Agricultural News
Oklahoma Teacher Selected for 2016 Excellence in Teaching About Agriculture Award
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:52:51 CST
The National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization (NAITCO), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Farm Credit announced that Lisa Storm of Kingfisher is among seven general education teachers from around the country selected as winners of the National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award for 2016.
Storm, a teacher at Heritage Elementary in Kingfisher, was the 2014 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year for the statewide Ag in the Classroom program coordinated by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF) and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
"My favorite thing about teaching is it allows me to be very creative. I constantly look for innovative ways to bring my students memorable learning experiences. Ag in the Classroom curriculum is a combination of solid agricultural knowledge, research-based learning objectives, and creative hands-on learning," Storm said when she received the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year award in 2014.
Nationally, these kindergarten-through-12th grade teachers won the award for the innovative ways they use agricultural concepts to teach core subject areas of reading, writing, math, science, social studies and more.
"The winners of this award exemplify how effective the use of agricultural concepts can be to teach reading, writing, science, math and more," said Dr. Victoria LeBeaux, the National Agriculture in the Classroom Program Leader for USDA's Nation-al Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which provides federal leadership and annual funding for NAITC.
"We're proud of these teacher winners and the way they've embraced agriculture in their classroom instruction," said Lorri Brenneman, president of NAITCO. "We celebrate their enthusiasm for agriculture, and hope other teachers will adopt their successful teaching strategies."
The seven teachers selected for the National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award are:
* Oklahoma third grade teacher Lisa Storm who teaches her students Oklahoma history using developments in agriculture as the theme, healthy eating habits using cooking activities and local agriculture by visiting activity stations at 'Land Run Day.' Storm is a National Board Certified Teacher. She received a BS from Oklahoma State University and a MS from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is married to John Storm, a certified public accountant with Storm and Hauser, and has two children and a daughter-in-law.
* Georgia first grade teacher Lauren Goble who educates her students about local agriculture with 'Thank a Farmer Friday' when students eat commodities from a nearby farm they learned about in class the week before.
* North Dakota third grade teacher Cheryl Bombenger who uses a 'TADA' strategy (Teaching Activities Done Aesthetically) using agriculture as the theme in songs, stories and gardening to connect with students.
* Pennsylvania first grade teachers Shirley Hershey and Laura Shiplet James who use agricultural themes throughout the school year to educate their students about Pennsylvania farming including learning a Farm Fact every Wednesday, participating in the Mobile Ag Lab every January and participating in Farm Fest Day at the end of each school year to celebrate everything students have learned.
* Kansas K-8 teacher Ray Huff who uses agricultural projects such as building a pond on school grounds and developing a miniature tractor and a barn to teach the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects.
* New York secondary teacher Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz who developed a school garden and greenhouse program to teach food and agricultural literacy to her students in 6th through 12th grade.
They will be honored by at the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference "Agriculture Blooming in the Desert," to be held June 20-24 at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, AZ. NAITCO is a non-profit organization representing the 50 state Agriculture in the Classroom programs around the country. Its mission is to educate K-12 teachers and students about the importance of agriculture by providing them with web-based materials, workshops and awards programs that demonstrate how agriculture can be used to effectively teach core subject areas.
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