Updated 5/30/07

Global Source Education Presents:

Food, Farming, Culture and EducationSummer Institute

Toward an Ecology of Sustainable
Schools and Community

Educator's Retreat & Curriculum Workshop

July 16-20, 2007

Day Road Farms, Bainbridge Island, WA

In Cooperation with:
Bainbridge Island Vineyards
Laughing Crow Farm
Trust for Working Landscapes
Healthier Kids Bainbridge
Bainbridge Historical Society
Bainbridge Island School District
and Others

Betsey Wittick and her horses teach students about farm practices on Day Road Farms.
(Photo: Brenda Berry)

Program Overview:

What are the possibilities for teaching and learning about food and farming in our classrooms and communities?

How do we work towards an ecology of sustainable schools and communities?

Since Fall 2006, more than 70 local educators and community members have been gathering to engage in a meaningful professional and civic dialogue about food, farming, culture and education. Participants represented fifteen different schools and an equal number of community organizations. These dialogues attracted a wide range of community stakeholders who addressed diversity of perspectives and identified common threads around a number of key issues.

We discovered that working towards the ecology of sustainable schools and communities means finding more authentic and meaningful ways to bridge classroom and communities around:

These educational ideas and interest generated by these dialogues reinforces the wisdom of John Dewey, that “the school itself shall be made a genuine form of active community life, instead of place set apart in which to learn lessons.”   They also echoed the words of Aldo Leopold, “To change ideas about what land is for is to change ideas about what anything is for.” Schools and educators want to find authentic and meaningful ways to strengthen what we already feel responsible for in our teaching and learning: scholarship, stewardship and citizenship.

These dialogues has presented us with a special opportunity to build strong educational relationships between local schools and farms and other working landscapes and nurture best practices and model curricula on a community wide scale. 

In response to feedback and interest from dialogue participants, Global Source Education, in collaboration with local organizations and schools, is planning a Summer Institute on Food, Farming, Culture and Education, in July 16-20, 2007, at the Day Road Farms on Bainbridge Island.

This intensive program is designed to engage school and community-based educators in a comprehensive program aimed at feeding a series of professional education experiences, curriculum development projects, community-based activities and public education programs that will follow throughout 2007-8.

Threaded throughout these learning experiences will be the pedagogical and curricular considerations that have framed our previous dialogues:

• Examining the interconnectedness of scholarship, stewardship and citizenship 
• Raising awareness, building knowledge, and fostering engagement
• Engaging in lively and critical professional dialogue and stories with a broad range of voices
• Building stronger bridges between classroom and community
• Improving and enhancing professional repertoire
• Cultivating a more lived curriculum
• Strengthening school-community collaboration & relationships
• To work as a professional learning community around a common area of study
• To expand professional and community networks

Goals and Objectives of the Summer Institute:

• To improve the quality of local education and establish sustainable community-school relationships
• To build stronger bridges between classroom and community through our teaching and learning
• To examine and experience various approaches and best practices for teaching and learning, and integration into existing curriculum and school culture of elementary and secondary education.
• To strengthen relationships and building stronger bridges between local farms and local schools on Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap
• To gain understanding from lively and critical professional dialogue and discourse with a broad range of voices from education and the larger community.
• To explore curriculum making that raises awareness, builds knowledge and fosters engagement
• To integrate this work with EALR’s, CBA’s, and other standards
• To assist farmers, tradition bearers, community leaders in building a stronger professional and civic repertoire for engaging K-12 education.
• To develop, implement and assess a series of curriculum projects that actively connect farms to classrooms to lunchrooms To deepen the ability to help students to think and act around the interdependence of these local and global concerns, and their place in their lives
• To build a resource lending library and curriculum bank
  
  

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Educator's Retreat
July 16-18, 9:30am-4:30pm (with July 17 evening activity)

Three days of presentations, hands-on activities, workshops, and dialogue, designed to assist K-12 and community-based educators in building their professional repertoire around food, farming, culture and education, including:

• Teaching and Learning about Agriculture & Agrarian Ideals
  
• Hands On Farming Activities at Day Road Farms
  
• Forestry Education & Wood Working Activities
  
• Natural Habitat and Conservation
  
• Curriculum for the Bioregion & Planet
  
• Food, Health & Nutrition
  
• Reclaiming the Commons
  
• Sustainable Communities
  
• Place-Based Education
  
• Literature and the Arts
  
• History and Heritage
  
• Marshall Strawberry Project
  
• Food & Culinary Arts (with lunch & food talk)
  
• Civics Education
  
• Documentary & Film Screenings
  
• Field Trips

Practitioners, Presenters, and Guest Speakers (confirmed & invited)

• Gerard & Jo Ann Bentryn, Bainbridge Island Vineyards
  
• Victor Bremson, For the Grandchildren
  
• David Cowan, Healthier Kids Bainbridge
  
• Gail Davis, Breidablik Elementary
  
• Mary Fox, Breidablik ElementaryDavid Kotz, Coyote Woodworking
  
• Ed Mikel, Antioch University Seattle
  
• Bobbie Morgan, Natural Landscapes Project
  
• Vern Nakata, Town & Country
  
• Barry Peters, Sustainable Bainbridge
  
• Joan Piper & Carol McCarthy, Bainbridge Island Historical Society
• Brian Stahl, Kitsap Conservation District
  
• Dave Ullin, Woodworker and Traditional Bearer
• Dennis Vogt, Trust for Working Landscapes
  
• Judith Weinstock, Foodmuse InspiredCatering
• Betsey Wittick, Laughing Crow Farm
  
• ...with more voices to be included
  

Curriculum Workshop (optional)
July 19-20, 10:00am-3pm
An additional series of working sessions in professional, supportive, collaborative environment for retreat participants who wish to develop, implement and assess a dedicated curriculum project that connects farms, classrooms and lunchrooms.

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Program Information:

Educator's Retreat is open to 20 Participants

Each day of the retreat will feature a special lunch and talk, featuring locally grown food, prepared by local culinary experts, and tied to the themes of the Institute.

Clock hours and Continuing Education Credit options will be available (additional fees).

An institute handbook and starter library will be given to each participant

Tuition:
Professional Education Retreat: $200 for Global Source Members; $225 for Non-Members

Curriculum Workshop: additional $95

Download a Registration Form

Click here for information about becoming a member of Global Source.

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Click Here for more about our initiative on Food, Farming, Culture and Education

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about this program, please contact us.

What Educators Are Saying About Global Source

Program subject to change.

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