Professional Development: Digital Style

The Center for Professional Personnel Development at Penn State has done a fantastic job providing opportunties for professional development through the COVID-19 pandemic. This past week, I participated in three sessions of Ag Ed 360 in 60 minutes. During these hour-long webinars, PA agriculture teachers bring questions, resources, and ideas to share with the group on a daily topic. I can honestly say that these sessions are well worth the hour of time!

On Wednesday, I attended the session on plant science. During this session, teachers shared their ideas, resources, and suggestions for each other during this virtual learning period. The session started with a discussion on how different schools are working with their plant sale. Each school has their own situation and circumstance, but having this time to talk with other ag teachers is very helpful. I was able to ask some teachers for suggestions on how to engage students during two-week unit on plant science. I got some great ideas!

Natural Resource Management and Environmental Science was held on Thursday. In this discussion, I was blown away by the quality of ideas, resources, and suggestions from teachers. Mr. Doug Brown provided very valuable input and suggestions on many different resources. After the session ended, I received seven emails compiled with many great resources for ag teachers on environmental science.

Friday was hosted for a "potluck" event. A variety of topics were discussed during this meeting. Two of the PA State FFA officers joined the call to learn from other teachers and offer their suggestions from the student side of things. I was able to get some very helpful information on SAE and AET.

Each session that I have tuned into has been very beneficial and helpful. Professional development can look many different ways, but these sessions are a great example on how digital professional development can be successful. I want to give a HUGE thank you to both Beth Mathie and Jon Seaman for their guidance in leading these efforts. I highly reccomend these sessions for anybody looking for ideas or expand their professional development!