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New York Agriculture in the Classroom

Programs

2012 Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to our 2012 NYAITC Teacher of the Year
from Banford Elementary in the Canton Central School District in Canton, NY, Cathy Carr!
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"A wonderful elementary teacher who promotes agriculture and gardening to not only her students, but also the families and other staff that she works with in that building. It's certainly a benefit to the agriculture program here at the Canton Ceikntral School to have such a positive role model for agriculture in the elementary." This is how high school agriculture teacher Carol Wright describes our Teacher of the Year, Cathy Carr.

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Cathy Carr has been teaching for 25 years, and has incorporated agriculture into each of her subjects with her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in her inclusive classroom, including partnering with the high school agriculture program. Utilizing her school garden, Cathy has developed garden newsletters and created promotional posters with her students during language arts lessons, and creates planting grids with her math students. During science classes, her students use a class worm "farm" to learn about ecosystems, life cycles, and healthy soil. Cathy has also developed a classroom cooking center, where she instills in her students the importance of trying new foods, and teaches them about nutrition and food preparation skills.

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Cathy has instilled a relationship between the high school agricultural program's students and her own elementary students and uses agriculture as a learning context in the majority of her own lesson plans. She invites other teachers in her school to take part in the use of the school garden. Cathy is a great example of how to spread agricultural knowledge to our next generation of students and this is why we congratulate her on her honor as the 2012 NYAITC Teacher of the Year.



Past Winners