Below, you will find the powerpoint that was created by Mr. Michael Coley for the technology-based workshop at the Tennessee CTE Conference a couple of weeks ago. For the TN teachers that have been looking for this, I sincerely apologize for not getting it uploaded quicker. Mr. Coley did an exceptional job in compiling the materials and information for this ppt. Included, you will find valuable information regarding Google tools that you can use for your classroom/FFA chapter, as well as other programs that can be beneficial for specific areas (i.e. horticulture).
 | 2010_cte_conference_technology_workshop.ppt | | File Size: | 10296 kb | | File Type: | ppt |
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Via the link below, you will find a literature review and research paper that I wrote approximately one year ago concerning all aspects of supervised agriculture experience programs - the history, evolution, importance, decline & benefits. I would appreciate it if you would take a look and see just how the SAEP concept was formed and how it has changed. Leave some comments, if you like. Thanks, Michael Southerland Ideas 4 Ag Ed http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2883774/importance_of_
supervised_agriculture.html?cat=9
Reading. Some students love it, while others would rather take the proverbial beating than to do it. But, one this is sure, the more you read, the more you know. The following paragraphs detail what the Tennessee FFA Association does to promote reading among their FFA members from across the state. You may take some of these ideas and create your own program to fit your chapter’s needs.
Many FFA chapters all across Tennessee implement what is known as the PLOW program each school year. PLOW stands for Passing Literacy On-Ward. The PLOW program was created by the 2005-2006 Tennessee State FFA officer team – the very first all girl team.
This program was designed to promote the improvement of literacy and reading skills in ag ed programs throughout Tennessee. PLOW encourages FFA members to join with their fellow chapter members and others across the state in developing their reading skills to a level of confidence and competency never achieved by mandatory programs. It encourages students to read beyond what is required in their other classes. PLOW establishes an awards process through which FFA members and chapters are recognized for their accomplishments on an annual basis. Members and chapters are eligible for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum awards. Every member and chapter is eligible for the awards and recognition each year.
The objectives of PLOW are established to promote reading literacy and comprehension in our agricultural education programs and associated agencies across the state of Tennessee. And, the purposes of PLOW coincide with many of the statewide literacy efforts that are currently being organized and implemented through regular education programs.
The scope of the program is comprehensive. It includes every agricultural education program and FFA chapter in Tennessee. Every FFA member is eligible to participate in the awards and recognition phase of the program. All participants are encouraged to maximize their reading potential and assist in helping others to strive for excellence in developing their individual competencies.
The goals of Passing Literacy On-Ward are specific and measurable. Achievement is obtainable and rewarding and the availability of options permits a variety of literacy attainment projects through individual and team activities for personal and group involvement.
Through PLOW, agricultural education students and FFA members can share in an exciting and rewarding process, while acquiring and passing literacy competencies onward to our current and next generation of students and FFA members.
Not only are student encouraged to participate on an individual level, but on a chapter level, as well. There are many activities that can be performed throughout your school and community that will fit into a reading/literacy program. I would definitely develop a committee of FFA members to help in the process of setting up this program and devise a small budget to pay for the tasks that you plan to implement. Our chapter agrees to set aside $100.00 per year for our PLOW program efforts. We usually never spend that much. Make sure that the members of your committee are in charge of promoting your reading program to the ag classes and at the first FFA meeting of the year, as this will probably be a year-long activity.
Then, I would encourage your chapter set up some type of display or create a bulletin board promoting your reading program. Put the display up in your school library for a few weeks and then ask your local library if you may display your board there, as well. You can establish a chapter library that can be housed in one of the ag classrooms or a designated area in one of the labs. Students would be responsible for adding to and maintaining the library by contributing newspaper, magazine and internet articles that pertain to different aspects of FFA and the agriculture industry. You may offer to subscribe or re-subscribe to a magazine that your school and local libraries have been receiving. The donation of a book to those libraries is not a bad idea, either. You may want to set aside one afternoon a week or two per month to go by one of the local day care centers in your town to read ag-related children’s books to the kids. You may want to consider donating a couple of children’s books to these centers when your sessions are over.
Make sure you get some local publicity out of this, as well. When the presentation of book and/or magazine subscription donations are made, take photos to be published in the newspaper. And, many times, you will receive a letter of thanks in the mail for your contributions. Keep up with those, as they can be valuable to your chapter if you are in the running for some type of an award.
My FFA chapter has experienced great success by implementing PLOW as part of our yearly program of activities. I collect a variety of items to be dispersed as incentives for my students to read more, like CD’s, autographed photos of country music superstars, tickets to local attractions and more. Remember to reward your students for individual accomplishments and your chapter for a job well done.
You may read the Tennessee FFA PLOW guidelines by downloading the information below.
Thanks for reading,
Michael Southerland
Ideas 4 Ag Ed
Many agriculture teachers and FFA advisors will admit that one of the hardest, but most important, activities that they are engaged in each school year is conducting fundraisers. By doing a simple search on the internet for “FFA fundraiser”, there are many different options to choose from. You will find companies that offer one specific type of product to sell such as citrus fruit or candles. And then, you can find companies that provide a variety of products to sell like candy bars, discount cards, lollipops and cookie dough. But, a question that we are often faced with is what exactly do we try to sell? In order to answer that question, you will need to answer several more questions first. “What is being sold in the school right now?” and “What do my students want to sell?” are two good ones to start with. The first question should be easy to answer. More than likely, every club in the school will be conducting a fundraiser sometime during the year. I would suggest not selling the same thing(s) that other clubs do during the same semester, or ever if possible. If the Beta Club is selling discount cards during the month of September, your FFA chapter could possibly sell discount cards during April. But, it might be the best if you do not sell discount cards at all, since it has already been done. To answer the second question, simply ask your FFA officers and members. If they do not want to sell lollipops, chances are you will have poor participation and will not generate the funds that you are expecting and needing. And, from previous experiences, your students can tell you what will sell and what will not, as many of them probably have been involved in other fundraisers in the past. Many FFA chapters across the country want to sell something that pertains to their industry. Selling citrus fruit is a very popular and profitable option. Most fruit companies will allow you to pick (no pun intended) and chose the fruit options that you want to offer your customers. Popular selections that the majority of all fruit fundraising companies offer are navel and juice oranges, pink or red grapefruit, tangelos, tangerines and even Washington or Michigan apples. Plus, you will find several gift boxes on their order forms, as well. Gift boxes provide a mixture of oranges, apples, grapefruit and some pears. Other agriculturally grown food to sell for fundraisers is pineapples, sweet potatoes and nuts. Fruit sales usually are conducted in the fall for Christmas-time deliveries. I would also advise marking up the prices of the fruit you sell at least $5.00 more than what you are paying for it. If you sell 1,000 units of fruit, you will profit $5,000.00 in profit.Another problem that you could be faced with is how to get your students to participate. If students to not sell, there will be no money for state and National Convention trips or overnight CDE trips. Why not offer some type of incentive to sell. I am not talking 10 points of extra credit. I mean a monetary option or an extra trip, which the FFA chapter will pay for. With my FFA chapter, every student that sells 25 or more units of fruit, we take them on a trip of their choosing. For the past seven years, our students have opted to see a live PBR event at the closest location. We pay for their ticket and motel rooms. But, this past year, they wanted something different and chose a concert instead. So, closest concert to us was the Brad Paisley and Miranda Lambert show in Knoxville. Again, we paid for their tickets. We also offer cash prizes for the top three sellers in the forms of $100.00 for first place, $75.00 for second and $50.00 for third. Then, we give everyone that sold fruit, even if they only sold 1 box, a ticket and we hold a drawing for smaller cash prizes later on in the year. I have learned that you must offer something in return for their work – you will get more participation this way. The details that I have outlined are certainly not everything that pertains to a successful fundraiser for your FFA chapter. If you can answer the questions that were posed in the beginning and then get the input from your FFA officers and advisory committee, you should be able to start out on the right foot.
You may also want to check out the fundraising ideas on the "Need a Fundraiser?" page on this site or that are listed at ffa.org via this link:
http://www.ffa.org/ffamarketplace/html/fundraisers.htm
Thanks for reading,
Michael Southerland
Ideas 4 Ag Ed
With March rapidly coming to an end, awards banquet time is upon us. For many FFA chapters, this is a time to honor those FFA members that have contributed to another successful year, through their involvement in CDEs and SAEPs. Plus, they must not forget to thank the other individuals who have made a positive impact on the FFA chapter by donating time, money and effort, as well. But, what if your FFA chapter is running low on funds? Maybe your fundraising efforts fell short of your expectations due to the economy or simply lack of interest. What if, unfortunately, your heating units went out in your greenhouse and you lost all of your plants? How will you ever be able to purchase award pins, plaques, programs or pay for a speaker this year? While all of the suggestions that I will offer below may not apply to every FFA chapter, I think if a couple of these ideas are implemented, you will be able to save a few of those precious dollars that you may not have to spend anyways. With most everything that I will suggest below, you will find examples to download at the end of the article.Program Covers –Instead of purchasing banquet covers and possibly buying more than you need, consider making your own. These can be easily done on your computer and will print nicely on your school’s copy machine. Always include your chapter’s name, the date of the banquet and the FFA emblem on the front of the program cover. I would encourage you to list the members of your advisory committee somewhere in the program, as they probably were instrumental in gaining some type of support for the chapter throughout the year. Awards –This can be the most expensive portion of your event. There are numerous awards that can be handed out – from CDE pins to retiring officer plaques and from greenhand and chapter degrees to star chapter farmer and star in agribusiness. If money is tight, instead of purchasing plaques for every award category or pins for each degree, why not create special certificates and print them from your computer, just like your banquet programs. I would suggest going to your local dollar-type store and purchasing a large quantity of 8 ½ x 11 certificate frames for $1.00 each to put the awards in. Your students will be able to proudly display their accomplishments on the wall. Guest Speakers/Entertainment – This is another segment of your banquet that can be pricey. Although you can probably get local people to speak at your banquet for free, others will require compensation for gas and/or lodging and could possibly charge a fee for their efforts. Instead of paying for speakers, let your prepared public speaking and creed speaking representatives take center stage. This will focus more on what the banquet is for anyways – your FFA members. Plus, if you have any talented members (i.e. singers, musicians); allow them to perform while the attendees eat. Also, many chapters display a year end review PowerPoint at some time during the festivities. This can also be done while your guests eat or at a specific point during the night. Set the PowerPoint to appropriate music and you will have a nice way to end the evening. Door Prizes – Another, usually free, way to thank your guests for attending you chapter banquet, is to collect items from local businesses to be given away as door prizes. Local and chain restaurants, flower shops, feed stores, lawn care businesses and other agriculture related stores in your area will probably be more than happy to donate a gift certificate for a free meal, a cap, shirt, flower arrangement and more. They will do this to help get their name out in the public, too. I would advise creating a nice flyer listing each and every donor and sponsor and placing that at each seat (sort of like a place mat). I do want to encourage you, if you can, to purchase the majority of your banquet supplies from the National FFA at www.ffa.org/shop/ . But, as the title states, if you are on a budget, consider using some of the ideas that I have outlined. And feel free to use the downloadable forms below in order to save some money. Thanks for reading, Michael Southerland  | ffa_banquet_program.doc | | File Size: | 62 kb | | File Type: | doc |
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| ffa_award_certificate.doc | | File Size: | 86 kb | | File Type: | doc |
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| banquet_door_prize_list.rtf | | File Size: | 43 kb | | File Type: | rtf |
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| banquet_invitation.doc | | File Size: | 51 kb | | File Type: | doc |
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