{"id":49524,"date":"2015-04-02T15:08:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/plant-talk\/?p=49524"},"modified":"2015-04-02T16:01:36","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T20:01:36","slug":"miss-ayalas-school-garden-plots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2015\/04\/children-2\/miss-ayalas-school-garden-plots\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Ayala’s School Garden Plots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Muscota<\/a>
Muscota students help Marissa Ayala tend their garden plots at Swindler Cove.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marissa Ayala is a school garden pioneer, at least in the eyes of her students and colleagues at Muscota New School in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Ayala had taken informational gardening courses before, but needed to polish how she tied gardening skills back to K\u20135 science curriculum. So, she enrolled in School Gardening 101 in February this year at The New York Botanical Garden<\/a>. She wanted to get to know other educators who share her mission and to gain NYBG staff expertise to elevate her knowledge and ability to instruct a more rigorous curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to make sure the garden was used in as meaningful a way as it could be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her biggest takeaway was the idea of intentionality; her students investigate specific scientific concepts on each visit to their garden plots\u2014from photosynthesis and renewable energy to geometry and problem solving. This way, Ayala connects the purpose of each visit to the curriculum taught in her classroom.
\n
\n\u201cIn the NYBG course, I was taken through all of those steps to internalize how to do that as an educator,\u201d she said. \u201cThe training was a great opportunity to learn how to explore the garden in multiple ways. It\u2019s really a matter of bringing the instruction up to the point where every single time kids go out in the garden, there\u2019s intention, and it ties back to the curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a>
Children grades K\u20135 tend four garden plots, like this one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, in their unit on composting and soil health, students learn to identify the qualities of healthy soil. Then, they visit the garden to sift and turn compost to enrich the soil.<\/p>\n

In the School Gardening 101 course, Ayala found support from other teachers also excited about starting or building upon programs in their schools and about creating a culture of rigorous science within a garden setting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this very culture Ayala is promoting with each student in every grade at her school, which cares for four garden plots at Swindler Cove at Sherman Creek Park in Washington Heights. Her students\u2019 interest and excitement is visible with each garden visit, as a change comes over her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily the words they say, but how their moods shift,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cTheir whole demeanors change and relax. It\u2019s so powerful to see how students\u2019 environments affect their learning and exploration of those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardening and harvesting vegetables also gives them a sense of empowerment and ownership. They take charge of the choices they\u2019re making in terms of nutrition and how they care for the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey start thinking globally as opposed to just about themselves, their school, and their family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Hands-on<\/a>
Hands-on activities dominate time spent in the garden and connect to classroom curriculum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With her science program based on urban farming, Ayala\u2019s long-term goal is to ensure all students at PS 314 have a hands-on learning experience with science. She strives for students to make very specific decisions about their role in society\u2014developing an environmental consciousness they can pursue their entire lives. She also hopes for the day the school could build its own garden with their own edible plants, rather than rent space in the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much potential with STEM, and health and wellness, and I\u2019m personally just looking to continue to grow in that area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The next session of School Gardening 101 begins April 18 and runs for six consecutive Saturdays at The New York Botanical Garden. The course is designed to provide teachers with the tools and skills necessary for advocating, planning, preparing, and building a school garden. Learn more and register for our Professional Development Institutes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After making her way through NYBG’s School Gardening 101 course, Marissa Ayala was not only able to engage her students in the garden, but inspire in them the excitement and motivation to be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":49527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4133],"tags":[4645,4225,4439],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_20140620_1428596602.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph0lU-cSM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49534,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49524\/revisions\/49534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}