Revised Timeline for Term 2, 3 and 4

Initially we discussed that my timeframe into the project would be mid-year. I have clarified with The Enviroschools Foundation that the cut off of the 30^th June 2013 is not so entrenched as we thought. Based on working in partnership with the Waikato Enviroschools Team and the National Foundation we are looking to a time frame and targets something like this:

Time	Action	Personnel
Term 2 Weeks 1-5	Teaching and learning in project schools Facilitator visits (check with your facilitator) Viewing and commenting on BLOG!! Visit schedule sent to schools	Teachers students Facilitators Everyone Project Manager
Week 6	Visit to some schools	Project Manager and Facilitators
Week 7-8	Teaching and learning in project schools Facilitator visits (check with your facilitator) Viewing and commenting on BLOG!! Draft stories being written from week 6 visits	Teachers students Facilitators Every one Project Manager
Week 9	Visit to some schools	Project Manager and Facilitators
Week 10	Teaching and learning in project schools Facilitator visits (check with your facilitator) Viewing and commenting on BLOG!! Draft stories being written from week 6 and 9 visits	Teachers Facilitators Everyone Project Manager
Term 2 Holidays	Draft stories emailed to lead teachers	Project Manager
Term 3 Week 1	Draft stories details confirmed to Project Manager	Lead Teachers
Week 2	Review and feedback hui on draft stories – considering most significant change	Facilitators, Project Sponsors, Project Manager and any teachers interested
Week 3 - 9	Teaching and learning in project schools Facilitator visits to include gathering information for another story Viewing and commenting on BLOG!! Analysing and summarising findings from Review hui Report to Tindal Foundation, Enviroschools Foundation and WWF	Teachers students Facilitators, teachers and students Everyone Project Manager Project Manager
Term 4 Week 2	Final Hui for the project	Teachers, Facilitators, Project Manager, Project Sponsors

Celebrating diversity with our communities through food and sharing

Some of our school communities have had some very successful events over the last term - a culmination of lots of learning, planning, decision-making and organising. Below are photos that give a glimpse of what happened (but cannot portray the wonderful atmosphere and smells!) Most of the food was locally sourced, some straight from school or family gardens. Well done everyone.

Nutritious variety!

 

Outstanding corn fritters

 

So much choice

 

 

Colourful diversity

 

Fantastic waste minimisation systems

 

Yummy!

 

 

I know there are other stories and photos out there so let me know!

Some more thoughts about sustainable community

One of the other ideas that we looked at during our time at the Grandview Gardens was how to recognise what is a sustainable community? I introduced some 'characteristics' that might be present in a sustainable community and we were going to see if we could identify them during our visit. We spent more time talking and looking at what was happening in the gardens but this is my quick assessment of the things I saw at the gardens and how they connect with what we might expect to see or experience as part of sustainable communities.

Characteristic	What that looked like at the Grandview Gardens
Sharing and collaboration	Uni student with some spare time (looking for work) coming to water the fruit trees Extra seeds and seedlings passed onto others in the garden
Creativity	Use of local resources and materials for the ‘shed’ and shade house
Meaning constructed	Compost heaps communal and close to the plots, covered by black polythene
Dynamic and responsive to change	Using space as it is – low impact to maximise the soil and topography of the site
Builds capacity	Advertising times when you are going to be there if others want support Using a blog to share what is happening in the gardens at different times of the season
Open-ended inquiry	Trying things out with the kumara – Where will it grow? What happens?
Roles/participants having equal value	“Rules” or expectations for access to and working in a plot the same for all
Collective ownership	Shared space of the gardens
Diversity	Range of people from individuals, families, cultures participating in the Grandview gardens
Real contexts	Allotment style gardens where families or individuals have their own plot within a shared space People working to do what is good for them e.g. the gentleman coming to clear away the undergrowth and branches to create his space

Some of the other 'characteristics' that I also included were:

• Negotiation and flexibility
• Integrating across learning areas or approaches
• Being holistic 
• Everyone may be an expert
• Wide range of approaches
• Applying reflective practice
• Developing conceptual understanding
• Local knowledge valued
• Process oriented
• Iterative cycles of learning

Thinking about some of these general guidelines or perspective might be helpful as you start framing up projects and taking action.

Exploring Alternatives: Can we live, learn and earn in our communities?

One of the questions we started looking at in exploring alternatives is whether we can live, learn and earn in our communities.

During our networking event at the Grandview Gardens I asked some questions about live, learn and earn as part of continuing to explore what sustainable community through kai might mean.

• What would it look like if I lived in a sustainable community? How would I eat? What would I eat?
• What would it look like if I was learning in a sustainable community? Who would be the teacher? What would I be learning?
• What would it look like if I earned in a sustainable community? What would I get paid for? How would I get paid? What would be valued?

As one participant sagely commented to me afterwards "As you asked those questions Faye all I could think about was national standards and whether knowing a students level on the national standard could possibly be part of living in a sustainable community". Gradually though over the hour or two that we spent in and around the garden I think a few more possibilities for sustainable communities emerged.

We did talk about what is valued in a sustainable community and got onto timebanks and how an hour in the garden might enable an hour of computer training, or dress making or reading tutoring, or whatever speciality skill you might be able to offer. Hamilton's timebank is up and running see http://hamilton.timebanks.org/.

Grandview Gardens end of term 1

Thanks Tim for sharing your experiences with 'allotment' gardening and how that is working at the Grandview Gardens. We looked at the gardens as an idea for our work in exploring alternatives. In allotment gardens you get your 'a-lotted' patch and garden away! 

It makes a lot of sense when trying to manage lots of people's busy calendars for there to be a communal space where individuals, families or small groups of friends can converge and be gardening at times and places that suit them. Having the communal space though allows people to interact and share ideas and learn from what they see each other doing.

 The communal 'shed'! Notices and expectations for being part of the Grandview Garden community are posted on the outside.

Some of the allotments - simple pegs and twine provide the 'fuzzy borders' for each allotment. Further up the hill on the left is the 'shed' and to the right the shade house. Both have rainwater tanks connected to them. 


The allotment spaces makes good use of the north facing slope that is gradually being converted into productive fruit and vegetable patches where previously willows and mostly a relative of mustard thrived.

Tim encouraged us to think about whether allotment gardens might work in our school grounds as possibilities for our communities to garden in a shared but individual way and make good use of space that might be on the fringes or edges of our schools. 

Finding inspiration

We are lucky to have some great examples of different food growing techiques around us in the Waikato inlcuding the Hamilton Gardens Productive Garden collection. I recently visited these gardens and have shared some photos from Te Parapara.

After the "Ted talk" about weeds I have also been reminded of building knowledge so that we can safely forage for food, on a trip to Pukemokemoke Bush with a group of students. And on the drive home I saw people collecting weeds from the side of the road. A different type of foraging is occuring beneath chestnut trees around the towns. Chestnuts are delicious and worth the odd spike in the thumb when removing the prickly outer layer.