school gardens
Professional Development & Environmental Education
Well, I am nine days into my final comprehensive exam for my graduate degree in Natural Resources. Two of three answers are fully drafted, and today, I am starting on the rough draft of my third and final question. I need to develop an entire day of professional development in environmental education! While I have…
Drawing on What I Know
Have any of you made a mood board? Well, I haven’t either but need to make one for one of my last assignments for grad school. It is to accompany a “Design for Optimal Learning” lesson that I create. Although I know what components I would want to make a design for optimal learning, choosing…
End Season Monarch Update
Yesterday, my husband found a Monarch butterfly flailing around on the rain soaked cement of our driveway. It was a cool, wet morning with a temperature in the mid-50’s. After several failed attempts by him to capture the monarch, I was able to gently snatch it up and bring it inside to the container in…
Reaching out – Out Reach: The Last Two Weeks.
It is the height of the monarch migration season. By all reports, it has been a great year to be involved in the conservation of this species. Summer numbers are up and my own experience supports that observation. As school restarts, it is a busy time for me as a non-formal educator. In the last…
The Circle of Life in a Seed Head
Twice in the last week, I visited the school garden which I have been in charge of caring for since last October. I’ve been deadheading and weeding, alone and with a friend, to make the gardens presentable for the school open house, which is this evening. When I planted with students this past May, I told…
Silent Sunday: The Fruition of the School Flower Garden At North Woods
Raising Monarchs: Part II – Mid-July
As of last night, this monarch breeding season has allowed me to raise and release 13 adult monarch butterflies! That number is many times greater than than last year at this time, when I had only released one, on July 9th. Last year, although a great late season in tagging numbers, had a very slow…
A Tit for Tat System of Gardening
The month of May was consuming. This year, I had a new school garden to manage. It is very large, much larger than the school garden I was previously in charge of caring for. It’s been a struggle to get it planted and weeded. Before planting with each of the 400+ students that attend this…
Poetry Friday: My Gardens
What follows is a free verse poem about my gardens – gardens at home and at school. Although it is not my first poem, it is my first submission to Poetry Friday. I hope enjoy the vision of these special places that I tried to share with you today. My Gardens My gardens…