Welcome to your class portfolio!! The purpose of this site is to show CAPE the development of your arts integration partnership, as guided by your big idea and inquiry question. 

Make sure you have the following:

1. Planning Form: You must fill out the planning form by October 15th

2. Reflection Questions: Make sure you have your reflection questions filled out for each semester

3. Class Documentation: Include your best documentation with captions. Note about videos: upload videos to your designated folder (click on link here), and then embed the video on this page by clicking "Drive" (under "Insert") on the right-hand side menu, then selecting your video from that folder under "Shared with me." 

IMPORTANT: 

• Please do not edit any other pages other than this, your class' page!

• Please make sure that all media that you upload only displays students whose parents have given consent to their documentation through the signed Media Release Form. Should you upload images of a student who has not given their consent to be documented, please make sure to blur their face.

Reflection Questions

How do you understand the concept of sensemaking in relation to your teachig practice?

I have to be honest, I thought the linked article by Thomas Aston was badly written, full of jargon, and seemed like Internet Salad. However, I often think of sensemaking in relation to this passage from Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks: 

Living in childhood without a sense of home, I found a place of sanctuary in 'theorizing,' in making sense out of what was happening. I found a place where I could imagine possible futures, a place where life could be lived differently. Fundamentally, I learned from this experience that theory could be a healing place. When our lived experience of theorizing is fundamentally linked to processes of self-recovery, of collective liberation, no gap exists between theory and practice.

My hope for arts and art-adjacent education is that it strengthen's student's ability to theorize from their own experience of the world in the healing and liberatory way that hooks describes. In a high-school setting, I see opportunities for this when 1) creating spaces fro students to share their experiences in school and at home, and to reflect with each other (peers and teachers) on those experiences, and 2) creating opportunities for students to take agency over an aspect of their environment or experience. 

What is something that you’ve learned about your students (and their funds of knowledge) that has influenced your class projects or class structures?

The "funds of knowledge" that our students bring is so important for gardening education, because many of our students have familial and ancestral plant traditions, and the separation from or destruction of generational plant-based knowledge is a lingering tool of colonization. We let students' cultural familiarity and interests drive our decisions in what seeds we seek out and grow. This is something I'd like to build more structured learning around. 

How have you investigated your teacher inquiry questions thus far? 

Unfortunately, we've been working through some challenges acquiring lumber for raised bed repair (CPS vendors have changed and we haven't been able to find a CPS approved vendor that will sell us lumber, but we're still searching). In the meantime we've begun dismantling the raised beds that need total reconstruction, planting winter crops (one of the student's inquiries), and transplanting some of our perennial crops into new beds we built from cinderblocks to protect them from the landscaping contractor. We also experimented with making hot sauce from our peppers!

Class documentation: 

Reflection Questions

Reflecting on your Mid-point assessment and other class observations, what did you notice about how your students learn?

In our program, we learn mostly by figuring things out together. Because there are so many varriables in gardening, almost every thing we learn has to be adaptable to each year / seasons conditions, so students are always troubleshooting and coming up with solutions together. 

Look back at your planning form and the skills you listed out that students would learn– provide an example of a project you did with students and how it developed some of those skills.

At the beginning of the year, we wanted students to leave the program with: 

Confidence using power tools 

Students used a drill and impact driver to build new raised beds for the garden. It was scary at first, but they got the hang of it!

The ability to troubleshoot a situation and come up with workable solutions
When installing our new raised beds, we ran into lots of unexpected challenges with removing old lumber and rebar from the ground. Students troubleshooted to remove what materials they could with the available tools, and found ways to position the beds that avoided un-movable materials. 

Familiarity with processing produce they grow for culinary uses

In the Fall we made hot sauce  with the peppers, garlic, and carrots we grew!

For new students, how to grow plants from seed, transplant, harvest, etc.

Our returning club members taught new students how to start plants from seed

Review your answer to the Fall Reflection Question: What is something that you’ve learned about your students (and their funds of knowledge) that has influenced your class projects or class structures. How has your answer changed or developed across the rest of the year?

The funds of knowledge that we described in the Fall continued to come up throughout the Spring, with more students joining the club and bringing knowledge with them from their families and home countries. 

What new questions/ curiosities do you have about teaching and learning? 

We are currently trying to figure out how to keep the garden alive and in use since there is no CAPE funding for the program next year, and no school funding, so our teaching focus is on that. 

We would love to be able to make a space for students to share their cultural knowledge of gardening and food with each other. 

Class documentation

Students starting plants from seed, and direct-sowing carrots and radishes in the raised beds:

Students enjoy sharing their work at the CAPE exhibition:

Students building new raised beds and digging out old rotted wood and rebar:

Students handling leopard slugs found in the rotting wood of the old raised beds. They said "qué bonita!": 

Students planting tomatoes and peppers in the new raised bed & making sure they label different plant varieties:

Four core members of Garden Club graduated this year with 4 years of gardening experience and community under their belts! + a graduation visit from an alumni / former 4 year garden pro! We're so proud of them all!