The FFA mission emphasizes premier leadership, personal growth and career success. The need for developing skills related to career success goes beyond just exposing students to agriculture careers. Career success development includes helping students gain the vital skills that they will apply when they enter the workforce. These are the skills that employers value in their employees, and these skills will give our students the competitive edge when they begin their career.
So you might be thinking, How do I help my students develop these skills? The LifeKnowledge Center for Agricultural Education has developed an online career success course that students can complete independently. The course will teach students the basics related to various skills that they will need to get a job and function in a career, as well as the steps they can take to help them advance in their selected career.
The career success student self-paced module is designed with student engagement in mind. Students will keep an electronic journal and play interactive games to check their understanding of the topics, and they can also view videos on various career-related subjects. The course contains eight lessons that students can work on wherever they have access to the Internet.
Lesson Six: I Have a Job... Now What?
Topics Covered in the Lesson:
- Advancing a Career: Goals
- Advancing a Career: Strategies
- Life/Work Balance
- Defining Career Success
The career success course is one more option to help students develop the skills needed for a lifetime of success in their chosen career. This course is the newest addition to LifeKnowledge Online and can be purchased through the Core catalog on Shop FFA. Visit lifeknowledge.ffa.org for additional information about LifeKnowledge Online and all of the tools, plans and guides available to help build a total program.
BACK TO TOP
Chapter Leadership Resource
The development team has been busy this year creating new resources and materials for LifeKnowledge® Online. One of those new additions is the Chapter Leadership Guide, which provides leadership materials and resources for those common events within FFA chapters.
At the 2009 National FFA Convention, the Chapter Meetings section of the guide was launched. This section provides a great variety of activities, as well as informational pieces that can be used to guide your chapter meetings or supply new meeting ideas.
The Chapter Meetings section includes:
- Meeting basics – room setup, order of business, meeting survey, meeting preparation and wrap-up
- Executive committee details – understanding the role of the executive committee, running a meeting and brainstorming member involvement
What else can you expect from the Chapter Leadership Guide? As this resource continues to evolve, you can expect to see group and individual brainstorms, activities and interactive guides that both you and your students can use.
Why was the Chapter Leadership Guide created? Through research, we discovered that agriculture educators are always looking for new ideas and unique ways to incorporate leadership activities into their classrooms and after-school activities, thus the creation of a variety of ready-made leadership activities to use during common FFA events.
How do I use the Chapter Leadership Guide? You decide! Versatility is the word that best describes this guide. Through your LifeKnowledge Online account, we can set up accounts for your students, making this resource available to you and your students. By allowing students access to the online resources, you are putting them in the driver’s seat to develop their own leadership potential.
The Chapter Leadership Guide is just one of many resources available to provide you and your students with new ideas and activities. At the click of a mouse, you can visit lifeknowledge.ffa.org for additional information.
BACK TO TOP
Featured Technical Lesson: Ready, Set, Weld!
By Cara Heid, Weldon Valley High School, Colorado
Take a look at how Cara Heid, agriculture educator at Weldon Valley High School, Colo., compares baking to welding to tap prior knowledge, and how she teaches a leadership lesson through an analogy using welding regulators.
Lesson Here --- Supplemental Power Point
BACK TO TOP
New Activity Resource
Leadership on the Go! is a new grab-and-go resource from the LifeKnowledge Center for Agricultural Education. This book has more than 30 activities focused around icebreakers, team building, communication, relationships and problem solving. These activities include a description, directions, connection questions and a scripted wrap-up to help every student get the most out of every experience.
This product is based on LifeKnowledge precepts that are currently included in the National Agricultural, Food and Natural Resources Content Standards. The resource was created to increase the development of skill sets in leadership, personal growth and career success. The book is spiral-bound with a thick cover, making it sturdy and durable for the classroom.
Each activity is outlined, starting with a short description that gives the teacher or facilitator a good idea of what the activity is about and the desired outcome. Next are step-by-step directions on how the activity is to be done. Connection questions follow; these questions are designed to help the participants get the most out of every activity by taking time to reflect on what just happened. Finally there is a scripted wrap-up, or contextual set, helping the facilitator move the participants from the activity to the next thing, whatever that might be.
There is a convenient sidebar of quick references allowing one to quickly see the time needed, number of students, usefulness of the activity and any supplies that will be necessary.
There is a convenient sidebar of quick references allowing one to quickly see the time needed, number of students, usefulness of the activity and any supplies that will be necessary.
This product is educationally sound, focusing on LifeKnowledge precepts, modalities and multiple intelligences and allowing teachers and facilitators to prescriptively differentiate their activities. At the very bottom of each activity is an LK Extension; this extension piece references a lesson relating to the activity that a teacher could use (lessons available on LifeKnowledge Online).
Leadership on the Go!, just released last month, will help students hone their skills in leadership, personal growth and career success.
Take a look at this team-building activity from Leadership on the Go! –Trust Trail.
BACK TO TOP
Teaching Tips
New Method for a Positive Teaching Environment
Compliment Their Character Composition
The Power of Positive Teaching by Yvonne Bender (pp. 107–109)
What it is: The Compliment Their Character Composition is a student self-esteem builder. It improves students’ interpersonal relationships and increases students’ pride in themselves.
Why use it: Older students sometimes put down their peers in an attempt to make themselves appear tough and intimidating. If not arrested, this behavior can have a negative impact on the learning environment. Compliment Their Character Composition encourages positive student communication and builds student self-esteem.
How it is done: Discuss with your students the importance of character and the difference between character traits and physical attributes. Once your students seem to understand the difference, work with them to develop a list of positive character traits and demonstrate how to use the information on the list as a reference when writing a Compliment Their Character Composition. As a class, use a famous person as a model to write a Compliment Their Character Composition.
Basic Character Trait Words:
| Thoughtful |
Fair |
Honest |
Helpful |
| Friendly |
Studious |
Dependable |
Intellectual |
| Diligent |
Cooperative |
Caring |
Courteous |
| Pleasant |
Empathetic |
Gentle |
Considerate |
| Generous |
Organized |
Loyal |
Hard Working |
| Reliable |
Agreeable |
Careful |
Sensible |
| Patient |
Wise |
Sensitive |
Sincere |
| Trustworthy |
Supportive |
Ambitious |
Inclusive |
Variations on the Theme:
- Assign this writing task monthly and have students compile a mini-booklet of all the character compliments they receive.
- Have each student compile a list of his or her own character traits and write a Compliment Their Character Composition about himself or herself.
BACK TO TOP
Sponsor Remarks
LK asks Mike Eade of Merial:
LK- Q: Please select one precept and describe why it is important for the nation’s young people.
a. Action
b. Relationships
c. Vision
d. Character
e. Awareness
f. Continuous Improvement
g. Professional Growth
h. Mental Growth
i. Emotional Growth
j. Spiritual Growth
k. Communications
l. Decision Making
m. Flexibility/Adaptability
Merial- A: It is impossible for me to separate one characteristic out of this list. Each of them is an important quality the future leaders of our nation will need to encourage and nurture. That is why it is so important for young people to be a part of an organization like FFA. It’s an organization that understands the value of a balance between academic excellence and personal character. Success in today’s world requires technical skills and the ability to use them to make good decisions, achieve results and motivate others. The more involvement students experience in diverse and character-building activities early in life, the better equipped they will be for success.
BACK TO TOP
What's New?
New Teammates
With the organizational restructuring at the National FFA Center, the LifeKnowledge Team has continued to evolve and become better able to serve you, our customers. Our team is now called the Educational Program Development Team. In addition to the name change, we have also added two valuable teammates. Please join us in welcoming Tyler Bradley, education specialist, and Mandy Gray, program coordinator.
Convention
Thanks for visiting Teachers’ World and spinning our prize wheel at the 2009 National FFA Convention. It was greating talking with those who stopped by to test drive LifeKnowledge® Online. Thanks again for another successful convention!
LK At Work Readership Survey
As the new school year begins, we want to know what you are thinking! Help us provide a useful newsletter by filling out a brief survey. By completing the survey, you will have a chance to win a LifeKnowledge Prize Pack full of resources for your classroom, valued at more than $250. Tell us what you think about our e-newsletter
BACK TO TOP
Lesson One: Agriculture Careers 101