Special Education Event for Teachers!

Announcing our Teacher Workshop!

Sign up today to learn how interesting plants can be!

 When: Saturday, October 8, 2011 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Where: The New Orleans Botanical Garden

How much: $50

 What’s included:

• Guided tour of the Garden
• A GLE-correlated, multi-disciplinary activity binder
• Input from experts
• Hands-on learning for YOU
• A day of workshops, discussions, and lessons

 Why you should come:

• Become more comfortable teaching basic botany
• Learn to teach about plants in engaging, relevant ways
• Increase your ability to teach outside your classroom
• Plants can be an educational tool for any grade level or discipline…and they’re a lot more interesting than you think!

Information

• Registration and payment of $50 is due by Friday, September 30, 2011

1. To pay by check: Mail to New Orleans Botanical Garden, ATTN: Emily Snyder, 1 Palm Drive, New Orleans, LA 70124
2. To pay by credit card, call: (504) 483-9473

• Workshop is largely outdoors, and will run rain or shine. Please dress appropriately for the weather! There is no need to be formal.
• Lunch will NOT be provided. Please bring your lunch with you.
• For questions or concerns, call (504) 483-9473 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Schedule of Events

• 8:30-9:00 – Arrival and registration
• 9:00-9:20 – Welcome
• 9:20-10:20 – Teaching tour of the garden
• 10:30-11:20 – Workshop Session 1
• 11:30-12:20 – Workshop Session 2
• 12:30-1:20 – Lunch
• 1:30-2:20 – Workshop Session 3
• 2:30-3:00 – Evaluations, wrap-up

*Teaching tour of the garden will be led by our experienced school tour guides that are retired teachers!

*Workshops presented by: The Edible School Yard, Grow Dat Youth Farm,  New Orleans Botanical Garden and University of New Orleans Biology.

Workshops  

Hands on Pollination 10:30 a.m.

Pollination is a complex process that can be difficult for young children to imagine. Fortunately, by using real flowers and some arts-and-crafts know-how, you can help students as old as sixth grade understand and appreciate pollination and all the relationships that go along with it. We’ll be talking about biodiversity, about the ways plants and their pollinators interact, and making some very special tools to help bring the process to life.

Mary Biendo has been volunteering at the New Orleans Botanical Garden for 25 years. She worked in many different areas, but 15 years ago took over the Butterfly Walk from another volunteer, and has maintained it ever since. She became a Louisiana Master Gardener in 1998. Aside from maintaining the plants in the Butterfly Walk, she has conducted butterfly counts and habitat assessments of the area.

Gardening to Build Communication Skills

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

At the Grow Dat Youth Farm, the focus is on more than just producing food: The focus is also on building skills that take students through life. This workshop will focus on how to use growing plants as a way to build your students’ communication and teamwork skills. Grow Dat educators will discuss and demonstrate the process they call “Real Talk.” Alumnae of the program will also be on hand to share their experiences, and what growing and learning about their own food has taught them about themselves.

Johanna Gilligan has worked in the field of food education for the last eight years. She began her career at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York in the Education Outreach department, where she taught inquiry-based plant science to students in Title 1 schools throughout Brooklyn. In 2006 she moved back to New Orleans and worked as the Educational Programs Manager with the New Orleans Food and Farm Network for four years. While with NOFFN she developed many educational programs for youth and adults related to cooking, gardening and health. She now works as a Food Education Consultant and has her own business, Clean Plate Projects, LLC. She is the Director of the Grow Dat Youth Farm, a project developed in collaboration with Tulane University and many additional partners. Johanna is very excited to be one of four Urban Innovator Fellows housed at Tulane University in 2011/2012.

Basic Botany

10:30 a.m.  - 11:30 a.m.  - 1:30 p.m.

Knowing the anatomy of plants is the first step in teaching them effectively. This process can be as fun and fascinating as any! Professor Chuck Bell will introduce hands-on activities that will engage your students in learning what makes up the plants around them.

Dr. Chuck Bell is an Associate Professor for the biology department at the University of New Orleans.

Edible School Yard

10:30 a.m.  - 11:30 a.m.  - 1:30 p.m.

Session 1: 10:30 a.m.

Tool Building for Garden Teaching, in two parts

Part I: During this first half, Edible Schoolyard teachers will share an outline about our approach to student engagement in the garden, interdisciplinary learning and thoughts on bridging the classroom and the garden.

Edible School Yard Staff

 Part II:  11:30 a.m.

The second half will be a share-out, where participants will be asked to share out their experiences, challenges and successes of bridging the garden and classroom.  Teachers will leave this session with clear tools to using the garden in their classroom.

Edible School Yard Staff

 Session 2: 1:30 p.m.

Idea Generation for designing Garden-based lessons, aligned with GLE's

This session hopes to engage teachers in a brainstorming session where they will collaboratively generate ideas for cross-curricular garden lessons in a variety of disciplines. Each teacher will walk away with ideas for lesson plans that will connect garden classes with the specific GLE's they are teaching.  Teachers are encouraged to bring questions and a copy of their GLE's.

Edible School Yard Staff

For more information, visit our website: www.garden.neworleanscitypark.com

To register, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 504-483-9473