| Spotlight on Youth - Jan. 12, 2011 |
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Miami East FFA attends greenhand parli-pro contest
CASSTOWN, Ohio — Recently members of the Miami East FFA Chapter recently participated in the 2010 FFA Greenhand District Parliamentary Procedure contest at St. Marys High School. Participants were all first year members of the Miami East FFA Chapter. The schools represented in the sub-district competition were Ansonia, National Trail, Mississinawa Valley, Preble Shawnee and Anna.
Participating was the Miami East Greenhand sixth period class. Team members were Chair Kendra Beckman, Vice Chair Shelby Roach, Kolin Bendickson, Dan Bodenmiller, Matt Davis, Amber Elsass, Brandon Kirk, Macaleh Thompson, and team alternate Mike Shively. They earned a gold rating for participating.
This team advanced to the district competition after competing at the sub-district contest held earlier at Botkins High School. This is the first time a team has made it to district competition in at least 12 years.
The students showed their knowledge of parliamentary procedure by holding a mock meeting and giving quality discussion on motions. Participants were given two minutes preparation time and asked to demonstrate six parliamentary procedure abilities. Also, on Monday, Nov. 22, the Miami East FFA awarded 37 new members their Greenhand FFA degree. The Greenhand degree is awarded to first year members of the FFA, and is the first award that can be received. Each member awarded received a pin to be worn on their FFA jacket and a certificate of achievement. Morgan Fair, District 5 president of the Ohio FFA Assoc., was the guest speaker.
Members receiving their Greenhand FFA Degree included Robbie Adams, Dalton Allen, Kendra Beckman, Kolin Bendickson, Dan Bodenmiller, Alex Brewer, Tanner Church, Matt Davis, Rebekah Eidemiller, Amber Elsass, Libby Everett, Brandon Force, Justin Furrow, Chris Harleman, Colin Hawes, Micheal Hayes, Stevee Hazel, Tim Henderson, Luke House, Dylan Kinnison, Brandon Kirk, Andrew Kowalak, Chris Long, Brandon Nales, Sarah Pottorf, Kodey Price, Shane Richardson, Kelly Rindler, Shelby Roach, Lindsey Roeth, Austin Rush, Mike Shively, Devin Staley, Macaleh Thompson, Trenton Tigner, Ben Willenbrink and Lauren Williams.
Illinois AG EDbassadors share agriculture’s story
URBANA, Ill. — Nearly 100,000 elementary students will benefit from the efforts of 10 high school students throughout the next few months as they promote agricultural education in schools across the state.
A select group of Illinois high school students gathered at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in November to learn effective ways to promote agricultural education in their local elementary schools.
The U of I College of ACES AG EDbassadors is a year-long program designed to provide youth early exposure to the field of agricultural education. Before going into their local schools, participants attend a four-day training event conducted by U of I faculty and agricultural education students on a variety of topics from basic teaching strategies to the impact of agriculture on the state of Illinois.
James Anderson, U of I assistant professor of agricultural education, said, “Our goal is to train high school students to promote agricultural literacy. It’s a great opportunity for these older students to show younger students how agriculture addresses important issues in their community and how students can make a difference.”
The students learned how to create 30-minute lessons that have a two-fold mission to provide information that is relevant to the age group they are targeting and to address an issue impacting their local community using an agricultural topic. They also received supplies and materials to conduct interactive lessons with 10,000 students over the next few months.
U of I agricultural education seniors Brittany Hosselton and Carrie Kuhns, along with juniors Angie Schoenbein and Lee Rincker, led workshops throughout the event.
“By teaching workshops to AG EDbassadors, I was able to share my passion for teaching and agriculture,” Hosselton said. “Teaching is about engaging individuals, and the easiest way to do that is to find something they are interested in and tie their interest into the material you want to teach them.”
The high school participants included Jamee Crawford of Urbana High School, Kristina Peters of Heyworth High School, Jenny Nelson and Abriel Brooks of Chicago High School for Ag Sciences, Thea Fruhling of Catlin High School, Brianna Harmon of Central A&M High School, Jennifer Boberg and Billy Masco of Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School, Kye Witek of Indian Creek High School and Marshae Young of Charleston High School.
These participants will be tackling a variety of topics with elementary students, including dairy production, the origin of foods, seed germination and planting, teamwork, agricultural careers, nutrition, the lifecycle of honey bees, and recycling.
AG EDbassadors is sponsored by the Growing Agricultural Science Teachers Grant, a special project of the Illinois State Board of Education created to get more students interested in teaching, Anderson said.
For more information on the AG EDbassador Program, contact James Anderson at jcandrs1@illinois.edu or call 217-244-0285.
Amanda-Clearcreek FFA hosts officer leadership night
AMANDA, Ohio — For over 10 years, the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA chapter has hosted a State Officer Leadership Night on Dec. 1 for all the schools within the district. Leadership Night is all based around teamwork and how to lead others. The State FFA Officers plan the different workshops and activities that the members participate in throughout the evening.
The State FFA Officers that attended were President Amy Jo Frost, Vice President Lara Staples, District 1 President Mike Hannewald, District 7 President Cathryn Clark, District 9 President Jake Wuebben and District 10 President Laura Whalin.
This year, the members were broken up into six different groups. Each group went to three different workshops with one FFA officer in each. The three groups were based around the theme, “Lead Me, Lead You & Lead Us.”
The first workshop was all about “Lead Me.” In this workshop, members learned about the qualities a leader should possess. The second workshop was about “Lead You.” The group was divided into teams with six people. Each person was assigned a different task that they had to do in a competitive race. Each person had to depend on themselves on how to complete their own task. The third workshop was all about “Lead Us.” The group was divided into a three or four person team where one person was blind, one person couldn’t talk and one person couldn’t use their hands. The team had to rely on the person that could talk to lead them and to tell them what to do.
After the workshop activities the FFA members, State FFA Officers and the Advisors were able to sit down and enjoy some cold cut sandwiches, chips, cookies and drinks. There were a total of 11 different schools that attended this event, which added up to 221 FFA members. |
| 1/14/2011 |
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