Conference in Sebastopol. My kids are rather "energetic" and "lively" at conferences where they get to see old friends and make new friends. For lack of a better reference they are like flippin caged animals being let out for the first time! 

While at times it's incredibly frustrating to maintain their focus and make sure that they are absorbing everything from the conference to bring back to the chapter. For the most part they really appreciate and understand the importance of conferences and really value what they learned. I personally don't think that's a skill you can really teach to kids. 

Being energetic.

Being engaged. 

Being willing to step outside their comfort zone.

Being respectful. 

Being appropriate. 

Being there for others not part of their chapter. 

I seriously could not teach all of these things to my chapter officers. I was extremely impressed with their commitment and dedication while we were at COLC. And yes they totally make me furious sometimes! But they really do try to take in everything that is given at conferences-- which I wholeheartedly appreciate! 

My officers with the CA State FFA Officers

The best part is when we come home from conferences and they really take on those leadership roles that they learn about. I figure I've taught them and given them the tools they need, but it really takes the individual kid, to want to do a good job and want to be a leader. I've been so lucky this year to have kids that take the initiative to text me and find out if they should contact everyone for activities and how they should go about it. It's refreshing to have kids take ownership of committees and meetings, plan what they will present, games they'll play, and ideas want to discuss. 

It's times like these I have to remind myself to breathe, because it's all going to be okay. I need to remember that the kids are capable little creatures and when I start stress, I need to delegate those responsibilities to them because they are more than able to handle it. 

I can't take all the credit for the great job that they're all doing... But I can say that I set high expectations, train them and instill a little fear... A little, very rare, and on point craziness goes a looooooonnnnnggg way! Hahaha... 

Times like this and kids like these are the reasons that I am so happy and pumped to be an Ag teacher. I really love my frickin job... It rocks my socks! 

And a bonus today... It was Greenhand Conference! Little baby freshies doing fun, new stuff! Can't wait for them to continue in the FFA! 

What does it take?

In school, meaning high school I was pretty average... I got decent grades, that I had to bust my a$$ for, I played some sports and I did for 4-H and FFA. I was not a star athlete, a star student or ASB president. And magically I got into college... Even a couple of them! 

Now that I'm a teacher and I feel like I consult kids on a daily basis about college, why they should go (not all but most) and all the awesome things about college. I feel HELPLESS.

Helpless?! Yup! 

I feel like I know even less about how to help kids get to the college they want to go to-- financially, academically and emotionally. Although I only graduated five years ago I feel like so much has changed in the college system compared to when I was there. 

College and getting into college has now consumed the lives of high school freshmen and sophomores. And unfortunately by the time they get to their senior year I feel like they are even less prepared to go to college, then they really should be and they're not getting it. 

College is just such a focus for so many teachers, administrators, counselors and parents and even students. Yet, these star athletes, star students and presidents of every club on campus are not getting into college. I have kids with a ridiculous amount of AP classes, playing multiple sports, involved in multiple clubs and leadership and I hate to tell them that they might not get in the college of their dreams. 

Our school even had a girl last year who was a "ideal" well-rounded student and ideal candidate for college and that she didn't get into the one University that she wanted to go to. It's not like she was shooting for the moon or anything, it was a UC in California for jeez sake. How is that even possible?! How are 4.0+ GPAs and "involved with everything" type kids not getting into universities?? 

Kids no longer get to enjoy the great things about high school, because they are so consumed by these high-end classes and being involved with everything that they don't know how to balance anything. We are almost creating ADD kids. They can no longer focus on one thing or aspect of school and do it well. They have to do everything, they have to do it over the top, and they have to do it all at once. And that is only to MAYBE have a chance at the college of their choice (the realistic one).

Kids no longer take their time, do high quality work every time or really absorb information... They are so slammed, they rush through work just to get it done.

It's just crazy to me that so much emphasis is put into "being awesome and getting in". Kids need to be able to set goals and work hard to get into college but also enjoy the road getting there.

This is now my students on a daily basis...