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Jodi Songer Riedel
Ms. Riedel has more than fourteen years of teaching experience in agricultural education.
She has instructed and created curriculum for courses in horticulture, sustainable agriculture,
forestry, and environmental and natural resources. Ms. Riedel has also instructed many student
teachers and has keenly observed and learned what young teachers, especially those with
limited horticultural knowledge, need to successfully instruct agricultural education courses.
In her Wakefi eld High School classroom, Ms. Riedel employs learning by doing. With
Ms. Riedel’s instruction, students:
• Have designed and installed prize-winning gardens at the state fair.
• Maintain over eight ornamental gardens and landscapes on school grounds.
• Installed gardens at the YMCA, local day cares, and surrounding schools.
• Present educational workshops for the community.
• Grow and donate vegetables totaling over one ton each year.
• Raise poinsettias and organize fall and spring plant sales.
Ms. Riedel also organizes and supervises urban service learning projects and Supervised
Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) in Raleigh, NC. She spends countless hours in and out
of the classroom managing the school’s 1800-square foot greenhouse and oversees fruit,
vegetable, and ornamental gardens within the school grounds. Ms. Riedel funds and
sustains her inspirational program and its efforts each year through grants and annual
plant sales, cultivated by students. Ms. Riedel’s dedication and enthusiasm earned her the
2010 Governor’s Environmental Educator of the Year for North Carolina. She has also been
awarded a distinguished Kenan Fellowship and assigned to the Governor’s Teaching Network.
About the Authors