Teacher of the Year
2012 Teacher of the Year
Kimberly Hastings
North Live Oak Elementary School
Sometimes it’s easier to get children to plant their vegetables than to eat them.
Kimberly Hastings’ fourth graders are busy making biodegradable tomato planters from newspaper. The project is part of a larger program helping students here at North Live Oak Elementary learn more about the importance of agriculture.
The students will take their tomato plants back home, plant them and catalog their growth over the summer. Caring for plants was just one phase of several environmental initiatives undertaken by students at North Live Oak, including a save the honeybee project. The projects were instrumental in Hastings being named the Louisiana Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom teacher of the year for 2012.
“We were able to incorporate the save the honeybees project into our daily lessons, so that really got us interested in stepping outside the box and away from the textbook,” Hastings said. “The students moved from awareness to action. It’s something that I will continue to teach my student. Agriculture is very important and especially in our state.”
Before planting their tomatoes the students learned about the soil types best suited for growing tomatoes. In addition to the tomatoes Hastings’ class planted bell peppers, while students in her neighboring class planted citrus trees near the playground. She said the school has made a commitment to teach students the importance of agriculture while stressing sound environmental practices.
Hastings said the entire school participated in the Save the Honeybee project. The project succeeded in getting the city of Hammond to lift a ban on beekeeping inside the city limits, a ban that stretched back all the way to 1952. The school also is working with state lawmakers in Baton Rouge to develop a vehicle license plate that promote honeybees. Proceeds from the sale of the vanity plate will go to college scholarships for entomology students who commit to studying ways to keep the Louisiana honeybee population healthy.
“I do feel like the kids and I have worked very hard on the project,” Hastings continued. “I feel that we have done good work, especially intergrading agriculture into the curriculum. It’s something I’ve never done before but after experiencing all of the wonderful learning opportunities I know it’s something we’ll continue to do here at North Live Oak.”
This was the 12th year the Farm Bureau has chosen its Ag In the Classroom Teacher of Year. Lynda Danos, Farm Bureau’s AITC coordinator and a veteran science teacher, said Hastings’ initiatives gives students a small taste of what it means to be a farmer.
“Our teacher of the year program is certainly one of the best and we really stay in touch with the majority of our past winners,” Danos said. “Many of our past winners are our curriculum writers or reviewers. When we develop a new lesson or program we run many of the aspects by them. They will give us input so we can make adjustments to those lesson plans and really give teachers what they need.”
2011 Teacher of the Year
Lisa Wiggins
Northwestern State University Elementary Lab School
When Lisa Wiggins’ third grade students read “In The Garden with Dr. Carver,” they didn’t want the story to end.
So they re-wrote the story of Dr. George Washington Carver and transformed it into a stage play. And if that weren’t enough, they decided they wanted to see Dr. Carver’s discoveries for themselves.
So they planted a garden with tomatoes, squash and Dr. Carver’s famous peanuts.
“Dr. George Washington Carver loved plants,” Wiggins tells her class as they read the book and review Carver’s work. “His work took tired soil and turned into soil that would grow things many thought it never could.”
Some 20 minutes later a half-dozen of her students are in period costumes, acting out the story of Carver’s life and scientific successes in a makeshift theatre. The performance and the school’s garden are just some of the efforts that earned Wiggins the Louisiana Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year honors for 2011.
“Kids getting their hands dirty is a highlight of the lesson,” Wiggins said of the time her students spend in their small garden on the grounds of Northwestern State University’s Lab School. “For them, getting a chance to put their hands in the dirt and make a huge classroom garden has been wonderful. We like to see agriculture not as an isolated (learning) unit, but something that can just spread into everything we teach.”
As school librarian, Wiggins said she often urges her students to look beyond the pages of books, taking their stories as inspiration for other lessons.
“The story of Dr. George Washington Carver really stuck with them,” she said. “It just kind of spring-boarded the rest of our lessons. It was the foundation for all of the things that we’ve been doing. They came to me after we read the story and wanted to do more. They wanted to keep the story going.”
As the AITC Teacher of the Year, Wiggins attended the national ATIC conference June 22-25 in Fort Lauderdale. In addition to being named ag teacher of the year, Wiggins was also a winner in the White-Reinhardt scholarship, an American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture program that recognizes top ag educators across the country.
2010 Teacher of the Year
Pam Brierre
St. Martin's Episcopal School, Metairie
For Pam Brierre, all the world's a classroom. This veteran science teacher at St. Martin's Episcopal Elementary in Metairie teaches her students about the world around them by sometimes leaving the textbook on the shelf. In her classroom, it's high tech meets old school. Activities on any given day range from students using an integrated wireless internet projector to examine stems and leaves to making those same plant parts out of pipe cleaners, construction paper and white glue.
It's this hands-on approach that helped Brierre to top the list of educators from across the state nominated for the Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year. Brierre says it's important for her students to learn about how things grow and to have a greater appreciation for those who make their living off the land.
"We have gardens down by the dining hall and right now we're looking at creating a farm to plate program at this school," Brierre said. "It's extremly important that my students understand where food comes from and how it gets to their table. I want them to know that someone has to plant the crop, tend to it while it's growing and then market it to us."
As part of her award in June, Pam attended the National Ag in the Classroom Conference in Baltimore.
2009 Teacher of the Year
Carla Denison Cormier
LeBleu Settlement Elementary
When your teacher was raised on a farm, your school is built on a rice field and the building's architecture incorporates a rice bin, there's a good chance you're going to learn something about farming. At LeBleu Settlement Elementary, in rural Calcasieu Parish is where you will find Carla Denison Cormier teaching her third graders about agriculture. Agriculture has been a way of life for this Iowa, LA native, and her passion for agriculture and ag education is why Carla Denison Cormier was the Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year for 2009.
