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Welcome Center
A Welcome Message For You
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0-1: Welcome! Please Introduce Yourself 30 minLecture1.1
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0-2: A Note from Victoria 30 minLecture1.2
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0-3: Share a goal or intention for this class 30 minLecture1.3
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Module One: Strengthen Your Professional Identity as a Natural Teacher
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1-1: Create Goals and Intentions 30 minLecture2.1
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1-2: Five Steps to Prepare your Foundation for the Best Year Yet 30 minLecture2.2
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1-3: Get Curious with Montessori, Waldorf & Reggio 30 minLecture2.3
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1-4: Use Nature as a Guide: Wonder Based Teaching 30 minLecture2.4
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Module Two: Create Your Map of Intention
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2-1: Five Stages to Intentional Teaching Outdoors 30 minLecture3.1
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2-2: Five Tracks for Your Road Trip to Become a Natural Teacher 30 minLecture3.2
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2-3: Learn from our National Parks: America’s Largest Outdoor Classroom 30 minLecture3.3
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2-4: Harvest Your Manifesto & Create a Vision Board 30 minLecture3.4
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2-5: Workshop #1: RecordingLecture3.5
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Module Three: Nurture A Garden Practice: The Transformation
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3-1: Growth through Gardening with Bobbie Mabe 30 minLecture4.1
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3-2: Ten Life Lessons for Outdoor Classrooms 30 minLecture4.2
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3-3: Become an Advocate of Nature-Based Teaching 30 minLecture4.3
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3-4: I Wonder Why: Claire Warden Keynote at Wow Conference 30 minLecture4.4
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Module 4: Behind the Scenes
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4-1: Live Workshop #2: Closing Circle 30 minLecture5.1
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4-2: Behind the Scenes with Jessica Kagle from Kestrel Educational Adventures 30 minLecture5.2
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4-3: Behind the Scenes with Lara Lepionka from Backyard Growers 30 minLecture5.3
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4-4: Put it all Together: What next? 30 minLecture5.4
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4-5: Workshop #2: RecordingLecture5.5
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55 Comments
It was great to hear from Lara and learn her story. I liked that she made a positive change for her whole family by creating an edible garden with her front yard. She took things into her own hands and inspired her community and now has spread that love of gardening to schools as well.
The children in the school are learning a life lessen; to grow their own food; to take ownership of what they have grown and to reap the benefits by harvesting and eating that food.
I loved her message that anyone can make a garden even if you do not have a green thumb. One step at a time and learning through your experiences will make you a stronger more educated gardener for the future.
I also liked the idea about planting for when you want to harvest. To continue the gardening experience throughout the summer break and winter months.
What an inspirational woman!
Glad you enjoyed her story. 🙂
1. I loved how her vision started small and simple in her front yard.
2. The gardens are planted and harvested with meaning and is embedded into their curriculum, for example how the corn seeds were the star subject in a science lesson!
3. You don’t have to have fancy themed gardens to be successful I love how the school had whole boxes of lettuce or a whole raised garden bed of carrots.
Awesome!!
Lara is a true advocate for nature teaching and an inspiration for ways to use nature to build community! I appreciate how she advocates for younger children to have a hands-on experience with growing. Giving the children the opportunity to grow and eat the healthy vegetables is a gift for their life-times. I love the sticker idea when the children try the food. I also love that she connected the program to the wider community through bringing it to the Cape Ann farmers market.
Terrific!
I feel like it doesn’t matter where you start as long as you start somewhere. Gardening can be a fun way for everyone to get together and learn and educate one another through the beauty of gardening and nature. I fee like everyone can get involved in some small ways and contribute by having a small part and it could still be an educational activity.
Having children involved in gardening and planting fruits and vegetables can show them how they grow and how you take care of certain plants in order to them to grow successfully.
Hopefully once we go back into work, It would be a great time to incorporate gardening into our curriculum.
Yes…all we need to do it start! Sometimes we overthink it and never cross the starting line.
I liked how she said it got started when she wanted to exert control over something in a situation she felt like many things were out of her control. When we put ourselves in the shoes of a child, almost everything is out of their control, and creating and growing, harvesting and eating from ‘their’ gardens is empowering. Just as it helps keep us grounded and feeling secure, it will help them.
She started with something small for herself and her family, and it grew into something giant that spanned the community and brought new experiences to people of all ages as well as bringing them together with the common experience.
Also, I have never considered growing popcorn, but I am looking for seeds right now!
Incredible isn’t it?
I really enjoyed listening to Lara and learning that even though we all might not have a green thumb it does not matter because this is possible for everyone we just need to remember to take one step at a time and it will grow into a garden….literally and figuratively. I also really loved that they grew veggies because that is one thing that I would really love to grow in out garden when we start one! I also really loved how involved the children were and how it made them feel like they were accomplishing the big thing in their lives, it was a great feeling, just seeing all the smiles!
Great take-aways.
I loved listening to her story, it shows that if you are passionate about something, you can take a small project and make it into something amazing that benefits many people.
Expressing her art side through gardening and using her front yard garden to connect with her neighbors shows the power nature has to connect us all.
I liked her emphasis on children having a hands-on experience and taking ownership of “I grew my own food”.
And I enjoyed looking at the pictures, so many happy, fully engaged, relaxed children!
Great take-aways
We are part of the circle of life!
we need to connect our children with the life circle, to have happy and healthy communities!
More now than ever!!
I like the farm to table approach that Lara has instituted with her summer and fall tasting events. It is true, I believe, that kids of all ages are more comfortable trying new things if they have participated in growing their own vegetables; more awareness, better nutrition. I like that she has started urban gardening and has partnered with existing programs within the community, bringing people together. I find it amazing, too, that she has taken her program into the senior community as well. I love stories that start with a personal need during an extraordinary time. It will be very interesting to see what comes of this particular time in history when the pandemic has forced many to slow down, rethink, and take the opportunity to develop new ventures and new ways of interacting with their communities.
Great reflections!!
I think it is incredible how something starts off small and personal and ends up being something for the whole community. I am most excited to start a garden that feeds. We have school supplied snacks, and we do our best to keep them as healthy as possible. However, I would love to replace some of our school supplied snacks with our very own class grown fruits and veggies. I like how she talked about the hands on growing experience for the kids, I absolutely see how that could be such a rewarding process for a child to not only grow and tend to plants but 5en be able to harvest them.
fabulous!
1. Get everyone involved
2. I like the sticker idea to get them to try stuff and think of how they feel about it on a chart
3. plant according to when you want to harvest
Great take aways!
I like that during this interview she gives a lot of tips as I continue to brainstorm on what type of Garden I would like to start with my children. After listening to her Garden Story, I feel that starting an Edible Herb Garden would be very rewarding with the children, as they gain sense of “ownership”, when they can say “I grew my own food”. In order for my outside curriculum to be an extension of my indoor curriculum, I have to be very careful on what type of seeds I plant in regards to my environment. I thought it was very important how Lara Lepionka, mentions the appearance of the garden through all seasons, and the care it shows translates into the care children give it. Therefore, I need to research into how to always tender the garden accordingly. For this I think that reaching out in my team would be a great idea, as I learn more about the cycle of each plant. Another reason why I would like an Edible Herb Garden, is so that children practice and try new things, I love her idea of the sticker when trying new things!
Great take-a-ways…
Not that I liked hearing Lara’s story, but it was kind of nice to hear that Lara started growing her own food because she had been struggling and had two kids with one income coming in. I guess I’m used to listening about how people came from something they had already and with Lara’s family they had to work for it. What a great idea though to start gardening to grow food for the family.
An incredible story!!! The power of growing your own food! 🙂
Somehow my post went to the wrong section. It was suppose to be on the Kestral Educational adventures.
No worries.
I like the constructiveness approach, I think that approach from starting from an individuals concepts is important. I think it is important to provide instruction where people can make there own discoveries. Great that she was able to find such a wonderful job. They provide wonderful opportunities for students! Definitely like the movie idea as well as providing boots. Also very important that they realized that punctuality on the return will open many more doors.
Wonderful. Great reflections.
Always start small,
Be prepared
Try to expand and teach others
Great reflections!!
1. I love the idea of the kids harvesting all the lettuce for salad days at the school and everyone gets to try it in the cafeteria. It is a great way to expand their learning and promote healthy eating.
2. I really enjoyed the integration of what they do in the science lessons taught by the school. It was another way of making the garden/program part of rather than an add-on as she had said earlier.
3. I wish they had these kind of programs when I was in school and I would love to incorporate these ideas in my school with the help of the rest of the educators at my site.
Great reflections…
What a fun speaker. It’s amazing to hear her story and see the organization that grew out of her own personal life situation.
I loved her educational “track” for the children where one year they grew popcorn and the next wheat. We have a Preschool and a PreK grouping of children and it would be fun to give them different projects. And the Preschool children could look forward to doing the PreK project the following year. Children always love having something to look forward to in the future.
Her comment about your garden having a purpose was very important. Again, I think it really emphasizes the idea of focus in order to make it feasible.
Finally, I loved her point about it becoming part of the “life of the school” with everyone having a defined role. Everyone needs to feel invested or it will not be sustainable in the future.
Great talk, thank you!
Yes..I pulled that your garden need a purpose from this talk too. Well done!
1. cooperate planting and garden in your curriculum and involve the children.
2. spread the idea throughout the center and in every class get everyone involved.
3. plant a seed in clear cups so that the children can see how the plants grow, and then they can transfer them to the garden bed in the playground at the center.
Great ideas…keep em coming.
For me, 1. start small with your interests. 2. reach out community. 3. learn from experiences.
It reminds me of the school garden I helped at my son’s elementary school. The volunteers were all amateur but love to help people also love on the ground. We learned from the experiences a lot.
I can’t wait to create a purposeful outdoor classroom for children! Keep children engaged with nature!
Yea! I can feel your enthusiasm.
My three takeaways are: community, purpose and tricks. Community plays a huge part. Lara build her community just through people in her neighborhood being curious. Just from her gardening in her front yard, neighbors stopped asked question and from there she was able to involve the community and develope other gardening projects.
When wanting to implement a garden or type of crop to your school, we need to think of its purpose and how it will be part if the school not just ab add-on.
“Tricks” love how she calls their way of managing and guiding the children in the outdoor space. Ways to keep them engaged while their waiting. I found the plant,harvest,grow and sample idea wonderful. The salad days and harvest days. The children get the whole farming experience from ground to table. I feel the children or anyone is more willing to taste something new, that they actually created themselves.
You pulled some wonderful goodies from this video. Well done!
My three take always:
I am amazed by the plant it-harvest it- eat it process with the class. Great for the children to see the process. They can be involved every step of the way.
This year I did a nutrition lesson on eating all the colors of the rainbow. I brought in all the colors and had the students try them. It was one of my favorite lessons from this year. I cannot imagine how I spited they would be if we grow even one of the vegetables that we ate.
It was great to hear the benefits of reaching out to the locals from the farmers market to help educate the students. Having visitors share their growing experiences would-inspire children to plant. Children would see/ hear where the food comes from in their supermarkets.
When deciding to grow a garden have a plan. It is important to know why you are planting. Is it to educate, expose or introduce new ideas. It can be all of these but with a plan.
There is a renewed clarity if your reflections. Brilliant job! I’m excited to learn where this goes next.
I liked the idea of the “I tried it” stickers on a chart to get the children to try different vegetables. I believe that this could be very successful in a preschool group of children. Lara also said that the children who had started this program in kindergarten and are now in high school have developed a sort of ‘normalcy’ about eating these vegetables and these yearly school gardening events and how that truly is a good thing!
I also liked her reference to ‘the large bags of tricks’ she had to help guide children in an outdoor space and to better help them to focus on the “cool thing that is going to happen.” I would have liked to have heard more about those kinds of ideas that she had in her bag of tricks, that they had come up with along the way in their experiences through the years. The example that she gave was to have the children touch their toes to the wood on the side of the planting bed and then all eyes on her as she gave instructions. I also would like to hear more about the transitional dances or activities they use with the children while the children are waiting for their group’s turn at something. Ideas on how to physically manage a group of children in a successful way (using a gardening theme) while in a more structured and intentional outdoor space, therefore creating a more focused learning environment.
I loved the photo of the young boy who was super focused on cutting the loose leaf lettuce with a pair of school scissors out of the garden. Also the young boy who was dressed up as a flower or a bud or maybe a tomato plant? I would have loved to have heard more about what was happening there?
Lastly, another very important concept that I can take away from this interview and really use in my planning of my school garden is that it is not enough to just put a garden in but that it needs to fit into the curriculum and school’s life. There has to be a way for it to become a part of the life of the school, otherwise it will eventually get cut or just die out when the parent who was helping to take care of it moves on to a new school or when the teacher who mostly took care of it leaves or retires. It needs to have a purpose and to be connected to the school, not just one classroom. Never an “Add-On” but instead a “Part-Of!” The garden concept itself needs to include the teachers, the children, the director, the parents, and the community in order to be self sustainable. There can not be just one stake holder. It can not rely on just one person in order to successfully run or the whole thing can fall apart quickly and easily.
YOU Got IT! The garden needs to be part of the school curriculum! That will be your ticket to success. Well done…
I love how she was able to start small and help families to then grow to be an organisation.
She does a lot of activities, the growing popcorn activity is really impressive how to start with a seed to then be able to eat something from the garden and kids are involved in all the process. As she said everyone has a roll planing, organizing, getting everyone involve, learning and everything work together to create a great program.
Fabulous!
My take aways;
Bringing people together, expressing self with connections, salad days-how fun to eat the food you plant and grow, community partner with school, growing popcorn and using that is cross curriculum, super organized which is great and seems easier to manage, giving knowledge of how food is in our lives, “try it” stickers,
Great!
1.created a curriculum with student and expanded the program to others.
2. Planting vegetables involving children
3.How a simple idea was spreading.
Great!
1. Using opportunities even when they seem negative develop skills that I didn’t even know were there. Change the course, the direction of that event into something positive: Resilience.
2. When my plans, my ideas come from the heart with honesty, they will create an impact that I never imagined and will become a benefit for me as an individual and my community.
3. Accept that I don’t know everything, look for alternatives, spaces where I can be advised to expand my mind, my goals towards something greater.
4. To be inclusive, responsible, creative and flexible when preparing my plans, taking into account each individual who is in connection with me.
5. The most satisfying thing as a teacher is to be able to witness the faces of my children while enjoying real, meaningful, fun and transcendent learning in their lives.
Wow!!! Great reflections. I’m really excited for you.
1. Her idea started out small and blossomed.
2. She teaches a wide range if students about gardening.
3. They grow and harvest vegetables. They use gardening through the whole curriculum.