Guest Blogger Series: To keep it real, connect with the community

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the national school-based agricultural education family.  Ms. Elise Brown is the agriculture instructor and FFA advisor at Turkey Run Jr./Sr. High School and Rockville Jr./Sr. High School in Indiana. This is her first year of teaching. Prior to serving as a teacher, she was a communications director for a conservation agriculture nonprofit. She also has worked as an intern for a radio station's farm department, a writer for two university agricultural communication departments and as a public affairs intern for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

My path to teaching is, perhaps, unconventional. I have completed only three months of my first year, and it has been a challenge. I did no student teaching, had no prepared materials and was hired ten days before school started.

Despite these obstacles, I have been finding that my greatest asset has been my previous experience in industry and connections in the community. 

I graduated from Purdue with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Communication and from Penn State with the non-teacher certification Master of Science in Agricultural and Extension Education. I was planning on pursuing a career as an extension educator after moving back to Indiana. However, some twists and turns took me to a communications position for a year and a half before moving back home to the farm and doing some substitute teaching in two local schools. 

Toward the end of the school year, one of the junior high science teachers went on sick leave, and I was a substitute for her classes for six weeks. The principal learned about my teaching style and experience. Then, when the agriculture teacher at my high school alma mater resigned two weeks before school started in August, I was asked if I was interested in the position. I interviewed and was hired within three days of that initial contact.

It was all quite a whirlwind. But one thing I'm finding is that my experience in the industry and my connections within the community are helping tremendously. Indiana has licensing options for those with advanced degrees and/or a certain amount of workplace experience, and I am able to take advantage of these opportunities. And in the classroom, I can talk about internships, my previous job and farm experience, living in another state, professionals I've visited with or interviewed and more. 

Guest speaker Dave Davies (center), an agriculture teacher from
Indianapolis, gives some insight into leadership
and urban agriculture to students from my rural school.

But it's not just my own experiences that can be valuable in the classroom: the experiences of others who are well-versed in agriculture are of tremendous value. Guest speakers are a way to bring the students' community into the classroom. Often, when the students know the speakers, they are able to connect easily with them. The community also has the chance to see the good work the teacher is doing in the classroom, and support for the agriculture program can be gained through that interaction. That support is invaluable as the schools continually look for ways to improve and shape the curriculum for the betterment of the community. 

Guest speakers also can bring a whole new world to the students. Recently, I had the opportunity to bring in an agriculture teacher from Indianapolis. He discussed the perceptions that urban students have of the farm and other agricultural pursuits. To my rural students, some of their ideas sounded far-fetched, but he explained the urban students had never seen some of the aspects of life that were so common to my rural students.

One tool that a teacher can use to shape the agriculture department is an agricultural advisory board. The ag advisory board helps the agriculture teacher choose the best courses for the students and gives direction based on the community's needs. The board is a diverse group and can represent many interests, such as farmers, agribusinesses, federal agencies, other educators and more. 

Community members also can help with field trips and coaching for FFA Career Development Events. Taking an animal science class to a local farm to understand how the livestock and crops complement each other in the operation or taking a horticulture class to a local nursing home to deliver flowers they grew is a great way to connect with community members. Spreading out a heavy workload of coaching several FFA teams at the same time will help the teacher's load tremendously, and parents and other supporters often enjoy the opportunity to help young people prepare for competitions. Always let others know what your needs are.

After all, you never know when you'll mention a need and receive more than you imagined you could. Toward the beginning of the year, I called the local Soil and Water Conservation District office to inquire about the price of a rain barrel for our greenhouse. A few days later, the president of the district informed me that the district would be donating a rain barrel to both of the county's FFA chapters. I had not asked for the donation (although there are certainly times when a donation can be requested!), but through the relationships I had already built up with the Soil and Water Conservation District employees, we received the rain barrel and even benefited a neighboring FFA chapter. 

So to keep it real, establish relationships with those around you. In your agricultural education program, you don't have to know everything....you just need to know who knows the topic your students need to know. Then, find a way to connect the students with the experts. This tremendously helps your workload and provides the students with invaluable experiences and connections.  

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Author Elise Brown

Feel free to contact me at browne@ncp.k12.in.us. You also can find me on Twitter.

Guest Blogger Series: You Are Not Alone: Developing a Support Network

Editors Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the National school-based agricultural education family. Mr. Kevin Keith is the Team Leader for the National FFA Local Program Success Team. He has decades of experience as an agricultural education leader, teacher, state staff, and multiple other roles.

Being an agricultural Education Instructor can be daunting. You have at least three full time jobs competing for your time, not to mention the all-important “life” part of the Work/Life balance that we all strive for and desire. We are a classroom and laboratory instructor, we are a supervisor of work based learning (supervised agriculture experiences) and we are FFA Advisors helping to provide personal development and leadership development skills to our students.  This three component model, is what makes agricultural education so unique and special in the development of our students, and in many cases, may be what drew us to this very special career/life.

Agricultural Education teachers from NAAE Region I (Western United States), share ideas on classroom lessons and curriculum during the 2015 Conference in Tempe, AZ. Ag Ed Instructors attending state, regional and national events are encouraged to network with master teachers from across the country. Developing contacts through such opportunities is a hallmark of Agricultural Education an participation is open to and encouraged for all Agricultural Educators.

Also special in the agricultural education career area is the close knit collegiality/community circumstance that is available to us. This can initially be pretty difficult to see, as we embark on our careers in our local schools.  We often feel like outsiders when we begin, especially when we are the “Lone Ranger” as THE Agricultural Education Instructor in our schools.  Between the schedules that we keep and the isolation that can often be a natural result of the location of the agricultural education classroom and its laboratories, we can too easily get the feeling that it is “me against the world”. 

I was very lucky when I started in agricultural education and also as a beginning agriculture education instructor.  I grew up in a family that was not involved in production agriculture. I grew up in town (I was told that I was the first ‘townie’ to be enrolled in agriculture at my high school. I enrolled in vocational agriculture (the title of the department when I went to school back in the early 1970’s), somewhat by accident.  I had no knowledge of typical production agriculture practices or farming in general and I thought that FFA Jackets looked goofy and had no intent of ever being associated with the National Future Farmers of America (I lasted about 10 days in ag ed classes before I ordered a jacket, by the way).  I was a bit of a ‘fish out of water’, in my early years enrolled in agricultural education in high school and most of my classmates asked me why I was there.  By this point, I can imagine that you might be asking, how is it that he considers himself ‘very lucky’ when he started.  

Because of the obvious disadvantages that I had in experience and knowledge base, I often received encouragement to network with others and ask questions of others. I also was encouraged to let people know about my possible shortcomings and lack of experience, and I learned very early on, that my development and success depended on networking.  My ‘luck’ was forced by need and I became very comfortable with admitting that I was not an ‘expert’.  So, I was lucky to learn to ASK others for assistance and not to fear that I might be considered incapable or incompetent. 

Additionally, I plunged headlong into opportunities to interface with agricultural educators. The most important of these, at that time, and carrying forward to today, is membership in and more importantly involvement in State and National Professional Organizations in Agricultural Education (and to a lesser but still important degree, in Career Tech Education).  My early involvement in area and state meetings developed into regional and national meetings. I found that being involved with others who had to deal with similar issues and managing similar activities was very liberating and their understanding of these experiences and their information, sharing, and yes, even mentoring of this writer, made me aware of the ‘family’ that is agricultural education, and of folks I could commiserate with, consult with, bounce things off, benefit from and share with.  

Using face to face meetings, both regularly scheduled and impromptu, along with snail mail and phone, I was able to find support and assistance when I needed it most. Today, we have a lot of additional ways to network.  Resources like the NAAE Communities of Practice, State and National Ag Education List Serves, Blogs, Websites, Online communities, Social Media, and on and on, give us so many ways to connect and extend our support networks.

I have often found that we need to stay in touch with colleagues that we have contacted while developing as a pre-service teaching candidate.  Stay in touch, not only with those colleagues that go into teaching, also, as importantly, with those going into other career areas.  These folks can often offer, not only a friendly ear to listen and support you, but also are evolving and staying on the cutting edge of their specific career areas (becoming great potential resources for your work as a classroom teacher as well as having potential connections for SAE experiences for your students. These folks tend to be going through the same kinds of growing experiences as you and can be great sources of support for your morale and feelings that you the only one experiencing frustrations and struggles (maybe even incompetency) as you move forward in your work.

We also need to develop relationships with folks we contact daily… yes, of course, this includes family, significant others, and friends, but also should include fellow teachers, administrators, and staff (always include building/maintenance staff, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, office staff, etc.  While these folks may not be able to relate to agriculture or your supervisory and advising experiences/assignments, the can offer a lot as far as school operations, community connections, and insight relative to the school and policies.  Having a master teacher, even outside your ‘discipline’ can make assignments and processes much easier to deal with, and I found these relationships extremely important, in both maintaining my sanity and developing a literacy about agriculture education within these colleagues. They become allies of you and your program, instead of potential detractors and/or obstacles (which is almost always something that occurs by accident, rather than by plan).

Montana Teacher, Eric Tilleman sharing an ‘Ideas Unlimited’ submission with Utah Teachers Megan Cool and Megan Haslam and Nevada Teacher Ty Smith at the 2015 Region I NAAE Conference.  Many opportunities for networking are provided through professional organization membership and involvement.

We need to develop relationships with other agricultural education instructors across our state and even in other states.  I benefited from and highly valued the relationships I had with teachers across the state, I freely shared what I could offer and freely asked for what they could share (or were willing to), and I found that most, in fact nearly all, were very happy to share and consult.  I see, on a daily basis, teachers request help and receive responses, via Communities of Practice and State/National List Serves, and know that this is also occurring via social media, email and phone. Professional Agricultural Educations on Area, State and National Basis are a great road to developing relations and this writer feels that it is a huge misstep to fail to become involved in these important support groups… join and participate!!

Develop a local support group for agricultural education. An FFA Alumni, Booster Club, Young Farmers Group, or other such interest group. Communication is key to success in working with this group, but having a community support group adds to their understanding of your program and provides a virtual army of contributors – one of the most important contributions to a successful agricultural education program and implementation of the 3 component model of agricultural education, which I experiences was due to having a tremendous FFA Alumni Affiliate. These folks were friends, colleagues, supporters, and mentors and I have stay in touch with many of these folks for the past 30 plus years!

Finally, agricultural education has some designated support folks. State Ag Education and FFA Staff, Teacher Educators, Professional Organization Officers and Staff, State FFA Officers, and other State Leaders are available to assist in many ways. Yes, you will be asked for information, reports, etc. from these folks, but the purpose is the benefit of Agricultural Education as whole.  Data is critical, so please look at these requests as assisting in the advancement of Agricultural Education, rather than a nuisance or busy work.  In addition, I hope that you will always remember to consider your LPS Specialist as a part of your network. They all have experience as successful Agricultural Education Instructors and are in place to assist state and local leaders of agriculture education.   They, in turn stay in touch with their team members across the country and work together in an attempt to reply to your requests and provide support to agricultural educators.

So as a recap…

Join!
Participate!
Ask!
Communicate!

 If I may be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me. 

Guest Blogger:
Kevin Keith 
Team Leader
National FFA 
Local Program Success
kkeith@ffa.org
317 709 0806.