HR0012 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0012 LRB096 03962 KXB 13997 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate Jo Wenzel, fourth grade teacher at Pearl City Elementary School, on being named the Agricultural Teacher of the Year by the Stephenson County Farm Bureau and Illinois Agricultural Teacher of the Year by the State Farm Bureau; and

WHEREAS, In June of 2009, she will represent Illinois in the national competition in St. Louis; if she wins there, she will represent the nation; she does not teach agriculture as a separate subject, but incorporates it into the social studies curriculum of her fourth grade class; and

WHEREAS, She also includes agriculture as part of her approach to teaching literature, math, and economics; she uses the journals of Lewis and Clark to help her students understand the national expansion west and the historical effects of American agriculture; the students keep their own journals as they follow along, tracking the Corps of Discovery; and

WHEREAS, Her students study renewable resources, longitude and latitude, soil, water, and the effects of too much fertilizer; they make charts recording the loss of food production jobs and the subsequent rise of service jobs; they travel to Grand Detour to see where John Deere made his first steel plow, harvest crop samples brought in from the fields by the teacher, map climate and weather patterns, enter poster contests, compile a reference book containing agriculture facts about all 50 states, and complete a research project on the ways in which a selected American Indian tribe used natural resources for its food, shelter, and clothing; and

WHEREAS, Jo Wenzel has been teaching Pearl City fourth graders for 20 years; she has been intimately involved with farming throughout her life, growing up on a farm in Henry, where her family raised soybeans and corn; she, along with her husband, Brian, operate a small farm in Kent, where they raised three children, Benjamin, Jessica, and Seth, and where they continue to grow corn and soybeans; and

WHEREAS, Jo Wenzel is proud of her students; she will reward the children this spring when she gives them the prize she won for them, courtesy of the Stephenson County Farm Bureau, a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Jo Wenzel on her achievements and thank her for her continued dedication to education; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Jo Wenzel as a symbol of our respect and esteem.