Capstone Project of the Week: Goat Promotional Video

Check out Ashlyn Tatro's 8th grade capstone project! She created a promotional video for Small Green Tech Academy to recruit new students to the program.

There's still time to get mulch and compost!

There is still time for you to grow your garden with the help of Small Green Tech Academy. Even if you did not place a pre-order for mulch and compost you can still come to the Small MS greenhouse after school on Friday, October 30th to purchase a bag or two from 3:30-5:00 PM. 

Thanks for your support of Green Tech! 

Bag Mulch and Bulk Compost Sale!

Green Tech Academy is hosting a mulch and "bag your own" compost sale! Keep your garden healthy this fall and support your community at the same time! Pre-order is available starting October 26th through October 28th. Pre-order form coming soon! Come pick up your fantastic mulch and compost from Small Middle School on October 30th. Check out the schedule below! 

• 7:00 AM-8:00 AM - pick up available (no appointment)

• 8:00 AM-3:30 PM - Appointment needed!! (email elizabeth.grenadier@austinisd.org)

• 3:30 PM-5:00 PM - pick up available (no appointment)

Hope to see you there! 

Clint Small Middle School name one of the TOP 10 ECO-SCHOOLS in the COUNTRY!

Green Tech Academy, Clint Small Middle School, Austin, Texas

 

Clint Small Middle School's Green Tech Academy earned Texas' first Green Flag. Students created an extensive garden, planting more than 300 native plant species. The campus also has an outdoor classroom, a greenhouse, a chicken coop, composting, recycling, water-harvesting, and a Japanese garden. Twenty-five percent of the school's food is produced locally.

http://www.nwf.org/Eco-Schools-USA/Top-10-Eco-Schools.aspx?s_email_id=20150929_ECO_ENG_TopTenGreenestSchools|STEdu

UPDATED INFORMATION ON THE SMALL GREENFEST!

The first annual Small Greenfest will be held on the Clint Small Middle School Campus (4801 Monterey Oaks Blvd. 78749) on Saturday, September 29, 2012 from 3-7PM.

The festival should be amazing! It will be a great way to get the family outside and to get in touch with nature! There will be food, fun, and live music for all ages!

Food will be provided by Austin area food trailers! More information to come. Give us recommendations of other trailers you LOVE so we can invite them out too.

CATCH activites will be running the entire time! Kids and adults will have the opportunity to race, play on our disc golf course, balloon pop, and even attempt some track activites. There will be 2 inflatable obstacle courses and a rock wall for climbing. There is an optional  wristband that will cost $10 a person. That will cover all events, activites, and will enter people into all door prizes. Through a partnership will out CATCH Committee(Coordinated Approach to Child Health http://archive.austinisd.org/schools/shac/catch/), we will be providing door prizes that encourage being active and outside. Bicycles, camping equipment, and sporting good will be raffled off to attendants who purchase a wristband. There will also be environmental vendors on site. Vendors will be doing sessions on composting and the City of Austin rebate program, organic vegetable gardening, and sustainable solutions.

We will have 3 different bands performing through the festival. The Gourds (http://www.thegourds.com/), One Black Lung (http://oneblacklung.com/) and The Better Halves (http://www.thebetterhalvesmusic.com/) will be on stage.

Please come out and join us! Invite you friends! It is going to be great!

Welcome Back and Greetings

August 27 is the first day of school for Austin ISD, Clint Small Middle School, and the Green Tech Academy. While summer was great, and much needed, it is nice to get back into the swing of things on campus. I wanted to use this email to introduce you all to myself and other changes to Small staff, to update everyone on Small events over the summer (pictures to follow), welcome you back, and give a brief overview of basic items needed for the school year, and operations.

Our school had many drastic changes come about at the end of the school year. For most of you that follow this blog, I hope that you are aware that David Matthews,  partially retired at the end of the year, going to half time, and is now fully retired. He was our leader, advocate, and inspiration. He is spending time with his family and working on a retirement home on Leakey. His knowledge, expertise and friendship will be greatly missed. Even though he will be around occassionally to help on campus and to offer advice, it won't be the same without him around in the gardens.

We also had many other teachers retire, move campuses, or move on to bigger and brighter things. All of them will be individually missed both personally and professionally. Everywhere I look on campus and at District events it seems there are new faces. I am very excited to welcome everyone and get their fresh perspectives on education and Small!

If you have been at Small at all for the past 4 years, you will be familiar with me. My name is Nate Rosenberg. I have been referenced on this site before working in the greenhouse, running Clean Sweeps, and doing our Earth Day plantings. Chris Brooks and I will be taking over the class load for the Environmental portion of the Green Tech Academy. I have been at Small for 4 years, teaching 6th grade Science and Environmental Sciences. Chris has been teaching for more than a decade, and has been at Small for more that 7 years. Chris has worked in Social Studies, World Cultures, English, and Environmental Sciences. We luckily had a new addition to the Green Tech Academy. Our former Assistant Principal, Sherry Lepine, has added on being our Dean this year. We are super excited! She is already working furiously being an advocate for the program advertising for our GREENFEST, which will be taking place very soon this semester. We will have environmental events, activities, live music from some big Austin acts, food, drink, FUN, education, and mostly FUN. More information will definitely be trickling out when we get it locked in. Each of us will occasionally be contributing to this site and posting pictures of the wonderful things going on at CSMS.

This Summer, Small was crazy busy with events. We had our annual Cougar Camp, where we invited 5th graders on track to attend Small to get to know the campus and our culture. They had a great time! For the first time we offered the STEM Summer Camp. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. We did 5 different themed 1 week camps ranging from Endangered Species to Digital Story Telling. Turn out was great and the kids loved it! It was educational and FUN! We didn't lose any kids but some may have had some close encounters and the Austin Nature and Science Center or at Sea World. After the camp, each of us got a chance to work individually, travel, and relax. Chris and I were able to finally finish our chicken coop. We have had chickens and other wildlife in classrooms being taken care of at Small by students for many years. Last year we had some issues will our natural environmental issues colliding with our permaculture. Natural residents on our campus, red-tailed hawks, were struggling last year with the drought and out chickens were an easy entree. Our coop is now hawk and predator proof.

Now for the nitty gritty. For all Environmental Science electives, you will ALWAYS NEED IN CLASS a WRITING UTENSIL, PENCIL OR PEN ONLY, AGENDA, AND A COMPOSITION NOTEBOOK. There is a $5 lab fee. This lab fee will be used to buy new plants, seeds, growing medium, tools, animals holding tanks and many other things. If your family cannot afford the lab fee please email or call me, so alternative arrangements can be made. Right now all supplies are on sale. Please stock up. Almost all classes at Small use the composition notebook, so why not buy a bushel. Classes will be great this year I look forward to seeing and hearing from everyone. As promised photos will follow from this summer.