Support Starts with Relationships
By Ellie Falk, CGC Youth Education Coordinator, and Mary Dudley, CGC Director of Education
In the wide world of education—whether public, private, charter, or homeschool—multiple positions and roles work together for the benefit of every student. The partnership of parents, teachers and students is supported by the administrative staff and specialists in each school community. As a partner organization, the CGC works within the existing support structure to help forge a connection between students and the natural world.
Providing Effective Support
One of the key things that the CGC K-12 Education team (Ellie, Mary and Luis) does is take time to understand the trials teachers face as they strive to bring environmental education to their students. We know that the stronger our relationships with these educators are, the more we can learn about their students and the unique culture of their school communities. The more complete our picture is, the more effectively we can support their efforts.
The teachers we work with are a diverse and talented group. Some are veteran teachers who have been in the classroom for decades and others are eagerly starting their careers. Some are part-time support staff who have a passion for plants and others are resource coordinators working to build a holistic range of opportunities for students. Sometimes it is an administrative professional, principal or building technician who sees the value in getting children outside, and they are the ones to initiate a partnership. No matter how we connect with these hardworking folks, we always take the time to build meaningful relationships so we can provide the kind of support that will help realize their goals.
Growing Our Teachers
As the school garden network in our region grows, so does the need for school garden support. In response to that need, we created a professional development program called Growing Our Teachers in 2021. It’s designed to help educators increase their knowledge, confidence and skills to manage a successful school garden program. Through it, we empower educators who want a schoolyard that provides hands-on learning opportunities for their students to incorporate that space regularly into the school day.
The program is also designed to build relationships. We intentionally cap each Growing Our Teachers cohort at 15 so that the participants get to know each other, share successes and challenges and learn from each other’s experience. We know firsthand how valuable strong relationships can be.
This fall, we kicked off our fourth cohort of Growing Our Teachers. At this point, 40 educators from 37 different schools have participated in the program. That’s a lot more students having positive nature-based experiences than our Youth Education Coordinator would be able to provide on her own!
Green Teens
Our Green Teens program for high school students is structured differently from our school gardens program, but it depends no less on successful partnerships with teachers. It is only with their permission that we are invited into their classrooms, can host them for field studies at the CGC and realize our workforce development program with student interns. We are constantly incorporating their feedback and addressing their needs as our programming evolves.
To show our gratitude for their partnership, we launched our 2024-25 Green Teens Challenge with a teacher brunch—complete with local pastries, smoothies and, of course, free classroom supplies for the challenges ahead. Celebrating our teachers and their ability to show up each day with enthusiasm for the hard work of nurturing young minds is a small step we can take to acknowledge their commitment. We are excited for the year ahead and are so grateful to the teachers who teach us so much each time we meet.
If you know an educator who wants to connect their students with urban agriculture and conservation, send us an email! youtheducation@civicgardencenter.org