NORTH — Bringing agriculture to life in the classroom for students has earned a state award for an area elementary school teacher.

Katie Fogle, a second-grade teacher at North's Dover Elementary School, was named recipient of the 2004 Betty J. DeWitt Outstanding Educator Award during ceremonies at the 61st Annual South Carolina Farm Bureau Meeting in Myrtle Beach recently.

Fogle also received a $500 cash award provided by PrimeCare Vision.

According to Farm Bureau representatives, the award is presented each year to a teacher in grades kindergarten through 8th grade who has designed and implemented a lesson or project about the food or fiber industry within the last school year. It also commemorates the service and dedication of former SCFB Women's Committee Chair Betty J. DeWitt of Darlington County.

South Carolina Farm Bureau is a membership organization with more than 130,500 member families who support the promotion of agriculture and rural lifestyles throughout the state.

Fogle, who grew up in Sumter, graduated from Charleston Southern University with a B.S. in elementary education and holds a masters degree in religious education. She has been teaching for 14 years and now resides in Neeses.

The Dover teacher credits her husband, Dwain Fogle, and his parents, Bryan and Dolly Fogle, who are local farmers, for supporting her in her efforts to develop and implement lesson plans that bring agriculture to life in the classroom.

"Last year our school sponsored a month-long focus on agriculture, with each class highlighting a topic that was tied directly into the South Carolina Curriculum Standards. The month culminated in a special Agricultural/Farm Day," Fogle said.

In addition to the aid of family members, Fogle said she could never have turned her dream of incorporating agriculture lessons across the curriculum and into every classroom without the help of the administration and her colleagues at Dover Elementary School.

"It's neat to see what can happen when faculty and staff work together on a common theme and present such wonderful information that is not only interesting but practical and relevant to our children in this area of the state," she said.

As part of the unique day dedicated to agriculture in South Carolina, the children were fascinated by many knowledgeable speakers such as the "Cotton Lady," Christine Bickley, and Landy Weathers, vice president of the S.C. Farm Bureau.

According to Fogle, many local farmers volunteered their time to display their equipment including tractors and other machinery used in agricultural, chicken and dairy farming. They even brought farm animals on the school grounds as well as a live beehive provided by a local bee rancher.

"The kids absolutely loved it," Fogle said.

Along with modern technology and the materials used today, several presenters showed the children how products were made in the past and had a session on making homemade butter for the students to sample Activity/self-guided learning boards were placed around the school building displaying questions with answers hidden underneath flaps.

"For 'Ag in the Classroom' to be of any real value, the learning activities must make an impact on the students' personal lives," Fogle said. "Therefore, the specific programs were centered around the everyday lives of the children and their families."

The education programs focused on clothing, food, shelter, clean environments and security and were designed to help the students learn that it takes many types of products, many types of careers and great effort and planning to provide families with basic needs.

"Students began to see that the sky is the limit when dealing with agriculture," Fogle said. "During the cotton workshop, they learned that they wear cotton clothing, eat foods containing cotton oil and spend money that was partially made with cotton."

Fogle said it was extremely exciting for herself, her colleagues and the parents of Dover Elementary School students to watch the children react in awe as they began to realize that produce comes from a farm and not just from the grocery store.

Fogle is now eligible for the National Farm Bureau Outstanding Educator Competition which takes place in the spring. If she wins at the national level, she will go to the national conference to receive more training in how the teaching of agriculture can be incorporated into the curriculum, especially in the subjects of reading and writing.

"I really love to teach children. It's so wonderful when they take off in the right direction," the veteran teacher said. "Now, when they pass by crops in the field or animals in a pasture, our students will begin thinking of the benefits of farming and may one day decide to pursue a farming-related career choice."

* T&D Correspondent Donna L. Holman can be reached by e-mail at ladyflyer7@msn.com.

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