Southeast Elementary begins career focus program

SIKESTON -- Students and staff at Southeast Elementary in Sikeston enjoyed a day to dress like farmers Thursday as part of the school's new program which focuses on careers.

"This is just a fun and new exposure to what careers are in our own community," said Leanna Kinder, counselor at Southeast Elementary in Sikeston,

Kinder said the idea to offer a week-long career focus originated from the school's professional learning committee's encore team, which is comprised of non-teacher employees.

"We were at some meeting, and other educators talked about how their schools do mass days similar to college and career days offered at high schools," Kinder said.

Southeast's professional learning committee members decided they could offer a mass day at the school, Kinder said.

"I've always wanted to do a career day -- one day where everybody comes in and tells you about their careers," Kinder said.

Instead of one day featuring multiple careers, Kinder said it was decided to pick one week to focus on one career.

"This school year we're taking a couple weeks and focusing on a different career each of those weeks," Kinder said, adding the program got started late this year.

For their first week, the career focus is agriculture, Kinder said.

"This week students are learning about farming and agriculture," Kinder said. "Each morning they have activities that revolve around the theme."

"On Monday, they read a book about farming, and on Tuesday, they watched a video. Thursday was dress like a farmer day, and this coming Monday, local farmers and agriculture experts will visit the school.

"Hopefully, they can bring some equipment and tractors for the students to see," Kinder said.

Second grader Chase Hodges said he learned this week that it takes a while to get all the crops out of the fields.

"I also learned that farmers usually own a lot of machines and tractors but not crop dusters," Chase said.

Chase said his uncle owns a farm, which he and his family hunt on, too, he said.

Fourth grader Lindsay Byrd comes from a family of farmers. She said her dad, grandpa and even her brothers farm corn and soybeans.

Lindsay said she knows quite a bit about farming already but was glad her school was teaching about things her dad does. She said she knows a little bit about irrigation.

"I know that you don't pick crops when it's wet," Lindsay said.

Matt Schonhoff, physical education coach at Southeast Elementary, said the overall goal of a career focus is to show students the different jobs or professions in the community. He is also on Southeast's encore team, which created the career focus program.

Schonhoff, whose father is a farmer, said growing up, he watched his father work hard to provide for their family.

"Maybe some of these kids don't know what goes into a farmer's life," Schonhoff said. "Maybe they don't see farms around here or the machines. We hope (through the career focus), students see and get a good understanding of how food is brought to their table every single day."

The next career focus will be in May, Kinder said.

"We're we're doing civil workers like law enforcement, postal workers and city workers who do those daily civic jobs," Kinder said.