Skirvin's award a credit to entire ag program

Friday, June 26, 2015
North Putnam ag teacher and FFA sponsor Kate Skirvin (right) receives the 2015 Honorary Hoosier Degree from State FFA Reporter Dakota Westphal. (Courtesy photo)

In the test-driven atmosphere of modern education, nothing sells quite like results.

In the struggle for classes outside the English-math-science core to continue to prove their relevance, North Putnam agriculture teacher Kate Skirvin simply looks for ways to relate the program's hands-on opportunities back to the lessons of the classroom.

"We have to show administrators and our students that the things we are doing in our class are actually going to help them achieve the results on those ECAs (end-of-course assessments) and those AP (Advanced Placement) exams and on the ISTEP," Skirvin said. "We take everything we do in the classroom and give it a practical application."

Perhaps the best example of this came in a welding project, not exactly the moment most people are thinking about basic math skills.

"I will never forget I was teaching a welding unit and there was an individual making a tailgate," Skirvin said. "He was just welding together some pieces of metal for a tailgate and said, 'Are you kidding me? I actually have a practical use for geometry? I have to look up how to do these angles again to make sure they fit just right.'"

This sort of experiential learning easily clears the rather low bar of getting kids to pass a test and into the loftier realm of actually educating and encouraging lifelong learning.

"Kids are going to remember things if they have a practical use for them," Skirvin said. "If we tell them, 'You have to remember this for the test. You're not going to have to do it again in any other time of life,' they're not going to remember it. But if they have that practical use, they can."

Skirvin's approach to education has had a direct impact on her North Putnam students and an indirect effect on ag students from around the state. For her efforts, she was recently awarded the Honorary State FFA Degree (Honorary Hoosier Degree) during the Indiana FFA State Convention.

While State FFA Degrees (Hoosier Degrees) are bestowed upon students each year for their accomplishments as members of the organization, one contributor is granted the Honorary Hoosier Degree for having an impact on agriculture and agriculture education.

The veteran educator's impact on students is well-known in the North Putnam community. Her 13 years at the helm of the ag program and the FFA chapter have seen great growth.

"The chapter has grown over 150 percent since I've been there. We now have 99 -- and we like to just say 100 -- members. When I first started at North Putnam, we had around 30," Skirvin said. "The program is now a two-teacher program and we see around 600 students each year."

Besides seeing every student in the middle school on a rotational basis, the program also reaches high school students through courses in food science, animal science, plant science, horticulture, ag mechanics and natural resources.

If all the paperwork clears, all but one of these high school classes will be eligible for dual credit through either Ivy Tech or Vincennes University.

"If we have kids who complete their whole high school experience with ag and also doing some of the AP courses we have, we could have students who graduate from North Putnam with more than a semester's worth of college done," Skirvin said.

Additionally, Skirvin and co-instructor Janna Oxford have overseen the recent addition of a greenhouse (see Page 1) and a trail system in the woods behind the NPHS football field.

North Putnam FFA award winners at the recent state convention are high school student Jessica Hays (left) and middle schooler Mary Timm. (Submitted photos)

The local success isn't limited to the instructors, either. When she received her Honorary Hoosier Degree during the June 15-18 convention in West Lafayette, she was joined by a number of high-achieving students.

Seven members of the North Putnam FFA chapter received Hoosier Degrees in 2015, and members Mary Timm and Jessica Hays each brought home two awards each.

A middle schooler, Timm placed first in Discovery Creed Speaking and second in Discovery Prepared Public Speaking.

In the high school categories, Hays was first in the Agriculture Education Career Development Event, for which she received a $500 prize. She was also third in the state in Animal Science Demonstration for showing how to milk a dairy goat and store the milk

Hays' work in the agriculture education career development area segues nicely into Skirvin's own work at the state level.

Besides serving as teacher and FFA sponsor for 13 years at North Putnam and five at Cloverdale, Skirvin also spent 10 years on the state FFA Board of Trustees, serving one year as secretary, one as treasurer and four as chairman.

She also served on committees to rewrite agriculture career pathways, rewrite food science state standards and to evaluate the question bank used to certify new ag teachers for state licensure.

Having a student like Hays who has taken an interest in agriculture education is encouraging to Skirvin, who sees what's going on at the state and national level.

"The ag education career development event was created because we have a major shortage of agriculture teachers nationwide," Skirvin said. "Currently in Indiana we have 20 openings. Everybody who is graduating from Purdue in ag education has already been placed. We're going to have to pull people from out of our state or get people who have a lot of experience in the agriculture industry to come into the school to teach.

"And we know that there are several schools that would love to open an agriculture department but because there's such a shortage of ag teachers, they're not able to do that."

The ag education CDE put into place to try recruit from within the FFA some potential future educators.

"I was nominated (for the Honorary Hoosier Degree) just because of the work I'd done at the state level and also my work on the board of trustees," Skirvin said. "We've made a lot of what I feel are positive changes to some of our career development events and started to align a lot of those events with how national FFA does all of their contests. One of my goals on the board of trustees is to make changes that are going to be relevant for today's students."

The current North Putnam FFA officers include (above, front) Noah Poynter, (middle) Hays, Trae Straziscar, Sierra Graham, (back) Lauren Johnston, Allison Bayless and Brandon Wunderlich. (Submitted photo)

Relevance is the key. Ag education is continually changing, a reality Skirvin sees in the fact that she's spent entire semesters teaching about biofuels or GMOs (genetically modified organisms), two topics she would have considered unthinkable 18 years ago.

"We all know that agriculture is not just cows, plows and sows anymore," Skirvin said. "We want to make sure that our kids have all the tools once they leave high school to either go to a secondary school and receive training there or go directly out into the workforce. We've been able to do that by working directly with Vincennes University and Ivy Tech."

Staying relevant is also the reason Skirvin and Oxford spend much of their summers maintaining their certifications to teach the various courses the program offers.

It's a demanding profession to do the right way, but Skirvin keeps in mind the reasons she started teaching.

"You do it because you have a passion. You do it because you love young people. You do it because you want to be a part of that," she said.

In looking at the success of the North Putnam ag program, Skirvin also keeps in mind the support system that she, Oxford and their students enjoy.

"One of the biggest reasons for that growth is support from the community and the administration," Skirvin said. "If you don't have either one of those, you will never see growth in your program, no matter how much buy-in you have from the kids."

And Skirvin knows at North Putnam she has a community of people that understands exactly where we would all be without agriculture.

"Everybody every day has to have clothes on their bodies and food in their bellies. What would you be without agriculture? You'd be naked and hungry."