Student Leadership Conferences

 During my time at Cedar Crest High School, I got the opportunity to travel with a group of students to the ACES and SLLC Leadership conferences. For ACEs, we took 24 students with us and they really enjoyed learning during the workshops. I loved getting to experience this conference from a teacher prospective, rather than from a student's point of view. I attended the last weekend of ACES and I was the only student teacher that was there during this weekend. The one thing I remember is that the ballroom was really cold and I didn't pack a warm enough sweatshirt! Since I was the only student teacher there, I got the hotel room to myself, which was a nice surprise. 

During the time that the students were in the workshops, the teachers attended a concrete/ masonry workshop. Although it is something that I thought I would never use, I think it is something that I could incorporate in my plant science class during a possible landscape/ hardscape unit! During this workshop, we got mix cement to the correct consistency, pour it into forms. Then we learned about the differences between Stamping and Stencil concrete and got to practice this on our wet concrete. Overall, I think that this was a very fun and educational workshop that provided valuable information to ag teachers! 

After the workshop, we got to chaperone the dance and then listen to some very touching reflection stories from the state officers. Something that was new to me on the advisor side of things was Courtesy Corp. I did not realize that teachers did this after curfew, but I completely understood the reasoning behind it. 



SLLC

About a month later, we got to go back to the Harrisburg hotel for the SLLC Conference. Cedar Crest FFA took 7 awesome students, who made for a great experience. On Sunday Evening, we got everyone settled in their workshops and rooms, and then teachers had some free time in which I was able to spend with some cohort members. I think this trip came at a very important time, as the semester was really kicking into high gear with all of the assignments that need to get done. I really enjoyed the time talking with other cohort members, and venting to them about each of our struggles. Seanna and I got to share a room and it was very nice being able to spend some time with her. 

On Monday, we got to have breakfast with all of the students and then they headed to their workshops we headed to our teacher's workshop. Our Teacher professional Development was on Ag Mechanics and using new Technology. I will say, this workshop did not appeal to me as much as the one at ACEs did. Our afternoon workshop got cancelled, so we got some time off while waiting for the students to finish their afternoon workshops. I used some of this time to hang out with the other Lebanon County teachers that are all pretty close to each other. I was also able to get caught up on some emails and do some other things. I should have gotten more done during this time, but unfortunately I did not. Then, we got ready for Dinner and had a good evening with the students at the Glow Rave. We had a very good time at the Legislators Breakfast, even though we did not have any people sitting at our table. One of our students, Tanner, got the Founder's award at the end of the breakfast on Tuesday Morning.

Overall, it was a great experience, especially since I had never attended SLLC before. It is something that I will consider offering to my students next year as I build my program. 


Attending these Trips with Cedar Crest was a very fun experience and I can't wait to take my own students there one day!


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