Bill Text: IL HR0012 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Congratulates Jo Wenzel, fourth grade teacher at Pearl Elementary School, on being named the Illinois Ag Teacher of the Year.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2009-02-04 - Resolution Adopted [HR0012 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-HR0012-Introduced.html

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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

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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

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