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Board recognizes Grow Our Own initiative; students from Columbia and Huntsville present projects
Summary
The State Board recognized the Grow Our Own initiative and Future Teachers of Alabama and heard short presentations from student winners who described digital notebooks, board presentations and virtual lesson plans developed during the pandemic.
The Alabama State Board of Education on May 12 adopted a resolution recognizing the Grow Our Own initiative and Future Teachers of Alabama. The board voted unanimously to adopt the resolution and then heard presentations from student winners of a Grow Our Own contest.
Laura Bailey, a career and technical education administrator, introduced student presentations from Columbia High School and the Huntsville Center for Technology. Landon Whetstone of Columbia High School described using enrichment-block time and digital design software to create a digital notebook and board presentation aimed at encouraging ninth-graders to consider teaching. "We utilized our time during our enrichment blocks, to compose information from various sources... We decided to present the board to ninth grade classes to further, incentivize, younger high school students to look into the field of education," Whetstone said.
From Huntsville, seniors Ellen Harris and Taylor Hicks presented a video lesson-plan entry created during the pandemic. Hicks described making a music lesson using virtual tools: "I used PowerPoint, whiteboard, like a digital whiteboard, music theory dot net, YouTube videos... so that every student was able to grasp it."
Department officials and the Alabama Education Association coordinate the Grow Our Own initiative to encourage students to pursue teaching careers and support local school systems with aspiring-educator activities. The board and superintendent highlighted that several local programs have held "teacher signing" events and noted that two finalists for state Teacher of the Year came from CTE/FTA programs this year.
Board members said they would consider issuing resolutions to the local programs on site; the department will share contact information and follow up on recognition events.
