Archives for category: Professional Development

Greetings, dedicated PLGers! As the outdoor growing season is soon coming to an end, the new school school year is just beginning and we are very excited to share new resources and opportunities with you. Our Plant Learn Grow 101 PD will be on October 18 at 373K, in addition to our full menu of Hydroponics/ Aquaponics, Composting, Sustainability, and of course the Teaching in the Garden Series with BBG and NYBG. Check out the current course offerings here. In the meantime, here are some late but awesome photos from our Garden Day event last June. Enjoy!

 

Some of us (ahem Greg) have been saying this for a while, but there are a lot of opportunities for learning Math in the garden! Here are some examples from NYBG of ways to integrate your Math instruction in the great outdoors. Or indoors. With hydroponics… or aquaponics.

 

 

 

Last Friday, we had a full day PD for teachers- all about composting! Here are some photos of Greg, our in-house Master Composter, leading the group at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden . Many thanks to BBG and the Master Composters for having us!

 

Check out this new film that profiles two of our PLG schools and their incredible stories. Here is the link to the film and a short blurb about it. Enjoy!

Plant, Learn, Grow is a profile of two schools in New York City located in “Food Deserts,” areas where it is difficult to find fresh, healthy produce. One school is located in the South Bronx, and one school in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The students deal with more than lack of healthy food. They are challenged with intellectual, communication, and emotional issues. This is the story of the gardens they built, the food they grew, and the impact this rich harvest had on the students and their communities.

Enjoying the beauty of small, medium, and large flowers can be very “graph-tifying. (get it? “graph” and “gratifying?”) From our “Math and Nature Connections” professional development event at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx.

A lovely photograph of Dale Chihuly’s glass sculpture from the professional development day at New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx.

District 75 teachers gathered last week for a fun and productive workshop about hydroponics and indoor growing. Indoor methods are great to use if you don’t have outdoor space or it is too cold to go outside. If you missed the PD but want to be part of the movement, please send an email to ccoffin@schools.nyc.gov to be added to our indoor gardening group. We can’t wait to see the results!

Teachers, there are a few spaces still available for the D 75 Hydroponics PD coming up next week. You will learn about both simple and complex systems made from reusable everyday materials, and will construct at least one model to take back to the classroom. To register, got to http://www.district75pd.org and register under Applied Learning. We hope to see you there!

The PLG 101 Workshop met at 373K. As you can see, there is nothing contrary about this garden! Thank you Maura Flanagan for showing us your students’ green thumbs!

On June 10, two of our PLG schools, 811X and 94M, participated in the Leave it Better Film Festival at the New York Botanical Garden. Their films were shown on the big screen, and they participated in outdoor activity stations including making chlorophyll prints with spinach leaves and learning about seed dispersal with Greg.