NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication
January 2016
Are You Making The Most Of Your Chances? Ray Pieniazek, East Central
Howdy and Happy New Year! I’m sure you are off to a busy new year. Isn’t it amazing how fast this school year has flown by? Some of you have already started a new semester, while some of us are just finishing up. Have you accomplished what you thought you would or are you wondering where the semester went to. Even in my 28th year of teaching I still wonder if I have covered the right amount of lessons this far to stay on track. For the new teachers, don’t worry if you didn’t get there, take some time and make a short list of what did and didn’t work and use it in planning for the coming years. Have you taken any chances lately in trying something new? If not, you have plenty more chances to do so this spring. This is the time of year that I look forward to the most; Career Development Events season. These contests have tremendous value to your students. They help them make rational decisions based upon standards, they build confidence in students, and they open student’s eyes to opportunities in the real world. Now is the time to get started and make the most of
the opportunities you have to give students; a chance to learn new and exciting things that our program has to offer. There are many Career Development Events to choose from. Try a new one and give your kids a chance to compete in something that can open the door to new opportunities for participation and growth. You never know when that event might lead to a student’s choice in a career. A few years ago we had a student teacher that wanted to coach a team that we had never trained before. One of the first students that worked on that team found out that’s where his interests was and now is in college majoring in the area career field. You never know when you will have the chance to open your student’s eyes to a new opportunity that might lead them down the path to his or her future. What contest will you take a chance on training? Do you think that you have some special lessons that other teachers can use? If so take a chance and present a workshop at our annual VATAT Teacher’s Conference this summer. We are always looking for teachers to step
up and share some lessons that can be used in the classroom. Teachers are always looking for innovative ideas to teach various topics. You can go on our website (www.vatat.org) and fill out the form to present and submit it to the office. As you begin traveling this spring, don’t forget to communicate with your administration about all the great things your students are accomplishing. Sometimes they just don’t know what we are doing. So share your student’s successes. Have a great spring and keep taking those chances.