In the K-12 school days, classrooms can feel a little chaotic. In Agricultural Leadership Education and Communications courses, Seth Wert and his fellow agricultural education majors get hands-on training as future teachers that prepares them for whatever challenges may come their way.
This, occasionally, requires a little controlled chaos.
“During our very first demonstration, our professor brought in his grandkids and their high school friends to act like terrible students,” Wert said of the paper airplanes, yelling and mayhem that ensued. “That was definitely a learning experience — figuring out how to handle those distractions in the class.”
Wert, a junior from Hordville, Nebraska, was inspired by his FFA mentors to build a career that creates enthusiasm and inspiration around agriculture. With CASNR’s Agricultural Education program, Wert found the perfect launchpad to achieving that career.
And while he knows his instructor's exercise was obviously exaggerated, it’s part of the comprehensive learning that will help make Wert and his classmates effective classroom teachers after graduation.
From lesson planning to understanding how to build a positive classroom culture, Wert said that his ag education classes are preparing him to achieve a lifelong dream of becoming an ag-focused educator.
“I grew up in a farming town of 100 people, so my roots in ag are very strong. I've known ever since I was little that I wanted to do something in agriculture,” he said. “My advisers in FFA played a huge role in making me the person I am today and made me realize that I wanted to help people find their passion for ag, too.”
The agricultural education major combines the technical aspects of ag research with the leadership and teaching skills needed to communicate the science of ag in a classroom setting. Wert has found that the early emphasis on real-world classroom experience helped solidify that this was the right path for him.
“As a freshman you have 30 hours of observation in an ag classroom across the state. Getting to watch teachers develop relationships and help students thrive in those supportive environments was just so cool for me,” he said. “That helped me realize that, yes — this is what I was meant to do.”
