Sage Advice: Everyday Environmental Activism
How green is your classroom?
I start the school year off with a "sustainable pencil challenge." Students must use the same refillable pen or pencil all year. In the beginning of the year, I take a picture of each student with his or her pencil or pen. Then, throughout the year, I ask students to show me their sustainable pencils. Each student who is still using it gets his or her picture on the wall in the back of the classroom. Those who have their sustainable pencil the last week of school will get to share in an outside lunch together with me.
Dan Gross
Science teacher
Valleyview Middle School
Denville, New Jersey
My classroom and organic garden are green as they come! With a huge skylight, we hardly use the lights, and a big tub in my classroom sink lets us catch our graywater for the garden. Outside, we vermicompost our school's food waste and use the by-products to feed our plants.
Jillian Esby
Science teacher
St. Matthew's Parish School
Pacific Palisades, California
Our goal is waste-free lunches. I teach my students about choosing packaging that can be recycled or reused. We rinse out containers that cannot be recycled and use them for art or in our "Invention Box."
Laurie Nakauchi-Hawn
Kindergarten/first-grade teacher
Friends' School
Boulder, Colorado
No classroom is green enough. Off-white walls, tan carpet, and no windows for safety are great for the school district, but not for learning. I try to bring in lots of plants and have some growing around the aquarium. We talk about science, but we do not have classrooms that inspire science without a lot of extra work from the teachers.
Virginia Boatman
Mesa Elementary School
Clovis, New Mexico
I am your typical teacher with a paper recycling box in my class next to the garbage can. The student council regularly picks it up.
Jon Swanson
Social studies teacher
Gretna High School
Gretna, Nebraska
Students take paperless tests and quizzes on their computers. Research papers are sent via email or SynchronEyes, a program that allows file sharing. Students use tablet PCs to complete classwork, homework, and even virtual science-lab activities.
Joseph Ferriero
Biology and genetics teacher
DePaul Catholic High School
Wayne, New Jersey
When classes are doing research, I encourage the teachers to have their students save their work to the teacher's folder on our network drive instead of having students print out everything. Eventually, when the students have completed their research and write their reports, they may again put these in the teacher's online folder. Teachers can access the student work online, read it, and check it without ever having the student print it out. It saves paper and ink.
Lorrie Katsimpalis
Library media specialist
Fairhope Middle School
Fairhope, Alabama
We use recycled paper, and I have a recycling bin for old exercises and paperwork. We also recycle newspapers from our reading exercises, and lights are always turned off when not in use.
