2021 MFB Educator of the Year Incorporating Ag into the Classroom Despite Pandemic

Jen Nichols shares agricultural lessons with her Lake City Elementary first grade class. Photo: Ellen Vanderwal

Before Jen Nichols became Michigan Farm Bureau’s 2021 Educator of the Year, the Missaukee County native worked in international business. When she started having children, she decided a career change was in order.

“I started out subbing—I really fell in love with it,” she says. “Then I went back to get a master’s in teaching, so while I was getting my master’s, I worked on the playground, the cafeteria, the title room, and worked in any available open slot until I finished my degree. It just so happened that when I finished, they had an opening in first grade and here I’ve been ever since.”

Nichols started incorporating agriculture into her Lake City 1st grade classroom after seeing a blog post from a teacher at another school.

“She hatched these chicks in her classroom and I thought, ‘That sounds like something fun,’” she says. “I like to be outside and do outdoorsy stuff, and I’ll give it a whirl and see what happens.”

She then connected with Ellen Vanderwal of Missaukee County Farm Bureau to incorporate more ag into the classroom. Vanderwal was the one who nominated Nichols for the award. She introduced her to Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom FARM Crates.

“We unboxed this neat little package, and it’s filled with everything—like a teacher’s dream,” says Nichols. “It’s got the materials, lessons, technology, a craft that goes with it, and they’re all themes based on the month.”

Typically Nichols will take students on field trips to a local goat farm and the local conservation district, but those visits didn’t happen this year.

“The things that we always have had in place couldn’t happen with COVID, so we had to get creative in how to let the kids be able to participate even though we couldn’t take them.”

As the school year winds down, Nichols is going to incubate chicken eggs with her students and plant vegetables in the school garden.

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