“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:
October 17: Teaching Kids About Compost and Soil
4:30-6:00 pm
PS 7 Samuel Stern
160 East 120th Street
New York, NY
Join Edible Schoolyard NYC as we explore activities that help kids fall in love with compost and soil. We will demonstrate lessons and Choice Time activities that bring dirt to life, such as compost relay, worm bin exploration, and more.
October 28: Cooking Culturally Responsive Recipes with Your Students
4:30-6:00 pm
PS 216 Arturo Toscanini
350 Avenue X
Brooklyn, NY
Join Edible Schoolyard NYC in a hands-on cooking workshop. We will discuss strategies for using cooking to enhance your culturally responsive educational practices, and explore the many ways to connect kitchen education with academic subjects.
November 5: Edible Education 101
9:00-3:00 pm
PS 216 Arturo Toscanini
350 Avenue X
Brooklyn, NY
This full-day workshop will provide a foundation for implementing garden and cooking education with your students. We will have sessions on creating or maintaining a school garden, teaching in a garden setting, cooking with students, and using cooking and gardening to enhance students’ learning in the academic subjects.
November 7: Fun Fall Cooking in the Classroom
4:30-6:00 pm
PS 7 Samuel Stern
160 East 120th Street
New York, NY
This early evening workshop will focus on strategies for fun and manageable cooking activities in your classroom. We will model an autumn recipe along with techniques to keep kids engaged and safe while cooking in a classroom space.
November 18: Stories, Songs, and Sensory Exploration: Indoor Garden Activities for Early Childhood
4:30-6:00 pm
PS 216 Arturo Toscanini
350 Avenue X
Brooklyn, NY
Join Edible Schoolyard NYC for an early evening workshop on indoor gardening activities for young children. We will share children’s books, songs and activities that have been successful in engaging young learners in gardening and growing.
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.