Extra Money!

Posted on December 18, 2015 by

335If money fell from Heaven, and you had an EXTRA $1000 each month, what would change in your life?  What would you do with the money?  Invest it? Save for college or tech school? Are their special people that you’d share your new windfall with?  Are their organizations or charities that you would make a donation to?

Let’s think a little bigger now.  What if you won the Power Ball or some other obscenely large lottery prize of untold millions of dollars.  If you had all this extra money, and could donate some to a group or organization, what strings would you tie to it?  For instance, I’ve always said that if I won the lottery a portion of my winnings would go to West Central to guarantee that there would always be an Ag Ed and FFA Program here.  The funds would help students travel to Washington Leadership Conference, National Convention, CDEs, Chapter Exchanges, etc.  I would also donate towards an indoor sports complex for our students.  What would you do if you won the lottery? Would you quit your job? Move somewhere different?  Travel more?  I’m torn on if I’d quit my job or not.  I love what I do, so, I think I might miss you all a bit.  I for sure would not miss worrying about how we’re going to pay for things and struggling to come up with fundraisers all the time!

Your post is due Tuesday, December 22, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

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A Merger of Mega Proportions

Posted on December 15, 2015 by

MERGER SIGN BELOW OFFICE BUILDING

Read this article.

What companies are merging?  Which company is one of the oldest in America?  When was it founded, and what was the first product it produced?  What do some blame for the downfall?  How much was total revenue down by October?  What products is DOW known for producing?  What things will the newly merged company be without?  Paraphrase (re-write and shorten in your words) the three negative aspects of the merger.

What sectors of the market is DuPont active in?  (you’ll have to do some googling)  What companies or products fall under the DOW umbrella?  How are these two entities involved in agriculture? (again, more googling)

How will this merger impact those working for Dow or DuPont companies?

Your post is due Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

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The Beginning of Proficiency Apps

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

Keep working on your records today.  If you need help, please ask or check the student help menu on the left side.

Most of you will be completing a proficiency application this year.  We’ll start working on them soon!  Read through the attached list and identify one or more areas that you think you could apply in.

2016_proficiency_area_descriptions

Most of you will apply in “Placement” SAEs.  Read through the attached proficiency application below. This will give you an idea of the work we’ll be doing.

Placement_Post

Watch this video about completing placement proficiency applications

There are other sample proficiency applications located here.  (You may have to create a log in to access them).

Read through this list of SAE ideas and identify things you could do or are currently doing.

SAE Ideas

On your blog tell me the following:

  1.  SAE ideas from the list that you are or will be completing.  And what cluster or career area they come from.
  2. What proficiency area from the 2016 description list you think you best fit into.
  3. What part of the proficiency application do you think will take the most time or be the most challenging for you to complete.
  4. Was the video helpful in explaining the application?

Your post is due Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

Here are a bunch of tips for completing the new Proficiency applications (they changed in 2015 so this is the second year of the new format).  We may not use this much today, but I’ll want to be able to find it again in the future.

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Record Book Day!

Posted on December 9, 2015 by

Today we’ll be concentrating on catching up on our SAE records.  All of our records are online, no papers to lose, no laptop to crash.  The system at AET has a built in interface with all SAE based award applications.  That means the the information that you enter into your AET records will merge into your State FFA Degree (most seniors), Proficiency application (most of you), Star Greenhand Application (Jill) etc.  The more we enter and the more regularly we enter the information, the easier the application processes will be!

Screen Shot 2015-12-09 at 7.51.24 AM

Let’s get logged in!  Go to the AET website.  Click on Student on the left side.  Your username and password should be your first initial followed by your last name.  The first initial and the first letter of your last name are capital letters.  Ex: LPetersen  If you have trouble getting this far, let me know.  Our Chapter number is SD0068.

Click on Profile, click on manage/edit personal profile/password.

Fill all of that information out.

Go back to Profile, click on Record your School Ag Class Schedule – complete that page.

Back to Profile again and continue working your way through the menu options.

Now it’s time to decide what the best SAE (s) are for you.  Read through this document.

Here is a GIANT list of SAE ideas.

For more ideas or clarification, check out this site.

Watch this video

At anytime, you can click on the Student Help option on the left side.  This will bring up a host of help topics with fairly good step by step instructions.  There’s a lot to learn here, so don’t feel bad if the help menu becomes your new best friend!

We’ll be working on records and subsequent applications a lot for the next few months. I’ll be moving around the room to help you!  Some things we’ll do together, somethings will be relevant to only a few of you, it all depends on your situation and your SAE.  Everyone will complete records of some type!

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School Lunch ~what’s happened since the new regulations were put in place?

Posted on December 7, 2015 by

Reminder – bring photos, timesheet, paystubs, etc. for class on Wednesday.  We’ll be digging into your SAE records together!

health-lunch

For today:

Read this article.

There are  A LOT of questions to answer on this one.  Take your time and make sure you don’t miss some!

What’s been happening in Lunch Lady Land since the new lunch regulations were put into place?  Have more or less students been eating school lunch?  Are there states that are finding challenges with implementing the new regulations brought forth by the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act?  What things happened in the lunch room as a result of the new regulations?  Did any school districts abandon the Federal School Lunch Program due to the new regulations?  If so, how many?  What popular staple(s) were some schools forced to stop serving?  What happened to Cheeseburgers in one school district?  Why?  What was one of the largest problems that school lunch programs faced due to implementation of the new regulations?  Why do schools need to invest in new spoons or ladles?  What percent of schools needed new or additional kitchen equipment to comply with the new regulations?  What happened to participation by students who pay full price for their school lunch?  What obstacle or standard do school lunch programs face in serving a “palatable” lunch?  When was this article written?  Who is the author?

What are your thoughts on our school food service program?  Do you eat school breakfast?  School lunch?  Have you noticed changes in the school lunch program over the last few years?  If so, what have you noticed?  Who, or what government agency regulates the school lunch program?

Your post is due Wednesday, December 9, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

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Working Without Getting Paid

Posted on December 3, 2015 by

Thank you for bringing your desks back into the room!  If you have not done that yet, how ’bout you each go grab a desk or two and bring them back in.  Thanks!

Please – don’t try to give fruit money to the sub on Thursday, December 3rd.  Wait until Friday, December 4th to give it to me!

If you have extra fruit, meat, or cheese, please put the meat or cheese in the cooler, put the fruit on or near the large table closest to the book cabinet.

If you have Butter Braids, please, take them to the kitchen and ask Mrs. Wittrock or one of the other Lunch ladies to put them in the freezer with the other Butter Braids.

For those of you competing at State Leadership – we leave Sunday at noon!  Get your make up slip filled out and make sure you are ready.  Ag Issues – your movie is sitting on my desk.  You can watch it during class if you like.  If you can’t figure out  how to make the DVD player etc work – call me!

You may have heard that it’s important to do what you “love” for a career.  Most days, I love my job!  I’m sure some of you may be able to guess which days I don’t love it quite as much.

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With that in mind, If you had to work without getting paid for 90 days straight, what work would you want to do?  Tell me all about it.  Be descriptive and detailed.  Tell me why you’d want that to be what you did.  What is it you enjoy or think you would enjoy about doing that type of work?

On Wednesday, we’ll be working on SAE records.  Bring any hours, income statements, pictures etc that need to go in your record book to school with you on Wednesday.   – Old people and Officers – help out the new people if they’re confused about what I’m talking about.  For Derick and Sam – you don’t understand this, and that’s ok.  I’ll catch you up during State Leadership.

2nd Block – You may have time to start working on your video we talked about. Flip Cams are still on my desk.

Your post is due Monday, December 7, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

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Of Paris, Mali, and Blood

Posted on November 24, 2015 by

eiffel-tower-images-1

In light of the attacks in Paris and Mali in the last several days, let’s take a look at how people react to situations like these.

In the days following September 11th here in the US, citizens looked for any way they could to be involved and active in the recovery efforts.  Many rushed to their local military recruitment offices, raised their right hands, and signed up to serve.  Others, found different ways to help.  “In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Americans who’d never before given blood flocked to blood banks with their arms bared.” (Marcus, 2003).

Blood donations even in the Sioux Falls area rose in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the failed attack that ended in a field in Pennsylvania.

“But as the immediacy of the deadly events faded, the sleeves came down again, says a new study that highlights the difficulty of encouraging people in this country to become regular blood donors.” (Marcus, 2003).

Today, you’ll be doing a bit of research on blood donations.

Find some statistics about blood donations in Paris and other involved parts of Europe in the last couple of weeks.  Have donations increased, decreased, stayed flat?  Was there an impact in the US on blood donations immediately after the Paris attacks?

If you have donated blood in the past – what did you chose to do so?  What reaction did you get from friends or family? How did you feel about making your gift of blood to a total stranger?

If you have never donated – why haven’t you?

What is the most common blood type?

What is the most needed blood type in our area?  Does the type of blood most commonly needed vary with geography?

What happens to your blood after you are done donating?

How many people can be helped with a single donation of blood?

Provide the answers to the questions above as well as a link to where you found the information on your blog.

Your post is due Monday, November 30, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

 

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Family Farms, not Factory Farms

Posted on November 18, 2015 by

All hard copy materials for State Leadership CDEs have to be mailed on Friday!  That means Market Plan, Ag Issues, Ag Comm, Job Interview, and Prepared Public Speaking.

Fruit will come in on Tuesday, December 1, 2015.  Make plans to get your fruit out of my room on that day!

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Read this article.

What is a factory farm?

How does the USDA classify the size of a farm?

Which organizations would like to convince the public that factory farms are the rule and not the exception?

What’s untrue about the argument that animals raised on factory farms are injured and deformed? Or that farmers don’t care for their animals?

Confinement operations are associated with “factory farming”.  Activists seem to believe that the confinement is to “keep the atrocities of what’s going on inside the barn from being seen by the public”.  What’s the real reason?

Now – read this article.

Give me some specifics on how the author says they raise their hogs.  What technologies do they employ? What do these practices result in? Are there other benefits the author notes about raising animals in confinement systems?

What percent of farms in American are family owned and operated?

Your post is due Friday, November 20, 2015 at 8:15 a.m.

 

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You’re Invited!

Posted on November 16, 2015 by

STT-great-buffetIf you helped at the Threshing Show this summer, you’re invited to their Annual Appreciation Dinner.  It’s taking place this Saturday, November 21at 6:30 p.m. at St. Ann’s in Humboldt.

For today:

Congratulations to Dalton Larson, Jared Miller, and Tyndall  Petterson who have been named as finalists in the SD BIG Idea competition.  They will present their idea to a panel of judges on December 3, 2015 in Aberdeen.

If you competed at Jackrabbit Invite – dig through the boxes on the side table and put all score sheets, tests, etc away in the appropriate tub.

I would like to clean this place up a little bit – if at all possible today!  Can you help put things away – please?

The ag room will be used for competition tonight.  Don’t stash your stuff in here if you’re going to need it during the evening.

Leadership CDEs are tonight!  We start at 4:00 p.m.  Everyone has been assigned a competition time, check with me to see what time you go.  If you are running for District Officer – I need your application!

Members of the National Ag Comm and ENR teams – I emailed your scores to you last night.

If you find yourself with nothing to do at any point today – stop down and see if my head is still attached.  With the fruit sale to finalize and making sure everything is ready to host CDEs tonight – you just never know!

No blog post today!  Use the time to practice for tonight, study for Spring CDES, help clean up the room, work on the fruit sale, etc.

Thanks!

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Today!

Posted on November 5, 2015 by

If I don’t have your Leadership CDE materials done and handed in; do them TODAY and email them to me.  They were due yesterday, the 4th.   Since I said Thursday, the 4th in Tuesday’s post (and there is no such day this year), I’ll split the difference with you and take them today, Thursday, November 5.  If you’re not sure what you need to do, check this post.

 

cdelogo_lgMarket Plan – is your written document ready to go?  Practice your presentation.

Ag Comm – Let’s write the script today!  The Prezi is just about done. I also have sample tests for you to work through today.

Ag Issues – any changes we want to make to the script to make things more conversational and entertaining?  We need to get that ironed out soon so that folks can memorize.

Ag Sales – I’ve got some sample tests for you to work through.  Do you have all the information you need about your products in your sales books?  Study, memorize, etc.  There are 4 teams at districts (so far, I’m expecting a fifth team for sure) that means you have to beat two (or three) of them to advance to State!

Those competing at Jackrabbit Leadership – we leave at 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, November 10th.  All CDEs will compete in OD except for Ag Issues – Jeans and Black shirts again.  Bring lunch or money or both.

It’s not too soon to start thinking about Spring CDEs.  Do you have a plan?  Which area are you gunning for this year?  I have lots of sample tests etc.  Just ask!  Rules for the Spring CDEs are here.

Here’s a brief synopsis of what happens in each CDE.  Spring CDE’s

Fruit sales are due Wednesday, November 11.  Download the Fruit Sales tabulation spreadsheet and start filling in your customers’ names and sales.

Fruit Sales Tabulation form copy

You’ll be using the tabulation form to calculate everything we need to fill your total order.  I hope that this will streamline our sale calculation process and make our ordering process a bit less stressful.  #fingerscrossed

There you have it, a laundry list of things to accomplish today! Pick something and DO it!

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