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!
I subscribe to climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe's weekly newsletter. I've written about Hayhoe in the past, and her interesting dichotomy between her data-driven profession and her faith as a Christian. Her bio on her website shows her rich background from her University of Illinois days (ILL-INI), to her current roles as Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and professor at Texas Tech University. She is also a principal investigator for the Department of Interior's South-Central Climate Adaptation Science Center and the National Science Foundations Global Infrastructure Climate Network. In her "spare" time she's also written Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World and previously hosted the podcast Global Weirding.
She knows her stuff when it comes to climate change.
In her latest newsletter, timed right at the holidays, Hayhoe listed out some podcasts, books, and social media accounts to jump into in order to build hope and education around the issue of climate change. You can read that newsletter here, or find her inspirational social media post (with the following images) on her Facebook page. With the doom and gloom that can be a heavy find when learning more about the climate implications on our planet, it is refreshing to land on inspirational leaders and lessons about how we can make a positive impact in our every changing world. Lots of great places to look into with the new year ahead!
These social media accounts suggestions from Katherine Hayhoe:
If you've been around awhile, you know I'm a major fan of podcasts.
I happened on this website somewhere on social media and it's a complete treasure trove of classroom podcasts on a variety of subjects over at Jeff Glade Tech. Jeff Glade is a Digital Learning Consultant in Iowa who focuses on literacy instruction through a variety off mediums beyond just traditional texts. He has been compiling monthly curated lists of podcasts on a variety of subjects. Each list is in a google slide (typically 2 pages plus a third with explanation), and each podcast he mentions he lists the grade level range for which each podcast would be appropriate. Lots of supplemental resources for your classroom!!
This link takes you directly to the Hispanic Heritage Month Podcasts. Hispanic Heritage Month is rounding out here as it annually is September 15-October 15.
AAPI Podcasts -- Asian American/Pacific Islander Month: May
Conservation Podcasts -- Think Earth Day: April 22nd
Women's History Month -- March
Black History Month -- February
Native American Heritage Month Podcasts -- November
Halloween Podcasts
Pride Podcasts -- Pride Month: June (Other Pride Related Special Days can be found here)
Disability Awareness Podcasts -- Disability Awareness Month: March
At this writing, he also has lists for the following months: February, March, April, Sept, December
He's been compiling current lists since 2019, so you will find multiple clickable lists with the same titles for a true wealth. (They are dated in the bottom right-hand corner.)
He also has some practical ideas about to incorporate these into your lessons with some meaningful activity suggestions and tech integrations that you can easily put into practice in your classroom.
I've mentioned a time or two that I'm a big fan of podcasts. One of my favorites the last few years has been Dr. Sanjay Gupta's "Chasing Life." I love his intelligence, sense of humor, and demeanor, and I think he'd be one of the 5 famous people I'd love to sit down with at a dinner party if I could. I always learn something from every listen with him.
His sixth season of the show started this past February and I'm definitely drawn in. He calls this season "a personal journey" for him, and he has this as his introduction to the season:
As a Lower School Technology teacher, a parent of teens, a person who has read a lot of books over the years on this subject, and someone who lives a lot of life on her phone...and who is living in a world where ChatGPT and AI are all in the news these days, this season's theme has really struck me as well. I often say I have a love-hate relationship with technology... but the deeper enmeshed we become in this "techified" world, the deeper we all get into ALL of it! Not to mention, more and more, the trickle down gets younger and younger and we are seeing the effects on more and more kids, in more and more ways: digital drama, mental health issues at all time highs, and new social and ethical dilemmas all the time.
I recently saw author Tom Friedman speak, and this image of him spoke to me, especially since I had read his book Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. In it he speaks of the speed of life and technology, globalization and the environment, and how people are resistant to change. This picture (and the slide is a visual in the book too) totally sums up where we are...and where Sanjay Gupta seems to be too with this season.
New episodes of Chasing Life come out every Tuesday. These are the topics Sanjay Gupta has tackled so far in season 6. Obviously, more are to come. In each episode he had several experts, authors, and digital influencers on that he interviews. I particularly liked the idea of "mediatrician" that he mentions in episode 3 when he speaks with Dr. Michael Rich, co-director of the Clinic for Interactive Media Disorders at Boston's Chidlren's Hospital. It all gives fascinating food for thought in this tech age in which we live. Definitely feel like this is a must-listen for all of us--parents, educators, and consumers of digital media.
Podcasts are what's playing in my car if I'm on any kind of drive-around-time. It's not surprising that I gravitate to a lot of subjects that intersect here, with GTG.
A rather new-to-me podcast I landed on is called The Internet of Nature. The podcast, created by Netherland-born and Canadian-raised ecological engineer Dr. Nadina Galle, has this overview:
"Can nature and technology—long viewed as opposing forces—work together to stabilize our climate, sustain our urban environments, and benefit our health? Dr. Nadina Galle is an ecological engineer on a mission to find out. Join her every Wednesday as she interviews top CEOs & innovators on their technologies for building greener, healthier, and smarter communities. Each episode contains powerful stories behind the entrepreneur, delves into questions usually shied away from, and explores where the internet and nature converge."
Nadine Galle's Season 4 Episode 10 of The Internet of Nature is called "The More High-Tech Our Lives Become, The More Nature We Need with Richard Louv of the Children and Nature Network." There is A LOT packed into that title alone! One of the biggest parts is the episode's guest: Richard Louv. Author of ten books, Richard Louv's most notable one (which he mentions in the podcast led to his calling) is his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Originally published in 2005, Last Child is where he introduced the concept of "nature deficit disorder." He was one of the first to pull together scientific research on the benefit of nature on our health and well-being. Richard Louv also is one of the co-founders of the Children and Nature Network, a website created in 2006 as a way to reconnect people with nature. The resources on their website alone could have me reading for days, reminding me to get outside
It's no surprise that nature deficit disorder was a large part of the podcast discussion between Richard and Nadina in this episode. Despite his book being 17 years old, we need nature more than ever. Richard discussed the idea of "hybrid mind." While he is often times called "anti-tech," he truly is not--he sees the need and advancements that tech brings. But as with everything, it should be one of those "all things in moderation" issues. Along with the benefits of tech... there is a point of oversaturation. We need to counter it. Nature is that perfect foil. Hence the hybrid mind: the more we are connected to tech, the more important and vital nature is for us! Naturally (pun intended), the more "tech-i-fied" we become, the more we need to be outside.
If we learned anything with how Covid impacted us in 2020, we certainly learned that we are tech-centric bodies in motion. Sometimes, too much so. Zoom school helped us continue learning, yet it was not ideal nor as impactful as in-person educations. Boundaries and borderlines overlap between home and work. 24-7 news, emails, texts, notifications....it is too much. It gives the illusion of being constantly available while we're constantly connected... and often bosses and businesses take advantage of that. It definitely creates a digital anxiety in the stress of all this wired-connection without enough human or environmental connection.
We are collectively getting fried, and we need nature to help rescue our hybrid minds.
Along those lines, Nadina and Richard's conversation turned slightly to politics... but only in the sense that "politics should keep its hands off nature." So many issues in the world have been made binary in an "us-them,""good-bad," "blue-red" mentality. When did being stewards of the environment become partisan... and more importantly, why?! One's love for nature should not be at all associated along political party lines. We ALL share the planet. We ALL need nature. Whether we all know it or not!!!
Clearly, the podcast interview gave me a lot of food for thought and has stayed with me for awhile. I definitely recommend taking a little time out to go have a sit and listen. Whether it's in your car, or out in nature!
I'm a major fan of podcasts--especially on big chore days at home or when driving (especially during longer trips). Being an information junkie can do that to you.
I was recently looking for some new ones to listed to and ran across these curated lists of the latest podcasts in the environmental world! These will definitely keep you busy!
I'm always a fan of a good podcast as we'll as a good book. That's why I was particularly struck with the latest email I got from Dr. Delaney Ruston, Screenagers documentary filmmaker and creator/blogger of the Screenagers Movie website.
Below are the names of each that she listed, along with a few additions of my own (listed below). To learn more about each title, check out Dr. Ruston's post, or the other links below. [She also includes focus questions with each of her posts.]
This summer when I was introduced to the idea of "hybrid school" (where half of the kids are in class and half are remote), my first instinct was it had to be like juggling knives.
I was not wrong.
Hybrid for me at my school means that most of our preschool through 1st graders are in school in person (with the exception of those students who’s parents opt to keep them home full time). Our 2nd through 5th grade students also have a handful of “full-time remote learners,” but otherwise they in person at school either Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday, and every other Friday. It’s definitely mental juggling trying to remember which Friday is which! We bring in our home kids daily via Zoom and Swivl to create a full class experience for our kids. We are using technology more than ever before with Seesaw, our learning management system, online resources like Google Drive, and online reading & math platforms. Our specials teachers either zoom into the classrooms for the littler ones, or travel by cart to the classrooms for our every-other-day kids. We are masked and socially distancing, the latter of which is tricky given the whole nature of being educators… not to mention it’s totally in the nature of kids to come close and be near each other.
Now that I have been in hybrid-style school for a month, entering our fifth week, I’m still finding it exhausting. We are the frontline workers. We are going in daily into what feels like a hot zone.
Daily, there’s a degree of “gearing up” to “go back in there” that I face—when getting out of bed as well as getting out of the car in my school parking lot. Lots of deep breaths and some internal monaloges of “you can do this.” (Sometimes they are interspersed with other soliloquies about hating life.) In some ways, It is getting easier. Often times, it still just as hard as it was on day one. It is just hard, and hard for everyone. I can see the struggle is real for all of my colleagues, who are buckling in and doing the best they can midst all of these crazy times. As the elementary school technology integrator, I have had lessons that have felt like my worst teaching experiences ever as I wrestled with keeping my in class kids engaged while I’ve wrestled (almost individually) with my at-homers. I’ve also had lesson sessions where it actually almost felt like “the good ole days!” I’ve also noticed that the students are completely remarkable—patient and perhaps even grateful, realizing how it feels to be back in school after 6 months at home given both our spring remote learning season and a long socially distanced summer afterwards.
The more I am living this hybrid learning model, the more I'm noticing that it is going to be "the marathon" versus "the sprint." The spring remote learning was the sprint. Everyone was in the mindset of “just get to the end.” It’s definitely a different race here and now. The end, from this vantage point of start of October, is a long way away. From this place, we are in a marathon. We need endurance, stamina, and longevity to make it to May or June. We can't keep going at an unsustainable pace. Pace—steady and slow--is the only thing that will win the race of the 2020-2021 school year.
Likewise, it reminds me of the flight prep on a plane that we get from the attendants: in case of emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first. Teachers, by nature, are planners, and there’s really nothing you can plan or control midst a pandemic. It’s a lot of uncertainty and flexibility, and adapting as things change around us. That’s tough for a lot of us to grapple with… and it is exactly why we need to put on our own mask first. (A near pun, in today’s times.) We do that through going easy on ourselves and making sure we providing space for us to catch our breath, sleep, and heal from the exhaustion of these times. The definition of resilience is having the capacity to recover from difficulties. It’s about mental toughness and adapting to the adversity that surrounds us. It is gleaned in part through self care. Those two pieces are the only thing that's going to get teachers through this time—perhaps our most memorable year as educators.
Teachers notoriously are terrible about self-care. There’s always lessons to plan, papers to grade, parents to email or call. Their own life, families, friends, and other responsibilities get smushed around all of that. But now, more than ever, we need to make sure to find the time for it. Our sanity and ultimate health need us to do just that. Here’s a list of resources that I hope you find helpful, so that these crazy times can begin to feel just a little bit more bearable and ultimately sustainable.
The Counseling Teacher's 50 Self-Care Ideas for Teachers (I absolutely love this printable list in either color or black and white for you to "zen color" yourself)
We head back to school this week. It will be the start of my 27th year of teaching.
Given I have a 20th anniversary around the corner, AND a rather big decade birthday. I'm not sure how I'm able to speak in such large numbers! Sometimes it feels like I've been teaching forever, and sometimes it feels as if it should only be my 3rd or 4th year of teaching. Time, can indeed, be mind-blowing!
It seems as if the I've been seeing those Facebook back-to-school pictures of my friends' kids during the whole month of August. Some parts of the country go early, some go late. It makes our near-Labor Day back-to-school season seemingly late and fortunate. (I know my kids are grateful for the fact that its this week versus a few weeks before!) But I also know folks who don't go back until the last Labor Day hurrah.
Between my own back-to-school meetings, I've been listening to copious amounts of Vicki Davis' "10 Minute Teacher Podcast."My episodes had been stockpiling! I love this podcast as it's daily but only bite-sized bits of inspiration and new ideas. It's a quick listen, and there's always a great take away. It's been good at getting me mentally prepped fro the school year ahead. It always is a little melancholy, saying goodbye to summer. This year, I was doubly in need of mental prep as I have had to take a 2 week hiatus from my backyard pool (aka my backyard Zen place) right before heading back to school due to a minor dermatology procedure. [I've got another week until the stitches come out and I can go back in. I am indeed giddy with anticipation!] My biggest hope is that the water stays warm and I can squeeze in as many days as possible here in the month ahead before fall fully settles in.
Ergo... I've been soaking up Vicki Davis' podcast instead of my pool lately. I was struck by one episode where Vicki talks about how summer is a healing time after our school year--akin to birthing a baby. We've spent the 9 months prior to summer doing essentially the same thing--birthing a classroom community of learners where we take on their troubles, their celebrations, and their academic, social, and emotional triumphs and struggles as well. Just like new mothers, we need our bodies (and minds) to rest and recuperate. We need to sleep while the "baby" is sleeping. For teachers, that's our summer. We don't expect new mothers to bounce right back after giving birth. Teaching is exhaustive in a different way from other professions due to the degree and times we open our hearts and give to others on a daily basis. It's different from other professions. Not better, not worse, just different in a way many don't understand, unless they know, love, or are a teacher!
My hope (here at the end of August) is that you teachers out there have had a restorative summer and are ready to bound into an exciting and adventurous school year ahead. That you worked through the decompression session right after getting out of school (it takes a bit to shift into summer mode), that you got all your appointments in, and that you tackled the items you never can quite get done during the school year (especially around the house). But again, to quote Vicki Davis, "we are human beings, not human doings," so I hope you had time to just chill out, have fun, laugh, sleep, get away, connect with those important to you, read books, spend time in nature, and just "be." All of these things are vital to carve out time for during the school year too--and not just on weekends.
(These things are also all the same things I need to remember mid-October when enmeshed in all the craziness of school and calendars and kid sporting events and more!)
Here are some of my favorite 10 Minute Teacher Podcast episodes--may the help to inspire you to make the most of your first month (and more) of school. Likewise, may they be a welcome listen on those hard days we all have! Cheers to your new year and all that you will birth and build--in yourself, your students, your schools, and your home.
Haunted--in a good way. In a gratitude-sort-of-way.
I got the book for my birthday, made sure to go through the steps to have the book purchase donated to charity: water. The book was an amazing read--of Scott's own mother's environmental health struggles, his dive into NYC nightlight, and then his inspiration to climb out and give a charitable year of his life to Mercy Ships...which ultimately led to his realization of our global problem of over 600 million people worldwide not having access to clean water. This, in turn, led to his life mission and the creation of charity:water 11 years ago.
It's inspired me to give the book as a gift, and it also inspired me to share Scott's 20 minute video "The Spring" with my family. This then inspired us to be a part of the solution for the global water crisis. We joined The Spring, becoming monthly donors to charity:water.
In addition to this, after finishing the book, I needed more. I found Scott on The Good Life Project Podcast. I've visited a number of the videos on charity:water's website, and ran across this video here, in particular. I like the simplicity in its illustrated nature, finding it a very kid-friendly resource.
May watching this video cause you to take pause this holiday season, grateful for what you have (definitely a theme for my season this year), and may it inspire you to be a part of something bigger than yourself--whether it is this cause or another one that speaks near and dear to your heart.
My birthday is next week. Not a "big" one, but I'm getting close, only a year away to "a big one."
After listening to one of my favorite podcasts, the Model Health Show, I was inspired. I think this year I'm going to donate my birthday--in 1 of 2 ways.
Not only is Scott's story compelling, but it's also a carries environmental bookends given his family's monoxide poisoning in their new home when he was a boy to his inspiration to create Charity: Water.
Additionally, here are some facts about clean water--and the lack there of:
663 million people worldwide live without access to clean water. (That's almost 1 in 10 people--or twice the population of the US.)
Women and girls are impacted the most--they are primarily the ones who walk miles/hours to get clean water, carrying 40 pound canisters of water--sacrificing their education and sometimes even their personal safety.
Diseases from dirty water cause more deaths (especially among the young) than all forms of violence--including war.
Donations to Charity: Water has funded nearly 30,000 projects--with all public donations going to the projects (versus any kind of internal financial management or salaries.)
$30 is enough to provide clean water for one person.
To learn more or get involved...watch the video below:
As a teacher, life is pretty hectic 3/4 of the year. But summer rolls around and opens up time a little bit, which also means it opens up life to a little more down time, thought time, and relaxation time.
For years now, summer is also my time to focus a little more on my health, my food intake, my level of exercise and movement, my time outdoors, and my brain space. I read more books, listen to a few more podcasts, lose a few pounds, up the steps on my pedometer, and have more time to do all those things I never had a chance to get to during the school year.
Recently I was listening to the Chalene Show Podcast (her June 4th episode with my favorite Shawn Stevenson from the Model Health Show, which focused on "6 Morning Habtis for Weight Loss"). Chalene Johnson was talking about her dad feeling under the weather and headed to the doctor. She summed it up to an insulin crash where he had a very carb-heavy traditional breakfast of cereal, toast, orange juice (after the last thing he ate the nnight before was ice cream). She was convinced it was low blood sugar due to his food--his doctor didn't even ask about his nutritional intake. She was discussing how food is medicine, and unfortunately many in our doctors in our culture don't even look at this important element.
Insert Food Tank here. This is a good portal (both online and on Facebook) where food-related health topics are addressed. It's especially important as we look at the statistics of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and more that are on the rise and causing major risks to people. From their Facebook page:
"Food Tank is a non-profit organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. We spotlight environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty and create networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change."
Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder of Food Tank in 2013 and current president of Food Tank, is impassioned about fixing our broken food system, feeding the hungry, and helping our environment... especially since we are all eaters. Here is her TEDx Talk from March 2015.
On Food Tank's website, you can find news on the following topics, each with articles pertaining to the health and food issues. It's a vast learning library and way to start thinking like food activists, advocates, and innovators
If you have been hanging around for any amount of time over here at GTG, you know I'm a mega fan podcasts. It's a good way to get a daily dose of inspiration...especially when held captive in the era of being an uber-taxi-driving mama! (Though I will admit--the Hamilton Soundtrack is a close second!)
The Maker Movement connection also spoke loudly to me in this particular Good Life Project episode. I love how he discusses "the touch economy," and how the more digital we all become, the more the maker movement is a growing trend in education (including the high tech, low tech, and no-tech sides of the maker movement). He also had some very interesting comments about the voice-only aspect of podcasts, and how it helps us all connect deeper to each other on the empathetic and emotional levels.
I'm rounding out 9 months of being Diet-Coke-Free. Only Green Tea and water for me these days, Bay-bee! (Well, yes, the occasional vino as well!)
And I really will say, regarding Diet Coke....I don't miss it. I thought I'd miss that zingy zip, but I really don't. It might be because of the spicy Bigelow green tea that I love. (No fruity tea for me, thank you very much.)
They say recovering alcoholic are the worst in their attempted conversion. Same for smokers, over-eaters, & probably newly turned Vegans & more. Odds are high it's true for Aspartame addicts as well. I'm not trying to be in that category, yet I will say this video did strike me multiple times in my old Diet Coke department.
In the multiple episodes of Shawn Stevenson's Model Health Show I've listened to over the years, This is my go-to podcast! In it too, I've learned that food & intake are probably more important than exercise.
This video highlights that too. It also packs a punch with all of it's factual information. It's worth a watch!
Just in time for Earth Day ahead, there's a new podcast in town. (Actually, at this point, it's not as new as it used to be at the start of 2017!) This one is brought to you by Ed Begley, Jr. and his wife Rachelle Carson-Begley, and is called Begleyesque. Perhaps so we can all "speak-Begley!"
Ed Begly, Jr.'s name might sound slightly familiar to you as he's both a long-time actor (anyone remember St. Elsewhere?) and a mega-environmental activist. He practices what he preaches, living in a solar powered home, driving an electric car, and currently building a LEED Platinum-Certified house for their next home ("Our Green House with The Begleys"). He and Rachelle (also an actor) co-starred in the reality series "Living With Ed," which was shown on both HGTV and Discovery’s Planet Green.
Given all the "green" above, yes, this weekly podcast is about "living green." It's a fun mix of Hollywood celebrities and environmental innovators chatting with Mr. & Mrs. Begley. There's also a Q&A segment per episode, with the gameplan being "saving the planet one person or household at a time."
The mission of Green Team Gazette is to advocate and educate for environmental stewardship, to promote positive examples of "green" living (both in & out of the classroom), to inspire readers to pursue more sustainable choices, and to encourage teachers to embrace technology in their classrooms as a way of capturing student creativity, collaboration, & innovation. It is through engaging teaching practices and forward thinking that our future leaders will flourish.
It's not always easy being green, but I'm pretty passionate in my pursuit! A lot of times, innovation & edtech will get you there! Just don't forget to go outside!!
All posts and commentary are my own and not necessarily those of any organization I am affiliated.
