NAAE: Who's in the Room?

We had the opportunity to "skip" class for the week after Thanksgiving hop on a plane and head to New Orleans for the National Association of Agricultural Educators Convention...pretty rad right?!? Yeah it actually was. We got to participate in professional development for 5 days, connect with educators, explore New Orleans, and become closer as a cohort. I felt extremely blessed for an opportunity as a preservice teacher to go to such a large national event. It also made my realize how lucky we are  as Penn Staters are that we go to attend because we were about 1/3 of 40-50
preservice teachers that were there. 

Pre-service teachers from across the nation

Who's in The Room?

Thinking about which educators are in the room, there were obviously high school ag teachers from just about any state but they weren't just any ag teachers they were ag teachers at the front of their field wanting to grow, share, and learn. There were also postsecondary educators, industry folks, FFA staff, retired teachers, state leaders, and many others passionate about ag ed. I got to personally work with/talk to teachers from Pennsylvania(duhhh), Maryland, New York, Mississippi, Montana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Utah, California, Oregon, Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, New Jersey, and thats just the states that I remember so it was awesome to gain connections across the nation. In talking to these teachers, I realized how lucky I was to even be in the room. They came with ideas and cool connections and activities like it inspired me to want to be that kind of teachers. Talking to these teachers I heard across many of them like wow you're lucky to get to come here and experience this and take advantage of this PD as young educators. I also hear like it can seem like your sacrificing a lot to be here, but it is always worth it which I thought was a really good reminder to get the most of this time even when I have so so many assignments piled up to finish. While working through activities it was cool to see how certain teachers would implement them into their classroom and how they were working through that as we were doing it. It was also cool to get some more lab ideas and assessment ideas. 

PA folks

Overall, I felt honored to just be in the room and get my foot in the door so to speak in this profession as I move into to student teaching and maybe my own classroom. 

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