FLC: The Day of Impromptu

Today Cory, a fellow pre-service teacher, and myself ran the sentinel workshop at the Fall Leadership Conference.

We felt very prepared going into this workshop. We had developed 6 learning objectives targeted towards the 6 duties of the sentinel. There were to be 14 students in our workshop and we had an array of activities planned for the two and a half hours.

But things didn't go quite as planned, we lead our learners to our conference room, which we purposely left a mess because we wanted them to plan and organize it to effectively run a business meeting. Cory and I came into the room with our enthusiasm level off the charts, but it quickly subsided when the learners had no interest in being there.

We discovered that for the majority of our learners, this was the first FFA conference or event they had really ever attended. In addition, many of them also expressed that this was their first ever officer position.  This meant Cory and I had our work cut out for us.

Once the students organized the room and we attempted to discuss the reasoning behind each decision, we moved into our get to know you activity. We had planned 20 minutes for this activity with 14 learners introducing themselves and some chatter about diversity and making connections, but it only took half the time.

At this point Cory and I began troubleshooting, how were we going to rock this out for our learners. We moved into our next activity were the excitement level was still pretty low.

Oh no... we had already blown through our first 3 activities and we were only 30 minutes into the workshop,what were we going to do, at this rate we would be done the entire workshop in an hour.

This began the impromptu excursion of the day...

Our next activity was how to set up a refreshment table, a duty of the sentinel that is often forgotten.

Once I brought out the food, our learners perked up, this was our in, the opportunity to turn this lesson around and make it meaningful for these officers. Our refreshment activity was supposed to last 10 minutes, but Cory and I jumped into impromptu mode aka save the lesson, extending the activity to closer to 20 minutes.

Usually I am terrible at impromptu ideas, to spark or change a lesson, but today they just kept coming. It was little things like gallery walks, extended discussion, critical thinking, and further problem solving techniques that Cory and I had not planned for in our lesson.


By the end of our 6 objectives our learners were pumped, they were engaged, and most importantly they were making connections. They had met and exceeded Cory and I's learning goals for them. This left us with about 25 minutes left in our workshop, which was perfect for our flex activity, show what you know, an FFA quiz bowl.

I had created trivia questions prior to the workshop, so we
were all set for trivia, expect for one thing, I hadn't developed rules for it or a bonus or tie breaker round. More impromptu, that ended our workshop with a bang.

The students really got into the trivia game, so much that they were questioning and researching answers to make sure Cory and I were correct.

It then came down do our final bonus round wait for it... a Creed Off!

Each team had 2 minutes to prepare a member to say as much of the creed as they could, awesome idea right. One problem, how was I going to decide who won, no one knew the entire creed.

More impromptu that lead to 2 bonus rounds but at the end we finally had a winner, team #smileandwave.

The learners left our workshop excited, energized, and they had a better grasp and understanding of their duties and roles as the sentinel.

Cory and I looked around the room, there were go get it cards everywhere, FFA manuals, flip charts, markers, paper,and paraphernalia.

To say the least the room was a disaster area, but it was worth it, we accomplished our goals, the students meet and exceeded our expectations, and we left that room with a sense of accomplishment.

And I left the room with a new appreciation for co- teaching, something that I have experienced some, but have never had the greatest  experience with. I realized that I have never co- taught with someone that clicked with my teaching and learning style, till today.

When my impromptu began Cory was right there with me, we were playing off of each other and expanding our questioning and thinking,
 which made for a dynamic rest of the workshop.

I know I learned as much about myself and my teaching abilities today as the officers learned about being an effective chapter sentinel.