EMBRACING NON-TRADITIONAL ACTIVITIES TO BUILD YOUR PROGRAM

EMBRACING NON-TRADITIONAL ACTIVITIES TO BUILD YOUR PROGRAM

BY: DAVID LAIRD, JAMES E. TAYLOR HIGH SCHOOL AGRICULTURE SCIENCE TEACHER

Every agriculture science teacher shares a deep passion for the traditional activities within the FFA program. However, as more of our programs have changed from rural to suburban, there seems to be a disconnect between our students and traditional agriculture. Setting up a booth in the junior high cafeteria isn’t enough for students to sign up for our principals of ag class anymore.

Students are looking for something entertaining, and a picture of a kid in a blue jacket holding a chicken is not always going to do the trick. Our FFA chapter has begun using non-traditional programs to recruit students for our traditional FFA teams. Using programs like welding competitions, BBQ cook-offs, and shooting teams have allowed us to increase enrollment and bring our LDE and CDE teams success.

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL WELDING SERIES

This competition is a hidden gem for agriculture mechanics teachers and is the perfect connection to hook those ag mechanics kids into FFA. While the Texas High School Welding Series does not require students to be FFA members, our school participates in the competitions as an FFA chapter. This means that students must join to participate. On the surface, most teachers will assume that adding this competition to their already busy schedule will create too much work, but I have found that false. This contest was designed by ag mechanics teachers to line up perfectly with the curriculum that should be taught in our classes. Not only that, but when students compete, they earn certifications that make the administration at home happy! Each event has a host of different activities for the students to participate in, starting with a safety test competition, tool identification, oxy-fuel cutting contest, and the main event, which is the multi-leveled welding contest. You can take your first-year welders, and they have the same opportunity to bring home a bucket of prizes as your fourth-year student that is basically a pro welder. If you are an ag mech teacher and not participating in the Texas High School Welding Series, you are missing out on an amazing teaching tool. It only took one competition for my kids to be hooked! The first contest of the year, we had 21 students participate, for 19 of these students it was their first FFA trip. These events are engaging students that we would not otherwise be engaging.

HIGH SCHOOL BBQ INC.

I have yet to meet a student that doesn’t love to eat! At Taylor-Katy High School, we have used this love of food to establish our High School BBQ Team. High School BBQ Inc. is an organization that allows students enrolled in CTE programs to compete with their CTSO (i.e., FFA) in organized BBQ cook-offs. They have approximately ten regional events that serve as state qualifiers. Students compete in brisket, ribs, chicken, beans, and dessert. It is an amazingly fun event that will have students begging you to sign them up. The top 10 teams at each regional qualify for the state cook-off held the last weekend of April each year. When we established the cook-off team at Taylor, it completely changed our enrollment numbers. Since I started coaching the BBQ team and required students to sign up for an ag class and join FFA, our ag mechanics numbers went from about 75% capacity to 100% capacity. This event takes some time and effort to train, but if you love BBQ, it is well worth the time and effort.

HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING SPORTS

If you are a teacher passionate about wildlife and want to grow your wildlife classes, consider adding a shooting sports program to your chapter. There are multiple organizations that your chapter can participate in. Texas Parks and Wildlife, San Antonio Livestock Show, and Houston Livestock Show host youth shoots each year, but they are just some options. There is also a great community of teachers that will help you pitch the program to your administrators. In 2014, we established the shooting program with Ridge Point FFA. At the time, we had about 15 students enrolled in wildlife on campus. By the end of year three we had about 90-course requests for wildlife annually. While this program can be highly in-depth, it can also be a great money maker. At Ridge Point, through our shooting team, we hosted our fundraiser shoot that ended up being our primary fundraiser for the booster club.

All of these activities have one thing in common, they are not what we think of when we think of traditional FFA programs. But as students have changed, it is important to adapt our programs to meet the needs of our students. Simply put, if the kids don’t want to sign up for our classes, then we lose an opportunity to teach them. These programs are exciting and will increase the awareness of your FFA program within your school and community. Once you have established the programs, they will begin filling the seats of your classes, and once you have the students in the door, you can teach them all about the more traditional parts of our FFA program. Without shooting, BBQ, or the welding series, I would not have had much of my chapter conducting, poultry, and SAE success because the reason those students joined FFA was for the extra programs, not the extra the traditional programs.