Community Partners
Healthy Harbor: Oyster Restoration Project
In 2017, Commodore's Green Team was selected as one of the partner schools for Healthy Harbor's Oyster Restoration Project. Once every 3 months, a group of students, whose advisory assists with the recycling process, will be given the opportunity to travel to the Inner Harbor and assist the Waterfront Partnership in their push to sustainably raise oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. Pictures from our first excursion are below. The students said, "It was a blast and that they were excited to show their parents the work they did when they travel to the Inner Harbor with them."
Mr. Trash Wheel's 3rd birthday celebration (Trash cake baking)
In May of 2017, Select 6th Grade Commodore students were invited by The Waterfront Partnership to be the trash cake "bakers" for Mr. Trash Wheel's 3rd Birthday.
MR. TRASH WHEEL'S 3rd B-Day Celebration with Commodore
- Student Environmental Leadership Action League (SELAT) is a committee of the Baltimore Green Schools Network, run by the Baltimore City Department of Sustainability, and has been meeting since 2011. Made up of students of all ages, and from all corners of the city, as well as parents, teachers, and other advocates, SELAT seeks to make sure that youth voices are part of the conversation about Baltimore's environment, especially when it comes to making our schools greener. In 2015-2017, Commodore John Rodgers students were active members of SELAT, which is one way that they share their greening knowledge with others. They share what they are doing with other schools and the School Board.
- The Butchers Hill neighborhood association (BHNA), have been maintaining a relationship with Commodore for the last 10 years. From 2015-2018, the residents have spearheaded murals using student volunteers on school property and in the neighborhood, . The association has contributed over a $1,000 per year to the school and provides volunteers for the Walking School Bus, reading programs and Green Team activities including the weekly recycling collection . Currently there are five residents who are working weekly supporting the recycling efforts . Our weekly collection is over 100 cardboard boxes plus a dozen large containers. Annually the neighborhood sponsors a Staff appreciation breakfast in Patterson Park, a side benefit has been to familiarize the staff with the many resources the park provides for learning and other activities.
Fighting the Food Desert found in our community
Hungry Harvest at Commodore
One of the amazing partnerships that has developed over years of Commodore being a Green School is Hungry Harvest. Hungry Harvest is an organization that hopes to eliminate the existence of "food deserts" in Baltimore City. A "food desert" is an area where more than 300 people live without access to a grocery store that sells fresh produce within a mile of its surroundings. Our school community is, sadly, located in a "food desert" but we are working with Hungry Harvest to fight this designation and supply our community with fresh produce. This partnership was coordinated and developed by our Community School Coordinator, Mike Glenwick. Every Friday from 12-4 we offer a bag of fresh produce for $7, items include kale, tomatoes, kiwis, beets, apples and other delicious produce (menu changes from week to week)Please visit their website for more information: www.hungryharvest.net
One of the amazing partnerships that has developed over years of Commodore being a Green School is Hungry Harvest. Hungry Harvest is an organization that hopes to eliminate the existence of "food deserts" in Baltimore City. A "food desert" is an area where more than 300 people live without access to a grocery store that sells fresh produce within a mile of its surroundings. Our school community is, sadly, located in a "food desert" but we are working with Hungry Harvest to fight this designation and supply our community with fresh produce. This partnership was coordinated and developed by our Community School Coordinator, Mike Glenwick. Every Friday from 12-4 we offer a bag of fresh produce for $7, items include kale, tomatoes, kiwis, beets, apples and other delicious produce (menu changes from week to week)Please visit their website for more information: www.hungryharvest.net
Commodore in the Community
Garden Summit - April 2014 Great Kids Farm
- 2014 Garden Summit at Great Kids Farm: On April 2, a teacher took a 4th Grader Arly, 5th Grader Gary , 6th grader Izaiah and 7th Grader Jessica to participate within the summit as student Ambassadors. The students and teachers attended workshops and received materials to help us create our gardens. This was an opportunity for our students to go into the greater community, meet other students working on green school actions and share what Commodore is doing, and come back to our school as ambassadors with more knowledge and new schools.
5th Grade Student Gary learns about the importance of handling fresh food safely at the Green School Summit. He is using a "Salad Spinner" to thoroughly wash garden greens after the harvest.
6th Grade Student Izaiah is building a raised bed
at the Garden Summit with support from High School
students from Carver Technical High School in Baltimore City.
7th Grade Student Jessica is enjoying the fresh fruits and vegetables during her lunch at the Great Kids Farm. Jessica and other Ambassadors on the trip learned about the food to table program and how it could be implemented at Commodore.
Community Supporting Commodore
- Living Classrooms is a partner that works with Commodore on a daily basis. They provide the Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students "BUGS" after school program which engages 2nd-5th grade students. It impacts 60 students. Check out the BUGS blog to see all the amazing things our students are invested in during after-school programming. Living Classrooms has been the operator of Commodore John Rodgers since the 2010-2011 school year during which the BUGS program has operated after school. See the Celebration page and Water Conservation/Pollution Prevention page for an example of some of the work that BUGS does.
- Butcher's Hill Community Association: Butcher's Hill is the friendly neighborhood that Commodore John Rodgers is a part of. We are thankful for their partnership because they financially supports the school and work closely with the school to provide a network of volunteers. Two of the volunteers sit on our Green Team and organized the original student Green Team that weekly runs the school-wide recycling program. These incredible volunteers also help our school to apply for grants to make field trips, such as the one Green Team students took to a Recycling Center last year, possible. See them referenced on the Staff page on our Green Team sign in sheets, Water Conservation/ Pollution Prevention page, Solid Waste Reduction page and much more.
- Baltimore Office of Sustainability: throughout the Green School Application Process, Renee Goodenow has helped answer questions with the Green Team, encouraged our application and helped us inform the whole staff of the application process by presenting at a staff professional development afternoon. See the Staff Page under Professional Development for a complete description of her presentation.
- NorthBay: NorthBay has been a dependable partner though our Living Classrooms funding. On the Instruction page, you can see that all of our middle school students attend environmental education programming at NorthBay for 4 days and 3 nights during both their 6th and 7th grade years. NorthBay also helps to support our Staff professional development.
- The Maryland Science Center: partners with Commodore during our annual Science Celebration bringing activities to the school that help to excite students about science learning. See the Celebrate page for details. Additionally they help set up field trips and other opportunities where their staff come into our classrooms to help extend curriculum. We are currently working on a series of visits related to energy use and the new Power Up! exhibit for 8th grade students. See the Instruction page. Students from other grade levels also visit the Science Center for field work opportunities, but thus far these trips have not focused on environmental education issues.
- Parks and People: Since the spring of 2013, Commodore has worked with Parks and People to provide after-school, outdoor, healthy sports opportunities for students. In the spring of 2013 the boys began a lacrosse team. In the fall of 2013 the girls began a soccer team and this coming spring (2014) we plan to work with Parks and People to have both a boys and girls lacrosse team. You can see details from this partnership outlined on the Healthy School/ Environment page.
- The National Aquarium: Through the coordination of Living Classrooms, we have been able to develop a relationship with the National Aquarium where we take students on field trips and have aquarium staff come into our classrooms to teach our students through their outreach program. You can see some of our partnership with the Aquarium as referenced on the Instruction page impacting 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th grade students.
- Baltimore Energy Challenge: came to our annual Science Night for the first time in 2013 to provide an extra layer of science support to our Commodore families. Energy challenge representatives taught families about how to conserve energy in their homes and gave away free energy-efficient light bulbs, low-flow shower heads, and reusable shopping bags. They shared with families why being energy efficient is beneficial for the environment as well as their finances. See the Celebrate page for more details.
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: a group of 10-20 students partner with Commodore regularly to work on projects. They have helped to judge the science fair, support math night and on April 5 will help to launch our gardening project (see Structures for Environmental Learning) by helping to build additional raised beds for our students to plant in. You can see the space that they will be working in on the Structures for Environmental Learning page.
- Towson University's SciTech Student Laboratory: partnered with our 7th grade students to bring them to their laboratory and carry out an activity that focused on climate change. You can see their grant opportunity referenced on the Instruction page.
- The Maryland Zoo provides professional development for Ms. Walker and field experience for our 6th graders. You can see this field work opportunity referenced on the Instruction page.
- Walk around the World: The 2013-2014 school year is our first year to work with Walk Around the World, a non-profit that is run by medical students. Medical students come to teach lessons to our 6th graders science students. They talk about fitness initiatives.
- The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, Inc: is working with Ms. Boitnott to coordinate a field trip for Green Team students in May of 2014. See the Water Conservation/ Pollution Prevention page for more information about this partnership.