Enroll in the Occidental Arts & Ecology in Occidental, CA, to learn options for managing and improving our school gardens and orchard and the hands-on learning that occurs there.
While at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, my knowledge, skills, and capabilities have grown immensely. This experience was truly an eye-opener to more efficient and effective gardening and cooking methods in school gardens. The knowledge and skills that I gained varied from permaculture, composting, vermiculture, recycling, water conservation, no-till gardening, garden design and fundraising, building a successful garden committee, and more.
In the school garden program, I plan to build a stronger team that consists of more students, teachers, parents, and community members. The garden team will build lessons that revolve more around the garden’s environment and how to conserve it. We will be spending more time in the garden and observing the ecology of the schoolyard habitat.
I love eating a variety of meats. During my five days and four nights at the center, I ate purely vegetarian meals. Throughout this week, vegetarian meals were prepared with food from OAEC the gardens. That was a huge accomplishment for me. I can survive on eating only foods from that garden.
While at OAEC, I was able to learn many multi-aged and cross-curricular activities that I will now use with my students. I run an after-school garden club for students in grades K-5. Therefore, all of these activities will be beneficial to all levels of my students. Composting is the first thing that I have taught my students. I learned many new methods of composting that my students are excited about. They have gone home and shared with their parents.
My 3rd grade teaching partner and garden team partner is one in same. Luckily enough she was able to attend as well. We also had another teacher from another school in our corporation attend with us. We can not only collaborate with our students in mind, but also with others in our corporation. We are combining our current curriculum, state standards, and our new knowledge from OAEC to guide our teaching in science and health.
We plan to host a Family Garden Day in the spring to celebrate with not only the students and their families but also the community. This will give the community an official invitation to come and see the great things that we are doing at Lincoln Elementary School’s gardens, orchard, and pollinator field.
My goal is to make these students have an appreciation for the green things in their lives. Our county has the second highest obesity rate in the state. I want to teach our students how to grow their own healthy food. Once they learn, they can teach their families or others in their lives. They can grow food or plants to sell at our local farmers market.
I feel being immersed in this green culture was a great eye-opening experience for me. Eating, sleeping, learning, and breathing in this environment was the best way for me to fully understand the importance of all nature has to offer. I want my students to have an appreciation for the world around them. I want them to not only know how to help preserve nature but also do something about it.
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