SproUTing Teachers Garden Lead Cohort by Valerie Cordes

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Encourage more staff to be involved with the garden and how to use it effectively to teach

Set and hold GLC meetings, workdays, share jobs

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A Garden Lead…

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Inspires the school community to become participants in the school garden.

Encourage community and school support.

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A garden lead DOES NOT do everything herself.

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Help organize the community to make and sustain the garden

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Develop a team that supports a thriving garden and outdoor space.

help staff and community get more involved

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Facilitate the use of the garden by teachers!

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Water and maintain garden. Encourage others to join and help the garden grow.

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Facilitates community involvement at the classroom, campus and parent level.

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organizes garden work days for school and community

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Coordinate Garden planning meetings. Help plan garden work days. Coordinate parent volunteer groups.

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Schedule and organize meeting and workdays. Look for supplies and funds.

Lead Coordinator

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Help organize goals and tasks to help make the garden successful

Plan with other teachers, parents and students on how to keep the garden alive and thriving.

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Delegate different jobs to keep the garden healthy. Also, share an easy to follow plan for everyone.

Help create systems to organize and maintain the garden by helping students, staff and the community participate.

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encourage use of the garden by teachers in lessons

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helps everyone get involved

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Build garden committee, get parents teachers to understand the importance and impact of gardening, delegate tasks

exposure to foods students have never tried or tasted

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more interaction and excitement

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garden is part of the school culture

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To show students where our food comes from.

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Student ownership and pride, interest in healthy eating habits, safe and beautiful spaces

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It increases gardening interest with students. They will try new foods that they haven’t before. Healthier lifestyle

an understanding of where food comes from

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students have learned how stuff grows....IE tomatoes are green before red

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Community

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the littles love looking for ladybugs and insects in the garden!

The kids look forward to time in the garden and feel a sense of ownership

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A peaceful, enjoyable place to experience in the school setting.

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It helps educate and engage the students in outdoor learning. Allows students to be apart of the process

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gives students curiosity and exposure to different types of environments. A natural place to explore that not all have at home.

knowledge of how lessons can incorporate a garden

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Involves the school community in a collaborative project. Builds ownership. Provides real life opportunities for learning about life cycles, plants, ecosystems, etc.

Healthy eating, where food comes from to teach students about the environment.

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The kids love to work in the garden.

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When students, staff and the community are excited about what is happening in the garden!

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Volunteers and teachers with a passion for trying something they’ve never done

A thriving school Garden encourages children to learn about their environment and about the foods they can watch grow, along with all the creatures that come to a garden.

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seeing fruits of your labor and how hard work pays off

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It creates a sense of ownership on the campus.

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Invite them to come see a lesson/activity

Send them pictures!

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"Share" the harvest with them!

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invite them to join your class for a lesson in the garden

Besides us talking to them, can UT talk to them as well?

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Add information monthly in Principal staff newsletter

2023-08-24 21:07:00 UTC

Update admin on the garden leadership team minutes

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We have a very supportive admin. He's the reason the garden exists at all!

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Share all the activities with them - promote what’s happening out there!

Involve them in meetings. Share out all the ways it is being used.

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Invite them to attend and be a part of the garden committee.

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Reporting activities and lessons, meeting monthly for funding if possible

Showing them how the students are taking the lead outside with their learning

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tag in tweets involving garden, email updates, ASK for help and input, include them in emails about gardne etc

let admin enter garden detail in weekly parent letter

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put in newsletter, schedule events/awards be given in the garden

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Have someone on the garden committee that communicates with the principal.

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Admin Support

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Discuss how the garden can support some TEKS.

Explain how the garden involvement benefits students and the end goal

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Have them put events on school calendar

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Not feeling obligated to do a lesson.

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Address misconceptions

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organized materials with tools - easily accessible. Visuals with talking points about what is in the garden for casual visits ( ie during recess)

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Just invite to join your class

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providing ready made lessons that relate to content.

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start easy! take a book outside and read it to the class.

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This is an area we are focusing on this year. We want to increase class/teacher/student participation in the garden.

Embed the garden in lessons already being taught. Offer to lead the class. through lead a lesson.

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Bring teachers into the garden for some hands on time. Just try it out. Enjoy the space.

Letting teachers know that it is shared space

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I think having good communication with them to show them that it's a community space for all of us to share.

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Not knowing what to do or not having a green thumb

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Buddy class activity

connecting science curriculum to garden usage

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Giving curricular lesson ideas

Make it a part of the day or lesson that seems doable but not mandatory

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Talking and engaging with the teachers during faculty meetings and trainings about incorporating the garden/outdoor learning model.

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start with school wide activities

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Giving ideas of what teachers and students can do in the garden.

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I was thinking of initially doing a video of how to water, so teachers can show it to their kiddos, then go out and do it with them?

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Lesson ideas and TEKS connections

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A sense of connectedness

2023-08-24 21:19:39 UTC

Assigning teachers a garden bed and garden consultation/support by appointment.

We are implementing an outdoor classroom with clipboards and pencils. Just put in picnic tables to get kids and teachers used to waking out there.

get a variety of people involved... teachers, custodians, librarian, parents, kids, admin...

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Communication
inspire others

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Variety of Committee members (parents, different content area)

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Consistent work days in the actual garden - regulars look forward to them and come to work and also socialize within the community.

snacks, tacos, nacho bar

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was not given a choice to be on the community and they were "voluntold" to lead the garden committee.

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Regular scheduled meetings. Offering snacks. Keeping the meetings short. Having roles. Allowing committee members to follow their interests/passions.

Maybe giving them (committee) a snack that could tie into a lesson for the kiddos??? I remember some really good snack my kiddos loved during intern lessons.

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Effective Coommittee

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Snacks and then asking for their vision of the garden area.

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Volunteer sign up at Meet the teacher

Assuring yea hers or volunteers that it’s ok to fail and learn

Sharing successes with photos and videos of the kids, produce, grant awards etc

salsa sales

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Education foundation grants

Local nursery donations

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Begged

Donations from Home Depot and Lowes. LEEF Grants. Local realtor helped with mulch.

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I like the idea of selling things from the garden. We had a ton of basil we could have sold this summer.

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Chip Drop (it's free)

pumpkin patch, poinsettia sales

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Garden club tuition after school, monthly farmers markets

some parents who worked in construction helped out

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GO to Recycling center for mulch or certain items

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Monarch Heroes program grant, Wildlife Federation grant, EcoSchools grant, Partnered with Mission Continues, donations from Home Depot (butterfly weed), Forestry grant (planted 65 trees on campus)

Funding

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Our after school program has been approved for 2 grants. One for a pond and one for a living garden wall. Trouble getting through AISD Building to get them completed.

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Love the idea of selling small packs of herbs!

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Individual H‑E‑Bs gives up to 200 to local communities, could be used for cooking, some locations have organic transplants

Barriers and Strategies to Thriving Garden article

padwiz — 2023-08-25 15:34:47 UTC

Make a garden news chalkboard out by the garden

padwiz — 2023-11-15 15:54:41 UTC

With a chalkboard that is updated weekly, students and teachers always have things they can explore. It helps spread the news of things that happen in the garden, but don’t last long.

Class garden buddies

padwiz — 2024-01-09 19:02:18 UTC

When teachers are asking for room parents at BOY, also have them ask for a class garden buddy who can accompany them to the garden as an extra set of hands if needed.

Mid-year garden report to Principal

padwiz — 2024-01-09 19:10:55 UTC

Show your Principal your committee rocks! Give them a one-page report that summarizes goals of the committee and what you have accomplished so far. And let them know what you're still working on!

Put harvested food in the teachers lounge :)

2024-01-11 22:03:42 UTC

My garden co-teacher put all the goodies that have been harvested these past few days in the teacher lounge!!

Incorporating into Math & Science

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We are moving into some awesome Math and Science TEKs that we are taking lessons outside and into the garden.

more "tastings" with items from the garden

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Adding Curriculum specific ideas to Staff Newsletter

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post the benefits of a garden, real photos of the garden, activities that can happen in the garden, etc in the school news to get student AND teacher buy in

advertising during faculty meetings, school news

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Pass around an award to the class with the most usage. Teacher scans QR code when they visit the garden

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Math in the Garden

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Measuring and counting in the garden

We blocked off and labeled sections for each grade level. We gave every teacher seeds to start in their classroom. We also let them choose to plant things from the plant give away.

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Little notes in Staff Lunch room about what can be harvest and how

Garden Freebies

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Sharing the harvest with garden club members and staff

Put invitations in teachers' boxes to have them visit the garden and have their class write about what they think about it. Give them seeds to start some plants to add!

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Share ideas for hands on science activities that involve using the garden.

We have adopted the Garden Fairy, that comes around the classes and asks them to sign up for a week. The class gets the "Golden Shovel" for the week. We are in the process of creating a bulletin board for what is going on in the garden or what's growing! Also will include a fun fact...

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A Harvest Night followed by a movie and snacks from the garden.

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Offer a variety of social activities like meditating or offer it as a space for small groups.

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Library read alouds in the garden

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Create a class garden log for teachers to measure how much time they spend out there. Share that info with other teachers. Have teachers share pictures monthly of their time in the garden

made a salad with buddy class

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Garden Fairy

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Garden Fairy and Dirt Master

STEAM night

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We are pickling radishes "from the garden" as a part of a community event.

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Veggie of the week announced in the mornings!

Sharing the produce with the students' families and the staff.

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small group SEL activities with counselors

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Writing prompts for teachers to use for journal writing.

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I like the idea of getting our instructional coaches to help us. They attend weekly meetings with all our teams and could remind them of the Lessons we can already do.

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Practicing awareness/mindfulness/5 senses for SEL

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Posting unit specific curriculum ideas for teachers to use NOW in the newsletter

using it for drawing and labeling skills in Kinder

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photography and drawing from observation with art classes

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Independent work

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Why not just change up the location and just get kids outside! Test review, observations

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writing

Math

SEL

measurement of plants to graph and compare heights

2024-01-11 22:27:26 UTC

DEAR Time, SEL, garden club, an option at recess, and yearbook club

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Persuasive writing about what changes or additions they would like to see in the garden.

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I think many teachers at school prefer hard copies of garden curriculum as opposed to digital links so we are budgeting booklets for K-5 teachers

Boys and Girl Scouts, local middle and high school students for volunteer hours, local retirement home/community, high school garden clubs, local real estate agents, and parents.

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PTA

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PTA helping with planting days

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parents of course

Sign up genius for summer maitainance

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We have parents care for the garden and harvest during the summer

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Planting partys

Coffee in the garden

communicate to MS and HS counselors that we can provide NHS and Jr NHS hours.... also Community service hours

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Sending home produce that the student has harvested!

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PALS taking kids out when they come at lunch

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Empower parents to ask at stores for supplies for your school garden!

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ACE Afterschool Program

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Kids help out with garden

Making the garden a priority for PTA and a part of the healthy lifestyles PTA position has been a game changer

2024-01-11 22:36:38 UTC

We are starting a "coffee in the garden" for parents to get them involved. We want to encourage them to sign up for a week during the summer so they can tend to the garden and enjoy it.

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Host a Parent Meeting in the garden area.

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Put it on the PTA agenda

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Summer Literacy Night out there

2024-05-13 18:33:12 UTC

Our garden is next to the playground, so, children at recess have the option of working in the garden as a physical activity, and many look forward to it.