New grant program provides agriscience educators with training and funds

DuPont and the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) has awarded $200,000 in grants to provide agriscience educators with training and classroom resources to implement advanced curriculum that will better prepare students for future careers in agriculture and food.

DuPont Pioneer is working closely with the National Association of Agricultural Educators to award grants to teachers who are implementing Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE), but need additional funding.

“Feeding the world will require that more students understand agriculture and become future leaders in food and agriscience,” said Michelle Gowdy, director of Community & Academic Relations for DuPont Pioneer. “We are working with others in education and in agriculture to ensure teachers have the best tools at their disposal to get more kids excited about agriculture and careers in agriscience.”

CASE is a multi-year approach to agriscience education with rigorous educator training requirements and hands-on, inquiry focused learning activities. The collaboration with DuPont Pioneer and CASE is a special project of the National FFA Foundation.

Ag Ed Advocacy Video Challenge

Our friends at the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) are excited to launch the first ever Ag Ed Advocacy Video Challenge. This challenge is designed to give high school and middle school agriculture teachers a fun way to teach their students about advocacy by creating a video that showcases how their program truly helps make students college and career ready.

The end result should be something you can show your school board, state representative, or a complete stranger to help them understand how your program makes students college and career ready. We’re looking for an entertaining, accurate and compelling story, in 2 minutes or less. Are you up to the challenge?

CHS foundation makes a $300,000 commitment to National Teach Ag Campaign

The CHS Foundation has committed $300,000 over two years to the National Teach Ag Campaign aimed at ensuring a quality supply of school-based agriculture teachers across the country. 

The National Teach Ag Campaign is an initiative to raise awareness of career opportunities in agricultural education, retain current agriculture teachers, encourage others to consider a career as an agriculture teacher, and celebrate the positive contributions that agriculture teachers make in their schools and communities.

The CHS Foundation is an independent, private foundation supported by CHS Inc., a leading energy, grains and foods company.

“We recognize and support the recruitment and retention of agriculture teachers in communities across the country,” said William Nelson, president of the CHS Foundation. “The CHS Foundation values the role that agriculture teachers play in students’ lives and the impact they have on encouraging young people to go into agriculture careers.”

Nelson noted that after supporting the National Teach Ag Campaign’s efforts over the past two years, the time was right to make a strong statement about their commitment to this project.  The contribution, secured through the National FFA Foundation, is the first multi-year allocation in CHS Foundation history.

“We are incredibly grateful for this contribution,” said Ellen Thompson, National Teach Ag Campaign coordinator.  “There is currently a nationwide shortage of qualified agriculture teachers, so this contribution to support recruitment and retention efforts is more critical now than ever.”  The financial support will be used to fund existing initiatives such as the National Teach Ag Ambassador program, Teach Ag grants, Teach Ag workshops and resource creation and distribution.

The perfect partnership

 

This post was written by special guest bloggers Samantha Stotland, senior and FFA member at Wamago Agricultural Science and Technology Center in Connecticut, and Jamie Fischer, culinary instructor at Wamago.

Do you have a great story to share about your FFA chapter? Please submit it, along with a photo to media@ffa.org. We can’t promise we’ll post all of the stories, but we will post as many as we can!

Have you ever gone to McDonald’s and ordered french fries just as they came out of the fryer hot, golden brown, salted just right?  Then you open the ketchup packet, squeezing just the right amount onto the fried potato bliss.  That my friend is a perfect partnership!

As the union between a french fry and ketchup is the perfect partnership, so does the combining of Agriculture and Culinary based classes.  This marriage is the cornerstone of how the world’s food supply is brought to the dinner table.  Here at Wamogo, this union is showcased by the students who participate in these programs.

“Working in close connections with the Agriculture Department creates opportunities for Wamogo’s Culinary Arts program that normal schools that have Culinary Arts without an Agriculture Department would never realize.  Opportunities for my Culinary kids to work with the Tilapia farms, working with livestock, having the greenhouse, and maple sugar house will offer opportunities for students to collaborate and to work for a similar goal,” says Wamogo Culinary Arts instructor, Jamie Fischer.

Ag teacher wins ACTE Teacher of the Year Award

Robin McLean, ag teacher and FFA advisor at the Northern Burlington County Regional School District in New Jersey, was recently named 2013 ACTE Teacher of the Year.

The award recognizes educators who have made significant contributions toward innovative, unique and novel programs that are serving to improve and promote career and technical education (CTE).

McLean collaborates with colleagues to help students apply the skills they are learning in language arts and math. She reinforces the concepts they are learning in their science classes and infuses literacy in her curriculum. She was selected to be one of three teacher mentors in national Teach Agriculture Day in Washington, D.C. McLean also serves as the middle school FFA chapter advisor, providing leadership, community service, career exploration, preparation for competitions and other enrichment programs for students.

Watch an interview with her here:

2013 ACTE Teacher of the Year Interview

This story was republished here  from FFA Pulse, our monthly e-newsletter. Subscribe today to get stories like these delivered directly to your email Inbox each month!

And, your Champions of Change honorees are…

On October 9, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of Public Engagement will welcome 4-H and FFA members and their mentors to the White House to recognize the exceptional ways they are impacting their communities.

The White House Champions of Change program highlights the stories and examples of citizens across the country who are “Winning the Future” with projects and initiatives that move their communities forward.  Each week, the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) hosts an event to honor those who are working to empower and inspire other members of their communities.

The recognition ceremony for FFA and 4-H members will be broadcast live at www.whitehouse.gov/live on October 9, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

Read on to learn more about each FFA honoree…

Touching Hearts Always… The Impact of an Agricultural Educator

Buena Park FFA Officers hugging their agriculture teachers, Ms. Jessica Fernandes and Ms. Mary Ann Maxfield.

March 15,2012 marked the celebration of National Teach Agriculture Day. You may ask, what is National Teach Agriculture Day? It is a day to celebrate school-based agricultural education and to encourage agricultural education advocates, especially current agricultural educators to share with others the great career opportunities in agricultural education.

Seeing the light come on…

In honor of Teach Ag Day, we’ve invited a few of the former Ag teachers we have on staff at the National FFA Center to tell us what makes teaching ag such a rewarding experience. Here are some thoughts from Kevin Keith, Local Program Success Specialist.

Kevin is from Northwestern Wisconsin and graduated from Bruce High School in 1974 where he was actively involved in Vocational Agriculture and the FFA for four years.  He served as an agricultural education instructor and FFA advisor at Denmark School in Denmark, WI for seven years. During his years as Ag Ed Instructor and FFA advisor the Denmark FFA Chapter grew to more than 470 members and the FFA Alumni grew to over 600 members. He also served as State Agricultural Education Consultant in Wisconsin for 11 years before joining the National FFA Organization in 1996.

My favorite memories of teaching agriculture come from the times I worked with students on new concepts or information, especially when they had trouble understanding or making that “thing” work properly.

Why Teach Ag?

In honor of Teach Ag Day, we’ve invited a few of the former Ag teachers we have on staff at the National FFA Center to tell us 

what makes teaching Ag such a rewarding experience. Below are some thoughts from Jim Armbruster,Senior Relations Specialist.

During his career, Jim taught agricultural education in Marana and Yuma Arizona, spending 19 years as a classroom teacher. Jim earned his Bachelor of Science (1979) and Master of Science (1992) degrees at the University of Arizona.

Jim and Cindy have been married for 27 years, raising 4 children of their own and providing a safe home for four additional foster children.  All of the children raised in the Armbruster family have been or are active members of the National FFA Organization, with the exception of his 5 year old granddaughter–she’s too young, unfortunately, but is off to a good start raising horses and hedge hogs of her own!

Teacher by Choice, not by Chance!

In honor of Teach Ag Day, we’ve invited a few of the former Ag teachers we have on staff at the National FFA Center to tell us what makes teaching ag such a rewarding experience. Here are some thoughts from Dale Crabtree, Director of the Convention and Events Management Division.

Dale is from Southwestern Arizona and graduated from Kofa High School in 1974 where he was actively involved in Vocational Agriculture and the FFA for four years.  He served as an agricultural education instructor and FFA advisor at Antelope Union High School in Wellton, AZ for eighteen years. During that time, the program evolved from a straight production agriculture program to a diversified agricultural business/college preparatory program.

As a former teacher of agriculture, I have truly grown to appreciate what each and every one of you does on a daily basis. I would hope that all of you know what powers you have, the powers to impact the lives of individuals who will guide the future of not only agriculture but also the world. It is critical that each of us realize that you truly do change lives of young people! Remember, we are a teacher by choice not by chance.