Tillman Elementary Gardens

Update from Spring 2018 (I submitted this to the Gateway Gardener for their June issue)

More than five years ago at Tillman Elementary in Kirkwood, a few students planted a small patch of ground with native plants. That humble beginning has since snowballed into the transformation of the school grounds into a dynamic learning landscape. Over the past five years, Tillman has added vegetable gardens, a prairie patch, and chickens--all to entice teachers and students to take learning outdoors. Dr. Maria Stobbe has been a longtime advocate of experiential learning. In her three years as principal at Tillman, she has provided myriad professional development opportunities for teachers in service learning, outdoor education, and open-ended STEM curriculum development. Most recently, PTO members banded together to create Tillman IGNITE (“Inspiring Global Citizenship through Nature-based Inquisitive Teaching and Education”), an initiative to move the school beyond small, ad hoc changes to the campus. Tillman IGNITE developed a plan and fundraised in order to renovate the multi-acre backyard that had been plagued with drainage issues for years into a dynamic learning environment that students, teachers, and community members can enjoy year round.

This year, with the installation of Phase 1 of the IGNITE plan, Tillman Elementary achieved a major milestone on its journey toward outdoor education becoming an integral part of the school day. Teachers are happy to have a covered pavilion in the new outdoor space to gather with their students for outdoor lessons. The kids are most excited about the new play area, which includes upcycled tractor tires to crawl through, hills to climb up and roll down, and a dry creek bed to explore. The entire community is eager to see how the new bioswale, seeded with native prairie plants, will simultaneously manage stormwater, attract wildlife, and engage Tillman students in nature-based learning. On April 14th, approximately 300 members of the Tillman community came together for a Spring Jamboree and Ribbon Cutting to celebrate this new chapter in the school’s history and to learn about outdoor education and environmental stewardship resources in the community. According to one Tillman parent who attended the Jamboree, “It is exciting that the children have the opportunity to actually participate in nature, rather than just learning about it from books while sitting in a classroom. Bravo!”  Learn more about outdoor education, the benefits of native plants, and the community organizations that attended the Jamboree at tillmanignite.org.

Thoughts on the above: I'm amazed how quickly six years at Tillman flew by working to develop an outdoor education program literally from the ground up. Tillman has made great strides. I am confident in the administration's support of experiential education and hopeful that their enthusiasm for using the outdoors as a classroom extension will last through the inevitable challenges that come with maintaining a space such as IGNITE. I'm quite frankly nervous about the maintenance aspect. KSD's grounds crew is stretched thin--they simply don't have the manpower to adequately maintain all the native plantings throughout the district--and I know how much time it takes to organize parent volunteers. Part of me feels guilty to be moving on, but my rational side knows that the best approach for the greater good is to move on from Tillman and work in earnest to develop partnerships to address the need for creative maintenance plans at the school district level. Conversations toward that end have begun...and I hope to have some forward movement to include here soon!




The post below captured the first two years' of efforts, then things got so crazy busy that I didn't take the time to update this page. Just keepin' it here for the archives at this point.
Whew! My conversations with the staff and administration here started when the school began composting lunchroom waste this spring (2013), and I volunteered to help students sort lunch waste. I met the kindergarten teacher who has held a vision for a school prairie for many years, and met another mom who wants to see cultivation all over the school grounds. It truly has snowballed from there, and I've met lots of staff and many parents who are just as passionate about sustainability education as I am.  From what I can tell, ideas have been percolating (along with some small composting and gardening steps) here since at least 2010. It's an exciting time to enter the scene, for sure.

2013-2014


During the 2013-2014 school year, so much happened. Maybe a list can keep it concise.

• Sustainability Committee formed in summer 2013, membership steadily grown. Volunteers being organized into 3 camps: planning committee, on-the-ground help as needed, and fundraising. The PTO has folded this committee into its structure, and we report regularly at their meetings. The PTO has also been supportive financially, with "seed" money for the various garden projects that are going.
• Tillman's principal, K teachers, and I attended a sustainability education summer workshop for teachers at a neighboring school, Keysor Elementary.
• Tillman entered the Green Schools Quest, a regional contest sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council here in St. Louis. Project needed to be centered around the idea of sustainability and "greening" our footprint, include student ideas/help as much as possible, and include a final pictorial presentation. We and decided to develop a long-range landscape plan (and some ideas for building as well), getting tons of parent, school staff, and student input along the way. Our project will be completed March 2014, and will include a professionally drawn-up plan from our Quest Mentor and landscape architect, Nancy Nafe.
• Part of the input gathering phase: a November visioning session with parents, teachers, and administrators of Tillman. Here's the link to see results of this conversation--it definitely resulted in a vision I can get behind!
• In January, sustainability committee leaders organized a school-wide charrette to get all students dreaming about possible ways to make the school grounds and building better for human health, community health, and a healthy planet. About half of the classes ventured outside on a cold and snowy day to conduct a brainstorming tour of the grounds, the rest participated in a virtual tour in the comfort of the classroom. Click here to see the condensed list of student ideas that we gave to our landscape architect!
• Kindergarten classes participated in planting (and eventually covering for the winter) three raised beds full of cool-season crops. This first generation of makeshift greenhouses have struggled mightily against this winter, and have been repaired and recovered many times this season. Amazingly, a few hearty plants are holding out for spring.
• Led by Deb Lillick and Brennan Wells, the teachers (mostly K and 3rd grades) are coordinating the installation of a prairie garden on school grounds. One thing I love about this project is how committed the teachers are for including the students in this project, every step of the way. This may slow down progress on the ground, but I'd imagine these kids will feel such ownership of the prairie project and be so interested in what makes it function like it does. Currently we're working on a grant application to the Missouri Prairie Foundation for that project.
• Composting continues every day in the lunch room. Much of the thanks for this needs to go to Mike Ruwe, longtime custodian at Tillman. Parents volunteered some of the time in the beginning of the year to help kids learn how to sort recycling, trash, and compostable materials after lunch. Most of the time, though, Mike has been the one to make sure that the kids are working on this and that the cafeteria returns from the chaos this process sometimes creates. Hats off to Mr. Ruwe! (He is retiring at the end of this year, and I will really miss him.) The PTO supports this effort, by contributing half of the fees associated with pickup from St. Louis Recycling. 

2014-2015



This year our focus is engaging teachers in thinking about sustainability and trying out experiential learning activities with all the new additions on campus. All while continuing to add things like a greenhouse, an indoor Tower Garden, and a prairie restoration area. To get an idea of what's been happening this year at Tillman, check out these links to teacher newsletter submissions and meeting minutes of the PTO's Sustainability Committee (I am co-chair).



Teacher Newsletters (some great resources for educators here!)

Back to school
Mid-autumn
12/12/14