REAP Food Group is one of many non-profit organizations that works with AmeriCorps members to “get things done” in our communities. Below you can find their reflections working as Farm to School Specialists within the Madison Metropolitan School District.
Madison’s Favorite Moments
SEPTEMBER 2019
My favorite moment in September was starting Cooking Club at Bayview Community Center. The first day the kids told me I looked like the VSCO girl and I had no idea who that was. Over the next three weeks the kids started to call me VSCO girl less and open up to me more. It was awesome to see them open up and begin to participate more in cooking and try new foods they had never had before!
OCTOBER 2019
This month we started an afterschool cooking club at one of the elementary schools that hasn’t been very interested in lessons during the school day. The afterschool environment is very hectic so it can get quite stressful but the second week we brought our blender bike to make smoothies which the kids loved. Depending on their size they were either able to pedal the bike while sitting on it or they had to turn the pedals with their hands but they loved seeing the smoothie get blended by work they were doing! One student told me all about the smoothies that she makes with her grandma which also include spinach like ours do (because yay vegetables!). It was awesome to hear her make the connection between what we were making in cooking club and what she eats at home. It was especially awesome because she said she really likes the addition of spinach because you can’t really taste it and it makes the smoothie healthier. When students are able to connect the lesson we are doing with their life outside of school it really shows that are lessons are meaningful!
NOVEMBER 2019
November was a super busy month with a lot of activities going on. My favorite moment this month would have to be teaching lessons at Schenk Elementary School. The students at this school are very kind and very knowledgeable. A specific moment was when we were teaching the 6 plant parts unit and 2nd grade students were able to tell us about the process of photosynthesis. This completely blew my mind! Not only is this a huge word for a 2nd grader to know, but it is also a very complex process and the students were able to walk us through the process. It has been awesome to connect with these students who genuinely are all excited for the lessons each week. It has definitely been my favorite group of kids so far.
DECEMBER 2019
Rachel and I started a new lesson set this December and one particular school, Franklin Elementary, has been a great school to visit. On the second visit I was teaching the students about the six parts of the plant and I had the students form small groups and gave each group a plant part. Their job was to identify the plant part and provide examples of foods they eat or know of that are identified as this part of the plant. One student in the group who had the fruit card gave an example of mulberries. This is a rather obscure fruit that many students didn’t know of. As a class we talked about what a mulberry is, where they grow, and what other fruits they are similar to. I asked the student where he gets mulberries and he answered with “the mulberry tree in my backyard but…” and then his teacher cut him off. When he stated this the students in the class became very riled up and I could tell their was more to this story that their teacher didn’t want to get into. Later in the lesson I come to find out that a few of the students in the class live in a co-housing community that once had a mulberry tree in the backyard but it partially fell on a powerline so it had to be cut down. The students were outraged by this because they could no longer eat the mulberries! They even went as far as to say they didn’t need power, what do we even need power for anyway? This led into an interesting discussion of what power (aka electricity) is used for and how it affects our daily lives. It was a very advanced conversation to have with a group of first graders and I loved seeing the passion they had for this mulberry tree and how they could change their lives to live without power! In a world that is demoninated by technology it was amazing to see a group of students who cared more about a berry tree than living with modern conviences!
JANUARY 2020
January was a very busy month filled with a lot of new classes and wrapping up some classes from before winter break. We started lessons in some new schools, one of which has been so welcoming to us. The staff at Emerson Elementary School are extremely welcoming and show how grateful they are for us to be teaching lessons there. One particular first grade class really was my favorite moment of the month. This class was very chatty but had very insightful things to say. The second week I learned that they are the advanced group and that made so much sense! The best thing that happened with this class was a discussion I had with them about the process of photosynthesis. With the students we usually introduce this word but move on very quickly because it is a very advanced concept. Not for this class though. Almost all of the students already knew what photosynthesis was and they knew that with the sun coming into the leaves and the nutrients coming up from the roots the plant is able to make sugar to fuel its body. I never imagined that I would be having that discussion with 1st graders! It was unbelievable and I will really miss this class.
FEBRUARY 2020
Wow, I can’t believe how fast February flew by! This has been the fastest month of my Service Year by far and of course a lot of memorable things happened. I would have to say my favorite moment of the past month was working with a fifth grade class at Elvehjem Elemenetary School. The class always had very insightful things to say and great comments and questions about what we were learning. One day when I was teaching alone I was passing out the snack and opened up the class to questions. They had all exhausted their questions about the lesson for the day but one student still had more questions that were more personal. She asked me why I decided to do this job, what my college degree was, what my favorite part of my job is, and what my plan is for after the program. I could tell that she genuinely cared about hearing my answers and was hoping to learn from me. It was awesome to meet such a young student who was so kind and caring for those around her. It was hard for me to answer some of the questions because I was so taken aback by her curiosity but I was happy to answer to hopefully inspire a young student to follow a similar path of community service. Throughout the remainder of the lessons she continued to have great questions and had an awesome attitude each time.
Rachel’s Favorite Moments
SEPTEMBER 2019
At Bayview we served steak tacos (the kids had asked for meat) and a little girl asked “how much” when I gave her a taco. She thought she had to pay for the food and she was worried because she didn’t have any money. When I told her the food was free and she could just enjoy it – her face lit up. So many kids tried new vegetables that day.
OCTOBER 2019
We were doing surveys in a 4th grade classroom and lots of the students weren’t quite getting the questions or didn’t know the answers to the questions. One student in particular was struggling to read the questions. I asked if they needed help and the student said “I’m bad at reading – I’m dyslexic.” I said “that doesn’t mean you’re bad at reading! It just means you read differently!” I told the student that I was dyslexic too and his eyes turned into saucers. It was such a small thing, but I remember how hard it was to be at school when everyone else was in advanced reading scores. It doesn’t mean you’re in anyway less intelligent, but sometimes school is set up so that it feels like that. I was happy to be there in that small way for that student.
NOVEMBER 2019
I have absolutely loved teaching in classrooms that do DLI (dual language immersion) Having a Spanish Studies minor comes in handy when students from different backgrounds are trying to learn about new foods, new plants, and new themes in general. Specifically, we teach a class of very advanced DLI students – half of which come from a Spanish speaking background and half an English speaking background. Watching them learn and teach each other is exactly what cultural exchange should be like. We learn more if we all learn together and look at difference as an exceptional way to learn about something we don’t already know. The students in this classroom specifically embody this – and they’re only 2nd graders! It gives me hope for the future.
DECEMBER 2019
Madison and I have been going to an elementary school that is known for having very may “behavioral issues” and is systemically underfunded and without necessary resources. Things at this school have become so bad that the school can no longer get substitute teachers to come teach lessons when teachers are sick/need a break for whatever reason. In particular, we taught a class that had an affinity for fights – so much so that the teacher let us know that students were not allowed to leave their desks because they would punch/hit/kick each other. Over the course of 5 weeks we truly saw these students develop into amazing learners. They were always so excited to see us, as was their teacher. If someone hadn’t told me about their behavioral issues I wouldn’t have known or realized over the course of the weeks. The teacher has spoken to both me and Madison on multiple occasions to tell us how great we are doing, and that what we are doing is so important. On our last day, the students asked if we could do a group hug and they were so sad that we were leaving that they wouldn’t let go of us – they were late for recess! One of the students who was particularly known for “behavioral issues” told us that she wished she could stay in 3rd grade forever so that we could still be her teachers. This may be one of the highlights of AmeriCorps for me.
JANUARY 2020
Madison and I had the pleasure of teaching our very first preschool class ad Midvale Elementary School. I remember the two of us chatting about how on earth we were supposed to teach preschool – we had little experience and we weren’t quite sure about their ability levels. After our first lesson, we were able to quickly grasp what they needed and wanted from our lessons. The next time we went back, we were armed with fun songs, videos, dances, and activities to keep the kids engaged. At the end of the lessons, the class gave us a thank you card with a hand drawn picture from each individual student. The card read “All the kids hope you could stay. We love you. Thank you for teaching us about food. Love, 4K!” The teacher was also so impressed with our lessons that she suggested us to her colleague who teaches preschool at Thoreau Elementary School, a school we haven’t taught in before. It was so amazing to be able to branch out and learn with this age group. I loved seeing the students try their polite bite and give us thumbs up, down, or in the middle. We tried some pretty “big tasting” foods (ie raw cranberries) and the students expressions were hilarious. I will never forget one student who always gave the snack a thumbs down but always gave it a polite bite.
FEBRUARY 2020
Madison and I tried a new snack this month – raw mushrooms. We were looking to change things up and try something new that we hadn’t tried before. We headed out to our local co-op, bought crimini mushrooms (local of course) in bulk, and got some balsamic vinaigrette to go with them. The first time Madison and I served the mushrooms, we were in a preschool class on the first day of our lessons. As we put the mushrooms in front of the preschoolers, one of them started to cry at the idea of having to eat the mushrooms. However, other students got super excited and some even gave them a thumbs up! Later that day, when we visited the 3rd grade classroom, we tried the mushrooms and the students absolutely loved them! One student in particular loved them so much that he asked for seconds and thirds! When I asked why he liked them so much, he said “I love the way they feel on my gums.” Strange, but such a great moment to share with these students.
Farm to School Program 