But it was an important desk job because of what was to come. After the final Prop A bond was passed in , San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance realized that the work of designing and creating green schoolyards was actually finished.
They had succeeded in that primary task. But now there was an even more compelling one. They wished to activate those new schoolyards as actual outdoor classrooms. Committed to advancing the teaching of science outdoors in public schools, it is this organization that, hand in hand with the San Francisco Unified School District and its teachers, allies the school gardens with the standards-based science curriculum mandated by the state of California.
Bucklin-Sporer remembers how, in the earliest efforts of the Green Schoolyard Alliance, they were told by teachers that they would welcome a garden in their schools, but not if they had to maintain the garden themselves.
There were few active gardeners among the teachers. They would need help, they said. Starting in with a staff of two Bucklin-Sporer as Executive Director and Pringle as Program Manager the organization now employs 35 people, and its signature program is The Corps for Education Outside. And all the while, we dreamed of having this great corps of young people that would go out into the public schools and teach all the kids about science…show them the environment, teach them about the natural world, assist them in becoming eco-literate and environmentally responsible.
Really, it was to help them develop a deep and endearing bond with the natural world. To love it! The passion in this dream is self-evident. But when Education Outside explained the idea to philanthropic organizations, principals and teachers, they took pains to describe it in systematic terms that demonstrated that the greening of public schools was far more than just a dream.
The Corps for Education Outside would be established as an integral part of the science-teaching curriculum in the San Francisco public schools. They would be the help that so many of the teachers in the district had said that they needed. This school year, Education Outside will employ 26 Corps members, and Pringle is in charge of them. As the senior director of programs, she handles the finding and hiring of Corps members, and their training. She is also the initial contact for schools that wish to have an outdoor science curriculum, and she places the trained Corps members in those schools.
The book was published in , and How To Grow A School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers is the most compendious, detailed and practical guide to the greening of a schoolyard that exists. Following chapters cover everything from design ideas for the schoolyard, to budgeting, fundraising, how to keep the garden healthy, planting, harvesting and cooking in the garden, and year-round garden lessons and activities.
One of the real pleasures of this book lies in the quality of the writing. Neither Bucklin-Sporer nor Pringle are professional writers. But the ease of style in this book makes the reading of what could have been a dry science education tome into a real pleasure. The book is also amply illustrated with photos from several San Francisco schools, examples for educators of California state content standards, a list of resources with an emphasis on California organizations, but with many others located around the U.
As such, she manages the green schoolyard portion of the funds that came from the three school bond propositions. Asked to assess the effects of the green schoolyard concept so far, Shelton is unequivocally upbeat. Shelton does offer a cautionary note for the future, which has to do with the sustainability of the various green schoolyard projects once they are completed.
Sustainability in this case means basic maintenance. Things age. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Skip to content. Home About. They see how enthusiastically their students respond to the natural space and how excited the kids are to learn, and they, in turn, get excited themselves. Our hope is that, by doing this, we can develop a community of teachers who are interested in using the outdoor world as a departure point for teaching.
To date, seven projects have been completed. Another ten are currently underway. The goal is to complete all forty-five within the next ten years. And inspiring these kids to take an interest in nature is really as easy as opening their eyes to that. Many public and private schools throughout San Francisco host school gardens to engage students in outdoor activities and teach them about where food comes from.
SF Department of the Environment partners with non-profit organization San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance to support sustainability in schoolyards and school gardens in San Francisco Unified School District as well as other schools. What is a green schoolyard in comparison to a school garden?
San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance explains,. SFUSD green schoolyards might consist of a pond or water feature, a native garden, a food-system garden, solar panels, rainwater cisterns, and other ecologically appropriate teaching tools.
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