blog-special
Seeds of Knowledge
Posted on October 9, 2025 7:17 AM
Agriculture may not have been Tomanekka Irving’s first love, but it’s proven to be a lasting one. In her third year as an Agriculture Program teacher at Oakley Elementary in Fulton County, Irving admitted that before she took the job, she didn’t know the difference between dairy cattle and beef cattle.
“We were the first elementary school in south Fulton County to get an ag program. I was teaching second grade at the time, and ag was the class my kids absolutely could not miss. It was the class they were most excited about,” she said. “The teacher who taught it the first year didn’t return for the second year, so I applied for the position. I didn’t know anything about gardening, farming or agriculture, but it seemed like the coolest thing to learn and to teach. All of me loves the outdoors and learning, and ag really seems to embody what I never knew about myself.”
Irving learned a lot that first year, and now she can’t imagine her teaching career without agriculture.
“I am in love. I’m in love with the adventure of it, with the idea that I can teach kids something they never would have thought about, like that groceries don’t just magically appear, and about all the work that goes into growing food, preparing it and producing it,” she said.
Oakley Elementary’s Ag program includes a small animals lab with guinea pigs, rabbits, a bearded dragon, fish, chickens, bees, beetles, crickets, worms and more. The bee apiary and the chicken coop seem to excite the kids the most.
“The kids will argue over who gets to feed the chickens each day. And while that is fun, we also use it as a learning tool,” she said.
We nurture the chickens, gather the eggs and even cook the eggs in class. Getting them involved in that is such a big thing for kids in a Title One school and a community that is considered a food desert. This gives them the opportunity to grow their own food and taste fresh food, and they take it seriously.
The kids aren’t the only ones who take things seriously. Irving puts her all into her job, and in 2023 she was recognized as the Fulton County Elementary School Teacher of the Year.
“The support behind what I do is phenomenal, and I really like the agriculture curriculum in Georgia,” she said. “When I started teaching this class, I realized that everything associated with agriculture is not as clear cut as I thought it would be. I didn’t know the difference between a dairy cow and a beef cow, but I learned. And as I learned more, the kids learned more.”
Now, Irving realizes the impact that this class has on her students goes beyond just learning about types of animals.
“Agriculture impacts so much of their lives, and I’m privileged to teach them about this billion-dollar industry and all the possible careers associated with it,” she said. “More than just raising animals, the kids are learning there’s an importance and an order to the agriculture process. From planting seeds to controlling pests, I’m teaching them about things regular people don’t think about, but that could open whole new worlds for them.”
As a teacher, Irving said she loves the difference she can make in children’s lives.
“The passion that keeps me going is seeing the difference I can make in kids, knowing they can count on me and depend on me. I consider myself to be their light. My classroom is a safe space for them to live, learn, enjoy the moment and know they can talk to me about anything,” she said. “It brings me such joy to be that teacher for them. I don’t think I’ll ever stop. And as it turns out, even though I didn’t know much at the beginning, teaching ag has been the best place for me to be.”