Alumna wins national teaching excellence award

August 22, 2017

Spider Pride

Our education faculty are master teachers, and our graduates often go on to win local teacher of the year honors. They also earn national recognition for their excellence in the classroom.

Take Jessica Pittman, GC’15 — her approach to teaching first graders about agriculture gained statewide and national attention this summer. She won the Virginia teacher of the year award from Agriculture in the Classroom and received the National Award for Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture.

Combining agriculture with her passion for teaching came almost as a second nature for Pittman. She and her husband own a farm in Hanover County, Va., where they raise angus cows, hogs, horses, oats, corn, and hay. In her classroom, she uses agriculture to bring real-world context to her curriculum with first graders, whether by growing lettuce together or bringing in her own livestock.

“I believe these efforts will not only provide my students with a well-rounded education,” Pittman said. “But it will also make them better informed consumers later in life.”

The inspiration to integrate agriculture into her core curriculum came, Pittman says, from one of her classes at Richmond. One of her professors, Patricia Stohr-Hunt, organized a presentation from Agriculture in the Classroom, a program encouraging teachers to incorporate agriculture into K-12 curriculum.

“If it hadn’t been for Dr. Stohr-Hunt having the educational coordinator from Ag in the Classroom in one of our classes, I wouldn’t have known this is something I could do,” Pittman said, “She introduced me to the whole idea of incorporating agriculture into my classroom. A huge lightbulb went off.”

The School of Professional and Continuing Studies emphasizes the study of curriculum development and effective classroom instruction for a variety of learners. For Pittman, applying real-world farm problems that require logic and critical thinking was a win-win situation. Not only is she teaching her core subjects to eager learners, but she’s also leaving them with practical skills by weaving in hands-on learning.

“So many people say, ‘Oh, you’re an agriculture teacher,’ when in reality I’m not,” Pittman said. “I’m a first-grade teacher who uses agriculture to teach my standards.”

In language arts, she uses recipes to bring words to life when talking about ingredients and measurements. (A lesson that ends with the class making apple sauce from Virginia apples that they get to enjoy before heading home from school!) In math, they sort and count seeds. Her students are also budding entrepreneurs. In science class, they use an aeroponic tower garden to grow vegetables like lettuce that they then package and sell to staff at the school to help pay for supplies.

“Seeing them make the connection and the little light bulbs going off is the best part,” Pittman says of her students.

Best of luck for the coming year, Mrs. Pittman! Congrats — we’re proud of you!

Learn more about Jessica's classroom experiences.