ACES

Agricultural Cooperation Establishes Success

Each year, PA FFA hosts the ACES conference for all schools across the states. I had the privilege to go to ACES this year during my student teaching.

For me, it was a great time to bring back memories of when I was in School and was able to enjoy these experiences as a high school student.  But it was also a great opportunity for me to see what a conference is like for the adviser.  During high school I always wondered what the advisers did while we were going through our workshops.  Well, now I know!

It's really awesome that Pennsylvania takes care of it's agricultural educators by providing opportunities at the conferences that they already attend to for their students.  I know that it was a good refresher for me to hear about inquiry based instruction again.  It spurred new thoughts and ideas even though I've pretty much already heard all of the information they gave me.  It was easier to think of how I can incorporate the inquiry based instruction after I've already been teaching a little.

Additionally, it was really good to have Carol Fay talk about AET.  My cooperative school does not use AET.  So it was really nice to hear more about how it can be extremely helpful within my teaching. 

After this experience, and based on my experiences in high school, I know that if I am to teach in a public secondary agricultural education program, I will most certainly take my students to as many of these opportunities as possible.  

                                   

These pictures are from the evening program after supper.  It was a great way to involve the teachers into the evening and to motivate the students.