Northside High School has been selected as the 2013 Georgia Outstanding Middle/Secondary School Agricultural Education Program by the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAEE) for the state of Georgia. This award recognizes the nation’s most successful secondary agricultural education programs and highlights local programs and teachers that achieve success.
Ryan Talton and Virgil Blalock are Northside High’s agriculture education teachers and David McDermott serves as assistant principal and Career, Technical and Agriculture Education (CTAE) supervisor. They constantly seek ways to improve their program. Last year Northside High added a farm to its program so that students could receive hands-on experience in forestry and horticulture and the opportunity to work with goats, hogs and cows.
More than 200 students are enrolled in their “ag” classes.
NAEE chooses educators who have developed an outstanding agricultural education program at either the middle school or high school level. Applicants are judged on criteria such as teaching philosophy, effective classroom and experiential instruction, development of partnerships and professional growth.
Barbara Wall, director of career, technical and agriculture education, commented, “We are very proud of our ag programs and excited that Northside High is being recognized for its outstanding work! Even though Northside’s program is a relatively young program, it is truly an Outstanding Ag Ed Program. Mr. Blalock’s and Mr. Talton’s leadership, along with tremendous community support, are key ingredients to the success of Northside’s program. All parties involved exemplify the FFA motto: ‘Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve.’”
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