NSW Association of Agriculture Teachers Dear members, 2018 has zoomed into term one with amazing speed. I hope everyone is travelling well and keeping the Ag education flag flying high and aiming for those blue ribbons! This year is setting out to be the busiest in years in Autumn 2018 Newsletter relation to changes in curriculum. The new Technology Mandatory syllabus would be in the forefront of all teachers and this is the biggest change in AG curriculum in nearly 20 years. NESA Presidents Message ........................................ 1 and DoE as planning to roll out a range of resources and workshops during the rest of the year. Your Meet the 2018 Executive ................................. 2 association is also planning a number of support PIEFA Conference .......................................... 5 workshops across the regions, so please watch out Cotton Tour ................................................. 5 for information coming out soon. OzHarvest’s New Program................................ 6 Very soon you will be receiving a survey regarding Social & Digital Media Policy ............................ 7 the expertise of members. The purpose of this is to Investigate Bees in 2018 .................................. 8 better assist all teachers by identifying the range of Telling Your Story ......................................... 9 knowledge and skills that we have a collective group Poultry Education Funding ............................... 9 that we can share with each other through mentoring of new teachers in regional areas. Careers @ Beef Week ................................... 10 UNE HSC Booster Days .................................. 10 We have made a number of improvements to the RACI Titrations Competition ........................... 11 website membership section and this has increased membership to the highest number of members in NSWAAT Conference 2019 .............................. 11 years. Thanks to you all for your support and if you April is Sugar Shake Month ............................. 11 have any suggestions for the website, please pass Farm Workforce Survey ................................. 12 them onto the executive. Griffith Pigs on Show .................................... 13 A number of other activities I have been engaged in Biosecurity with Costa .................................. 14 this term includes, liaising with other TAS Schools at Honeyland ................................... 14 associations regarding co-membership, writing Suburban School on Farm .............................. 14 formal letters to ministers and industry Tocal Tractor Training .................................. 15 organisations regarding the crisis of lack of Ag teachers, networking with many industry Ag Semex Dairy Challenge ................................. 15 education organisations on how they can support us DPI Teacher PD ........................................... 16 better, working with NESA and DoE on supporting Ag Free Farming Futures @UNE ........................... 17 teaching in the future. This and more continues to First Entrants in GATE .................................. 17 be my aim to ramp up the support we are given and FutureGen Education PD ............................... 18 to improve the professionalism of our teaching subjects. Executive Contacts ...................................... 20 NSWAAT Members ....................................... 21 Our state conference organisation of going very well and I want to thank Georgie Price and her team for all their hard work so far. The conference will be held in 4-8th January 2019 at Forbes. Page | 1 I will be at the PIEFA conference next term, and I Brianna Callum hope to see some of you there. The conference is accredited for 12 hour professional learning by Vice president of the NSWAAT! NESA. Education Officer in the Honey Bee I hope you all have a great holiday and look forward Unit at Tocal College to working towards supporting you all the rest of this year. For the last four years I was living in Sydney and teaching at Barker College. Luciano My husband and I moved to Paterson which is located in the lower hunter at the beginning of 2018 and I started a new role working as an Education Officer in the Honey Bee Unit at Tocal OUR MISSION College in January. I am currently completing my Certificate III in Beekeeping and assisting the DPI in TO SUPPORT ALL TEACHERS AND developing new units and training programs. I also assist in the management of their Apiary sites at ORGANISATIONS WHO ARE ENGAGED IN Tocal. I'm also tinkering with developing AGRICULTURAL AND RELATED EDUCATION Agricultural resources in my spare time. PURSUITS. What first sparked your interest in agricultural education? I started Agriculture in year 8 and just never stopped. As a student I liked the Luciano Mesiti diversity the subject had to offer. I finished my Animal Science degree at WSU President of NSWAAT. Hawkesbury and started working in Marketing and Advertising. I quickly Ag teacher at Colo High School. realised I couldn't work in an office environment 9 to 5 and wanted to work What first sparked your interest in agricultural with young people. I started my Graduate education? Diploma of Education at UNE and never I grew up on a farm and always wanted to looked back! do something in agriculture. I spent over 15 Who are your agricultural heroes and why have you years working as a University lecturer and found them inspiring? retrained as a high school teacher 8 years ago. I have a few! Who are your agricultural heroes and why have you My high school Agriculture teachers - I was found them inspiring? lucky that all of them were amazing! Each teacher I had taught me a different set of My parents were my first heroes because valuable skills. There are so many lessons they worked so hard and were excellent and activities I did as a student that I use farmers leaving a lasting legacy for me to now as a teacher. Almost all of them are carry on. still teaching the subject which I believe What do you see as the biggest challenge facing says something! Each teacher nurtured and agriculture education in NSW? guided me in the right directions, so if they are reading this, I could never thank all you The lack of trained agriculture teachers in wonderful people enough for your NSW is a real crisis. NSWAAT is tackling this dedication! currently. Also, promotion of AG teaching is lacking due to careers advisors and career Temple Grandin - my past students would promotion by universities. giggle at this statement. But do I really need to explain why? As an animal scientist, her work in the industry is beyond inspiring. She is and will forever be an icon in the Page | 2 livestock industry and has changed it for the realising their dreams and managing farms better. and stations and those who are starting new business ideas in the ag space. I recently And last but definitely not least my family, was blown away meeting many of the Young especially my Grandpa Frank. They fostered Farming Champions at the RAS in Sydney my passion even before I started school and and hearing their stories and aspirations. encouraged me to keep going when I doubted myself. They definitely helped fuel Similarly, reading and learning more about my interest in the area and have never the game changers who are in start-ups and stopped supporting me. collaborating on amazing ag-related ventures is awesome. A new ‘accelerator What do you see as the biggest challenge facing network in Orange, NSW is leading the way. agriculture education in NSW? Their work and visions have inspired me to write a new educational resource for the The growing demand for food and fibre - new Technology Mandatory syllabus titled can we keep up in terms of education? ‘Discover the game changing ideas that are Our job as Agricultural Educators has never pioneering our food future’ in which, been more important than right now. We students investigate a range of new ideas need to prepare the next generation for that are changing our food system. They what lies ahead. And it's no small task! then sell their pitch as part of a food and Agriculture I believe has been taken for agriculture ‘Pitch’ competition. granted in this country and we need LOTS What do you see as the biggest challenge facing of bright young minds to be ready for the agriculture education in NSW? challenges of the future. My hope is that it becomes a major focus and that our youth Currently, I feel the implementation of the become invested in its protection and new NESA Syllabuses may be a challenge for development. teachers of agricultural education and that’s why I recently became an accredited provider of NSW Education Standards Angela Colliver Authority (NESA) Registered Professional Development and have developed a suite of new courses and educational resources Secretary of NSWAAT specifically to engage teachers in the new Director - Angela Colliver syllabuses. Consulting Services My role in NSWAAT is ‘Secretary’ and that involves communicating with the NSWATT Executive and Graham Quintal Members. Treasurer of NSWAAT What first sparked your interest in agricultural education? Retired My first interest was sparked way back on I am kept busy with managing the burgeoning the 1980’s when I began farming membership base of the Association. I also co- earthworms. I wrote an educational administrator our Facebook Group - NSWAAT. I have resource for schools called’ Kids for now been retired from teaching Agriculture for 7 Landcare – Wormwatch’ and began breeding years now,