I never thought much about being a teacher or what it takes to be a teacher, that is until I got to become one for the Youth in Agriculture Study Abroad in Scotland. After this experience, I have gained a whole new appreciation towards educators and what it takes to become one. Going into this Study Abroad I did not have much experience teaching kids, especially about topics regarding agriculture like habitats, rocks and soil, buildings and structures, or forensics. So, this Study Abroad posed a new challenge for me! I became more intrigued about teaching as we went through the Scotland education standards and began creating lesson plans for different grade levels. When it finally came to the big day, I was extremely nervous, even more nervous than I would be before an Organic Chemistry exam. I never thought standing in front of kids teaching a lesson that I just became knowledgeable about would be a small hurdle that I would need to get over, but as the day went on with tons of excited questions it became significantly easier. Originally when participating in this Study Abroad we were only going to teach elementary level students, but as more secondary educators learned about our program, more wanted us to teach lessons there as well. So, a new challenge came with teaching older kids lessons that we had created for younger children. With the older kids, I actually enjoyed teaching the lessons a lot more, due to the amount of questions we received, the level of engagement, and the personal bonds we began to form with some of the students during our free time. One of my favorite memories from this experience was getting to play at recess and eat lunch with the children. In this setting, they got to show us what they enjoyed doing and they were free to ask us as many questions about anything from what America is like, to how we are enjoying Scotland so far, to what we were going to be doing for the rest of our trip. With this experience, I hope to take the skills I have learned and the structure that Scottish education uses and try to implement it in my daily life, working with my peers, and in my future career!
