Addendum #1

So yesterday as soon as I published the first post, I felt that I didn't leave the originally intended impression. Actually, I didn't tell you anything about the purpose of this blog. I told you that I am an educator. I teach in Richardson Independent School District as an ESL teacher. I am sure you're wondering what an ESL teacher has to do with gardening. Well, to be honest, not too much until now. And even then, the relationship is haphazard. Here at Springridge Elementary (SRE), we began Enrichment Clusters last September. Our principal attended a workshop for this new supplement. She and a few other teachers on campus trained the rest of us. At first, the feelings for all of us were bittersweet. I do feel bad for saying that for you to read, but you have to know that teachers are busy people with little extra time and somehow we are expected to add supplements to our curriculum every year. I'm not sure how we do it, but we do. Keep in mind that we believe it's for the children and if it's going to help them then we will find a way!
So, the blog yesterday was a lot about me, me and me. My intentions are to make it about the kids, kids and kids. If parents, community members, teachers, etc. are going to read this one day, then they don't want to know about Ms. Cohen. They want to read about their children. Yesterday's blog was a super edited version of what we had been working on for the past 15 weeks. I hope you realize that the garden enrichment cluster started out as a tiny six week plan: learn, grow, create, make and share. Now its plan is to be a monumental model for other schools in our school district. You need to know that it's facilitated by Tom Savay and me. If you meet us, you will quickly find out that we are NOT gardening experts. We love the kids; we love to teach; we love to let them be enriched by what gardening will offer. If you google youth gardening, you will find a plethora of websites dedicated to kids' gardening. One such website, that we use the most is http://www.kidsgardening.org/. They are fantastic. Very well-versed, as they should be, in the area of youth gardening. They provide curriculum/lesson plans. Enrichment clusters are designed as authentic learning and one main ingredient is application. In our race to complete the grade-level TEKS by TAKS time, there is often not enough time for application. EC is a way to bring the outside world into the school world and practice applying their skills in an area of interest. If you know the SRE teachers, you will know that we educate the future leaders of the world so if that means stopping our standard curriculum for 70 minutes for a minimum of six weeks so that the students can have authentic learning applied to real-life situations, well, then so be it.
Phil Lozano replied to the email with our measurements. We are given the go ahead to use the Kiddie Timber materials, meaning, he has enough of them for us to use. After building the raised beds, our next task will be to find soil, irrigation (most likely manual, eg. water hose), gardening tools, etc. I will make up some interest forms with times for our garden meetings then send them home. Look for these in the Wednesday folders. Tom and I will feel better if we can organize the meetings in grade level clusters. Maybe we'll even add a morning option (before school) and an afternoon option (after school). I am almost positive once we hear back from the interest forms, our next step is to write the by-laws and vote in officers. Be prepared for this to be a whirlwind. We are on a time limit so it has to move quickly.
We are still waiting to hear back about our account for the Garden Club. We are ready to fund raise. So far, the best idea is to sell plants. We get 50% profit! This was found at the Kids' Gardening website. I told you they were the best. Someone I forgot to mention yesterday is Mrs. Mary Lou Smith. She works in our office. I can take the honor of keeping her even more busy this year than usual. She is my go-to lady when it comes to following the rules. In my world, I just do and sometimes don't plan for the regulations (otherwise known as the word "No").
So parents, community members, teachers and relatives, when you read this, keep in mind that we like "free!" We are also fond of connections. If you know anyone that loves to garden and is available to help us, we need manual labor and tools. Please contact me: Sarah Cohen 469-593-8620. Leave a message.