Teaching Portfolio
Jennifer Idleman, 2019
One Educator's Story
When she first started, she did pretty well. Some plants took off! But some just did ok.
But Jil didn't really know why those things happened.
About 15 years ago, Jil decided to start a garden.
This is Jil.
So she devoted herself to learning about her garden. She went back to school...
and talked to her peers about her mistakes.
She also realized that it wasn't just about what she was doing. Growing a garden was a partnership between her and the plant...
As her knowledge grew, her practice changed. Jil started getting more consistent results.
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and sometimes outside forces.
Over the years, Jil learned what was most important to growing strong, healthy plants was to listen to what each needed and then teach them to guide their own growth.
This always led to her plants developing more substantial roots, helping them grow for years to come.
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Though her garden was generally thriving, Jil came to realize that some plants just needed
their own pot...
and individual growing conditions.
Being a Master Gardener came with a lot of rules and paperwork.
It was not her favorite part of the job, but she learned a lot from doing it.
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But, if she was being honest...
keeping track of so many individual plans was completely overwhelming.
So Jil took a closer look at what she thought her garden really needed and how she could deliver it.
She used technology to help.
Meanwhile, Jil, not being the sort that sticks to only one endeavor...
A couple of times, Jil had to put all of her plants in a greenhouse and leave others to care for them—which made her very nervous!
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also became involved in her gardening community in a variety of ways.
And when she returned, she had new distractions...
which slowed her progress some.
But now she's back in business,
and would love your feedback on her gardening techniques!
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