Half the battle with teaching agriculture and being a FFA advisor is getting parent “buy-in”.
If I could get a parent excited about their student being in my program, it was not nearly as hard to get the student to go the extra mile.
But with 40-60 first year members each year, it was nearly impossible to meet with each parent during open house or throughout the year to explain why agriculture education and FFA is so important.
This led to me starting a FIRST YEAR ORIENTATION NIGHT.
About a month before school started, I sent out an orientation letter to invite parents to the orientation. I conducted the meeting immediately after Open House. This made it more convenient for parents and minimized the number of pre-school events students and parents were required to attend.
I also created an orientation packet for each parent to take with them. This packet included:
- An explanation of the 3-circle model
- The names of the officers
- Our chapter goals
- The names and descriptions of all of the chapter activities
- Our chapter’s calendar and point system
- An explanation of SAEs and examples of SAEs
- The minimum requirements for a state degree
- And my contact information
By providing parents with all of the information regarding our chapter and program before school started, they could properly plan for our events and help ensure students are being set up for success in FFA.
To help create a culture of student leadership, I had current officers run the FFA portion of the orientation. I used this orientation night presentation to assist in facilitating the first year orientation night. This also provided a student perspective on why FFA should be a priority for students and parents.
By allowing a designated time for all parents to learn about and understand the importance of each of the three components of agriculture education in the three-circle model, I found I had better success with pushing students to their full potential in my program.
I conducted this orientation night my last five years in the classroom and I saw immense improvement in student and parent buy-in, as well as overall support of the agriculture education program, which ultimately led to more success at the local, state and national level!