What we learned from hosting #TeachAgChat - ISU 450 Farm Students
On Thursday April 7th the Iowa State Ag 450 Farm PR committee hosted a #TeachAgChat focused on Experiential Learning in the classroom. We had a great time hosting and got to hear from many other Ag teachers and experts in the field.
How the chat went and what we learned:
1. We consulted with two individuals known for their work in the area of Experiential Learning. Both confirmed that they would assist us during the actual chat, however, only one individual actively participated. What we learned: it is very important to include experts in #TeachAgChat to help provide 'expert' advice to questions we may not have answers for. It is important to be in constant contact with your identified experts. However, as with life, stuff happens! We think it was a successful chat!
2. Getting the word out to our followers on Twitter and Facebook is important to having many different types of ideas and replies during the #TeachAgChat. Actively advertising the event is helpful in gaining participants, and we could have done a better job making frequent advertisements, but overall, the event went well.
3. Because the topic we chose was more applicable to Ag educators, we had a tough time answering a few of the questions. However, we had a unique perspective to use when responding to some of the other participants' answers. It was also interesting to learn about the theory that goes into planning these activities.
This session of the #TeachAgChat went pretty well despite the low number of participants. We look forward to participating in future #TeachAgChats and learning about information that will be relevant to our future careers.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Friday, April 1, 2016
Top Tips: Advancing Your Professional Development as a Teacher Candidate #TeachAgChat
What a great discussion we had on 3/24 about advancing
preservice teachers through professional development opportunities!
We absolutely LOVED hosting the #TeachAgChat and hope to
participate and even host again in the future! With that in mind, there were
several things that we learned by hosting this chat that we hope you can find
useful as you host yours.
- We asked specific preservice teachers to participate in the chat and they confirmed, however, they did not participate. We aren’t sure if they forgot or just didn’t know how to respond, even though we sent them the questions well in advance. We thought that maybe next time we would have more back-up questions to help facilitate the discussion and make our participants feel more comfortable.
- Make sure to use a website like Hootsuite or TweetChat to follow the conversation. It makes the whole chat a lot more organized and helps you to keep track of who you have responded to.
- Pay close attention to the responses. The #TeachAgChat is a great learning tool for everyone involved. Make sure to have a follow-up plan for what you will do with the information you receive from the chat.
Overall, we count this #TeachAgChat as a success and look
forward to using the information we received to help develop our programming.
See you on the next chat! #agedu
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Top Tips: What we learned from hosting by the Idaho FFA Association
The Idaho FFA Association hosted the #TeachAgChat on Thursday, March 10 and we'd love to share a few tips:
#1- Use the manual created by Dr. Foster and his students! We followed the "to-do" list in the manual in preparation for the chat. We utilized Canva- one of the sites suggested in the manual, to create a promotional graphic with the questions.
#2- Speaking of graphics, after analyzing Twitter data on posts with and without a graphic, we can difinitively say that the tweet with a graphic reached many more people. Our first tweet, posted March 5 without a graphic, made 492 impressions and had 13 total engagements. The next day, we posted a very similar tweet but added the graphic. This tweet made 7,974 impressions and had 360 total engagements. Graphics work!
#3- Send personal invites to colleagues, related Twitter accounts, and other organizations. In our case, we tagged all the state FFA associations we could find on Twitter in invitation tweets. We also sent direct messages to National FFA staff members involved in service learning. We also used our state ag teacher listserv and the national ag teacher listserv to promote, promote, promote.
#4- Don't try to tweet from two different Twitter accounts! Jaysa Fillmore, Idaho FFA Service Development Coordinator, was trying to participate from her personal account, @MrsAgTeacher, and the @IdahoFFA account. It would be been much easier to schedule responses to the questions from one account and then use the other live. It was also helpful to use Tweetdeck during the chat.
We were excited to claim the title of the first state FFA association to host a #TeachAgChat and would encourage other states to jump on board! Dr. Foster and his #TeachAg crew have done a great job creating this awesome resource for ag teachers- past, present, and future! Thanks for the opportunity!
#1- Use the manual created by Dr. Foster and his students! We followed the "to-do" list in the manual in preparation for the chat. We utilized Canva- one of the sites suggested in the manual, to create a promotional graphic with the questions.
#2- Speaking of graphics, after analyzing Twitter data on posts with and without a graphic, we can difinitively say that the tweet with a graphic reached many more people. Our first tweet, posted March 5 without a graphic, made 492 impressions and had 13 total engagements. The next day, we posted a very similar tweet but added the graphic. This tweet made 7,974 impressions and had 360 total engagements. Graphics work!
#3- Send personal invites to colleagues, related Twitter accounts, and other organizations. In our case, we tagged all the state FFA associations we could find on Twitter in invitation tweets. We also sent direct messages to National FFA staff members involved in service learning. We also used our state ag teacher listserv and the national ag teacher listserv to promote, promote, promote.
#4- Don't try to tweet from two different Twitter accounts! Jaysa Fillmore, Idaho FFA Service Development Coordinator, was trying to participate from her personal account, @MrsAgTeacher, and the @IdahoFFA account. It would be been much easier to schedule responses to the questions from one account and then use the other live. It was also helpful to use Tweetdeck during the chat.
We were excited to claim the title of the first state FFA association to host a #TeachAgChat and would encourage other states to jump on board! Dr. Foster and his #TeachAg crew have done a great job creating this awesome resource for ag teachers- past, present, and future! Thanks for the opportunity!
Friday, March 25, 2016
March 24th - Professional Development for #TeachAg Candidates; Hosted by @NAAE
Host:
NAAE (@NAAE)Topic:
Advancing your professional development as a teacher candidateStorify Archive:
Questions/Prompts:
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
March 10th - Living to Serve: Service Learning in the @NationalFFA; Hosted by @IdahoFFA (Idaho)
Host:
Idaho FFA (@IdahoFFA)
Guided by:
Ms. Jaysa Filmore (@mrsagteacher)Topic:
Living to Serve: Service Learning in the FFA
Storify Archive of Chat:
https://storify.com/RCMcLean/service-learning-in-agedu-teachagchat-3-10-16Quesitons/Prompts:
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Top Tips: What we learned form hosting a Chat - SE POLK FFA
On February 25, 2016 The Southeast Polk FFA chapter held a #TeachAg chat on Drones in agriculture. Many experts in drones, farmers who use drones, and others were invited and participated in the chat.
SEP FFA learned that inviting experts, people who use or are a part of the main topic, and people who aren't as involved in that topic is a great way to get different perspectives on the #TeachAg chat. Also, the SEP FFA learned that getting the news that the #TeachAg chat is happening is very important. Getting the word out is important as well as using different methods of publicity like email, social media, and maybe even phone calls (yes phone calls).
The SEP FFA also learned that as well as having experts in the field of Agriculture, specifically drones in #Ag, there are people who are new to the idea of drones and drones in Ag. This means that we must get the word out to others so that they may be educated about the benefits about drones in Ag.
SEP FFA learned that inviting experts, people who use or are a part of the main topic, and people who aren't as involved in that topic is a great way to get different perspectives on the #TeachAg chat. Also, the SEP FFA learned that getting the news that the #TeachAg chat is happening is very important. Getting the word out is important as well as using different methods of publicity like email, social media, and maybe even phone calls (yes phone calls).
The SEP FFA also learned that as well as having experts in the field of Agriculture, specifically drones in #Ag, there are people who are new to the idea of drones and drones in Ag. This means that we must get the word out to others so that they may be educated about the benefits about drones in Ag.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
February 25th - The Force Awakens: Drones in #AgEDU; Hosted by @SEPOLKFFA (Iowa)
Host:
Southeast Polk FFA (@SEPOLKFFA), Iowa (@IowaFFA)
Guided by:
Mr. Matt Eddy (@AgEd4ME), Agriscience Instructor
Mr. Austin Knight (@AustinKnight25), Southeast Polk FFA Chapter President
Topic:
Storify Archive of Chat:
Questions/Prompts:
Q1- How do you use drones in your classroom /farm/business? #TeachAgChat
Q2- Will drones be affordable for the majority of farmers to benefit from them? #TeachAgChat
Q3- How can drones help farmers? I.D. early Probs? Surveillance Needs? Bolster Yields & Profits? Share Specific examples! #TeachAgChat
Q4- What is the Role of drones in #agriculture and #AgEdu today and in the future? #TeachAgChat
Q5- What experience have you had with legal concerns with drones? #TeachAgChat
Q6- What will the agricultural drone market look like in five years? #TeachAgChat
Q7- What kind of jobs will drones in agriculture create? #TeachAgChat
Q8- What is your biggest “Whoops” moment with your drone? #TeachAgChat
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