Realityworks Account Manager Merri Johnson and Marketing Communications Manager Samantha Forehand were recent guests on Here by the Owl, a podcast hosted by North Dakota State Ag Education Supervisor, Nikki Fideldy-Doll and agriculture education instructor Breanna Bregel. This passionate duo strives to share tips, best practices and resources that will empower other agriculture education instructors to succeed; recent episodes include Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) resources, how to optimize your prep time, “Humans of Ag Ed” and more.
3 episode takeaways
During their 50-minute chat, Merri and Sam shared details about new agriculture learning aids, upcoming training tools ag instructors can look forward to. They also discussed ways to secure funding for teachers’ wish list items.
1: We’re passionate about career exploration.
We collaborated with agriculture teachers to ensure that new training tools like our Animal Clinic Design Kit and Bovine Birthing and Ultrasound Simulator address key skills and concepts while offering hands-on career exploration. What’s more, we pair curriculum (including presentation slides, activities and assessments) with almost every product.
Looking for more career exploration resources for your classroom? Consider these free career exploration lesson plans.
2: We hear you!
If you have a need for a simulator or model to help you teach certain skills, let us know. Both Nikki and Breanna referenced previously providing feedback and suggestions for us in the past (in fact, it sounds like they played a major role in our incorporation of replaceable ears in our Bovine Injection Simulator — thank you, Nikki and Breanna!).
3: Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.
Nikki and Breanna asked Merri and Sam how educators are funding funds for our training tools. As Merri shared, different states have different funding options, from state incentive grants and FFA fundraisers to national resources like Perkins and ESSER funding. But don’t be afraid to ask your administrators for what you want. Breanna and Nikki both shared instances where they secured grants for desired learning aids simply because they always had an updated wish list to reference — they were ready to answer the question, “what do you need?”
You can also explore our Funding Center. It offers two searchable grants databases, plus details on other funding ideas.
Listen to the full episode
You can listen to the full episode on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts and other podcast streaming services.
Additionally, you can access the resources Merri and Sam shared.
