The Outstanding Agricultural Education Teacher for 2023 goes to: Mr. Sutera!
In his thirty years of teaching agriculture education and the last 22 at Sioux Valley, there have continued to be changes in technology and what is being taught. With those changes, Mr. Sutera has tried to make changes to his curriculum and teaching philosophy as well.
He believes one of the greatest things about teaching CTE classes is the chance for students to get hands-on experience. He tries to provide as many opportunities as possible for students to learn about many different topics and careers in agriculture. In his years of teaching, he knows that he has influenced students going into a career in agriculture which he is proud of. He also knows that some students have had a plan for a future profession and after taking one of his classes they learned that it might not be what they thought and picked a different career.
When teaching the FFA motto to his 7th grade students in his FFA unit he will ask the class what the motto means. “Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.” Most of the time he gets a response with little confidence in their answer. He tries to explain to them that the Ag classes and FFA will teach them hands-on opportunities and hopefully skills that will influence their future. He truly believes that his job is to teach students a wide variety of topics and hopefully, they learn many things that they will use throughout their life.
Congratulations, Mr. Sutera! This award is so very well deserved!