Garden Teacher Training
2019 Training is FULL
School gardens are shown to consistently increase student self-esteem, test scores and positive engagement with the environment. With these amazing benefits, it reasons that every school should have a school garden! Unfortunately, many schools don't have the personnel, planning time or resources to keep an effective school garden functional season after season. SPROUT NOLA endeavors to bolster success in schoolyard gardens by making sure a solid maintenance, buy-in, and financial plan are in place for every participatory school garden so that New Orleans’ schoolyard gardens are highly successful! A garden isn't the right fit for every school, but with tools and a network of schoolyard gardeners, we can make sure that every garden meets its full potential!
Class 1: Planning and Logistics
At first blush planning a school garden may seem easy, but keeping the needs of all your students in mind while planning for a clean, productive, accessible space can quickly become an overwhelming task. Teachers will leave the first class with an overview of design standards, accessibility, and infrastructure needed in a normal school garden, as well as an understanding of challenges and best practices in starting a garden. Teachers will be sent a survey of their school gardens progress and needs and should be prepared to do a SWOT analysis of their school garden program.
CLASS 2: Curricular Adaptation
Getting a garden in place is a big lift, but using it as a teaching tool makes the whole process worth it! Class two will teach instructors how to adapt existing curriculum and restructure their thinking to incorporate the garden in their day-to-day classroom.
CLass 3: Community and Buy-in
Once a school garden is up and running the biggest threat to its success isn’t the weather or bugs- it’s administrative support! Learn best practices and participate in situation-specific brainstorming for making your school garden a part of your school and preventing common mistakes that lead to overgrown and under-loved school gardens.
Class 4: EXECUTION AND EVALUATION
Now it’s time to design your garden, monitor progress and tell your garden story! Class four will wrap up all concepts, as well as help your school come up with evaluation and documentation techniques to keep your garden successful and growing. Class four will also culminate in a finished garden plan, garden ‘build-day’ plan, a finished maintenance plan and a finished communication plan for each participating institution.
