GET OUT (Using the Garden)
Objective: We'd like to share some of the things done by students in the garden in the hopes of sparking an interest in other teachers to use this as a resource
Description: Using a different setting (the school garden) we'd like to encourage other teachers to use hands on opportunities in our school garden to reach all different learner interests. Each presenter will share an idea of how they've engaged students in projects involved in the garden. While not a dramatic change it provides one more tool to get students engaged in learning from their own interests and preferred methods. Mr. Harris has used it for a handful of labs, and a project on composting. Mrs. Tumavicus has used it as a calming setting for students who need to refocus and gather themselves.
Success sounds awfully grandiose and intimidating. Work in the garden, like many challenging projects, is a process and a method and may not always have final points of success. Hopefully a good harvest, but with other projects and flowers I have heard the advice that "A thing of beauty is work forever." Some of the projects that have been most well recieved have been change over time things (like how much change in compost over two weeks) and smaller parts of larger projects (like pouring the cement for the shed, not finishing the whole thing.)
