Week 6 - Finding my Voice

I think that it is safe to say that this week I found my teacher voice, now I just need to practice it a little more! In general this week was pretty much organized chaos as all classes were working on starting/finishing their FFA Week project board (pictures to come next week!). My teacher voice was necessary to ensure that the chaos stayed organized.

Dr. Ewing was also able to come and visit this week! The weather was nice for him to do so. He was able to see some of the students projects and helped some of them with ideas! We were also in the middle of Valentine's Day flower madness. I think he should be able to go home and make his wife a  beautiful flower arrangement for any occasion.

As the week went on Mrs. Hoover and myself caught ourselves running around more and more often - cleaning things up, printing things for students' boards, helping students with their boards, and finalizing things for next week. Needless to say, we slept well when we got home and the alarm came way too early in the morning.

A little of the chaos leftover at the end of the
day on Valentine's Day. I finally found my
phone and thought I should at least get
one picture. 

The Floral Design classes sold these etched vases for arrangements
as well. The Fort Cherry Innovation Lab did them! 

Next week, I will not be teaching which will give me time to get ready to teach 5 classes after National FFA Week. I am excited for what that week brings as I am going to be teaching the most classes I have taught thus far at one time.

Last week, Mrs. Hoover and I also were able to visit a local farm - Rivendale Farms. They are looking to work with the local FFA students and hire several students during the summer. The farm raises world class dairy cattle as well as milking nearly 160 additional cattle. Furthermore, everything is state of the art. They use two robotic milkers and a robotic feeder to care for their cattle.

They also have an approximately 13,000 square foot cold greenhouse where they keep the temperature just above freezing and grow everything in the ground. Everything in the greenhouse is programed and controlled with computers. They also have about 500 laying hens.

The majority of their products are sold to local Pittsburgh restaurants, including the Chefs of the Pittsburgh sports teams - Pirates, Penguins, and the Steelers. Their goal is to be the best at everything they do. They are also looking to double the size of their greenhouse. I only was able to take a few pictures and they don't quite capture the impressiveness of this farm.  

This is a snapshot of Rivendale's calf barn. 

This is their Elite Cattle barn where they keep
their winning cattle. 

This is the main dairy barn. The cattle are fed with a robotic feeder that mixes their feed, pushes, and measures their feed every 45 minutes. I would like to live like these cows. 

These pictures don't capture the massiveness of this greenhouse and I am still trying to figure out how they are growing plants in these cold temperatures. They don't measure the temperature of the soil at all - my mind is blown.