Ag Teacher Check-In: Erica Wood

 

Erica Wood was a Spring 2020 graduate from the department with a degree in agricultural education. After graduation, she was hired at Cascade Junior Senior High School to start a new agricultural education program. Her hard work and dedication to teaching agriculture is inspiring. Starting a program in the midst of COVID-19 has made it a challenging experience for Wood, but nothing that she can’t handle with the motivation of her resilient and adaptable students. “Students, parents, staff, and the community as a whole have shown nothing but support and excitement for the new program, and so I am confident that in a few years we truly are going to have something special here in this little mountain town,” Wood says. 

Wood has found that one of the most important things to being a good teacher is building relationships with the students. She has loved getting to know each of her students and forming connections with them. As Wood sees it, building mutual trust and respect is the best way to help students learn and grow. Wood says, “Even on my worst days, it is always my students who help cheer me back up and make it all worth it.” The relationships that she’s built help make her job easier because her students recognize that even if she makes mistakes, she is a fellow person and has their best interests at heart. 

Her FFA advisors had a very positive impact on Wood and were essentially the motivation behind her becoming an agricultural educator. “Adam Ineck inspired me to get involved with FFA and take full advantage of its opportunities…,” Wood said, “...Julie Smith inspired me to grow as a person and to pursue ag education as a career.” She has seen the ability of agricultural teachers to form connections with their students and use their passion to help them succeed; she wants to have the same impact on the lives of others. Wood also has strong family roots in both agriculture and education, so she wants to carry on those family traditions. 

Wood’s mentioned that something she really values learning from her classes at UI is how to structure a class and manage a classroom. Teachers can research and learn the agricultural content themselves, but working with students and keeping them engaged is something Wood really values. “I think that knowing how to manage a classroom and create a structured class is the very foundation of success for a teacher, and there are a lot of skills that I gained through my time at the university that has helped me to be successful in this area,” she states. 

Kasee Smith was a very influential professor and mentor to Wood. “I have always admired her for being an engaging instructor that I learned a lot about teaching from,” she says. Wood also mentions that Smith genuinely cares and does a lot to help her students to be successful.

Wood enjoyed spending time with her cohort throughout their time in the AEE department. She says that her fondest memory was traveling to the National Association of Agricultural Educators in Anaheim, CA during their senior year. They got to learn from agricultural teachers from all over the nation, bond within the cohort, and visit Disneyland.

Written by Lynnsey Tracy

Spring 2021