Newsletters

Fall 2008 Garden Newsletter

Publish at Scribd or explore others: School Work media education

UC Master Gardener Program

Check out the Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden seminars on June 13 and Sept 26.  In June the seminar will cover soil, planting times, and curriculum resources; the Sept seminar will cover maintenance, pest and disease control.  It's open to both parents and teachers.  

MG School Garden Workshops

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs Magazines & Newspape How-to-Guides & Manu Non-fiction california 10k

UC Master Gardener, Teena Spindler was on hand in October to teach students and parents the best way to plant vegetables. Teena will be volunteering her time to assist TMA in developing the center

Master Gardeners are volunteers from the community with an interest in gardening who have successfully completed the extensive Master Gardener training program.  After 50 hours of classroom instruction, Master Gardeners are qualified to help various community partners with growing fruits, vegetables, annuals and perennials as well as answer questions on soil and water management, fertilizing, plant diseases, weed, insect and pest control.  The Master Gardener program is run through the University of California Cooperative Extension and is dedicated to providing information to all California gardeners.  If you are interested in becoming a Master Gardener, you can contact the Master Gardeners of Orange County through their website atww.uccemg.com.

TMA Garden Calendar

Can You Dig It Volunteers

“Earn your volunteer hours while helping develop our state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary, outdoor learning lab”

Want to join our team? Email the crew chair at their email address listed below.

Classroom Garden Master
Leads: Katie Weissberg weissberg2@cox.net & Tina Coyte kmrannali@yahoo.com
Members: 2 representatives from every classroom

Job Description – the Garden Masters program is being modeled after the Art Masters program. Every parent volunteer, aka Garden Master, will be trained by a Master Gardener to: grow from seed, plant, harvest and maintain the garden. They will teach the class and teacher these skills and watch the garden flourish.

No gardening experience necessary and you can earn your TMA volunteer hours!

2 parent volunteers from every classroom needed

As a classroom Garden Master, you will:

• Attend one demonstrations lesson per month in the TMA garden about growing seeds to seedlings, planting seedlings into the ground, harvesting and maintaining the TMA garden. Sessions will be taught by UCCE Master Gardener Teena Spindler and will be one hour in duration.

• Take your classroom to the garden, for thirty to forty-five minutes, on a monthly basis to teach them the four aspects of crop development: growing, planting, harvesting and maintaining. The classroom teacher will assist you with this.

• Be the primary means of communication between the Can You Dig It (CYDI) Garden Master Committee and the classroom teacher about program details, scheduling and calendaring.

• Spend about 2 hours per month on this program

· Exact dates and times will be forwarded to you the second week of school

· 2^nd grade Garden Masters will assist four additional hours during the months of May/June when their classes are in the garden for their Lifecycles curriculum. This program is taught by an instructor from Earthroots Field School.

· 5th grade Garden Masters will assist four additional hours during the month of February when their classes are in the garden for their Lifecycles curriculum. This program is taught by an instructor from Earthroots Field School.

Can You Dig It Garden Masters
Leads – Cameron Carlen-Jones ccarlenjones@gmail.com
and Kristina Quinn kristina_quinn@yahoo.com
Members - Tina Coyte, Christina Gonzalez, Diana Spinoglio and Katie Weissberg

• Design and manage the Garden Master’s program
• Work with master gardener and garden designed Michelle Furtado to map out crop rotation locations

• Create teacher and classroom Garden Master calendars and schedules for classroom rotations

• Design and coordinate teacher and classroom Garden Master training days with Master Gardener Teena Spindler (four things to be taught: growing, planting, harvesting and maintaining)

• Communicate directly with teachers and their Master Gardeners about all program related issues

• Communicate with the Principal and TMA Organic Garden and Nature Center chair about program design, progress, challenges and the like

• Pat yourself on the back for being amazing people J

Compost Commanders
Lead: Christina Gonzalez - pritiprincess@hotmail.com
Members: Deepa Shesadri, Mamatha Athuluru, Sylvia Kim and Master Gardener Teena Spindler

• Join our team as we develop our TMA composting/recycling program

• Maintain composting tumblers and stationary composters

• Work with the Kid's Ecology Club to bring students into the composting program
  

• Help promote the Tustin Public Schools Foundation GO GREEN recycling project

• Work with Stephen Brown and Michelle Furtado to grow our expanding worm bins. They will stay in the garden throughout the school year. Worms create "black gold" that when combined with our food -crap based compost which will be used to fertilize the garden.

Construction Crew
Lead: Kurt Christy - kachristy@hotmail.com
Michelle Furtado, Jim Christy, David Spinoglio, Barry Fazio and Scott McMillin

• Join the ongoing development and construction of the garden. To date, in ground and raised bed planters, path ways, fencing, a full irrigation system, a barn and the like have been constructed.

• Help us expand and maintain our state-of-the-art irrigation system

Curriculum Cultivators
Lead: Marci Maietta Weinberg - mcweinetta@yahoo.com
Members: Emily Bauer, Naomi Dei Rossi, Sylvia Kim & Christina Gonzalez,

• Join our team as we continue to develop ecology, nutrition, fitness and garden related multi-disciplinary curriculum for every grade level

• Help students and teachers develop a plan for regularly maintaining the garden

• Help coordinate an ongoing crew of parent volunteers to assist teachers and students in garden based curricular projects
• 
  

Entrepreneurial Enthusiasts and Pumpkin Patch Patrons
Lead: Naomi Dei Rossi deirossi@sbcglobal.net
Members: Melissa Boland, Irene Alonso, 5th grade teacher Flossie Friedman, Deepa Shesadri &
Romey McCoy Design business owners Janet Romey and Teresa McCoy

• Join our team and we'll turn our TMA garden harvests into money for the school and an entrepreneurial experience for our 5th grade students. The students will sharpen their math, communications, marketing, and creative skills during their produce stand sales.

Fundraising and Donation Dynamos

Lead: Kristina Quinn - Kristina_Quinn@yahoo.com
Members: Marci Maietta Weinberg, Michelle Furtado and Duncan Millar

• Join our team in seeking donations and funding for the garden.

• Help us develop partnership with local businesses and organizations

Garden Gurus
Lead: Michelle Furtado - vmfurtado@sbcglobal.net
Members: Lori Shimomura, Laurie Fazio, Kurt Christy, Jim Christy and David Spinoglio

• Join us as we maintain our ever expanding organic garden: including raised and in-ground planter beds, our California Native Butterfly Garden, our outdoor learning center, and a variety of fruiting trees and the like

• Plan, promote and attend three garden workdays for our broader TMA community
  

• Water and maintain all existing potted plants throughout the TMA campus

Grant Getters
Lead: Emily Bauer - bauerroberts@gmail.com
Members: Marci Maietta Weinberg and Geri Shaw

• Help us locate and write grants for expanding garden programs, construction and maintenance

• Locate and assist in the writing of grants to cover teacher staff development for teaching in outdoor labs
  

• Help us locate funding for a teacher stipend for the Kid's Ecology Club

Ecology Kid’s Club Coordinators
Lead: Erica Vicario - ericav@sevengables.com
Member: Michelle Olsen

• Help manage the after school enrichment Ecology Club that will begin in Fall 2009. These students will take on a campus wide composting program and will help spearhead new student programs in the TMA Organic Garden and Nature Center....while getting dirty and playing with bugs.

Public Relations Pros
Geri Shaw - geri@miziker.com
Kristina Quinn, Lisa Lovell and Duncan Millar

• Help us communicate with our broader community, via newspaper articles, the Friday Flyer, email blasts, the TMA garden blog, the TMA website, and the like, about the programs and successes taking place in the Organic Garden and Nature Center
  

• Work with the Fundraising and Donations Dynamos to create advertising materials used for the creation of business sponsorships/partnerships

Tool Tamers

• Create a check in/out process for tool use

• Help keep tools in order and clean

The TMA Garden Story

AFTER: May 2009

BEFORE: May 2008

From TMA Garden

The TMA Can You Dig It Consortium has accomplished in one short year what takes most organizations several. A team of enthusiastic students, dedicated parents, generous local businesses, engaged community members, and supportive TMA teachers and staff have created a one-third acre Organic Garden and Nature Center that’s teeming with life and possibilities. The Benefits TMA’s garden offers an experiential curriculum tailored to teachers’ needs and students' abilities. Math, science, social studies, language arts, nutrition, health and fitness are all taught in our garden. The garden provides a fun environment in which learning becomes so much more than books and quizzes. Learning becomes an adventure. According to the California Department of Education, over 77 percent of students in environment-based education programs, such as school gardens, scored higher than their peers across all standardized tests with higher grade point averages. Students are reported to have greater self-confidence, leadership and social skills, and also exhibit higher interest in volunteerism and community spirit. It turns out that students who participate in programs like TMA’s discover fresh food, make healthier food choices, and are more physically active. Children who plant and harvest their own fruits and vegetables are more likely to eat them. The first step in developing healthier eating patterns is to increase students' desire to taste vegetables in the first place. What We've Accomplished · In the past year, the center has raised $9,000 in monetary donations, including $500 of funding from the PTO, and received more than $20,000 in material donations. With these funds and materials, the Can You Dig It Consortium brought to life a 1/3 acre garden from a vacant, forgotten plot of land. The area was cleared, irrigation placed, soil tilled, paths laid, planter beds built and set, a barn erected and finally seeds put down. The result is a remarkable “living classroom” in which every TMA student will learn and play. · The center was awarded $4000 from three grants. Funds were used to provide a 2nd grade science-based lifecycles program. One hundred and twenty 2nd grade students visited the garden on six different occasions to explore the lifecycle of insects, birds and plants. This program reinforced seven different academic science standards. Funds were also used to buy and build compost tumblers. In the fall of 2009 the compost bins will be put to good use when TMA students and staff undertake a lunchtime recycling program. Participants will learn to separate food and paper scraps for composting. With the help of parent volunteers, students will turn and maintain the compost piles until they are ready to be used as organic fertilizer in the garden. How We're Unique · Standards-based Learning in the Garden - TMA has created something no other school in the district and quite possibly in the County area has…this is not just a garden for growing vegetables, this is a center for growing minds. Every concept taught in the garden directly relates to California Academic Standards. Students acquire knowledge in a variety of ways; bringing students outside gives them the experience of learning in a multi-sensory way. What the Outdoor Education School program does in four days, we will achieve on a continuing basis. · Health and Nutrition in the Garden - In 2008, TUSD adopted a new Wellness Policy. Included in this program is nutrition education. The garden is the ideal place to provide nutrition education to students and families. Introducing the students to a variety of produce will inspire them to eat for better health and make the best nutrition choices for life. Two times a year, students, teachers, parents and community volunteers will turn over the TMA Organic Garden. They will plant, maintain, harvest, journal about, consume and ultimately sell hundreds of varieties of produce. · Building Community in the Garden - The conversion of this vacant area into the TMA Organic Garden and Nature Center has added a new space on campus for students, staff, teachers and the community to gather. We welcome teachers and staff to use this area throughout the year for classroom activities, reading groups, meetings, parties, lunch breaks and any other needs they may have. In the future, we hope to extend this invitation to other groups within the community. For a small donation to the PTO, this area can be used for small groups and events. Once established, the Center will become another means of raising PTO funds for the school. In addition to renting the space for events, the center is the perfect forum for holding educational programs. Entrance fees can be added to the PTO budget. The center will eventually provide a bounty of produce that can be sold to TMA families and the community. Also, it is hoped that by developing a recycling program on campus, the PTO can gain funds from recycled cans and bottles. A review of 2008-2009 programs · Fall 2008 Seeds of Change program – 200 parents and students participated in our first family event to help plant seedlings for the Second Harvest Food Bank Program · Spring 2009 Lifecycles in the Garden – All second grade students participated in nearly 10 hours of planting, exploring and learning in the garden. This program was tied to the second grade lifecycles science curriculum. · Spring 2009 Earth Day Celebration – All students planted seeds, cared for seedlings and replanted their plants into the garden during a two-month period. What’s coming up for 2009 – 2010 · TMA’s first ever Pumpkin Patch sale – In fall, TMA’s 5th grade students will harvest and sell a variety of pumpkins from small to gigantic. They will sharpen their math, communications, networking and creative skills during the process. · Ongoing Produce Stand Sales – students will sell the fruits and vegetables that they harvest throughout the year at a produce stand set up in the STAR Terrace. · Spring 2010 Lifecycles in the Garden – A continuation of the successful second grade lifecycles science program from 2009. · Fifth grade curriculum in the garden – A new standards-based curriculum program for our fifth graders. We are looking at doing a social studies or language arts program based on the core literature selection “Sign of the Beaver.” Timing TBD dependent on final program. · Three Community Days (fall, winter and spring) in the garden – These events will take place on the weekend to encourage parents, students and staff to enjoy the garden for a relaxed day of learning important ecological lessons from professional educational groups. · Two School-Wide Crop Rotations (fall and winter) – Each grade level will plant, maintain and harvest a different variety of fruit and vegetable. During their K-5 experience at TMA, students will have an opportunity to grow six different types of edibles. · A new after school enrichment program – The Ecology Club will be another option for students during after school hours. The program will be designed and run by EarthRoots Field School. · Lunchtime waste management program – In cooperation with the Ecology Club, we will provide receptacles for trash, recycling and food scrap/composting collection at the lunch tables.

Mission Statement

Tustin Memorial Academy believes students don't have to learn within the confines of four walls. Learning should happen in a dynamic atmosphere, engaging students in a unique and creative fashion. Our Organic Garden and Nature Center provides the perfect opportunity to do just that by providing an interdisciplinary and student-centered experience in a "living classroom."

• Beginning Fall 2009, 10% of harvested produce will be donated to local hunger organizations.
• By Spring 2010, Garden design and construction will be complete.
• By Spring 2010, the TMA Kid’s Ecology Club will separate and compost school lunch waste. Recycling proceeds will fund student selected community projects.
• By Fall 2011, students will sell produce to our community; in effect a TMA Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
• By Fall 2013, our produce will be used in the school lunch program.