Update from Alan

These periodic updates have been few and far between since a major part of their original purpose - to keep students and volunteers up to date with garden activities - was, last June, largely subsumed by the PTG Non-Blog Blog at www.teachinggarden.org. The updates can now be used to bring attention to information which does not readily fit in a journal style format.

A few weeks ago, PTG entered the age of Facebook. I’m not a fan of ‘social’ media and most of the press seems to be negative, but Glen made a business case for using the medium and, I suppose, if it’s good enough for ABC, BBC, and CBC, it should be good enough for PTG.

Facebook was conceived as a means by which university faculty and students could communicate efficiently, and that is how I propose the PTG presence be utilized. The ability to ask and answer questions, and to post photos to illustrate a point, makes Facebook a useful tool for adding to the classroom sessions. There is never enough time in the classes and, with Facebook, the group learning experience can be extended vicariously into the time between sessions.

My initial aversion to providing the personal details, required to get an account to use Facebook, was allayed when I realized that, apart from a valid email address, none of the information that I supplied needed to be true, and all of it, apart from a name or pseudonym, could be blocked from publication. There are probably more than a few registrations for John Doe and Hu Mee, residing in Water Falls, and born in 01.01.01.

The PTG Facebook page can now be accessed directly from the PTG website. Just click the link toward the top of the homepage and go straight in. Because everything PTG is in the public domain, I think anyone can see the content with or without prior registration. Clicking on the ‘admin’ icon will link to my personal page and only some of that content is public. The bio portion is only accessible by those who choose to ‘friend’ the page.

I was prompted to put the bio together as a response to a request for personal info expressed in one of the 2011 class evaluations. What I have written is more a memoir than a business resumé, and although it is not a salacious tell-all exposé, someone who read part of it did comment, “You might get sued, but it does make for compelling reading.”

Since the 2004 PTG class, students have all been asked to make a few notes at each of the sessions about what they liked/didn’t like what they wanted more of/less of and their general impression so that they could submit a meaningful course evaluation at the end of the winter series. These evaluations are all anonymous. They are re-typed as a single document, and I don’t get to see the comments until late in the fall, after I have more or less detached from the emotions and stress of teaching the course. Until this year, I am the only one who got to see what was written and what if anything was done with the observations. The reality is that each year’s course has been adjusted to accommodate the previous year’s responses, but I’m the only one who knows that.

The 2011 course evaluations are now posted on the PTG homepage under the ‘Items of Interest’ tab. Over time all the previous years’ evaluations will be added along with my appended notes and the changes that resulted.

By way of a milestone, last week Linda weeded and trenched her way into the PTG record book by being the first student/volunteer who, in their first year, invested more than two hundred hours working in the gardens. In the same vein, Brian and Marilyn have set a benchmark for couples by investing a combined first year total in excess of three hundred hours. Between them, these three people have contributed more than one third of this year’s total volunteer time. Without them, the school could not have survived.

Considering that we no longer have the Guardian column to spread the word, we have done well to have already accumulated enough registrations (if they all show up) to make it worthwhile to offer the course next year. To be safe, we need another ten ‘bums in seats’. Surely there must be enough satisfied customers, from previous years, who can recommend the program to others and get the classes filled up. First class just one month away! 7th January 2012

High Temperature:
Actual: -3°C mostly cloudy Wind N14km/h P.O.P.36%
Average: 3°C
Record: 18°C in 2001

Low Temperature:
Actual: -6°C mostly cloudy flurries 1.8cm Wind NW12km/h P.O.P.7%
Average: -5°C
Record: -21°C in 1940