An adventurous week filled with Mid Winter Convention, working the food booth, helping with Farm Show contests, observations or substitute teaching, school closings and already getting confused as a student about a thousand times. Yes I'm finally in Perry County and getting ready for student teaching. While I didn't actually teach any classes yet I attempted to get used to hearing everyone call me Ms. Slates. My week was way to exciting to just focus on one thing! Since West Perry High School is only about a half hour from Harrisburg and the Farm Show Complex I spent majority of my week there with the FFA chapter.
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| Keystone Degree Recipients |
Of course Mid Winter Convention fell on if not the coldest day of the year it certainly felt like it! West Perry had a two hour delay which really made the day fly by. The two hour delay sent one of the ag teachers Mrs. Miller on an early morning adventure with a few FFA members who had to be there early for star keystone interviews. I was lucky enough to ride the bus in with the students two hours later…bus trips are not as fun as I remember them being in high school. Anyway when we finally arrived Mr. Hines and myself went to the National Convention celebration banquet. It was run by a friend of mine but being completely unbiased I thought it was really nice. With State Convention happening in the summer and Nationals later in the fall it's nice that participants are congratulated by Pennsylvania after competing at National Convention.
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| National Convention Winners |
After that I attended Mid Winter Convention. I can appreciate that my cooperating teachers make all their students sit together. We had several Keystone Degree award recipients, freshman receiving their jackets, and even a star keystone winner. I quickly became the chaperone when Mrs. Miller had to go help with jackets and then Mr. Hines went on an adventure to steal a laser light from a misbehaving child across the stadium. I think it's important for all FFA members to attend Mid Winter Convention for a few reasons. For the freshman it's an opportunity to get involved and maybe even a free jacket. It's the first time for freshman to get out and experience the size of this great organization. For sophomores and juniors it's an opportunity to compete against other members in the state, explore career opportunities, and support the older members receiving the highest degree the Keystone. For the seniors this is the ultimate party and the celebration of a successful high school millstone in their adventure through FFA.
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| New Jacket Recipients |
The rest of the week I spent my time with the students everyday either observing, pretending to be the substitute while Mr. Hines was in a meeting (there was also a real sub no worries), or attending Farm Show with the FFA members to work the FFA Foundation food booth. It was a great experience getting to attend two days to work the food booth and work with the FFA members before having them in class. Let's not forget we also got free food and milkshakes..who would pass that up!
On Sunday I even ventured back to Farm Show to help clean up the landscape display. West Perry got second. Some of the students were disappointed with the results but found comfort in the fact that the first place winner who used dead plants as part of their "winter display" would have trouble replicating that at Big E since it would not be the same season and the plants they used would no longer be dormant. Living four hours away from Farm Show, I never had the opportunity to compete in some of these contests but let me tell you…they don't mess around! Taking the skid loader made clean up a breeze and I was really impressed with how many students got involved on a Sunday for clean up.
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| West Perry 2nd Place Landscape Display |
If you think this sounds like an exciting first week I didn't even mention guard dog Jenny and my cute little landlords, my truck not starting, getting to know the local Librarian, and everyone at McDonald's as I stole wifi. Life is an adventure and this starts a new journey!
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