When I was a college student (many, many years ago!), I thought I was going to be a teacher. At the time, I became a mother instead. Several years later, I spent a year as a teacher’s aide and another year as a substitute teacher. I learned two things. One – I was not meant to be a teacher and two – good teachers are incredible people.

Last week I attended a Professional Development day sponsored by REAL School Gardens. This amazing organization now works with 57 elementary schools, 30, 000 children and 1400 educators to create outdoor learning gardens to be used daily for all parts of the curriculum. Several of the educators spent the day working on a project designed to teach the children about wind power and solar energy – alternative energy sources that will power the water pumps in the school gardens. This particular project is being funded by a $50, 000 grant from the Motorola foundation.

Another session demonstrated how a wonderful bilingual book My Nana’s Remedies/Los remedios de mi nana by Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford, could be utilized to teach math, science, art, language and more in the garden.

These educators are so eager to teach and inspire a new generation to understand and appreciate the many facets of our environment. Thank you so much.

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