MUSCATINE, Iowa– As a senior in college, Ashely Wiebe came to Muscatine Community School District for the first time to student teach. She had such a positive experience that when the district advertised an opening for an agriculture teacher for her second year of teaching, she applied and took the job she has held for the past 10 years. “I came to Muscatine for my student teaching and loved the program and community, and after teaching in northwest Iowa for a year, Mr. Fowler retired, and I came back to help try to fill those shoes.”
Over the past decade, Wiebe has made many valuable contributions to the Muscatine Community School District agriculture program, helping grow it at the junior high school level and providing FFA experiences for seventh and eighth-graders. She has also helped with FFA activities at the high school too. Wiebe received the Iowa Association of Agricultural Educators’ Ideas Unlimited Award this year for creating a livestock judging manual to benefit agriculture students locally and across the state.
The Ideas Unlimited Award allows teachers and their colleagues to share ideas they came up with or adapted that could benefit agricultural educators in Iowa. Wiebe entered her livestock judging manual to help it reach more FFA chapters and agriculture teachers elsewhere. She explained, “I basically applied to draw awareness to the judging manual to help find sponsors for it so I could print a copy for any teacher in Iowa that wanted it.” She added, “I hope the livestock judging manual can be used by other ag teachers and livestock judging coaches to help strengthen their team or to be used in a classroom for animal science class.”
Ashley Wiebe (right) with the Iowa Association of Agriculture Educators Ideas Unlimited Award. Photo courtesy of Muscatine Community School District.
Though Wiebe felt pleased to receive the award, she has already set her sights on improving agricultural education opportunities for Susan Clark Junior High School students by collaborating with the school’s new agriculture teacher. “I am excited we are adding a second agriculture teacher in the middle school and can work on expanding our offerings to the seventh and eighth-grade students,” she shared.
Whether creating resources to benefit youth throughout Iowa or working hands-on with her students, Wiebe continues to value her work as a Muscatine Community School District agriculture teacher and the chances it gives her to benefit local kids. “I have enjoyed the people and relationships I have built and having a great team of other agriculture teachers here to work with,” she said. “Having access to a fantastic building like the Agriculture Learning Center certainly helps.”
