Bet Your Summer Wasn't As Exciting As Mine!

Well I have neglected my blog for far too long! As I embark on another school year I find myself in a different role then I have been the past 17 + daycare years of my life. For those long youthful years I have been the student. An overly active student, always involved in activities, striving for good grades, and ya know completing majority of my homework. My blog started as a way to share with my family and friends my journey through college as an Agricultural Education student, president of a club and advocate for others to join us as an Avenger. My blog then became about my journey student teaching at West Perry High School. This was nothing like the stigma Perry County gets for being "hick, boring place" as I can assure you student teaching was one of the best and toughest experiences. I had the very best of mentors!! With dedication and hard work I saw my some of my biggest goals achieved when I graduated from Penn State and became the new Ag teacher at Penn Manor High School in the same weekend!


Here's a snapshot of my crazy summer!

 With week one in the books I am even more excited for this school year! The potential I already see in my students is thrilling. While I still learn something new everyday my role has OFFICIALLY changed from student to teacher!

Learning From the Wise Owls

As advisors teachers are stationed by the owl! The owl is a symbol of knowledge and wisdom. When there are questions to be answered about agricultural education programs I head right to the source…..the ag teachers themselves!


Heading out into the field soon I wanted to know about some of my past colleges and how their teaching experience was going. Lets start with the bad, the struggles some of these new teachers are facing. Student motivation came up in the conversation a lot. Between students in class, getting students to participate in FFA, and motivating the officers to take on those leadership roles; motivation is hard to instill within some students. Just coming from student teaching I can agree with this. I had some students in class I really, really wanted to participate in a contest because I knew they would have been really good but for whatever reason they didn't want to put on that blue and gold jacket.

 On to the good some of the teachers I talked to are currently in a one teacher department. I was told that at first one teacher was very apprehensive about taking the job, not sure he wanted to be the only ag teacher but is since very happy in the position and sees the advantages it brings. In a one teacher department he has more freedom when it comes to spending money and making big decisions. However tasks like planning the banquet are a little more stressful.

Speaking of the FFA budget……
I had a long conversation with my agriculture teacher the other day to find out more about how budgets work for a program. It's a little nerve-racking to know that you will be in charge of making sure the department gets what it needs! She assured me though that it's not as tough as I make it sound and at that school anyway it's a pretty simple process. She has a number amount that she is allowed to spend, creates a list of what she needs, and turns it in for approval!

Some FFA chapters also have an articulation agreement with a local college so that students are actually able to receive college credit for some of the classes they take! The school I graduated from has an articulation agreement with Delaware Valley College for an animal science course as well as a horticulture course. This wasn't a possibility when I was in high school so I'm really happy to be part of the growing program and help when needed as part of the advisory council. The high school I student taught at had an articulation agreement with another local community college which allowed students to receive credit for an agriculture business class. I think it's wonderful that the students are able to get the ball rolling early and head to college with a class under their belt or at least be able to add to their resume that they received college credit for an ag class.

Well as always I had a great time chatting with some ag teachers in PA and look forward to learning new things in the future!

Following Directions Action Research

My action research was designed around a problem I believe most teachers have and I feel unfortunately is a growing problem within todays society….following directions. Something we should have been taught as children. The problem started while reflecting upon my classroom skills with a introduction level ag class (majority 9th graders). No matter what I did that class had a horrible time working in groups. Thinking about it a little more I decided that group work was not the root of my problem but it was more following directions. The light build clicked immediately! Why not test all my classes and compare how students follow directions!

Procedure:
The basis of the research was two quizzes. The first being a simple following directions quiz. A series of questions that had the students drawing boxes, poking holes in the paper, and writing funny things if they didn't read the entire test to realize all they needed was their name. This very quiz was given to all of my students. The results can be found below on the graph. We then had a discussion about the quiz and talked about how the students felt about reading directions and if they thought they might read them in the future. That fell on a Friday so on Monday I gave another quiz. This time though I told the students it was a pop quiz. I had designed one for each class very similar to the first but on the relevant matter we were talking about in class. The results for this are also found on the graph below. The quizzes were graded on a pass or fail basis determined by if they answered the correct questions.

To fully evaluate the students on this subject I also had them complete a survey after both quizzes to determine their thoughts about the importance of following directions those results are shown below! 

Results

To conclude my action research results show that 70% of my students now feel that directions are important after the second quiz and will probably read directions. From the first graph above you can see that most students failed the first quiz but then passed the second with the exception of class period 4. 

Stream Study!

The weather was a bit nicer this week and that meant making new plans to be outside as much as possible. I was venturing into a whole new world of classroom management….in a stream! It was the perfect time for stream study! We spent a few days testing water quality and then a few studying macroinvertabrates. Overall the students had a great time being out of the classroom and getting their feet wet….literally. I had been looking forward to this all semester. It was successful, we concluded that the stream was clean due to the organisms we found and the water quality test results! For the most part the students were really excited about getting in the cold water. Here's some pictures from an awesome week with my wildlife class.

Class Picture!

Students looking at a crayfish 

Checking out freshwater clams

Cruise Control

I've set my car to cruise control as I head into the final few weeks of my time at West Perry. I cut back a few classes but picked up another so I'm still a busy bee. It's kinda my nature to be busy. The weather appeared to get nice for a few days which lead to a few fun activities and a rowdy bunch of high school students anxious for summer vacation.

We also had our banquet last week which was such a great experience! My students surprised with an honorary chapter degree. I was so touched and surprised I was in tears as I walked up to get my award. The next I spent teaching all of my classes some floral design skills! I was able to use the flowers from the banquet to make corsages, boutonnieres, and round arrangements. The students really enjoyed this and I really enjoyed taking the time to have a fun day of flower arranging with them!

I have been spending all of my free time applying for jobs and preparing for interviews! Not much reflection from this week but enjoy some pictures from class!

Honorary Chapter Degree! 

Flower Dissection 

Using the Banquet flowers
 for plant dissection 

Banquet Prep! 

The whole gang! 

Freshman eating their green hand degree
serving ice-cream at the banquet 

Day after the banquet flower arranging 

Final Reflection

So this was it. The final week. I had been dreading the final day for a while now... like since day 2. I'm not one for change, I despise it actually. I've always been like that though. I wasn't a fan of graduating high school, going to college, moving for student teaching. There's just something about big changes that leave me feeling anxious and uneasy. I still had all of those emotions on the last day of student teaching but I also had many more.

My last day was full of presents, in class parties, a surprise home cooked lunch, hugs from students, and a few tears. I truly have the most wonderful students and I realized today that they cared for me just as much as I cared for them. We have had some great times together but it's the ones you don't expect will miss you that surprise you the most. Sometimes in class as a teacher your just not sure your students are listening; sometimes they are blank starring into space, obviously distracted, or just plain sleeping. Some had me fooled. I mean who gives the gift of an engine! Well of course my small gas engine class. This isn't just any engine it's one that is specifically designed to show the piston during four strokes of the engine. My biggest reflection upon today is that I love teaching and everything about it. I mean I was one of the few crazy ones that didn't give up classes when I should have because I just didn't want to stop. All I can say is I miss them and teaching already and it's been about three hours.

As far as reflecting upon my teaching skills I'm not very good at that. If someone was to ask me I would say I have a lot of improving left to do! I'd rather let the students tell you how I did so here is some feedback from their course evaluations…..


"Just keep doing what your doing and you will make an awesome teacher." 

"thanks for teaching us this year. you did really good and i hope you learning to teach and manage classes helps you because you would be a really good ag teacher and i enjoyed having you in 2 of my 3 ag classes"

"The fact we had two good teachers and that it taught us all a little more then we knew"

"i hope that you had a good year here at west perry because having you as a teacher was good and you taught me alot of stuff not only in this class but other to. so thanks again and for everything you did!(:"

Setting Goals and Reaching New Ones

I could feel the wind stinging my face turning my cheeks a bright pink, my shoes were covered in mud and soaking wet leaving my feet feeling frozen, my nose started running, but I continued to push and run faster. The voices in my head saying, "keep going, don't stop now!" It was a miserable Saturday run as it had rained the past two days and was still cloudy and cold. The path was muddy and slippery. The wind picked up and the water on the lake rippled and looked like the ocean with every large gust. The fishermen sat bundled on the shore. At this moment I wanted to give up but wanted so badly to achieve my goal and run that half mile that I had left of the trail. I had set a goal, I was going to reach it, and I did just that!

After running I started to reflect upon my week as a teacher. This was my last week with a full course load. I was reluctant to give up that first class even though I have had a full course load for longer then Penn State requires. I can't help but think that I'm not done yet! They haven't learned and mastered everything yet. I wasn't satisfied with myself or the work I had done as a teacher with the class. Then I thought about it some more. As I grow and learn to be a teacher this might just be the toughest part for me. It's just my personality to set high expectations and ever higher goals for myself. Reconsidering I realized that the students did achieve several goals from when I first started with the class over two months ago! The grades increased and with every project I saw all my students skills increase each individually in different ways. Not everyday was great or perfect thats for sure but they were sad when I told them it was my last day and so I must have made some impression.

My personality has never been to quit or give up. I never leave projects unfinished and stick with something until I get it right! Of course I want just that for my students also. My time with that class was defiantly a learning experience. Behavior problems, bullying, and just having a shop class full of high school boys last period of the day makes for an interesting situation. I'm not leaving the class with every student being as sufficient at electrical wiring as I would have hoped but I'm leaving them knowing that they the have the basic skills and the ability to continue their education in wiring if they so choose.

As the teacher I realized that I also accomplished my goals. I managed a tough class in the shop, learned a whole lot about electrical wiring, and brought the students closer as friends. We talked about passing classes, motivation and work ethic, how to treat others, and life after graduation. It wasn't perfect but sitting and thinking about my weeks spend in that class as the teacher I feel a sense of accomplishment! I actually achieved more goals then I had originally set for myself. The students were sad to see me leave their class and I was actually sad also.

What's an Ag Teacher?

This week’s blog comes to you after experiencing the typical week of an ag teacher. When I say typical I mean nothing like that of any other teacher in a high school setting. I spent my Friday last week preparing sub plans for I would spend Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at the State Legislative Conference in Harrisburg with seven of my students and cooperating teacher Mrs. Miller.  I then taught Wednesday and Thursday but then took 6 of my students Friday to take the Safe Applicators Pesticide exam at the local extension office.  After this week here are my reflections

Ag teachers are hard workers! Teachers don’t get free time at conferences like you would think. Ag teachers grade proficiencies, attend professional development workshops, and engage with the students.  While students are attending conferences the teachers are also working together to ensure that Ag programs in PA are the best they can be! Returning to classes after missing days is like never skipping a beat. Expecting the most from their students while they were away we dive right back into the current topic.

Ag teachers get little sleep! We stay up late at conferences to chaperone students, wake up early to save breakfast tables, Go to school early for parliamentary procedure practice, and stay after school for workshops. Then after all this we still have to prepare lesson plans, grade papers, read speeches, and look over proficiencies. Sometimes falling asleep happens in odd places….maybe even at the conference dance. 

Ag teachers are caring! I would bet that Ag teachers know their students better then any other teacher in the high school. Why…because we spend so much time with our students. We take them to conferences, see them at FFA meetings, visit their house to check up on SAE's, and help prepare for contests outside of class. Spending so much time outside of school with students you get to know them. Ag teachers know their students interests, career paths, and problems. They know their students better then some of their students parents. 

Ag teachers are all of these things and so much more. This past week I did more then teach. I was an FFA advisor, role model, problem solver, and educator. I'm so happy to be part of great organization. 

I think what I'm trying to saying is ag teachers are pretty freaking awesome! 

Here's to some AWESOME Ag teachers…and all those I don't have pictures of your awesome too!!

My Cooperating Teachers!
Mr. Hines & Mrs. Miller

Dr. Ewing- PSU

Dr. Foster- PSU 

My Ag Teacher!
Mrs. Hoover

State Legislative Leadership Conference

This past week I spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with some cool kids at the State Legislative Leadership Conference in Harrisburg. I spent my time chaperoning, grading proficiencies, attending professional development workshops, and helping with community service. Here are some pictures from my experience!

Pennsylvania FFA members at the Capitol building! 

Perry County FFA members with
Mr. George Greig Secretary of Agriculture 

FFA students at Project Share for a day of
Community Service. 

Girls rocking out the community
service cleaning trucks! 

Playing with the PETS…These
will be sent to third world countries
for transportation

West Perry FFA at the Capitol for a tour! 

Seeing Results

Another eventful busy week in the books! With six classes I never have a free moment during the school day. Having all of my classes for the past few weeks this week I really felt like I started seeing student achievement in the shop. This was AWESOME!

As a teacher there are different ways we can assess student learning. In the classroom we can use projects, exams, quizzes, questioning, and group work. In the shop though everything changes. Sure we still use project rubrics and ways to grade our students. Something else is different though…most of the time we see a positive change in attitude and work ethic. 

Thus far I have four classes in the shop working on various projects. Studying different topics from small gas engines, welding, and electrical wiring all these classes are now completing some type of project on their own or with a group during class time. I realized some changes within my students. Here are a few short stories from this week in the shop….

Small Gas Engine Teardown

Students in the classroom who like to talk, answer questions, and contribute in any way possible are pretty hard workers! I noticed this within my small gas engine class and others. In my small gas engine class I have one student in particular who loved to help in any way possible during class time. I enjoyed his enthusiasm but found keeping him quite sometimes to be a challenge. Once we started engine teardown though he couldn't be stopped! He has a extraordinary work ethic and enjoys working on the engines. I believe that students like this one enjoy the hands on learning that this and every ag class offers and benefits from completing projects and seeing things first hand. 

Practice before the
real deal!

On the other end of the spectrum I also have students who have a hard time focusing in the classroom for several different reasons from behavior problems to IEP's. I was moved this past week with their work in the shop! Two classes in particular are working on a shop feed scoop project while practicing arc welding at the same time. During instruction time I am focused on helping those weld. I saw a complete turn around in attitude and overall happiness in those particular students as soon as we entered the shop. While I always try to make classroom instruction engaging there is just something about them succeeding on their own that helps to change their attitude. I had a blast working with them! Seeing some of their faces light up when I encouraged them was cool and I got to know them a little better through one on one instruction. 

Surprises are fun! This week I was shocked by the talent I have in my classes. Students who I never guessed would have exceeded at welding or were terrified ran great beads (shout out to the ladies who killed it). I also have some really talented electricians who are quickly picking up wiring switches. 

Student Wiring Project

As I reflected on this week I found myself feeling like a proud parent. I know some of those parents I met in parent teacher conferences would have been proud to see their sun or daughter working this week! Though I see success in the classroom this week I was really feeling the rewards of being a teacher. It was more then just student success through testing…it was overall student success through content understanding and pure enjoyment. That's the main goal right! 

First Full Week

It's crazy to think that I started this journey four weeks ago and this week was my first full week of classes. Finally no holidays, snow days, or two hour delays to mess up the schedule. Of course this was also the busiest week yet as I had something going on after school almost every night. Even though by the end of this busy week I was completely exhausted I have some really cool things to share!

Soil Texture Test

My wildlife class has been working hard on their mammal and game bird identification so I decided to switch it up this week and take a break from identification. We studied habitat and diversity, and carrying capacity. The class conducted an experiment on carrying capacity using balloons! This was awesome we simulated the habitat for yeast by the size the balloon blew up. On Tuesday night after school a few of my students from class met at the extension office for Envirothon training. The lesson this training session was on Pennsylvania fish, reptiles, and soil. I also got a lot of good resources that I could use in my classroom when preparing students for the Envirothon. The next day in class we had an Evirothon training recap. I had the students that were able to come to the training run a few stations on the different topics and teach the rest of the class what they learned. This worked awesome! The students teaching did a good job sharing the materials and running the stations. I also think this helped spark more of interest in the Envirothon trainings and I'm hoping to increase our numbers for next week!

Carrying Capacity Experiment!
or are we blowing up balloons for the banquet
months in advance? 

On another note man are demonstrations in front of students nerve wrecking! I had to complete two demonstrations this week and I don't think the students noticed but I think they went pretty rough. Being sick didn't help the coughing, man voice and blowing my nose every fifteen minutes was just annoying and uncomfortable. So add that to twenty students either staring at you and thats a difficult situation. The first was my agriscience and technology class. Finally they are getting to the shop! This class is ready…hopefully we will see a huge motivation increase with this hands on project. Now I would just like to state that I have made two feed scoops on my own to practice and they turned out beautifully! With twenty students breathing down my throat watching my every move I can say it went ok! After the demonstrations they where ready to start the project and I began teaching arc welding. I was also nervous about this but only because I know this is a first time thing for most of my students and they were nervous. My first three did awesome and I can't wait to get more in the booth tomorrow!

Feed Scoop Demonstrations! 

Trying on Welding
Equipment!

Student help with the Demo

Wiring Demonstrations!

My second demonstration this past week was in my mechanics class. Electric wiring……dun dun dun….My worst subject at the moment. This has been a tough one. The students are challenging with their questions and I have a tough time answering them. You know they are so descriptive "I have this one switch in my house and it turns this one light on and my microwave, what kind is it?"….lets just say by the end of the question my mind is twisted. Well they are finally getting to the shop! I had to demonstrate the single poled switch…cake mode….so I thought! I was prepared but everything that could go wrong went wrong! It started off on a bad foot when Mr. Hines had to take another student into the other room to "talk" about behavior. A few other things went wrong that took more time then expected but in the end we got the demonstration completed and they are ready to begin their projects!

While this was a busy week in the classroom I was extremely happy most of my classes are starting to get into the shop! It's fun to see their expressions when they complete part of projects or are really into what they are doing and enjoying it.

This week was also extremely busy after school. I went to Envirothon training Tuesday night and got to meet everyone at the local extension office. Wednesday night we stayed late to help manage the chapter public speaking contest. My creed speakers I had been training did an awesome job! Thursday was parent teacher conferences and I had my opportunity to meet some of my students parents and learn a little more about my students.


This week was the first full week and defiantly the most rewarding!



Meagan Moment- I thought I could escape school Tuesday without the students knowing it was my birthday! They found out and Wednesday brought a cake to early morning parli pro practice! How thoughtful!!

Connecting to Classes

After coming back from ACES and then having a day off this week flew by!

I spent the week getting to know my students more! With picking up almost all of my classes I teach almost every class period of the day. However only one of those classes have I been their only teacher. Some classes rotate on a quarterly basis but most run for a year. I started fresh with the small gas engines class but all the others have previously had Mr. Hines or Mrs. Miller.

This week I realized a major difference in those classes. I noticed that the students in my small gas engines class relied more on me as their teacher and connected with me easier. They seemed to be enjoying the class more. Not that my other classes are not enjoying class but they seem hesitant to trust me sometimes.

I expected this as student teaching is hard for the students also! To them I'm just some random person who they will only have to see for a given amount of time and then I will move on to another class or leave the school completely before their school is out for summer.

With this comes hesitation and behavior issues but also new friends! The negatives of this make me work harder! I use my ticket out questions to get to know my students more and connect with them. I also try talking to them in the hallway and other times in between class. I encourage everyone to get involved with FFA and ask about other things they are involved in.

It's been a slow process but then again so has school days! It seems that once I connect with a few students in a given class period the rest just sorta follow.

Paving the Way - #ACES2K14

     This past weekend I attended my first conference with students as an advisor! This was just weird at first. I had attended ACES several times before at least two as a student and last year to facilitate a workshop. This time was different though. West Perry took about 30 students and I went as one of the advisors.

West Perry FFA Chapter 

     I attended teacher workshops, helped my older students set up a workshop, ate dinner with my students, and chaperoned at the dance. ( I did get out there on the dance floor and show some moves….just a few)

West Perry Student participating
in a workshop 

     Going into this weekend I wasn't aware of how it would affect me personally. I have been around these students for a few weeks now and like I said I had been to ACES several times before. Something was different this time. I enjoyed hearing the freshman being excited over the workshops and the new friends I saw our students hanging out with. We all sat together at dinner and I laughed with the students as they told funny stories from workshops and recent events. From this experience I was really touched by the first year members we had in attendance. Seeing them having fun at the dance, talking to new people, and wearing that blue jacket makes me excited to try to get them involved in other things!

      I was also part of curtesy crew. I'm now in on the "secrets" of curfew and room checks from the teacher perspective! lol The advisors got skill and aren't messing around!

    As we head into National FFA Week I feel energized and motivated about our FFA chapter again! We have such a great group students and I look forward to paving the way and helping them succeed.

Reflections

     I've talked about this before but one of the most important things a teacher can do is reflect upon their lessons. Being new to the teacher world I have been doing my fair share of reflections….actually I'm a little obsessed with it. I'm constantly giving the students "ticket out" questions that I can use to gauge if I felt they got the most from my lesson. After each lesson I find myself talking to both my cooperating teachers looking for suggestions and solutions.

     This week again with the snow days and delays, I think I did more reflecting upon my teaching then actual time in the classroom teaching! We still did some cool projects even with the giant snow storm! Overall it was a good week and I survived my first observation by my PSU supervisor. 

Students welding ice cubes together!

      One thing I have been struggling with is my freshman introductory class and motivation. The students are soooooo unmotivated and I mean like they don't want to do anything! After getting through safety of the machines last week I was ready to start welding! In an attempt to suck them in and get them excited for welding I had them weld together ice cubes using birthday candles. This was fun and the students were surprised when they learned they could actually do it and that it is possible to weld together more then just medal. While I was super excited about this and so happy to watch them succeed they didn't seem as excited about it as I was. I think deep down they really enjoyed it they just don't know it yet! Anyway I got some really good ideas for improving motivation in this class from utilizing my resources! 

1.    I'm going to do some action research! I'm excited to use different tactics to see if I can                                                                        improve class participation and learner engagement. Not sure how yet any    suggestions are welcome!
2.    It is a larger class and I have a hard time keeping track of who participates so I wrote everyones name on a popsicle stick and if I need a question answered I just pull a name! So far this is working really well and it seems to make more students pay attention during lecture. 
3. This weekend I got a deck of cards and taped one to the back of each students bell work book. I'm going to use this when breaking the students into partners and groups! Especially with this class I like to switch up the lesson a lot and try to get everyone motivated so I need quick ways to do so. With everyone having a card I can split my students up quickly. 

Using playing cards to break
students into groups!

      Wednesday Mr. Seaman my supervisor came to visit. This actually went a lot better then I expected and I got a lot of great ideas! Being observed wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and now I know how to be more prepared for next time. I got some more good ideas for my community based project and I look forward to planning that in more detail this upcoming week! He also was really helpful about my action research and motivation plans as stated above. 

      I had a busy week as I gave Mr. Hines and Mrs. Miller substitute plans on Friday and headed to Penn State. We had a seminar day full of resume building and job search tips! It was lovely to see my other cohort members and PSU ag ed team. No time to hang around for the weekend though and catch up with friends I headed to ACES Saturday! (see next blog post for a full report) 

     Finally getting comfortable with my classes and students this week I found myself thinking a lot about the classes more in detail. I made a lot of progress with names this past week and I found myself wondering if I was reaching all my students and different ways I could spark the interest in different students. More reflections…. 

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." 
             - Charles Darwin 

Meagan Moment- It would be nice if I had one full week of a normal school schedule so I could try to get used to the times my classes ended. One day I confused a two hour delay time with a normal schedule time….Sounds like something easy to distinguish between but it isn't when your trying to remember 20 things at the same time! In a small class I was talking when a few of my students just get up and put their computers away. I ask why they did this thinking I had 20 more minutes. To my surprise we had 2 minutes. That was a fast wrap up to say the least! #oops

Supervised Agriculture Experience

SAE is part of a complete and
successful program

      I had the experience recently to attend another SAE (supervised agriculture experience) visit with my cooperating teacher! For my followers that don't know agricultural education is so much more then just FFA and what happens in the classroom its also about applying what is learned during class time outside of class in the form of some type of project. Check out this cool three circle model we  in the Ag Ed world use to define our complete program! Students are in charge of these projects that can be anything from raising or breeding animals, working or shadowing a local agricultural business, to growing crops….and even more.
      This past week I had the opportunity to check up on an SAE visit with Mr. Hines. One of the students is raising a market steer to take to the local fair. They will show the steer and then sell the animal for consumption to a local buyer. Now the student is responsible for proper care of the animal and training it for show. This is a huge job!…especially with a steer.
      After catching his ear tag on something in the pen, the steer had damaged his ear to the point the ear tag came out. This is a rare occasion but does happen. Mr. Hines had the student call the extension office to explain the situation and get a new ear tag. The extension office then talked to Mr. Hines to verify the situation. This can be a highly controversial topic especially with steers. A lot of money and time goes into these projects and sometimes cheating can be questioned.
      Upon arrival to the students barn Mr. Hines and myself could clearly tell from looking at the steer and the pen that this was the same steer and cheating was not a question. We put the ear tag in the other ear and the steer was good to go!
       Another exciting day in the life of my ag teachers! After teaching all day we helped out with the SAE project and then went to the hardware store to buy supplies for the greenhouse.

Happy Steer! 

Getting Ready! 

Mr. Hines replacing the
ear tag.
Please note: The steer was not hurt in the replacing of the ear tag and was fine after loosing the first one!