{"id":1741,"date":"2019-12-04T15:35:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T15:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/?page_id=1741"},"modified":"2019-12-04T16:22:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T16:22:10","slug":"markiaj-tero","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/markiaj-tero\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Interview: Markiaj Tero"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”4\/6″][vc_column_text]\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I really like about garden class is seeing the animals, and planting seeds, and growing fruits, and watering plants,\u201d said Markiaj Tero when asked about his experiences in garden class.\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Markiaj is a 5th grader at Langston Hughes Academy who has been growing food and helping care for Dreamkeeper Garden animals since he was in kindergarten. Garden is helping Markiaj to develop leadership and social skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI made a lot of new friends in garden [class]. And all my friends love garden as m<\/span>uch as I love it… This is the only class when you get to come outside, and take a breath of the fresh air, and see animals, and grow plants.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

For students who are<\/span> new or unfamiliar with the garden, Markiaj is the perfect tour guide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings people out to the garden to show them spaces he loves,\u201d said Markiaj\u2019s garden teacher, Mr. Durham. \u201cHe\u2019s a helping hand for kids who struggle, modeling good behavior and calmness with animals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Markiaj imagines passing on his knowledge to new kindergartners: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell them, respect the plants always. And I\u2019d teach them how to grow plants, pick plants, and water plants, and how to feed the animals. I\u2019d tell them they might feel peaceful in the garden because they can smell the fresh air.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

\"\"Langston Hughes Academy garden education team is starting an internship program for Middle School students, and Markiaj will be one of the first students to participate. Mr. Durham says, \u201cWhile he could do complex gardening jobs himself, it\u2019ll be better to use his time in the garden to let him be a role model and leader for classes of younger kids, because he can so easily connect with them and model to them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His teachers have so many lovely stories about Markiaj over the years. Let\u2019s conclude with this one from Mr. Durham:<\/span><\/p>\n

“His imagination is exciting too. For awhile when he was younger, Markiaj really wanted to be a cowboy. When he was walking into the garden with class, he would give me a silent signal when we were passing a plum tree, take the imaginary lasso off his imaginary horse and \u2018park\u2019 the horse at that tree. That\u2019s where he\u2019d put his horse during garden class. It\u2019s a funny anecdote, but the point is: <\/span>garden class allows Markiaj to feel safe being exactly who he is, and that\u2019s awesome.<\/b>“<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”1739″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”1735″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”1737″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”1745″ img_size=”large”][vc_column_text]Markiaj, when he was first interviewed for a student portrait in first grade.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”4\/6″][vc_column_text] \u201cSomething I really like about garden class is seeing the animals, and planting seeds, and growing fruits,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esynola.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}