The search is on! Community GroundWorks is seeking an experienced educator and grower to serve as Gardener-In-Residence at Crestwood Elementary School.  Candidate must have at least two years experience facilitating outdoor youth programs and gardening or farming using sustainable and/or organic practices. For a more detailed job description and application instructions, click here. Deadline to apply is Feb. 15, 2016.

We are excited to announce that we have secured funding to start a Gardener in Residence program at Crestwood! The Gardener in Residence program is a partnership with Community Ground Works, and will run spring through fall 2016. This program provides:

• 10 hours per week of garden sessions with classes in the spring and fall
• coordination of garden maintenance
• professional development opportunities for teachers
• an all-school presentation about the benefits of garden-based learning
• supplies such as seeds, mulch and compost.

 
The garden programs have traditionally been run by volunteers and teachers from the Outdoor Education committee, but coordinating lessons and activities for 400+ kids, as well as maintaining the outdoor spaces during the growing season is a tremendous amount of work for teachers and volunteers, especially in the spring planting season. We will certainly still need volunteers! But our hope is that our Gardener in Residence will help alleviate the burden of coordination and management that is usually placed on volunteers, as well as professionalize the program.
 
Studies from prestigious and respected institutions (such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and others) confirm with hard data what many of us already know in our hearts and minds: being outdoors and interacting with nature and garden programs is good for kids! Children who engage in outdoor-based learning like the garden programs offered at Crestwood:

• ​Perform significantly better on standardized tests
• Increase core academic performance, particularly low income students
• Are better able to concentrate and perform in the classroom
• Demonstrate improved classroom performance in math, science, reading and social studies
• Have better attendance and are less likely to drop out of school
• Improve creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities
• Discover increased cooperation, self-discipline, and self-awareness
• Have reduced discipline and classroom management problems
• See a reduction of stress and mental illnesses including depression, ADD and ADHD
• Develop improved immune systems and cardiovascular health and lower rates of obesity

Crestwood’s Gardener in Residence will begin in April, and we hope to introduce him/her to the school community very soon!