Fall Week One: Movitation, Pupose AG Ed

Fall Weekly Blog Posts

Concerning Motivation, Purpose for Ag Education

Week One is officially over as I begin writing my reflections on my first week.  First we began by talking about different and unique ways to produce success for ourselves in the future as agricultural educators. What we determined is we need to be motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically to succeed this school year. First we have to get ourselves out of a fixed mindset and into a growth mindset.

 

I need to think about how I can achieve as a successful Agricultural Educator and be a life long learner.   The one theory that I think I need to take to hear my self is the Achievement Goal Theory which has four styles of approach to a goal.

1.  Mastery Approach - I want to learn how to be a great Ag Teacher
2.  Mastery Avoidance - I don't want to be a bad Ag Teacher
3.  Performance Approach - I want people to see me as a great Ag Teacher
4.  Performance Avoidance - I don't want people to see me as a bad Ag Teacher

I think for myself I am going to try to use a combination of all of this as I begin my journey from fixed mindset to a growth mindset.  Hopefully all four of these statements will encourage me to gain as much information as possible in the coming school year.

 Through this I began reading the assigned readings of this week I began to wonder: Why Teach Ag in a High School? I ask this question because of something I have heard all of my Ag Ed Professors say in an assignment this entire week: "What is the purpose?" One assignment that I took to heart was the statement: 

"The School Board Calls You Into a Meeting to Discuss the Ag Programs Budget Prepare a Presentation About the Program and the Importance of FFA and SAEs"

Disclaimer: Having not taken a class which focuses on FFA or SAE yet this was something that honestly made me feel nervous.

But this made me ask a question:

What is the purpose behind the 3 Circle Model?

Three Circle Model

So this weekend I started thinking about the purpose behind all of it and why is it all together. Here's what I am thinking as of end of week one:

Instruction in Ag Education: Some Ag Careers require a two-year, four-year, or longer (looking at you vets) extra degree on top of a high school education but not all do. To prepare my students to work in the Agricultural Field which encompasses all of Food, Fiber, and Natural Resource Production and Conservation I need to make my students ready to not just go into college but to also go into to workforce. For some of them that will be basic lab skills, for others that will be how to write up memos and reports to others. My Role is to provided instruction to prepare all my students. 

FFA in Ag Education: Also called the leadership branch this develops a lot of the skills learned in the classroom further in a competitive style. An example which I hope to use in the Ag Classroom is Food Science. I'll teach Food Science and hopefully my classroom will spark enough interest that I could have a team of students which compete on a team for the Food Science CDE (The Super Bowl of CDE's #IMO #KIR). This will allow them to learn more about food science an spark an interest in the field.

SAE in Ag Education:  This is what I consider the coolest part of the whole three circle model. Students take what interests them and apply is an experience. Those kids that love food science could have a Food Science related SAE where they work with a member of the community building life skills outside of the classroom. From here they can gain proficiencies and other experiences.  

So why teach ag ed? I think its because Ag Ed helps prepare students for the future better than other aspects of the classroom.  Which is why it is important to gain pointers to help improve the style of learning available for a student.  This why I am begging to understand the phrase "Beg, Borrow, and Steal!" in the context of Ag Education (Wong, Unit A, Lesson 3). It makes me see the value of working with peers to develop the best education out there. This goes back to having a growth mindset: by trying to learn more I can improve the ways my students will learn. I am excited to begin learning the fundamentals to being a good ag teacher and the basics of teaching.

Check out these links for some more information:

Discussion on the importance of SAEs: https://communities.naae.org/thread/6153

Resources on Motivational Theories:  https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/

To Be Continued . . .