Meet Lyseth Elementary Environmental Literacy Teacher and School Garden Coordinator Leigh Quigley

Throughout the years, Portland Public Schools (PPS) has implemented an Outdoor and Experiential Learning program in all of its 10 elementary schools. Over time, this program has evolved from focusing solely on school gardens, to including the habitat of the living schoolyard, to now, incorporating a deeper, systematic implementation of Environmental Literacy that aligns with students’ learning standards and grade-level curriculum.

Now, a  few of the PPS elementary schools have an Environmental Literacy Teacher, whose role is unique to itself and the school where the teacher is based. At Lyseth Elementary School, the Environmental Literacy Teacher and School Garden Coordinator is Leigh Quigley,  a passionate gardener who brings much personal experience and excitement to her role. She assists with the school garden program, established with support from parent volunteers and the local non-profit Cultivating Community, which helped to build and implement an elementary garden curriculum.

“My role as Environmental Literacy Teacher/School Garden Coordinator is to help teachers build capacity toward integrating the natural world into PPS Wabanaki and Life Science units, as well as other areas of the curriculum in which it benefits students to incorporate the schoolyard into their studies,” Quigley explained.

To do so, Quigley incorporates environmental and science education, socio- and eco-justice, Indigenous knowledge, biodiversity, natural resources, climate change, sustainability, and more into all that she does with students.

Additionally, the collaborative teaching model of the Outdoor and Experiential Learning program offers embedded professional development designed to uplift and support classroom teachers as they work to provide equitable access to the natural world for all children through the PPS curriculum. The Environmental Literacy Teachers also help to run year-round Wabanaki fieldwork for k-5 students.

“I directly teach specific Science and Wabanaki units/lessons,” Quigley said. “I also support teachers with their English Language Literacy curriculum by creating avenues for students to bridge the topics they are learning about in class through added exposure to the topics (or related topics) via an environmental/ecological/scientific/Indigenous lens.”

This fall, Quigley held a schoolwide garden celebration with students, teachers, families, and community members. Students harvested fall produce from the garden, planted overwintering crops like garlic, weeded and redesigned outdoor learning spaces, and helped tuck the garden in for the winter.

Leigh brings a lot of love to her work and encourages students to grow and cultivate a lasting relationship with nature.

“In this role, I have the utmost pleasure of seeing struggling students take on leadership roles and experience success in activities and tasks that are completely new to them,” Quigley said. “It is extremely gratifying. The real reason behind my position is fostering academic, social, and emotional growth and success in students, while helping them build a (hopefully) positive, lifelong relationship with the natural world.” This experience-based, hands-on learning approach helps students to build relationships, reciprocity, respect, and responsibility for the Earth’s ecosystem and for each other. It also offers a level playing field that welcomes and supports every student, no matter their background, experience, or abilities.

Some of Quigley’s favorite student reactions thus far include:

• “Look at this! This is OUR garden.” (This comment came after a weeks-long student clean-up project in the fall.)
• “I love Tuesdays. That’s when I have Garden class.”
• “Do we get to go outside today?!”
• “Did we really harvest over 100 lbs. of carrots?!”
• “Working in the garden makes me feel good.”
• “Do we have to go back inside already?” (This comment came after a 45-minute class outdoors.)
• “Look what I found!” (Quigley mentioned that this is a common remark among students when they find things like worms, roly-polys, grubs, millipedes, animal tracks in the snow, and animal nests.)