City girl no longer

“I get a little nervous if I’m an hour from the nearest Target.”

This is not a quote one would expect to hear from Minnesota’s top ag teacher; but it is her unique perspective which distinguishes Haley Madson. Earlier this month, Madson was named the 2023 recipient of the Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Outstanding Teacher Award. This annual award recognizes teachers for their creative efforts to integrate agriculture into their classrooms to increase agricultural literacy.

Equally intriguing is the fact Madson is a first-grade teacher at St. Anne’s School in Le Sueur, Minn. Tucked in the Minnesota River valley, Le Sueur is steeped in agriculture history as the birthplace of Green Giant Canning Company. But Catholic grade schools are not known as agriculture educational hotbeds. Madson’s award may have changed that perspective.

To its credit, St. Anne’s School has a history of integrating the farming community into its curriculum. Green Giant’s ag research fields are a stone’s throw away from the school and many of the 140 kindergarten through fifth grade students have farming connections. Madson is keenly aware that when she first started teaching there, the teacher was often the ag student.

“My dad grew up on a farm,” Madson said. “I’ve always been around animals, but I’ve always been a city girl.”

By Paul Malchow

She came to St. Anne’s in 2017 and has always taught first grade. “I was told when I came here the first graders hatch chicks every year,” Madson related. “I thought to myself, ‘That won’t be happening!’ In 2018 I hatched my first chicks.”

True to tradition, about a dozen eggs arrive each spring and are incubated in the first grade classroom of 20 students. “The setup was pretty crude in the beginning,” Madson confessed, “but we have a real nice incubator now that even turns the eggs. I know more about hatching chicks than I ever thought I would!”

Madson said the chicks rarely hatch during school hours, but the result is exciting for the students nonetheless. “We only keep (the chicks) here a few days because they’d be kind of on their own over the weekend. They’re so cute when they’re all fuzzy, but when their real feathers start coming out they’re kind of ugly,” she laughed. “I’m glad they’re not here very long.”

An admitted accidental advocate for agricultural education at St. Anne’s, Madson uses her lessons to inspire students to think about how deeply agriculture impacts their lives from a young age.

A native of Edina, Minn., Madson first came to the valley as an elementary education major at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn. “I always saw myself as a teacher,” she admitted, “but ag was never on my mind.”

9 — Agriculture benefits by having women on board.

10 — Farm Bureau hatches chicken education program.

“I want my students to realize that when learning about agriculture, they will be using reading, math, social studies, and science skills,” she says. “There is a connection between agriculture and animals, the economy, the environment, technology, and overall way of life. It is important to give students opportunities to explore those connections starting in elementary school.”

“We’ve germinated seed,” Madson said, listing off some of her class’s projects. “We planted beans