The Jewell School District sits on 80 acres -- or the equivalent of 60 football fields -- of land. That's more than enough for Martha Stephens, the current agriculture career and technical education (CTE) teacher, to lead her classes through planting their very own orchard. 

CTE courses are a great benefit to students, even if they don't plan to make a career out of the specific program pathway. In Oregon, 98% of students who take a CTE course will graduate in four years, which is about 16 points higher than the state average. 

Currently there are 12 high school students and 27 middle school students enrolled in the agriculture classes and 15 high school and 35 middle school students enrolled in the construction classes. In a rural district of about 120 students, that means about a third are participating in these types of hands-on classes. 

Kolbie, a middle school student in Martha’s 2nd period class, says she enjoys her agriculture classes and plans to take more in high school. Photos by Sara Franklin. 

Martha’s classroom holds buckets of work gloves and rainboots, extra jackets, and early seedlings preparing for spring planting (in addition to the traditional tables and chairs). 

The back half of the room is a set of kitchen prep stations complete with sinks and various cooking appliances. It’s a true farm-to-table classroom experience as students will regularly prepare food using the fruits and vegetables harvested from their garden.  

Middle school students are currently planting apple trees that were grafted and donated by the school’s physical education teacher. Martha says it was perfect timing because they needed to plant before the end of February, and it was Future Farmers of America (a youth organization focused on leadership and career success through agriculture education) Week at the time of planting (“a week to celebrate the importance of FFA and its impact on American youth and agriculture.”) 

Before becoming an educator, Martha worked as a farmhand, then relocated to Jewell and began driving a school bus for the district. Eventually, she helped write a grant for the elementary learning garden and started teaching specials (extra-curricular rotations for subjects like music or PE) to elementary students. 

CTE Construction teacher George Ray helps Hunter, a sophomore, build a new bench for the library.

Then last year, the district asked if she would be interested in teaching agriculture to the middle and high school students. Thrilled by the opportunity, she enrolled in graduate school to pursue her master's degree in science education. 

Now she’s working with students in every grade throughout the school day.