Environmental Film Festival at Central Technical School
April 26th | |
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Our World, Our Responsibility
An Environmental Conference May 18
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Keynote speaker Andrew Nikiforuk author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
Who should attend:
High school students
Where: University of Toronto Scarborough Campus Date: Friday May 18th Time: 8:45 am-3 pm Cost: $5 Register: Click hereContact: For more info christopher.clovis@tcdsb.org
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 | Upcoming Webinar
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"Sustainability as a Context for Literacy Skills and Social Studies Content"When: Thursday, April 26th, 7:30 pm-8:30 pm Presenter: Dave Wilton Go to Green Teacher's website for details.
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Earth Day Canada resources
Use Earth Day Canada resources during Earth Month and all year long.
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The EcoKids program offers lesson plans and activity ideas for your class (in French too). EcoMentors trains youth to become environmental leaders in their school and communities. Check out the Saturday April 28th presentation by some of today's youth trail-blazers at the ROM, 1-3 pm. For more information contact Josh Stevenson at josh@earthday.ca.
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City of Toronto Community Environment Days |
Environment Days let you recycle a lot of what can't go in your blue toter (electronics, A-V equipment, household hazardous waste), purchase rain barrels, donate items in good condition for re-use, and pick up free leaf compost for gardens. For more information about Environment Days, click here. Event schedule.
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EcoSchools Interdependence Map? | |
Taking note of the people and resources that your school depends on is what happens as you prepare for your certification audit. Maybe doing an EcoSchools Interdependence Map as your year-end certification audit would be a lot of fun as well as eye-opening learning!
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Ride the Ravines
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Pedal your way to a
greener city and spread the joy of cycling across the GTA!
Inaugural charity ride through 25 kilometres of Toronto's Bikeway Network in support of Evergreen Bike Works program.
Date: Sunday June 17th
Time: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Ravine Ride and Rodeo
Registration details.
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Lost River Walks:
Education IN the environment
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Would a Lost River walk be a suitable class activity for your students? Check out how Toronto's watersheds link people and nature on free guided walking tours located throughout the city. Current walk schedule is available on the Lost River website. |
 Shel Silverstein narrates his children's classic's The Giving Tree--a story about a child's source of happiness and so much more. | |
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Getting ready for your EcoSchools certification audit!
EcoSchools "look-fors' in all sections
April is when most EcoTeams gear up, look around, and appeal to
staff and students to help them get ready for the EcoSchools audit.
Often, a lot of what our auditors are looking for has indeed been accomplished, but may have been overlooked or not well-publicized because schools are just so busy with so many initiatives. With that in mind, we have pulled together a resource, Getting ready for your audit: The really big EcoSchools certification "look-fors" (mostly pictures--a quick way to help you focus), to remind you what our auditors will be looking for.
Our big message is spread the workload! We believe that many people--especially your students--are willing to "do their bit" if asked. We very much want the audit (rather like a summative task) to be an opportunity for learning and acknowledging efforts--not a test to be dreaded. We hope this resource will help to make preparing for the audit a whole-school effort. The pictures are great--please share it widely!
Wendy Abbot, our EcoSchools Organizational Guru, is scheduling auditor visits for May and June right now. You will hear from her soon.
Make sure that you have logged in (from a Board networked computer) to say you want to be (re)certified!
Completed applications are due Friday, April 27th. |
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Earth Hour 2012 TDSB results
 TDSB Earth Hour March 30th, 2-3 pm: 21% reduction (compared to 2008 figure) Earth Hour weekend March 30-April 1: 16% reduction (compared to 2008 figure) Kilowatt hour pro-rated savings for all TDSB buildings (based on 29 sites monitored in 2008) is 24,682 KWH---that amount of energy can power 2½ average-sized houses for a year! Since our first Earth Hour we have reported pro-rated results based on the 29 original monitoring sites. Beginning next year we will report on results from 450 sites. Special thanks to Central Services Facility Services manager Rick Daigle and his staff for supplying these results and to our schools for their participation. Well done everyone! Keep turning off those lights (and everything else) whenever you can! |
TDSB/Evergreen Summer Institute
Mapping Pathways into Effective Environmental Education (Gr. 4-8)
EcoSchools Section 4: All questions
HOLD THESE DATES! August 20-23, from 9 am to 3:30 pm
Consider being part of this special summer opportunity to enlarge your ecoliteracy repertoire! Join colleagues in learning in, about, and for the environment in Runnymede PS's Outdoor Classroom and Nature Study
Area as well as in the neighbouring Humber River watershed. Creative mapping activities will provide you with new ways to make links across subject areas, offering fresh perspectives for teaching science, art, and literacy.
Environmental educators Pamela Miller (TDSB EcoSchools Instructional Leader) and Hilary Inwood (OISE educator) will be joined by classroom teachers who will share their best work. You'll connect in grade groups to trade ideas and further enrich your learning opportunities.
TO REGISTER:
Go to Key to Learn>Teacher-Elementary>Professional Growth>
SBR EcoSchools (access link on a Board networked computer)
Course Fee: $50.00 per person.
You will be contacted with payment options after registration.
For more information contact Lisa Fisk, Project Manager
416-737-3678 or lisa.fisk@tdsb.on.ca.
Limit of 35 participants. First-come, first-served. Watch Direct Line for the flyer with more details.
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Don't delay--order mulch today!!!
EcoSchools Section 3: Question 3.4
Why do trees need mulch?
(They will thank you for it!!)
* Mulch protects against pounding feet that compact the soil, squashing air pockets--leaving tree roots no oxygen to breathe!
* Exposed soil invites weeds...mulching keeps them from gaining ground!
* Mulching keeps the moisture around the trees
* A ring of mulch protects tree trunks from tree trimmer damage
* Mulching provides both exercise and stewardship opportunities for students!
Ask your school's caretaker to submit a notification to the Grounds Team Leader for a load of tub-ground mulch (it won't get stuck in lawn mowers). Use the Mulch is Magic tool to calculate how much mulch you'll need to order!
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Food for thought: Why Trees Matter
EcoSchools Section 4: Questions 4.4
The recent New York Times opinion piece "Why Trees Matter" takes the general reader  quickly into some little known territory. Did you know that trees provide health benefits to us through what the Japanese call "forest bathing" or that decomposed tree leaves fertilize ocean plankton? Might a short piece like this be a candidate for a "mapping connections" exercise that allows students to see the multitude of inter-relationships that trees have with the Earth and with us? Or for older students, might it provide an opportunity to critique what's missing, dig deeper, add more?
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EcoSpark's "Changing Currents" program
EcoSchools Section 4: Questions 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
 Changing Currents is a half-day EcoSpark field trip where students in grades 8-12 visit their local stream or river and assess its health by examining the bugs that live in the water. EcoSpark staff will provide the expertise, the equipment, and lots of in-class resources. Teachers are required to attend a training course on April 28th or May 5th.
Click here for more information about the program and upcoming training.
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TREC Kids' World of Energy Festival
EcoSchools Section 4: Questions 4.3, 4.5: Section 5: Question 5.5
This festival offers grade 5 and 6 students a unique range of activities involving science, green technology, art, and sport. Students will learn the science and the importance of renewable energy, experience real world applications of the science they study in  school, learn the benefits and best practices of energy conservation, and get hands-on environmental education in a natural setting.
When: May 15th - 19th
Where: Evergreen Brick Works
Cost: $150 per class (Bursaries may be available)
Registration: Click here
Questions: email education@trec.on.ca or call 416-582-2233 |
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Lights, Camera...Action!--*Solar Idol Contest
EcoSchools Section 4: Questions 4.5, 4.6
This cool new on-lin e talent search is looking for Ontario secondary students' solar science solutions to counter the world's climate crisis. All forms of renewable energy powered by the sun are eligible:
* Photovoltaic (solar panels, PV systems, etc.)
* Photosynthesis (organic food production, etc.) * Wind
* Water (rain, hydro power, waves, tidal, etc.)
* Heat (geothermal, solar thermal, etc.)
* Architecture (green buildings, passive solar design, etc.)
* Transportation (electric cars, trains, etc.)
* Entrepreneurship (solar energy services, green business ideas, etc.)
* Other
Students can work as a group, or they can work individually, to produce their video submissions.
Submit your 1-3 minute video showcasing your innovative solution. (English or French) for online judging by fellow students and by professionals.
Hosted by the Windfall Ecology Centre
Deadline: Friday, June 1st
For more information, please visit www.solaridol.org.
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Sustainable happiness and health education
EcoSchools Section 5: Questions 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 ( sharing ideas for positive action and giving community support)
"Happiness doesn't have to cost the earth." Catherine O'Brien has written a teacher's guide in both English
and French that shows how students discovering the source of their
own genuine well-being can positively benefit the Earth.
Sustainable
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From the "Active and Safe Routes to School" Manitoba Clean Air Day 2009
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Happiness and Health Education looks at the curriculum through a "sustainable happiness" lens. The resource outlines simple lesson ideas (grades K-6) that bring together the basic concepts of
learner-centred pedagogy, educating
for sustainability, and the field of "positive psychology" and applies them to health and physical education. Key concepts include appreciation, internal locus of control, connecting with the natural environment, wants and needs, flow, affluenza (the condition of over-consumption), and one-planet living.
If you only have time for a quick look, check out "Happy Feet, Happy Earth" (page 54) to see walking to school through the sustainable happiness lens. Or glance at the "Interdependence Map" (pp.61-2). Mapping to show interdependence and interconnections is a standard environmental education tool. What's new here is putting it in the context of something we all yearn for--discovering what contributes to genuine happiness and well-being.
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Tree Tenders training course
EcoSchools Section 4: Questions 4.5, 4.6 Want to learn more about trees and how to care for them properly? Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LE  AF) is holding two separate sessions (early and late May) of its four-part course. Details are provided on the LEAF website.
Special offer for ETT members:
The first 5 members to sign-up and provide ETT with a receipt will get reimbursed up to $70 (+HST) for the cost of the course. For more information contact lmonahan@ett.on.ca.
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Keep Toronto Reading Festival event:
Read the Ravines
 John Wilson of Lost River Walks and author Maggie Helwig will lead a guided tour of the Don Valley Ravine where you'll learn about the history of the ravine. Walk along the Beltline trail (Toronto's first commuter rail line) and Milkman's Lane--the route once used to deliver milk to Rosedale homes, discover the " lost" ravines of Yellow Creek and Mud Creek and see how they are being restored, and finish with a tour of the Evergreen Brick Works site. Author Maggie Helwig will read excerpts from her book Girls Fall Down--this year's TPL One Book Community Read selection.
Date: Sunday April 29th
Time: 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Meeting location: The north east corner of Castle Frank Rd. and Bloor St. East, across from Castle Frank station.
More details: Available here. |
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From the editors' desk...
Happiness, Earth Day, and EcoSchools: Finding New Allies
Catherine O'Brien asserts that "sustainable happiness has the capacity to attract the attention of individuals who might never consider themselves to be environmentalists or who feel weary of being prodded toward environmentally friendly behaviour through guilt." Does this approach fill a gap in our environmental education repertoire? She asks us to locate where authentic happiness is to be found, re-framing the pressures on children's lives as opportunities for health education that focuses on kids' relationship to themselves, to others, and to the Earth.
The Earth Day acts of appreciation and caring that schools undertake, be they assemblies or clean-ups or plantings, foster a sense of well-being. Can we carry the appreciative and celebratory nature of Earth Day more intentionally into our day-to-day EcoSchools practices? Is happiness a better motivator than guilt? Would a deliberate focus on contributing to your school's overall well-being help to attract more people to EcoSchools?
What if the phrase "in an EcoSchool every day is Earth Day" didn't trigger a heavy sense of duty but rather a feeling of happiness and pride about taking on such an important common purpose?
Happy Earth Day!!
The EcoSchools Communication Team
Eleanor Dudar, Jenn Vetter, and Diana Suzuki
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