CASH Visit

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to visit with the Conneaut Agriculture department and observe a fellow student teacher. I choose to observe a program in the Western region of Pennsylvania, a region that I am quite unfamiliar with. It was a hectic National FFA Week that included a spirt theme each day as well as volleyball one night and bowling on Friday night as well as a trip to Hoss's for the
State Officer Night.

It was nice day where most of the classes had shop time, Ms. Metrick explained to me that her greatest challenge was implementing her shop rules with the students. The main rule besides the use of safety glasses is that you can't leave the shop without permission and you can not enter the shop without permission. This lead to a few students lingering at the doorway until a teacher spotted them and allowed them into the shop. The students are working on their woodworking projects currently on shop days, while not in the shop they are covering other subjects, this was something a little different, but it is their way of combatting the shared cramped shop space.

While at CASH I got to partake in hall duty as well as their study hall period and prep period. Those 43 minutes classes flew by as students were in and out of classes. Something I take for granted at Penn Manor is our block scheduling which allows for a lot of depth of material to be covered each period. In addition, my prep period is also 88 minutes long with allows a great deal of time each morning for me to continue to prepare and reflect on my week.

The most unique event I heard about during this visit was lip sync practice, each organization within the school chooses a song that they lip sing and present to the student body as a fun competition. The FFA this year chose the song She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy, as they work to incorporate their pedal tractors into the routine. Unfortunately, I did not get to witness this practice but it certainly was something new to me.

Other than this CASH has a pretty standard agriculture program that came together after the merger of 3 agriculture programs within the area. This has lead to a cramped shop space that was designed for one program now holding 3 programs worth of equipment.

It was a great opportunity to see the projects and events that this chapter has compared to those at Penn Manor or my home chapter. In addition, it was nice to catch up with Ms. Metrick and talk about how our student teaching experiences have been going and the problems we have encountered along the way.