It was a great pleasure to be a part of a Project Learning Tree workshop for Albany teachers and College of Saint Rose teaching students two weeks ago. The workshop was on school gardening and we hosted it at Myers Middle School. Great partners in the day-long program were the College of Saint Rose, the Albany Fund for Education and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Some of the response to our part in the workshop is enough to make us think we have something to contribute to teaching kids in our community.
We gave a presentation on starting seeds indoors and we organized a Classroom Garden in a Box, grow lights and other supplies and materials to support indoor growing. And the Albany Fund for Education funded boxes for each of eight teachers at the workshop.
Here’s what Deb Rutnik, a kindergarten teacher at Eagle Point Elementary School, wrote after we dropped the box off yesterday: “Thank you so much for delivering the materials, sharing your expertise and, talking with us about our garden! We are excited to put into practice what we have learned and try out lessons from the activities book. We have a CSR student coming to do a lesson and plan to get into our garden on Earth Day! We are forever grateful and will be keeping in touch with you as we utilize the materials. Our students are over the moon with excitement! Thanks for providing us this opportunity.”
Very gratifying. Can’t wait to see pictures from Deb’s and other classrooms.
– Bill Stoneman
