Using a School Garden to Teach with Integration

             Centering curriculum around a school garden encompasses programs, activities and projects in which the garden is the foundation for integrated learning,  through active, engaging real-world experiences that have personal meaning for children, youth, adults and communities.

             Essentially, the garden is utilized as a teaching tool. Depending on the setting in which you teach, the garden can be the curriculum or it can help support and enrich the curriculum. No matter how you integrate the garden into your classroom, it contributes to all aspects of basic education, including academic skills, personal development, social development, moral development, vocational skills and life skills. A learning environment where a garden exists, fosters science literacy and social skills while enhancing awareness of the link between our environment and our well-being. Noted benefits of classroom gardens include increased nutrition awareness, environmental awareness, higher learning achievement and increased life skills.

For more information on garden based learning strategies check out the articles below: 

• The Integration of a Formal Garden Curriculum into Louisiana Public Elementary Schools

• The Child in the Garden: An Evaluative Review of the Benefits of School Gardening

•  Eames-Sheavly, M.(1999). Sowing the Seeds of Success 

• Eames-Sheavly, M.(2000). The Three Sisters: Exploring an Iroquois Garden

• Center for Ecoliteracy & Life Lab Science Program. Getting Started: A Guide for Creating School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms.

•  Kemple, M. and J. Keifer. (1998). Digging Deeper: Integrating Youth Gardens into Schools and Communities. Canada: Foodworks.

• Patten, E. and K. Lyons. (2003).Healthy Foods from Healthy Soils: A Hands-On Resource for Teachers

• Life Lab Science Program. The Growing Classroom: Garden-Based Science.

• Williams, D. and Brown, J. (2011). "Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: Bringing Life to Schools and Schools to Life"

Knowing what I do not know

  Definitely one of the stand out lessons that continues to hit me in the face over and over in all of my graduate classes, is how much I do not know! What might be more surprising is that I LOVE being made aware of my lack of knowledge. More so, I LOVE learning new information and I will be able to share with my students one day! When I began the ILP program, I could not have imagined how much I would learn about myself as a learner. Thankfully, I have discovered so much about myself that will benefit me in the classroom.

  Inquiry based teaching is a delicate procedural method to effective learning. A common misconception could be that inquiry based teaching simply means asking a bunch of questions. However, it is so much more than that! And it is actually important to learn the correct way to approach inquiry based teaching. In order to be good at inquiry, you must know the boundaries of your knowledge and the limitations and contradictions within what is known. Scientists are always looking for the point at which their theories fail to explain the world. As children are natural born scientists, it only makes sense to provide classroom instruction which fosters such tendencies.

                                        
 

How amazing is grass?!

  As new houses are being built all around me, there has been a great number of trucks filled with sod grass in my neighborhood. People pay good money for these squares of grass and dirt which is laid in a patchwork pattern across their yard. But it never fails within a month or so, with proper care, their yard looks a beautiful as the outfield at an MLB game.

 Really when you think about it, grass is a pretty amazing plant in our ecosystem! Sod farms exist all across they country. The sod is grown and then cut from the earth in squares that include the mature grass, roots and topsoil. Sod goes against what I have always learned about plants because it is able to continue living without being connected to the earth (for short periods of time). In fact, sod will last longer on a pallet if ground temperatures are below freezing! Again sod contradicts my perception of plants.

 There are all different types of sod that is grown, harvested and transported to home owners. It is becoming more common for individuals to choose sod that actually turns brown in the winter and comes back green in the spring and summer. Here we are presented with another interesting phenomenon, plants "hibernating" for winter. I am truly amazed by the science all around us and how remarkable our world continues to become!

                             

New plant on the row..

  Lets pretend you are half way through the school year, you finally have your students all on board with the class procedures and everything is running so smoothly...until little Johnny from California shows up at lunch! You have the afternoon to figure out what little Johnny learned in California, what he doesn't know, if he has any hidden quirks, what his family is like, does he hate science or love to blow things up, give him the spelling words, and keep teaching your class so that none of your "old" students miss a beat. Easy enough right?!

  This is similar to the process a garden goes through when a new plant is added to the area. Especially with container plants, it is important to do your homework before placing two plants of a different species into one pot. Lets say you have a plant that thrives in direct sunlight and you decided to add a new plant to that container but it needs to spend more time in the sun. Both plants will not survive in the same conditions. The new plant will be scorched by the sunlight and over powered by the flourishing older plants.

  In a classroom, all students do not thrive under the same conditions. Sally may excel in a silent classroom where as little Johnny may need tons of background noise to help his mind focus. If you leave little Johnny in a completely silent environment, he will eventually, like the shade plant, shut down. That being said, acclimating a new person to an existing community can take time. Each party must find a common ground on which to settle. And as the teacher, our biggest most well practiced trait should be FLEXIBILITY. In education, our world is constantly changing now and forever. Students come and go but our procedures must exist in such a way as to provide all students the opportunity to be successful no matter the situation.

Natural Gas for All!!

  WOW!! That is all I can say about the presentation from our guest speaker in class tonight! I literally knew nothing about natural gas (except that it comes from fossil fuels) before tonight. To say that I loved the presentation is an understatement and I am not even  taking into account the fire!

 I had no idea that there was such a wealth of information about natural gas. I enjoyed that all of the information was presented in a simplistic manner that was easy to understand. Fourth graders are not the only ones who need a little help making sense of the world! I especially enjoyed the map that showed all of the different pipelines that carry natural gas across our country. And I will say that I had a misconception: it never occurred to me that gasoline was not actually gas.

 During most of the presentation, I felt like a was listening to an expert scientist share information about his field and I forgot that the main purpose of the presentation is to educate and prevent gas emergencies. Again, this idea of making use of local resources keeps getting reinforced.There are so many resources, just outside our back door, waiting for someone to come along and make use of them.

 My only complaint is that I do not currently have a classroom full of students to share this presentation with. As a fourth grader, I cannot even begin to imagine how much I would have enjoyed a presentation such as this. I love learning about new things that I can use to help me create the best environment for my students in my future classroom!

Exploring the Great Outdoors

  When I hear the word explore, I usually think of traveling to exotic places far far away. However, I am slowly coming to realize that sometimes our greatest adventures can happen in the most unlikely of places. I have here in town since I was in second grade, with the exception of the four years I spent away at college, that is a grand total of about 12 years. And until this Sunday, I had never been to Barfield Crescent Park!

  The purpose of my visit to the park was to play Frisbee golf. (If you are not aware, there is a great Frisbee golf course located at the park.) What began as a Sunday afternoon athletic activity, quickly turned into an exploring adventure. There are a handful of holes on the course that are actually in the woods. When I discovered this, I was immediately concerned about poison ivy. I am always on the patrol for poison ivy when I am in the woods. And since I have no clue what it looks like except that it has three leaves, I assume every vine looking plant with three leaves is poison ivy and keep myself far away from all of them.

  Finally, after all these years of being afraid of poison ivy and being completely in the dark about the characteristics of this pesky little plant, I decided I needed to figure this mystery out for myself. Because, as we learned in class, students learn best when they are able to take an active role in the learning process. So..I started taking pictures of all of the plants I thought could possibly be poison ivy, basically all the green vine type plants with three leaves. Then I came home and searched out photos of poison ivy online and did a quick compare and contrast.

                                                    Here is the picture I took: 

                                                   
  Based on my research, that big leaf right in the center is in fact poison ivy! This experience has made a lasting impression and now I will recognize poison ivy in the future (hopefully).    

 While in the woods, this beautiful wild flower caught my eye. From what I have concluded, it is an Indian Pink. 


                                              

  I also saw these interesting marks on many of the trees along the path of the course. Any guess as to what they might be?