Plan, Plan, Plan… Evaluate?

I’m finishing up a project for one of my graduate courses, Program Evaluation. I’m also taking a course this quarter on Program Planning. I was able to use the same program for both course projects – I developed a program plan for the one course and a program evaluation for the other. I believe this may be the first time I’ve spent just as much time on the evaluation of a program as I did on the planning. Probably many of us would be in the same boat, spending hours upon hours planning for a program, but minutes on the evaluation. And yet, a proper program evaluation can be the only way we know if all the hours of planning made any difference!

How do you evaluate? With a quantitative or qualitative design? Using a formative or summative approach? Even if you don’t think in these terms, the point is that we spend at least a fraction of the time we spend planning a program on planning on how we will evaluate the program. It can make all the difference in the achievement of our program’s goals.

Improving Teaching in Agriculture

This past week I participated in the annual conference of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture organization. Held on the campus of Oklahoma State University, the conference was filled with sessions sharing research, exploring the scholarship of teaching and learning, and challenging old ideas. I presented a poster based on some of the research conducted in my graduate thesis, looking at the relationship between student organization leaders and their respective student organizations in colleges of agriculture. 

Throughout the conference, I gained a new respect for what it means to be a “teacher of agriculture”. In every agricultural discipline, university faculty members are dedicated to serving their students through effective teaching methods. I left Stillwater with pages and pages of notes regarding questions I have, ideas I want to try, and new approaches to the methods I have been using. Thanks to the conference planners and all those who shared their research!

Transitions

Today is the first day of summer quarter 2009 at The Ohio State University. Today is also the first day of my doctoral program in Agricultural & Extension Education. While some find transition and change difficult and full of anxiety, I also find them exciting and full of possibilities. Transitions are a great opportunity to pause and reflect. I like to use the change as a chance to evaluate where I’m at, where I’m going, and where I’d like to be. It can be a chance to check in our progress toward goals and set new ones. I find the change also provides a renewed motivation – a new enthusiasm. With this transition before me, I plan to take full advantages of the opportunity for reflection, evaluation, and new progress!

Can you serve too much?

This quarter I am teaching Foundations of Personal & Professional Leadership at Ohio State-ATI. This morning in class we examined a chapter in Maxwell’s “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” that focuses on servant leadership. Our class discussion was centered on how the students will serve others in their future careers when one young woman asked, “What if you serve too much?”

While her question prompted more a discussion of what “service” means and how we might distinguish that from doing others’ work for them, it did raise a good thought. Is there a balance between serving others and maintaining your own agenda? I believe effective leaders achieve their agenda THROUGH serving others.

What are you doing to serve others?

And the Pendulum Swings

This morning I’m finishing up an online lecture about the history and development of the fields of Agricultural Education and the Cooperative Extension System. One of the perhaps little-known facts about the history of Agricultural Education that I love is the pendulum shift that represents the focus of the field. Many folks might think of the Smith-Huges Act of 1917 as the creation of agriculture classes in schools. Actually, students were learning about agriculture well before that legislation. When agriculture classes were first introduced in the classroom (as early as mid-1700′s), a science-based approach was used. In fact, both private and public schools offered classes in agricultural subjects and both boys and girls were students in such classes.

With the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, agriculture classes became vocational in nature and was prescribe for boys in public schools. That gender bias continued until the 1960′s. The program was described as vocational agriculture until the 1980′s, when a push for agri-science broadened the approach used in the classroom.

Fascinating how our forefathers began such instruction as science-based, legislation focused it as vocational, and we have now moved toward a science-based approach again.

Interesting facts: In 1900, about 400 high schools offered agriculture classes. When the Smith-Hughes Act was passed, more than 4,000 high schools offered agriculture classes to nearly 90,000 students. Tennessee was the first state to require agriculture instruction in public schools.

The Other White Meat – Cuyahoga Community College style

This afternoon I engaged students in Cuyahoga Community College’s culinary program in a workshop about the modern pork industry. We walked through how pigs are raised, how product is sold, and how primal cuts become pork chops, spareribs, and the like.  Being culinary students, I expected that they would find the latter components of the workshop most interesting. I was surprised to find they were most enthusiastic about the production side of things. We discussed things such as the ingredients in a pig’s diet, how barns are temperature-controlled, and even the bio-security principles used on farms. Agriculture must continue to share its story! As I use in this workshop, new science plus new technology plus new management practices equals an efficiently produced, lean, nutritious product. The pork industry and agriculture in general must forge ahead with this good news!

Spring!

The wonderful weather we’ve been having this week has really boosted my motivation. Just when the drab Ohio weather was starting to take control of my attitude, a little sunshine came along and did just the trick! It’s amazing how much difference the fresh weather can make for my day’s work ethic. This week I’ve found myself working more, cooking more, playing with the dog more, even doing dishes more often! It’s no surprise that the fresh air can get us going after a sleepy winter, but I’m wondering how I can duplicate this “it’s spring and I have a newfound enthusiasm for work and life” feeling throughout the year. Well, the chocolate muffins have just come out of the oven. I’m off to ponder how to recreate “sunshine motivation” over a glass of milk and a (ok, probably two or three) chocolate muffin.

Informed Consumer – (what Best Buy is hoping you’re not)

We had an unfortunate iPhone incident yesterday. My husband’s iPhone fell a few feet onto a classroom floor and…well…shattered. Really, the front glass broke,  making operation of the little machine fairly difficult. As his iPhone is vital to conducting business, we dashed over to Best Buy to pick up a new 3G. As regular Apple customers, we knew exactly what we needed, how much it was going to cost, what the new plan would be, how to transfer data, etc.  And it’s a good thing we did!

The sales associate first told us we could only “upgrade” if we spent $400 (which he said was a deal for what could cost us almost $800!) and that we would need to sign up for all this new stuff in order to get the new phone at this “discounted” price. I quickly informed him that the $800 figure was incorrect and, if he could direct us to the nearest online computer, we would show him the $199 price we would be paying for the new phone, according to the Apple website.

I was disappointed that we could have more easily (and more cheaply) purchased the new phone directly from Apple’s website, which we would have done if not for the urgency of the situation. I guess it goes to show how much it pays to be an informed consumer.

In-the-field learning

What better way to learn career skills than by watching a professional at work? This spring I’m coordinating Early Field Experiences for the Agricultural & Extension Education program at Ohio State. I work with professional educators in the field (usually in a high school agriculture program or a county Extension office) to place Ag & Ext Ed students who are early in their degree program for a two-week observation experience. My own EFE was with Mr. Allen Clark at Warren High School in Washington County, Ohio. It was a wonderful opportunity to experience first-hand what an agriculture teacher’s job was REALLY like and it most certainly created a felt need for the rest of my coursework in the Ag & Ext Ed program at Ohio State.

While internships serve as a very valuable tool for career preparation later on, these short, two-week observation experiences early on in a college career can serve to narrow career focus, peak a student’s interest, or even rule out certain career paths before finding oneself too far down a certain road. I’m glad to be a part of this year’s process.

Wedgworth Leadership Institute

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interact with the current class members of the Wedgworth Leadership Insitute (WLI). WLI is a program facilitated through the University of Florida’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. My portion of their four-day seminar was a three-hour workshop focusing on how we accelerate our effectiveness using talents and strengths. A wonderful group with great discussion. How are you identifying your strong points? How are using your talents and strengths to produce tangible results? How do you manage your weak areas? All questions the WLI class members discussed yesterday. Grapple with those questions yourself and challenge yourself to take the risks of learning, growing, and utilizing your natural talents.