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
If you like to work outdoors or enjoy hiking in the woods, you might want to consider a career in forestry. But, please do not think that a career in this field is all recreational time. Jobs related to forestry involve everything from hard, manual labor to administration and from dangerous situations to scientific research. There are different levels of forestry jobs; each requiring a different intensity of education. Level one job can be considered entry level positions. In order to obtain employment as a forestry worker, aide or technician, you would be required to have a high school education or a two year associate's degree. Most level one jobs pay hourly wages and can tend to be on the more dangerous side. You could be operating equipment such as trucks and dozers, handling raw timber or cut lumber in a lumber yard or keeping public recreation areas clean or maintaining road signs at this stage of your career. You may achieve the title of a professional forester at the level two position. These jobs require a four year college degree and some states require experience plus a degree for registration as a professional forester. Managing timber crops, engaging in computerized site analysis, wildlife management, wood utilization and administration duties are not out of the question for level two jobs. Forestry specialists obtain employment with level three jobs. These careers require an advanced college degree (past a bachelor's degree). This will enable a professional forester to become a teacher, researcher or other specialist. Specific level three careers are: work in hydrology, genetics, ecology, plant pathology, chemical research, wood technology and university teaching. Past the educational requirements, there are several personal requirements that are necessary for having a successful and enjoyable career in the forestry industry. Outside of working outdoors, you must be able to work with people and enjoy helping others. You must also have a desire to contribute to the broad issues of our world ecology and have an interest in trees, plants and animals. Above all of this, you must be able to adapt to new situations, as they can arise at a moments notice (i.e. forest fires). The advantages of working in the forestry industry are vast and wide. If your educational and personal requirements are in compliance, then your working conditions will be excellent. You will receive reasonable compensation and very well could experience longevity with your career. Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages that could detour individuals from considering careers in this field. You stand a chance of working by yourself quite often, as some jobs will isolate you from other people for a considerable amount of time. And, you run the risk of being involved in some dangerous situations. Begin weighing out your options. If you are truly interested in working outdoors, working with people and have an interest in trees and wildlife, then the forestry industry can be a great environment to earn a respectable living. As a high school student, take advantage of the course offering in the agriculture department. Chances are, they have classes that are related to conservation, forestry, natural resources and wildlife management. A high school agriculture program is a tremendous place to get started. Do some research and find out where the closest university is that offers a degree in forestry and wildlife fisheries. Every state in the country has at least one college that promotes this program. If you have to begin with simple, low paying jobs, do it and gain as much experience as you can. The job opportunities will come to you with time and effort. Please feel free to copy and paste this article to print for your students to read. You may also find this article here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2646149/requirements_for_a_
career_in_forestry.html?cat=31And, you can find other forestry career resources via the following Squidoo lens: http://www.squidoo.com/Forestry-CareersThanks 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
I know that many of you are beginning to finish up your student teaching experience and I certainly hope that each and every one of you have had an enjoyable one. Now, there is no doubt in my mind that you have had to create a variety of lesson plans in order to teach the classes that you were in charge of and to satisfy your instructors, as well. I am asking each of you to submit, at least, one of the best lesson plans that you created during the spring 2010 semester. Anything and everything will be accepted, suchas PowerPoints, Word documents, entire unit plans including written tests and more. This could be a positive thing when you start searching for a job for the fall. You can tell the principal or whoever is interviewing you that your lesson plans have already been published on the internet! You may email them to me at the email address listed below. As with others that have made submissions to this site, you will receive full credit for your work. Again, I hope your student teaching experience was one that you will never forget and I wish you the best with your upcoming teaching careers. I look forward to receiving your emails. Thanks for reading, Michael Southerland Ideas 4 Ag Ed ideas4aged@gmail.com
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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I wanted to share a technique that I allow my students to use to earn prizes for their internet searches for the various reports and projects that I require them to do. While this actually holds no educational value, my students enjoy using it and redeeming for a variety of prizes. My students are continually using this and are earning quite a few Swag Bucks each semester.
The program is called Swag Bucks. The way it works is every time you do an internet search (which is powered by Google and Ask.com) you can earn swag bucks (basically internet cash). The swag bucks may be redeemed for a variety of things like movie posters, gift cards, video games and consoles, MP3’s, books, shirts and more. There are actually different Swag Bucks sites that your students can search from and win exclusive prizes from them like Lady Antebellum, the WWE, Darius Rucker, Miranda Lambert and a whole slew of sports teams.
My students sign up under me and I earn the exact amount of Swag Bucks that they earn. So, I actually get something out of it, too.
If this is something that interests you, I have included a banner below, which contains a link to sign up to join Swag Bucks. Its free!
Thanks for reading,
Michael Southerland
Titan Tires is a supporter and partner in the program. Titan is willing to assist FFA Chapters/Individuals in their efforts to restore tractors by providing new tires. If you are restoring a tractor for the 2010 competition and are interested in acquiring tires from Titan, you should contact Linda Adamson at Linda.Adamson@titan-intl.com The Delo Tractor Restoration Competition was established in 1995 to recognize and reward the creativity, technical aptitude and business knowledge of high school-aged FFA members from around the country. During this restoration process, participants develop teamwork, project management, budgeting, planning and marketing skills. All of these new skills will enable them to become future leaders in the agriculture community. The submission deadline is typically in September and competition finalists are invited to attend the annual FFA convention. The Chevron Delo website http://www.allen-martin.com/tractorform/tractor.htm contains all the information and forms required to compete in the program.
Monsanto would like to help you recognize your outstanding high school senior in agriculture with the 2010 DEKALB Agricultural Accomplishment Award.
Monsanto provides all of the award materials without cost or obligation. The DEKALB award materials include a personalized certificate suitable for framing, a pewter lapel pin and a letter of congratulations. A multi-year plaque for engraving winner’s names is also available for display in the classroom or school trophy case.
FFA Advisors can submit requests for award materials at www.dekalbawards.com at any time throughout the 2010 school year. Please submit requests 3-4 weeks in advance of any award ceremonies to ensure timely receipt.
February 25, 2010 is fast approaching. You can see what the significance of the date is by looking at the logo above. I hope you are gathering ideas, if you haven't already, to celebrate this very important day with your students. Find out more about National Teach Ag Day by visiting these sites:
http://www.naae.org/teachag/teachagday.php
http://www.squidoo.com/Teach-Agriculture
Now, if you are planning to participate in this day, how are you going to do it? Please share your plans with the ag teaching community.
Over the past ten years, the technological advances made that benefit education are astonishing. Teachers do not have to just depend on lectures and textbooks to convey the subject matter anymore. Internet search engines, computer programs such as PowerPoint presentations, online study guides formulated by teachers and students and discussion boards are commonly used by today's teachers in their classroom. One teaching tool that is now being embraced by many educators and students is video blogging. Video blogging, or vlogging as it is sometimes referred to, began during the early part of this decade. The forerunner for this form of blogging, YouTube, was founded during February of that year and officially launched during the fall 2005. The popular search engine, Yahoo!, also has its version of vlogging called Yahoo! Video. With each of these brands, users can upload their own videos, watch other user's videos and share them with each other. These videos can include television clips, music videos or home movies. In order to view these videos properly, a high speed internet connection would be required. Otherwise, the time for a video to upload will be lengthy. In doing research on each of these web sites, I found that teachers from all grade levels and even college professors are using this method to teach certain aspects of their course content. I found videos online designed to teach kindergarten students the letters of the alphabets. There are videos that cover different aspects of science, such as space, the structure of atoms and gene splicing. I found several videos pertaining to my career, agriculture education and FFA. Several FFA chapters and/or agriculture instructors have posted videos to YouTube promoting the various activities that they take part in. This is a great way to gather ideas for your own chapter to use. The FFA Creed is a very popular topic on these vlogging web sites. There are several renditions of the FFA Creed presented by FFA members from all across the country. This could be one way to show a freshman the proper way to speak, stand and present the Creed when preparing for that career development event. I was lucky enough to find six videos that someone had posted on YouTube that dealt with 4-H poultry judging. Each video depicted a specific class that members would be responsible for judging in an actual contest and detailing what they need to look for in order to succeed. I created my own account (www.youtube.com/dmsouther) and created a favorites folder. I added each video to my favorites and have asked that each of the members of my poultry team view these videos before we participate in the various poultry contests that take place each year. These poultry judging training videos are being used as supplemental material for them to use when completing tasks that need to be finished before our next scheduled practice. While I find this teaching tool fascinating and very beneficial, there are some important drawbacks that I feel need to be addressed. First, and most important, is the amount of inappropriate content that are present on these sites. Before setting up an account, your age must be verified to ensure that you are old enough to start an account, but that can easily be worked around if the intending user gives a false date of birth. By setting up my own account and posting the videos that I wanted my team members to see to a favorites page, I strove to prevent them from searching for topics that might lead them to finding some of this inappropriate material that I spoke of earlier. High school students are very smart when it comes to technology, so they know ways to get around things like this. At least I feel good about what I did, though. My second problem with using this form of technology in my classroom is that YouTube and Yahoo! Video are blocked by our school system and cannot be accessed on any computer. A factor that I have to take into serious consideration is that at least 50% of my students do not have a computer at home. So, I cannot require my students to log onto the internet at home to view something and expect everyone to be able to participate. With new technological ideas becoming reality on a daily basis, I am waiting for someone to take the initiative to create a web site just for educators to post and share videos. Many teachers will admit that there days do not always start at eight and end at 3:30. And, with more and more requirements being handed down from the State Departments of Education, the time to prepare lesson plans and teach our competencies is being drastically reduced with each passing year. It would be very beneficial to this profession to have another outlet for teaching our material and I think video blogging is the way to go. Learn more about how to use video blogging in your classroom by visiting http://www.squidoo.com/Video-Blogging-In-EducationThanks for reading, Michael Southerland
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