FOR RELEASE: Sunday, July 08, 2007
Agriculture Teachers Harvest Information at UA Workshop
Editor's Note: This article was published July 8, 2007, in the Siloam Springs News Leader.
Mike Rogers showed agriculture teachers from around the state how to bring home the bacon.
Rogers, in his 10 th year of teaching agricultural education at Siloam Springs High School, demonstrated hog butchering to a group of teachers who traveled from as far as Fouke near the Southern Arkansas border.
The class was part of a fourday workshop that began with two days at Siloam Springs High School. The teachers learned about technologies such as global positioning systems and lasers, AutoCAD and PlasmaCAM design tools.
They tried their hands at archery and heard presentations on poultry judging and hunter education.
Faith Bates-Donaho, a Spanish teacher at Siloam Springs High School, taught the teachers some survival Spanish.
Judith Tavano, director for the Professional Development Academy in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas, put the workshop together with Rogers ’ help, and Synergy Tech, a Springdale company that offers training based on the needs of Northwest Arkansas business and industry, was the third partner.
Synergy Tech hosted classes on the third day.
The Professional Development Academy’s mission is to provide professional development for teachers, health care professionals and businesses throughout the state.
"Our goal was to provide ag teachers from all over the state a hands-on introduction to technologies and mechanical practices not easily accessible in some areas," Tavano said. "Planning has already begun on a session for next summer."
An industry tour on the fourth day took the educators to Kennametal in Rogers and Cobb-Vantress in Siloam Springs.
"We want to encourage ag teachers to be more creative in the activities they offer," Rogers said. "A wide range draws more students into areas in which they are interested and will be able to find jobs.
"We have to find ways to incorporate into our courses what industry leaders need our students to know."
Rogers said Arkansas has 50 courses in the agricultural curriculum, 22 of which he and Gene Collins teach at Siloam Springs. Curriculum is broken into three categories: mechanics, which includes such courses as electricity, welding, surveying and computer-aided design; animal science including poultry and equine science; and plant science including greenhouse management and landscape design.
"Our main objective is to give ag teachers more surface area," Rogers said. "What I mean by that is, we say if we can get students on the trap door and pull the handle, they can get into all kinds of areas they didn’t know existed.
"We’re required to produce graduates who can qualify for high-skill, high-demand and highwage jobs. With more technology, equipment and skill sets, we can produce students who are more complete and ready for the workforce."
Morgan Frachieseur, an instructor at Acorn High School near Mena, said getting together with his peers added to the workshop’s value for him. Because of the vast geographic, economic and cultural differences among areas of Arkansas, teachers sometimes assume they won’t relate to someone from another region, he said.
"We all have different strengths and this allowed us to take back new ideas," Frachiesuer said. "I made contacts here that I’ll take home with me."
Todd Bright of Fouke said seeing demonstrations of equipment and technology, such as the PlasmaCAM used in metal fabrication, gave the agriculture teachers the knowledge they would need to add curriculum.
"Without seeing a demonstration, it’s hard to understand why we need a certain piece of equipment," Bright said. "This helps us to explain to our administrators what a new program could provide in the way of training for students."