What do teachers do with their students at home during National Convention?

This past week, I had the great opportunity to attend the National FFA Convention with Oley Valley. Through this experience, I was able to talk to three ag teachers about what their students at home were doing. Here were their answers:

Troy Talford from Wisconsin:

• What are your students doing back at your school?

• The students were completing lab activities at home with their substitute. His plant science class completed a plant anatomy lab that was hands-on with guided topics. Something I found very interesting was his thought process on exams. He allows the students to create a project on the unit/topic. If the project is not informative or in-depth enough, the class is given an exam. I thought this was an awesome idea!

• How do you connect convention to your curriculum?

• Through application. He wants his students to learn from their experiences.

• How do you hold students accountable for learning who are at convention?

• Each student is responsible for making up the assignments they missed while being at National Convention.

Mary from Illinois:

• What are your students doing back at your school?

• Her students at home were completing worksheets and videos with a substitute. The assignments given relate to her school material.

• How do you connect convention to your curriculum?

• All of the students selected to go to convention needed to complete all of their assignments for the upcoming week prior to their departure for convention. She also had times for reflection built in with students.

• How do you hold students accountable for learning who are at convention?

• All of the assignments she assigns in her ag class must be completed by the students who attend convention. They also have reflection to remind students what they are learning.

Robert Sollman from Michigan

• What are your students doing back at your school?

• The students are continuing their individual projects. There are classes for plant science, animal science, environmental science, and ag mechanics.

• How do you connect convention to your curriculum?

• The students practice some reflection techniques at convention. Since the students at convention will miss some class time, he said it will be up to the students to make sure they are not falling behind.

• How do you hold students accountable for learning who are at convention?

• He makes sure the students have time to make-up their work. Since the students are doing self-study, they have to work on their own time to make sure they had enough time.