Beebe ag teacher honored as top new educator
Beebe ag teacher honored as top new educator
Zeb Prothro grew up playing sports in Rose Bud, so it’s natural that he would use a similar approach in his teaching. Prothro, who is in his second year as one of three agriculture teachers at Beebe High School and his fifth year of teaching, was honored with the Arkansas Farm Bureau Outstanding New Ag Educator award during the Farm Bureau’s annual convention Nov. 29 in Hot Springs. The award is given to a teacher who has been teaching for five or fewer years.
“It means a lot,” Prothro said. “I felt accomplished by receiving that. I’m thankful that there are so many good people around me to help me out with that, including my co-teaching partners, my school administration and the great faculty and parents, as well as my family. It gave me a drive to do more and be more competitive and try to help Beebe have the best FFA chapter in the state. It just made me want to move forward with that more.”
Prothro is a 2009 graduate of Rose Bud High School. He was a key player on Rose Bud’s undefeated 2008 Class 3A state-championship basketball team. His father, Todd Prothro, is a retired agriculture teacher from Rose Bud. “That was a neat year,” Zeb Prothro said.
After graduating from Rose Bud, he attended Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture education.
After graduation, Prothro taught ag classes at Heber Springs High School for three years before coming to Beebe for the 2017-18 school year.
He currently teaches agricultural mechanics, survey of agricultural systems and a computer technology class for agriculture.
Prothro said he didn’t know where he would end up when he left Rose Bud.
“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I got out of high school,” he said. “Even when I went to college, I didn’t know if I wanted to be an ag teacher. When I went to SAU, I was trying to be outgoing and still be involved with sports. When I went there, I started doing emceeing, a lot of public speaking.”
“My dad is a pretty big influence in my life,” Prothro said. “I really like the shop and being outdoors. Probably one of the main reasons I wanted to teach is my drive from sports. I’m really competitive, and this is just another way for me to get students to be competitive and let them try to find their niche in life.”
Prothro was the lone ag teacher at Heber Springs. At Beebe, he works with Dusty Baxter and Darren Hawkins.
“Heber was a smaller program,” he said. “I tried to build
I think [FFA] develops a sense of premier leadership, personal growth and career success through kids. Being able to see these kids involved in agriculture and then get jobs, even be a part of the Legislature, is great.” Zeb Prothro ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU OUTSTANDING NEW AG EDUCATOR
it up the best I could before I left. At Beebe, I teach with two other people. It’s a good deal. I like teaching with two others. It’s a bigger program. We have close to 300 members in our FFA chapter. It gives students a bigger avenue of choosing what they really want to do in agriculture.”
Prothro was a member of FFA when he was in high school and was the sponsor for the organization at Heber Springs.
In addition to the classes Prothro teaches, Beebe High School offers plant sciences, animal sciences and shop classes.
“We offer every shop class you can have,” he said. “We teach a small-engines class, an electricity class, and ag structures and metals. We offer different pathways for kids to go down.”
Prothro said he enjoys teaching shop the most.
“It gives kids the blue-collar jobs,” he said. “I think the bluecollar jobs are really going to be able to make some money in the future. Not everybody wants to be a plumber or electrician, but there is just a lot of money in that right now.”
Prothro also teaches some welding in his ag mechanics class.
“You teach them a little bit of everything in the shop,” he said. “The next year, students can choose ag metals with welding, and they gain more in depth with it. Ag structures is more woodworking type of stuff.”
Prothro said he enjoys wor k i ng with the FFA program.
“We have judging teams with FFA called career-development events,” he said. “I teach a few teams within FFA. I practice my kids just like they would in sports. I make it competitive for those kids. We want to win, so my drive from athletics translates into agriculture.”
Prothro said FFA develops leadership.
“I think being a part of FFA is great,” he said. “I think it develops a sense of premier leadership, personal growth and career success through kids. Being able to see these kids involved in agriculture and then get jobs, even be a part of the Legislature, is great.”
Prothro said he has helped students get to do things they never would have if they had not been part of FFA.
“It’s real simple stuff,” he said. “I’ve had students who had never traveled out of the state before. I’ve been able to get these kids out and about. We’ve been to the national convention. This year, we went to the North American International Livestock Exposition. I had a horse that finished 11th overall in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Just being able to travel with the kids and getting them to experience parts of life that they never thought they could before FFA is great.”
Alex Broome, a junior, said Prothro got her involved with ag classes when she moved to Beebe.
“I moved here from Cabot my 10th-grade year,” Broome said. “I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know about FFA. I didn’t know it existed. I got into an ag class — animal science. Mr. Prothro asked me to be on the livestock team.”
Broome is now the secretary of the Beebe High School FFA chapter.
“I do prepared public speaking,” she said. “I’m really involved in ag now. I love it, and it’s all thanks to Mr. Prothro. He wanted me to be involved. He got me really excited about livestock, and I’ve been in love with FFA ever since.”
Broome said Prothro is deserving of the statewide award.
“He is a teacher who wants his students to succeed at everything,” Broome said. “He makes sure he does what is best for the kids. He’s really personal with us. He gets involved and wants us to succeed in life.”
Nathan Johnson, a junior, said he has Prothro for ag mechanics.
“He’s a good teacher,” Johnson said. “I enjoy having his class. He always makes sure everyone is learning something and doing something different in the shop.”
Prothro still lives in Rose Bud and commutes each day with his wife, Jessica, who also works for the Beebe School District.
“You get a bigger diverse set of kids in a bigger school,” he said. “There are more businesses in the area and more job opportunities for the kids.”