5 minute read
Growing Our Future: Texas Agricultural Science Education Magazine
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE PROVIDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHER MEMBERS
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By: Ray Pieniazek, Agriculture Teachers Association of Texas Executive Director
The 2022 Agriculture Teacher Association Conference held in Corpus Christi, Texas, this past July was a success, with a record number of conference registrations at 2,530. The conference was the product of hard work by many individuals and made possible by the support of our many sponsors, including our title sponsor CEV Multimedia.
We kicked off Sunday with the move-in of exhibitors. This year we were excited to welcome 97 exhibitors covering 210 10x10 booths. We appreciate the attendance of returning exhibitors. The day ended with our annual board of directors meeting at the Omni.
We were excited about the number of workshop participants on Monday, with nearly 1,300 preregistered. These topics included welding certifications, painting ag mechanics projects, blacksmithing, leatherworking, chapter conducting, and many more. We also held our annual Texas Parks and Wildlife hunter and boater education certifications, floral certification, and pesticide workshops. Our area coordinators met with ATAT, Texas FFA, and Foundation staff representatives to discuss the upcoming year and collaboration efforts. In addition, the annual scholarship fundraisers were held, including the fun run, golf tournament, and the new floral design competition.
Tuesday’s schedule included our opening general session, hosted by 2021-2022 ATAT President Traylor Lenz. We recognized our retirees, our tenure awards of 45, 40, 35, and 30-year membership, and we awarded Steve Forsythe with our Agriculture Education Hero Award and Rex Isom with the ATAT Champion Award. The session concluded with worlds of wisdom shared by our keynote speaker, Dr. Gary Moore. He shared that the struggles we are seeing are not new but only coming at teachers in a different form.
After the session, area meetings were held, and our partners from the various state livestock shows were invited to share updates regarding their events. The day concluded with ATAT board members hosting a new teacher reception at the Omni with over 120 in attendance.
Throughout the week, Texas FFA programming committee meetings met to discuss rule revisions, travel plans, and ways to make items like degree check run more efficiently.
Wednesday opened with workshops stretching throughout the day, along with the annual VATAT Credit Union meeting. Thursday continued with more workshops. One hundred in-person workshops were held between the two days. Additionally, several workshops were recorded on-site and placed on the conference website. There are currently 29 workshops available online for teachers to review and use throughout the year.
The week's highlight came Thursday evening with Family Night sponsored by Ag Workers Mutual Insurance. Over 1,900 meals were served, and a few hundred door prizes were given out. A cornhole tournament was held with over 30 teams competing. We recognized our Outstanding Teachers, Amanda Spacek as the Outstanding Young Teacher, Lily Pruitt West as the Outstanding Mid-Career Teacher, and Liz Treptow as the Outstanding Experience Teacher. Our outgoing president, Traylor Lenz, was recognized, and our new officers were introduced, including Lynita Foster as incoming president, Troy Oliver as vice president, and Toby Long as secretary-treasurer.
One significant highlight of the evening was the induction of 54 former ag teachers into the newly formed ATAT Ag Teacher Hall of Fame. Many had families in attendance to celebrate their awards and congratulate them. Individuals raised more than $57,000 to have these members placed in the hall of fame. The evening ended with a live auction performed by the Texas Auctioneers Association as they auctioned off items to raise money for ATAT scholarships. The effort raised over $7,975. Riverstar Farms also committed another $10,000 to the fund.
The week ended with our closing session hosted by our 2022-2023 ATAT President, Lynita Foster. We honored members of the association who earned 20 and 25-year tenure awards and heard from Scott Milder from Friends of Texas Public Schools. He shared the great things happening in our Texas schools and how important we are to our students and communities.
This year is estimated to mark another record membership for our association. Once verified, we should have more than 2,400 members of the Agriculture Teachers Association of Texas this year. Agricultural education plays a vital role in our school systems, and we are excited that our teachers are involved in promoting the future of our country.
