Visiting Another Ag Program for a Day

As future educators, it is important that we use our student teaching time to explore what we want our future programs to look like. In order to do this, it is important that we get exposure to as many other programs as possible. During my time student teaching, I thought that a good way to experience other agriculture programs would be to visit another student teacher. This week, I decided to visit Emily McGowan at TriValley who is student teaching under Ms.Gretchen Dingman. 

TriValley is a rather small school district in Valley View, PA that has a very active and growing agriculture program. they are currently a single teacher program, however, they have gained so much interest within the school that they are looking to add another teacher so that they can offer more agriculture classes to more students. Currently, they offer the following classes:

• Agricultural Sciences & Mechanics I
• Agricultural Science II, III, & IV
• Agricultural Practicum II, III, & IV
• Forestry
• Electrical & Oxyacetylene Welding and Cutting I & II
• Small Gas Engines I & II
• Basic Electricity
• Wildlife Management
• Veterinary Science
• Aquaponics
• Precision Agriculture
• Agricultural Wood Technology I
• Agricultural Wood Technology II

As you can tell, Ms.Dingman is very busy as a single teacher leading all of these courses and managing the wide variety of facilities that they have available to them. One of my favorite facilities was the large aquaponics system with a monstera and pothos plants growing in them. This setup was very successful and allowed students to learn about aquaponics and also about propagation because they are using plants that are extremely easy to propagate. This also allowed students to learn about how fertilizer can affect plant growth and development. I think that this is a great facility to have in an agriculture program because it does not require a lot of upkeep in order to be successful, however, there are still plenty of other learning opportunities that can be created. 

This visit was also a great opportunity to see how educators use every inch of their facilities effectively. Mrs.Dingman currently has a classroom, a woodshop, a metal shop, an area for aquaponics, and a food science room that can be used to conduct labs and food safety classes. Dingman does a great job of making sure that all of these areas are being used effectively and that they are learning opportunities in every area possible. 

Overall, I think this visit was a great opportunity to see how a single teacher program can be successfully and grow within a school. It was great to visit a school where students are passionate about agriculture and there is so much interest in the content that the district must consider adding another teacher. As a future educator, I hope that I can one day have a program as successful as that at Tri-Valley.