SEEDschool

Transforming Perspectives, Shaping Communities

SEEDschool is a program of The Mustard Seed in partnership with Campus Calgary / Open Minds, which provides Calgary teachers the opportunity to move their classes into a vibrant community site for an entire week of curriculum-based experience, designed to meet the needs of each individual learner. Teachers design and implement a year-long interdisciplinary study that uses the week at the site as a catalyst for learning.

History of SEEDschool

The Mustard Seed has long been engaged in intentional student learning experiences. SEEDschool evolved out of 22 years of summer learning programs, and two decades of speaking and teaching in school classrooms. During the 2016-17 school year, The Mustard Seed and Campus Calgary began to dream about initiating a pilot program at The Mustard Seed. After our initial pilot year in 2017-18 with 5 weeks of programming, we are now an official site running 18+ weeks of programming per year.

Why Campus Calgary / Open Minds (CC/OM) at SEEDschool?

A week at The Mustard Seed is a catalyst for students to become engaged in the creation of their own year-long learning pathway. By incorporating student choice and design, teachers and site experts act as facilitators, working collaboratively with students and grounding education in the local community, students can see the relevance of what they are learning and therefore become more engaged in the learning process. Students engage in hands-on learning about poverty, homelessness, and social issues, thereby challenging students to consider their role in growing and nurturing the community.

Please email [email protected] for more information

Applying for SEEDschool

Any Calgary teacher can apply through Campus CC/OM for their class to participate in SEEDschool. However, we are currently only accepting applications from Grades 3 – 12. Applications become available in February for the following school year. Completed applications will include a proposal describing how you (the teacher) would implement an extended interdisciplinary study using the week at the site as a focus. Selections aren't made on a first come first serve basis but are based on the year-long inquiry plan and factors like whether students and teachers have attended a CC/OM program before, whether a teacher has applied previously and not been accepted, time of year requested, etc. For teachers new to the CC/OM experiences, further questions will be answered and forms explained at the information sessions offered in January and at the teacher’s convention. More information on applications is available here. If you have questions specific to SEEDschool, we invite you to contact us at [email protected]

Resources

The Community Engagement team is also delighted to provide educational resources to teachers, including our Educator's Toolkit that provides curriculum surrounding homelessness, poverty, and empathy, as well as our Booklist that recommends children's books focused on these topics.

Please contact us or read our 2022 – 2023 Student Engagement Opportunities to learn more about how we can be a part of your students' learning!