Growing Together: Open Forum

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  • 1.  Recruiting More Teachers to Garden Teams

    Posted 07-10-2023 03:45:00 PM

    Hi Everyone, 

    I'm putting together a workshop to help teachers who are on their garden teams to recruit more teachers/staff members to their garden teams. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!



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    Christine Anderson
    Green Our Planet
    Education and Engagement Coach
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  • 2.  RE: Recruiting More Teachers to Garden Teams

    Posted 07-11-2023 11:13:00 AM

    I collaborated with the teachers that manage the National Honor Society (NHS) club. The NHS kids need to have volunteer hours as part of that membership, and they can't double dip-if they volunteer as part of another group like youth leadership they can't use those hours for NHS. It's a barrier to getting students involved in NHS as it can be a big time commitment for parents outside of the work and school day. I committed to being on campus 2x a week during the lunch break so the NHS kids can come and get volunteer hours during the school day. A win for all. It helps teacher recruit more NHS kids as it removes a major barrier, and now I have a few more teacher champions, and I have vikunteers built in.



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    Denise Gardner
    CA
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Recruiting More Teachers to Garden Teams

    Posted 07-16-2023 11:58:00 AM

    I would like to join. I am teaching at a new school beginning early August. I teach children in a unit where we are together all day from 6-8 grades. I would like to get them involved, we are a Title 1 school so money is not much.

    I would love to get the students involved.

    Marcia



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    Marcia Berger
    Crystal Lake Middle School
    Lakeland Fl
    8634095810
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Recruiting More Teachers to Garden Teams

    Posted 07-17-2023 11:36:00 AM

    This is the key to a successful garden program. The weight of the garden can't fall on one person, or it soon becomes a box of weeds. 

    I love the work that the Eden Lab is doing at the University of Texas. Using data collected from all over the US, they are conducting current research and offering many resources for school garden success. 

    We use these best practice tips at many of our teacher training sessions. Check the attachments for the "most requested resources"  I am sure that you can glean some content to use from this info. 

    Happy Gardening !

    Kim



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    Kim Aman
    Grow Garden Grow
    Dallas TX
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Recruiting More Teachers to Garden Teams

    Posted 07-18-2023 09:55:00 AM

    Hi Christine! Earlier in the year we held a Community Chat about making curricular connections in the garden and we spent some time talking about how to get more teachers to use the garden/build buy-in for the garden. Here's the link to that Chat if you want to check it out. Kim shared some great ideas on the Chat, too! 

    We didn't specifically talk about leadership teams but there were definitely some themes and ideas that could relate to both recruiting teachers for a garden team and just getting teachers to use the garden. Here were a few of my takeaways:

    - Teachers are overwhelmed with many responsibilities so make it as easy as possible for them to be involved

    - Have a clear understanding of what the time commitment and responsibilities will be

    - One of the biggest hesitations many of our members shared was that teachers may feel like they have to have a green thumb or be a "Master Gardener" with lots of garden knowledge. For the garden team, it can be helpful to "recruit" teachers based on the role/responsibilities they feel comfortable with (recruiting volunteers, curriculum integration, fundraising, organizing the garden maintenance, etc.)

    One aspect of the workshop could be around understanding why teachers might be hesitant to join a garden team and finding ways to address those hesitations and reservations. This sounds like a fantastic workshop - I'd love to see the agenda if you're willing to share it! 



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    Amelia Dupuis
    Kids Garden Community Manager
    KidsGardening
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    Original Message


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