2021 Space for Innovation: Project Parli Launch!

For the Space for Innovation Project, our class members collaborated to create a website designed to engage both students and teachers alike consisting of resources that will assist in understanding, learning, and preparing for the Pennsylvania FFA State Parliamentary Procedure Leadership Development Event. In order to create this website, we worked diligently throughout the semester to contact individuals for their parliamentary procedure resources, sort these resources into their appropriate categories, and upload them onto the website. 

Our Website: https://sites.google.com/psu.edu/psuparli 

Morgan: For this project, I contributed my skills in multiple ways to help develop the website, but more so behind the scenes of the website. I first worked on gathering information including our plans, purpose, and goals, and organizing them onto a document for planning purposes. I also drafted and wrote the email that was sent to the PA Ag Ed listserve, with the help of Dr. Foster, to gain resources from fellow professionals in the field. After resources started to file in, I then created a folder on the shared Google drive and uploaded all of the resources sent to me directly and that was gained through the form. This included resources from teachers that emailed me directly and the superintendent of the state competition.

My other contributions to helping develop the website included editing and creating the introduction video found on the homepage of the website. I took the raw footage we each filmed and used my digital skills to create the video we have on the site. Additionally, I searched and sorted through the NAAE Communities of Practice pages consisting of Parliamentary Procedure resources to find the resources relevant to our website and added those to the resource pages throughout the site. I also spent some time locating and uploading the national final team's video to the website for users to take advantage of as an example. 

Mikey: My contribution to this assignment, for the most part, was frontloaded in building the website. In the beginning stages, I did a lot of searching to figure out what would be the easiest and most functional platform for this website. For the sake of collaboration, I decided that Google Sites would be easiest for us to work as a team. After identifying that this was our platform, the annoying process of designing the website began. I am not an artistic or creative person at all. I wouldn't go as far as saying that I hate art, but I can easily say that I am one of the least artistically inclined people that I know. This made it difficult to design a website that looked good and allowed for the functionality that we were looking for. After hours of trying and deleting, I was finally able to build a backbone that I was happy with. With that out of the way, I had to teach the rest of my peers how to use and edit the site so we could all begin to collaborate together. Throughout the rest of the project, I remained the point person for all things technology and website functionality related. This includes things such as uploading videos, fixing broken links, and standardizing website design techniques. As the project progressed, I was tasked with creating the LDE overview at the state and national levels. Initially, I was planning on researching the LDE and putting a bunch of bullet points into the website. I found however that it is not as visually appealing, so I instead chose to make google slides presentations. For both the state and national competitions, I researched the LDE and made a detailed presentation, which is embedded into the website. On the overview pages, I also provided useful links in the form of buttons. 

Ella: This space for innovation project included the need for many different skill sets. The website let each of us have a specific role that would help get it all pulled together in a short amount of time. One of my main goals was reaching out to Mr. Brandon Walters, a parliamentary procedure professional, to help us collect different resources and give us advice on what we could include in the website. Although I did not have much experience with building websites, this allowed me to help collect a number of resources to be used in the website. I was unfortunately quarantined at the most important and final days of putting the final touches on the website and bringing our resources together. This made it hard for me to contribute over the week that I was not able to meet and get tasks accomplished. 

The second part of the project that I contributed to was creating a video to be added into a small introduction video that went on the introduction page of our website. To do this I had to create a zoom meeting and record a video to get all of the teachers and students who will be accessing our website excited about the future of Parliamentary Procedure. Since I have experienced the National Parliamentary Procedure competition from both a competing aspect and collegiate assistant aspect I was able to include some of my knowledge about both sides and encourage future participation! Overall, I think that all of our roles played a major part in us pulling together this exceptional resource.

Mckenzie: My contribution to this assignment was primarily in the organization of materials as well as in the collection of advice from the advisors of successful Parliamentary Procedure teams in the state LDE competition. My first task for this assignment was to gather advice from past winners of the state LDE. In order to do this, I created a google form titled “Collection of Parliamentary Procedure Advice”. I emailed this form to six of the most recent advisors that are state LDE winners. Of the six advisors that I contacted, three were able to respond with advice that they have for other advisors who are preparing their own teams for the state LDE event. I then added all the advice that was sent out to the bottom of the page titled “Resource Library”. On top of collecting advice, I also sorted the resources that were given to us so that they could be added to our website. In order to do so, I sorted through all of the resources that we have been sent, and sorted them into categories such as “Motion Cards & Questions” and “Team Problem Solving Practicum Examples”. I also went into each document that we decided to use for the website and made sure that it was in a google document and accessible to anyone with a link leading to that document. 

Our Advice: Advice that we would give to other students in this course is to find something you are passionate about, or a need in the profession of the agricultural education community, and start brainstorming ideas for this project from there! We felt a true need to create this website of resources, tips, and more for educators across the state as something we can all benefit from. Other advice we want to offer future students in this course is to make sure that you have a clear understanding and goal of what you intend to create for the project to help it run more smoothly. Find something you are good at, and use your skills to your benefit throughout the creation of your project. Do not be afraid to try something new and innovative, it may lead you to some pretty cool results!

Service and Innovation Review

After taking multiple weeks to create the 13 Ranking Motions Jeopardy game, and worksheet for the students of the Midd-West FFA Parliamentary Procedure Team, on Monday November 19th I officially presented it.

Along the way, I was stretching myself thin trying to make sure the worksheets lined up with the presentation to make sure that the students had to work hard first, then they could play harder in the competitive spirit of Jeopardy. The packets themselves consisted of a lesson preview, charts for main motion, subsidiary motions, incidental motions, and privileged motions, a score card for the jeopardy game, and a review sheet outlining what we had accomplished. There was extra time allotted for questions before and after the activity to make sure there were no questions.

The Power of Service and Innovation

The Midd-West FFA Parliamentary Procedure Team invited me to complete my service project in the classroom with them. Little did I know, was that I would learn more through the creation of my innovation project than the students I was teaching. It took me multiple tries to get the perfect mix of fun and knowledge in my innovation project, but I believe I accomplished just that when the six students joked with each other over who would be winning the grand prize in Jeopardy.

I created a Jeopardy game for the 13 Ranking Motions of Parliamentary Procedure. The activity began with a preview of materials that the students would be covering. I was shocked when right off the bat, they began asking questions to pick my brain about the 13 ranking motions they struggle with. Before they could have fun though, they needed to add in some extra work so they knew every answer to the Jeopardy. I utilized the charts that Dr. Foster provided for us, and handed out blank copies that they would fill out for future reference. After allowing them time to search through RONR for about 10 minutes, I reviewed the answers with them to make sure they had the correct answers moving forward. The students by that point were itching for a fun, competitive game of Jeopardy. As we moved from question to question, each student group of 2 built up their own stake of points until there was a defined winner of bragging rights until the next fun Midd-West FFA Parli Pro competition. The game was followed with review, where the students still had more questions to ask exploring the 13 ranking motions as deep as they could to understand them the best.

As I grew throughout the Midd-West FFA, we did not push the need for the 13 ranking motions for business meetings. I feel extremely confident in the power that these young members now have to correctly and efficiently run business meetings, and compete in the competition at a higher level. This experience really opened me up to the power of education in activity form, and I am thankful that they allowed me the time to work with them on the 13 ranking motions.

5 life hacks of teaching parli pro in middle school!

What did I think was missing from a 7th grade general agriscience class's unit on FFA? If you thought the answer was rules from our man Bob then you were right! Today I taught a 7th grade class how to adopt or fail a main motion. Here are some life hacks on this educational experience! 

1. Middle schoolers are just as excited as you are! When they took control of their own learning they were eager to learn more! I had them match the basic definitions of Main Motion, Second, Debate, Vote and Vote Results. They did this super fast and wanted to try it out! 

2. Excitement leads to students talking over you and getting each other round up sometimes. For example, I had them race to match the words and they ended up fighting over the winner. This allowed me to capture their attention by call and responses! The teacher I was shadowing loved it and couldn't believe how fast I got her kids attention! 

3. Be specific! I cannot stress this enough. The teacher I was working with helped lead a mock meeting! I love doing mock meetings, but guidelines are needed. She had them write a motion down. " write the first 2 words as I move and then add a place for a field trip" were her directions.

 By the end of class we passed motions to go inside a vending machine at a YMCA, inside a Nintendo switch, the bronx zoo and taco bell. These motions were helpful because the students wanted to discuss (well informally discuss) these motions, but it was hard to keep them on track and remember the meaning behind the prompt!

4. Never underestimate your kids. I went in thinking I would do main motion and they would never understand and it was going to be a complete flop! Well these guys learned main motion, division of the assembly, amend and previous question!! They learned basic of what they do not the full bob version, but they knew when to use them!

 This all started because someone said the voice vote was a tie and tried debating that with me. So we showed division of the assembly. Other students thought the debate was "dumb", so we did previous question. It shows how the students can pick up on small details and ask the right questions for an opportunity to grow their knowledge.

5. Teaching middle school agriculture is actually pretty sweet! They get their discovery degrees and basically and learn how to care for plants and animal and get to build projects in wood shop. Never have seeing a middle school class and their excitement makes me want to teach middle school and advocate for middle school ag! 

At the end of the day I had a ton of fun working with these younger kids on a topic I am so passionate about. They asked good questions and really got into debate and making motions. If nothing else every student was able to tell me what a main motion was, what a second means and how to word main motion and amend. 

"All in favor? All Opposed?"- Reflecting my lesson

Preview of my lesson: 

I had the opportunity to work with a group of a group of freshman about one of my favorite topics, parliamentary procedure! Below is a quick overview of my lesson:

Do now: 

I decided to start off with having the students recall meetings they have attend to have them start thinking back on meetings they have attended and if how they felt in the meeting.

Anticipatory set:

I then had the students share their experiences at meetings with other students. As they were sharing I kept interrupting the whole group and throw out random facts about myself. This activity was to make the students feel like they weren't going to be heard in their mini meetings and to get them distracted from what they were talking about. The students got frustrated in their meetings. We all agreed that it was hard to focus one we got cut off and they did were not being heard.

I then introduced some main interests of mine to the group. I wanted them to know who I am and had a way for them to connect with me. 

Self Discovery Learning:

I love self discovery learning. I feel like a topic that kids might find less interesting this makes them want to learn about the topic. I placed the steps to creating and adopting a motion in sheet protectors and had the students place them in order. 

Once they discovered what a main motion was they found the flow of the order. Many students thought second was a "second opinion after a vote." When I was walking around to the small groups I had to ask some questions to get the group to place "obtain a second" in the right order.

Gaining attention from different learners:

The students then drew icons to these steps on the plastic sleeves to help them remember it. I then quickly lectured about main motion and the characteristics of it. 

We watched a great video of how a main motion is presented and passed in order to see the words and how it is played out. 

The students loved creating a dance to the steps of adopting a motion. The dance had to demonstrate what a main motion is, what a second is, what discussion looks like and a voice vote. The students presented their group dances and then I dismissed the class. 

Review:

I was overall very pleased with the engagement the class had in the lesson. I was surprised that the students wanted to learn about parliamentary procedure. These students had never heard of parliamentary procedure before that day. The students wanted to learn about voting and debating after the self discovery part. That activity helped my lecture component of the lesson! 

As an educator I need to plan my questions better. I tried asking students questions to make them think about why we would need parliamentary procedure and I struggled with that.