Ferguson College of Agriculture

 

This spring, the Oklahoma State University agricultural education program had the largest student teaching class in recent program history. Thirty-six agricultural education students were out making a difference in the classroom and preparing for their futures teaching agricultural education.  

 

Every fall and spring semester, senior agricultural education students join different classrooms across the nation in preparation for their own classrooms one day. For many of them, they have spent the past three years on the OSU campus preparing to go out into their student teaching placements and get in-classroom, hands-on experience. In this most recent cohort, almost one-third of students were from out of state. 

 

“We are very fortunate that many of those out-of-state students will decide they would like to stay in Oklahoma to begin their teaching career,” said Jon Ramsey, OSU agricultural education professor. “We are always excited about any young person that wants to start their career in Oklahoma.” 

 

Ramsey serves as the director of student teaching for the agricultural education program and gets to work with the student teachers throughout their collegiate journey. While students are in their student teaching placements, each one receives two faculty visits, mostly in person, that act as check-ins to evaluate progress and learning in their positions.  

 

Through teacher preparation courses and the Teacher in Residence program, where one current agricultural education teacher visits students on campus to share their knowledge, students feel prepared before going into the classroom, Ramsey said. This is something Ramsey believes will help the agricultural education program at OSU stay strong, he said. 

 

“We have held tightly to teacher preparation … our undergraduate teacher preparation program is vital to our department, to our mission, and so the future looks really bright for us,” Ramsey said. “I think we are going to continue to be a destination program for students from out of state that want to learn how to become a high school ag teacher.” 

 

As for the most recent student teaching cohort, Ramsey said they were all high caliber and have represented the college well.  

 

“I can’t say enough how proud we are of them and how well they have represented Oklahoma State themselves as they have gone out in these communities,” Ramsey said. 

 

To learn more about the OSU Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Leadership or the student teaching program, visit the website.