Spring Semester Update

It seems that every semester begins with its own trials and trebulations. Getting back into the routine always takes a little time, especially when extending both personal and work families.

Students are fully engulfed in the final class of the Green Academy and working hard on their independent study projects. They will soon be posting short updates on their progress directly to this blog. We have students working on introducing bees to Small's habitat, protecting Black-Capped Vireos, improving the air quality of the classroom environments, installing native and community gardens in the surrounding neighborhoods, and much more. A group of students are rehabilitating and securing the chicken coop to make it more functional and safe. We plan on being on the Funky Chicken Coop tour later this year.

The main focus of many students' projects is an area of land in the middle of Travis Country neighborhood. The land is near 4800 Trail West. It was originally set aside to be developed into an elementary school. When that did not pan out the land was discussed being developed into housing and other not so favorable outcomes. The land always remained in AISD's hands. When discussion of selling the land came up again, the Green Academy saw the oppotunity to take over maintenance of the land. The plan is to turn the land into an educational preserve because the land contained many geological features, plants, and habitats similar to a primitive Austin habitat before settlement. Students are working to increase the presence of the Greater Roadrunner, Chimney Swifts, Monarch butterflies, Eastern Cottontail, and many native snakes. Other students are removing invasive plants such as Nandina, and controlling the presence of Ash Juniper saplings. We hope this land will be used and improved for generations to come.

The sixth grade classes are just now beginning to understand the importance of garden management and its role in habitat creation. The World Outside class is deep in a biomimcry unit and the Native Plant classes are exploring reptiles and amphibians.

Mr. Brooks' classes are deconstructing keyhole gardens due to rodent issues and reusing the cinder blocks to make a more conventional garden. He is still working to install more rain gardens and is cooperating with the community garden.

Our biggest announcement is that we were approved to interview and hire a new teaching assistant for the Green Academy. In November Carly Surratt joined the Small family. She is orginally from Southeast Texas. She went to school as Texas State University and studied Geography. She has travelled to Ecuador and Colorado to work in a natural educational setting. She has already been a great asset and has allowed us to accomplish many more of our goals. We hope that she will be around for many years to come.