Andy Jones is a different kind of teacher.

His 173 students drop the “Mr.” from in front of his last name, they are seldom in their desks and they can often be found building engines, feeding chickens or weeding plants in a hot greenhouse.

You won't find iPads and laptops in his classroom — instead, students learn how to repair tractors, plant flowers and operate table saws. Students in the International Baccalaureate program work alongside students with disabilities, and no one knows the difference.

In agricultural education classes, the academic playing field is leveled — everyone gets their hands dirty. And if they're willing to try, Jones said, almost everyone succeeds.

A place for all to belong

“It narrows the gap across the board. No longer is it, 'How smart are you at adding numbers together?' Everybody can find a niche down here,” Jones said of the agricultural education classes he teaches along with advising Daphne High's chapter of the National FFA Organization. “Because FFA covers so many different facets of life, every kid has the opportunity to find somewhere to be. In athletics, you've got to be an athlete to be there. To be on the scholars' bowl, you've got to be exceptionally smart. With us, I can use everybody.”

But in addition to practical life skills, students are also learning a work ethic that will help them in other classes and in college, Jones said.

“Our experiences out there, we learn from our mistakes,” he said. “If we don't fertilize plants properly, we see what happens to them. It gives us a place to experiment. We go through the scientific method just about every day down there.”

Through FFA, students compete in contests that test their knowledge in areas like forestry, building small engines, horticulture , extemporaneous public speaking and many more. Some students also tackle annual Supervised Agricultural Experience projects that essentially require them to run a business. Being involved in FFA is a major commitment — for Jones and for the students.

“I'm here seven days a week,” Jones said. “And my kids are out doing things on the weekends with us. They accept a lot more responsibility that what's expected of them in a traditional classroom setting.”

Changing lives

This added responsibility and camaraderie is what drew 19-year-old senior Jonathan Lee to FFA.

Lee was a student at Spanish Fort High, got involved with the wrong crowd and made the decision to drop out of high school his junior year. He planned to enlist in the Marine Corps, but it no longer accepts GEDs, so he re-enrolled at Daphne High.

“When I came here, I started meeting people (in FFA) and seeing how nice they were,” Lee said. “They always went out of their way to help each other, and I wanted to be a part of it. I ended up liking it so much, I wanted to be one of the ones helping everybody.”

Lee is now vice president of Daphne's FFA chapter and has taken almost every class Jones offers.

“Now I'm at the top of my class, I've got all A's in all of my classes and I'll graduate in May with an honors diploma, which I don't think I would have found the drive to do without FFA,” he said. “It gives you a sense of belonging and responsibility.”

And Lee has big plans — he's got a full scholarship to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study biomedical sciences, and he plans to apply for medical school at Uniformed Services University after earning his undergraduate degree.

Lee said although he is naturally interested in the hands-on learning agricultural education provides, Jones was just as big of an influence on his life as FFA itself.

“I've never had a teacher care like he does,” Lee said. “He'll call me on the weekends just to see what's going on, and he'll go out of his way to make sure everything's all right. This weekend, I went to his house, and we spent six hours studying forestry for the competition, and we ended up joking around and putting a trampoline together for his daughter. He's not just a teacher — he's a role model.”

Plant Sale

Running the FFA program and all of its activities is expensive, and students are responsible for raising money every year.

“The school system doesn't pay for our power or water (to operate the greenhouses) — we pay for our own stuff,” Jones said. “So our kids have to learn how to operate on a budget and the importance of being able to raise enough money to be able to continue that operation.”

To raise the money needed to run the program and for students to travel to competitions and conventions all over the country, Jones partners with the Lake Forest Garden Club to organize a fall and spring plant sale at the greenhouses behind Daphne High School every year. The spring plant sale's dates are March 30 and April 6 from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., rain or shine.

The students raise and sell more than 60,000 plants for the spring sale alone. Most of the plants are ornamental bedding plants or vegetables, Jones said.

Members of the Lake Forest Garden Club will be present to answer questions about plants, and the club receives a small portion of the proceeds. However, it gives back to the students. Every year, the club awards a $500 scholarship to a Daphne High School FFA student.

“It is a major undertaking, and they raise the most beautiful plants, and he gets them to do all this somehow,” said Lura Kauffmann, second vice president of the Lake Forest Garden Club.

Jones said getting the students outside isn't as hard as it might seem to be.

“The kids want to go outside,” he said. “They're cooped up all day, and they're accustomed to being in a classroom where they're stuck and have to live through the Internet. Our classes offer them a chance to get outside and do things with their hands.”