Last year was my first year as a teacher at Pine City. My role primarily involves supporting students that struggle with their core classes of Math, Science, English and Social Studies. As a newer teacher in my district, eager to expand and develop my curriculum, I was excited to learn more about Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom and how it can benefit my students. I work with a number of students that either live or work on farms, and as a former farm kid myself, I like being able to draw connections between what they are learning and how it relates to what they know outside of school.

Describe your experience as a participant in the 2013 Agriculture in the Classroom National Conference.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conference, and I was very grateful to attend because of the generous CHS scholarship I received. This was a great opportunity to attend some phenomenal workshops--I especially enjoyed the school gardening workshop put on by Jeff Eppen and Tim Uhlenkamp of Sibley East High School-- and connect with a number of like-minded educators from across the country and throughout the world. Throughout my time I found myself thinking how many of things that I was learning and experiencing would be great for some of my students that struggle in a regular classroom setting but would thrive in a more hands-on, experiential setting.

What experiences, resources, contacts, etc. gained at the AITC National Conference do you plan to implement into your curriculum and classroom?

On the last day of the conference, I participated in a learning lab done by Dr. Craig Wilson, director of the USDA/HSINP Future Scientist Project. As he drew me and the other surrounding people into the experiments he was doing, I quickly started thinking how I could replicate these for my 9th and 10th graders that really struggled to grasp some key concepts from their science classes. His approach was right on for what my students need. That is just one example of many that I recall as I reflect back on