2024 REGIONAL TEACHER WORKSHOPS
Kentucky Farm Bureau is once again offering regional teacher workshops in June. The workshops will highlight a variety of state and national agricultural lessons designed to address Kentucky’s core competencies. These thematic lessons and materials will enhance learning retention and help you teach Mathematics, Social Studies, English, and Science through real-life application.
The workshop registration fee has been waived for all Kentucky educators, compliments of Kentucky Farm Bureau. Please be aware that availability is limited; therefore, early registration is encouraged. Please register by the Wednesday, June 5th deadline.
A total of six hours of professional development may be earned depending on school district approval. Educators and pre-service teachers will be inspired by our featured presenters. This year’s workshops will highlight several agricultural and gardening lessons that are designed to broaden your students’ educational experiences and deepen their desire to learn. Whether you are a first-time attendee or a past participant, we have something for you. Each year we strive to share fresh ideas that will aid your efforts as you incorporate agriculture in your classroom.
Should you have any questions regarding these educational opportunities, please feel free to contact Scott Christmas at (502) 495-5000, extension 37221, or at Scott.Christmas@kyfb.com.
TENTATIVE AGENDA
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
Registration
9:00 – 9:15 a.m.
Welcome & Overview
Scott Christmas, KFB Director, Women & Ag Education
9:15 – 11:45 a.m.
Indoor and Outdoor Training Sessions:
This year’s workshops will highlight several agricultural lessons that are designed to better enable you to broaden your students’ educational experiences and deepen their desires to learn. Whether it is a simple indoor activity or a long-term outdoor adventure, you will be pleased as academic achievement grows with their agricultural interests. The ag industry in Kentucky, and throughout the United States, has an abundance of quality materials that are designed to enable you to incorporate agricultural and environmental concepts more easily as you teach core content. These interdisciplinary lessons are excellent tools as you seek to enhance student learning and knowledge retention.
11:45 – 1:30 p.m.
Luncheon & Keynote Presentation
1:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Indoor and Outdoor Training Sessions Continued
4:00 p.m.
Distribution of Certificates & Adjournment
WORKSHOP
LOCATIONS
Four Dates and Locations to Choose From!
Tuesday, June 11th
Kentucky Farm Bureau State Office
9201 Bunsen Parkway
Louisville, Kentucky 40220
Phone: (502) 495-5000
Wednesday, June 12th
The Club at Spindletop Hall
3414 Ironworks Pike
Lexington, Kentucky 40511
Phone: (859) 255-2777
Tuesday, June 18th
Western Kentucky University
L.D. Brown Ag Expo Center
406 Elrod Road
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42104
Phone: (270) 745-3976
PRESENTERS
* Additional presenters to be added and are subject to change based on workshop location. *
Jennifer Elwell is the Executive Director of the Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom and founder Farm Scholar, LLC, an agricultural literacy consulting firm.
She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, where she focused her studies and experience on strategic communications and design. Jennifer has served several Kentucky agriculture organizations for over 25 years through public relations program development, copy writing, print and digital design, and association management.
Craig Wilson, Ph.D. works within the College of Arts and Sciences in the Center for Mathematics and Science Education (CMSE) at Texas A&M University.
His research interests are in hands-on/inquiry-based science teaching and in successfully linking K-12 science teachers with research scientists. He coordinated a NASA funded program, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute-Teacher Academy Project (NSBRI TAP), looking at the impact of long duration space flight on the human body. This allowed him to work with teachers in all fifty states and to teach in many of these including Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
He currently directs the USDA Future Scientists Program that has expanded nationwide, bringing science teachers to study the Agricultural Sciences at USDA/ARS laboratories and research centers in 35 states. The program has operated in Puerto Rico and at the National Agricultural High School in the country of Panama. The program was the recipient of the USDA Administrator’s Outreach, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity Award and is now administered as a nationwide program through the USDA/Agricultural Research Service. It is considered an Exemplary Science Program by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).
Dr. Wilson has an office at the USDA/ARS/Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center (SPARC). He has taught for over forty-five years on three continents in situations ranging from beneath a huge acacia tree on the edge of the Kalahari Desert (Botswana, Africa) to experimenting with weightlessness on NASA’s KC-135 (Houston, Texas). This summer he will run teacher workshops at USDA/ARS research laboratories in Charleston and Florence, South Carolina and in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Kelly Gates is a 5th grade teacher at Pride Elementary School in Madisonville, Kentucky where she has created Courtyard for Curiosity, an outdoor learning environment for students. Here, students are provided first-hand opportunities to plant, grow, and harvest fruits and vegetables. Mrs. Gates has been instrumental in developing and implementing environmental education and curriculum. Her philosophy for teaching is “to foster life-long learning”.
Mrs. Gates has received numerous grants, as well as scores of accolades and honors, including the 2005 Hopkins County Conservation Educator of the Year, 2015 Madisonville VFW Teacher of the Year, 2015 STEM the Gap Teacher Award, 2017 Hopkins County Elementary Teacher of the Year, 2019 Kentucky Farm Bureau Excellence in Ag Literacy Award, 2021 National Agriculture in the Classroom Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award Winner, and was recently named 2023 Kentucky Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Paul King has been teaching for over 15 years. He currently teaches Science and Ag to 7th and 8th graders at Simons Middle School in Flemingsburg, Kentucky. Mr. King works with students at Cougar Hill Farm where they raise chickens and fish, plant vegetables in their greenhouse, grow pumpkins and watermelons, harvest honey from bee hives, and started an apple orchard. The students even upkeep the school grounds by trimming trees and bushes, planting flowers, spreading mulch, and raking leaves. These students are gaining life skills that they will use and remember for a lifetime.
Mr. King has received several awards and honors, including being named the Environmental Educator of the Year in 2018. He was given a Kentucky House of Representatives Academic Achievement Citation in 2019, won the Kentucky Farm Bureau Excellence in Ag Literacy in 2020, and received national honors with National Agriculture in the Classroom’s prestigious Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award in 2021.
Darleen Horton has been teaching since 1974, fostering real-world connections through teaching, guiding, inspiring and challenging students of all ages.
She earned her Bachelor of Science from Western Kentucky University and graduate work in Education and Environmental Education from the University of Louisville.
In addition to classroom and lab positions, Darleen designed and built world class, standards- based Outdoor Classrooms and Learning Spaces. She created standards-based lessons in environmental and agricultural literacy, and STEAM to be embedded into educational programs across grade levels. She has worked with local, state and national educators to build curriculum focused on real life connections. She has presented nationally, as well as state and locally in the areas of environmental and agricultural science.
Darleen has been awarded The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching among other national, regional, and state awards, including the Excellence in Ag Literacy Award.
Today, she continues to leave a lasting impact on education and the environment by providing fellow educators with tools to connect children to the real world through the common denominator of food and gardening.
Rachel Wilson is the Ag Literacy Network Director for the Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom and a high school agriculture teacher at Central Hardin High School in Elizabethtown. Rachel grew up on a Hardin County farm and is raising her four children in Big Clifty with her husband, Josh. She has also directed the Kentucky Young Farmers Association for several years and homeschooled her children when they were younger.
For more information about the 2024 Regional Teacher Workshops please contact:
Scott Christmas
Director, Women & Ag Education
(502) 495-5000, ext. 37221
Scott.Christmas@kyfb.com
or
Jennifer Aponte
Administrative Assistant
(502) 495-5000, ext. 37222
Jennifer.Aponte@kyfb.com
Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation
(502) 495-5000 | 9201 Bunsen Parkway | PO Box 20700 Louisville, KY 40220
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