Beyond the Classroom: The Verdi EcoSchool connects lessons with nature

The traditional K-12 classroom is evolving — with more families seeking alternatives to the status quo when it comes to what learning looks like and how it is approached.

In Brevard County, the Verdi EcoSchool is bucking what its staff believe are outdated ways of learning and relying instead on a more hands-on, self-regulated approach. Located in the heart of the Eau Gallie Arts District, Verdi EcoSchool encourages exploration of the neighborhood through guided lessons and objectives.

The official mission of the school is to “educate children for an entrepreneurial future through an immersive, hands-on learning environment steeped in nature, sustainability, science and the arts.”

It is a nature- and project-based setting that implements hands-on learning in the context of the greater community and natural environment. Students from preschool age to 14 attend a variety of mixed-age classes where there is no homework assigned, no state-issued assessments and no grades. Instead, students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning through experiencing it.

“This could look like a group of 3-year-old students balancing together to cross a log or a group of teenage students working with a NASA engineer to present a community program about planting, growing and eating food in space,” said Denise Liberi, a teacher at the school who heads up a variety of projects for ages 5 to 14.

Liberi taught for 10 years at traditional public and privates schools before deciding to join the community at Verdi EcoSchool. She liked the "intentional questioning of the status-quo of formal education" and the school's recognition that "play, risk, failure, conflict are crucial elements of learning."

The year-round school offers full-time programs, homeschool enrichment programs and camps, all based on immersion in project-based learning units. Student interest and choice are factors in curriculum design and programmatic decisions. Individualized learning plans are created collaboratively by parents and teachers, with a focus on socio-emotional learning.

“At EcoSchool, we recognize the incredible importance of social-emotional awareness and commit to building self-regulatory skills with our students collaboratively through mindfulness and yoga practice and through implementation of a Conscious Discipline framework,” said Ayana Verdi, founder of the school. “Students develop a strong sense of themselves as individuals and as members of a close community.”

Verdi launched her school in July of 2016 with urban farm labs and environmental science enrichments programs. The full day school began In February of 2017.

The Conscious Discipline social-emotional framework for teaching emphasizes the school family and self-regulation.

The EcoSchool “classroom” experience extends beyond the school’s main building on Highland Avenue. Students and teachers make use of the EGAD Community Garden, Highland Avenue Fellowship, Foosaner Art Museum, Eau Gallie Public Library and Civic Center, Rosseter Museum, Harbor Stay at the Indian River Lagoon, Brevard Zoo, Marine Resources Council Lagoon House and Codecraft Labs. The teaching farm at the Verdi EcoSchool offers an outdoor classroom where students learn about topics in sustainable agriculture, botany, horticulture and ecology. That plot also houses the Eau Gallie Arts District (EGAD) Community Garden where members of the community can volunteer to help cultivate the half-acre plot of land at the center of the district.

While there is no required homework or standardized state testing at Verdi EcoSchool, the school offers at-home extension activities and Florida state equivalent exams upon request. When students move on to another school, they receive a digital portfolio which represents a continuous record of student concept mastery, as well as a transcript that details courses completed at the Verdi EcoSchool.

Jennifer Johnson of Melbourne sends three kids — ages 12, 10 and 6 — to Verdi EcoSchool. Since transferring from a traditional public school, she has seen a positive difference in her children’s attitudes about school — and their performance.

“I’ve seen it reduce their stress about school. They don’t have grades. They don’t send work home, they don’t have homework,” Johnson said. “Just taking away the grades and the grading aspect took away the stress and pressure for them.”

Johnson also appreciates how active the school day is — from Intro to Beekeeping to yoga classes. The “classroom” extends beyond the place students and teachers meet up each day to the immediate surrounding community in the Eau Gallie Arts District. Students walk to the school’s farm area for lessons, to the Yoga Garden for exercise and to the Not Quite Right Improv Comedy Studio for literacy lessons.

The mixed-age class groupings have also been a good fit for the Johnsons. Two kids have some classes together and the variety of groupings help them learn from older kids while mentoring to younger ones.

“Education isn’t supposed to be stressful, it’s supposed to exciting. Verdi is making learning normal, part of your everyday life,” Johnson said. “Now I have three happy kids who don’t dread Sunday night.”

Carmen Bernard of Indian Harbour Beach decided to send her 3-year-old daughter, Felicity, to the Verdi EcoSchool for a different approach on preschool.

“I chose Verdi because of its emphasis on play and nature,” said Bernard, who has a background in early childhood education and is a Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor. “I find that many preschools are caught up in the race towards academics, using developmentally inappropriate practices like worksheets and too many teacher-directed structured activities. They have forgotten that play is the work of children.”

Bernard says that Felicity’s favorite part of her school day is the “mud kitchen,” where she happily mixes dirt, water, and mulch to make a delicious soup.

“Children need more unstructured play time. It enhances language development, social competence, creativity, imagination and thinking skills,” Bernard said. “Verdi acknowledges that and incorporates a love of nature, too.”  

To learn more about the programs offered at Verdi EcoSchool, visit www.verdiecoschool.org.

A Sampling of Classes at Verdi EcoSchool

• Physics of Archery
• Entomology
• Farm Entrepreneurship
• Plant-based Cooking
• Censorship & Literature
• Urban Gardening
• Math in the Garden: Area, perimeter and circumference

Verdi EcoSchool was recognized for its nature-based and environmentally-sustainable model by wellness supermarket Earth Fare. At the grand opening of its Viera store, the company awarded the EcoSchool with a $3,000 grant to be used to continue gardening-based programs at the school.

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