Tag Archives: school garden

3 reasons to invite your community into your school garden

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1.  People like knowing good things are happening in their community.  Every year our school hosts an open house for Global Youth Service Day.  Last year our “Garden Ambassadors” led garden tours for community members as part of the program.  We had neighbors, business owners, school board members, fellow gardeners—even the librarians walked up to the campus in shifts.  More than one adult approached me with tears in their eyes, saying “This is so wonderful.”  Seeing kids poised, knowledgeable, and proud of a project they’re involved in…..well, it just feels good, and makes you happy to know that it’s going on in the place where you live .

Garden Ambassadors orients visitors at our bulletin board

2.  If people are going to support their local schools, they need to be connected to them. Last Spring the women’s group from my church asked for a tour in conjunction with their monthly meeting.  Some of them had not stepped foot on campus in twenty years (when their kids were students); some of them had never stepped foot on campus.  And once they did….they noticed our beautiful murals….and our commanding view of Mt. Volcan from our playground…..and the fact that we have a full-time PE teacher!  I had to keep coaxing them back to the garden, as they were caught up in looking around with excitement.  As we were sitting at the table starting our tour, one of the teacher aides walked up with a quilt.  She had sewn a beautiful quilt for a raffle to support the tsunami victims in Japan. Seeing the women assembled, she asked if she could show it and explain the fundraiser.  Naturally I invited her over, and the dollar bills started flying across the table–“I’ll take two tickets,”  “Here’s a donation!” “I’ll take a ticket, keep the change.”  Sometimes people simply need to know what’s going on to be a part of it.

I love these ladies!

3.  You never know what connections and possibilities these visits may produce.   After a visit, a neighbor donated a small solar panel unit.  A retired school teacher brought by three asclepsis plants for our habitat garden (each one had monarch eggs, a chrysalis and even caterpillars) and then gave a wonderful presentation to the first grade students.  And then…….

Last summer a parent volunteer invited her neighbor to tour the garden.  An artist, the neighbor also runs a local business.  After visiting the garden, she decided to create a mosaic sculpture for us.  When I called to thank her and ask why she made such a generous and spontaneous donation, she cited everything from the “beautiful yellow snapdragons” to the fact that some of her clients work at the school, and she wanted to do this for them.  I was on vacation when the piece was delivered, and I was amazed to see it sitting in the garden when I returned—a unexpected grace note.  We held a ceremony and unveling, with the Garden Ambassadors assisting, and it sits in our butterfly garden today.

The artist Coco Leeras with "Gardens Grow Magic"

Unromantic Truth: Gardens are hard work

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Often, the clear-eyed observation that “gardens are hard work” is an argument given for NOT starting a garden.  I believe, however, that this truth is one of the most compelling reasons to (ahem) dig in if you hope to teach character education.

In the spring of 2010, Julian Elementary won a National Schools of Character award from the Character Education Partnership.  As such, a team of staff, teachers, and one parent (moi) attended their national conference last year to accept the award.  Funding had been made available to produce a 10-minute film highlighting how character education is taught at the winning schools.  We hired First and Main Media, and they produced a gem of a video, which is now featured on the CEP’s website.

After attending the conference last year, I noticed that the idea of school gardens as vehicles for character education was absent from the three-day series of workshops.  As such, I returned to the conference this year with colleagues to lead a session entitled “Gardens that Grow Character.”

The intersection of gardens and character education is a theme I plan to explore periodically on this blog, and I thought I’d lay down some history, starting with this film. If you’re in a hurry, the garden makes an appearance at minute 6:20.

Fall Garden Market, Main Street

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Twice a year, the Garden Club parents and kids create items made in or inspired by the garden (with gourmet baked goods and hot cider/coffee too!)  Despite temperatures in the 40’s and occasional sprinkles, my friends made me proud!  We set up a beautiful display in front of Town Hall, talked to tourists (and each other) all day long, and raised a remarkable $1300 for the garden.

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Kids with Cameras: An exercise in place-making

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This article will appear in next week’s “Julian News.”

“Kids with Cameras,” a 4-week after school course in photography, wrapped up on November 16th with a photo shoot on Volcan Mountain.  With an emphasis on art instruction, place-making, and relationship building, this project demonstrated the best of what community collaboration can look like, to the benefit of Julian and its kids.

The idea began with Jeff Holt.  A board member of the Volcan Mountain Foundation, Holt leads the Education Committee with a passion for getting kids up on our local mountain.  Also an accomplished photographer, Holt initiated a conversation with Tricia Elisara, Garden Club president at Julian Elementary, about running an after school enrichment program focused on photography.  Always looking for ways to grow the school gardens, Elisara fanned the flame by suggesting that before trekking to the mountain, the kids do three photography workshops on campus, putting in to immediate practice what they learn by taking photos in the school gardens.  After acquiring some technique and practicing at school, the students would then take a trip to Volcan Mountain to put it all together.  All that was needed, then, was a time to work with students and instructors willing to donate their time to teach the classes.  Both pieces quickly fell into place, and the concept roared into reality.

Enter Dana Pettersen, who organizes Club Live, an after school program on Fridays at Julian Junior High which promotes positive and healthy youth development.  She offered to run the course in conjunction with her program, attending to all of the details from advertising the class to collecting necessary paperwork.  Holt drew on his network of local photographers to recruit instructors.  Bill Bevill, a now retired photography teacher at Ramona High School, and Anne Garcia, a well-known Julian photographer, graciously signed up, along with Holt, to teach the course and ultimately accompany the children to Volcan for further hands-on instruction.  Bevill focused on the use of the camera, and Garcia worked with the children on composition.

In his opening lecture, Holt inspired the kids to use photography to create relationship with both people and place.  By being “site-specific,” the young photographers were challenged to go out and document “their” gardens at both Julian Elementary and Junior High, seeing them in fresh ways and capturing them at the current stage of development.  Likewise, the course culminated with young people going up on our own mountain to initiate or deepen their connection to the beautiful place where they live.

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On Thursday, December 1st at 4:00, we will be celebrating this project with an artist reception at the Julian Library.  All are invited.  After brief remarks from all of the project partners, we will be unveiling photos from each of the participating students.  The collection of prints will remain on display at the library in December. Reproductions of these selected works can also be ordered at the reception for a donation to the Volcan Mountain Foundation.

Additionally, photo cards, using the best images captured in the garden and on the mountain, will be on sale to benefit the ongoing work of the school gardens and the Volcan Mountain Foundation (for $2 each!) In this way, students who have benefited from the generous contributions of local artists and school staff have a chance to put their artwork to good use in supporting important local projects—from school gardens to a wilderness protection organization—that make Julian such a great place to live.  We hope to see you there!

 

Welcome!

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School gardens are a growing passion of mine, and I love telling stories from the one I happen to lead on my kids’ public school campus.  But I also love searching out, and seeing firsthand if possible, best practices from children’s gardens from all over.

Afterall, what can’t kids do in a garden?

Explore.  Be creative.  Grow stuff.  Eat well.  Tend the earth.  Mentor others.  Be leaders. Pick flowers.  Relax.  Use all five senses.  Think about possibilities. Learn science. Slow down. Read. Observe everyday miracles. Work hard.

WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE?

Welcome!  I’m glad you’re here! (pssst….read my “About” to find out why I chose the photo above!)