I'm Brian Myers. I'm Mike Ritalik. I'm Becky Haddad. And this is Al pellets a podcast featuring tips for ad teachers We are your agricultural education resource across the web sharing research based tips and tackling the tough questions facing agriculture teachers every day Welcome back ag teachers to another episode of out pellets tips for ag teachers here by the al pellet I'm Brian Myers and today.
I'm here again with the always wonderful Becky Haddad always seems like a stretch I won't even comment on that now Let's just picture this what if your next professional development was more than coffee cookies and a stack of new handouts What have it actually transformed your teaching brought you hands-on activities and connected you with experts in animal sciences and plant sciences all while working along Side fellow ag teachers sounds too good to be true, right? Well, maybe not because we're diving into research article today that explores exactly how thoughtful content focus PD programs make a difference for ag teachers Across the country. So how can we as educators move beyond the same old same old and really bring our curriculum and our students to life? We'll get ready because our special guests today are the very authors behind this study and they're here to share the behind the scenes the classroom stories And the tips you can actually use but before we get started I invite our special guest to please let everybody know who we have gathered with us today here by the al pellet All right.
Good morning. I am Stephanie Limley. I'm an associate professor of literacy education at Mississippi State And I'll explain how I'm involved in working with ag teachers He's literacy and ag to completely different areas, but we will get there and I'm so excited to be here and share our amazing work And my name is Renee clary I'm a professor of geology at Mississippi State University and a science education researcher And I have been very fortunate to have been looped into this project by Stephanie And I'm looking forward to this conversation Well, fantastic. Thanks for agreeing to do this and everybody know you just an accidentally stumble into the studio today to do this There's very intense and out you guys are doing some great work that's focused here for ag teachers So why don't you give us a kind of an overview of your work and what how that applies to our teachers?
Sure, so we have been fortunate to receive some grant funding from the USDA with their professional development and ag literacy grants And in that grant funding we created a professional development with colleagues in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at MSU Along with another colleague that is recently retired from teacher education Dr. Kathmee Ali focused on Agricultural science in a variety of different disciplines so animal science plant science and a little bit of meat science as well Our project was called agricultural science professional development, which is probably not the most creative title Thank you though to AI for helping with acronyms for that which we came up with acre and so we call our project acre in this project We did a two-week immersive professional development for teachers We first targeted six to twelve grade agriculture and science teachers in the state of Mississippi We did this two-week PD where we did a lot of immersive learning with them a lot of hands-on as you mentioned before lab dissections farm tours hands-on lab experiments as well as instruction and content So we were lucky to bring in colleagues from the College of Ag and Life Sciences that taught our content related to animal science Funnily enough, I guess my husband Caleb Winley is an animal scientist. He's a reproductive physiologist So he was kind of our initial connection with the animal and dairy science program We had our at the time dairy extension specialists that worked with us And then we also had some grad students that were PhD students working with us as well and doing a little bit of the content Our teachers learned over those two weeks about animal science Modeled somewhat after the MSU program of study for animal and dairy science where we started with an intro to animal ag We then moved into Anatomy and physiology we did a dissection of a fetal pig we then looked out reproduction and we did some really cool Where they are in reproduction both in our classroom space at partnership middle school Which is where we house our PD which is a collaboration between the start Reluctible Hall Consolidated School District and the University and so the school is on university lands But it is a school district building which is a beautiful sixth and seventh grade school brand new classrooms and labs Once we did the reproduction piece We then had some ag colleagues come in and do some work with us on genetics and nutrition and that was really the first week We threw in some plant science as well. We talked a little bit about GMOs and different Hydroponics and some really cool plant science content and then the second week of our PD was really focused more on the production side Which is really more of the last couple of years or so of the ADS degree where we did our farm tours We got into the meat lab.
We learned about processing. We got to experience kind of the tour of that and Also towards South farm which was our beef unit where we actually had our teachers do some practice AI They got to go in and learn about ultrasounds They got to practice a little bit of that and really get some hands-on Experience and so once we did our two week institute the teachers came back for one day in the fall and one day in the spring We surveyed them on course content on what they were interested in Things they wanted to learn more in agriculture This grant also had a strong literacy component to it Which is where I fit in with literacy instruction and so my area of expertise is content area literacy Which are there's generic reading and writing vocabulary speaking and listening strategies that we can infuse in our classrooms as well as disciplinary Lursi so what does it mean to read right and speak like an agriculturalist and animal scientists a Scientist in general. Let's look at the language of science. Let's think about how that language is constructed the terminology use house Scientists writes, you know how that's different from our general English language arts classroom and our typical idea of writing instruction So over those two weeks we really infused a lot of literacy strategies into our instruction as well Which was a little bit new for most of our teachers at our RPD and then the USDA required a teacher leadership component of the grant during this grant round of Submissions and so the idea that teacher leadership component was not that we move them into administrative roles or really out of the classroom But having them become teacher leaders in their giving Classrooms maybe in their pods or their discipline or However, their school has them set up and so we worked with them on what it means to be a teacher leader how we can collaborate and communicate with others Work with our novice teachers and our veteran teachers and really share material share resources At the end of the two weeks the teachers walked away with about six hundred dollars of supplies They could take back into their classroom instruction and every lab we did we gave them Duplicate materials to do with their classes and they could divide that up however they wanted We also gave them instructional materials some books and strategies a huge binder full of activities that they could do We pointed them into the direction of lots of great extension resources as well as national ag and classroom curriculum And we had modeled and demoed some of those lessons for them And so in the fall in the spring they came back for those additional days We brought in other colleagues from ag and forestry and did some work with them They've been new supplies and in this particular instance as well We focused on our in our fall follow-up day on Discussing with them a little bit about equity in agriculture education what it means to have equitable Instruction in the classroom and just talk to them to you about barriers that they saw in their own school sites and instruction and how we could help alleviate that over the next year with our professional development That just I'm still just kind of processing the Just kind of the enormity of this professional development and all the things and how well encompassing this wasn't any opportunities provided I think one of the things is we think about any of our any of our PDs You know when we think about we did this how and especially kind of where we left off and talking about that thinking about the equitable instruction piece and those barriers at school sites We can do some amazing people like we go to this amazing pd as teachers we go to this amazing like we go to this pd as university faculty and I get home and I have the best intentions to bring this back into my classroom and do these things and I do it Or not So what we're as especially thinking about the equitable instruction what were some of those barriers at at school sites as you dug in with teachers there Um, some of those were things that are you know, not necessarily surprising.
Um, some of our teachers they talked about the idea that You know, they didn't have a lot of resources, you know, they give those eef funds Here in sarkville, we're on a modified school district calendar So we start july 21st this year and we've been on that calendar for a few years now and um eef funds don't get released from the state until august 1st and so at least here and another schools around the state we're not Abnormal a lot of more school districts are moving to go towards that modified calendar Are now you know, these teachers are not having a good week We can have before they even get those cards to spend in their classrooms and and that's not a lot of money It's you know, we they're very appreciative of state funds and what they can do to support their classrooms But we know that they're not getting all of the funding maybe as teachers to really build up a beautiful classroom of resources And so in our grant we were able to provide them a stipend so they got $200 a day in the summer for those two weeks so You know by the end of those two weeks they got a thousand dollars minus taxes to spend in their classrooms And then if they came to the fall in the spring follow up they had to come to both Then they would get an additional $400 and so 200 to 400 I can't remember the exact amount but additional money to help support that plus all of the classroom materials So resources certainly were one of those barriers Another barrier that our teachers talked about was just not understanding ag as a discipline in this school And so we had some teachers that taught at cte centers But a lot of ours were in traditional schools traditional high schools where ag was an elective And so they had students that were putting their classes like other elected teachers that they might not want to be there Their students might not be truly interested or They had students that were really involved and very interested in the program But again those colleagues and the administrators around them might not fully understand what they do as teachers and what their needs are One of our teachers we did Pre-post and delayed post interviews with our teachers over this project So before the institute after the institute and then after the spring follow up day one of our teachers at the time was Working in ag mechanics that was one of the classes he taught our pre-interview was in his machine shop via webex and I learned a lot as a you know, I'm a literacy person my background is not ag education. Um, I've just gotten in this few some beautiful circumstances And I loved the the teachers and working with them and bringing the literacy component here Um, but in that machine shop he had equipment that he was repairing over the summer and that he was he was doing all of those Um getting ready for the school year and you know and our teachers would say well Our some of our administrators might not be ag people or they've never had You know, they don't they don't understand what we do and then it's hard to communicate out because we are in some instances very different than our other electives and our other course subject areas Um, you know the science component is not different than our science classes We can talk about anatomy and physiology and ag and we can talk about it in biology But when it came to things like welding and ag mechanics and some of these more, you know, the greenhouse and Getting all of the hands on the experiment experiential learning component that might not be in some of our other classes People really didn't understand that And so that was kind of interesting So we tried to alleviate a little bit of that With providing them with resources, but then also with that teacher leadership component and having them have opportunities to talk as a group and have rich Conversation about what they are doing and what they're facing and how they're becoming those challenges and their classrooms and their schools But also the idea of kind of advocating for yourself Right both add advocating with the de and advocating The idea that we need to talk more about what we do and share and try to have some of those conversations with our colleagues and with our Administration, there's so much collaboration that can happen if we remove ourselves from the silos of our classrooms Or even our hallways and that these can be you know collaboration can be a great tool To help people understand what about what you do Part of our work and if I can pipe in a little bit there about the opportunity One recurring theme of the agricultural teachers was that they just did not have the opportunities for professional development that our science teachers did in in the state of Mississippi Overwhelmingly they said this was the very first agricultural science professional development program that they even heard about Um, so they did not have those opportunities for professional development on the flip side of our opportunity We also have science teachers teaching, you know, their content in the state of Mississippi Which is rural it's a rural state and most of the the students have some kind of connection, you know to the landscape to animal or plant science And yet our science teachers did not have the education to know how to bring those concepts into their science classroom So this program really had a lot of opportunity both for the agricultural science teachers with professional development and That working opportunities and leadership training education opportunities and also for the science teachers in learning that hey We are actually living this science in our state and these agricultural teachers are a great source to bring that science into something your students see every day I think this was a really exciting program and you know Is that I bring in the content the science content and some of these other topics like equity and leadership and part of the things there And so you have any story more story or things you can share to kind of show how teachers brought these things together and then to think about how I You know, if I go to my own program, how am I able to talk about the science that I learned but also understand that I have these other concepts that I need to be living out of modeling in my own program Sure. Um, so thinking about kind of stories. I mentioned the literacy component, right?
And so we think about equity and equitable instruction. We want to make sure that all kids are able to access our materials in class, right? Our texts and what we're doing with them. And so again, we have lots of conversations with our teachers on the literacy side about the importance of vocabulary, right?
Our students need to know the language of the discipline And so going back to our our ag mechanics teacher, you know, he kind of had an aha moment at one point where he said, you know, I've really realized How important vocabulary is particularly around ag mechanics. We're out in the shop. We're doing work. Let's say a kid gets injured Heaven forbid we don't want that to happen, right?
But that could be a reality in our our shop If our students don't know the terminology, they don't know how to describe the machine. They're using what they're doing at that moment Then we become we have an issue there when it becomes to didn't help, right? If someone if something happens and we need to you know, call the front desk, we need to notify individuals and they don't have the proper terms to do that Then that can be problematic Other teachers talked about how some of the literacy strategies that we did one was simply chart paper hanging on the wall called a curacil And you hang four or five sheets of paper around the room different topics related to content And how the students just rotate around right what they know How powerful that was to get students to call having a conversation and talking in the classroom Because a lot of times our teachers would say, well, you know, they have materials. I have a textbook they have Different things if they want to share with their kids that they look at would be some articles different things like that but they might not use those as much as Just lecture and then hands-on getting them very involved class discussion those types of things But they some of our teachers struggled with the idea of getting their kids to talk kind of to each other And really consolidate the own information.
And so some of those literacy strategies really provided them a tool that they did not know of before in In getting some of those conversations happening in the classroom. They also Recognized that again, these are things they can share with their colleagues And so they might not be the only ad teacher at their school But they can go back and they can take these resources and they can help, you know, collaborate with them This also led to kind of a request from our teachers about more professional development And that they wanted PD to continue because the grant that we had which is a three-year grant we did two years of cohorts with our teachers and then Myself and some other colleagues in poultry science and food science and the school of human sciences were able to Apply for a second iteration. So we have an acre 2.0. It's going on right now And it's all on poultry and food with a literacy component and a social emotional learning component And those teachers were so excited.
We've had repeat customers come back so to speak from acre But in multiple years either the first year or the second year of this ongoing grant because they needed more they wanted more And so that that has been really awesome You know, we had one teacher in particular That talked a lot about the fact that he has a great opportunity in his classroom to do outside hands-on learning at his high school And so they're outside all of the time. They're working in their you know, their gardens They're They're doing a ton of hands-on outside But what acre provided him was resources to do things in the lab He hadn't been able to do a little bit inside with labs and hands-on learning But not a ton his school at the time was under a conservation Conservatorship model on the district was taken over by the state based off of school rates and Very low-income area and didn't have a lot of again resources to do a lot of labs in his class So he kind of every other year would try to infuse some more lab-based hands-on in the classroom And he was so excited to be able to take all of the materials back that we had as the only ad teacher at this school And do all of his hands-on learning in his actual classroom as well because he didn't again have that opportunity before Some of the aha moments that I saw sitting Among the teachers as Stephanie was instructing them on different literacy strategies to use in their classrooms She would bring up multiple modalities. So literacy not just you know reading the text and have the students talk about it or answer questions posed by the teachers Stephanie would find you know great videos that gave the content and there were some aha moments that well wait a minute You know my students prefer watching the videos on their on their i-fun She means I can use this as content and and Stephanie reinforced. Yes, you know literacy is a lot more than you know Just reading the text you know reading the text is important communicating is important But we can also address students where they are and the literacy strategies, you know my own My own report back on that some of the literacy strategies that Stephanie used I brought back into my college science classrooms and the students love them So this is just I now still use them We're working with a group of high school students who are visiting campus right now And we are incorporating some of those literacy strategies with those students So it's it these are techniques that um, I don't think science teachers and ad teachers have been exposed to since perhaps they were in elementary school But they're still relevant and they're still highly effective and there were lots of light bulbs going off with our attendees as well as our instructors Well, I think that the the thread just kind of across the things you're talking about with the professional development and implementation Just the force that literacy can be for not just for your classroom But for your relationship with your with your colleagues you think about like some of the things I'm hearing about how these teachers were interacting Like it's both a unifying and a really reciprocal for like we're all trying to do this thing I think the more things we can find in our schools and our programs and our classrooms to say we are all working on this It's it's really a unifying thing in our schools to be able to say hey, you're doing this literacy thing You're doing this like it's something we are all constantly working on which is just a really cool thing to elevate with the work that you all have been doing Yeah, and I think too When you present information to the teachers using materials that they could use in their classroom So for example, one of the things that we purchased for each of them were multiple teacher sets 30 In a packet of the ag mags that come out from the American Farm Bureau Federation or foundation, excuse me And those are amazing resources, you know, they're written at a more upper elementary level in regards to how those papers are Created in the vocabulary and things like that, but they can be used across grade levels I use them with my senior elementary education majors and my methods course as a resource again talking about the different types of texts And so when we when we show them strategies that could be used in their classes with ag content That again was a very big like ball because sometimes we'll have teachers that go to pd And maybe the literacy component is presented through an ela lens and again ela is a wonderful Subtit right so it's a great if one of our core content areas that we teach in school But if we're showing teachers in science and an ag a traditional ela text Then it's hard for them to see how they can utilize that strategy in their own classroom instruction And so if we can find and take time to identify resources that are very beneficial to them And then show them how to use them with those materials then it's just an even more powerful moment because they're seeing things that are relative That they can take back that are that are um relatable to their own instruction And it's not been having to find those things we've already done it for them The lived learning experience was really important too I think because you know the teachers came into Mississippi State University of this is a r1 Very high research activity and it's a land grant institution and the different um field trips and you know exposures that the teachers had to this research Also opened their eyes as to what their students could do with agriculture once they left high school Maybe pursue a degree in higher ed and agriculture Um and teachers overwhelmingly remarked time and time again that you know, this was great I did not know you know, this was being done In meat science and plant soil science so that lived learning experience was really good All right.
Well, thank you very much for this great conversation really appreciate you all joining us today and sharing Uh the great experience and sounds like a great great workshop. I should pay better attention I should have attended it sounds like fantastic. Sounds like a fantastic couple of weeks and wish you the best and all those sort of things Thank you for sharing it here with alpellitz today Hope you've enjoyed this episode of alpellitz check out our website for more information on this topic and to learn more about our guests Follow us on facebook twitter and instagrams They connected and be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode For mike and becky. This is brian here by the alpellitz saying thank you and we look forward to seeing you again on another episode of alpellitz tips for ag teachers