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.

2013 1st 6 Weeks Recap –by Kasi M. and Julia M.

 (Some images have been borrowed from other sites due to technical dificulties)

This year has started off great! The students have already worked on many projects to benefit our school.

A salad bar has been added to our cafeteria. Adding more healthy options in the cafeteria is always a goal of our program. Soon the food in the salad bar will hopefully all be grown in our vegetable gardens. We have expanded our beds to begin this process. Prior to Green Fest we constructed more keyhole gardens. Keyhole gardens allow one person to work a garden more efficiently by allowing them to reach the whole garden without moving. They also have compost added right into the soil, through the middle mesh tube.

Our students raise chickens each year. In previous years we have raised the chicks from only a few days old to egg laying years all in class. This year we purchased chicks from Callahan’s. Ms. Dunaway has taken care of the chicks up to this point at her home. They have recently been brought back to school to get taken care of by students and live in our chicken coup.

We have installed a new rainwater garden. This garden helps catch rain to make sure it is absorbed by the plants instead of the water becoming runoff. Runoff leads to erosion and the loss of valuable topsoil. It has held up to our "mosoonal" downpours.

The north pond that was started last year was finished this year. It has native plants like pink Turk’s cap and has a waterfall. It is also home to  mosquito fish, red eared sliders, and a plethora of insects.

The gardens that were built three years ago using a National Wildlife Foundation grant always need maintenance. This year our benches were beginning to look like they needed some help. We replaced some boards. and we have them a new coat of  green ­­ and purple paint. Go Cougars and Green Tech!

Green Fest was a great success! This festival raised money for upcoming projects by selling native plants, t-shirts, entry fees for all of our awesome activites, and from donations from vendors.  We are going to sell the remaining plants throughout this week ending this Friday, 10/18, at our school.

We are also still selling mulch and Green Fest shirts. Mulch is $4 a yard. Shirts are $10. You can also contact Mr. Rosenberg, nate.rosenberg@austinisd.org, if you would like to come out any purchase any items throughout the week.

Some of the plants we still have are:

·         Esperanza (yellow Bells)

·         Mexican Feather grass (wire grass)

·         Bulbine

·         Red Shrimp Plant

·         Mexican Plum

·         Conoclinium Gregg (small, grey)

·         Black Foot Daisy

·         Palm Lady Tree

·         4 Nerve Daisy

·         Mexican Bush sage (purple)

·         Desert Willow

·         Star Tree Ivy

·         Fall Aster

·         American Beauty Berry

·         Mexican Beauty Berry

·         Mountain Laurel

·         Oxford Pink Salvia

·         Salvia greggi

·         Turks Cap

·         Texas Rock Rose