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Positive Changes

Posted on January 24, 2017 by mspetes

Everyone should be working on their proficiency applications and SAE records in AET.

Seniors – The National FFA Scholarship app must be submitted by February 1, 2017. If you need help logging in and accessing the application, let me know!

For today:

At the beginning of the year many Americans make New Year’s Resolutions to bring about some change in their lives. Ironically, last week one day, January 17th, is “Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day”. By this time each year all but about 12% of us have given up already on our resolutions. It doesn’t take a new year to make changes in our lives. What positive changes have you made in your life lately? What are the most common resolutions made by American’s? Have you made a resolution for yourself this year? If so, what is it? Are you still on track to achieve it? New semesters give us a chance to make changes in our academic lives. We get to start out with a clean slate. What things do you want to improve on or accomplish during this semester? How will you go about reaching those goals?

Your post is due Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Ag Experience Tracker, Proficiency, SAE, Thought | Leave a comment

When I’m not sleeping……

Posted on January 5, 2017 by mspetes

My life goes in cycles. Sometimes I’m sleeping great, and then other times, I don’t sleep much at all. A lot of it has to do with deadlines and worrying if we will meet them!

All seniors who qualify for the State FFA Degree – everyone but Kyle and Paige I think – I need your completed application and signed front page on or before Wednesday, January 11, 2017. Those of you applying for one of the Star awards will have to have your Star Battery completed at that time as well.

How are you doing in meeting the deadlines for the State Degree and Proficiency apps? I’ll be frantically grading here before the semester ends – how many Zeros will you have?

Here are reminders of those due dates:

Proficiency Due Dates:

Along with continued work on Proficiency apps, State Degrees and general SAE work in AET, today we’ll explore this:
So – what do you think about when you’re lying there, not sleeping? Are there things that seem to keep you awake – what are they? Do deadlines keep you awake, semester due dates, tests, projects etc.?

Your post is due Monday , January 9, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Proficiency, SAE, State Degree, Thought | Leave a comment

Advice to a Younger Me

Posted on December 20, 2016 by mspetes

Continue working in AET on your records, State Degrees, and Proficiencies. Time will fly by pretty quickly once we get back from Christmas Break. All State Degrees have to be done, printed, signature pages signed and returned to me before Wednesday, January 11, 2017. Any Star candidates must also complete the Star Battery and be ready for their Star interview on Wednesday night January 11th.

Our last blog post of 2016 will give you a chance to look back on your life and think about what advice you might now like to give your younger self.
If you could go back in time and tell the younger version of yourself one thing, what would it be?

Your post is due Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Ag Experience Tracker, Proficiency, SAE, State Degree, Thought | Leave a comment

Proficiency, State Degree, and Scholarship Due Dates

Posted on December 14, 2016 by mspetes

State Degree Due Dates

Proficiency due dates

National FFA Scholarships – ALL SENIORS WILL COMPLETE THIS APPLICATION! are completed online and must be submitted by 4:00 p.m. local time February 1, 2017. This is the 5th largest scholarship program in the nation! This application will be filled out online at ffa.org You may or may not need an activation key from me to get started.

State Scholarship Applications are located here and must be postmarked February 13th.

There is no blog post for today.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Ag Experience Tracker, Proficiency, SAE, Scholarship, State Degree | Leave a comment

SAE, State Degree, Stars, Proficiencies, etc!

Posted on December 8, 2016 by mspetes

We’re going to use part of today to work in AET on our SAE records.

Seniors in their 3rd or 4th year of membership will be completing the State FFA Degree application. There are several of you that should also complete the Star Battery for Star Farmer, Star Placement, or Star in Agribusiness. There may even be a long shot Star in Agriscience??

The Star Battery is very similar to the proficiency apps we completed last year.

All Ag Leadership students will be completing a Proficiency app – or two! We may not submit all of them for state judging, but, everyone will complete at least one. Those of you who did proficiencies last year – you’ll need to update the one you did last year AND do another one – so start thinking about what area or areas you can fit yourself into! Here are the 2017 descriptions

All of these applications will be completed in AET. We will break things down into chunks, each with a corresponding due date. More on that in another post.

Please refer to this sae-idea-sheet if you need to get some ideas for where what you are already doing fits into an SAE.

Before we do anything, we need to get our records in order. See the Student Help section of AET here.

For accountability purposes, today’s blog post will be answering the following questions on your blog.

1. Your SAE – describe it, give an idea of its scope (size) how many acres, animals, square foot, hours etc.

2. What career cluster your SAE fits best into – use the SAE Idea Sheet linked above. You may fit in several Clusters.

3. What Proficiency Area or areas will you apply in? What area did you apply in last year?

4. How far are you on completing your records? You’ll need to have your records complete for each year you have been in FFA? Let me know – done with sophomore year and half way with junior year etc.

Your post is due Monday, December 12, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Ag Experience Tracker, Proficiency, records, SAE, State Degree | Leave a comment

What are the facts?

Posted on December 2, 2016 by mspetes

The Dakota Access Pipeline has been in the news. A LOT! So – what’s fact and what’s fiction about the Pipeline?

Read this article

Finally, read this article.

So – what’s fact and what’s fiction? How will the pipeline impact those in it’s path? Will Agriculture, the environment, or the economy be impacted – how or why not? What things did you believe to be true that you learned the opposite about? What’s the current status of things with the pipeline and the protestors? How much of the pipeline has yet to be completed? How with South Dakota’s economy be impacted by the pipeline? What are your personal feelings about the pipeline? Have you personally been effected?

Your post is due Tuesday, December 6, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Ag Issues, Agriculture, Opinion, Thought | Leave a comment

20 Things We Should Say More Often!

Posted on November 22, 2016 by mspetes

Continue preparation for Leadership CDEs! I need to put some grades in the book relative to your Leadership CDE requirement. SO – review this post. Specifically this portion:

Prepare for Leadership CDEs – whether competing or not, everyone will complete at least the following prior to November 1, 2016: We will discuss how these items will be handed in……

If you have handed things in, remind me. I know that I have material from Nichole, Sam, Carson, Dalton, Lauryn, Kyle and Ellie? Anyone else? I have half of the assignment from Jake, Kenzie, Emma, Jared, Shane, Branzon, Hunter, Carter, Tyndall, and Cassia.

Mid-Term is upon us! How are your grades? Will you be eligible? Get busy!

I am caught up with grading blog posts – are you caught up?

Next week – we’re going to start spending a lot of time in AET – TOGETHER! That means I will be guiding you step by step and we will all work in AET at the same time. Don’t plan on getting other homework done during Ag Leadership for a while! We’ll be working on updating records, State Degrees – for seniors with 3 or more years of membership – sorry Paige, National FFA Scholarships – all Seniors, Proficiency apps – all of you! Let this be your notice that you will need pictures! At least 6 of them!

For today:

What things does the Kid President talk about being important to say more frequently? Are there additional things that you think he missed? How can you put the Kid President’s advice into action in your life? Would an extra corn dog or two in your life make things better? What’s really the big message of this video? You are awesome!

Your post is due Monday, November 28, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged Ag Experience Tracker, CDE, Expectations, Leadership, Maturity, Proficiency, records, SAE, Scholarship, State Degree | Leave a comment

Decisions

Posted on November 8, 2016 by mspetes

Ag Communications – Carson, Emma, Jake, and Lauryn – check your email. Please – run through your presentation a couple of times during class today. Study for your editing test and communications test. There are 3 teams at district. You have to be in the top 2 to make it to state.

Market Plan – Kenzie, Nic, and Sam – finalize what you want on your tri-fold and we will start cutting things out Wednesday and Thursday this week. Run through your presentation a couple of times too please. I will need your final version of your written work on Thursday. There are currently 2 teams at district.

Job Interview – Carson and Dalton – I need your letter, resume, and handwritten job application on Thursday.

Sophomores and Juniors – So far two of you have downloaded the SAE Grant application. They are due next week Tuesday – November 15th. Some of you have A LOT of work to do! There are currently 10 grants with NO applicants! and only two grants with more submissions than awardable grants. Free money folks – come get it!

BIG Idea judging is happening right now. The goal is to announce the 8 finalists by this Friday!

What is the best decision you’ve ever made? Why do you see it as your best decision? Was it a decision that you struggled with or was it an easy one to make? Was your decision unpopular with your friends? Did you have to convince your parents that this was the right choice? Tell me all about it.

Your post is due Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Leave a comment

What Stands Out?

Posted on November 4, 2016 by mspetes

If you are available to help with a fundraiser at Sunshine tomorrow – November 5th from 9:30 – 1, please let me know. We need at least 8 people. It’s a lot of fun and pretty easy – you just stand at a station in the store and hand out samples of yumminess! We’ll take turns running different sample stations so you’ll get to try everything. Take my word for it – you won’t need to eat lunch!

All written materials for District Leadership need to be turned in by next week Thursday. this means Job Interview, Prepared Speaking, Ag Comm, Ag Issues, and Market Plan.

Job Interview people will also have to complete their hand written job application.

Underclassmen – sophomores and juniors – get going on your SAE grants please.

We’ve had a pretty eventful month here at WC! In good ways and bad ways we’ve experienced things that we’ll remember for quite some time. When you look back over the past month, what moment or moments stand out for you? Why? Are there moments you never thought you’d experience? Did things happen that took you to a place you didn’t expect to be? Have the events of the past month left you feeling good about your life, hopeful, proud, or sad and disappointed? Tell me all about it!

Your post is due Tuesday, November 8, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Posted in Prompts | Tagged CDE, Leadership, Thought | Leave a comment

The Ugliest Woman in the World

Posted on October 25, 2016 by mspetes

I will need Job Interview letters and resumes, Market Plan Written material, Ag Comm Media Plan, and the Ag Issues Portfolio TOMORROW – October 26th. I will need to convert to pdf, compress, and email along with our final registration for Jackrabbit Leadership Invite.

Remember – the requirements for Leadership CDEs for this class are due November 1. Please send them in ONE email.

Sophomores and Juniors – How are you coming on your SAE grants – they are due November 15th. So far, only one student has created the application in AET!

There’s been a lot of great things and a few really not so great things happening in our lives lately. Sometimes I find that I need to take a step back and try to put my life and my struggles into perspective.

Watch this video:

We all have things about ourselves the we may not like. For instance – I really dislike my nose! Seeing my profile in Liz’s Star video makes me cringe! What things does Lizzie find as up-sides to her condition? What does the video make you think about? How does it make you feel? Does it make you feel guilty about those times when you’ve been the person saying negative things about another’s appearance? How do you feel about your physical shortcomings after watching this video?

Your post is due Thursday, October 27th, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.