Tag Archives: Vocational Education Teachers

CA Career Tech Ed teacher Lamar Hanger earns Construction Education Award

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Career Technical Education teacher Lamar Hanger has earned a Construction Education Friend Award from the Associated General Contractors of California. Photo Credit: Fontana Herald News

I am always eager to share news about an exceptional educator who has earned recognition for their work with young people. One of these is Lamar Hanger, a teacher from Fontana, California. He has earned a Construction Education Friend Award from the Associated General Contractors of California.

Lamar teaches courses in the Building and Construction Pathway at Fontana High School in Fontana. The program is part of the school’s Career Technical Education Department. He has worked at the school since 2021.

In the past three years, this amazing educator has nearly tripled the number of students enrolled in the General Construction program. The program provides students with a practical, real-world STEM education, supported by a curriculum approved by both the state and the district. This curriculum features projects and hands-on learning.

When Lamar started at the school, his first project was to remodel the old wood shop classroom into an updated training lab. To accomplish this, he sought donations of tools and materials from local contracting companies with which to equip the lab, and he enlisted the aid of students to help with the construction tasks.

In April, 2022, Lamar led a group of his students to the Construction Industry Education Foundation’s Design Build competition. The students, who had received only five months of instruction, placed second in the competition and garnered Rookie of the Year honors.

Before becoming a public school teacher, Lamar worked 32 years as a union carpenter. He has demonstrated considerable expertise in construction, welding, metal-stud framing, and lath. In fact, he has completed freeform lathing projects on several attractions at Disneyland theme park. Lamar also worked as an instructor for the Southwest Carpenters Training Fund, a program that trains apprentices for eight years before they serve as a special representative for Southwest Carpenters.

To read more about Lamar Hanger, click on this link to an article about him published by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

TN teacher Melissa Shirk teaches elem students about agriculture

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Elementary school teacher Melissa Shirk has been named the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture award. Photo credit: Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation

Those of us who live in an urban environment sometimes forget that many educators work in rural environments, and they are Chalkboard Champions deserving of recognition, too. One of these is Melissa Shirk, an elementary school teacher from Tennessee who has been named the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture award from the American Farm Bureau Foundation.

The award is given annual to an educator in grades K-12 who has demonstrated involvement in agricultural literacy. Each recipient receives a $1,500 scholarship to attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in June.

“Many of my students are surrounded by dairy farms, crop farms, and beef and pork producers,” explains Melissa. “I want to continue my knowledge of agriculture and provide my students with current resourceful information and activities to promote the science, engineering, technology, and mathematics of all agricultural areas through Ag in the Classroom,” she declares.

Melissa teaches at Loudon Elementary in the rural farming community of Philadelphia in east Tennessee.

Today’s Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation has a membership of more than 679,000 family members and is the largest state Farm Bureau in the nation.

 

Ohio’s Krysteena Lawrence named finalist for Golden Owl Award

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Agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Krysteena Lawrence of Ohio has been named one of ten finalists for a prestigious Golden Owl Award. Photo credit: Elmwood Public Schools

Today, the importance of vocational education programs is promoted by both professional educators and laypersons. So it is wonderful when teachers of voc ed classes earn accolades for their work. One of these is Krysteena Lawrence, an agriculture teacher from northwest Ohio. She has been recognized as one of ten finalists for a prestigious Golden Owl Award.

Krysteena teaches agriculture courses at Elmwood High School in Bloomdale, Ohio. She also serves as the school’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor. She has taught at the school for the past seven years.

The honored educator has volunteered many hours outside of her classroom to manage FFA projects, including a fruit sale. But she declares that relationships are the most important aspect of her work. “I enjoy developing a good rapport with my students and making them feel welcomed in my classroom at all times,” she says. “And that is before school, after school, during lunch, even if they just want to come and talk about stuff that is going on in their personal life,” she continues. “I just want to be that person that’s there for them no matter what,” she concludes.

Krysteena is one of ten finalists for the honors of 2022-2023 Ag Educator of the Year and the Golden Owl Award. She is one 521 nominations that were received for 126 different teachers. As one of the ten finalists, she was presented with a plaque and a $500 donation to her school’s agriculture program to support future educational efforts. This year, the program honors outstanding agriculture educators in nine states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. To learn more about the program, click on this link to the Golden Owl Award.

 

PA teacher Allyson Balmer instructs agriculture courses

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Teacher Allyson Balmer of Manheim, Pennsylvania, instructs numerous courses in agricultural education. Photo credit: Pennsylvania State University

Become involved in a discussion about today’s educational opportunities, and before long the need for a variety of vocational training programs will come up right away. Teachers who instruct vocational courses are sorely needed and are in short supply. One who is already working in this area is Allyson Balmer, an award-winning agriculture teacher from Pennsylvania.

Since November of 2018, Allyson has instructed courses in horticulture, floriculture, large animal science, wildlife, and natural resources at Tulpehocken Junior/Senior High School in Manheim, located in eastern Pennsylvania. She also serves as the advisor for her school’s chapter of FFA (Future Farmers of America). Prior to her employment as a professional educator, Allyson worked as a long-term substitute, a research assistant, a crop technician, a farm hand, and a calf tender.

“I am a passionate advocate for agricultural education and the need for experiential and inquiry-based learning in the STEAM industries,” declares Allyson. “I believe in the 3-circle model of agricultural education—classroom/lab instruction, the FFA organization, and supervised agricultural experiences—and it’s place as the premier delivery system of learning in education,” she continues.

Allyson’s decision to become an Agricultural Educator was due to three influences, she reveals. “First, my love and learning of education. Second, my fierce passion for the agricultural industry. Third, my gratitude to the National FFA Organization,” she says.

For her work as an agriculture educator, Allyson has garnered several accolades, For example, she has been named a recipient of a 2023 Agricultural Educator of the Year Golden Owl Award given jointly by FFA, Nationwide, and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. She was also honored by the Pennsylvania Association for Agricultural Educates (PAEE) with their Teacher Turn the Key Award in 2020.

Allyson earned her Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Education from Pennsylvania State University in 2018. She completed the requirements for her Master’s degree in STEM Education from Lebanon Valley College in 2021.

Louise Archer taught in a segregated, rural one-room schoolhouse

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North Carolina teacher Louise Archer taught core academic subjects and life skills in a segregated rural one-room schoolhouse. Photo Credit: Louise Archer Elementary School

Our nation’s students are indeed fortunate to have so many dedicated and hardworking educators teaching in our public schools. One of these was Louise Archer, an elementary school teacher from North Carolina.

Louise was born on Oct. 23, 1893, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. As a young woman, she attended Livingston College, a historically Black Christian college located in Salisbury, North Carolina. She married Romulus Archer, Jr., in 1915. The couple relocated to Washington, DC, in 1922, and Louise continued her education at Morgan State College, a historically Black college in nearby Baltimore, Maryland. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree.

Louise inaugurated her career as an educator at the Oak Grove School in Southampton, Virginia, in a one-room schoolhouse for African American children. She taught there two years. In 1924, she became both the teacher and the principal for another one-room segregated school, the Vienna Colored School, located in Vienna, Virginia. The camped, unheated facility was the first in Fairfax County to educate African American students in fifth through seventh grades. For many, this was the only education they would receive.

The first boys who were the first to arrive at the rural school each morning chopped wood for the fire to keep the schoolhouse warm. Students brought water each day from a nearby spring and stored it in buckets in one corner of the classroom. Louise taught her students using tattered, secondhand textbooks, but she supplemented these with lessons in music and poetry. In addition, she taught her students life skills such as cooking, sewing, embroidery, cabinet-making, and rug-hooking.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Louise established a 4-H Club for African Americans in Fairfax County. Through this club, her students planted a garden and raised vegetables to add to a soup that was cooked each day on a potbelly stove.

By all accounts Louise was devoted to her young charges. For example, if they needed help getting to school, she drove them to the schoolhouse herself. She invited students to her home in Washington, DC, so they could experience a big city, and she let students use her home address when they enrolled in a DC high school so they could continue their education without paying expensive tuition fees.

Later in her career, Louise organized a Parent Teacher Association to raise money to buy much-needed classroom supplies. The group also raised money to construct a new schoolhouse, this one with three rooms, which opened in 1939. In 1941, she spearheaded fundraising efforts to pay for electric lighting, a music teacher, kitchen supplies, and bus transportation for the students.

Sadly, Louise suffered a heart attack and passed on April 1, 1948. In 1950, her school was renamed the Louise Archer Elementary School in her honor.