NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication
Ready
for
November 2017
Thanksgiving
Michael Meadows, Simms
The month of November has always brought certain things to my mind; cooler temperatures, the colors of fall, college football, National FFA Convention, and Thanksgiving. In addition, many of you are in the middle of LDE season. I encourage you to not measure success by placings, wins, or advancing to the next level. Do we want our students to win and advance? Sure we do. Doing so is exciting and honestly, more fun. However, some of my greatest success stories have not involved wins or plaques. If your students have learned new skills, gained selfconfidence, and discovered traits about themselves, then you both have experienced great success. Everyone can’t win and advance. That doesn’t mean that those teams that didn’t win and advance didn’t experience success. The FFA mission states, “The FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success.” Participation in competitive events, such as LDEs, is one of the primary ways we, as advisors, facilitate that development. We all want to win, but don’t let that be your indicator of success. This month, I also want to communicate the importance of family time. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. It not only gives us a much needed break, but it is a chance for families to gather, visit, and give thanks. Ag teachers spend so much
time away during the course of the year that anytime we can spend with family is special. I encourage you to make an effort to focus on your family during this time. I know many have students with animals on feed, many will be fine-tuning teams for state LDEs, and all of us have school related responsibilities that might have to be tended to during our time off. However, you must make time for family and make time for yourself. Spend some time to refresh your batteries. We need some charging about this time of year; just to catch our breath and realize that we do have lives outside of our jobs. Burnout is real and can affect your job performance and your health. Take time to care for yourself. There is a shortage of ag teachers all across our nation. Your students need you. They need the best version of you to bring out the best in them. You can’t do this if your batteries are dead. Another important aspect of Thanksgiving is taking time to be grateful and give thanks. Sometimes our perspective on life needs to be adjusted to keep our priorities in the right order. I don’t know what some of you might be dealing with. I know life seems to be a series of mountains and valleys. I heard a trusted pastor once say, “If you seem to be on top of a mountain right now, hang on to your hat because a valley is probably in your future.” I have found this to be true in my own life. It seems like when things are good,
life can throw us a curve ball that will bring us to our knees. My Dad has always said, “When you think you have problems, look around you. It is not hard to find someone that is in worse shape.” I have found this to be true as well. We all have reasons to be thankful. Earlier this fall, some of you experienced a life-changing event in the form of Hurricane Harvey. I hope you are beginning to regain some sense of normalcy. Also, I hope you have been comforted and are thankful for all the efforts across our state and nation to help. One of my favorite hymns is “Count Your Many Blessings.” Most of us are blessed beyond what we deserve. This Thanksgiving, take some Continue on page 2