“I think every teacher should take this class, and classes about this type of content should be more readily available. It was fabulous!”
— Edible Schoolyard NYC Professional Development Participant
See below for our upcoming Professional Development opportunities:
November 1: Recipes that Bring the Seed-to-Table Connection to Life for Students
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
Edible Schoolyard NYC teacher, Anthony Jones, will share simple recipes and strategies that help students understand how food gets from the soil to their plates. Join us to share ideas for re-enforcing the garden/kitchen connection for kids!
November 4: Garden Jobs for Students: Getting Kids to Work in the School Garden
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
Working in the school garden gives students an authentic, hands-on educational experience, but it can be tricky to manage. Edible Schoolyard NYC teachers Cecilia Galarraga and Hannah Golub will talk about strategies they use to make garden work safe, fun, and engaging. Bring your ideas and suggestions for how to get your students’ hands in the dirt!
November 9: All Your School Garden Questions: Answered!
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
School garden guru, Mirem Villamil, will answer all your school garden questions! Send them in advance or bring them to ask at the workshop. Mirem can help you troubleshoot your planting calendar, pests, compost, garden design, and much, much more!
November 15: Bringing Black History Perspectives into the Garden and Kitchen Classroom
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
Join Edible Schoolyard NYC teacher, Anthony Jones, as he shares lessons that incorporate black voices and perspectives into our cooking and gardening classes. Come with questions and ideas about recentering the narrative around food and the environment to make it more accurate and inclusive.
November 18: Teaching Environmentalism in the School Garden
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
Join Edible Schoolyard NYC teachers Cecilia Galarraga and Hannah Golub as they share lessons and activities they have used to engage their students in learning about sustainability and the environment. Come with your own ideas and questions about teaching these crucial and challenging topics in a developmentally appropriate manner.
November 30: Making the Case for Food Education
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
Are you trying to get your school community on board for a school garden? Do you want to persuade your administration that cooking and gardening classes are worth your students’ while? Edible Schoolyard NYC’s evaluation manager, Jessie Tartanian will help you make the case for food education, sharing research and evidence about its many benefits.
December 1: Teaching Language Learners in the Garden and Kitchen Classroom
4:00-5:00 pm EST
Interactive Zoom Meeting
Gardens and kitchens are rich learning environments for all students, and language learners, in particular, can benefit from an accessible way to engage with classroom activities and to practice their vocabulary. Edible Schoolyard NYC teacher Paloma Jones will share her experiences using food education with English language learners. Come hear what strategies, activities, and lessons have worked for her students, and bring your own ideas to share.
What you’ll do
As a participant in our Professional Development workshops, you’ll learn the tools and curriculum to incorporate gardening and cooking lessons and activities into your own classrooms.
- Learn how to set up a teaching garden and kitchen with the resources available to you
- Dig into our curriculum and learn techniques for managing cooking and gardening with your students
- Learn strategies for increasing parent and community engagement in your gardens and kitchen classrooms
- Network with other educators in NYC to exchange ideas and strategies for kitchen- and garden-based education
- Get P Credit (for NYCDOE teachers and certain courses only)
Who is eligible
Most workshops are open to all types of educators, including public and private school teachers, nonprofit workers, volunteers, community educators — anyone who wants to learn how to bring elements of edible education back to their own sites. We also offer occasional workshops for NYC Department of Education teachers through the After School Professional Development Program (ASPDP).
Ways to learn
Demonstration Site Visits
Observe our classes in action! The Demonstration Schools serve as centers of excellence where we model best practices and methods for a seed-to-table education. To set up a site visit, please contact our Director of Education Liza Engelberg.
Workshops
Workshops can be full-day or just a couple of hours after school. The focus is on specific topics, such as teaching science in the garden or using a seasonal recipe to augment a unit on culture, language, or history. Workshops are a great way to hone your skills or concentrate on making garden and kitchen connections in a particular academic area.
Intensives
We offer two intensives per year: one in the summer and another in spring. The summer intensive is our immersive introduction to edible education in a one-week, 36-hour class for P Credit. The session covers the basics of starting and maintaining a garden and kitchen classroom, teaching techniques, and connections to academic learning. The spring intensive takes place in six two-hour sessions over ten weeks, and offers a more comprehensive overview of edible education. Participants in the spring intensive receive free supplies, site visits, and follow-up support from our staff.
Showcase School Visits
In the fall of 2015, P.S. 216 was named one of twenty-six official Showcase Schools by the NYC Department of Education on the basis of our edible education program. That’s out of 1,800 NYC public schools total! At three official visitations each year — all-day, intensive professional development workshops — large groups of New York City educators can be inspired by our kids, our teachers, and our classes.