ALTAMONT — An Altamont teacher will be teaching more that just her regular classes during the 2020-21 school year.
Altamont Unit 10 Agricultural Instructor and FFA Adviser Stephanie Thoms was selected as a National FFA Teacher Ambassador by the National FFA organization, headquartered in Indianapolis. Fifty-six teachers representing 35 states have been selected for the national honor for the 2020-21 school year.
Most states have one or two teachers serving in the FFA Teacher Ambassador position; California, North Carolina and Texas have more than three teacher ambassadors. Thoms is the only teacher representing Illinois for the 2020-21 school year. This is the third year of the National FFA Teacher Ambassador program.
“Last year I applied and didn’t get it,” Thoms said.
This year the Altamont FFA Chapter was recognized at the state level by winning their section, which qualified them to be a national finalist. As a national finalist, Altamont was awarded a National FFA three-star chapter.
“This is the first year that we (Altamont FFA Chapter) advanced past the state level,” Thoms said.
“Potential candidates must complete an application to be considered for the program,” said National FFA Senior Education Specialist Sarah Dickinson. “A selection committee then reviews and scores the applications and selects a group of candidates that will advance to the second round: phone interview.”
“We select our candidates based on the application and rounds of phone interviews,” Dickinson said. “Along with other factors – such as geographic location of applicants within the state, number of agriculture teachers in the state, number of FFA members in the state, diversity of agriculture program and years of teaching experience.”
Thoms is finishing her third year as FFA teacher in Altamont and very excited about her additional teaching duties as National FFA Teacher Ambassador.
“We can be trained on various educational resources that are all offered by the national FFA,” Thoms said. “Then we can turn around and show other ag teachers across the nation how to use the educational resources and where to find them. We are available to answer any questions a teacher might have whether it be a veteran teacher or a fresh out-of-college teacher.”
Thoms said because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they won’t be having their normal FFA Teacher Ambassador weeklong training in Indianapolis this year at the National FFA center.
“This year all of our training will be online,” Thoms said. “It’s going to be online/video conferencing training with study days and homework in between.”
After her training, Thoms will be sharing ideas with other teachers on a Facebook page and blog set up by the National Association of Agricultural Educators.
“We offer our points of view,” Thoms said. “We have to do that twice a month.”
Thoms said a new responsibility FFA Teacher Ambassadors must take on this year is hosting webinars, informal question-and-answer sessions and present a workshop for agricultural teachers.
“They want us to present a workshop for teachers at either the National FFA convention or our NAAE (National Association of Agriculture Educators) conference,” Thoms said. “We will be offering a workshop to show other teachers the things that we have learned and things that they can use to benefit their classroom.”
Thoms received an Associate in Art from Joliet Junior College, taking primarily ag transfer classes before earning her bachelor’s degree with a major of Agricultural Systems and Education, along with a minor in Horticulture, from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in May 2017.
After completing her formal ag education, the training didn’t stop there. Thoms took courses in order to receive her endorsement to teach sixth-eighth graders. This is her second year of teaching eighth grade ag classes.
“This is a perfect opportunity to get students involved with the ag program early,” Thoms said. “We take the kids to a couple of events throughout the year so they can get a taste of what we do in FFA. We take them to The National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, and National FFA convention in Indianapolis.”
“Last year some of the kids were able to go to the Farm Progress Show,” Thoms said. “And we also attended a free basketball game for Ag students at SIU Carbondale.”
This summer Thoms was scheduled to participate in professional development classes in plant science and animal science through CASE (Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education). However, the classes were canceled due to coronavirus.
Thoms said she is looking forward to next year’s classes at Altamont Community High School. She said some events got moved this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are hoping to do more work on our greenhouse and make some updates,” Thoms said. “We have also received a couple of grants to buy equipment.”
She said the ACHS Ag Department received an Improving Ag matching grant on the state level that allowed them to spend $15,000 on classroom lab equipment, including a computer that runs a LabQuest software program and hardware that allows students to use different sensors in order to collect and analyze data. She said they also received safety equipment to protect students clothes and skin in addition to chemicals they use for lab coursework.
Thoms said the school’s ag department was recommended by the local branch of the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) company for an ADM Cares grant that went toward CASE curriculum, animal anatomy figures for veterinary science class, textbooks and surgical equipment for the animal science class.
“I got very lucky to be where I am (Altamont Community High School),” Thoms said. “I can’t tell you how many times I take students out of school to go to a livestock contest, to go to a national convention or whatever event may be happening and the teachers here are super cooperative. All of this would be impossible without them.”
“Our (enrollment) numbers doubled last year from my first year here and I hope we can keep building on that.” Thoms said.
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