A new agriculture teacher in Goessel

By KAITLYN ALANIS

Staff writer

Alicia Oard, a small-town farm girl from Abilene, Kansas, is Goessel’s newest agriculture teacher and FFA adviser. She’s a May 2016 graduate of Kansas State University, and she spent the last year teaching agriculture at Herington High School.

Oard will teach high school courses in ag mechanics, advanced ag mechanics, agribusiness, ag leadership and communications, greenhouse management and floriculture, and animal science. She also will teach an eighth grade ag explorations course.

“I am looking forward to this year and working with my (FFA) officer team to coordinate the fun and exciting things we have planned on our program of activities,” Oard said. “I plan to keep the many traditions that have been engraved in the history of GHS but excited to incorporate my own.”

Oard said she plans to incorporate the teaching style of her favorite teachers in her own classroom.

“Those teachers were the ones who really worked hard to get to know me and my peers,” she said. “That is what boosts my teaching style, knowing that if I be myself and get to know all of my students, then my students will actually look forward to learning what I have to teach.”

From her animal science class to her ag communications class, she said all fields of agriculture can benefit her students’ lives.

“Ag Ed is so relatable,” she said. “Everything they are learning in math, science, reading, etc. can relate to agriculture and the daily lives they live.”

While she knows she won’t have much downtime as she is also co-coaching the Goessel cheerleading team, she hopes to fill it with photography and outdoor recreation.

“I’ve lived in Marion County for about a year and a half now, and I am really loving the community atmosphere,” Oard said. “There are no strangers in this area and everyone is so caring. I hope to call this place home for a while.”