Over the past two weeks, I have begun my student teaching internship at Athens Area High School in Athens, PA. Athens sits about 2 minutes south of the Pennsylvania – New York state border, and is about 2.5 hours northeast of State College (and about 4 hours away from where I grew up outside of Lancaster, PA). While I deeply miss PSU and my friends in State College, I feel grateful to have the chance to join a new community in rural northern PA for my time student teaching. My cooperating teachers and the students I get to work with are incredible, and I have learned so much even in my short time here so far.

One of my favorite parts so far has been getting to build relationships with my students. I had incredibly impactful relationships with my own ag teachers, so having the opportunity to build these relationships with students of my own has been one of the more meaningful experiences I’ve had in some time. As part of my introductions to my students, I put up a “Recommendations for Mr. Bixler” poster to allow students to give me some advice/recommendations as I adjust to life in a brand new area. So far, I’ve received two recommendations from students. The recommendations were as follows:

1. Pull up to the hoops game tomorrow at Athens at 6pm
2. Eat a McChicken, no lettuce, add pickle 🙂

Before snow ended our school week early last week, I made it a point to try both of the recommendations. On my way to the basketball game, I swung by the local McDonalds. Truth be told, I had been expecting more specific local recommendations, but I decided to give it a try and was actually presently surprised. Afterwards, I got to watch both the JV/V teams come away with wins against the neighboring rival school, and even got to watch two of my own students play really well!

Life here in a lot different than it was during my other seven semesters in college, but I would not pick to be anywhere else right now. I’m grateful for the teachers and students who have welcomed me here and make me laugh even on the stressful days. I’m hopeful that the recommendations will keep on coming from my students as I learn to call this new town home for awhile. While there is a lot of unknown that is to come after my time student teaching at Athens ends, I’m grateful for a chance to be here for the 13 weeks ahead of me.