Next Steps

Our action plan for the future is to add a walkway, seating, a mural, mosaic tiling, trees, and a memorial to Emmett Till. There will be a day of service and celebration on May 12, 2012. 

It is also a goal to find partnerships to improve the quality of the garden. In the future, we hope to secure funding for professional development seminars and training sessions to help teachers incorporate the school garden (i.e. an outdoor classroom) into their curriculum.  

Arbor (Entrance Way)

Mr. Vance, a fresh college graduate, turned an empty classroom into a woodworking room within a month of being hired. Mr. Vance and a group of fifth and sixth graders created unique geometric designs that were a result of student imagination—the students visualized what type of personality a specific geometric shape such as a cube might have. They then cut the designs out of wood using a jig saw and finished by painting the designs in black and yellow, the Till Academy school colors. archi-treasures installed the arbor into the school garden on December 2nd and the student artwork was installed onto the arbor shortly afterwards.

With the installation of the arbor, the Till Academy school garden also received an official name and is now the “Till Learning Garden.” The following activities took place in the Till Learning Garden in 2011.

New Art Teacher

The arbor project began with a rocky start when an unexpected obstacle occurred one week before the beginning of the 2011/2012 school year. Unfortunately, Mr. Waggoner, the art teacher at the core of the arbor project, resigned from his position just as the project was about to begin. archi-treasures communicated regularly with Mr. Asiyanbi, Till Academy’s principal, in late summer to determine how to proceed with the project given the unanticipated challenge

Under Mr. Asiyanbi’s leadership, Mr. Vance was hired as the new art teacher by mid-October and archi-treasures staff met with him on his second day of work to “dig into” the project. During that first meeting, a final arbor design was created and Ralph Hoffman at archi-treasures began arbor construction shortly afterwards.

Designs for Arbor by Ralph Hoffman

Charette (Design Meeting)

In April of 2011, archi-treasures facilitated a two hour design meeting or charette at Till Academy. The charette brought together 30 students, teachers, parents, design professionals, community members, and representatives from various departments at the University of Chicago. This discussion and planning meeting was not only an opportunity to brainstorm about possibilities for the school garden in the future but it was also a chance to create designs as well as set priorities and timelines. While there were many ideas discussed at the charette, the group consensus was to beautify the entrance of the school garden with an arbor that would include student artwork.

Partnerships

One of the organizations with which the school has developed a partnership is a nonprofit organization called archi-treasures.  archi-treasures is an arts-based community development organization that specializes in building public spaces that empower individuals to share their future and the future of their communities.  During the spring of 2011, Till Academy and archi-treasures partnered together to create a plan and design for a school garden in honor of Emmett Louis Till, a former Till Academy student.  As you probably know, Emmett Louis Till was a 14 year old African American boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered while on a family visit to Mississippi in 1955.  Emmett’s mother insisted on a public funeral with an open casket in order to expose the brutality of the killing to the public.  Emmett’s murder is often cited as one of the key events that ignited the then nascent Civic Rights Movement.  Our school, formerly McCosh, was renamed in honor of Emmett Louis Till in 2006.

With the generous support of the South East Chicago Commission, archi-treasures and the Emmett Till Math & Science Academy (Till Academy) have greatly enhanced the physical attractiveness of the Woodlawn community. The overall goal of the Till Academy school garden project is to transform the underutilized vacant lots surrounding the school into active spaces for learning and growing. The South East Chicago Commission funding in 2011 supported the design, building and installation of an arbor at the entrance of the school garden.

The Institute for Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago was another important funder. Funding from the Institute underwrote some of the costs of the design charette, provided resources for garden workdays and supported stipends for Parent Coordinators. The activities that took place as a result of this funding directly impacted the Woodlawn community. 

Beginnings

A school garden at Till Academy can be attributed to a package of seeds, a group of curious third grade students and a motivated art teacher named Greg Waggoner. Mr. Waggoner’s students expressed an interest in growing seeds in their classroom.  So Mr. Waggoner bought a seed starter set and soon hearty shoots began to grow.  The third graders were enjoying the process so much that Mr. Waggoner helped them plant their seedlings in an empty lot near the school.  The students tended their seedlings for the rest of the school year and a group of students taking summer guitar lessons ensured that plants were weeded and watered regularly with water provided by kind neighbors.  A small but memorable harvest was enjoyed by Till Academy students, staff and community members in the fall of 2009. 

During the 2009/2010 school year, Mr. Waggoner submitted numerous grants to foundations and other organizations to help the school garden grow.  He was successful at obtaining over $3,500 in funding, which ensured that each classroom in the school had an opportunity to grow their own seedlings.  The funding was also used to purchase plant material, soil amendments, tools and fencing materials.    In addition, he organized numerous workdays in the garden and recruited students, teachers as well as other volunteers to come out to the workdays.  Over the past two years Mr. Waggoner and some community volunteers have also been reaching out to various organizations to figure out ways to make the budding school garden sustainable.

History of the Till Learning Garden

Founded in 1895, Emmett Till Math and Science Academy (Till Academy) is a Chicago Public Elementary School located in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Woodlawn is a predominantly low-income African American community. The mission of Till Academy is to provide a comprehensive educational program for the development needs of the whole child.  During the 2010/2011 school year, approximately 600 students are enrolled at Till Academy.  Of those students, 99% are low income.  The largest demographic at Till Academy are African American students, comprising over 99% of the student population and 16.1% are students with special education needs.