VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 3
While the accommodations are important, one cannot help but think of all the
life lessons being learned by Ms. Mitchell's students. Through her curriculum she
is teaching academic skills such as measuring water volume, gathering data, the
life cycle of animals, the life cycle of plants, making models to better understand
the world around you, and so much more. Then I began to think of the expanded
core curriculum. Every area of the expanded core can be touched on almost daily
by lessons taught under the guidance of an agricultural curriculum. For example:
● Assistive Technology – students are using their assistive technology to
gather data, make observations, and access different information for projects
they work on in class
● Career Exploration – students are exploring a number of agricultural careers
which can also involve careers in other areas: business, marketing, art,
communications, engineering, trades, etc.
● Compensatory Skills – writing down observations and data collected is one
way in which these skills are being practiced every day. Students may also
use and create tactile models or diagrams.
● Independent Living Skills – while some students take baking and home
economic projects through their 4-H organization, the very act of being on
the farm and taking care to clean up after the animals, clean messes made
and cultivate food for others to eat encompasses this area.
● Orientation and Mobility Skills – navigating the farm and agriculture class is
a daily lesson in orientation and mobility and self-protective techniques.
Things get moved or changed when more than one school is accessing the
