South Central Swag {PAAE Region Meeting}

The south central region has some swag. The experience and diversity of people that sat in on the meeting is extraordinary. We celebrated the retirement of two agriculture teachers who have contributed to the agriculture education family for many years. There was 5 student teachers, 3 guest speakers who continually support PAAE, Dr. Ewing, and a wealth of teachers who have expertise in a multitude of different areas. The meeting was once again a reminder of the power of the word family within the agriculture education profession. We had teachers share heart-aching news, data collection and progression within the profession, updates on events and activities, and of course, simply talking to other teachers to "catch-up".

Mentoring comes in all forms

I am going to discuss to observations from the meeting, one being more positive and one being an opportunity for growth. The positive is the amount of support that we are agriculture educators have outside of our colleagues. The Center for Dairy Excellence, Versant Strategies, SAE specialist, and the list goes on. They are here to support the agriculture education programs in the state to ensure student success. We are extremely fortunate to have what we do offered to us that we do not have time to utilize it all! I think often times, as the years pass and the routine of teaching occurs, teachers forget how fortunate we are to have the access we do. If I read this in 10 years, I want myself to remember to not take anything resources, events, or support for granted because not every profession gets what we do. An opportunity for growth is the length of the meeting. We started at 5:30pm and ended at 8:30pm. Yes, PAAE meets only two times per year but there are other meetings and people traveling from far distances to attend the meeting in the middle of the week.

Overall, PAAE continually reminds me that being an active member of professional organizations is important. Side note is that when I completed the schools observations forms this week it had three separate questions for involvement in professional organizations. Even your districts want you involved with your area of teaching. Shout out to whoever designed the student memberships because I am forever grateful to have started my active role as soon as I choose the profession.