CAC Scholarship Program l CAC Community Programs
The Mushroom Festival l Mushroom Farming in the News l Farm Profile
The Mushroom Festival l Mushroom Farming in the News l Farm Profile
Teacher Susan Yocum is Honored For Work with Mushroom Farmers
Kennett Square School District teacher Susan Yocum was named one of the Educator 500 Award winners for 2006 for her work with the area’s mushroom farm community.
Yocum was one of the teachers honored earlier this year by West Chester University at the Union League in Philadelphia. Yocum has been active in providing information on mushroom farming to students in the Kennett School District and the community at large.
The Educator 500 Award identifies, rewards and supports entrepreneurial educators and teams who are proactively developing and implementing innovative programs that meet the unique needs of students by incorporating collaborative solutions, business partnerships, and parent and community involvement.
The award is affiliated with the 3E Institute, a global center for identifying, supporting, and mentoring entrepreneurial educators who prepare children and youth to succeed in a learning environment based on interest, passion, discovery and inventiveness. Yocum’s relationship with mushroom farmers began about 15 years ago, she said, when she became involved in a national organization called Agriculture in the Classroom. Pennsylvania was interested in developing a strong component and the mushroom growers were interested in being involved in the educational organization.
The growers believed providing information to students would also reach their parents, according to Yocum. Sue, a teacher at the time at the Mary D. Lang Elementary School, went to a summer program at Penn State University at the urging of her principal. Mushroom growers were looking to sponsor teachers who would return to the classroom with information about the industry and become a spokesperson in the educational field.
The program was excellent, she said, but the material was too technical for use by her colleagues. “I made a suggestion to the growers that information needed to be developed that could be used by teachers,” she said. “They asked if I would create a simplified curriculum and I agreed. I developed a workshop called from Spores to Sauté and created material that could be used by teachers in all disciplines.”
Yocum next did research on written material available to teachers and discovered that the existing books were either fiction or technical manuals. “I suggested to the growers that a children’s book might be helpful and they asked me to write one,” she said. “For a year I visited the C.P. Yeatman & Sons family farm and took notes and began working on other aspects of the book, such as photography, layout design and font selection. My students saw that I was doing research, taking notes and working with the computer.” Their teacher’s work turned into a lesson for the students.
Yocum put together a spiral-bound book – titled Let’s Go to a Pennsylvania Mushroom Farm - but didn’t have the time or resources to produce 100 of the books for the upcoming Penn State summer workshop.
Mushroom growers contributed $5,000 of the $7,000 needed to have 2,000 copies of the book printed and State Representative Chris Ross found money from a state environmental educational fund.
“The book was an exciting two-year process,” she said. “One year I did research and wrote the book and the next year I raised the money for the book.” She said the books were delivered to the school and many of her native Mexican students related to the book and said their fathers’ jobs were in the book. Also, several book signings for Let’s Go to a Pennsylvania Mushroom Farm were held, including one at the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett Square. She also gave one to then Governor Thomas Ridge.
Yocum took the book to Penn State and gave every teacher at the workshop a copy.
The book is a way to build bridges to the Mexican community, according to Yocum. She even visited Guanajuato, Mexico, and spoke with Mexican education officials.
With the help of former Pennsylvania Senator Robert Thompson, money was found to translate the book into Spanish. Families arriving from Mexico are given a copy of “Vamos a Pennsylvania a las Granjas De Hongo” and it helps eases their anxiety about moving to a new country. Carmen Pedraza and Rita Lopez helped with the translation.
The book is getting ready for a third printing.
Over the years Yocum has helped mushroom farmers by being a spokesperson and also aiding in the selection of high school students to receive scholarships. Also, mushroom farmers, she said, have been generous to the school community by donating the first computers to be used in her classroom, contributing teacher scholarships to Agriculture in the Classroom, and being involved in many other educational initiatives in including Read Across Kennett, After the Bell and Tick Tock Early Learning Programs.
Yocum continues her involvement with the mushroom farm community by teaching her course every summer at Penn State.
Link: http://www.agclassroom.org
The award is affiliated with the 3E Institute, a global center for identifying, supporting, and mentoring entrepreneurial educators who prepare children and youth to succeed in a learning environment based on interest, passion, discovery and inventiveness. Yocum’s relationship with mushroom farmers began about 15 years ago, she said, when she became involved in a national organization called Agriculture in the Classroom. Pennsylvania was interested in developing a strong component and the mushroom growers were interested in being involved in the educational organization.
The growers believed providing information to students would also reach their parents, according to Yocum. Sue, a teacher at the time at the Mary D. Lang Elementary School, went to a summer program at Penn State University at the urging of her principal. Mushroom growers were looking to sponsor teachers who would return to the classroom with information about the industry and become a spokesperson in the educational field.
The program was excellent, she said, but the material was too technical for use by her colleagues. “I made a suggestion to the growers that information needed to be developed that could be used by teachers,” she said. “They asked if I would create a simplified curriculum and I agreed. I developed a workshop called from Spores to Sauté and created material that could be used by teachers in all disciplines.”
Yocum next did research on written material available to teachers and discovered that the existing books were either fiction or technical manuals. “I suggested to the growers that a children’s book might be helpful and they asked me to write one,” she said. “For a year I visited the C.P. Yeatman & Sons family farm and took notes and began working on other aspects of the book, such as photography, layout design and font selection. My students saw that I was doing research, taking notes and working with the computer.” Their teacher’s work turned into a lesson for the students.
Yocum put together a spiral-bound book – titled Let’s Go to a Pennsylvania Mushroom Farm - but didn’t have the time or resources to produce 100 of the books for the upcoming Penn State summer workshop.
Mushroom growers contributed $5,000 of the $7,000 needed to have 2,000 copies of the book printed and State Representative Chris Ross found money from a state environmental educational fund.
“The book was an exciting two-year process,” she said. “One year I did research and wrote the book and the next year I raised the money for the book.” She said the books were delivered to the school and many of her native Mexican students related to the book and said their fathers’ jobs were in the book. Also, several book signings for Let’s Go to a Pennsylvania Mushroom Farm were held, including one at the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett Square. She also gave one to then Governor Thomas Ridge.
Yocum took the book to Penn State and gave every teacher at the workshop a copy.
The book is a way to build bridges to the Mexican community, according to Yocum. She even visited Guanajuato, Mexico, and spoke with Mexican education officials.
With the help of former Pennsylvania Senator Robert Thompson, money was found to translate the book into Spanish. Families arriving from Mexico are given a copy of “Vamos a Pennsylvania a las Granjas De Hongo” and it helps eases their anxiety about moving to a new country. Carmen Pedraza and Rita Lopez helped with the translation.
The book is getting ready for a third printing.
Over the years Yocum has helped mushroom farmers by being a spokesperson and also aiding in the selection of high school students to receive scholarships. Also, mushroom farmers, she said, have been generous to the school community by donating the first computers to be used in her classroom, contributing teacher scholarships to Agriculture in the Classroom, and being involved in many other educational initiatives in including Read Across Kennett, After the Bell and Tick Tock Early Learning Programs.
Yocum continues her involvement with the mushroom farm community by teaching her course every summer at Penn State.
Link: http://www.agclassroom.org