Lucky #7

As you get older, the days may go slow, but the years go fast. The 2019-2020 school year is one for the books and will certainly be a year to remember. There were some highs, there were some lows, but we pulled through and still have the ability to look toward the future "in hopes of better days through better ways."

2019 Del Val Alumni Outstanding Achievement in
Secondary Education Award Winner. Great end to an
insane week at school! #GoAggies

The fall semester started out fairly normal. Great officer retreat in Western PA, selling milkshakes at CV Football games, and freezing to death at Hayman Farm's Fall Fest. Some unique highlights of the fall included a self-inflicted "Hell Week." AgVenture Day Thursday, PAAE Meeting in Williamsport on Thursday night, Agricultural Education Showcase on Friday, and a trip to
Del Val's Homecoming on Saturday morning and a wedding back in Mechanicsburg Saturday night. Thank god I didn't have to teach on Monday (thank you Christopher Columbus). A trip to National FFA Convention rounded out October, which led to a normal end of the semester with a fruit sale, Winter CDEs, and Christmas Week celebrations.

Pennsylvania Agricultural Education Delegation at
3-Circle Summit
February 2020
Indianapolis, Indiana

 I will also mention that this year, I stepped into the role of President for the Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators. In March 2019, I was serving my second term as South-Central Region Vice-President when the current President-Elect stepped away. I agreed to serve a shortened term as President-Elect, then step into the role of President in July. To say I was terrified was an understatement. However, through this year of service, I pushed myself to serve my fellow Agricultural Educators to the best of my ability and set a positive example for others. I attended 4  regional meetings across the state, attended meetings of the PA FFA Board, PA FFA Foundation, and PA Farm Show Scholarship Foundation, learned way too much about proxy taxes and dealing with the IRS to correct tax returns, touched the Pacific Ocean in Anaheim, California for NAAE Convention, organized meeting packets, attended the 3-Circle Summit in Indianapolis, forged connections with the Commission for Agricultural Education Excellence, helped to plan a conference, and recognized retiring agricultural educators with an inaugral retiree spotlight. In all, I never could have imagined what I would have completed this past year as PAAE President, but I am thankful for the opportunities I've been provided as they have strengthened my understanding of Agricultural Education, school code, legislative procedures, and the need for leaders to communicate effectively. I've learned from some of the best, but it has been a whirlwind of a year! I'm excited to serve in the past-President's role and wrap up some loose ends before I transition off the board in 2021.

And then the calendar flipped to 2020! How cool, this is the best year ever--complete with the "seeing clearly" and "I'm Barbara Walters" jokes! January and February rolled by pretty normal. I started training my usual teams for State Convention--finally got a #DairyFoods team together and even ordered our own personal milk bottles! We were wrapping up a healthy bunch of Proficiency Applications and American FFA Degrees in March and the world came to a screeching halt. And so began the COVID-19 era (see prior blog post). Craziness to say the least, and I don't think anyone thought it would "happen here." This was a foreign virus that was a problem somewhere else. Well, thanks to global interconnectedness, what happens around the world impacts us here.

2019-2020 CV FFA Leadership Team

Pennsylvania schools closed on Friday, March 13th for what we thought would be 2 week closures. At this point, I new that our trip to Costa Rica would not be happening because our spring break would be taken away. Fair enough, we could postpone until the end of the school year. Well, we never went back to school. After 3 weeks of "optional enrichment," Cumberland Valley began virtual instruction and it was intense for me. Basically revising a curriculum and trying our best to make it interactive. However, I think the kids were overwhelmed with having to complete everything online and via Schoology (our LMS). Some were accustomed to using Schoology for the occassional submission of assignments or quiz, but as much of a learning curve for teachers, it was a reality check for students. We got through it, but I definitely hope everyone's faith in public education and face-to-face instruction has been renewed through this madness. Nothing can replace a teacher working with students face-to-face.

Although we missed the usual FFA events, competitions, and celebrations, a lot of individuals pulled together to recognize the outgoing FFA Officers and the Class of 2020. The CV Agricultural Science & FFA Seniors were an awesome group--16 Keystone Degree recipients added to the wall, 14 of which have taken an Ag class since Freshmen year. The outgoing FFA Leadership Team was a great group as well. Even though their year got cut short, they accomplished many feats this past year and kept the chapter moving forward. I also received notification that I was selected as a National FFA Teacher Ambassador for the coming year, which will be a new opportunity to continue giving back to FFA advisors across the state and nation.

This may not have been "Lucky #7," but it has been a unique year to say the least. I couldn't bring myself to create a virtual FFA Banquet, so we are holding out for a small celebration in late July to pass out awards and graduation swag. The best way I found closure was creating my "Adopt a Senior" video that was sent to seniors on May 30, 2020 (what would have been their graduation day). Of all the videos I made during #Coronacation2020, this was the most meaningful.






Until next year, here's to making hay while the sun shines, remodeling my house, and hoping to get back to some type of schedule in September 2020.

Cheers!

~Darla

Our New Normal in 2020

I'd been waiting for the year 2020 to use all the corny jokes associated with perfect vision, seeing clearly, and of course watching the memes to finally hear Barbara Walters say "...and this is 2020." Little did we know, 2020 would not go how any of us predicted. As a teacher, I can say I've gone through a crazy situation or two over the past 7 years, but nothing could prepare us for the #Coronacation that has brought life to a screeching halt.

Today, Governor Wolf announced that schools will not resume for the rest of the year. The last time I taught in my classroom at Cumberland Valley High School was Friday, March 13th.

Let's recap that week just for the history books: Sunday, March 8th--Daylight Saving Time (lost an hour of sleep), Thursday, March 12th--full moon (the school environment is a bit crazier), and Friday, March 13th (school closure announced until April 6th). As teachers, we were given 3 hours on Monday, March 16th to visit our classrooms and gather materials to finish out the 3rd Marking Period. However, I knew that this could potentially be the last time in my classroom until the summer. I grabbed textbooks and important departmental paperwork to take home, cleaned my desk like I normally do for the summer, and did a once-over of materials in the refrigerator and mechanics shop. It was eerie being in the school on Monday without bells ringing, students asking questions or being tied to a schedule. My focus was to use the 3 hours available to summer-proof the Ag Department...in March.

For the past 3 weeks, we have been providing "Optional Enrichment" to students while finalizing grades for the 3rd Marking Period. We are concluding our "Reorientation Week" for online learning and will be moving fully to online learning beginning on Monday, April 13th--a month since school closures were announced.

Not going to lie, I enjoyed the first Monday off. I didn't have to drive to school at 5:30 am, and I could work on grading all day to finish posting grades online. However, the rest of that week got weird. No sense of a schedule, days flying by without any after school FFA activities, and actually being home to feed my animals "at the end of the day." Although I think as teachers we are always thankful for a small break in the action, this is certainly not what we had in mind.

Last Friday, April 3, I was getting ready for a funeral (story for another day) and straightening my hair. Probably for many reasons, I finally cracked and started crying. One of the thoughts that was running through my head as tears were flowing was that I wasn't going to be driving to school when I finished getting ready. I instantly envisioned myself in my classroom two weeks prior scrambling to pull together resources I would potentially need for the next 3 months. It finally hit me that I love being in my classroom, shop, and lab and would do pretty much anything to be back there in an instant.  Heck, I even debated driving past the school just to see it and have the sense of comfort and belonging that I've become used to. I never thought I woud have such an affinity for a place (other than my family's farm), but as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I honestly don't know how I will react the first time we are permitted back into the school to retrieve personal items before the summer.

As I pulled myself together, I instantly shifted my thinking to the students we now know we won't see until after social distancing policies are lifted. How many students felt that school was their only safe place to see friends, talk to adults that care about them, and get a meal? I know these phrases have been spoken continuously by educational leaders, but now it really hit home that some students aren't in a good place due to school closures and we as educators will not get to create a complete sense of closure with them for this school year.

I will never look at the end of the school year through the same lense again. I did establish some end-of-year traditions early in my teaching career to bring this closure, celebrate the graduating seniors, and wish everyone a successful summer. I always created a slideshow of class pictures I've taken throughout the year and a special senior slideshow of pictures from the past 4 years. My favorite end of year tradition is having students write down their favorite memory on a piece of paper that is kept in my memory box and categorized by year. The senior "rite of passage" is getting the chance to read all of the memories compiled since their freshman year in Ag classes. One of my priorities will now be keeping these traditions in place so this year's Seniors get a chance to see how far they have come since August 2016. Luckily through FFA, we will get together at some point in the summer to have an awards ceremony to recognize our award winners and celebrate the Class of 2020 as much as we can.

My other thoughts now center on how we (as a society) will change after this social distancing phase ends. Will we value education more? How will we perceive family gatherings? What are all the small things we will begin to appreciate more? Will we have a more balanced approach to work/life? Will people change jobs due to a newfound passion/skill set?

Personally, I have enjoyed being able to feed the animals on my farm every morning and night (something I haven't done since my senior year in high school), eating lunch with my parents, playing cards in the evening with my Grandma, and getting to see my sister during the week. Additionally, I'm finally getting the time to start landscaping and working on the interior demolition on my house. I'm not quite sure when it would have gotten completed had the world not shut down, but it's given me lots of time to have a more balanced life.

I will be happy to transition out of my basement office when this is all over. I'm not sure where the first place I will go when the stay-at-home orders are lifted...but I bet my classroom will be one of them.