SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our
disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives
of students. SAEs are not optional.
I began teaching at a
small rural high school in northern Wisconsin and I had one student in my
classes that lived in town, across the street from the high school. When I
introduced SAE (actually SOEP at that time) I told the students that they must
keep records on their program and would be graded each month (last Friday of
the month) on the progress experiences, etc. Well the student who lived
in town, kept making excuses for why he couldn't have an program and
couldn't keep records (I live in town, we don't have a farm, I just go home
after school and watch TV, etc.) -- I met with him and told him that the
requirement would not be waived and told him that, until he developed a more
worthy experience, he would keep records on what he watched on TV,
including times, themes/plots, and special guest stars, if he had no other
experiences which were more agriculturally related -- he recorded on his record
book the TV programs for a couple of weeks and then asked to meet with me
once again -- he told me that he had a summer 'business' mowing lawns and
worked part time at the local feed store processing, mixing and bagging feed
and asked if he kept records on these activities, could he stop keeping records
on the TV programs, which, as it turned out was more time consuming than if he
had just kept records on the 'real' SOEP activities. He received a
recordkeeping award for his efforts at the chapter banquet that year, as
selected by the Ag Ed Advisory Committee.
Submitting Teacher: Mr. Kevin
Keith
SAE Theorem #3
(Moore, 2003, The Agricultural Education Magazine)
Letters should be sent to incoming students letting them
know of the SAE expectation. A simple letter sent to new students prior
to the start of class outlining the goals and objectives of the agricultural
education program could work miracles. In this letter, the teacher should
outline the expectations and requirements along with the rationale for them.
This includes SAE and FFA. In years of teaching, I found this to be a
very effective way to “Sell” FFA and SAE. When students and parents know in
advance the expectations and why, it is much easier to get student to join the
FFA and have a SAE
You are a developing positive agent of change who will one
day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through
agricultural education!
In your Corner,
Dr. Foster
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