A few weeks ago Patty and I, visited Mount Vernon High to talk about the Bow Little Market, eating locally, the power of community and cooperative efforts, and seed saving. I asked Linda and Deven, the co-math teachers and spear headers behind the school garden to share information on their project.
Here is what Linda Longfellow wrote:
Deven and I got together at the beginning of this year and talked about needs our students had and how we could meet those needs. Deven came up with the idea of creating a garden with students to help not only with math skills but independent living skills, vocational skills, and social skills. We decided to start combining our first period math classes, her math class consisting of students from the life skills program here on campus and my math class consisting of upper classman getting ready to transition from high school to “real life.” We saw a need to help my students with tolerance and working with students with moderate to severe disabilities and providing Deven’s kids with an opportunity to work on social skills with my higher kids. So our project in this class has been to design a garden. We have had guest speakers in from Skagit County and are trying to get someone from Hedlin Farms in to talk about jobs available in the farming industry. Students talked about the different types of things they would like to grow and then were grouped by common growing tastes so that each student is part of a team that is growing plants based on a theme (we have a fruit group, a salsa group, a pizza group, a salad group, a flower group and a random group). As a class we measured the area we had to work with, determined the square footage and then divided the area by the number groups giving each group the same amount of space to work with. Each group then had to work together to design their garden: raised bed or in the ground, shape, walkways between beds/rows, etc. During this whole process we started plants students wanted to grow in the greenhouse with seeds we received from the Seed Swap at the Co-Op. We tried to stay true to their designs and built the beds and students are currently planting and transplanting plants they started. We are photographing each phase of the garden and students are documenting the process in their journals. We hope to have each group make a stepping stone for the garden at the end of the year and then continue this process in subsequent school years because there is still so much to do! ~ Linda Longfellow
Here is what Linda Longfellow wrote:
Deven and I got together at the beginning of this year and talked about needs our students had and how we could meet those needs. Deven came up with the idea of creating a garden with students to help not only with math skills but independent living skills, vocational skills, and social skills. We decided to start combining our first period math classes, her math class consisting of students from the life skills program here on campus and my math class consisting of upper classman getting ready to transition from high school to “real life.” We saw a need to help my students with tolerance and working with students with moderate to severe disabilities and providing Deven’s kids with an opportunity to work on social skills with my higher kids. So our project in this class has been to design a garden. We have had guest speakers in from Skagit County and are trying to get someone from Hedlin Farms in to talk about jobs available in the farming industry. Students talked about the different types of things they would like to grow and then were grouped by common growing tastes so that each student is part of a team that is growing plants based on a theme (we have a fruit group, a salsa group, a pizza group, a salad group, a flower group and a random group). As a class we measured the area we had to work with, determined the square footage and then divided the area by the number groups giving each group the same amount of space to work with. Each group then had to work together to design their garden: raised bed or in the ground, shape, walkways between beds/rows, etc. During this whole process we started plants students wanted to grow in the greenhouse with seeds we received from the Seed Swap at the Co-Op. We tried to stay true to their designs and built the beds and students are currently planting and transplanting plants they started. We are photographing each phase of the garden and students are documenting the process in their journals. We hope to have each group make a stepping stone for the garden at the end of the year and then continue this process in subsequent school years because there is still so much to do! ~ Linda Longfellow
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