Mid Year Report 2011
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Transcript of Mid Year Report 2011
1
Mid-Year Report
July 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010
The past six months at REAL School Gardens (RSG) provided a lot of reasons to celebrate.
Children planted, harvested and ate winter crops and neighborhood partnerships emerged and
strengthened school communities. RSG energized and prepared 841 educators to teach
academic concepts in gardens and REAL School Gardens educational staff directly taught 2,176
children in their learning gardens, not to mention thousands of others who were taught by their
classroom teachers! We partnered with the popular recording artist Jack Johnson and held our
first fundraising event in partnership with GRACE Restaurant. Friends across North-Central
Texas participated in professional development, community building, garden planning, and
installation events. There were young minds engaged, young imaginations sparked and young
hopes raised.
REASONS TO CELEBRATE
Expanded Reach
74 schools, 41,000 students, 2,600 educators
Growth
One new learning garden installed, 4 learning gardens revitalized and 4 learning gardens designed
Media
One TV spot and 15 print and web-based media appearances
Service
Volunteer and service learning projects with corporate and collegiate partners
Events
5 professional development sessions and 1 community building event, reaching 389 participants
Partnerships
Success in establishing new relationships with diverse community stakeholders including national
corporations, health advocacy groups, and local community organizers
Awards
Outstanding Service to Environmental Education
Awarded by North American Association for Environmental Education
Keep America Beautiful 2010 National Award, 2nd
Place
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GARDEN GOAL: Help elementary schools create, support and sustain school gardens so
children connect with nature in engaging, nurturing and inspirational ways
MEASURED MILESTONES
• Hosted our annual Dig In event for 6 new school partners.
• Enhanced 4 existing school gardens in collaboration with community partners, including
Chesapeake Energy, NASCAR, Texas Motor Speedway, and Ernst & Young.
• Partnered with 5 schools in Grand Prairie to provide garden design support.
• Partnered with 1 school, Lida Hooe in Dallas ISD, to provide educational support for
their thriving school garden.
STORIES OF SUCCESS
Garden Enhancements
Each of our four garden enhancements attracted crowds of volunteer support from school staff,
students, parents and community partners. A revitalization project coordinated by REAL School
Gardens in partnership with NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) drew Fort Worth
Mayor, Mike Moncrief, along with 400 students and more than two dozen TMS employees to
plant trees and refurbish the garden at Rosemont 6th
Grade School.
Schools Dig In
We organized our Dig In retreat for new school partners, reaching 73 enthusiastic attendees.
The event featured an expert panel of teachers, students and parents, visioning sessions, and
standards-based activities to engage students in site selection and mapping.
Garden Maintenance
We worked closely with our partner
schools to increase the learning
opportunities, usability and attractiveness
of the gardens. Chesapeake Energy made
garden enhancements a reality at
Goodman Elementary, where parents,
students, Master Gardeners, and REAL
School gardens staff planted trees and
native perennials and laid a flagstone
path.
“Our young people look for role models and the people that are out here today obviously
care about you or they wouldn’t be here. I hope that you have learned something from
this project and that you continue to wake up every single morning determined to learn
something.”
- Mike Moncrief, Fort Worth Mayor
Students at Goodman Elementary plant together in their
refurbished garden. (Photo credit: Matthew Rainwater)
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GARDEN GOAL: Encourage the use of school gardens to support children’s learning of skills,
processes and content while immersing them in the natural world
MEASURED MILESTONES
• RSG educators made 34 school visits, providing garden integration instruction and
model teaching sessions to 686 elementary school educators, working directly with
2,176 students and impacting many more.
• Introduced fee-based services and served our first client, Burleson ISD.
• Developed our first contract for professional development with Fort Worth ISD to
support 2nd
, 3rd
, and 4th
grade teachers from every elementary school in the district to
use schoolyards as academic resources. Lessons we develop will be included in the
online science curriculum used district-wide to guide instruction.
• Received the 1st
place Sadie Ray Graff Educational Institution Award from Keep Texas
Beautiful; Sammy Wren, educator at Sallye Moore Elementary in Grand Prairie received
the 2nd
place Sadie Ray Graff Educator award for his work in the garden.
STORIES OF SUCCESS
Garden Integration Visits and Digging for TEKS Training
RSG staff educators presented “Digging for TEKS” training to 17 entire school faculties, followed
by 15 full-day garden integration visits to partner schools, introducing teachers to best practices
for using their garden to enhance instruction and align with state educational standards (TEKS)
in all academic subjects. Teaching techniques ranged from mapping textures in the garden with
1st
graders to exercising 6th
graders’ math skills to determine proper amounts of organic
fertilizer to be used on given areas. The Advanced Academics Specialist at LBJ Elementary
commented, “Every class was so engaged when I came out to take pictures. It is wonderful to
see the students so interested and thinking and learning when they are outside. I know these
teachers will make better use of the garden after seeing their students learning today.”
Students at Barbara Bush Elementary harvest their winter crop
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District-Wide Professional Development
We are proud to be providing educator training for teachers from every elementary school in
Fort Worth ISD this year. After eight years of partnership, our relationship continues to deepen
as we provide 2nd
, 3rd
, and 4th
grade teachers with the content and skills to use their gardens
and schoolyards as resources for studying soil and local ecology.
GARDEN GOAL: Foster a cooperative spirit among schools, families and the surrounding
community through involvement with school gardens
MEASURED MILESTONES
• Engaged 6 new school partners in our strategic community design process.
• We drew support from a diversity of stakeholders at our Garden Design Charrettes. Of
the 1,018 individuals participating, 63% percent were students and their families, 29%
percent were school employees and 8% percent were community members.
STORIES OF SUCCESS
Community Design Charrettes
Our six new school partners participated in community design charrettes, cooperative events
that engage everyone – teachers, administrators, students, families and community members –
in order to ensure the future success and sustainability of the outdoor classrooms. These
collaborative efforts sparked a gathering of 347 people at Holiday Heights Elementary School.
A family at Holiday Heights designs their learning garden together
“I’m not an outside person, and before today I didn’t know anything about soil. I know my teachers
must have pounded it into me in elementary school, but I don’t remember it. Learning about it the
way you presented it today got me excited about doing soil activities with my students. I feel like I
know a lot about soil now.”
-Educator, Meadowbrook Elementary School
5
GARDEN GOAL: Create a vibrant, sharing network of educators and partners who commit
to putting school gardens at the heart of urban neighborhoods
MEASURED MILESTONES
• Attracted 147 diverse attendees and volunteers to our first REAL People community
building event this year, held at Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Grand Prairie.
• Benefitted from 891.5 hours of support from volunteers who helped to prepare for
events and enhance gardens.
• 6 community partners got their hands dirty, providing time, talent and treasure to
support garden enhancements: Chesapeake Energy, Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR,
Redenta’s Garden, Ernst & Young, and the Rotary Club of East Fort Worth.
• Generated 10,448 web site visits between July 1 and Dec 31, 2010 – a 3.25% percent
increase in web traffic from the same period in 2009. The average time spent at our site
during a visit increased almost 15%.
• Received media coverage through 1 television and 15 print and web-based appearances.
• Received a national award from Keep America Beautiful and our first international
award from the North American Association for Environmental Education.
STORIES OF SUCCESS
REAL People Community Events
With input, participation and support from the surrounding community, school gardens – and
students themselves – become the heart of urban neighborhoods. For this reason, we organize
creative and engaging REAL People community building events for community members to
connect with one another and share information about using school gardens for learning. In
November, we brought together a total of 147 individuals at an event that highlighted the work
students and teachers are doing at Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Grand Prairie ISD.
Community members enjoy student presentations and a meal in the garden.
6
Volunteer and Service-learning Projects
As a result of proactive volunteer recruitment, we benefited from 891.5 volunteer hours
contributed by more than 250 individuals who came from within school communities as well as
from broader stakeholder groups like local businesses. In September, 17 volunteers from Ernst
& Young gathered for a garden workday at Watauga Elementary to prepare for fall planting. In
December, 30 volunteers from Texas Motor Speedway led the charge to enhance the garden at
Rosemont 6th
Grade School. Professor Brad Bell’s architecture class at the University of Texas
Arlington won the 2nd
place Design Research Collaborative award from HKS, Inc. for their
semester-long project dedicated to designing an iconic REAL School Gardens shade structure.
Volunteers from Texas Motor Speedway’s “Speeding to Help” initiative work with students at Rosemont
Media Exposure
Staking our spot in the nationwide trend toward healthier lifestyles and real-world learning
helps to raise awareness for the mission and the value of our organization. In an ongoing effort
to generate public attention for our programs, we work hard to spread the word – through
press releases, letters and testimonies – about our program’s progress and success. As a result
of these public relations efforts, we received coverage in the following print and broadcast
outlets:
• Fox 4 News
• Fort Worth Star Telegram
• The Dallas Morning News
• Arlington Citizen-Journal
• Edible DFW magazine
• 360 West magazine
• Exchange magazine
• North Texas E-News
• Associated Content
• Yahoo Sports
• How to Grow a School Garden, by
Bucklin and Pringle
• www.TexasMotorSpeedway.com
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SPRINGING FORWARD
As winter comes to a close and the first buds of spring begin to appear, REAL School Gardens is
encouraged by our progress in 2010 as well as by the growing recognition of our vibrant
learning gardens which boost academic achievement, nurture healthy lifestyles, cultivate life
skills and promote environmental stewardship. In the months ahead, we are excited to
complete the installation of six new learning gardens, implement a revised training model,
which includes an intensive, on-campus professional development workshop for the faculties at
each of our six new school partners; and unveil the results of the first phase of our program
evaluation efforts. In all that we do, we rely on strong partners who support us financially,
programmatically, and with specialized expertise including evaluation methods and strategic
planning. REAL School Gardens is grateful for the continuing and growing support of our
community, and we are looking forward to a beautiful spring.
Students at Florence Hill Elementary take a break from a descriptive writing activity