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Welcome Back Everyone! The CTE department hopes you are excited to start your year as an agricultural education teacher in Washington State. We live in a truly beautiful location in the nation that has an abundance of agricultural products produced within our borders. You might have noticed in the welcome back picture there is an apple. Did you know there is a historical reason that we associate apples with teachers?
It appears that this traditional teacher gift may have started during historical school times when teachers often lived with families of their students. Bushels of apples were given as a token of appreciation. They were also a way to keep teachers fed and make up for poor wages. Apples were a common crop, making them a practical choice for families to give to teachers. The apple also carries symbolic meaning related to knowledge and wisdom, connecting to the teacher's role in educating students.
Whatever reason you consider for connecting the apple to a teacher, what is important for all of us to consider is our nutritional needs as busy Ag teachers. By starting the day with a healthy meal, teachers can improve their own performance while modeling brain–friendly habits for their students. If you would like to learn more about feeding the teacher's brain we would encourage you to check out the article entitled "Feeding the Teacher's Brain: Nutrition Tips for Busy Educators." It outlines some common myths about nutrition and how to keep up your energy as a teacher.
In addition to these tidbits of wisdom, the September edition of the "Agricultural Education in Action" newsletter provides a variety of back to school essentials. We know how busy the start of the school year can be so we would like to encourage you to check them out at your earliest convenience. Good luck as you start this school year and please remember to reach out to Tamara Whitcomb, CTE Program Supervisor for Agricultural Education anytime you have questions.
Source: Edutopia, Accessed on 9/15/24.
Tamara Whitcomb, OSPI Agricultural Education Program Supervisor will be offering an office hours opportunity on October 10, 2024 from 3:30-4:30 pm. The purpose of the fall office hours is to outline an "Ag Ed Fall Checklist". This will help busy Ag teachers in the field stay on track this school year and identify important resources and deadlines to assist in maintaining your Ag Ed program. To attend the Ag Ed office hours event please add the zoom link to your calendar. More information and a reminder email will be sent out from Tamara Whitcomb in the coming weeks.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88911407036
Meeting ID: 889 1140 7036
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Many thanks to everyone that submitted their Ag Ed End-of Year-Report this year! We had an outstanding turn out of 94.5% of agricultural teachers that completed their report in time for the data to be submitted on to the national level. The Agricultural Education End-of-Year Report data has been broken down into useful information and visuals to assist Washington state teachers and programs in planning for the future. We hope this data will also serve to help plan professional development opportunities for our agricultural teachers in the field and be utilized in creating more opportunities for all agricultural education students across Washington state.
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Career and Technical Education (CTE) has an active link on the OSPI website titled CTE Resources and Essentials. This website provides important resources for CTE agricultural education teachers that could prove useful this school year. Check out all the fabulous finds below:
Hello Ag Teachers!
We hope your new school year is off to a great start. We are excited to have a good group of Ag Ed students back on campus and others completing their student teaching internship or pre–internship experiences. We are excited to have 17 students taking our Introduction to Agricultural Education course. Special shout out to many of our newer teachers who have sent us some bright future ag teachers!
This year, we are excited to be working with two Master of Science in Agriculture Students who are on assistantship and working on projects with us. Nicole Michol, from Hagerstown, MD is returning for her second year. We are excited to welcome Kayley McGhan, from Kennewick, WA and recent program graduate. These two students will be furthering their education in Agricultural Education while supporting the teaching, research, and outreach efforts of our program. We are grateful for their efforts and high-quality work.
In an effort to make your jobs a little easier this year. Look for the following resources coming across the WAAE Listserv from us:
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CAHNRS Media Round Up – Each Monday we will forward a list of current news articles related to current events and research surrounding all areas of CAHNRS. These are great current events to add to related lessons, include in current event reading activities, or inspire projects such as agriscience research, service learning, or ag issues.
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Teach Ag Activities – We have developed a lot of fun activities to promote our profession. In preparation for National Teach Ag Day on September 19, we will be sending a collection of resources you can use in your classrooms. Feel free to use them for National Teach Ag Day, as sub lessons, or any other time you are promoting careers in ag.
Have a great school year! GO COUGS!
Anna and JD
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 The Washington Association of Agricultural Educators is the professional organization connected to agricultural education teachers in Washington state. To join in the fun this year and access resources available to you, please contact Chris Carlson (WAAE Executive Director) by email at waaeccarlson@gmail.com.
WAAE and NAAE dues can be submitted using the membership dues form provided. Payment for dues can even be submitted through the WAAE Square account. Square's address is waae-123456.square.site
WAAE has a wonderful website as well with great resources for new and experienced Ag teachers in the field. This organization offers professional development clock hours for a variety of events hosted in Washington and across the nation, and hosts their annual WAAE summer conference in June each year.
District and local FFA events hosted by school districts can be accessed through the WAAE calendar to help plan your school year. Please make sure to send any updates to district calendars to Randi Krieg by emailing her at randi.krieg@gsd404.org, to ensure calendars are up to date.
WAAE Fall Executive meeting will be held via Zoom in the month of October. Information will be sent out to District Presidents by Steve Braun (WAAE President) prior to the meeting. Please send any district concerns to your District Presidents or representatives ahead of time.
The WAAE FFA Committee will have a Zoom meeting prior to the WAAE Fall Executive meeting. Steve Hayter will send out information to Ag teachers with regard to the date and time of that meeting. Each district can have two voting members. Any district FFA concerns should be sent through your FFA committee representatives prior to that meeting.
If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas to share, please contact Steve Braun at sbraun@libertysd.us
 Celebrate the profession of teaching agriculture with us on September 19, 2024! We’re re–imagining our National #TeachAg Day celebration to make it even more fun for you to promote the profession of agricultural education.
This year’s #TeachAg Day will focus on the premiere of our very first short documentary! This film will follow the journey of pre-service agricultural education students as they complete their student teaching experiences and figure out what comes next.
Give your students an exclusive peek behind the curtain into what their experience will be like if they decide to choose agricultural education as their major. Anyone who is considering a career in agricultural education should watch this film. The documentary premieres on YouTube on National #TeachAg Day at 1:30pm eastern.
Check out all the resources available for the National #TeachAg Day celebration using the NAAE website link.
Source: National Association of Agriculture Educators, Accessed on 9/15/24.
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Connect your students to great resources on how climate change will impact our ability to grow food in the future. The USDA’s Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture explores how changes in temperature, invasive species, and extreme weather events influenced by climate change will all impact growing food and raising livestock in North America. These lessons are great for 6th-12th grade students and follow Common Core State Standards. This resource was made available by Lori Henrickson, Climate Science Curriculum Integration Consultant in the SEC department at OSPI. For more information or resources on climate science please contact Lori at: lori.henrickson@k12.wa.us |
DNR's Youth Education and Outreach Program (YEOP) supports and delivers outdoor learning opportunities for Washington’s youth to build environmental literacy and prepare for natural resource sector jobs.
This school year, YEOP is scoping opportunities for project-based learning for middle and high school students to participate in local land management, including:
- Butterfly monitoring and ecological restoration at Cattle Point on San Juan Island
- Wildlife monitoring along I-5 between Chehalis and Castle Rock
- Trail building and maintenance near Eatonville
- Wildfire risk assessment and resilience in rural Pierce County and Northeastern Washington
- Acoustic monitoring of birds in recent timber harvest units in the Olympic Experimental State Forest
If you are interested in these projects, have project ideas to propose, or would like to partner with DNR on other education and outreach programming, contact YEOP at yeop@dnr.wa.gov
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Click here to request a guest speaker for an educational event or program with a youth audience.
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Click here to request free access to our forestry kits, which contain tools like increment borers, species guides and logger's tapes that are available for check out for use in educational programs.
YEOP also has a contract to cover transportation and substitute costs for schools to participate in programming. To distribute this funding, we prioritize schools furthest from educational equity, based off of data analysis conducted by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Contact YEOP staff for more information at yeop@dnr.wa.gov
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To assist all FFA advisors in the field. the FFA Association has provided links to common documents that are great resources when you are just starting out. These resources can also be found on the Washington FFA Association website.
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Washington FFA state staff are working to finalize the details for our fall state Career Development Events (CDE's). Registration opened on September 15. All events are currently on the state calendar and while there may be changes, our tentative dates and locations are listed so you can start planning.
October 8–State Rangeland (location is still TBD)
October 30–State Land Evaluation (Lincoln County)
November 20–State Tractor Driving and Potato Evaluation (Grant County Fairgrounds, Moses Lake)
December 11–State Apple Evaluation (Yakima, WA)
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Evergreen Leadership Tour is the "kick-off" event to our membership year! Washington state officers and state staff spend the week traveling across the state of Washington hosting workshops, meeting members and advisors, and sharing our excitement about FFA. Check out the schedule provided to help with your planning.
Monday – September 30
9:00am – Stanwood-Camano Fairgrounds (District 1)
5:00pm – Enumclaw High School (District 2)
Tuesday – October 1
9:30am – Castle Rock Fairgrounds (District 8)
4:00pm – SW Washington Fairgrounds (District 3)
Wednesday – October 2
9:00am – Grandview High School (District 4)
2:00pm - Quincy High School (District 9)
Thursday – October 3
9:00am – NCW Fairgrounds (Districts 7)
5:00pm – Deer Park High School (District 5)
Friday – October 4
9:00am – Colfax High School (District 6)
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Each year, agricultural education programs across the state plan activities for students to build their leadership skills. To document these activities, each school district that offers agricultural education courses connected to an FFA chapter is required to submit an FFA chapter Program of Activities (POA) and submit a FFA Membership Roster by November 1. Resources are available on the Washington FFA Association website to assist FFA advisors with submitting a fall roster and planning activities with your FFA members. Please submit your FFA POA as a Word or PDF version and email as an attachment to Tamara Whitcomb at: tamara.whitcomb@k12.wa.us |
Washington state FFA chapters look forward to attending and competing at National FFA Convention each year. This year's convention is scheduled for October 23–26 in Indianapolis, Indiana. To prepare for your FFA chapter experience, you are welcome to visit the National FFA Convention and Expo website for information on registration, activities, and a preliminary schedule of events. National FFA will continue to update information on the website as we approach National FFA Convention.
Tentative schedules for the Career and Leadership Development Events and the Finals Hall schedule have also been posted for planning purposes. For easy access, go to the "Event Orientation" for your CDE/LDE on FFA.org.
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Official Jacket Order Deadline for Convention
Official jackets will not be available for purchase at the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo. The jacket order deadline is Friday, Sept. 20, to guarantee arrival before national convention.
2025 Washington Leadership Conference The 2025 Washington Leadership Conference dates are now live and can be found here. The timeline for large group coordinators has been updated for this conference season, and more information can be found here. Updates regarding student and chaperone schedules, package pricing and more will be available on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024.
Administration Support Letters for Awards and Recognition Programs
The Awards and Recognition Team is providing letters of support for finalists and advisors to use with school administrators and school boards when seeking travel permissions to participate in the National FFA Convention & Expo:
FFA Political Engagement
As election season approaches, it’s a good time to brush up on the National FFA policy regarding political involvement and statements. As per our federal charter, FFA is not a partisan organization and does not endorse candidates or parties for political office. “The FFA or a director, officer, or member acting on behalf of the FFA may not contribute to, support, or assist a political party or candidate for elective public office.” FFA members are encouraged to participate as advocates and engage in the lawmaking process but are reminded to do so without compromising the integrity of our organization through their words, actions and attire. More information can be found here, or to clarify, email cglowacki@ffa.org.
Opportunities for Native Youth to Communicate With the USDA Tribal Advisory Committee
Native youth involved in agriculture can help bridge the communication gap between Indian Country and USDA by entering the Intertribal Agriculture Council Youth Essay contest. They can win a free trip to the 2024 IAC Youth Conference Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. The 2024 Essay Contest & Conference is open to Native American Youth (enrolled in a Federally Recognized Tribe or descendants living on Indian-owned land) and entering grades 9-12 during the 2024-25 school year. The deadline for submitting essays is Monday, Oct. 7.
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