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Mid-Year Report

July 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010

The past six months at REAL School Gardens (RSG) provided a lot of reasons to celebrate.

Children planted, harvested and ate winter crops and neighborhood partnerships emerged and

strengthened school communities. RSG energized and prepared 841 educators to teach

academic concepts in gardens and REAL School Gardens educational staff directly taught 2,176

children in their learning gardens, not to mention thousands of others who were taught by their

classroom teachers! We partnered with the popular recording artist Jack Johnson and held our

first fundraising event in partnership with GRACE Restaurant. Friends across North-Central

Texas participated in professional development, community building, garden planning, and

installation events. There were young minds engaged, young imaginations sparked and young

hopes raised.

REASONS TO CELEBRATE

Expanded Reach

74 schools, 41,000 students, 2,600 educators

Growth

One new learning garden installed, 4 learning gardens revitalized and 4 learning gardens designed

Media

One TV spot and 15 print and web-based media appearances

Service

Volunteer and service learning projects with corporate and collegiate partners

Events

5 professional development sessions and 1 community building event, reaching 389 participants

Partnerships

Success in establishing new relationships with diverse community stakeholders including national

corporations, health advocacy groups, and local community organizers

Awards

Outstanding Service to Environmental Education

Awarded by North American Association for Environmental Education

Keep America Beautiful 2010 National Award, 2nd

Place

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GARDEN GOAL: Help elementary schools create, support and sustain school gardens so

children connect with nature in engaging, nurturing and inspirational ways

MEASURED MILESTONES

• Hosted our annual Dig In event for 6 new school partners.

• Enhanced 4 existing school gardens in collaboration with community partners, including

Chesapeake Energy, NASCAR, Texas Motor Speedway, and Ernst & Young.

• Partnered with 5 schools in Grand Prairie to provide garden design support.

• Partnered with 1 school, Lida Hooe in Dallas ISD, to provide educational support for

their thriving school garden.

STORIES OF SUCCESS

Garden Enhancements

Each of our four garden enhancements attracted crowds of volunteer support from school staff,

students, parents and community partners. A revitalization project coordinated by REAL School

Gardens in partnership with NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) drew Fort Worth

Mayor, Mike Moncrief, along with 400 students and more than two dozen TMS employees to

plant trees and refurbish the garden at Rosemont 6th

Grade School.

Schools Dig In

We organized our Dig In retreat for new school partners, reaching 73 enthusiastic attendees.

The event featured an expert panel of teachers, students and parents, visioning sessions, and

standards-based activities to engage students in site selection and mapping.

Garden Maintenance

We worked closely with our partner

schools to increase the learning

opportunities, usability and attractiveness

of the gardens. Chesapeake Energy made

garden enhancements a reality at

Goodman Elementary, where parents,

students, Master Gardeners, and REAL

School gardens staff planted trees and

native perennials and laid a flagstone

path.

“Our young people look for role models and the people that are out here today obviously

care about you or they wouldn’t be here. I hope that you have learned something from

this project and that you continue to wake up every single morning determined to learn

something.”

- Mike Moncrief, Fort Worth Mayor

Students at Goodman Elementary plant together in their

refurbished garden. (Photo credit: Matthew Rainwater)

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GARDEN GOAL: Encourage the use of school gardens to support children’s learning of skills,

processes and content while immersing them in the natural world

MEASURED MILESTONES

• RSG educators made 34 school visits, providing garden integration instruction and

model teaching sessions to 686 elementary school educators, working directly with

2,176 students and impacting many more.

• Introduced fee-based services and served our first client, Burleson ISD.

• Developed our first contract for professional development with Fort Worth ISD to

support 2nd

, 3rd

, and 4th

grade teachers from every elementary school in the district to

use schoolyards as academic resources. Lessons we develop will be included in the

online science curriculum used district-wide to guide instruction.

• Received the 1st

place Sadie Ray Graff Educational Institution Award from Keep Texas

Beautiful; Sammy Wren, educator at Sallye Moore Elementary in Grand Prairie received

the 2nd

place Sadie Ray Graff Educator award for his work in the garden.

STORIES OF SUCCESS

Garden Integration Visits and Digging for TEKS Training

RSG staff educators presented “Digging for TEKS” training to 17 entire school faculties, followed

by 15 full-day garden integration visits to partner schools, introducing teachers to best practices

for using their garden to enhance instruction and align with state educational standards (TEKS)

in all academic subjects. Teaching techniques ranged from mapping textures in the garden with

1st

graders to exercising 6th

graders’ math skills to determine proper amounts of organic

fertilizer to be used on given areas. The Advanced Academics Specialist at LBJ Elementary

commented, “Every class was so engaged when I came out to take pictures. It is wonderful to

see the students so interested and thinking and learning when they are outside. I know these

teachers will make better use of the garden after seeing their students learning today.”

Students at Barbara Bush Elementary harvest their winter crop

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District-Wide Professional Development

We are proud to be providing educator training for teachers from every elementary school in

Fort Worth ISD this year. After eight years of partnership, our relationship continues to deepen

as we provide 2nd

, 3rd

, and 4th

grade teachers with the content and skills to use their gardens

and schoolyards as resources for studying soil and local ecology.

GARDEN GOAL: Foster a cooperative spirit among schools, families and the surrounding

community through involvement with school gardens

MEASURED MILESTONES

• Engaged 6 new school partners in our strategic community design process.

• We drew support from a diversity of stakeholders at our Garden Design Charrettes. Of

the 1,018 individuals participating, 63% percent were students and their families, 29%

percent were school employees and 8% percent were community members.

STORIES OF SUCCESS

Community Design Charrettes

Our six new school partners participated in community design charrettes, cooperative events

that engage everyone – teachers, administrators, students, families and community members –

in order to ensure the future success and sustainability of the outdoor classrooms. These

collaborative efforts sparked a gathering of 347 people at Holiday Heights Elementary School.

A family at Holiday Heights designs their learning garden together

“I’m not an outside person, and before today I didn’t know anything about soil. I know my teachers

must have pounded it into me in elementary school, but I don’t remember it. Learning about it the

way you presented it today got me excited about doing soil activities with my students. I feel like I

know a lot about soil now.”

-Educator, Meadowbrook Elementary School

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GARDEN GOAL: Create a vibrant, sharing network of educators and partners who commit

to putting school gardens at the heart of urban neighborhoods

MEASURED MILESTONES

• Attracted 147 diverse attendees and volunteers to our first REAL People community

building event this year, held at Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Grand Prairie.

• Benefitted from 891.5 hours of support from volunteers who helped to prepare for

events and enhance gardens.

• 6 community partners got their hands dirty, providing time, talent and treasure to

support garden enhancements: Chesapeake Energy, Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR,

Redenta’s Garden, Ernst & Young, and the Rotary Club of East Fort Worth.

• Generated 10,448 web site visits between July 1 and Dec 31, 2010 – a 3.25% percent

increase in web traffic from the same period in 2009. The average time spent at our site

during a visit increased almost 15%.

• Received media coverage through 1 television and 15 print and web-based appearances.

• Received a national award from Keep America Beautiful and our first international

award from the North American Association for Environmental Education.

STORIES OF SUCCESS

REAL People Community Events

With input, participation and support from the surrounding community, school gardens – and

students themselves – become the heart of urban neighborhoods. For this reason, we organize

creative and engaging REAL People community building events for community members to

connect with one another and share information about using school gardens for learning. In

November, we brought together a total of 147 individuals at an event that highlighted the work

students and teachers are doing at Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Grand Prairie ISD.

Community members enjoy student presentations and a meal in the garden.

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Volunteer and Service-learning Projects

As a result of proactive volunteer recruitment, we benefited from 891.5 volunteer hours

contributed by more than 250 individuals who came from within school communities as well as

from broader stakeholder groups like local businesses. In September, 17 volunteers from Ernst

& Young gathered for a garden workday at Watauga Elementary to prepare for fall planting. In

December, 30 volunteers from Texas Motor Speedway led the charge to enhance the garden at

Rosemont 6th

Grade School. Professor Brad Bell’s architecture class at the University of Texas

Arlington won the 2nd

place Design Research Collaborative award from HKS, Inc. for their

semester-long project dedicated to designing an iconic REAL School Gardens shade structure.

Volunteers from Texas Motor Speedway’s “Speeding to Help” initiative work with students at Rosemont

Media Exposure

Staking our spot in the nationwide trend toward healthier lifestyles and real-world learning

helps to raise awareness for the mission and the value of our organization. In an ongoing effort

to generate public attention for our programs, we work hard to spread the word – through

press releases, letters and testimonies – about our program’s progress and success. As a result

of these public relations efforts, we received coverage in the following print and broadcast

outlets:

• Fox 4 News

• Fort Worth Star Telegram

• The Dallas Morning News

• Arlington Citizen-Journal

• Edible DFW magazine

• 360 West magazine

• Exchange magazine

• North Texas E-News

• Associated Content

• Yahoo Sports

• How to Grow a School Garden, by

Bucklin and Pringle

• www.TexasMotorSpeedway.com

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SPRINGING FORWARD

As winter comes to a close and the first buds of spring begin to appear, REAL School Gardens is

encouraged by our progress in 2010 as well as by the growing recognition of our vibrant

learning gardens which boost academic achievement, nurture healthy lifestyles, cultivate life

skills and promote environmental stewardship. In the months ahead, we are excited to

complete the installation of six new learning gardens, implement a revised training model,

which includes an intensive, on-campus professional development workshop for the faculties at

each of our six new school partners; and unveil the results of the first phase of our program

evaluation efforts. In all that we do, we rely on strong partners who support us financially,

programmatically, and with specialized expertise including evaluation methods and strategic

planning. REAL School Gardens is grateful for the continuing and growing support of our

community, and we are looking forward to a beautiful spring.

Students at Florence Hill Elementary take a break from a descriptive writing activity