Sunday, May 26, 2024

Simple Ways to Make Your Memorial Day More Sustainable

As mentioned in my last post, he semi-official start to summer is Memorial Day weekend. Fun in the sun for everyone. With both summer and the summer holidays of Memorial Day and 4th of July ahead, use these ideas as a way to bring some sustainability into your summer celebrations. (Pssst...these also work for low key summer days too!)

Additionally, for an interesting article about the intersectionality between Memorial Day, social justice issues, and environmentalism, check out EarthDay.org's 2022 post: The Tie Between Environmentalism and Memorial Day

Ideas combined from the two articles: https://www.earthday.org/the-tie-between-environmentalism-and-memorial-day/ and https://kab.org/how-to-celebrate-memorial-day-while-respecting-the-environment/ to create the graphic from Canva.com

Saturday, May 18, 2024

The Carbon Footprint of Your Cookout

Summer's a-coming and that means so is barbecue and cook out season. A little al fresco, picnic style eating--what's not to love in these glorious days of late spring and summer?

As we all know: everything comes at a cost. Even when it comes to the environmental costs of carbon footprints. 

I ran across this detailed infographic from Kids Discover. Definitely gives you food for thought next time you go flip your burgers!


Infographic from https://online.kidsdiscover.com/infographic/carbon-footprint-of-a-chesseburger?utm_campaign=New+Infographic%3A+Carbon+Footprint+of+a+Cheeseburger+%28w%2Fo+ABS%29&utm_content=New+Infographic%3A+Carbon+Footprint+of+a+Cheeseburger&utm_medium=email_action&utm_source=customer.io; Video from https://resources4rethinking.ca/en/resource/my-cheeseburger-footprint#:~:text=This%20video%20effectively%20tracks%20the,go%20into%20creating%20the%20burger.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Happy Mother's Day

"Maycember" is a fairly new term (thank you social media) referring to the crazy busy time of May....relating in some ways to the crazy mayhem of the Christmas/December holiday season.

May gets truly nutty when it comes to the end of the school year, end of sports seasons, Teacher Appreciation Week, Nurses Appreciation Week, graduations, Mother's Day and more! My calendar is certainly an explosive example over-activity.

It's been a bit of a Maycember for me too. (And probably some Aprilcember too!)

During this mid-Maycember season, I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day. Whether you are one, you are celebrating one, you are an animal one, or give care in any other way, may your day be a wonderful one. Maybe even spending it out and about in Mother Nature.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week 2024

The first full week of May is always Teacher Appreciation Week. 

For all of you teachers out there.... I know how hard you work, especially since it is my day job. 

Teachers show up in a dozen different ways: for their students, their colleagues, their students' parents, their administrators. Teachers plan lessons, learn on a daily basis, share parts of themselves, listen to our students, serve as recess moderators, encourage creativity, sharpen critical thinking, guide, facilitate, nurture, hug, build character, treat wounds, build future leaders, write emails, have difficult phone calls, encourage different perspectives, individualize for unique student needs, write report cards, grade papers and tests, provide parental support and coaching, create global citizens who look beyond their vantage point, embrace student wins, mourn student losses, bolster them back up again, and help them strive to be their very best...and so much more. No day or week or year is the same. The job is both small and big, and ultimately huge. The demands are ever-growing, and the rate of teacher burnout is high. 

But every year come fall, many of us do it over and over again. 

Teachers are change-makers. Molding and shaping and guiding learners--both young and old, striving to make a difference in attitudes, working toward a calling to grow their students....and ultimately society. Sometimes teachers get a bad wrap or negative news, when most every teacher I have ever known is just trying to share that love of learning forward. We're not striking it financially rich in education, but we are gaining a richness in so many other ways.

For those of us who are teachers--this week, let's go forward and build each other up. We all know how hard each other are working and the special demands that are unique to teaching versus other jobs. We need to celebrate each other!

For those of you aren't teachers, take time to thank one who has been a vital part in your own growth and development, or one who was instrumental in making your child(red) shine. I can tell you just how much of themselves teachers are giving you and your children!

Along those lines, watch and listen to Azul Terronez in his TEDx Talk: "What Makes a Good Teacher Great?" Celebrate all the greatness out there that comes from a teacher's heart.