Session 19 - Degrees and Proficiencies

What are you curious about?
How do you want us to format the CDE assignment?

• You can format the answers in any way that you prefer, as long as they are within the guidelines of the assignment. You want your answers to be easy to follow, but otherwise just follow the rubric.

Will there be a workshop like last year for people that want to apply for the American Degree?

• I talked with Mr. Day and Mr. Keith following class, and they are both willing to come up and help again, as long as the students contact them in advance/get on their calendars. Keep in mind that you will want to have your records with you at this meeting, as it will help them answer your questions.

Would including a session on degrees/proficiencies be beneficial in my classroom?

• Yes, you want to inform your students of the opportunities available to them, and degrees/proficiencies are an important part of agricultural education.

Does the order go... proficiency award, Keystone degree, American degree?

• Not exactly... proficiencies and degrees are not "combined". You earn your degrees in "order" from Greenhand to Chapter to State (called the Keystone in PA) to American degree. Proficiencies are applied for as an award above and beyond the degree.

Should the early steps in completing degrees/awards be done on paper or electronically?

• I think this is personal preference. However, I do believe that with our capability to save and edit in electronic format, it just makes sense to go electronic.

Where do you find the number of applicants for different proficiency awards?

• This would be data that folks at the state FFA office would have for the state level, and National FFA would have for the history on national applicants.

Understanding record books to the point where I can teach it to our future students.

• We will have a few sessions on this topic in the near future. Keep in mind what Kevin Keith said in class yesterday... It comes with experience. You are not an expert, immediately!

Can one SAE be used to apply for multiple proficiency awards?

• If you have multiple projects, then you could be looking at multiple proficiency areas. However, keep in mind what Mr. Keith said in terms of SAE programs versus a "project book".

Ag Career Network

• I believe this will be one of our discussion topics later in the semester, as a few people have shown interest in the topic.

Should you take students to convention every year, or every other year?

• What are your reasons/learning objectives for going? I personally think that you should go every year, if you can clearly identify the reason for going. With that being said, you will need to work closely with administration to make certain that funding/support is there from the district. It all comes back to providing opportunities to the students, and being clear with administration how this will help students.

How hard is it to actually work through the qualifications for the degree?

• It is not too difficult if you give these to students early in their program. Don't wait until the very end and tell  the students that this is what they had to do over the past 3 or 4 years, and then have them try to make it up. They need to know the criteria for earning the degree up front and then they can make a conscious effort to obtain the degree.

What did you learn?
Resources - where to find the applications on the website/the process of scoring the students
Great tips!!! Thank you to the presenters!
That you can apply for multiple proficiencies at the same time.
That many proficiency areas are not applied for/not highly represented. More opportunity for my students to apply at the state level!!!
Proficiencies are a "summary" of your SAE programs.
Start early on the applications
Call for help if you need it. They are willing to help.
Ag Career Network has student surveys to help determine possible SAE areas for students.
Record keeping is "key"... do it early... do it well.
That there are a lot of proficiency areas that I never knew about.
That degrees can be applied for even after graduation.
$1,000 requirement
AET helps with parts of filling out the American degree
The applications are not really that hard if you plan/help your students plan in advance
That examples of winning applications are available on-line.

What do you want to learn more about?
Is AET replacing record books?

• Currently, in PA, the record book competition uses the state approved books. However, many schools are seeing the advantages of the AET and are moving in that direction.

How to create a proper/effective grading system for the program (SAE/FFA/classroom)?

How many students win the American degree each year?

• This year... approximately 3,500 on the national level and approximately 75 from the state.

I want to learn more about recordbooks (other than employment) so that I can help my students.

• We will have a few sessions on record keeping. Also, I would recommend "starting" an entrepreneurship book on AET this semester so that Dr. Foster and I can help answer questions, as you go along in the process of entering information.

I want to learn more about the Stars.

• Check out the information at https://www.ffa.org/Programs/Awards/Stars/Pages/StarAwardResources.aspx

How do H.S. students do all of this in agricultural education and have time for anything else?

• Ag students are amazing :-) I think they need to be passionate about what they are doing, and they need to have an agricultural education teacher that is willing to help them. The rest seems to "fall into place".

Workshops available to learn record books?

• New and beginning teachers get a survey each year in PA asking about their needs. Please be sure to complete this when you get to this stage in your career. Also, we can explore other sessions beyond what we have in AEE 311, if this is of interest to a group of students. This  may be a great opportunity for Teach Ag Society and Collegiate FFA to partner on an "extended learning" opportunity for our students. I would encourage you to contact the officers of both organizations and provide them with this idea for professional development! I will buy the dinner, if people get it organized/attend!

Are there internships available through PA FFA in the summer?

• Not that I know of, but depending on what you are looking for we can team you up with Mr. Brammer, Cliff Day, others??? that would very likely be happy to work with you.

How many proficiencies are there?

• Forty-nine

How do I incorporate all of these different proficiencies into my curriculum?

• You do not need to incorporate them all into your curriculum. You develop your curriculum and then, in conjunction with your students' SAE programs, you determine which proficiencies align with your program/students.