Guest Blogger Series: Why, How, What? Program of Activities

The classic FFA activities: fundraisers, recruitment events, food drives, annual chapter banquet, etc. What's the purpose? It's not about what we do, it's about why we do it. Simon Sinek's golden circle is a great way to put this into perspective.

Why?
FFA activities and events are catalysts of change that transform perspectives, habits, career ambitions, and relationships in an authentic and intentional way. Our purpose is to grow and empower students. With guidance, students develop and deliver their own learning experiences through a chapter's program of activities (POA). Planning and executing a quality POA at the local level is powerful.

How?
Success is the result of creative planning and detailed preparation. To invest in chapter success, students set goals and plan the necessary steps to accomplish these goals. By engaging in the development and delivery of a quality POA, students develop leadership and planning skills which are essential in all careers. The key to a quality POA is getting every member involved. The steps to develop and implement a successful POA are outlined in four steps:

• Plan: The POA should be organized by using student committees. The number of committees and committee structure varies by chapter. The chapter vice president is tasked with coordinating the work of committees and every member should serve on at least one committee.
• Develop: Once committees are formed, the POA can be developed. Planning forms are available to aid in the development of the POA. These forms make it easy to write the rough draft by hand, present the plan to the chapter for approval or amendment and prepare the POA for distribution.
• Do: Once the POA is developed and approved by members, the next step is for committees to plan each activity and event. What steps are necessary to achieve the goals approved by members? Make it happen!
• Reflect: Plans are useless without implementation. The POA is a tool used to help the chapter meet members' needs and interests. Reflection is an ongoing process. The POA should be reviewed and reflected upon regularly.

What?
The POA assists in defining chapter goals, outlining steps needed to meet those goals and acts as a written guide to provide a calendar of events the chapter will follow in the year ahead for administrators, advisory committees, alumni and other stakeholders. Every year each FFA chapter takes time to plan ways to provide engaging opportunities focused on growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture.

There are a variety of resources available to aid in the planning, development and delivery of a local program of activities. These include:

• POA Resource Guide - 15 page resource that walks a user through planning, developing, doing and reflecting on a program of activities.
• POA Planning Forms - these four forms are available in PDF and Word. Examples and instructions are included in the POA Resource Guide.
• National Chapter Award Program handbook - this includes information, a scoresheet and rubric for the National Quality FFA Chapter Standards as well as everything needed to be successful in the National Chapter Award Program.
• Chapter Success Guides - each year, a magazine is created to showcase the national finalists in the national chapter award program. These exceptional chapters are planning, developing, delivering a quality program of activities and reflecting on their experiences in a purposeful way. The 2015 guide is a great immediate resource. The 2016 guide will be available in the spring of 2017 and will feature Midd-West FFA of Pennsylvania!

For more information  please visit www.ffa.org/nationalchapter or contact nationalchapter@ffa.org.

Session Two: What are professional expectations?

After a great second session, we left class today equipped with the challenge of pushing ourselves and our students to ask the question "why?" and remain conscious of the status quo. Additionally, we identified reasons that we join organizations, mapped out the remainder of the course, and last but not least started our journey with AET! Let's challenge ourselves to use AET to it's fullest potential, feel free to contact any of us for fun ideas!

Ticket Out Responses Session 2:

• What are we curious about?
• Managing multiple project books in AET
• Under "journal" at the top of the page after logging in,  click "develop your AET experiences" and then "add new." Once your experience is added, you can continue to enter more projects this way.
• How to use the POA to recruit and retain students
• When developing your POA implementation plan, one way to use it as a recruitment tool is to develop your standing committees in a way that is fun and inciting! For example, my implementation plan had very goofy name for each committee. Hold onto this question for our two sessions on POA. If you would like to take a look at my project, let me know!
• If we develop that competition and championship attitude, how can we also cultivate an "other focused mentality"
• Holy cow, this is a good question. I am hoping that Dr. Foster adds this thoughts to this one in the comments, but I would be happy to offer my personal feelings. If you are creating that "championship" mindset, why can't that include being champions of giving back? 
• Why is adolescence viewed negatively?
• Another excellent questions! I definitely don't have the answer, but here are some pretty cool links I found (including some more positive thoughts). Check them out!
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/201203/early-adolescence-and-the-negative-mindset
• http://soulpancake.com/conversations/view/94714/what-can-adolescence-give-to-the-world-and-what-has-it-given-to-your-life.html
• http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/04/14/31good.h23.html
• http://www.instructables.com/answers/Why-do-teenagers-get-such-a-negative-stereotypical/
• How do you keep everyone involved in an organization?
• We have a session dedicated to this in Decemeber!
• Exploring the AET Website and my SAE journal
• Make sure you check out the list provided in your assignment handbook to get a feeling of where to start!
• AET Chapter website
• This is available more so on the advisor features. Personally, I am hoping to get a feel for this as well. I should be people to add students for access to play around with the website. Any students who are interested, please contact me.
•  Percentage of schools that use AET for record keeping.
• I do not know if this number exists, but I can tell you that all states that have affiliation membership for ag education (meaning ALL ag ed students are also FFA members) have access to AET, including Pennsylvania. 

• What did we learn?
• There is a lot more to AET than recordbooks!
• Info about AET
• I learned why students want to join an organization
• Academically you are considered an adolescent between 11-21 years old
• How to use AET more efficiently
• AET is awesome

• What do we want to learn more about?
• FFA
• While we will be discussing this in 311, I think that AEE 100 might offer a lot more of what you are looking for. Check that out if you aren't already in the class!
• Teacher/FFA website
• See my response above. Once I play around with it, I should be able to start adding students who are interested in contributing
• Recruitment tools for organizations
• We have a session on this in December! But keep this in mind while planning out the four projects. What pieces can you add that make students want to be a part of it?
• Using the AET calendar for class due dates
• I can definitely add these in! :)

Session 16 - What is Experiential Learning; October 17

What are you curious about?
How to connect lessons to S.A.E.?

• Each lesson that you teach should have some connection to a potential S.A.E. This could include research or even job placement, but you should be able to find a connection somewhere within your lesson to S.A.E.

How long can S.A.E. be? (timewise)

• A student could begin the S.A.E. their first year in the program and carry it all the way through their high school career, as well as into college. They would potentially do this to continue towards their American degree.

I am having a hard time finding a group of 2 for the CDE project.

• You will need to be a group of 3 total. Start talking to others in the class. I know there are others that are looking, too :-)

Who is responsible for finding the S.A.E.?

• Ultimately, the student. However, the teacher and parents should be there to guide the student toward potential opportunities.

How do you decide what counts/works for an S.A.E?

• This comes down to the individual teacher to make that decision. You need to know your students well enough to determine if what they are choosing "fits" their future goals. I am sure you will talk more about this on Tuesday in class!

More detail about S.A.E., please!

• Coming to a classroom near you on Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013!

How heavy was the penguin that Ewing held?

• Oh wow, I didn't even think to ask, but I am thinking it was about 10 pounds. It was just a "little guy".

Are AET books the new system for record keeping? Are the old ones not used anymore?

• A lot of schools are moving to the AET system. Some schools still use the old books. You will hear more about both systems when we return from National FFA Convention. We have speakers that present on both books.

How did Kolb develop his experiential learning model?

How do you research the effectiveness of E.L.? (I moved this one, but I felt it fit well here!)

• Through his/his colleagues research. Check some of it out at http://www.d.umn.edu/~kgilbert/educ5165-731/Readings/experiential-learning-theory.pdf

What did you learn?

S.A.E

Experiential Learning (5 part model)

Reflection comes in many forms

The definition of Pedagogy

When students get out of agricultural education they can "do" something, because of experiential learning

How to apply the E.L. cycle

Getting students to reflect is a crucial part of the learning cycle!

"I hear, I forget"; "I see, I remember"; "I do, I understand"

Ewing held a penguin!

That kids must take what they learn, generalize, and then apply it to other situations

What do you want to learn more about?

Research on hands-on learning

• You would be amazed at how much reading/research you will find on the topics of hands-on learning and experiential learning; authentic learning, etc. just by doing a google search

S.A.E. books

• Just keep in mind that there is an S.A.E. program that students complete and they keep records of that program/project in their record book. Don't think that the record book is the only/most important part of the learning that occurs when completing an S.A.E.

The various S.A.E.'s that people have completed.

The different types of S.A.E.

• More to come on both of these next week!

How do you assess S.A.E. with what is being learned in the classroom?

• There are various ways to incorporate assessment of S.A.E. into your program, and you need to be sure to do it. You will have the opportunity to build your own assessment plan for S.A.E. and samples will be shared.

How do we incorporate the E.L. cycle into our classroom if we have limited time?

• Good planning, and you must shorten certain sections to make it happen at times OR you just need to realize that the cycle will span over several lessons.

How to make the S.A.E. component stronger in programs.

• I believe this is up to the teacher. If you make it a priority with your students, then it will be stronger in your program.