Searching for Sucess

As many of you may know that it is my time to begin my search for my "perfect" cooperating center to complete my student teaching with. Now if I would have been asked last year I would have wanted to be as close to my home town as possible, but now I feel differently about this. It may be because I am living away from home and I have proven to myself that I can survive not seeing my family, my farm, and my cows everyday. Now living in State College is much different than living in my little town of Armagh, as sad as it is in State College I can not see cows from my window, not even my miniature donkeys.. I know BUMMER. I made a huge adjustment living in a city, hearing traffic from my bedroom, and not hearing cows moo.

I just made myself at home here in the "big" city and now I am looking for a new place to go to complete the next chapter of my Agriculture Education journey. I am looking for a school that is
larger than the one that I graduated from. Plant science is a must have for me with my background in The Indiana County Herb Study Group. I love plant education, although I do not have much of a background in environmental education, I would love to be able to go to a program that dabbles in this subject. If I were put in a program that did not have a greenhouse I might be a little sad, but this is all about learning.

I hope to end up in a place that Inspires students to do great things, to go above the expectations, but also have fun and enjoy what they are doing. I want to be part of a program that inspires me, that will teach me and accept me for my lack of experience. I want to be able to be comfortable in my school setting. I want to be able to watch students grow and take on responsibilities and knowledge.

Do I have my top list of programs? You betcha, but do I know the most about them? Nope probably not. I know that I have to have trust in the people that are involved in this process to be able to look at me and see where I fit, and where I can make the most for myself. I do trust my adviser(s) they know me and they know my expectations, they know were I lack knowledge, and they know where I can strive.

I have accepted that I will have to move away from my new home to make a temporary home for 15 weeks of my life. But when you think about a whole life time 15 weeks is only a short amount of time to be able to create an experience to grow from, to engage with students, to make connections, to learn my flaws as a teacher and to correct them. I know I will still miss waking up and seeing my cows and my miniature donkeys, but I know that where ever I end up I will make the most of the experience and I will be able to grow as a teacher, and that is all I could ever want form a cooperating center.


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