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Texas
Agriculture Archive
September 6, 2002
A
Class Act
Henry Bahn (left), a USDA Ag in the Classroom representative,
and Tad Duncan, TFB director
of Agriculture Education Programs, presented Joanne Witschorke the Outstanding
Classroom Teacher of the Year Award at last year's state convention.
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
When it comes to teaching agriculture to youngsters, Joanne Witschorke, a fourth-grade teacher at Mountain Valley Elementary School in Satler, is a class act.
Witschorke wholeheartedly embraced Ag in the Classroom—a grassroots program designed to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society—12 years ago and has been an avid practitioner ever since. The program is coordinated nationwide by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is administered in the Lone Star State by Texas Farm Bureau.
The enthusiastic elementary school teacher provides hands-on experiences in Texas history, gardening, and Ag Day for Kids—an Agrifood Masters-sponsored event designed to allow students to interact with farmers, ranchers and businessmen in the field of agriculture. She routinely works with local farmers and ranchers to provide a daily journal for her students on agricultural activities. A tireless advocate for agriculture, Witschorke has written agricultural curriculum for the state and gives workshops to promote classroom activities.
"When I first learned about the Texas Farm Bureau's Ag in the Classroom program, I was teaching fourth grade. Their Ag in the Classroom curricula just fell right into place with what I was teaching with Texas history, social studies and science. I was excited," Witschorke recalls.
Working through the Guadalupe County FB, Witschorke promotes the AITC program in the local county school districts. Her commitment to AITC and her unique way of presenting it to schoolchildren has earned her several prestigious awards. Witschorke was recognized at the Texas Farm Bureau state convention last year as the organization's pick for Outstanding Classroom Teacher of the Year. On June 27, 2001, Witschorke was one of three teachers nationwide who received the USDA, Agriculture in the Classroom National Teacher of the Year Award. Presentations were made at the National AITC Conference in Chicago, Ill. She was nominated for the award from the state of Texas by Tad Duncan, Texas Farm Bureau's director of Agriculture Education Programs.
Her involvement with Ag in the Classroom began in 1978. She was one of the teachers who pilot tested the lessons in the original "Texas Agriculture Resource Guide." She does a terrific job describing the impact that incorporating agriculture has on her students and how this helps her to meet Texas State Standards. Witschorke creatively uses heritage, history, social studies, language arts, math and science to teach students the "Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills." Students are able to see the connections of agriculture throughout history and its relevance today.
Witschorke says she grew up surrounded by agriculture. She and her husband, James, live in Marion, and developed a special interest in ag when their son, Stephen, and daughter, Sheryl, began raising show lambs and steers for local shows. So she says the Ag in the Classroom program is right up her alley.
Witschorke gives a presentation at TFB's Summer Ag Institute—a week-long hands-on workshop for teachers held at Tarleton State University each year—in which she shares her own classroom experiences with other teachers to let them know how to make it work.
"I sure do wish we had a bunch more like her," says Duncan.
Witschorke encourages fellow teachers to learn more about agriculture and its important role in Texas history, the economy, and everyone's daily life in order to convey that to students.
"I know I expect to try to do more of it. I don't know how," she says, "but perhaps I can do even more to make young people aware of agriculture after I retire."
Photographer Jim Lincoln snapped this photo recently when Witschorke was the subject of an AITC article in a Farm Credit Bank publication.
New award to honor teachers
In an effort to expand the Ag in the Classroom program and involve more teachers, Texas Farm Bureau has started a new program.
"County Farm Bureaus are encouraged to send in nominations for Outstanding Teacher of the Year. The winning nominee will receive a $500 cash award and a trip to our state convention in Corpus Christi. The state winner will then be nominated for the National Outstanding Teacher Award," says Tad Duncan, director of Agriculture Education Programs.
Nomination forms and eligibility rules have been mailed to the counties and are also available online at http://www.txfb.org/AgClass/outstandingteacher.asp. Deadline for submitting applications is Sept. 30.
