The Agricultural July August EDUCATION Volume 78 Issue 1 2005 · 2018. 6. 8. · Further-more, if we as teachers are lucky enough, ... 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. UMI

JulyAugust2005

Volume 78Issue 1

The Agricultural

EDUCATIONM A G A Z I N E

THE ASSESSMENT OFTEACHING AND LEARNING

2 The Agricultural Education Magazine

EDITORIAL

Assessemnt is Not a Dirty Word Afterall!

By Jamie Cano

Jamie Cano is an AssociateProfessor at The Ohio StateUniversity and is Editor of TheAgricultural Education Magazine.

Assessment? YUCK!! The

word assessment most often bringsabout a negative connotation, to bothteachers and students. Why is that?Maybe it is because we really don’tunderstand “assessment,” or what as-sessment could really do for your Agri-cultural Education program. Typicallyin pre-service programs, professors willspend about 1 ½ hours in total to teachabout assessment. In rare instances,there are courses expanding upon thesame topics of assessment. Further-more, if we as teachers are luckyenough, we will attend a workshop hereand a workshop there on the topic ofassessment, in light of the innovative“assessment reforms” and regressivere-reforms in the United States.

I am frustrated as you can tell.Assessment is not an add-on to teach-ing and learning; it is integral! Blackand Wiliam (1998) presented ratherconvincing evidence that formative as-sessment can cause improvement in stu-dent learning. Yet, Black and Wiliam(1998) also noted that such practice offormative assessment was rarely usedin teaching.

Therefore, without doubt, assess-ment has a profound effect on studentlearning. What students learn, and theway they learn it, is driven by how theyare going to be assessed. From theperspective of the teacher, you writeobjectives for the subject you are go-ing to teach, and then you compile thelesson plan detailing the subject con-tent, and then decide upon the mostappropriate method of assessment. Thisapproach constructively aligns objec-tives, lesson plan, and assessment.

Students however, tend to see thesituation rather differently than theteacher, in a somewhat reverse order.For example, students are starting yourclass by asking questions such as: whatwill I be assessed (tested) on? Howwill this assessment (test) be con-ducted? What do I have to do to passthis class with as high a grade as pos-sible? Think about it. How many timeshave students asked you: is this goingto be on the test? From my perspec-tive, it appears as if “what is going tobe on the test” is what is driving ourassessment….wrong!!

Does how well a student per-forms on a test “really” tell you howwell you did as a teacher? I am oftencalled by first-year teachers who tellme that their class did miserable aftera unit test. My first question is this:how well did you teach the unit? It ismost often that the teacher is leftspeechless…for the response is usu-ally this: I guess the students did notstudy for the test as I know I taught itwell. OK, so you taught it well.Where is your evidence? What evi-dence did you collect to confirm thatyou taught the lesson well and that thestudents’ learned the content? It isoften this very evidence that is miss-ing.

Oh, and by the way, the class-room is just ONE aspect of your pro-gram! Are you consistently assessingyour TOTAL program to see if indeedthe program is meeting the objectivesof the local school district?

In conclusion, most teachers of-ten view assessment, both teaching andlearning, as something apart from regu-lar teaching, serving primarily the pur-pose of providing grades or informing,sometimes placating, parents. Assess-

ment as a stepchild is also apparent inteacher education where a “lecture”is given or a course allocated to pre-service teachers on “testing and as-sessment” propagating traditional no-tions of assessment, that of teachermade and summative uses of test. Theprimary objective of assessment is tomaximize teachers’ information uptakeand foster translation of that informa-tion into pedagogical action. The goalis to bring about student understandingand conceptual change by providingimmediate feedback to students andteachers focused on reducing the gapbetween the students’ current level ofknowledge and the place where it ulti-mately should be.

References

Black, P. J., & Wiliam, D. (1998).Inside the black box: Raising stan-dards through classroom assessment.Kings’ College London School of Edu-cation: London, UK.

3 July - August 2005

Theme: The Assessment of Teaching and Learning

CONTENTS

Editorial:Assessment is Not a Dirty Word Afterall! ................................................ 2By Jamie Cano, Editor

Theme Editor Comments:Assessment with Eric Clapton ............................................................... 4By Anissa Wilhelm

Theme Articles:“Holy Cow! Assessment On-Deck!” ....................................................... 6By Andrew J. Baker

Assessing Non-Formal Student Learning:A Student’s Perspective of the Learning Process .................................. 9By Craig E. Feggins, Chanda D. Elbert, &Alvin Larke, Jr.

Another Assessment Possibility ........................................................... 11By Tony Boehm

Getting From Q to A: Effective Questioningfor Effective Learning ............................................................................ 12By Barry Croom & Kristin Stair

Designing Assessments - Where DoesAlignment Fit In? ................................................................................... 15By Jennifer E. Rivera

Marketing Grain in the Classroom - Assessmentof Real Life Skills .................................................................................. 17By Jonathan Morris

Assessing Your Teaching Through FFA: FFAMembers Today, Community Leaders Tomorrow ................................ 20By Brad Bryant & E. C. Conner

A Teaching and Learning Needs Assessment forGeorgia Agriculture Teachers ............................................................... 22By John C. Ricketts & Dennis Duncan

Informational Items:

Subject Index - Volume 77 .................................................................... 25By Jamie Cano

Author Index - Volume 77 ...................................................................... 27By Jamie Cano

SubscriptionsSubscription price for The Agricultural EducationMagazine is $10.00 per year. Foreign subscriptions are$20.00 (U.S. currency) per year for surface mail, and $40(U.S. currency) foreign airmail (except Canada). Ordersmust be for one year or longer. We can accept up to a threeyear subscription. Refunds are not available. Please allow4 - 6 weeks delivery of first magazine. Claims for missingissues cannot be honored after three months from date ofpublication, six months for foreign subscriptions. Singlecopies and back issues less than 10 years old are availableat $5 each ($10.00 foreign mail). All back issues areavailable on microfilm from UMI University Microfilms,300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. UMIUniversity Microfilms telephone number is (313) 761-4700. In submitting a subscription, designate new orrenewal and provide mailing address including ZIP code.Send all subscriptions and requests for hard copy backissues to the Business Manager: James H. Smith, Texas TechUniversity, Box 42131, Lubbock, TX, 79409, Phone (806)742-2816, FAX: (806) 742-2880.E-mail: [email protected].

Article SubmissionArticles and photographs should be submitted to theeditor or theme editors. Items to be considered forpublication should be submitted at least 90 days prior tothe date of the issue intended for the article or photograph.All submissions will be acknowledged by the Editor. Noitems are returned unless accompanied by a written request.Articles should be typed double-spaced, and includeinformation about the author(s). One hard copy and oneelectronic copy of the article should be submitted. A recent,hardcopy photograph should accompany the article unlessone is on file with the editor. Articles in the magazine maybe reproduced without permission but should beacknowledged.

EditorDr. Jamie Cano, Associate Professor, Department of Humanand Community Resource Development, The Ohio StateUniversity, 208 Agriculture Administration Building,2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH, 43210, Phone (614) 292-6321, FAX: (614) 292-7007.E-mail: [email protected]

Publication InformationThe Agricultural Education Magazine (ISSN 07324677)is the bi-monthly professional journal of agriculturaleducation. The journal is published by the AgriculturalEducation Magazine, Inc. and is printed at M&DPrinting, 515 University Avenue, Henry, IL61537.

Periodicals postage paid at Ames, IA 50010 andadditional offices.

POSTMASTERS: Send address changes for TheAgricultural Education Magazine to theattention of James H. Smith, Texas TechUniversity, Box 42131, Lubbock, TX, 79409,Phone (806) 742-2816, FAX: (806) 742-2880.


Assessment with Eric Clapton

THEME EDITOR COMMENTS

By Anissa Wilhelm

Assessment and Eric Clapton.

What is the connection? You may bereading this thinking, what is she talk-ing about. But something about theword “assessment” reminds me of asong by Eric Clapton. Those of youClapton fans should be racking yourbrains right now trying to figure out thisone. Do you have it yet? Claptonsings, “It’s in the way that you useit….” I think the same about assess-ment. It can serve many purposes butit depends on the way that you use it.

The word assessment is a pow-erful word that conjures up both posi-tive and negative thoughts. On thepositive side, assessment means oppor-tunity. It is the opportunity to validateboth learning and teaching; the oppor-tunity to show others through valid evi-dence the accomplishments of bothlearning and teaching; and the oppor-tunity to determine what might be im-proved in both learning and teaching.Some of the negative or scarier aspectsof assessment include identification ofareas of needed improvement in learn-ing and teaching because now youknow that much work may need to bedone; the accountability issues associ-ated with assessment such as deter-mining the effectiveness of learningand teaching and again perhaps thework that may need to be done; andperhaps not meeting expectations. Aswith most things worthwhile, we musttake the bad with the good as we usethe positive aspects of assessment tobetter our practice.

Assessment is most powerfulwhen used as a learning tool. Asteacher educators, we have the oppor-

tunity to model for pre-service teach-ers the many ways to use assessment.We model the use of multiple measuresof assessment such as rubrics, perfor-mance assessments, authentic assess-ments, reflective practice writing as-signments, questioning, simulations, andyes, the typical paper pencil test. Wealso model the timing of use of assess-ments – using assessment in both for-mative and summative situations.When I think of assessment, I think

Assessment and planning go handin hand. Many times when planninglessons and units, assessment is one ofthe last things addressed. Too oftenthe content and activities take centerstage and priority and assessments arecreated and planned as a result of thecontent and activities. In this day ofaccountability assessment must enterthe planning process earlier.

Ideally when planning, educatorsshould first identify the standard to beattained through the instruction. Then,learning objectives addressing the stan-dard should be identified. The next stepshould be to identify the best assess-ment tools to be used to determine ifstudents have attained the learning ob-jectives and the standard. Once theseitems have been identified, educatorscan then create or find appropriate les-son content and activities that will pro-vide students with necessary learningopportunities to allow them to prepareto be successful on the assessments.It is this type of backward design thatraises the level of importance of as-sessment in the learning and teachingprocess. Because classes are oftenplanned in advance, this can be diffi-cult to model for pre-service teachers.Involvement of learners in the assess-ment process can be one way to dothis.

This issue of The AgriculturalEducation Magazine is dedicated tothe assessment of learning and teach-ing. The authors of the articles ad-dress many aspects I mentioned ear-lier.

Baker provides a diagram outlin-ing an approach to assessment. Healso discusses the involvement of learn-ers in the assessment process, as doesthe articles by Boehm and Elbert,

about helping students, and myself,identify both successes of learning andareas needing improvement. I believea key to this is certainly the use of re-flective practice.

The wordassessmentis a power-

ful wordthat

conjures upboth posi-tive andnegativethoughts.


Feggins and Larke Jr. In addition bothprovide support for use of a variety ofassessment tools to address learningand teaching. Further, Croom and Stairprovide useful comments on the use ofquestioning, especially with the idea ofhigher level thinking. This article willbe a good one to share with pre-ser-vice teachers.

Rivera provides an interestinglook at a state assessment process thatincorporates assessment to include thethree major components of an agricul-tural education program; it is an ideathat warrants investigation.

The article by Morris focuses onthe idea of using real life situations inassessment. It gets at the heart of theidea that using assessment in this fash-ion has merit over the typical paperpencil test, especially if we are con-cerned about developing critical think-ing skills rather than simple recall skills.In a similar fashion, the Bryant andConner article describes how teach-ers can identify success of an agricul-tural education program by taking a lookat the success of former students. Fi-nally, Ricketts shares teacher inputfrom a needs assessment done in Geor-gia.

As I write these theme editorcomments, the academic year has re-cently finished and I have spent timereflecting on and assessing my perfor-mance as an educator, especially overthis past semester. I ask myself, haveI done enough to prepare the studentteachers who will be going out in fallsemester? I sure hope so, but I amalso sure I could have done somethings better. I am already planningfor some new practices and bettermodeling for next year. Each of us nodoubt reflects on our learning andteaching practices and this definitelyincludes how and why we assess stu-

dents. We investigate and evaluatenew ideas for teaching and assessment.It is a good thing I wrote down theideas I came up with as a result of myself-reflection because summer classesare looming. After this past year, whatideas did you write down upon reflect-ing on teaching and assessment?

Assessment in thePlanning Process

1. Identify the standard2. Develop learning objectives3. Create or choose the appropriate assessment(s)4. Create learning opportunities through choice of content and activities

Anissa Wilhelm is an AssistantProfessor at the University ofNorth Dakota, Fargo, ND

Askyourself the

question:Have I done

enough?


November - December 2005 IssueTheme: Learning as a Function of Teaching

This issue will look at the concept of learning as a consequence of effectiveteaching. The previous issues for 2005 have focused on the teaching aspect ofthe teaching - learning process. This issue will focus on learning as a function ofteaching and would incorporate information on how students learn as a result ofhow teachers teach.

Theme Editor: Gary BriersTexas A&M University107 Scoates HallCollege Station, TX 77843Email: [email protected]: (979) 862-3000

Articles Due to Theme Editor: September 15, 2005Articles Due to Editor: October 1, 2005

“Holy Cow! Assessment On-Deck!”

By Andrew J. Baker

THEME ARTICLE

The boys of summer are back

and the baseball season is in full swing.Every year teams possess dreams ofmaking the post-season and winningthe World Series. By the All-Starbreak, teams and coaches are reas-sessing their season. About half of theteams begin working on next season,while the other half are trying to earna spot in post-season play. They maymake a trade or two, shuffle the line-up some, or bring somebody up fromthe minor leagues. Players are con-stantly being assessed on strengths andweaknesses to determine their rolewithin the team.

For the last two years, I have hadthe wonderful opportunity to coach littleleague baseball. As a coach, you areconstantly assessing the game to tryto earn a win. In little league baseball,success and motivation are earned insmall chunks by making a good throw,getting a hit, making a catch, or steal-ing home. Players regress or progresswith every pitch. They begin gainingor losing confidence through their re-actions during the game. After everypitch, a coach will assess the playerreactions and make adjustments ac-cordingly to help every kid achievesuccess. Teacher educators mustmake adjustments as each pre-serviceteacher progresses through theteacher education program and certi-fication requirements. Most adjust-ments are made after each assessmenthas been completed. Remember, eachevaluation is just a small chunk or por-tion of the overall assessment scheme.Remedial work may be assigned, tak-ing an extra course, or resubmissionof a teaching portfolio are just a few

adjustments that can be made.

Baseball and assessment gohand-in-hand. Pre-service teachersare continually being assessed on theirbasic skills, subject knowledge, presen-tation skills, and classroom manage-ment; just as baseball players areevaluated on hitting, pitching, andthrowing. Methods of assessmentrange from standardized testing, dis-position assessment, portfolios, lessonplan rubrics, background checks,speech and hearing testing, communi-cation skills, to technology competen-cies; while baseball players are as-sessed on slugging percentage, strike-outs, and fielding percentage.

Teacher education utilizes a mul-titude of assessments to assure thatteaching candidates are evaluated atdifferent intervals. All teacher train-ing institutions are assessed throughaccreditation to continue their educa-tion degree programs. However, eachinstitution has the freedom to select

their forms of assessment to assureaccountability as well as fitting into thephilosophical culture of the institution.The educational unit at my institutionagreed upon an assessment paradigm(Figure 1) that resembles a baseball dia-mond. Each base and pitching moundrepresents an area of assessment withinthe teacher education program.

The pitchers mound represents“Application & Reflection”. It is man-datory that each education major is as-sessed through reflection. My studentsare required to write a reflection paperfor every lesson presentation they con-duct. Students reflect upon each as-pect of their lesson. They utilize the 13Principles of Teaching and Learning(Newcomb, McCracken, &Warmbrod, 1993) as an outline to com-plete this requirement. These principleshelp guide them through the exerciseas they mentally review the classroomevents that occurred. Education ma-jors are also required to write reflec-tion statements for each artifact utilized


in their teaching portfolios. A reflec-tion paper is required for entrance intothe teacher education program as wellas another reflection paper to exit theprogram. It is important that each stu-dent reflects after they have reacheda new or existing base.

Home plate represents “Knowl-edge of Professional Skills and Dispo-sitions”. A student must first be as-sessed to see if they possess the pro-fessional characteristics and/or dispo-sitions to enter the teaching profession.Education majors are evaluated on sixmajor disposition areas, which includecollaboration, honesty/integrity, respect,value of learning, emotional maturity,

and responsibility. Students are evalu-ated on two occasions. The first oc-casion is conducted during the first coreeducation course. The second evalu-ation occurs during their methodscourse. Professional skills are assessedthrough teaching portfolios as well asfield experiences. Faculty withinteacher education programs assume anintegral role in this vital stage in as-sessment. A student must also com-plete their first background check toensure integrity and pass a standard-ized basic skills assessment to advanceto the next stage.

First base represents “Knowl-edge of Learners”. Students are as-

sessed in this area through a standard-ized test that evaluates their knowledgeon Illinois Professional Education Stan-dards. This test evaluates students ontheir aptitudes on classroom manage-ment, diversity issues, professional de-velopment, assessment, learning envi-ronment, human development, instruc-tional delivery, and collaboration.These same areas are also evaluatedand reviewed in their teaching portfo-lios as well as during their field andclinical experiences.

Second base represents “Knowl-edge of Teaching”. Pre-service teach-ers are always advancing towardscomprehension in content knowledge

Figure 1: Assessment Paradigm (Western Illinois University,College of Education and Human Services, 2002)


and student development. They areable to apply their knowledge throughfield and clinical experiences. Theircourses are becoming more contentspecific and are able to link teachingstrategies with subject matter. Studentsare assessed at this stage throughcoursework, standardized testing, port-folios, and field experiences. Earlyfield experiences are vitally important,so pre-service teachers can link theseexperiences as they advance throughthe teacher education program.

Third base represents “Knowl-edge of Content”. Each semester apre-service teacher advances throughtheir curriculum gaining more and moreexpertise in their profession. Eachcourse has the potential of adding tothat knowledge base. Students arecontinually assessed on content knowl-edge through coursework. Prior to stu-dent teaching, students are required topass a standardized assessment withintheir own content area. They are alsoassessed through their teaching port-folios and field experiences. We havealso recently required an assessmentto evaluate technology competencies.

Each base or area has a vital rolein the assessment of pre-service teach-ers. The paradigm illustrates that eacharea is linked to or supports the otherentities. They all work together like

players on a baseball team in order tocomplete the assessment process toensure quality candidates and protectthe integrity of the teacher educationprogram. One key ingredient in as-sessment is creativity. We have thefreedom to “think outside the box”.Items like rubrics, authentic assess-ment, and peer reviews are becomingcommon terms in our vocabulary.

This year, my students providedme with an opportunity to create a newmethod of assessment for a course fi-nal. They wanted something new andexciting. I wanted something that wascomprehensive, so I designed a finalthat slightly resembled a “scavengerhunt”. Students were divided intogroups to form teams. They werehanded a list of items that they had tofind or develop within a giventimeframe. As a team, they had todelegate responsibility to certain teammembers to complete. Before the fi-nal, I requested that my students bringall of the materials that were distrib-uted throughout the duration of thecourse to be used as resources. Theywere also able to utilize a computer labas a resource to complete their tasks.I concluded that the activity was suc-cessful. The time limit forced them todelegate tasks and then reach a con-sensus among team members to de-velop answers. I told my students priorto the final that they may not like theoutcome, but they would like the activ-ity. Well, I was wrong; the activity andthe outcome exceeded my expecta-tions. The students enjoyed the fastpace and I believe comprehension wasproperly assessed. This activity hascertainly stimulated my thinking to cre-ate new, innovative forms of assess-ment.

In conclusion, assessment is anintegral component of our daily activi-ties as educators. The sport of base-

ball allows for creative thinking withinthe structured parameters of the game.As educators, it is our responsibility tocreate new, innovative ways to assessour students, while staying within ourinstitutional parameters. Each year, theeducational environment becomesmore and more challenging. I hope Iwas able to stimulate a new way toapproach assessment that keeps stu-dents excited about learning. Enjoyyour summer!

References

Newcomb, L. H., McCracken, J.D., & Warmbrod, J. R. (1993). Meth-ods of Teaching Agriculture (Chapter2). Danville. IL; Interstate Printers andPublishers.

Western Illinois University(2002). Teacher Education ProgramGeneral Handbook. College of Edu-cation and Human Services.

Andrew J. Baker is an AssociateProfessor at Western IllinoisUniversity, Macomb, IL

It is mandatorythat eachstudent is

assessed throughreflection.


THEME ARTICLE

Assessing Non-Formal Student Learning: AStudent’s Perspective of the Learning Process

By Craig E. Feggins, Chanda D. Elbert, and Alvin Larke, Jr.

What happens to all the book

reports, stories, posters, models, di-oramas, and other pierces of stu-dents’ work once they’ve beenturned in, graded, and passed back?A glance at the grade. A slow set-tling to the bottom of the bookbagor a quick trip to the bottom of thetrash can. Occasionally, for youngerchildren’s work, a place of honor onthe refrigerator door. Is there an-other life beyond the grade?

This statement, by David Allenin, Assessing Student Learning: fromGrading to Understanding (Allen,1998, p. 1) opens a new perspectiveon those projects that I found very an-noying when I was young. Many col-lege students still have fresh in theirmemories the test and exam gradesfrom high school that were not toogood; thus, they remained deep in theannals of backpack history. Though thestatement above does accurately ex-press what students think of differentmeans of assessment in the classroom,a student’s feedback on the differentmethods of evaluation and learningpractices cannot only help the studentand his peers but the teacher as well.

In dealing with the rigid curricu-lums of high school, most teachers fol-low a close formula that they rarelystray away from, sometimes makingstudent feedback unlikely or, in manycases, kindred and typically similar. Asmentioned in last month’s issue in theHarlin and Roberts article, “when as-sessing a student’s ability to success-fully master a skill taught through

hands-on, experience-based methods,performance-based assessment is amore appropriate approach.” Manystudents don’t see these posters andmodels as means of evaluation butrather as mandatory tasks that instruc-tors assign because they have to. Inreviewing my high school-college tran-sition, I remember the difficulty of tak-ing the knowledge learned from lec-ture and reading assignments and ap-plying it to discussions, presentations,and other non-written forms of test-ing.

The concept of a professor or in-structor being concerned with my com-prehension and understanding of thematerial was something new to me.Frazee and Rudnitski express that “as-sessment of student learning hasevolved into a central position in theteaching and learning process.” Thisstatement sums up how secondaryeducation is handled: information islearned, applied in the construction ofa poster or diorama, and a test is given.In my experience, these formal evalu-ation methods are necessary, but anintegration of student feedback andpeer interaction could improve thelearning environment and process ingeneral. An instructor’s ability tochange her curriculum and evaluationtechniques in order to be in consensuswith mandatory testing requirementsand also the well-being of the student’seducational experience is indicative ofeffective teaching. In my college ex-perience thus far, some irrefutableforms of non-formal assessment haveincluded discussions of assigned litera-ture, peer interrogation sessions overparticular subjects, and direct instruc-tor/student dialogues that lessen theformality of the testing situation. None-theless, these methods remain as ac-

curate measurements of student suc-cess and understanding of the subjectmatter.

Considering that the studentlearning process actively involves twoimportant agents, the evaluation of theinstructor and her teaching is impor-tant from the both the student andinstructor’s viewpoint. A student’s abil-ity to actively engage in discussion andexpress opinion from an educationaland pedagogical standpoint about theinstructor’s teaching technique is fun-damental to the learning process. Thiscan actively be seen in the followingscenario:

Jonathon is a student in Ms.Johnson’s floral design course. He hasone of the highest grades in the courseand always actively participates inteach new material Ms. Johnson iscurrently in her third year teaching thefloral design course. In beginning theirnew objective of making wedding ar-rangements, Ms. Johnson has alwaysmade the students watch a reliable, in-structional video and let the studentsarrange on their own. Because thisassignment serves as her final exami-nation for the course, little assistanceis given. Jonathon believes that be-cause this arrangement isn’t similar tothe other semester assignments, it isnot a good indicator of their compre-hensive knowledge; consequently, heexpresses his concern to Ms. Johnson.

Being a recent graduate from highschool, the concept of student/instruc-tor evaluation in secondary educationis in many regards controversial butshould be considered. From the sce-nario, we see that one student has ex-pressed his discontent with Ms.Johnson’s assessment technique. Be-


cause the comment is from a studentotherwise doing exceptionally well inthe course, his outlook on the situationis taken into consideration by Ms.Johnson. Though this method of test-ing her student’s knowledge appearedto be a good technique, her evaluationof student’s work on the wedding ar-rangement assignment from previoussemesters indicates that though her stu-dents on average do exceptionally wellon normal assignments, the weddingarrangement assignment has consis-tently yielded lower grades. Ms.Johnson’s self-evaluation andJonathon’s feedback can better herskills as a teacher and assist with theimprovement of her course.

On the post-secondary level,many colleges and universities havesummative evaluations for students thatappraise the instructor and course as awhole. In my experience, this formalmeans of student criticism has helpedmany instructors change certain as-pects of their curriculum to make itmore logical and fair. In the scenario,Ms. Johnson’s reflection on her assess-ment techniques has shown that shecould give a classroom lesson in addi-tion to the instructional video on wed-ding arrangements. One could agreethat making the students do an indi-vidual presentation would also be anaccurate means of demonstrating theirlearned skills.

Assessment of student and in-structor is undoubtedly necessary forthe teaching and learning process tobe productive. Jere Brophy states, “Ef-fective teachers use assessment toevaluate students’ progress in learningand plan curriculum improvements, notjust to generate grades. Good assess-ment includes data from many sourcesbesides paper-and-pencil tests, and itaddresses the full range of goals or in-tended outcomes…” (Brophy, 2001,p. 34). This is the main goal that evalu-ation and assessment should serve fromboth the student and instructor perspec-

tives. The ultimate goal in assessmentof any kind is progress in that subjectmatter and the main objective is thatnon-formal methods of assessment areanalogous to written tests.

The purpose of analyzing thesemethods of feedback and progressshould be used to not only show un-derstanding of material but also that theconcepts can be applied in higher-levelthinking skills and can be scrutinizedfor individual thought by the student.This concept seems almost cryptic onthe secondary education level, but froma college student’s perspective, thisshould be applied on that grade level toensure students’ intellect is constantlychallenged and instructors also don’tlose the tenacity of teaching unvaryingsubjects but the presentation of thesubject to the student and means oftesting their learned skills should neverget boring.

References

Allen, D. (1998). Introduction:Learning from Students’ Work. In D.Allen (Ed.), Assessing

Student Learning: From Grad-ing to Understanding (pp. 1-3). NewYork, NY: Teachers College Press.

Brophy, J. (2001). Generic As-pects of Effective Teaching. In H. J.Walberg and M. C. Wang,

Tomorrow’s Teachers (pp. 34).Richmond, CA: McCutchan Publish-ing Company.

Frazee, B & Rudnitski, R.A.(1995). Integrated Teaching Meth-ods: Theory, Classroom

Applications, and Field-BasedConnections. Albany, NY: DelmarPublishers.

Harlin, J.F. & Roberts, T.G.(2005, March April). Evaluating “Do-

ing to Learn” Activities: Using Perfor-mance-Based Assessments. The Ag-ricultural Education Magazine, 77,27-28.

Craig E. Feggins, Jr. is an Under-graduate Student at Texas A&MUniversity, College Station, TX

Chanda D. Elbert is an AssistantProfessor at Texas A&M Univer-sity, College Station, TX

Alvin Larke, Jr. is a Professor atTexas A&M University, CollegeStation, TX


Another Assessment PossibilityBy Tony Boehm

THEME ARTICLE

Many things have changed in

Agricultural Education in the last fewyears. One thing that has not changedsince the first little one-room school-house was constructed on the prairieis the need to assess students. Muchto the student’s dismay, we still needto test to see if students are graspingwhat is being taught, and record somescores in a grade book. However, it isnot just about recording a grade in ourgrade book. It is possible that the pro-cess of assessment can also be ateachable moment.

Self-assessment by the studentsprovides this teachable moment. Self-assessment includes students assistingin the grading of their own projects, andin their work effort. I interview eachstudent, while evaluating a project.Questions I ask may include

“What did you learn?”

“What would you do differentlyor change?”

“What grade do you think youearned?”

The students point out both posi-tive and negative aspects of theirproject. Most students are hard onthemselves, and other than a fewdreamers, they are very honest and fairin evaluating the quality of their work.

By having students help in thegrading of projects, they learn to evalu-ate their work. This allows for someself constructive criticism. If we aretruly trying to prepare students for ca-reers after school, an important skill setis the ability to evaluate your work andlook for ways to make improvements.Problem solving is a skill they will useno matter what career they will chose.Also, students learn some negotiationskills. I always ask “Why do you thinkyou deserve this grade?” They haveto be able to defend their answer withsome solid reasons.

If students give themselves a labgrade for their work effort, they learnto work up to what is expected of them,assuming you have set the bar or levelof expectation. If they have notworked up to that bar or level of ex-pectation, they will give themselves anine out of 10 points possible for ex-ample, realizing that they probablydidn’t work hard enough to get a per-fect score. Finally, involving studentsin the grading process creates a sensethat the process is not so foreign tothem. They had a hand in evaluatingand assessing their grade and can feelcomfortable with the scores recordedin the grade book. They were able tolook at the work they completed criti-cally instead of it seeming that theteacher is simply giving the grade.

Any lab activity in plant science,animal science, economics, leadership,or mechanics can provide an opportu-nity for self-assessment. Have the stu-dents evaluate their greenhouse orlandscape work, their agriculture eco-nomics spreadsheets, or their presen-tations. Their evaluations may be apart of their total grade, with the in-structor giving the remaining points.Students could evaluate each other aswell.

Obviously, not all assessment canbe done with the input of the student.We still need paper and pencil assess-ments that are graded by teachers.However, we can provide one moreopportunity to teach students importantskills, even after the project is com-pleted.

Tony Boehm teaches AgriculturalEducation at Richland Jr/Sr HighSchool, Colfax, ND


WEBMASTER

Getting From Q to A: Effective Questioning forEffective Learning

By Barry Croom and Kristin Stair

THEME ARTICLE

The student teacher was doing

a great job with the lesson. She wasmoving along enthusiastically present-ing high quality content in an interest-ing way. She was being very clear inher explanations and her rapport withthe students was top notch. Yes sir, shewas going to be a great teacher some-day.

And then it happened. The stu-dent teacher was up in front of theclass asking a general “call-out” ques-tion. To the casual observer, her “Arethere any questions?” was nothing spe-cial. To me it was an intellectual sneeze,in an otherwise disease free lesson. Thewell-planned lesson began to degener-ate into a questioning frenzy. The morequestions she asked, the less she en-gaged the class and the fewer correctanswers she received. It was obviousthat she had contracted the “commoncold” of teaching – the “call-out” ques-tion.

In case you are not familiar, a“call-out” is when the question goesout to the entire class, and is not di-rected to any student in particular. Asan educational tool it is practically use-less. Yet teachers use it as if it wereone of the greatest teaching tools avail-able to them. A student teacher wasonce observed asking 90 questions ina 30-minute period. At 20 seconds perquestion, there was not much time forstudents to respond.

What is wrong with this type ofquestioning, why is it detrimental to thelearning process, and how can teach-

ers sharpen questioning skills and bemore effective? The first mistake thatteachers make is using questions as aform of classroom management.Teachers, new ones particularly, aretaught to make certain that the class isengaged in the lesson so as to preventdiscipline problems from cropping up.As a result, they turn to questioning asa primary mode of classroom manage-ment. Questions are best suited as di-agnostic tools that indicate student aca-demic progress or assess critical think-ing.

These teachers naturally assumethat flinging question after question outto the class is engaging the students inthe lesson. In fact, the opposite is of-ten true. Whenever a teacher presentsa general question to the class, threethings might happen. One, the studentwho knows the answer will blurt it outbefore anyone else in the class has hada chance to think about the questionand formulate an answer. The quickdraw answer wins, and the other stu-dents are not rewarded because theywere too slow in coming forth with thecorrect answer.

The second thing that might hap-pen is that the student who craves at-tention will answer the question eventhough they are clueless as to what thecorrect answer is. They are motivatedby a strong desire for attention, andcall-out questions give them an oppor-tunity to get some.

The third thing that often happensis that the student who is really unsureof his or her academic ability or is hav-ing difficulty understanding the subjectmatter will not attempt to answer.Therefore, the teacher is clueless asto the student’s academic progress, at

least until test time rolls around. Tryingto correct deficiencies in student learn-ing is very difficult to do after the unittest has been administered. Questionsare tools of the teacher’s trade. Theymust be used skillfully to be effective.Here are a few suggestions for im-proved questioning skills.

Ask Directed Questions

Call on individual students to an-swer questions. Let’s say that you areteaching a unit of instruction on for-estry. Call on a student, and then askthe question.

“Bob, what is the common namefor Quercus alba?”

If Bob doesn’t know the answer,probe a little bit to find out what hedoes know.

“Bob, first of all, give me thenames of all the oaks we have studiedin this class thus far.”

The key point is to get Bob to giveyou a correct answer to at least a por-tion of the question. The message thiswill send to the class is that they areexpected to know the material and areresponsible for their own participationin the class. Furthermore, students whoexperience success in class activitiesare likely to perform with less anxietyin the class. However, you must stopshort of embarrassing Bob in front ofthe class. If you embarrass students,they are likely to get nervous and beunable to answer the question eventhough they might know the answer,or they might exhibit misbehavior inorder to deflect attention from their in-ability to answer the question. One dis-advantage to the method described


above is that the other students in theclass might be encouraged to take amental break while you probe for ananswer with Bob. A variation of thistechnique is to ask the question, thenchoose a student to answer.

“Okay, I’m going to ask a fewquestions about the oaks we have stud-ied in this class.” “Please wait until Icall your name.”

It is important to spread out thequestions evenly in the class. It is alsoimportant that teachers not rule out theuse of general questions entirely, be-cause they do serve a useful purposewhen followed up with directed ques-tions. “How many of you have evervisited a commercial tree farm? Raiseyour hands please” From the show ofhands, call on a student to answer thisquestion. “What were some of thethings you noticed about how pines aretransplanted, Jennifer?”

General questions can help set upthe use of directed questions in a class.They are also very useful in encourag-ing students to think about topic. Aswith any teaching method, overuseleads to a lack of effectiveness.

Allow For Wait Time

The average wait-time for a re-sponse to a question is one second, anda teacher’s reaction to a student’s re-sponse is usually less than one second(Rowe, 2003). There are two differ-ent “wait times” to consider when us-ing questioning as a teaching tool. Waittime I occurs when the teacher waitsfor the student’s initial response to aquestion. Wait time II occurs when theteacher waits a moment after thestudent’s answer. In some cases, thestudent will speak again and more fullyexplain their answer. By extending theamount of time a teacher waits for ananswer, some interesting things hap-pen. First, the student’s answer is more

thorough and involved. Secondly, thestudents exhibit a greater command oflanguage specific to instruction. Onesignificant result of increased wait timeis that the number of correct studentresponses increases along with thequantity of appropriate student re-sponses (Rowe, 2003). When a teacherdemonstrates to the students that ques-tions are a serious matter and not someploy to cause them to behave, they tendto respond in a more serious and en-gaged manner. Increased wait time alsoincreases participation by lower-achieving students and reduces thenumber of questions asked by the in-structor overall (Rowe, 2003). Everylesson has time for 2 to 3 seconds ofwait time between questions and an-swers.

Ask Divergent Questions

Martin (2003) found that mostquestions asked by teachers on testsare at the lowest level of Bloom’s cog-nitive domain. Bloom’s cognitive do-main divides question up into differentlevels with knowledge being the mostbasic types of questions and evalua-tion being the most involved. Mostquestions are convergent; there is onecorrect answer to the question. Tryasking questions that stimulate originalthought and higher order thinking byencouraging students to think of possi-bilities.

“What are some possible solutionsto dealing with Verticillium Wilt,Larry?”

Divergent questions have morethan one correct response and focuson higher order thinking skills. Thecommon mistake that many teachersmake when they are approached withhigher order and divergent questions,is to assume that these question haveto be more difficult. Instead of beingmore difficult, these questions allowteachers to encourage students to be

creative and analytical in their think-ing. Unfortunately, many teachershave difficulty determining the differ-ence between open and closed ques-tions (Martin, 2003). Asking a mixtureof convergent and divergent questionsat all of Bloom’s cognitive level helpsstudents to develop good problem-solv-ing skills (Cashing, Brock & Owens,1976). The table gives examples oflower and higher order questions foundwithin each level of Bloom’s cognitivedomain.

Questions are designed to be di-agnostic tools to measure how muchthe student has learned, and how wellthe instructor has taught the material.Used effectively, they can also encour-age students to develop problem-solv-ing skills that they can use throughoutthe lifelong learning process. Stop ask-ing those general questions aimed atno one in the class, and start askingmore directed questions that get at theheart of student learning.

References

Cashin, W.E., Brock, S.C. andOwens, R.E. (1976). Answering andasking questions: A practical guide forIDEA users. Manhattan, KS: KansasState University.

Martin, N. (2003). Questioningstyles. Mathematics Teaching, 184,18-19.

Moore, G.E. (2003). Improvingclassroom presentation skills [Elec-tronic version]. Retrieved from: http://www.ais.msstate.edu/TALS/unit2/2moduleD.html

Rowe, M.B. (2003). Wait-timeand rewards as instructional variables,their influence on language. Logic andfate control: part one wait time [reprint1974]. Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching v 40, 3 (March 2003 supple-ment) p.19-32.


Table 1Bloom’s Cognitive Domain

Knowledge Arrange, Define, Label, List “List the parts of a leaf”

Comprehension Describe, Discuss, Explain, “Identify which leaf hasIdentify pinnate veins”

Application Apply, Choose, Demonstrate, “From the list of landscapeIllustrate plants, choose three that

have serrated margins”

Level of Bloom’s Verbs Associated with Examples of QuestionsCognitive Domain Each Level Within Each Level

Lower

Order

Higher

Order

Analysis Analyze, Appraise, Calculate, “Compare and Contrast theCompare differences between a

fibrous root system and a taproot system”

Synthesis Arrange, Compose, Create, “Design a greenhouse thatDesign involves all of the objectives

we have covered in class”

Evaluation Appraise, Assess, Choose, “Assess which plants wouldArgue be best suited for a

small scale greenhouseoperation”

Barry Croom is an AssistantProfessor at North Carolina StateUniversity, Raleigh, NC

Krisitn Stair is a GraduateAssociate at North Carolina State

University, Raleigh, NC


Designing Assessments - Where Does AlignmentFit In?

By Jennifer E. Rivera

THEME ARTICLE

Agricultural Education at the

secondary level is comprised of threemain areas of instruction: classroomand laboratory instruction, SupervisedAgricultural Experiences, and partici-pation in the National FFA Organiza-tion (Dailey, Conroy, & Shelley-Tolbert,2001). For example, a unit in arc weld-ing might consist of an agricultural stu-dent taking notes in the classroomabout electrodes, safety, and functionsof an arc welder. The student mightthen go out to the shop and learn howto strike an arc and weld a bead. Heor she might have a test at the end ofthe week where the instructor is usinga rubric to measure the student’s per-formance. After school the student hashands-on experience working on a lo-cal farm welding tractor parts in a re-pair shop. Later in the semester, thestudent participates in an agriculturalmechanics career development event(CDE) where the acquired weldingskills are put to the test. This seems tobe the format that most agriculturalprograms follow. The strength is thequality and quantity of experiences thestudent receives.

Still following the example above,at the end of a welding unit the instruc-tor also assesses a student’s learningin arc welding with a paper and penciltest, such as a multiple-choice test. Butis this test an accurate measure of stu-dent achievement in arc welding? Wasit able to capture the student’s learningin his hands-on experiences, like par-ticipation in the CDE or his experienceat a work site? Too often this is theroutine assessment practice at the endof a unit. Some reasons for this mightbe that teachers lack the time to gen-

erate anything more then a multiple-choice test. Also, teachers may feelthat measuring performance outside aclassroom setting is not as legitimateas written test. Or maybe the teacheris not trained to properly develop as-sessments that take into account mul-tiple aspects of student learning.

Most agricultural programs thriveon the fact that they are not solelyclasses comprised of lectures andnotes, but rather classes that incorpo-rate hands-on, real-world experiencesfor students. Having such a develop-mental curriculum model in place al-lows for different styles of teaching andlearning. If agricultural programs fol-low this model, why do so many agri-cultural programs assess students us-ing solely a paper and pencil tests, suchas multiple-choice, short answer, oressay? Multiple-choice tests mimic onepart of the students’ learning through-out the year — namely, classroom in-struction. But such tests do not cap-ture the learning experiences that stu-dents get by exploring a career duringhis/her SAE project or participating inCareer Development Events sponsoredthrough the FFA.

In order for assessment to be ef-fective in assessing student learning itneeds to capture all aspects of thatlearning experience through the year.This is a major concern, consideringone of the primary forms of measuringstudent achievement is through stan-dardized multiple-choice test. Federallaw requires that states have an ac-countability system in place for schools,most are measured with the use of astandardized test in the academicclasses (NCLB). There have beenconcerns that these tests are not anaccurate measure of student achieve-ment (Darling-Hammond, 1995). Such

concerns with multiple-choice testingas a measure of achievement raise thequestion of why they are being used toassess performance in career and tech-nical programs. For example, manyagricultural education programs stilluse exams such as the National Occu-pational Competency Testing Institute(NOCTI) test. Agricultural Educationdoes not have a national test that dif-ferent states can employ to measurestudent achievement. In the wake ofhigh-stakes testing, it seems easy tolegitimize agricultural education pro-grams by providing a standardized na-tionwide form of assessment for agri-cultural programs. But agriculturaleducation at the secondary level doesnot follow nationwide standards. Itwould be nearly impossible to gener-ate a standardized multiple-choice as-sessment test applicable to agriculturalstudents across the nation. Also, ascited above, such standardized testsare proving to be an inaccurate mea-sure of student abilities (Darling-Hammond, 1991).

As an alternative to relying solelyon a multiple-choice test for studentassessment, the agriculture professionshould explore broadening the assess-ment model and aligning with the cur-riculum to develop statewide assess-ments. The foundation for this involvesadding two additional assessment com-ponents to the testing procedure: 1)Student exploration, and 2) Perfor-mance assessment. These two com-ponents would allow areas of instruc-tion such as FFA and SAE to becomepart of the assessment model. Class-room learning, student exploration andperformance assessment have equalimportance in the full agricultural edu-cation experience. To have too muchemphasis placed on classroom achieve-ment is not a proper measure of the


student — nor is it an adequate formatfor assessment.

As an example, I refer to theNew York State agricultural sciencemodel for assessing students. TheNew York State Education Department(NYSED) requires that there be aform of technical assessment utilizedfor program accreditation. The tech-nical assessment should consist of threecomponents — a written portion, a stu-dent project, and student demonstra-tion of technical skills (Technical As-sessments, 2003). The model for agri-cultural education seemed to fit staterequirements. The written portion is amultiple-choice test developed by theCornell University Department of Edu-cation and the NY Agricultural Educa-tion Outreach. This comprises 60%of the technical assessment.

The format of the written examis flexible for various programs in thestate. The second portion of the test isthe student project. A student’s Su-pervised Agricultural Experienceproject counts as such a project. They

are scored using American FFA degreeaward applications and proficiencyaward applications. This comprises20% of the technical assessment. Thelast portion counts for the remaining20% and is the student demonstrationof technical skills. This includes par-ticipation in four CDE events at thestate or national level at any time dur-ing the student’s career in an agricul-ture program. Two events are required— preparation for public speaking andemployment interview. The other twoare determined by a student’s interest.All records of SAE and CDEs are keptin a student file and are used when to-taling a student’s final assessmentscore.

This model is aligned with thethree areas of agricultural education,Figure 1. Even though it is being uti-lized at the state level, individual schoolsnationally can begin to follow it. It canalso be altered to suit the needs of stu-dents that may not have an SAE projector those that do not participate in FFAactivities. I am asking that we get cre-ative in designing assessments and re-

Jennifer E. Rivera is a GraduateAssociate at Cornell University,Ithaca, NY

member that there is often more valuefound in authentic assessment than theidea that one test fits all formats.

References

Dailey, A.L., Conroy, C.A., &Shelley-Tolbert, C.A. (2001). Usingagricultural education as the context toteach life skills. Journal of Agricul-tural Education, 42 (1), 10-19.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1991).The Implications of testing policy foreducational quality and equality. PhiDelta Kappan, 73 (3), 220-225.

Darling-Hammond, L., Ancess,J., & Falk, B. (1995). Authentic As-sessment in Action: Studies ofSchools and Students at Work. NewYork: Teachers College Press.

New York State Education De-partment. (2003). Technical Assess-ments Based on Industry Standards.Retrieved August 21, 2003, fromwww.emsc.nysed.gov/workforce/cte/techassess.htm

Figure 1: How the Three Components ofAgricultural Education are Assessed


Marketing Grain in the Classroom - Assessment ofReal Life SkillsBy Jonathan Morris

THEME ARTICLE

Teaching marketing in the

classroom appears to be a thing of thepast. By having students keep trackof markets, students can learn thingsthat will help them in the future whetherthey are farmers or if the choose otherprofessions. Farmers need manage-ment and marketing skills to survive ina highly competitive business environ-ment (Al-Rimawi, 2004).

Three Agriculture teachers and Ihad a pilot project many years agoabout marketing of corn and soybeansas a way of developing student aware-ness and skills in marketing. Today, Istill use this project as a classroom ex-ercise, however, I have changed it overthe years to include the use of com-puters. According to the Office ofTechnology Assessment’s 1995 Reporton teachers and technology, teachersstill struggle with integrating technol-ogy into the curriculum.

Students lack the opportunity topractice the theory in real world appli-cations (Boyd, 2002). Skills learned inthe project will help develop studentfamiliarity of markets and marketing,understanding of trends in markets, in-form students of risks and rewards ofmarketing, and teach students how touse a computer.

The first step in this exercise isto teach the students about marketing.As basic as it may sound, setting goalsis an absolute necessity in marketinggrain (Brock, 1988). The followingmarketing objectives should be fol-lowed:

1) Watch Markets

2) Set Goals

3) Try not to get emotionally involved

4) Don’t try for the highs – Average is better

As a class, we establish that weare going to market 100 acres of cornand 100 acres of beans, based on thecurrent yields that farmers are experi-encing locally. Normally this will be150 – 175 bushels per acre for cornand 40 – 50 bushels per acre for beans.There is a minimum sale of 500 bush-els of corn and 250 bushels of beans tobe sold at a time. Each student mustsell 50% of the grain on the spot mar-ket and 50% on the futures market.

price will be kept on a computer spread-sheet. Each student is given his or herown floppy disk on which to save theMicrosoft Excel spreadsheet, ratherthan using the hard drive. This year, Ihad one student who kept his spread-sheet on a flash drive. Each studentwill keep a spot price and a futuresprice. I utilize one Website for thisprice. All the students will have thesame prices. The spot price is alwaysa local elevator spot price. The fu-tures price is usually two to threemonths away. The students must havea reason for selling. A rationale mustbe provided with each sale. This couldbe because of the high price or theymay have a bill to pay.

Each student must keep track ofhis or her own sales on the computerand by hand. The one that is kept byhand is shown to the teacher the daythe student wants to sell grain. I thensign the paper for proof of the sale. Iuse this paper to verify all of the salesat the end. My signature on the paperis proof of the sale or the “contract”.The student then keeps track of thesales price and the number of bushelsthat are sold on the computer. He orshe cannot go over the amount of grainthat was established in the beginningas having been grown.

The student has to have all grainsold by March 1st. Along with keep-ing track of the market prices, eachstudent must keep track of the numberof bushels sold and the total dollaramount received for the grain. This isdone on the same Excel file, but on adifferent sheet. They must also keeptrack of their average price per bushel.This allows them to know if they havemet their goals of marketing. Businessowners, managers, and farm operatorsneed to maintain effective bookkeep-

Students are asked to keep trackof markets starting the first full weekof September. This allows time at thebeginning of the semester to talk aboutmarketing grain. This daily market

As basicas it maysound,setting

goals is anabsolute

necessity.


ing systems and to be able to interpretand analyze their records properly ifthe best management decisions are tobe made (Al-Rimawi, 2004).

The students are also required tokeep a graph of the markets. This vi-sually shows the students what themarket trend has been. I grade thespreadsheet, graph, and manual salessheet every two weeks. This holds thestudents accountable for their assign-ment.

Along with this exercise, I havethe students keep another spreadsheetwhere they are to sell some grain ev-ery Wednesday. This allows them tosee what would happen if they aver-age their sells throughout the period.Through many years of doing this ex-ercise, we have proved that the salesof grain every week usually results ina higher average than the student sales.In the last few years, many grain com-panies have added programs that re-semble this average selling. Farmersare paying extra dollars for this ser-vice. By showing students how to sella little at a time, a student may save

money in the future if he/she goes intofarming.

At the end of the exercise, wediscuss different strategies that the stu-dents have used in their marketingplans. This allows students that did notdo as well to understand why they hada lower average price per bushel. Theycan also see what happens if they sella little at a time each week.

Students who will never have abushel of grain to sell in real life canlearn a lot from this exercise. Talk toany mutual fund broker about invest-ing money. It is the same thing as sell-ing grain, but just the reverse. You areinvesting at different costs versus sell-ing at different prices. Students enjoythe competition and get excited whenMarch 1st approaches. This is a greatlearning tool for marketing as well asusing computers.

The following is an example ofthe spreadsheet that the students keep.This is a three-week example. By do-ing this exercise, you are not only teach-ing marketing skills, but the student is Jonathan Morris is an Agriculture

Teacher

also learning how to use a computerand utilize a spreadsheet.

References

Al-Rimawi, Ahmad Sh.,Karablieh, Emad K., & Al-Kadi,Abdulfatah S. (2004). An investiga-tion into the perceived farm manage-ment and marketing educational needsof farm operators in Jordan. Journalof Agricultural Education, 45(2), 34.

Office of Technology Assess-ment, U. S. Congress. (1995). Teach-ers and technology: Making the con-nection, OTA-HER-616. Washington,DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.www.wws.princeton.edu/~ota/

Boyd, Barry L., and Murphrey,Theresa P. (2002). Evaluation of acomputer-based, asynchronous activ-ity on student learning of leadershipconcepts. Journal of Agricultural Edu-cation, 43(1), 36.

Brock, Richard A. (1988). Emo-tions – Ruler of Most Plans. The BrockReport, February 5, 1988, 2.


Student Name

Bean Sales Corn Sales Beans Price Corn Price Bean Corn

Date Spot Futures Spot Futures Spot Futures Spot Futures Gross $ Gross $

09/06/04 $ 6.390 $ 6.330 $2.240 $ 2.340 $ - $ -

09/07/04 5.940 5.880 2.160 2.240 - -

09/08/04 1,000 5.940 5.900 2.120 2.240 - 2,120.00

09/09/04 500 5.720 5.880 2.140 2.250 2,860.00 -

09/10/04 5.650 5.810 2.100 2.210 - -

09/13/04 2,000 5.510 5.720 2.050 2.180 - 4,360.00

09/14/04 5.580 5.750 2.030 2.170 - -

09/15/04 5.510 5.750 1.990 2.170 - -

09/16/04 1,000 5.470 5.770 1.920 2.180 5,770.00 -

09/17/04 5.530 5.580 1.950 2.140 - -

09/20/04 500 1,000 5.220 5.490 1.940 2.120 2,610.00 1,940.00

09/21/04 5.200 5.480 1.860 2.120 - -

09/22/04 5.170 5.480 1.840 2.110 - -

09/23/04 5.150 5.470 1.800 2.070 - -

09/24/04 5.040 5.360 1.750 2.040 - -

1,000 1,000 2,000 2,000 $11,240.00 $8,420.00

Totals Beans 2,000 Corn 4,000 Average Price/bushel 5.62 2.11

Grain Marketing ExerciseSample Spread Sheet


THEME ARTICLE

Assessing Your Teaching Through FFA: FFAMembers Today, Community Leaders TomorrowBy Brad Bryant and E. C. Conner

THEME ARTICLE

State standards and student

testing often make the headlines of thelocal, state, and national news. Theteachers of the core academic subjectsof math, English, social studies, andscience are consistently under pressureto have high standards of student per-formance. Test scores and the per-centage of student passing state as-sessment tests are constantly publicizedand critiqued.

Schools and school divisions areoften in a competition to have the high-est test scores in the academic sub-jects. Competition along with highstandards for student performance isnothing new to agricultural education.We compete against our peers throughthe many programs offered through theNational FFA Organization. Agricul-tural Education programs must alsocompete at the local level to gain stu-dents and meet the needs of the com-munity.

How can you assess your teach-ing? Just as schools often gauge aca-demic teachers through student testscores, student participation in FFAactivities allows the agricultural edu-cation teacher to compare themselvesto their peers in district, state, and evennational competitions. Member par-ticipation in CDEs, proficiency awards,agriscience activities, leadershipevents, as well as state and nationalconventions feed your students withknowledge and return those skills tothe community.

So, how can we assess teachingin agricultural education? FFA pro-

gram competitions, community feed-back, and student success uponcompletion of your program will pro-vide the feedback needed to determineyour success.

The FFA often provides studentswith their only opportunity to excel andbe a part of “school life”. Is it difficultto carry out a really good program thatincludes a strong FFA? Agriculturaleducation teachers know about thetimes of teaching a full class load andthen watching other teachers go homewhile a ‘second’ day begins with aflurry of FFA activities. Evenings andweekends often include meetings, ca-reer devel-o p m e n tprac t ices ,fund raisers,student vis-its, complet-ing awardapplicationsand all ofthe otherduties of anFFA advisor.

M o s tsuccessfulagriculturaleduca t ionteachers willtell you thatthe personalsatisfactionand experi-ences areworth everyminute of the work. However, teach-ers and students are not the only win-ners. Former FFA members make upa tremendous part of this community.

For example, let’s look at a small

community in southside Virginia. Thefirst-year agriculture teacher at ParkView High School was a 2000 gradu-ate of the program. He was a fiveyear FFA member and served as a ParkView FFA officer. He was a winnerof three different state proficiencyawards, and was a member of a na-tional winning homesite evaluationteam.

Leaving school and merging leftonto Route US 1, you travel one mileand noticed the building on the right thatformerly housed Mack’s Unlimited.This former Virginia FFA officer, statepublic speaking contest runner-up, and

winner of twostate profi-c i e n c yawards re-cently soldthis very suc-cessful hunt-ing, fishingand boatingsales businessto spend moretime as amember of aprofessionals p e e d b o a tracing team.He is thec o m m i t t e echairman forthe JoeyBrock Me-morial Schol-arship set upto honor a

former friend and FFA member thatwas killed in a hunting accident. Thisfund has provided thousands of dollarsto FFA members in the local commu-nity to further their education. Thisbuilding is not empty. Bill’s Auto Sales

Most successfulagricultural

education teacherswill tell you that

the personalsatisfaction andexperiences are

worth everyminute of the

work.


has just moved in. Bill is a former FFAmember. He was a national finalist inthe Agricultural Sales and Service Pro-ficiency Award program and was amember of a state winning land evalu-ation team. He operates this business,works as a professional auctioneer andowns several hundred acres of farm-land that includes cattle and sheep.

Another hundred yards down theroad is the local Ford dealer. ACalhoun’s Lawn and Landscape truckis parked in front of the building andseveral workers are implementing anew landscape design for the facility.Brian is a former National FFA Profi-ciency Award Winner in Turf andLandscape Management. He also par-ticipated in the National Forestry Con-test, was a state winner in Computersin Agriculture, won two FFA CDEs atthe middle school level, and participatedin the National Land Pasture andRange Judging Contest in OklahomaCity. Brian just expanded his businessto include a mulching sales and haulingoperation. His operation is now worthover a million dollars.

This community is full of formerFFA members and valuable contribu-tors to the community. Mark, a formerNational FFA Proficiency Award final-ist in two areas owns hundreds of acresof farm land that includes flue curedtobacco and livestock. Mark is also acommunity leader serving as an officerin the local fire department. Barner’sNursery is operated by a formerAmerican FFA Degree recipient andwas a National Finalist in Turf andLandscape Management. He also par-ticipated in the National FFA MeatsEvaluation CDE and public speakingon the state level. He helps his parentsrun a country store located right be-side his nursery that includes a meatmarket with fresh cut steaks. Hespeaks to local community clubs andschool organizations and has his ownnews column in the local news paper.Another member of a National MeatsEvaluation team works as the meatsdepartment manager for a local chainsupermarket. Tim works for Food Lionin South Hill. Greg, owns Lorene Build-ing Supply. He is a former State Profi-

ciency Award Finalist. Wesley, aformer chapter officer, National Profi-ciency Award Finalist, participant in theNational Land Pasture & Range Con-test and National Forestry CDE eventparticipant is now serving MecklenburgCounty as the Soil Conservation Spe-cialist.

It is obvious that the FFA pre-pares students to lead our local com-munities. Reflecting on these storiesreinforces the importance of the localagricultural education program. It alsoillustrates just how much the FFA ex-periences mean to the development ofstudent’s leadership skills.

Agricultural education teacherscan assess their success by compar-ing FFA participation with their peersin the states that have similar experi-ences. FFA success translates intocommunity support. The communityof South Hill, Virginia is strong becauseof yesterday’s Park View FFA mem-bers.

As your teaching careerprogresses, how do you know if yourteaching is meeting the needs of thestudents in your community? The an-swers will be everywhere.

E. C. Conner is Director ofCareer and Technical Educationat Mecklenburg County (Virginia)Public Schools and formerly anAgricultural Education teacher atPark View High School at SouthHill, VA

Brad Bryant is an AssistantProfessor at Virginia State Uni-versity and formerly an Agricul-tural Education teacher at ParkView Middle School at South Hill,VA


A Teaching and Learning Needs Assessment forGeorgia Agriculture TeachersBy John C. Ricketts and Dennis Duncan

THEME ARTICLE

Agricultural education has un-

dergone many changes in the past fewyears. With the changes in agriculturaleducation, comes the need to continu-ally identify the teaching and learningneeds of agriculture teachers of today.Agriculture teachers in the state ofGeorgia reflected on their experiencesand skills set to determine the profes-sional development priorities for teach-ers in their state.

Specifically, Georgia ag teachersidentified where they needed the great-est amount of help in regards to “teach-ing and learning.” Let’s look and seewhat areas these teachers have decidedto improve. Table 1 lists the “teachingand learning” competencies the teach-ers contemplated. The bold compe-tencies at the top of the list representareas of focus for professional devel-opment and personal improvement inthe classroom.

Motivation

The number one competency agteachers identified as an area wherethey need training/professional devel-opment to improve in was “motivatingstudents to learn.” All us have had orare currently experiencing a teachingsituation where students just don’t seeminterested. We must remember thatmotivation to learn is a function of “thequality and variety of learning experi-ences that are under the direct control”of the agriculture teacher (Newcomb,McCracken, Warmbrod, & Whittington,p. 31). Likewise, we need to remem-ber that the learning activities we plan

must reflect the wants, needs, inter-ests, and aspirations of students(Newcomb, etc…). Specifically,some of the major contributors of stu-dent motivation are:

· Instructor’s enthusiasm

· Relevance of the material

· Organization of the course

· Appropriate difficulty level ofthe material

· Active involvement of stu-dents

· Variety

· Rapport between teacher andstudents

· Use of appropriate, concrete,and understandable examples(Sass, 1989)

Critical Thinking

Ag teachers in Georgia also rec-ognize the great need to teach studentshow to think critically and creatively.Principals, workshop presenters, andanyone with a PhD seems to preachthe importance of critical thinking, butno one seems to be articulating howwe are to go about fostering criticalthinking in our students. A recent studyof National FFA leaders concluded thatprojects and teaching methods de-signed to engage the curiosity andtruth-seeking capacity of students maybe one way to affect critical thinking.The same study also indicated thatleadership training opportunities, likethe ones available through the FFA,might foster critical thinking (Ricketts

& Rudd, 2005).

Critical thinking can also be de-veloped from frequent group discus-sions in the classroom. Following aresome suggestions for facilitating dis-cussions that promote critical thinking:

· Expect reasons to be givenwhen statements are made

· Be a model of critical thinking: Review what you say andlook for mistakes in your rea-soning. This teaches studentsto be self-correcting.

· Use literature, movies, music,and other media which includes experiences that aremeaningful to the students

· To get started with the discus-sions that promote criticalthinking, it is a good idea tofirst talk with the class aboutwhat makes a good discussion(Wilks, 1995).

Managing Behavior

Managing student behavior prob-lems was identified as the third mostneeded area for continuing educationand/or professional development. Mostof us in agricultural education havewonderful students most of the time,but that small percentage of “problemchildren” can give us an enormousheadache. Below is a list of potentialprocedures to follow for fewer head-aches in the classroom.

1. Hold and communicate high behavioral expectations.

2. Establish clear rules and pro-


cedures and instruct students in how tofollow them.

3. Make clear to students the con-sequences of misbehavior.

4. Enforce classroom rulespromptly, consistently, and equitably from the first day.

5. Devote time to teaching self-monitoring skills.

6. Maintain a brisk instructionalpace and make smooth transi-tions between activities.

7. Monitor activities and givefeedback and reinforcementregarding their behavior.

8. Create opportunities for stud-ents to succeed in their learning and social behavior.

9. Identify those students whoseem to lack a sense of self-confidence and work to helpthem achieve an internal locusof control.

10.Make use of cooperativelearning groups, as appropriate.

11.Make use of humor to stimu-late student interest or reduceclassroom tensions.

12.Remove distracting materials(animals, projects from another class, etc.) from view wheninstruction is in progress (Cot-ton, 2005, http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/5/cu9.html)

Special Needs

Teachers also believed theyneeded to learn more about working

with special needs students. Perhapsthe diversity of needs makes this a hardpart of teaching to master. Specialneeds include learning disabilities, be-havior disorders, physical disabilities,giftedness, and others. We recommendvisiting the Special Needs Opportu-nities Windows (SNOW) website(http://snow.utoronto.ca/best/accom-modate/index.html) to gain a betterunderstanding of possible strategies youcan use to work with special needs stu-dents. Following is a list of classroomstrategies to practice regularly for alltypes of needs. Students should

· enter the classroom at thesame time as the other stud-ents

· be seated so that he/she cansee and participate in all act-ivities and so that other stud-ents and the teacher can in-teract easily with her/him

· participate in classroom activities at the same time as theother students

· make transitions from one act-ivity to another at the sametime as the other students

· leave the classroom at thesame time as the other pupils

· have his/her academic andsocial progress a constant fo-cus of the program

· be involved in class activities,e.g., asking and answeringquestions, group activities

· be encouraged to behave thesame way as the other pupils,e.g., remaining seated duringinstruction

· be assisted only when neces-

sary with that assistance fading as soon as possible.

One of the premises of motiva-tion is to set students up for success.To motivate you to practice some ofthese suggestions we only decided toaddress four competencies at this time.Best of luck to you all – especiallywhen that classrom door closes behindyou.

References

Cotton, K. (2005). Schoolwideand classroom discipline. School Im-provement Research Series, Iclose-Up#9. Retrieved June 3, 2005, fromhttp://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/5/cu9.html

Newcomb, L. H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J. R., & Whittington,M. S. (2004). Methods of teachingagriculture, 3rd ed. Upper SaddleRiver, NJ: Pearson

SNOW: Special Needs Opportu-nities Windows. (n.d.) Retrieved June3, 2005, from http://snow.utoronto.ca/best/accommodate/index.html

Ricketts, J. C., & Rudd, R. D.(2005). Critical thinking skills of se-lected youth leaders: the efficacy ofcritical thinking dispositions, leadershipand academic performance. Journalof Agricultural Education, 46 (1), 32-43

Sass, E. J. (1989). Motivation inthe college classroom: What studentstell us. Teaching of Psychology,16(2). 86-88.

Wilks, S. (1995). Critical andcreative thinking: Strategies forclassroom inquiry. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.


Competency RankMotivating students to learn 1Teaching students to think critically and creatively 2Managing student behavior problems 3Teaching learning disabled students 4Teaching students problem-solving and

decision making skills 5Organizing and supervising teaching laboratories 6Teaching using experiments 7Assessing and evaluating student performance 8Developing performance based assessment

instruments 9Conducting parent / teacher conferences 10Planning and conducting student field trips 11Conducting an adult program 12

John C. Ricketts is an AssistantProfessor at the University ofGeorgia, Athens, GA

Dennis Duncan is an AssistantProfessor at the University of

Georgia, Athens, GA

Table 1Teaching and Learning Competencies


Subject Index - Volume 77July - August 2004 to May - June 2005

SUBJECT INDEX

Changing Purposes of Agricultural Education

What is our Purpose?Jamie Cano .................................................... July-August 2004The Blind Man, the Elephant, andAgricultural EducationGary Moore ................................................... July-August 2004Questioning Our PurposeRob Terry ...................................................... July-August 2004California’s Road to Defining the Purposeof Agricultural EducationCary J. Trexler & Lisa A. Leonardo ............... July-August 2004Agricultural Education . . . EOE?Jodie Moffitt ................................................. July-August 2004Dumping GroundsBarry Croom and Gary Moore ...................... July-August 2004Food to Me: A Farm-to-Table Programfor Middle School ChildrenChris Cassel, Joseph Miller, Todd Biddle &Michael Benner ............................................. July-August 2004Agricultural Education = Agricultural LiteracyKimberly A. Bellah, James E. Dyer &Glen R. Casey ................................................ July-August 2004Do You Believe in the Future ofAgricultural Education?Tim J. McDermott & Neil A. Knobloch ......... July-August 2004

Standards: A National Perspective

Standards: Why Have Them?Jamie Cano ..........................................September-October 2004Standards and Agricultural Education:It’s Not Just Plows, Cows, and SowsAnymore (but it MIGHT be physicalscience, the mammary system, andbreeding for lean meat)Carol Conroy ...................................... September-October 2004Educational Standards – A National PerspectiveLarry Case ........................................... September-October 2004Content Standards for Agriculture orAgriculture Content Imbedded WithinCore StandardsVernon B. Cardwell .............................September-October 2004Standards, Better Teaching, and MoreAccountabilityAnissa Wilhelm...................................September-October 2004We’re Bringing Standards to Life!M. Susie Whittington, James Connors &Wes Budke .........................................September-October 2004

Beginning Agriscience TeacherStandards: Whose? How? Why?Bob Williams ....................................... September-October 2004Standards in Pre-Service Classes: The NewDenominator for Agricultural Teacher EducationDavid M. Coffey & Robin L. Pieter .....September-October 2004Involving Academic Partners in EstablishingStandards in Agricultural EducationMark Balschweid ................................September-October 2004What Gets Measured, Gets Done!James R. Woodard ..............................September-October 2004

Do I Make a Difference?

The Influence of OneJamie Cano ....................................... November-December 2004Making a DifferenceMeeCee Baker .................................. November-December 2004Take Time for that BeginningAgriculture TeacherBill Kittlinger .................................... November-December 2004The Highway to SuccessCarrie Ann Fritz ................................ November-December 2004An Inspiration Letter from a MotherLinda Baxter ..................................... November-December 2004Mentoring Can be a Win, Win,Win ExperienceJim Summers .................................... November-December 2004The Magic of Unobtrusive MeasuresNancy Grudens-Schuck ................... November-December 2004Get to Know Your StudentsJim Craddock ................................... November-December 2004What Are You Doing For Your Students?Jason Ince ........................................ November-December 2004The Role of the MentorTom Sawyer ..................................... November-December 2004The Real Tom SawyerNick Armendariz ............................... November-December 2004What Teacher Influenced You the Most?MeeCee Baker .................................. November-December 2004Our FFA Advisors Made a Difference in Our Lives2004-2005 Pennsylvania StateFFA Officer Team ............................. November-December 2004AgriCULTURAL History in the ClassroomChansi Williams & Antoine Alston .. November-December 2004Strategic Planning During Times of UncertaintiesEddie Moore .................................... November-December 2004Web-Based Learning and Its Role in Preparing AgriculturalEducation TeachersChansi Williams & Antoine Alston .. November-December 2004


The Science of Teaching

Is Teaching Scientific?Jamie Cano ............................................ January-February 2005The Science of TeachingR. Kirby Barrick ..................................... January-February 2005Organization and Structure forEffective TeachingBrian Warnick &Gary Straquadine ....... January-February 2005Student Motivation: The Bottom LineJack Elliot & James A. Knight ............... January-February 2005The Problem Solving Approach:Taking Students Beyond KnowledgeRick Rudd ............................................. January-February 2005Can You Hear Me Now?Jacquelyn P. Deeds &Kirk A. Swortzel .................................... January-February 2005Is Your Classroom a Happenin’Place to Be?Nevada A. Nevin &Neil A. Knobloch .................................. January-February 2005The Science Underlying Task-OrientedTeaching BehaviorGreg Miller ............................................ January-February 2005Teacher Behaviors: StudentOpportunity to LearnM. Susie Whittington &James Connors ..................................... January-February 2005Are You Feeding or ChallengingYour Students: Feeding them Knowledgeor Challenging them to Think?Harry N. Boone, Jr., Deborah A. Boone& Stacy A. Gartin .................................. January-February 2005

The Mechanics of Teaching

The Teacher as a Rain DancerJamie Cano .................................................... March-April 2005Effective Teaching: The DeliberateAct of Planning, Organizing, andManaging a Comprehensive AgricultureProgramAnna Ball ...................................................... March-April 2005A Survival Memo for New AgricultureTeachersMichael S. Retallick ....................................... March-April 2005Three Circles: Circus Side Show or aModern Agricultural Science Program?Reagan A. Pillack & T. Grady Roberts .......... March-April 2005Great Opportunities in Urban Agriculture:Planning for Teaching in Non-TraditionalProgramsKerry Martens .............................................. March-April 2005Constructivist Teaching: DevelopingConstructivist Approaches to the

Agricultural Education ClassAlexander J. Hess & Cary J. Trexler ........... March-April 2005Incorporating Science, Math, andReading into the AgricultureClassroom: The Role of the LaboratoryBrian E. Myers ........................................... March-April 2005The Infusion of Reading Grows AncillaryLiteracy: How Good of a Teacher Are You?Kyle McGregor & Jennifer McGregor ....... March-April 2005Before We Teach: Considerations forManaging the Modern Agri-Science ClassroomDave Wilson .............................................. March-April 2005Preparing for Success in the ClassroomShane Robinson & Scott Burris ................ March-April 2005Writing Objectives in Secondary AgricultureCourses that Challenge Students to ThinkM. Susie Whittington ................................ March-April 2005Evaluating “Doing to Learn” Activities:Performance-Based AssessmentsT. Grady Roberts & Julie F. Harlin ............. March-April 2005

The Art of Teaching

You are the Artist – The Classroom isYour CanvasJamie Cano ..................................................... May-June 2005The Artist in UsRobert Torres ................................................. May-June 2005What Matters Most is Teaching Fromthe HeartMolly Aschenbrenner .................................... May-June 2005Be Friendly … Who Cares?Colleen Griswold & Shane Robinson ............ May-June 2005The Art of Creating InterestErica Thieman & Tracy Kitchel ...................... May-June 2005Inviting Students to the Active LearningProcessDoug Kueker ................................................. May-June 2005“Why are Those Kids in Groups?”Jonathan D. Ulmer &Mary McCart Cramer ..................................... May-June 2005Creative Keys to Unlock Your ClassesRob Terry & Amy Mounce ............................ May-June 2005Two Ag Teachers Discuss How to GetTheir Students to LearnGeorge Wardlow ............................................ May-June 2005The Art of Integrating Technology intoAgriscience ProgramsTim Murphy ................................................... May-June 2005The Art of Teacher ReflectionAmanda Stemme & Scott Burris .................... May-June 2005The Art of LectureDan Swafford & Dean Swafford .................... May-June 2005


Author Index - Volume 77July - August 2004 to May - June 2005

AUTHOR INDEX

2004-2005 Pennsylvania StateFFA Officer Team ........................... November-December 2004Armendariz, Nick ........................... November-December 2004Aschenbrenner, Molly ..................................... May-June 2005Alston, Antoine .............................. November-December 2004Baker, MeeCee ............................... November-December 2004Ball, Anna ..................................................... March-April 2005Balschweid, Mark ............................. September-October 2004Barrick, R. Kirby ................................. January-February 2005Baxter, Linda .................................. November-December 2004Bellah, Kimberly A. ...................................... July-August 2004Benner, Michael ............................................ July-August 2004Biddle, Todd .................................................. July-August 2004Boone, Deborah .................................... January-February 2005Boone, Harry N. Jr. .............................. January-February 2005Budke, Wes ........................................ September-October 2004Burris, Scott ................................................ March-April 2005,.......................................................................... May-June 2005

Cano, Jamie ................................................. July-August 2004,............ September-October 2004, November-December 2004,. January-February 2005, March-April 2005, May-June 2005

Cardwell, Vernon ............................... September-October 2004Case, Larry ........................................ September-October 2004Casey, Glen R. ............................................... July-August 2004Cassel, Chris .................................................. July-August 2004Coffey, David M. .............................. September-October 2004Connors, James ................................ September-October 2004,.............................................................. January-February 2005

Conroy, Carol .................................... September-October 2004Craddock, Jim ................................. November-December 2004Cramer, Mary McCart ..................................... May-June 2005Croom, Barry ................................................ July-August 2004Deeds, Jacquelyn P. ............................. January-February 2005Dyer, James E. .............................................. July-August 2004Elliot, Jack ............................................ January-February 2005Fritz, Carrie Ann ............................ November-December 2004Gartin, Stacy A. .................................... January-February 2005Griswold, Colleen ............................................ May-June 2005Grudens-Schuck, Nancy ................ November-December 2004Harlin, Julie F. .............................................. March-April 2005Hess, Alexander J. ........................................ March-April 2005Ince, Jason ...................................... November-December 2004Kitchel, Tracy .................................................. May-June 2005Kittlinger, Bill ................................. November-December 2004Knight, James A. .................................. January-February 2005Knobloch, Neil ............................................ July-August 2004,.............................................................. January-February 2005

Kueker, Doug ............................................................... May-June 2005Leonardo, Lisa A. ...................................................... July-August 2004Martens, Kerry ........................................................ March-April 2005McDermott, Tim J. ................................................... July-August 2004McGregor, Kyle ....................................................... March-April 2005McGregor, Jennifer .................................................. March-April 2005Miller, Greg ...................................................... January-February 2005Miller, Joseph ........................................................... July-August 2004Moffitt, Jodie ............................................................ July-August 2004Moore, Eddie .............................................. November-December 2004Moore, Gary ............................................................. July-August 2004Mounce, Amy .............................................................. May-June 2005Murphy, Tim ............................................................... May-June 2005Myers, Brian E. ........................................................ March-April 2005Nevin, Nevada A. ............................................. January-February 2005Pieter, Robin L. ............................................. September-October 2004Pillack, Reagan A. ..................................................... March-April 2005Retallick, Michael S. ................................................ March-April 2005Robinson, Shane ...................................................... March-April 2005,...................................................................................... May-June 2005

Roberts, T. Grady ................................................... March-April 2005,.................................................................................. March-April 2005

Rudd, Rick ........................................................ January-February 2005Sawyer, Tom .............................................. November-December 2004Stemme, Amanda .......................................................... May-June 2005Straquadine, Gary ............................................ January-February 2005Summers, Jim ............................................. November-December 2004Swafford, Dan .............................................................. May-June 2005Swafford, Dean ............................................................. May-June 2005Swortzel, Kirk A. ............................................. January-February 2005Terry, Rob ............................................................... July-August 2004,...................................................................................... May-June 2005

Thieman, Erica .............................................................. May-June 2005Torres, Robert .............................................................. May-June 2005Trexler, Cary J. ........................................................ July-August 2004,.................................................................................. March-April 2005

Ulmer, Jonathan D. ...................................................... May-June 2005Wardlow, George .......................................................... May-June 2005Warnick, Brian .................................................. January-February 2005Whittington, M. Susie .................................. September-October 2004,......................................... January-February 2005, March-April 2005

Wilhelm, Anissa ............................................. September-October 2004Williams, Bob ................................................ September-October 2004Williams, Chansi ......................................... November-December 2004Wilson, Dave ............................................................ March-April 2005Woodard, James R. ........................................ September-October 2004

THE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION MAGAZINE2006 THEMES

WILL APPEAR IN THE SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2005 ISSUE


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