Marigolds
On the top left corner of my silver MacBook Air is a sticker that means more to me than a 2 dollar piece of sticky paper should.
It’s our original “be a marigold” sticker that we ordered back in 2021.
And being a marigold has become the lifeblood of Green & Growing Education ever since.
We send these stickers to each other when we need a pick me up. We send these stickers to teachers who we see doing amazing things in the agriculture education world. We send these stickers to our consulting clients who are movers and shakers of their industries.
But, we might have left out the reason why these silly little stickers mean so much to us.
It all started when we read this blog that Kindra sent to the team way back in 2020. The TLDR (to lazy didn’t read) version is that in education you can surround yourself with marigolds or walnut trees.
Marigolds are people who are encouraging, supportive, nurturing.
Walnut Trees are people who are negative nellies, discouraging, stuck in their ways.
Stick around marigolds and be one for others. Avoid walnut trees and don’t become one.
When we read that blog we knew that:
It passed the vibe check (I mean we are Green & Growing)
Gave us a simple visual reminder of what we believe as an organization for ourselves and our community.
So today is the day that we plant our marigold flag in the ground and say “this is us, this is what we believe, and here is how you can be a part of it”
Without further adieu, I present to you the three reasons why we preach being a marigold:
THREE REASONS WHY WE PREACH “BEING A MARIGOLD”
(and why it’s the Green and Growing Motto and Mission)
1️⃣ Marigolds are beneficial
If you are an agriculture teacher reading this (which is approximately 95% of you) you know about the benefits of marigolds in the garden.
You know that they repel unwanted pests, attract beneficial insects and can even suppress weed to all the surrounding plants. What they really do is elevate the longevity and success of the garden as a whole, right?
You might also know that there are non-beneficial plants to have around. I remember when we first heard about this concept from Kindra Callahan she talked about Black Walnut trees. If you didn’t know (like me at the time) these trees are poisonous to animals and can taint the soil surrounding it.
Not too great, right?
What we believe at G&G is to be a marigold is to be beneficial. When we make decisions we make them to make sure they are beneficial to the teachers we serve.
For example, we stopped offering a winter Germinate conference this year. You might be thinking “how does that help teachers?”
Good question!
After years of providing this conference and getting feedback from our community we realized that we could never find a good time in January to allow most teachers to attend and the timing put a huge strain on the speakers to curate their awesome sessions in October, November, and December since their calendars were slammed packed from National Convention to Winter Break.
So, for the longevity and success for not just the attendees but the speakers we decided to stop offering that and put more time and effort into summer Germinate.
(If you are reading this in real time, the Germinate 2025 Speaker Application is open and we are accepting on a rolling basis to allow you more time to work on your content!)
Something else that blossomed out of a discussion about being beneficial was providing MORE resources, which is why G&G has a small library of resources for teachers to freely download, edit and use.
What hasn’t happened in a while, however, is providing new resources. So to be beneficial and to use our expertise we polled our IG followers and are currently curating new resources MONTHLY for teachers to use.
Just recently we posted the Exit Directions, Email Home and Leadership Start-Ups resources for download.
Finally, we realize wholeheartedly that our team cannot solve all of the education or agriculture education industry issues. What we CAN do is help fill gaps!
Because we have all been in a situation sitting at our desk wishing we had a resource to help us in our next class hoping that someone out there has felt something similar and could provide wisdom. And we have been there when contemplating big life changes and how they will impact our careers.
We hope that the community built within G&G can help you fill those gaps with resources and people.
2️⃣ Marigolds are companions
Going back to our horticultural roots (pun intended) we know that marigolds are fantastic companion plants.
There are certain plants that marigolds enhance, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers and peppers to name a few. They work together like peanut butter and jelly, or national blue and corn gold.
And you know what, that is what G&G wants to be for you. A companion.
Now, companions cannot just give you stuff. A companion accompanies another on their journey.
That’s like hopping in the car, stopping by the gas station for the perfect treats (I’m a white cheddar popcorn and chocolate covered pretzels person), making the perfect playlist and sitting side by side through the weather, traffic, road closures, construction and smooth cruising on that trip.
We truly want that for you. And to be honest it might not be with one of the 6 of us on the G&G team, but we know that it could be with someone you encounter in the G&G world.
Someone who might be different from your background, live in a different state, like different foods, teach different classes, has differing views and yet you become connected through your career and commitment to growth.
You’ve probably heard it before but this community changed my life. I truly felt lonely in my career (especially those first few years in a brand new state). I didn’t know who to ask for help, I felt like I couldn’t ask more veteran teachers or state staff for fear of looking weak or silly, and many times I sat alone at state events waiting for my students to return because I had no one to talk to.
That is not a way to live. Especially in a career that takes up at a minimum 40 hours a week (and that is a very low estimate).
I found my teaching buddies through the internet. And what is crazy is we talk often, if not daily. And it’s not just about teaching ag anymore.
It’s about what cool things we thrifted this weekend
It’s about funny family stories that leave us cackling
It’s about sharing the highs of the day and venting about the lows
It’s about planning the next time we can get together to have fun
THAT is a true companion!
And we know that this is a HIGH goal for us who run a virtual community. We also know that companionship must be interactive. And we know that we have less opportunities to open rooms for these organic friendships to grow.
And so, our commitment in the next few months is to provide more opportunities for live interaction between agriculture teachers.
Why?
I can still remember the people that I was on trivia teams with at Germinate
I can still remember making smores in a mug at a Virtual Coffee with a handful of you
I can still remember Ohhhing and Ahhhhing at Keynote session and seeing your faces light up
I can still remember the first time I met some of you in person
I can still remember being able to share a meal with some of you at Conventions
And you can’t have those connections or memories without being in the same room, virtually or in person.
The best way to stay up to date on these happenings is making sure you’re subscribed to The Gazette, our monthly newsletter.
3️⃣ Marigolds provide beauty
Just last night at our team meeting, we did what we normally do by sharing a win from the week.
And they can be silly like me sharing I got new glasses that turned out were the same as Hannah’s (#lifetwins) to something more heartwarming like Cassidy sharing she was awarded Teacher of the Month and her student gave a beautiful introduction about the impact Cassidy has made that had us all wiping our eyes.
And LC mentioned that she was so thankful about the G&G community because just that day she needed to talk to someone who experienced that issue before and called up someone from a different state and that conversation was “life-giving” to her.
That is the kind of beauty we hope comes from G&G if you are truly immersed in it.
We have moments that bring beauty into our lives daily when it comes to the G&G community.
We want you to be able to walk through the halls at state contests, the expo at national convention, and the banquet halls at NAAE and you feel so much joy and excitement because you are going to see your G&G friends that you have spent days, weeks, months, years talking with and now you get to do life with them together!
This is why we rented a space to have some time to feel that joy and see the beauty that this community has built over the past 5 years.
If you are interested in our in-person Marigold Meetup at National Convention 2024 fill out this form so we can get you the details.
Because when I started Ag Teacher How Tos in 2017 the goal was to just share some ideas and hope it helped a teacher or two.
What this has become since then is beyond my wildest dreams that brings me joy everyday when I sit down in the early morning or late at night to work. I have even made HUGE life decisions that allow me to stay committed to providing this community. And I wouldn't take back those decisions for a second because of what G&G means to the AgEd world and me.
We are invested in providing agriculture teachers need and deserve for the long haul.
We want to be a marigold in your life. We know we can’t be it for everyone and that you have more marigolds in your life like your state ag teachers association friends, the art teacher who is next door to you at school, or your National Ag Teacher Ambassador team.
We hope you have marigolds and that you are a marigold in others lives. We hope that G&G provides you an arena to GET from marigolds and also a place for you to GIVE as a marigold.
Overall, being a marigold is a true celebration of what and who G&G is.
G&G is a place that is beneficial, provides companionship and provides beauty in the lives of agriculture teachers. And we hope that you decide to join into the commitment of being a marigold!
