Outstanding award

A Jay County High School agriculture teacher received a national award at an education-based convention in Anaheim, California, earlier this month.

Brittany Kloer, 34, was one of six teachers in the country to win the Outstanding Early Career Teacher Award from the National Association of Agricultural Educators at its convention.

“I am honored to receive such an important award and to be recognized by my peers from across the country,” said Kloer.

Kloer, who has been teaching at JCHS for 12 years, was recognized in part for her creation of a Program of Activities (POA) that has been utilized in the school and presented to more than 900 agricultural teachers.

“The POA is designed to empower students,” said Kloer, “to give them more ownership over their projects. It gives them the skills they need to be successful.”

Kloer’s POA utilizes online applications created by Google to make project management easier and allow students to effectively operate as leaders in the classroom and in their FFA chapters.

Kloer said there is a shortage of agricultural educators and a high turnover rate in the field, which inspired her to research ways to alleviate stress for the teacher. She said it's beneficial for both the students and the teacher if students are given more opportunities to play a role in the planning and decision making process of their activities, which in turn develops their leadership traits they apply to whatever career they choose to pursue.

She began working on what would become her POA in 2010 after almost all of the agricultural teachers she knew from her graduating class at Purdue University left the field entirely, crediting the stress that comes with the job as the biggest factor.

“I am one of two from graduating class that is still working (in education),” said Kloer.

She said her peers left the field within five years of graduating. According to a report by the University of Pennsylvania, more than 44 percent of all teachers in the country do the same.

Kloer said she would not have received the award without the support of her fellow agriculture teachers at JCHS and her students, who inspire her to work harder and pursue new topics to research.

“I love to be able to represent Jay County at a national level. … I fell in love with this community the first year I worked here,” said Kloer. “I couldn’t imagine teaching anywhere else.”