GTN Charlotte's reach grows with new website, videos

Dec. 9 – The Green Teacher Network for schoolyard garden advocates may be living up to its name in a new way – as a digital network for information and sharing.

Several groups involved in health, nutrition and education formed GTN Charlotte earlier this year to help share information among the many teachers and volunteers working in our area’s nearly 100 schoolyard gardens. Each quarterly workshop provides one major instructional program, additional information and time for participants to share and learn from one another.
But many teachers have a tough time getting away from school for half-day meetings. So GTN Charlotte has begun producing instructional videos, as well. You can find them on the group’s new website, GTNCharlotte.org.

Our debut: “Gardening 101” in 14 short clips

Our first video offering as well as the new website went live last week. We took the keynote presentation at our Nov. 1 workshop, ”Gardening 101,” by Henry Owen of Friendship Gardens, and converted the 40-minute talk into 14 easy to watch segments.
Anyone can access the videos via the resources page at GTNCharlotte.org. Segments cover topics such as “Getting teacher buy-in,” “Watering with kids,” and “Priceless advice.” Most clips are 2-5 minutes long.

Coming next: “Chefs in the Classroom" video series

We just posted the first of four cooking videos that we shot last week. The Chefs in the Classroom series features Megan Lambert, senior instructor at Johnson & Wales University, and Sean Cosby, a J&W graduate and personal chef. Each of them prepares two simple dishes using common schoolyard garden produce such as kale, onions and sweet potatoes. (Thanks to Piedmont Natural Gas for letting us use their kitchen at the PNG facility on Yancy Road.)
• CLICK to watch chef Lambert prepare Plant Part Salad with Sweet Poppy-Seed Dressing.
Our Chefs in the Classroom videos will be available on the resource page of GTNCharlotte.org and on the Catawba River District’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/CatawbaRiverDistrict. We’ll announce when they are ready to view at Facebook.com/CatawbaRiverDistrict.

GTNCharlotte.org is live

Finally, the Catawba River District has created a new website for the Green Teacher Network. You can find it at GTNCharlotte.org. The site will house learning resources such as the videos and other useful materials. We will also use it to handle event and newsletter registrations.