Crazy...absolutely crazy is what you are probably going to call me when I finish this story. I’m the ag teacher that couldn’t figure out how to spend $50,000. Shocked? Well...I can explain. No, really. In July, 2003, I stepped into a situation that most ag teachers can only dream about. I was hired right out of college to start a brand new ag program for Pontiac High School, a school of about 1000 students. The Superintendent that hired me, a man named Butch Cotter, was famous for his support of ag teachers, having built the powerhouse ag program at Seneca High School. Butch’s father, Howard taught agriculture for many years at neighboring Flanagan. His support for me was true to the legend. He came to me and said “I think it’ll take about $50,000 to get this off the ground.” And so it began.
“I’m going to get so much cool stuff!” was my thinking. However, like most other experiences of my first year, it wasn’t quite so easy. In retrospect, I learned that I was my own biggest stumbling block with this. Long story short, when the fiscal year ended, I had a lot of stuff, but I’d only been able to leverage about 1/5th of the support my school threw my way. Although I’ve survived, I could have gotten off to a lot better start if there were some things I’d known. Here is what I learned along the way. To be fair, I’m still learning.
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| Agriculture Labs are truly multi-purpose spaces. We do a lot of different things in our lab. You can see our workstations in the background of one of our Chapter FFA Meetings. Think of all the different things you'll do in your space... |
1. Purchasing and ordering takes time...a LOT of time. One of my biggest hangups was that I had more ag students my first year than anticipated. This was great for the program, but bad for me, because I had to sacrifice my only prep period (during my first year teaching, building a brand new program) to accommodate an extra section of an ag course (and a two-period block of non-ag welding). Simply put, I ran out of time and energy to research catalogs, fill out purchase orders, order, pick up, inventory, and store stuff. If you have any control over your time, budget a lot of time for getting the things you need. If you have the things you need, your lessons go smoother, and your planning is easier. I’ll put in a CASE plug here...one reason I like the CASE project so much is that they build “purchase manuals” with lists of everything you need to teach the CASE courses. They give you the list, the vendors, and throw in discounts that are competitive. It’s been a game-changer for me.
2. Especially when your “building” or “re-building” a program, dedicate $0.50 of every dollar you spend on your “stuff” to purchasing storage and organization for that stuff. If you buy $1000 in equipment, you should plan on spending at least $500 in cabinets to store that equipment, because…See point number 3...
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| This was our lab circa 2011. Notice the forklift. That was a nice thought...BUT didn't work out. |
3. Organizing your stuff is so much easier when you have a place to put the things you need. When you start teaching in a school, plan ahead as much as you can by creating places for all the things you’ll need to store. If you can’t afford cabinets, get used lumber and cinder blocks and build makeshift shelves. It’ll still look better than the tubs on the floor or crap laying around.
4. Although people tell you to make friends with your custodians, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out that way.... Try as I might, I have had two directors of maintenance that just didn’t like the way we did business. Do we have some ownership in that? I’m sure we did. However, a large part of our problems stemmed from our directors of maintenance feeling threatened by us. We shared space with them. We wanted the space for instructional purposes. They wanted to store old boxes of dairy queen salad trays. They couldn’t imagine why that annoyed us. Many of you will come into situation where you’re sharing space. Maybe a coach will carry mats into your lab. Perhaps you’ll find the arches for prom stored above your classroom. I don’t have good advice for you...just do your best to survive and be a good neighbor, but don’t be a doormat either. We persisted here, and the salad tray boxes are now gone.
5. Use your resources. We have a local hospital. We put the “vibe” out that we’d be interested in their old furniture if they ever remodeled. When they renovated their lab (getting rid of 10 year old furniture), we were ready to take it. We stored it on a semi trailer and installed it the following summer. We positioned ourselves to take hundreds of cubic feet of cabinet space...and we got it for free. Maybe there’s a business in your community that will do the same? Build your network and be ready to pounce when the opportunity comes.
6. Organize how you see fit. Some people populate their shelves alphabetically. We organize our stuff by course/topic. You’ll be using it. Do what works for you!
I could probably write for days about this topic, but I’ll open myself up for questions from you. Please contact me with your questions!
4. Although people tell you to make friends with your custodians, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out that way.... Try as I might, I have had two directors of maintenance that just didn’t like the way we did business. Do we have some ownership in that? I’m sure we did. However, a large part of our problems stemmed from our directors of maintenance feeling threatened by us. We shared space with them. We wanted the space for instructional purposes. They wanted to store old boxes of dairy queen salad trays. They couldn’t imagine why that annoyed us. Many of you will come into situation where you’re sharing space. Maybe a coach will carry mats into your lab. Perhaps you’ll find the arches for prom stored above your classroom. I don’t have good advice for you...just do your best to survive and be a good neighbor, but don’t be a doormat either. We persisted here, and the salad tray boxes are now gone.
5. Use your resources. We have a local hospital. We put the “vibe” out that we’d be interested in their old furniture if they ever remodeled. When they renovated their lab (getting rid of 10 year old furniture), we were ready to take it. We stored it on a semi trailer and installed it the following summer. We positioned ourselves to take hundreds of cubic feet of cabinet space...and we got it for free. Maybe there’s a business in your community that will do the same? Build your network and be ready to pounce when the opportunity comes.
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| Grace Weber and Grace Spires at OSF St. James John W. Albrecht Medical Center helping load out lab furniture. |
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| Here you can see some of our cabinets and workstation spaces. A labelmaker can help organize your stuff! |
I could probably write for days about this topic, but I’ll open myself up for questions from you. Please contact me with your questions!
Submitted by:
Parker Bane
@parkerbane
pbane@pontiac90.org
@parkerbane
pbane@pontiac90.org
Agriscience Teacher
Pontiac Township
Thank you for sharing your experience and explaining your growth as an educator. In being more of an experienced educator now, what would you have done with that money?
ReplyDeleteGreat question!
DeleteIdeally, I should have ordered laboratory cabinetry to the extent that I could fit it into the temporary space in which I was placed. I started in a welding lab that I had to turn into a makeshift ag lab. In hindsight, I wish I would have purchased freestanding and base cabinets (cabinets that you put counter top on) in order to store more things. At the time, agriscience wasn't my strength, and I would have probably purchased more agriscience equipment (i.e...Vernier probware) if I knew what I was doing.