Advisor? Here By The Owl
For someone that has never actually had the national FFA convention experience. I came to Indianapolis to walk across the stage to get my american degree, that all I have ever seen of the convention.
That is not even close to all that convention has to offer. The convention has so many student workshops, but teacher workshops as well. I never imagined what it would look like, at opening sesson all of the seating becoming filled, with not only Pennsylvania jackets, but jackets that hold students that traveled from all different distances to be at the same place as me and my students.
It was an amazing feeling looking out the windows of the second floor of the convention center, and seeing a sea of blue FFA jackets from everyone across the states. The environment that was created with these jackets was not only welcoming but including. Everyone in the jackets look different but they all have the same passion for the FFA organization.
On the way home from the convention, I had time to reflect with five of my students. They all gave the same type of response to my question. "what part of this journey impacted you the most?" What I heard was fantastic, and here is a summary of it. It is crazy to see the common passion of people when they are wearing the FFA jacket, you can look around and it is visible, everyone in a blue jacket has a common interest in the agriculture industry as a whole, but when we go out at night, without the blue jackets, there is still the environment that we still have things in common with different FFA chapters. We went to laser tag, there were FFA chapter from different states, we went out to dinner there were FFA members there, we went down to the pool, there were FFA members there too. My students were able to see that there are students that have the same interests as them, without the interest being something that is worn.
The assignment was to talk to advisers from three different states, and I can say that I completed that. I talked to an adviser from Florida, Wyoming, and Ohio. Once they all realized that I was a student teacher coming into the industry they wished me luck and told me that they were thankful that there are young people like me coming into the needed industry. I talked to them all about there programs, they were all different, but all had the same types of students, striving to better themselves and be part of something that is much bigger than themselves.
That is not even close to all that convention has to offer. The convention has so many student workshops, but teacher workshops as well. I never imagined what it would look like, at opening sesson all of the seating becoming filled, with not only Pennsylvania jackets, but jackets that hold students that traveled from all different distances to be at the same place as me and my students.It was an amazing feeling looking out the windows of the second floor of the convention center, and seeing a sea of blue FFA jackets from everyone across the states. The environment that was created with these jackets was not only welcoming but including. Everyone in the jackets look different but they all have the same passion for the FFA organization.
On the way home from the convention, I had time to reflect with five of my students. They all gave the same type of response to my question. "what part of this journey impacted you the most?" What I heard was fantastic, and here is a summary of it. It is crazy to see the common passion of people when they are wearing the FFA jacket, you can look around and it is visible, everyone in a blue jacket has a common interest in the agriculture industry as a whole, but when we go out at night, without the blue jackets, there is still the environment that we still have things in common with different FFA chapters. We went to laser tag, there were FFA chapter from different states, we went out to dinner there were FFA members there, we went down to the pool, there were FFA members there too. My students were able to see that there are students that have the same interests as them, without the interest being something that is worn.
The assignment was to talk to advisers from three different states, and I can say that I completed that. I talked to an adviser from Florida, Wyoming, and Ohio. Once they all realized that I was a student teacher coming into the industry they wished me luck and told me that they were thankful that there are young people like me coming into the needed industry. I talked to them all about there programs, they were all different, but all had the same types of students, striving to better themselves and be part of something that is much bigger than themselves.
Britton, it is great that you and your students were able to experience the welcoming environment of FFA and find the commonalities that exist regardless of where a program is located. What were the most useful pieces of advice that you gained from your conversations with the ag teachers that you met?
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