NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication
April 2015
The Way I See It Jack Winterrowd, Cedar Park
When I was a child I spent my summers with my father’s parents on their farm near Thrall, Texas. I grew up helping my grandfather with anything and everything that had to be done on the farm. On the days when I would be in the way or he didn’t need my help, I would help my grandmother. She was selfsufficient and very independent and I learned so much from her. One of her favorite past-times was gardening. Her vegetable garden was huge and provided all kinds of produce for the family. A special corner of the garden was always dedicated to growing flowers and she had flower beds all around the house. It became my job to work in the garden and flower beds. Yes, I was stoop labor, long before I knew what it was! I feel certain that is where I obtained my interest in gardening and flowers because my mother had a brown thumb, except that she could grow amazing African Violets. Yeah, go figure on that one. When I began teaching (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) there were no classes in floral design at the high school level. There was a VEH horticulture class that was taught to special education students but it was very limited state-wide. Quite a contrast from today where floral design is the second largest ag class population. I know that the fine arts credit is the main cause of that fact, but we can all agree that the popularity of the course has greatly helped our program. I remember the first time that I
taught some floral design lessons. I incorporated a couple of simple designs into my horticulture class at Lampasas High School and those lessons were an instant hit. I invited the local florists into my classroom and let them demonstrate more complex designs. After a couple years of doing that I decided that I could do it myself. And guess what? I discovered that I really liked it and I was pretty good at it too! “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” - Romans 12:6-8 I don’t’ really understand why God granted me the gift of being able to design flowers but I am so thankful that he did. That gift is my stress reliever and my right brain adventure. It wasn’t long after I was hired on at Cedar Park High School that my principal and CTE Director asked if I could teach floral design. My answer? “Heck yeah! I want to do it!” And the rest is history. It has been my honor and privilege to teach many workshops at many various events, including the VATAT Conference. My officer position the past couple years has limited my participation in this aspect of my career and I genuinely miss it. “If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you
can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.” - Les Brown I set a goal of becoming a Texas Master Florist soon after I completed my first Benz School of Floral Design course. It was a challenging goal but I am proud to say that I did it and it has helped me become a better teacher and a better designer. I am able to tell my students of my experiences and show them pictures of the weddings, special events and bereavement flowers that I have done over the past 15 years. I am certain that I have been able to influence some of them to pursue their gift after high school graduation. Several of them are currently working in the floral industry or are in college majoring
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