What is Agile Learning?

The Garden is now part of the Agile Learning Center Network, which is an international community of educators committed to self directed education fit for the 21st century.

We’ve actually been using Agile style methods for a while now, experiencing a sort of convergent evolution by trial and error. What this looks like for us at the moment, thanks to mentor Tim, is using a rather fitting gardening analogy for project planning and tracking.

Seeds are new project ideas, which become Sproutlings once we have had a meeting about them, progressing to Growing as soon as work has begun and finally Blooming when completed. Credit to mentor Bess for the brilliant addition of the Compost section, for ideas that we aren’t currently working on but might revive or inspire future ideas.

The garden mega board

Our lovely illustrated post it notes can be moved around the board and in and out of the weekly timetable, giving a visual reminder of what we’re working on and what stage we’re at with it.

Once a week on a Tuesday we hold a Projects Planting meeting where all the mentors are available to discuss new and ongoing projects, as well as review completed or abandoned ones. The meeting is optional but tends to be well-attended, as this is a great opportunity to develop ideas into projects and collaborate with others in bringing them to fruition.

We’re really excited about the possibilities of being part of this huge network of likeminded folk all over the world and to share what we learn with the young people at The Garden.

If you’d like to find out more about Agile Learning Centers in practice, check out the Holding Unfolding podcast, as recommended to us by the wonderful Adele Jarrett-Kerr from Soulcraft Learning Community.

Artemis D. Bear, founder of The Garden