NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication
December 2014
The Way I See It Jack Winterrowd, Cedar Park
“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen Where do you find your joy? This time of year brings a wave of nostalgia to my mind. I think it is partly because of my age and the stage of life that I am in. Having taught for so many years and having so many young people enter and leave my classroom, I can easily think of the many joyful opportunities that have come my way. The joy we experience when we see a newborn animal take its first steps and in turn witnessing the mother’s careful watch. The joy we feel when a young person experiences their first success at an FFA event and then when they look to us for recognition and praise. The joy we know when our families gather together for Christmas celebrations. All of these examples of joy, and many more, seem to camp out in the forefront of my mind. To be joyful is a conscious choice that we must constantly make. Each day as I prepare myself for work, I think about the day ahead and try to plan how it will unfold. I have a 30 minute commute from home to school that allows me time to organize my thoughts and mentally prepare for the day ahead. If for some reason my routine is interrupted – like I over sleep or have to fix something at the barn that an angry sow has torn up – it can throw my day’s preparation into a different mode. It is those days that I must remind myself to find joy in the
day ahead. “The greatest joys in life are found not only in what we do and feel, but also in our quiet hopes and labors for others.” ― Bryant McGill I truly believe that teaching is my calling. My student teaching block had 28 members. After graduation, ten of us began our careers as ag teachers. For the first couple years we would get together at the teacher’s conference and trade war stories. As the years passed our numbers thinned, so much so that, today I am the only one still teaching. Some of them have retired from a long career in agriculture education. However, most of my peers didn’t become teachers or if they did begin teaching, they only stayed a few years. For some, I know it wasn’t their calling. They didn’t find joy in the day-to-day life of an ag teacher. So how does teaching give us joy? I think that is a very personal question because everyone has a
different concept of joy. Everyone has a different level of joy that it takes to put up with all the other things that, we as ag teacher, struggle with daily. These things are certainly not joyful or joy-filled, such as ARD meetings, parent conferences and semester exams. I don’t know of many people who actually like to grade papers and tests, but I do like the look of satisfaction on a student’s face when they receive the grade they hoped to make. I don’t always like the hours of preparation we spend training LDE teams but I always treasure that first glimpse of joy in a student’s eyes when their name is announced after winning a contest. I certainly don’t like a snared show pig screaming in my ear as I clip it for the county show, but the look of joy on the students face when they hold their blue ribbon is worth the lingering ringing noise. “Joy is what happens to us when
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