Sessions of 2026 Connection Conference: Kasee Smith
Mrs. Smith, Kasee
Associate Professor of Agricultural Education
Dr. Kasee Smith is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Education at the University of Idaho, where she prepares future educators to lead classrooms that are both content-rich and life-ready. A national leader in experiential learning and workforce development, she created the Work Ready Mindset initiative to help teachers bridge the gap between academic instruction and the habits of real-world success. At her core, Kasee is an ag teacher at heart. After more than a decade in the classroom, she brings hard-earned wisdom to her scholarship, mentoring, and national leadership roles. Her work centers on building classrooms where expectations are clear, support is authentic, and failure is treated as a teacher—not a threat. She is deeply committed to rural schools, teacher preparation, and the national networks that support agricultural education. She’s also a working mom, livestock producer, and someone who still feeds before breakfast, believes in grit with grace, curses at farm equipment most of the summer, and thinks a good rubric is a love letter to learning. Whether she’s guiding future educators or presenting to teachers and administrators across the country, Dr. Smith is passionate about helping classrooms become places where students learn how to think, how to work, and how to own the outcomes.
Sessions:
5661: How the #$@%! Can We Prepare Them for the Real-World?
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Westin La Paloma
- Agriculture
This workshop helps educators design classrooms where students not only learn content but build the work‑ready mindsets employers and communities demand. Participants will explore practical strategies to cultivate initiative, resilience, accountability, professionalism, collaboration, and reflection — skills that research shows are critical for post‑secondary success and lifelong learning. You’ll walk away with easy‑to‑implement classroom structures, assignment tweaks, and routines that support personally‑driven tasks, time‑bound goals, meaningful SAE integration, and thoughtful reflection on choices and consequences. Through discussion, examples, and planning time, teachers will create a tailored action plan to strengthen student engagement, ownership, and readiness for work and life.
