Classroom management

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/agriculturalteachers/classroommanagement.htm

This site gives links to many other sites or articles with different techniques and tips for classroom management.

Drew

Curriculum Resources

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/agriculturalteachers/curriculumresources.htm

This gives a lengthy list of curriculum resources. This is a good resource other than just CMS or IMS.

Drew

Ag Teacher's Resource Kit

http://www.flagsafe.ufl.edu/publications/res-kit.html

The Ag Teacher's Resource Kit was developed a couple of years ago for majors in the University of Florida's Agricultural Education and Communication Department. It was first presented to them before they went out for their first teaching assignments. The Kit has now become a standard part of the course Special Methods in Teaching Agriculture.
Students are presented with the materials assembled in a 3" binder. A 2-hour block of time is allocated where the contents are described and reviewed. Recommendations or examples are also discussed for how the materials can be used in the classroom.
The Kit has also been used as the basis of a workshop for teachers already in the field. In summer 2005, a 2-day workshop was held at the University of Florida for middle, junior and senior high school teachers. In addition to distributing and presenting the kit, attendees actually worked through several of the activities as if they were students.

Drew

National Ag Safety Database

http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/menu/state/ohio.html

This is an awesome site to visit for topics of ag safety. Great thing is, this pertain directly to Ohio. It also gives different articles and resources to safety research and other topics.

Drew

Space Agriculture

http://www.spaceag.org/teacherresources.htm

This is a very interesting site about agriculture and growing plants in space. The site has a few lesson plans that you can download.

Drew

The food timeline

http://www.foodtimeline.org/food2.html#agriculture

This is a good site about food and some industries. It also gives some of the history behind the crops. This would be a good site to use during a food science or crop unit.

Drew

ARS Photo Gallery

The Agricultural Research Service has a photo gallery with images you can use on reports, websites, projects, ect. It also has many resources for kids if you have to appeal to a younger crowd.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=1274

Stacy Jewell

Ag in the Classroom part 2

The official website for ag in the classroom is
http://www.agclassroom.org/teacher/index.htm

It has agricultural virtual field trips on it as well as science fair ideas!
Stacy Jewell

Ag in the classroom

This website gives different contact information for Ag in the Classroom lessons, which could be very useful!

http://www.vaswcd.org/documents/Education/NRCW/2003%20NRCW%20Resource%20List.pdf

Stacy Jewell

Ag Games

Georgia's Agricultural Education website has agricultural computer games that could be cool to have students do on a day you're absent!

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/agriculturalteachers/

Stacy Jewell

Ohio's Country Journal

If anyone has taken the Ag Comm 390 class this year, you more than likely have had Kyle Sharp as a teacher, and you know all about the Ohio Country Journal. There are some great articles in them about current ag issues that should be shared with students. Here is the website.

http://www.ocj.com/

Kurt Leber

Store Wars

PBS ran a documentary last year about the impact of "big box" stores on small communities. I haven't seen the documentary yet, but they have some good information about urban sprawl and the impact on small communities, plus they give some real-life instances.

Here is the site for the teacher resources to use with the documentary

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/teachers.html

Kurt Leber

Ag Ed Resources

I don't know if anyone else ran across this site while lesson planning and unitizing, but it is the Alpha Tau Alpha page, or ATA of Utah State University. It has a very comprehensive list of resources to use.

http://www.usu.edu/ata/resources.htm

Kurt Leber

Ag marketing

The ag markets can be confusing now especially with all the record prices we are seeing. It can be hard to decide what is the right way to market a product. Mark Gold, founder of Top Third Ag Marketing is an excellent source of knowledge. He gives presentations throughout the corn belt about proper marketing procedures. I have seen him and I would reccommend anyone who gets the chance to do so as well. He gives an awesome explanation of the ag markets and how everything is ran, which is good to know for anyone involved in ag. Here is his website, and there is an upcoming seminars box on the left. During the winter, that is filled. You can also see about bringing him to speak to your community and chapter. That would be a great learning experience for all!

http://www.topthird.com/content/even/

Kurt Leber

MSDS

Anyone looking for a detailed list of MSDS sheets should visit this website. It breaks products down by manuafacturer then by product. There is a huge variety of products on this site and it is an excellent resource. Some of them take a little bit of digging, but they are all good MSDS documents.

http://www.ehso.com/msds.php#U

Kurt Leber

Farm Safety Test

I found this awesome Farm Safety test that could be a great addition to a farm safety unit. Arkansas' Farm Bureau has an awesome website with some really cool programs that I wish Ohio was doing. I'll include both the Arkansas Farm Bureau website and the Farm Safety test.

AFB - http://www.arfb.com/

FST - http://www.arfb.com/!docs/safety-survey.pdf

Kurt Leber

Parli Pro Resource

Here is the website Dr. Connors offered as a great resource last Friday for anything parli pro. He said it is ran by a retired ag teacher from Michigan.

http://parlipro.northwest.net/

Kurt Leber

Animal Nutrition Resource

Not to brag, but my dad is pretty much a genius when it comes to animal nutrition. People many times consult him to diagnose their animals' problems. Feel free to contact him at any time; he is willing to help answer questions even if you do not intent on purchasing anything. ASE Feed and Supply's website is:

http://asefeedandsupply.com

Phone number: (614) 873-4621

If you do not feel comfortable calling him, you could also call me, and I can ask him!

Stacy

Sponge Activities

This fall we are all going to have a sponge activity for most of our lessons. Im not sure if you get any magazines like Successful Farming ,Ohio Farmer, Ohio Cattlemens, and so on but you can pull current articles from any of those magazine or others for a quick sponge activity. I have included the website for successful farming.

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/

Krysteena

In our Parli Pro Seminar we were shown this website. It has everything you need to teach parli pro in the classroom and prepare for contests. They have old tests from the National Contest that Dr. Connors has written! If you plan on coaching or even teaching parli pro in the fall take a look at this website!

http://parlipro.northwest.net/

Kryteena

FFA Guide to Recruitment and Retention

When I was working on one of the projects for Fosters class I found this website. It talks about recruitment and has plans, budgets, and calendars. It has tips for course scheduling confilcts, block scheduling, conflicting graduation requirements, issues with diversity, perception of courses, perception of careers in agriculture, and so on. It also has sample letters to students and parents, sample radio announcements, sample newsletters and brochures, and a sample four year plan. Basically this website has a lot of great ideas and samples for us new teachers. I hope you take a look at it just to get some ideas!

I believe its a pdf file
http://www.alabamaffa.org/Forms_Applications/RecruitRetentionHndbook.pdf

Krysteena

Summer Programs

Here is a wesite about Summer Programs. It has some great ideas to plan for during our summers! This could be used as a guide because every school conducts their summer programs differently.

http://dass.missouri.edu/aged/resources/handbook/chap7.pdf


Krysteena

NEW TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

The technology used on the television show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” to poll the audience is coming to PLU economics classes this fall.
The technology consists of “clickers,” remote control-like devices that transmit an individual’s response via radio frequency to a reader. The reader plugs into the USB port of any computer, and collects and displays the responses, said Lynn Hunnicutt, an associate professor of economics who will be using the technology in three courses this fall. Hunnicutt was among four faculty members to receive funding for new technology through the Digital Media Center’s Small Grants Program. Established two years ago, the grant program allows faculty to explore the use of technology and information services within their courses. For this academic year, $5,000 was available to fund grants up to $1,000 each. Hunnicutt said the devices will make classroom learning more interactive because students will participate in lectures through “clicker questions.” Students submit their answers using the keypad on their transmitter, and the results display immediately, just like the results of audience polls on the television show, Hunnicutt said. “It’s an immediate response for me and the students,” she said. For example, Hunnicutt can hold a pop quiz during a lecture and get instant feedback about how well the class understands the material. If half of the class answers the question correctly but the other half misses it, then Hunnicutt said she knows she needs to go back and explain the concept again. Likewise, if 90 percent of the class answers correctly, then the few students who missed the question know they need to go back over the material or ask a question, she said. Last year, classes in both economics and chemistry used a similar device that transmitted responses via infrared. However, in larger classroom settings, the infrared transmitter sometimes failed to register student responses and didn’t notify a student if their response was received, said Neal Yakelis, an assistant professor of chemistry who used the system in his classes last year. The radio frequency transmitters being used by Hunnicutt this year should alleviate most of the problems associated with infrared transmitters, Yakelis said. The radio transmitters have a longer range, which will work better in large classroom settings, and display a “received” message when a student’s response registers with the reader, Yakelis said. He also plans to use the radio frequency transmitters in his chemistry classes. Recipients of the grants were chosen based on a variety of criteria, including the innovative nature of the proposed technology, the overall impact on the applicant’s curriculum, the feasibility of the project and the benefit to other faculty, students and courses. The technology or educational technique also must be unavailable on campus or easily transferable from another source. In addition to Hunnicut, Maryann Carr, a clinical associate professor of nursing, Solveig Robinson, an assistant professor of English, and Josh Page, information technology specialist for the School of Business, received funds. Carr received a grant to purchase a Tablet PC to determine the practical use of the equipment in the nursing curriculum, particularly in clinical settings. Tablet PCs are mobile computers, similar to laptops in size but with the ability to twist the screen around and write on it like a notebook, Carr said. Computers in patient rooms are a growing trend, and by using the Tablet PC, Carr said she hopes to determine if nurses can realistically apply them in the hospital setting. Textbook material can also be uploaded into the computer and used as a reference in clinical settings, which is more practical since most nursing texts are large and cumbersome, she added. Meanwhile, Robinson’s project will work to foster collaboration between the book arts and graphic arts programs through the purchase of a digital press. The new equipment will also enable students to experiment with new book arts technology. And Page will use his grant to implement a podcasting system for the MBA program. Read more about Page’s project here.


Here is the website link too: http://news.plu.edu/node/1065

Krysteena

New Teachers

Here is a website I found. It said that it was for new teachers. It has some games and links to other resources.

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/agriculturalteachers/

Amy

Metal Projects

There are many websites that can be found with metal project ideas. I found an interesting one of disucssions. One gentleman made a hyraulic jack. Maybe this would be a good place to browse for ideas and join and ask these creative minds to create some plans so that others may also create projects such as these.

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard/showthread.php?t=12948

Amy

Hardscapes

If anyone is teaching any lessons on landscape and plans to cover hardscapes. A friend sent me this website. It's interactive and includes a project calculator and some other links that may be helpful.

http://www.oberfields.com/patioinstructions.php

Amy

Wood Labs

I found a website that has links to many other sites. It is all about plans for projects. Even if you don't use the plans provided, it would be a great place to browse to get a list of ideas for students, or even allow students to browse on their own.

http://www.bobsplans.com/TopSites/TopSites.php


Amy

welding

For anyone who is teaching welding and would like some free materials (books, posters, that kind of thing). If you email lincoln electric they will send you free media. It's four books, c.d.'s with video and possibly powerpoints. Just something useful to compile a unit with.


http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/askus/default.asp?section=knowledge


Amy

Online Calander

While checking out the communities of practice section of the NAAE website, I stumbled acorss a post by an Ag Teacher who asked if other teachers had trouble keeping FFA members and studetns aware of important deadlines.

He suggested the following website: http://www.calendars.net/

By implementing something like this into your ag ed program, teachers would be able to link this calander directly from their chapter website and it could be availbe 24/7 for all students to look up important deadlines, not just FFA members.

-Hilary

NAAE Communities of Practice

One resource we have heard a lot about during the block has been the NAAE Communities of Practice website. I beleive that this resource could prove very valuable during our student teaching, even our first year teaching and the entire duration.

It provides the opportunity to post resources and even questions, so most likely there will be someone who is either in your situation or has experience in the area, who is willing to lead some advice.

The website is http://naae.ca.uky.edu:8080/clearspacex/index.jspa

-Hilary

FFA State Convention Virtual Field Trip

The virtual field trip we were assigned to complete is now posted in youtube. I was in a group with Hannah, Sarah, Nathan, and Krysteena. I think it is really good and you all should look it up and watch it!

Jennifer Dunn

Agriculture on Teacher Tube

I was looking at teacher tube and I came across videos that had to deal with agriculture in the classroom. There were a lot of different videos that dealed with animal science, food science, FFA and many more. Out of the videos I watched I found that they were very interesting that helped give me some ideas on teaching topics in a new and fun way.

Jennifer Dunn

Greener Asphalt

A program called the Asphalt Research Consortium (ARC) aims to make asphalt cheaper and more environmentally friendly to produce. This asphalt is said to last longer and would be made from recycled materials. The asphalt should be made by using less energy. I thought this would be interesting to learn more about since saving energy is such a big topic now.

Jennifer Dunn

Billboards That Look Back

Companies are putting cameras in their billboards to know what age group, race, and gender their billboard attracts. The cameras are so small that most people don't even notice the camera. In the article one person after the camera was pointed out to them said that he felt it was creepy and an invasion of their privacy. I know that this really has nothing to do with ag. ed. but I thought it was interesting and I didn't realize that companies were starting to do this.

Jennifer Dunn

Farmers and GPS

Farmer that are using a GPS in their tractors say that they are helping them save money in the long run after using the systems. The GPS technology is used to help redues the amount of fertilizer and herbicides they need to apply on their crop. This is something that we learned about ASM 300 and I think it should be something we all should gain more informaiton about and teach it in our future classrooms.

Jennifer Dunn

Small PCs

Small PCs have been talked about since the economy slows down. The small PCs comes with a longer battery live and also have the wireless connections features like any other PC. The PCs are small enough to fit in your hand and are designed to cut done on the energy consumptions of other PCs.

Jennifer Dunn

Virtual Dissection

A school in Charleston West Virginia was given a software from the local animal rights activists to give students the opportunity to dissect a frog without killing the frog. Students are given the opportunity to choose if they would want to use the software or not. The school has said that the enrollment of students wanting to take the anatomy class has doubled in size since they have gained this computer software.

Jennifer Dunn

Notebook Web Camera

Logitech Quickcam can be bought for less than $100 and it has been proven to take high quality videos and pictures. I thought this would be good to look into just in case we will need to buy one for the different schools we get hired too.

Jennifer Dunn

Harvesting solar power from space

I read this article and I thought it was an interesting concept to think about. Massive satellites would beam solar energy back to the ground based revceivers. The Pentagon has dones studys and they feel that this could be used to help the military operations and developing nations.

Jennifer Dunn

Windows 7

Windows came up with a touch screen windows that is said to look like an iPhone.
This new microsoft system is going to be called Windows 7 and should be released in late 2009.

I thought this would be interesting to think about you know never know we might have to use one when the Windows 7 are released.

Jennifer Dunn

AES Year in Review

In addition to the virtual field trip, I used my new found skills in windows movie maker to create the slide show for the Ag Ed Society banquet. I really tossed around ideas about how I was going to put together the slide show and before the media and technology class, the best thing I had come up with was to put all the AES pictures into a folder, click "view as slideshow" and play music on iTunes!

What I really loved about the experience was that I was able to use parts of songs, rather than an entire song and it transitioned really nicely.

I believe this program is very easy to use and could easily be incorporated with an FFA chapter's reporter to create a professional looking slideshow that could play during the meal and or during the banquet.

For my website project, I uploaded the slide show to YouTube, so if you would like to see the AES year in review slide show, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTlwGiOCnIQ

-Hilary

Virtual Field Trip!

I did my virtual field trip on Moyer's Show Pigs swine facilities, located in Northwest, Ohio. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLXk_9PEN98

-Hilary

National FFA Week

I know this doesn't help too much now, but I found a website will be helpful for FFA week in the future (and may help on DF's resubmission).

http://www.ffa.org/documents/ffaweek_planningguide.pdf

The National FFA website has suggestions each year on what kinds of activities you should focus on. It has sample activity ideas, many sources for media relations, brochures, posters, ads. You can also compete on the most unique FFA Week competion. This is available every year, so make sure you take a look!

Stacy

Online Map Maker

Also, when I was comleting my International Agriculture Unit I came across a website that will color code different states according to a key that you make. I made one that showed what states produced what commodities.

http://monarch.tamu.edu/~maps2/us.htm

Enjoy!
Stacy

Commodities by state

When I did my unit on International Agriculture, Jeremy and I found a very helpful website. On the home page where each state is clickable. It pulls up information on the state like the top commodities, population, income, poverty rate, and other census statistics.

www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/

Stacy

USB chains

This is for the girls more than the guys.
I was searching for oprahs favorite things summer show and I found these usb chains. Attached is the link to the webpage to buy them. They are not very expensive and will take one usb port and make it multiple usb ports!!!]

iTunes-U coming soon

Apple is pairing up with universities from across the country to try to create a new iTunes, known as iTunes-U. This program will be a free educational posting service for educators. With this service instructors can upload videotaped or audio recorded lectures to iTunes and students can download them to their iPods or watch it at their computers. This way information is available to students 24/7.
The only real problem being looked at right now is attendance. The launch of this new product may decrease the amount of students attending classes in order to stay at home or watch it from their ipod screen.
I think it would be great to act as a type of carmen for highschools. Students who miss classes would be allowed access to try to catch up on missed work, etc.

E-go drive helps store information

This great little portable harddrive has just come out. Not only is its option of colors appealing, but so is it's cost! At around $200 the 3.5" E-go Storage can hold up to 1 ter-abyte of information!!!

"The eGo Portable is currently available in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities, and in several different colors, including new camouflage and leather-wrapped models. The new eGo Desktop model houses a 1TB, 3.5-inch hard drive with USB 2.0 connectivity that holds up to 4,000,000 photos, over 18,500 hours of music or 1,500 hours of video.**"

Lindsey Regula

BUG helps connect teachers and students

This small device helps set up and run a virtual world for students and teachers to interact rhgouh. How neat would it be to interact with students and teachers across the country!!!

Lindsey Regula

Teaching conservation through Dr. Seuss!

I found this article on the Michigan Dept. of Ag. website. It explains how Dr. Seuss was an advocate of environmental protection. It also describes how his book titled, The Lorax, focuses on the importance of environmental conservation. Maybe The Lorax could be used as an interest approach into this topic?! Here is the link for the article:

http://www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-1566_1733_22582-62261--,00.html

Jamie Zimmer

Conservation Education

This summer I will be working part time in the education department at the Columbus Zoo. The Columbus Zoo has a lot of great resources about all aspects of conservation education which would be very useful for high school students or ag. literacy programs for younger students. To learn more visit the Columbus Zoo (and stop by to say Hi at the Habitat Hollow exhibit!) or visit the website:

http://www.columbuszoo.org/default.aspx

Jamie Zimmer

Classroom projects using resources

This summer I have an internship with the USDA Statistics department in WV. I know and found some cool things on their website that we as ag teachers could implement into our classrooms. On the website http://www.nass.usda.gov/ they have a pretty cool interactive map that you can do some neat things with, but there is also a ton of info that you could have your students use to report on agriculture and weather around the country. There are also some pages on wages, you could have students compare themselves to others around the country!!

Hannah

Virtual Field Trip

Nathan, Krysteena, Jenn, Sarah and I uploaded our video to youtube.com. Feel free to share it with anyone! http://youtube.com/watch?v=oCTSDYU9V5w

Hannah

Webpages

Hey guys, I don't know about you all but I'm pretty fascinated with this whole webpage making thing. So I was doing a little searching and found this website with step-by-step tips when making a website! Check it out!
http://www.smplanet.com/webpage/webpage.html

Hannah

virtual classroom

we have had a lot of discussion this quarter about technology advancement in our classroom....I do believe this is our future! So it's important that we learn and keep updated now with our rapid growth of technology. Here is a video of a virtual classroom...I am concerned with our bad economy that we will be losing education jobs because our technology can replace us! Scary I know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUdfE19s4wU&feature=related

Can this video be our future of educating our youth?? We will just have to wait and see! This is it for me Im finally done with completing 10 Posts! YAY! Good luck to you all student teaching! I hope we can keep in touch!

Jenna Meeks

Almendinger Sawmill

Well---Jamie, Kurt and I all worked very hard on this video...so please please please take the time and look over this video! It would be a great resource when you are teaching a forestry lesson......I hope you like it...and like everyone else we couldn't get to teacher tube so its on youtube instead!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2wkuaXDMCY

Jenna Meeks

Podcasting

As we move into a new world of agriculture, technology, I found a blog post about Podcasting in the classroom. They offered some of these suggestions including one with an e-moment:

- My teaching partner does a mini-summary of each chapter or unit where he outlines the major concepts to help students prepare for his tests. (He was not sure if they would be used or not, and was surprised when he found a student with all of them saved on a video iPod reviewing for the semester final).

- Record instructions for the class on a day you have a sub. (Sometimes it helps for the kids to hear you give the instructions).

- Have students record presentations for practice: Creed, Speeches, Sales Presentations, Job Interview, Reasons, etc.

- Have your FFA Officers record a "This Week in FFA" mini spot or updates to podcast out to your membership

- For e-moment users - you could have a tech version of the "eye-witness moment" or "bob the weather guy".

- Using a program called "profcast" www.profcast.com (makes a podcast
that records your voice over a powerpoint presentation), I have made
some review podcasts for an upcoming biology test. Students could
download them or watch them on my website made with iWeb.


http://naae.ca.uky.edu:8080/clearspacex/thread/1077

- Nathan Arnold

State Convention Video

We posted our video onto YouTube as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCTSDYU9V5w

- Nathan Arnold

Forestry Virtual Field Trip Video

Our group (Jenna, Kurt, and I) also uploaded our virtual field trip video to YouTube. For our video, we visited the Almendinger Sawmill in Johnstown,Ohio. We think this video would be very useful in a forestry unit! You can watch our video at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2wkuaXDMCY

Enjoy!

Jamie Zimmer

Virtual Field Trip

Well, I didn't have much luck posting our virtual field trip to Teacher Tube, but I did get it posted to YouTube! Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSOknc4NYJA

~Rose Dudgeon

U.S.- India Agricultural Initiative

I came across some great information tonight as I was browsing the web. Basically, in 2005, President Bush and the Indian Prime Minister announced a program to help India gain more knowledge in the areas of agriculture and natural resources. The partnership Ohio State has is just one way this is done. As the world becomes "flat", this is just one example to share with your students about global synergy. Find out more information at: http://www.fas.usda.gov/icd/india_knowl_init/india_knowl_init.asp

~Rose Dudgeon

MSDS Sheets

I know we all loved the MSDS assignment, but like it or not, I guess we're going to have to kill a few forests to have those on hand. I found a really good site when I was collecting mine. It's subscription-free, and you don't even need a free trial. Here's the URL: http://siri.org/msds/

Good luck!

~Rose Dudgeon

Webinars

I was checking my email the other day and got My usual Monday morning mentor from NAAE...which some of you may already get so you might have already saw this one...but i thought wow! what a great thing to put on the blog about technology and how our teaching era is changing...They are coming out with professional development through webinars! How cool...and its a cheaper way then having to drive somewhere with gas $4 a gallon! yuck...thats a story for another day! I just found this very interesting and more convienent on us ag teachers who have a busy busy schedule...the website is....www.naae.org/webinars/schedule

Jenna Meeks

WikiEducator

I am sure that many of us have cited sources from Wikipedia before. Now, there is something even more awesome...WikiEducator. It is similar to Wikipedia because people can add to and edit the information on it, but its more relevant to educational use.

Here's the link:

http://www.wikieducator.org/Main_Page

Jamie Zimmer

Digital Cameras

We've been discussing heavily the importance of technology in classrooms. Ag teachers are well known for taking pictures of every FFA event and student. Some new cameras from Nikon use a WIFI connection to upload your picturers to a website for you to retrieve.
http://www.macworld.com/article/132930/2008/04/nikon.html

FireWire

"FireWire is one of the fastest peripheral standards ever developed, which makes it great for use with multimedia peripherals such as digital video cameras and other high-speed devices like the latest hard disk drives and printers." From Apple.com. FireWire is being integrated into new components that make the connection between the computer and the component. I use FireWire when I used external hard drives to make the connection faster. It will definitely help teaching when saving/transferring students' proficiencies, SAE books, videos, pictures, etc.


- Nathan

OSU Second Life

In an alumni magazine my fiance recieves there is article this month that relates to Ohio State and Second Life. Even university's are getting in on the action.

OSU Second Life

Amy

ipods used for national chapter award presentations!

Many of the block students were surprised as the Ridgemont FFA members entered the room to be judged on their National Chapter Award presentation equipped with only four ipods, rather than a laptop and projector like most of the presenters. These students created a video podcast prior to the presentation day highlighting their FFA chapter's activities in each division. Each judge was given an ipod and a set of headphones so that they could watch the podcast during the presentation.

This was a very innovative way to present the information and it definitely minimized the amount of supplies/equipment they needed.

Jamie Zimmer

IPOD's in the Classroom

I was acutally looking for a lesson on apples...and today being big on technology I ended up finding a website on apple ipods! I thought it was a great resource and made a good blog for our technology course! The following website, http://www.apple.com/au/education/ipod/lessons/ is a great resource for how ipods can be used within the classroom! It is very interesting to see, and hopefully ipods in the classroom will be the next big thing!!


Jenna Meeks

Free Parli Pro Materials

Well--I have no experience with parli-pro, so I am a bit worried about this when I will have to teach about it in the fall. I had recieved an email awhile back about free information for teachers teaching parli-pro. They sent me the following info:

The FREE Parliamentary Procedure Spell Check Teaching Package you recently requested is ready for you to download.

Click on www.northwest.net/parli-pro and then "Free Materials" on the Main Menu on left side of the first page.

So I hope this material is usefull to all of you sometime in your careers!

Jenna Meeks

Agricultural Research Magazine

The USDA and the Agricultural Research Service publish a monthly magazine called the Agricultural Research Magazine. This magazine is an awesome way to keep you, and your students up to date with the latest agricultural research in a variety of subjects. My EFE teacher would purchase a subscription for every student and they would pick one article every month, summarize the article, and give a short presentation to the class. The monthly issues can also be viewed online at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/

Jamie Zimmer

Online Livestock Judging

I know that many of us probably competed in the livestock judging CDE. One way my school used to practice when we couldn't go out to a farm was to use online livestock judging sites.

Not only could these be utilized to coach CDE teams, but also to teach students about livestock judging. Take one day of class, reserve the computer lab at your high school, and take your students, sit them down infront of the computer and test their knowledge!

I found this website: http://ansci.colostate.edu/content/view/242/76/
which not only provides pictures for a variety of species (sometimes a little blurry), but also reasons as to why the "class" was placed the way it was.

I believe this to be a valuable as a virtural field trip, because it allows students who might not have the opportunity to travel to a farm and judge to still evaluate animals based on criteria that was covered in class.

-Hilary

Photos for Learning

Today, I stumbbled across a website that could be valuable not only in classroom teaching, but also in teaching CDE's.

Jeremy and Daniel told us about the website "World of Agriculture" and on it, there are a multitude of photos, including plant and weed photos and even meat photos.

If you are creating PowerPoints for class or even flashcards for CDE's, these photos could be a great way to begin establishing your collection. Along the way and through your experiences, you could always add to the collection, but this website allows you establish a starting point.

-Hilary

OLPC

I began thinking a little more about this "One Laptop Per Child" issue that we discussed as a class on Wednesday. I was very intrigued by this concept and decided to explore it a little more.

From the third grad to the sixth grade, I lived on Kelley's Island, which is in the middle of Lake Erie. In the entire school (K-12), there were 25 students. My twin sister and I and one other girl made up our entire grade. Computers were a big deal at this school. I came from a school that had no computer in the classroom to a class that a had minimum of 5 computers in every class.

Laptops were also accessable. Most of our homework was required to be typed before it was turned in, and becasue this was often a requirement and sometimes work my not get done in class, there were laptops that you could sign out and take home.

Our discussion on OLPC immediately conjured thoughts of my experiences on Kelley's. What a great tool to have available for a classroom? I know Jenna expressed concern in the availability for every student. My suggestion would be to raise funds and apply for grants to create a classroom set of laptops that students could check out. These laptops could be used for classroom work as well as for studying for CDE's.

I believe the OLPC laptops are slightly targeted more towards yonger children (you can take a look at the programs and the laptop at http://laptopgiving.org/en/explore.php).

My suggestion for teachers would be to invest in a more adult set of laptops that students will likely use in the future such as apple or dell. There will most likely be more cost associated with utilizing a name brand computer but ultimately they may target our students more than the OPLC laptop.

Hilary

Recruitment

While trying to find resources for one of my lesson plans, I got distracted and decided to see if I could find any AG Knowledge tests. I was thinking it may be good to use during recruitment. Allow the students to fill it out and see what they know about agriculture and where their food comes from. It may help to spark a students "need/ want to learn" and may attract students that otherwise would not be interested. Could be used as a way to start the day or close. It could even be used as an interest approach to the course. There are many possibilities. It could also be adapted, it all depends on creativity!

Agriculture Test

Amy

Interactive Learning

I found this Ethanol Maze and thought it would be a good interest approach. Could be used to teach students about by-products or introduce them to bio fuels. It is interactive and they learn facts about ethanol without even realizing it. You would probably need to do a lecture about it first for them to get most of the answers or assign a reading, but could defintely be a worth while tool.

http://www.ohioagriculture.gov/oda3/_Apps/Ethl_Maze/Default.aspx

Amy

Second Life

The other day in class we were talking about second life. I really was not sure what it was, but now do. While I was browsing for other videos I came across one about second life from the view of students. Thought it might be helpful if anyone was thinking about integrating it into their classroom or trying it our themselves.

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=33aba051261497ecffcb&page=25&viewtype=&category=

If you haven't checked out teacher tube yet, there are some good videos. There are lots covering topics that we have discussed in Mr. Lohrey's class.

Amy

A Good Visual on Ruminant Digestion

I came across this image today while searching for information on ruminant digestion. I took Animal Science 330 last quarter (nutrition), but the images were hard to internalize, because they were separate components of the digestive system. I thought this picture did a nice job of pointing out the major parts in a colorful way that makes it easier to visualize the pieces.

~Rose Dudgeon

Interest Approach Ideas

Check out this file when writing your next unit: Agricultural Interest Approaches . There are a variety of interest approaches, all broken down by topic. I really like the one on first impressions, but almost all of them seemed pretty cool. Let me know if they work for you!

~Rose Dudgeon

Agripedia- Like Wikipedia, Only Better

I came across a great resource today from the University of Kentucky. It's called Agripedia, and it hosts resources on a variety of topics. For example, I'm writing my next unit on animal nutrition, and I was able to find online feed samples. There are also quizzes and units already designed there. It is designed for teacher use and self-exploration, so encourage your students to check it on their own too.

~Rose Dudgeon

famous FFA members

Well....since we are all dealing with coming up interest approaches for every lesson we make this would be a good one to use in your future. When you are trying to catch the students interest about FFA, talk about former, famous FFA members...They are as follows:

Jimmy Carter, Former US President
Sam Brownback, US Senator, Past National FFA Vice President
Jerry Litton, Past National FFA Secretary, former Congressman from Missouri
Kirby Barrick, Dean of College of Agriculture, University of Florida, Past Ohio State President
Wes Watkins, Former US Congressman, Past Oklahoma State President
Jeff Miller, US Congessman, Past Florida State Vice President
Don Fuqua, Former US Congressman, Past Florida State President
Frank Atkisson, Member of Florida Legislature, Past Florida State Vice President
Jim Davis, creator of the Garfield comic strip
Trace Adkins, music entertainer
Don Henley, music entertainer
Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite
Tim McGraw, music entertainer
Willie Nelson, Music entertainer
Eddie Montgomery, music entertainer

These were found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_FFA_Organization

I hope this is helpful!

Jenna Meeks

PMP Educatin' Machine

This looks great.... a hand held portable 4.3 in monitor. This tiny piece of equipment can hold a dictionary, and many other programs that students can use! This might be great for forms of individualized learning. It can hold videos, textbooks, and other files that might be great resources for students to use.
Lindsey Regula

Digital Dissection Software

WOW! What a unique way to show students how animals body parts are different. These types of programs would be really great in areas that are more urban, where having animals come into school, or even be available may not be a realistic option. There are several kinds of this software. The one that I found to be most versatile is offered from Scienceworks at http://www.camcor.com/ld/Scienceworks.html . There are several options for teachers to choose from, and from what I have seen, there are really some interesting things you can get into!!

Lindsey Regula

Model of a cows anatomy

Well like the rest of you, I was up stressing about this unit that was due thursday. When I came to my section of teaching about the digestion system of a cow. It would have been awesome to have the resources like OSU has with being able to explore the real digestive system of a cow, but most high school settings are not going to have these resources. So I found a 4-D model that the students can take apart and put back together. It also was not very expensive, about $30. Hopefully this is something that you will be interested in investing in and also helps to expand your teaching techniques!!! Heres the website, but there are several other versions of this model and other animals too!

http://www.famemaster.com/Product/4D-Puzzle-Toys/4D-Vision-Animal-Anatomy/Gift-Box/4D-Puzzle-Animal-Anatomy-Toy-Cow-Anatomy-Model-26100.htm

Thats all for today! Enjoy your weekend!

Jenna Meeks

A Refreshing Alternative to PETA

My first unit of instruction is comparing animal rights and animal welfare. While looking for information, I discovered a website for the Animal Welfare Council. I had heard of this group before, but I really didn't know what they stood for. Upon investigating their website, it seems like an organization that has their game together. The website is easy to navigate, and it provides everything from simplistic information all the way up to technical resources. In this era when PETA can sway people with the drop of a pin, it's nice to have a group on the other side. They even advocate showing animals through FFA. It's a great resource.

~Rose Dudgeon

Awesome Video

I signed up a few months ago for the NAAE listserve. If you haven't done so yet, I highly recommend it. Today, a link to this awesome video came through in an email.

It seems like a really upbeat way to introduce students to the total agricultural education program. You might even recognize some Ohio faces in it. Check it out!

~Rose Dudgeon

Making a difference!

As I was looking for ideas for my "introduction to FFA" unit, I stumbled across this website. It has a lot of interesting articles that are made available online for both teachers and students. One article that was particularly relevant was, "Engaging all students in all parts of the program." This article emphasizes that every student needs to learn the material, not only the bold and outgoing students. As educators, it is our responsibility to reach out to all students and find a way for them to be engaged in the subject. This may be a difficult concept at times, but this article provides suggestions for overcoming those barriers. Check it out!!

http://www.ffa.org/ageducators/mad/index.html

Krista

Interactive tree identification website!!

I was doing some research for my forestry unit and I came across a cool website called What Tree Is It? which has an interactive tree identification component. Guess what makes this website even better...it is Ohio based! I know some of you are also working on forestry units for next fall and I thought this would be a really cool way to teach tree identification.

Here is the link:

http://www.oplin.org/tree/index.html

Jamie Zimmer

"Green" House kit!

This is so cool!!! This kit gives an instruction manual and all the parts necessary to build your own "Green" Home! There are up to 70 different experiments you can use with it, these include operating a windmill, electric motor, and solar cooker!! How much fun could your students have building each component and then actually seeing it work in your classroom! I think they said each kit was about $150, but there is so much you could use it for!!
Lindsey Regula

Parliamentary Procedure

http://www.csufresno.edu/comm/cagle-p3.htm

This site has all the information you will need to teach or look up info on Parliamentary Procedure. It breaks out the information and even has FAQ at the top that answers the basic questions. Farther down it talks about taking minutes, how to properly write a committee report, rules of debate and more. It can be very useful.

Drew Bender

Pioneer's GrowingPoint

https://www.pioneer.com/growingpoint/main_frame.jsp

Pioneer's Growingpoint website can be very useful for us teaching. You will have to get a username and password, but one should work for the whole class. This website would be great for having students look up different articles on almost anything crop related that Pioneer has. There is a lot to explore on the website and it also gives you the option to get e-news from the site.

Drew Bender

My Show Barn

We've been talking in class about websites that are user created content. I found a pretty cool website like that called My Show Barn. It's just a basic website with blogs and photo albums. But for those of you who like to show cattle and want to see what's going on around the country this would be a pretty fun one to go on.

http://www.myshowbarn.com/home.php

Hannah Sundberg

Ag Software Directory

As I was trying to find some neat things with software in agriculture, I stumbled upon this website that serves as a directory for looking up agricultural related software. It gives links for ag communications, marketing, record keeping and much more. Check it out if you're looking for some pretty cool software to use for running your farm or business.

http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app68/agsoft

Hannah Sundberg

What is a wiki anyway?

So far, we have mostly been discussing blogs and podcasts in class. However, there is another function of Web 2.0 which might be very useful in a classroom. A wiki is basically a web site that anyone can visit to create or edit the content on the wiki, and they can be created for free. Visit these two websites to learn more about the uses of wiki's.

http://www.wikispaces.com/

http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

Jamie Zimmer

Mac Television, you can see on both sides of it!

What a unique way to be able to show video, pictures, etc to a crowd. Screens on either side of this curvacious television allow users to stand all around it to see. What a great tool for a classroom! You should never have to worry about students being able to see!, there should alwyas be a view from somewhere, including the back of this innovative television!!
Lindsey Regula

Leapfrog Pen Top Computer

I thought this product would be really cool, especially for students who might be working on public speaking, or any other kind of CDE. You use special paper to write out anything you want, then the pen keeps record of it. It's almost like a personal accessory in that it can take pictures, keep your calendar, time, etc. But if you were competing in a cde like public speaking, you can write out your notes, and then have them recited back to you to help with different memorization.
Lindsey Regula

Wind Generator Kit

With the changing demographics of agriculture, and "going green" being such a popular subject. I thought this kit would be a really good idea. If you are ever doing a unit on environmentally friendly power genereation, this might be a good kit to use. Each comes with a motor and all the parts, kids can really see how windmills work, and what they do!
Lindsey Regula

Videos!

This blog post is coming a little late, but up until yesterday, I was still searching for something to write about! My inspiration did however come to me, in the form of my experience at Butler Tech!

For my one-on-one time with students, I visited the Communications and Broadcasting department. It was such a neat experience, especailly considering that we had just talked in class about video production for our Virtual Field Trip assignment.

I was with a student named Katy who helped me to make my very own DVD! It was really exciting, yet very complicated, but Katy made it all look like a piece of cake!

She set up all the cameras and equipement in the studio and we did a little blurp interview. We then took that footage and uploaded it to the computer for editing and constructing the video. It all happened so fast that I can't remember the exact names of the programs we used, but one of those programs was Final Cut, which Adam had mentioned briefly.

How much this techniques could actaully be implemented in the ag ed classroom, I'm not sure, but my thought was to allow students to create their own recruitment video for 8th graders. What better way to recruit students then with a video created by students for students?!

--Hilary Bailey

Instructional Materials

John Deere has available for sale many books on numerous topics on production agriculture including maintenance, machine operation, technology, and farm management. The books aren't exactly cheap, but it would be interesting to see if John Deere would send sample materials for instruction.

John Deere has a regional office located in Dublin and in the past have been willing to help the local agricultural community. Requesting some samples is something I may pursue, and if anyone else wants to as well, please feel free. As you will see, each series offers a books, instructors guide, and student guide. If John Deere would send samples, it could be very helpful in planning our units and daily plans.

Here is the website with the list of books http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/publications/john_deere_publishing/complete.html

-Kurt Leber

Electronic Record Books

I believe during 531 someone metioned record books being online. I am not sure if this was outloud or in our journals, when we wrote where we saw Ag Ed 10-20 years from now. But I was browsing Clyde High School website, so I knew the material before my student teaching. They have the record books in excel format that can be downloaded and edited. Each section is a different tab in the document. This is exciting to know. This may also be of good use for those that are teaching their freshmen how to fill out record books. You can bring the document up on a powerpoint or this may make it easier to make an overhead. The possiblities are endless. I thought it would be a good resource, also for those of us who have never completed the record books.

http://www.clyde.k12.oh.us/FFA/index.htm

The links are the bottom of the webpage.

Amy

Lesson Plan Resources

As I have been working on my lesson plan for 530 I have been able to find alot of online lesson plans. Some are helpful. Maybe to help get an idea of where you should start your lesson plan or they might include something you forgot.

http://www.khake.com/page81.html

There are many other websites with these same features.

Here are some resources from Tyson. It includes the game I was going to use for my interest approach, but could not use because it wouldn't work on the classroom computer. It requires flashplayer I believe. There are alot of good resources on the internet related to the egg drop lesson. It is just a matter of what we have the media to use and taking the time to look for it.

http://www.tyson.com/projectaplus/games/default.asp

Amy

content standards

As upcoming teachers we are going to constantly revolve our lessons around content standards for ag. ed. Also on thursday we have our first lesson plan that we have to incorporate content standards into your lesson. So I hope this isn't to late for those of you who will be waiting till today or wednesday to write you plan out. (http://cms.osu.edu/standardshome.html) this is the direct link to content standards of ag. ed. So I hope this helps you in your planning for thursday and for all your future planning!

Teachertube Videos

Here are some interesting teachertube videos that I found. The first one is about how to make posters for the classroom using excel. It makes it seem super easy with just changing a couple of settings. Next is Podcasting with Audacity, I thought this would be interesting since we talked about it in class. I have used audacity for a couple of different projects. It is very easy to use and its a free download. Last is a video on why to have a class website, and gives you a very easy and free website to use.

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=a121ce581499d7b70166&page=1&viewtype=&category=

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=23dc8f4753bcc5771660

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4e427a2818014b8e103b&page=2&viewtype=&category=

Drew Bender

This was just funny about teaching.

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c157590b2fa1a7d093a3

A New Twist on an Old Favorite

My fiancé's family loves to play the Farming Game. I'll admit, they kind of have me addicted. I'm still trying to find the balance between how much hay and corn to plant and just when to take advantage of those Option to Buy cards, but I'm learning. It's a fun game and pretty much in line with the struggles and opportunities experienced by family farms. (For more information, visit The Farming Game Online- just don't blame me if you get hooked.)

But, believe it or not, that's not the reason for this post. Meet the Farming Game 2.0- COSI's online game called Bet The Farm. It's an online game very similar to the Farming Game, but it's a one player option. The graphics are a little rough, but it's a free play. For students who love to play games, perhaps you could point them in this direction during study hall. The site is likely not blocked by school censors, and it has some educational value. 

I highly encourage you to check out both of these games this planting season.

~Rose Dudgeon

GarageBand/ Podcasts

Another resource that my cooperating school has is Garageband, and I had never heard of it so I did some research. It is a mac program that allows people to create songs without any musical training. Not only is it a music program, but it can also be used for podcasting.

"GarageBand will adjust the podcast’s sound quality and volume levels — it can even automatically lower background music when someone is speaking. Students can then publish their finished podcast directly to a web page using iWeb and a .Mac* account and even submit their podcast to the iTunes Store"
-http://www.apple.com/education/digitalauthoring/garageband.html

I also found a website that specifically tells how to make podcasts if anyone is interested:
http://images.apple.com/education/solutions/podcasting/pdf/PodcastCreationGuide.pdf

Stacy Jewell

Paperless Classroom

We have talked a lot about what the future of teaching will be. During Daniel's class the rotation of reflections many people wrote about what new topics will be discussed in agriculture. New technology was a large topic. I recently found an article that discusses the future of a classroom that will be paperless. Computers will house tests, quizzes, and all assignments. Books will be on CD or the internet and all supplemental material will be streamed from the internet. I thought this was unique. We've talked many times about how SAE information is housed on a CD and if printed it would be an 8' tall stack of paper. This is true with textbooks. I thought this was interesting and may be a the future of teaching.

Article: http://www.teachersnetwork.org/ntol/howto/incorptech/paperless.htm

Nathan Arnold

The Right Answer...Just a Click Away!

When coming up with concepts for this blog, I began to think of ways technology is or could be applied in an agricultural education classroom at the high school level. However, all I could really think about were the "clickers" we used in Mr. Foster's class today.

During his presentation on the history of SAE's, Mr. Foster designed slides that would ask a multiple choice question to the class. Rather than have students raise their hands or write down their answer on a sheet of paper, or any process that might normally accompany such an activity, he handed each one of us a remote control clicker. That clicker had buttons with letters and numbers (example: 1/a, 2/b,...) the corresponded with his answers. We were then able to "buzz" our answer's in and a little counter at the top of the slide allowed him to see when all 18 of us had responded.

I was just taken back by this concept! I remember seeing it first presented three years ago in my freshman survey class, but I haven't seen it used since then, and it was great to be reminded of how useful it really is as an educational tool.

Imagain if Ag Ed classrooms across the state of Ohio were equipped with a set of clickers and an Ag Teacher with the desire to use them! Students could answer questions honestly, without the fear of being wrong, and not only the fear of just being wrong, but of being wrong infront of their peers!

Right now, tools like this are probably not feasable within a high school agricultural classroom, but as advancements in technology continue to increase and the cost of advancements continue to decrease, who knows! Maybe in 10 years, we will see high school agricultural educations implementing this tool as part of their instruction!

For more information on clickers required in some classrooms, please visit: http://www.uaf.edu/sunstar/archives/20061010/clicker.html

--Hilary Bailey

Universal Document Program

To go along with the lecture from 532 yesterday, I wanted to share an option for word processing and other documentation that is FREE to use. I discovered OpenOffice.org after a lengthy debate with the manager at BestBuy.

After my dad and I purchased a new computer for my mom, we were under the influence that Microsoft Office came with the Vista OS. However, that was not the case and I wanted an explanation. The manager finally told me about OpenOffice.org.

The service offered by the website is free for download and is able to read almost any type of document. I have used it a few times and it seems just as user friendly as Microsoft Office. The website is operated by people who want to develop programs to offer an economical alternative to the Microsoft way. They take donations to keep their site running. If you have any problems with compatability of programs, or just don't want to buy the Microsoft Office program, this is a great alternative.

To learn more about OpenOffice.org or to download the program, visit:
www.openoffice.org

-Kurt Leber

lesson plans

Today we were discussing in our technology course about useful websites. Adam gave us a very useful website that I am sure we will all reference to once in our teaching career when pulling for information to teach about. Well over the years I have also been looking for possible lesson plans to use. I found a great website that gives us teachers some lessons, http://lessonplancentral.com/lessons/Science/Agriculture/index.htm. Now granted they are not in the format that we are getting drilled into our heads!! Guess you ll just have to change it around to best fit you and your needs! I hope you can get good use out of this one....add it to your bookmarks!

Edutopia website and a great article!

I did a google search today for, "benefits of applied learning" and one the search results was a website called Edutopia: Information and Inspiration for Innovative Teaching in K-12 Schools. Edutopia offers resources about adapting educational practices to our advancing world. It is also an online community. Educators have the opportunity to post comments about articles written by other teachers.

I came across one article on Edutopia written by a geometry teacher that relates to some of the things we've been discussing in 530 about Bloom's Taxonomy. Check it out!

http://www.edutopia.org/measuring-what-counts-memorization-versus-understanding

Jamie Zimmer

Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum

Since the block is travelling to Carroll County for a weekend of fun at FFA Camp Muskingum, I thought it would be helpful to post the link to FFA Camp for those who haven't had the opportunity to attend camp. My first experience with camp was as a high school senior, and that was one experience that I will always remember. My favorite parts were the high ropes courses, the tournaments, hanging out on Blue Gill Rock, and the dances. The website has all of the events that are offered at FFA Camp Muskingum, and I encourage you to check it out before this weekend to get a better understanding and visual representation of where we will be going. It's a pretty sweet place!

http://ohioffa.org/camp/index.shtml

Krista Cape

Welding tips and resources

Hey everybody!
As I was preparing my demonstration for 533, I stumbled across some really neat interactive PowerPoint presentations and resources. The Lincoln Electric website has very useful information from equipment safety to maintenance procedures. The link that I added below should take you to the page with the teacher resources. This site also has articles, expert advice, and metal project ideas. Check it out, and hopefully this helps with future lesson planning in the lab.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/training/weldcurriculum.asp

New FFA Student Handbooks

Since we've all been in college for a few years and probably haven't step foot into an Ag classroom recently I wanted to let everyone know about the new Student Handbooks. I thought this was something that not only uses some pretty cool media but also goes along with what we talked about in our first class session and that is resources. In the Advisors Book are tons of items to use. They offer outlines of possible lessons plans having a reference column to the pages in the students book. They also have something which I think is really really cool, and that is 2 CD's that go along with all the lesson plans and items from the book. One of the CD's is actually a DVD with tons of footage from national convention, in the class activies and clips to help you enhance your lesson. The other CD has possible quizzes and tests to go along with the lesson plans in the advisors guide. These quizzes and such are also in hard copy in the back of the advisors guide. If anyone would like to see these books I'd be hapy to bring them to class or if you want a copy of the CD's let me know. Hannah Sundberg

Smart Boards

The school I'm student teaching at has a smart board, so I figured I'd learn more about them.
My cooperating teacher uses it to teach her students about cells (plant and animal) and many of the kinds you buy come with lesson plans. She applied for a grant to get one in her classroom, but if you were to buy one personally they're in the realm of $2000-$3500 (some specials are offered for education purposes) depending on how many features and what brand.

For more information go to http://www.electronicwhiteboardswarehouse.com/polyvision/polyvision_ts800_education.htm

Basic Information to Help with Welding Lessons

When I took ASM 240 I ran across this website when doing that presentation thing.
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/training/weldcurriculum.asp

This is the Lincoln Electric Website. It has a lot of basic knowledge for most types of welding but is more specialized is SMAW and GMAW. It has powerpoints, safety information, and welding projects to try in the classroom! I think this website would be a great reference for planning a welding lesson in the first few years of teaching. If you get a free minute check it out! You may be able to use it when planning for your welding lession in ASM 533!

Krysteena Brown

Farm Industry News .com

http://farmindustrynews.com/
This is one of my favorite websites to go and read about farming news. They have everything- Equipment, biofuels, seeds, crop protection, trucks, atv's, etc. It is a very informative site to go and read about the upcoming events and technology for the topics mentioned. The topics are broken up into smaller sub catagories for easy navigation. The site also has the commodity pricing that updates itself. This would be a good site for students to get articles and look up information.
-Drew Bender-

Dot Mac

When this assignment was described in class I immediately thought of a tool I love to use. It is called .(dot)Mac. It is a program created by Apple to electronically sync your computer files and e-mail to a server online. For $99 a year you get a username@mac.com which gives you 10GB of space to upload files, e-mails, PowerPoints, or virtually anything you save to your computer and access it on ANY computer (PC or Mac) that is connected to the internet. I use this feature a lot for files used for school that I want to access somewhere on campus. It would help a lot for Ag teachers to save all of the lesson plans, files, record books, etc. that are used and ensure that they will never be lost or moved by students (in a public folder). It is a great feature I highly recommend.

For more information visit http://www.mac.com

- Nathan Arnold

Teaching Resources..

Friday I stopped in to see my old high school ag. teacher and he gave me a great website for teaching resources... it is call "Georgia Agriculture Education" and it has all kinds of lesson plans... powerpoints... photos... CDEs... practice exams... and other internet links... So I thought I would pass it on to all of you!!

http://aged.ces.uga.edu/

Go check it out!!!

Jess Peecher

Free Technology Tutorials at OSU!

I was reading the weekly headlines from Buckeye Net News this morning and saw an advertisement for technology tutorials at the Digital Union. The Digital Union is a pretty cool Mac based computer lab in the Science and Engineering Library. Here is the link for the list of free tutorials offered this quarter by the Digital Union:

http://digitalunion.osu.edu/newsandevents/workshops/

Side note: I believe the Digital Union still offers free color printing if you bring your own printing paper!

Jamie Zimmer

PSP's Taking Place of Textbooks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445196&in_page_id=1770#StartComments

This link will take you right to the article. British Schools are now using the handheld playstations to provide notes, audio and video clips, along with textbooks on this small piece of technology.
Although there are mixed feelings on it, I thought it would be interesting just to use as a tool in the classroom, Possibly just have enough available to only keep at school, to minimize theft, and gaming instead of classroom work.
Some of the teachers also thought that these would be good for slower students who may need more than just a book in front of them. The PSPs could provide them with more information on a topic.
Lindsey Regula

interactive livestock judging

I heard about this idea, while at a judging clinic and was amazed. So I found this site from the Univerity of Kentucky http://www.ca.uky.edu/agripedia/agmania/livestock/ This site doesn't allow judging but is a great tool to use with your livestock judging team. You can sit them infront of the comuputer and allow them to learn about judging and animals.
-Sarah Criswell

iTunes in the Classroom

When I began thinking about this assignment, I was immediately reminded of a conversation that occured with Dr. Steve Gratz who is the executive secretary for the Ohio FFA.

Dr. Gratz makes no effort to hide his love of advancing technology and how those advancements might be integrated into agricultural education classrooms. One of his techology plugs, however, really struck me as interesting.

His theory was, that if you were instructing a unit on forestry, yet you are far from being a forestry wiz, why not sit your kids down in front of a computer and have them listen to an instructional unit by another ag teach who is a forestry genuis if you will. You, as the acutally instructor, would then serve as the facilitator of the information. Dr. Gratz felt that this would allow instruction to be strenghtened by allowing teachers to "bring" experts into the classroom, without actually physically bringing the expert into the class.

The ease of podcast would also allow for many programs to easily access the information in the classroom, but students could also subscribe to the cast and listen at home.

I think this is an extremely interesting take on a media that so many people are involved with. I'm not sure if it will ever catch on, but it is definitely something to think about in the future as we begin our own programs!

For more, check out the following website: http://oregonstate.edu/uesp/podcast.htm

**It was created by students and faculty at the University of Oregon and one of the podcast is actually titled "agricultural sciences" and also there is one titled "forestry"

--Hilary Bailey

grants within your classroom

After a long hard day of a wonderful day of BLOCK I came home only to think about financial issues. Then I started thinking about where in the world am I going to come up with money or grants to help make my program a success?! So I turned to the world wide web to find out. I knew that ohio department of natural resources would be a great place to start. One there website they had a designated tabe for grants. Great I thought, one in particular grant caught my eye. "Watershed Awareness to Watershed Action (WAWA) mini-grants for projects such as educator workshops, student field days, water festivals, storm drain stenciling, landowner and developer seminars, and other watershed awareness initiatives." http://www.ohiodnr.com/default/grants/default/tabid/8835/Default.aspx This would work out great in my classroom as an educational tool to touch on areas I may have forgotten about. Hope this helps all of you as well!

Jenna Meeks

New Table Saw Safety Mechanism

I found some interesting videos on a new technology in table saws. The table saws, made by SawStop, have a safety feature controlled by the presence of electric current when contacted with flesh to trigger a shut-off mechanism. The videos do a great job of illustrating in a better way how it works. Here is the link to SawStop's website: http://www.sawstop.com/ and there are four neat videos on the left-hand side.

You might recall Mr. Keck made mention of this table saw on Monday and predicted that most shops would eventually be equipped with them.

I also did some research on the cost of this machine. Right now, it runs around $3,000. That is quite expensive compared to around $1,500 for a good Delta 10" table saw, but I think school administrators will agree that the added safety offered is well worth it.

-Kurt Leber

helpful intro to welding website

I was meandering around the NAAE communities of practice website I found a post that included this website:

http://weldingteacher.com/

I checked it out and it was pretty informative, it contains some basic info about welding and even has a couple of easy lesson plans and quizzes that you could mold your own lesson plan off of if you were so inclined.

-Adam Ziadeh

A Great Example of a Blog- AFBF Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee

Since many of us are new to blogs, I thought it might be good to share an agricultural blog I read on a regular basis. It is a great reference for how to set up blogs and what sort of format to use. The link is http://fb.org/blog/

It is written by members of the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee. They often share their thoughts and opinions on current issues facing the agricultural industry and ways to educate the public on the importance of the food and fiber industry. The blog is a great way to find out what is going on in the world of agriculture and what types of literacy efforts are being utilized across the country.

~Rose Dudgeon

First Post

Hello World!