Because Earth Day should really be everyday....
Because spring has spring....
Because kids need to be outside more and get more Vitamin N...
And because I absolutely love this graphic....
1 teacher. 1 world. Eco-friendly. EdTech-friendly. Classroom-friendly.Teacher-friendly. Kid-friendly. Parent-friendly. Planet-friendly. Sustainability. Innovation. What can we do to increase the likelihood that this one li'l world will be here eons from now? Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or just someone who firmly believes that every tiny bit helps, let's all be part of the solution rather than adding to the problem, knowing that innovation along the way is the way to make that happen!
Because Earth Day should really be everyday....
Because spring has spring....
Because kids need to be outside more and get more Vitamin N...
And because I absolutely love this graphic....
On Earth Day this past Saturday, I was delighted to run across this post on social media from the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
I love that the White House issued this the day before Earth Day! As I have learned more and more over the past decade about environmentalism, it has been striking how much a part of it is tied to environmental justice. NIMBY is a real thing, and it impacts black and brown communities and those less affluent in many ways!
NIMBY, by the way, stands for "not in my backyard," which is a philosophy of many of where we want -- and need -- different global solutions, but people don't want them in their backyard. Classic examples include subsidized housing, waste facilities, factories, wind or solar farms, homeless shelters, and more. Typically the ones complaining and who are heard, are also the ones with power, influence, voice, money, and majority. So more often than not, these items appear in lower income neighborhoods, where the negative impacts affect minorities disproportionately to those in the majority. Additionally, these populations also feel the greater impact of climate change.Hence the need for environmental justice!
To read the White House Fact Sheet of Biden's Executive Order, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, click here.
Additionally, among the many facets of the executive order, Biden and the EPA have released the draft for "National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution." Open to the public for comment, this 41 page document (that you can access online), highlights the following 3 quoted objectives and proposed actions from page 1 of the document:
Marine pollution is certainly a problem that even if we tackle it today, there is pollution and waste that is out there that will still make its way into waterways over time.
Commitment such as both of these major moves is worth celebrating and I'm proud that Biden and the EPA unleashed it right during Earth Day season. It's time we start making forward movement collectively in favor of our planet!
Facebook post from https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=606086091547046&set=a.478972317591758 and https://sustainability.uconn.edu/environmental-justice/ and https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/5-ways-we-can-improve-ocean-health/
Happy Earth Day! What will you do today?
Infographic from https://elearninginfographics.com/10-ways-to-make-everyday-earth-day/
Early Elementary
You can also find more at this link to SimplyKinder.
Middle to Upper Elementary
Middle School, High School, or Older
Earth Day Animated in 5 minutes is also pretty cool. Click here to watch as the creator does not allow playback on other websites.
Image created on canva.com and Videos from: https://youtu.be/IkBRbiRyeuU; https://youtu.be/BIRJgGgqSgU; https://youtu.be/YKhRmZskj9k; https://youtu.be/HnepmcAt1JA; https://youtu.be/qtyBzFV9yTs; https://youtu.be/RNFIPZE5KEg;https://youtu.be/PL31i1cu22U; and https://youtu.be/b6LUaGy1ChA
Here are a few things going on in my elementary tech world this week:
My Kindergarten students will be learning a little bit about Google Docs by creating an Earth Day poster.
Both my 1st and 2nd graders will be using Scratch Jr. and coding to highlight our planet. I'll be having first graders code nature in action with active sentences to show animals in their natural habitat doing what they do. My second graders will get a list of sentences about things they can do to take care of the Earth like recycling, saving energy, carpooling, and more.
With some of my older elementary students, we'll be investigating Scratch to code and create a Google Doodle Logo in an eco-theme with one grade and making Earth Day mazes with another.
With Earth Day a week away, it's not too late to plan either high, low, or no-tech activities to tie in.
Whatever you do for Earth Day, I hope it takes you outdoors, brings about the sharing of awareness, and environmental stewardship! Even better...make it more than the day. Make it Earth Week, Earth Month, or a daily goal to do a little something all year long!
Image from https://www.earthreminder.com/ and https://www.skipprichard.com/25-simple-ways-to-celebrate-earth-day/
For those of you who celebrate Easter, may this spring season and your holiday be a joyous one.
I'm blessed to live in the Metropolitan DC area, which puts a lot of amazing places just a stone's throw away.
I'm also incredibly lucky in that our school provides a 2 week spring break, which opens up a lot of time for adventures. During my recent two weeks break, I had the perfect mix of reading, writing, road trips, home improvements, sleep, exercise, and decent weather. That combination always makes for a nice deep level of rest, recuperation, and revitalization.
One of the many road trips took me on a day adventure to Washington, DC right at the height of the cherry blossoms and peak bloom. While photos never do true beauty justice, here's a compilation of the visual awe of the day. Even though I've been to DC many times, some of the scenes, especially in the spring, never disappoint.
I've written before about the importance of travel, yet it always bears repeating. We become stagnant if we stay in the same place with the same exposures all the time. It opens our eyes and our hearts in so many new ways. We live life more fully in the moment, creating lasting memories while we soak it all in. Our heightened senses help widen our perspective as we take on new experiences and sometimes even new cultures... even here in our own country or even neighborhoods in our own cities.
As the weather starts turning nicer and our days start getting longer, this is the perfect time to embark on an adventure or ten. Find some new places to patter about, and soak it all in this spring. Especially more and more as I reflect on the passage of the 3 year anniversary of the start of the Covid pandemic and all the remote life that led us to live, it seems more and more like we need to get back out and experience new places. I'm blessed that I was able to do that this break--both close to home and far away. We need the novelty to break through our boredom!
Photos from my computer and compiled using iPad app PicEdu.
Tech Integration Teacher @ Severn School.