Courtyard Beautification
12/21 I have been leading the school in the effort to beautify and renovate the courtyard we share with Angela Y Davis and Bard in order to create an outdoor learning area more conducive for outdoor learning.
Since the summer of 2021, I have been working with the Green Team and our administration to both beautify the courtyard and create a plan to have a shade structure built in the courtyard.
Since the summer of 2021, I have been working with the Green Team and our administration to both beautify the courtyard and create a plan to have a shade structure built in the courtyard.
I reached out to multiple contractors and got an estimate from 4th Dimension Builders:
I met with the contractors from 4th Dimension Builders, surveyed the space, and introduced them to our school administration:
I then set up a Zoom meeting between the contractor, our Green Team, SEL coordinator, and partners (The Great Kids Farm and the BCPSS Office of Sustainability):
School-Wide Social Justice Project
I have been leading a school-wide social justice project, now focused on improving school lunches, as described below:
2
Courtyard Beautification
I applied for a $10,000 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust in order to build the shade structure in the courtyard and receive extra funding for the courtyard beautification:
School-Wide Social Justice Project
On January 26, 2022, I held a school-wide PD to continue our progress with our social justice project. Since the school community voted to improve school lunches, we had an all-staff meeting to discuss school lunch regulations with staff from BCPSS Food and Nutrition Services and to brainstorm ideas to make our lunches at ConneXions better:
We also had Food and Nutrition Services meet with students from the Student Government Association and a group of 9th grade students to discuss lunch regulations and restrictions and to brainstorm with the students:
Review 2
March: Courtyard Beautification:
We did not receive the Chesapeake grant for our shade structure in our outdoor learning area. I met with Cristina Duncan Evans of the Baltimore Teachers Union and am in the process of applying for an AFT grant to fund the final $7,750 of our estimate to build the shade structure, which I will submit by March 25th:
March: School-Wide Social Justice Project:
The team of students working on improving school lunches at ConneXions (9th grade and Student Government Association students) went on a field trip to Coastal Produce on 2/22/22. We visited a major distributor of produce for Baltimore City Public Schools:
Review 3
Courtyard Beautification:
We are beautifying our courtyard and making it a more suitable environment for learning. We are going to have more picnic tables, pop-up tents (shade), grills, yoga mats, folding chairs, outdoor projectors and screens, sheds, etc). We ordered supplies ($10,000) to beautify the courtyard and make it a better environment for outdoor learning:
On Earth Day, the Green Team worked to beautify the courtyard, adding flowering trees and bushes to the courtyard:
School-Wide Social Justice Project:
As a school community, we learned from our meeting with Food and Nutrition Services that we cannot change the federally mandated foods provided by BCPSS. However, students are earning service learning hours to create a video to present to administration at the end of the year, providing suggestions about how the ConneXions administration can make changes to improve lunches. Suggestions include:
- longer lunch periods (45 minutes instead of 30)
- providing a salad bar
- providing a table of seasonings (Old Bay, Basil, Pepper, etc)
- providing a nutrition class
Below are the student clips, which are being compiled for a final video proposal:
- longer lunch periods (45 minutes instead of 30)
- providing a salad bar
- providing a table of seasonings (Old Bay, Basil, Pepper, etc)
- providing a nutrition class
Below are the student clips, which are being compiled for a final video proposal: