BELCHERTOWN — Belchertown High School science teacher Louise Levy was this year’s Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year award recipient.

Levy said she was surprised, humbled and honored to accept the award.

Levy added, “I enjoy the opportunity to introduce people to the nature part of our surroundings that are vital to our existence and inviting people in to recognize and admire and also value and protect the natural resources we have around us.”

She was recognized for serving students through her partnership with Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom and involvement with the school gardens.

Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom President Roberta Oles and other members of the organization gathered at the Belchertown May 16 School Committee meeting to present the award to Levy.

Oles first explained that Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom is a nonprofit with a mission to teach educators about agriculture so that they can share that information with students so that the students know where food comes from and anything else related to agriculture.

Oles added, “I am sure you have seen the differences [Levy] has made in ways students learn. We know that she incorporates a lot of getting out to the outdoors, a lot of environmental science, ecology and getting the students to see what is around them and learn more about nature and appreciate it.”

Levy has been an educator for over 40 years with 15 years being at the Belchertown High School.
Her teaching style involves giving her students a more hands-on way of learning by incorporating the school gardens and Lake Wallace instead of giving lessons from the textbook.

“I think there is nothing more important than making sure every student hears the call your community needs you. The way that I have done that over the course of my entire career is to bring them out to their environment and their local surroundings. Agriculture is a vehicle for inviting our students to explore the world in a more hands-on way then we might otherwise if we are just pulling examples out of the textbook,” Levy added.

Ten years ago, Levy created a Life on Earth class as an elective after being inspired by David Attenborough, who is famous biologist.

The class ended up pivoting to agriculture where in the fall semester they learn vegetable gardening and in the spring semester they focus on looking at agriculture through a community and human resource lens.

“It is more of an exploration of local self-reliance and sustainable agriculture,” Levy said.

Levy has had a lot of involvement with the school garden between teaching her students different planting techniques, planting different products and expanding the area.

She said with the help of three grants she was able to add more raised beds for planting, an outdoor classroom, a maintenance team to take care of the gardens over the summer, training to teach other teachers how to include the gardens in their curriculum and a water line to supply to the garden.

By 2019, there were 48 raised beds which allowed Levy and the schools to have the ability to raise and donate over 1,000 pounds of produce to the school and senior citizen kitchen along with other local programs and food pantries.

Even though Levy received the award from the Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom, she recognized it was not just her who did all of the work.

She said, “I took on a leadership role and helped coordinate volunteers and activities and taught summer camps and scout troops and other student groups how to manage the garden and harvest. There are dozens of people who put their heart and soul and literally blood and sweat and probably some tears into making the school garden happen. I accepted the award for all of the people who have made the school garden what it is.”

The coronavirus pandemic made it harder to find volunteers to continue and harvest products from the garden for the community, but Levy added there is an effort to try and rebuild the volunteer base and continue that work.

State Sen. Jake Oliveira (D-Ludlow) and state Rep. Aaron Saunders (D-Belchertown) were also at the May 16 School Committee meeting to recognize Levy and her hard work with teaching and local agriculture.