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  EcoSchools Newsletter
February 2013
Volume 5 Issue 4
Special winter reading issue connects local and global news
In this issue
Completing EcoSchools requirements
City of Toronto report
Tree thoughts and mushroom-growing kits
National Sweater Day
Feb. 15th Workshop: Environmental literacy
Feb. 27th: Hike, dinner and Chasing Ice
TDSB Earth Hour
Earth Hour challenge!
R4R's winter outdoor learning: the action "down under"
Science kits and ecoliteracy
Do you teach outdoors?
Young people yearn for environmental action!
Backyard rinks an endangered species?
From the editors' desk....
Climate change: how can bad news be good? 

David Runnalls' newspaper article about the major speeches from the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is a stunner. He quotes Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF: "We need growth, but we also need green growth that respects environmental sustainability. Good ecology is good economics. This is one reason why getting carbon pricing right and removing fossil

 
Click image for IMF Climate Change presentation 

fuel subsidies are so important." The World Bank President Jim Yong Kim warned about the dangers of climate change to developing countries: "global warming imperils all of the development gains we have made."

 

What makes this a breakthrough moment is that climate change has finally come to the table of the world's most influential economic bodies. Addressing climate change is now a top economic priority.

 

We should tell them about EcoSchools. For ten years we have been helping staff, students, and parents in the quest to change behavior and open minds to the new reality our children will face. Now that the world's economic leaders are delivering the message, we may be reaching a global turning point.

 

Climate change is the worst possible news--so bad that we mostly avoid thinking about it in any long-term way. Participating in EcoSchools is direct evidence that we are taking on this tough challenge, with so many small acts making a bigger and bigger difference in our schools.

 

Lagarde must have silenced the doubters in her audience when she responded to why this matters so much: "Unless we take action on climate change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled." We are taking action, and in appropriate ways that appeal to the idealism of our staff and the enthusiasm of our youth. EcoSchools gives students a way to make changes at their schools, setting a pattern that we hope will carry them through their lives in making the world a greener, safer place. This is good news!

 

To read Runnalls' Feb. 1st Globe and Mail article, click here.

 Quick links

 

Subscribe Now 

 

 

 

To register, simply fill out the contact information and click "next," and that's it!

The final deadline for submitting your application to be (re)certified is Friday,  

April 26th.

 

 

 

  

Contact us!

 

Wendy Abbot for general questions, anything to do with applying online, and decisions about having  an audit

Erin Wood for support in building your EcoSchools program

Pam Miller for questions about ecoliteracy

Lisa Fisk or Deborah Moffett for questions about platinum certification

Gail Bornstein for questions about school ground greening 

 

 

Completing EcoSchools requirements: what are schools doing?

"What are schools doing?" we keep being asked. Some are able to carry on through creative means with relatively little disruption to their program. Student leadership has come to the fore.

  • A grade 7 class has become the EcoTeam at its school, continuing projects and organizing campaigns.
  • An 'ecoclass approach' has become a way to develop whole-school involvement. One class is responsible for waste, another for energy, etc. The ecoclasses rotate.
  • A first-time EcoSchools applicant is running the program through small student teams with very focussed tasks (announcements, energy monitoring).
  • The principal supervises all the clubs (including the EcoClub) during lunch hour. Student leaders for each club head the initiatives.

More teachers are finding ways to embed components of EcoSchools into their day to day classroom work. Actions such as monitoring energy and communicating results, assessing garbage, and creating environmental posters have become classroom projects at one school, starting with a single teacher and gradually spreading to other classrooms.

 

Whatever stage you find yourselves at, we are here to help. See the contact us information in the sidebar. 











The sharing economy, from soup to nuts

Here's a different look at the connection between consumption and the economy that is part of the conversation about building a more sustainable society.

"You learned it in preschool, and now it's back in a more grown-up way. From cars to kids' clothes to cold hard cash, sharing is caring more than ever before. The sharing economy builds and leverages social bonds, creates a more democratic marketplace, reduces the sheer amount of stuff we need to buy, and creates more resilient communities in the process."
                 Susie Cagle
.

City of Toronto report: predicted temperature rise by 2040

A 2012 City of Toronto report predicts that by 2040:
  • Average summer temperatures in the city will rise by 3.8�C, with maximum average temps at 44�C instead of today's 33�C
  • The number of days with temperatures greater than 30�C will increase from 20 to 66
  • The number of days with the humidex above 40�C will rise from 9 to 39
  • The number of days a year above 24�C will grow from 31 to 180.  Twenty-four degrees Celsius is considered to be the temperature at which many people turn on air conditioning.
Read the whole report, Toronto's Future Weather and Climate Driver Study: Outcomes Report. For commentary about the report's reception by Councillor Norm Kelly, chair of the Parks and Environment committee, read Catherine Porter's column in the Toronto Star, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2013.

We'll need healthy trees for healthy children on our school grounds more than ever!

 

 

 

 

 

If you didn't get time to read December's newsletter, click now to watch an amazing account of  "6 ways that mushrooms can save the world."

 

 

Thoughts on trees in school grounds 

 

Trees in our school yard give us places to 

Rest, shelter and shade.

Environmental awareness and

Educational opportunities abound in the

Spaces where trees grow!  

 

                       Megan Kenzie Vernon   

Kindergarten teacher, Regent Heights PS

 

 

 mushroom growin kit\

Tree thoughts and the mushroom-growing kits draw

Trees are life. The growth of a tree both above the ground and below is a gold mine of lessons. (The youngest child can trace its roots as they push up the asphalt in their search for water.) 

 

We received several thoughts about trees on school grounds almost as soon as the newsletter was sent out on December 18--pretty amazing for one of the busiest times of the year! We heard caring thoughts from principals, teachers, and students. Thank you.

 

Trees benefit our students for generations--for all the wonders they provide, the shade and cooling, the magic on our school grounds, places to find solace in, beautiful living memorials--and long after school days are past, precious childhood memories. Click to read people's thoughts in  Why we love trees

 

More kits! We thought we had only four mushroom-growing kits to give away, but it turns out we had more. All who have entered so far will receive a kit. AND we have some left--so maybe it's not too late to get one! (This time we will need to do a draw if demand exceeds supply.)

 

To enter: Send us a couple of sentences about a tree or trees and school grounds...real or imagined, past or present. Please title your message "Mushroom kit draw: my thoughts on trees in school grounds" and include your name, grade(s) and/or subject(s) taught, and school.  We will add your thoughts to our Why we love trees collection.

Deadline: Thursday, February 21st



National Sweater Day Feb. 7th: Wear a sweater and conserve energy!  

Did you know? If every Canadian lowered the heat by just 2 degrees this winter, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4 megatonnes!!

 

20/20 The Way to Clean Air

 

Help students apply their learning about energy conservation in school and at home by registering for the 20/20 campaign. Written at a Grade 5 reading level, the 20/20 Planner is available to teachers and students of all grades. An introductory package will be sent to all grade 5 teachers (for sharing!).


Preview the other resources available (including 13 lesson plans) by clicking here

EcoSchools Section 1: Question 1.6, Section 4: Question 4.5, 4.6, 4.7; Section 5: Question 5.7  

York Mills CI, Feb. 2012

 

National Sweater Day is WWF's light-

hearted campaign to raise awareness about energy use and climate change. Last year, 1.5 million Canadians donned warm sweaters, turned down the heat and helped to conserve energy. If you're not quite convinced that wearing a sweater can make a difference, watch this impassioned plea from a grandmother to wear your sweater!  

 

Schools have the people energy needed to make this an especially fun event! It's just days away. Consider making a PA announcement inviting everyone to participate.


What have you got to lose?

 

 

 

 

 

Foodshare Learning Series  

Looking to increase your knowledge on food education? For information about Foodshare's Field to Table School Learning Series for educators click here. The first workshop, "Enliven Your Nutrition Month," is March 13th. To register or for more information contact Brooke Ziebell, brooke@foodshare.net.

  

 

 

 

Great Big Crunch
coming March 7th 
The Great Big Crunch is back...with new crunching! Because the Ontario apple crop was so badly affected by last spring's unusual weather, all locally grown crunchy fruits or vegetables will be included. To find out how to participate in this year's event (and to access activities and resources) click here.


 

Environmental literacy workshop for high school newcomers   

EcoSchools section 4, potentially all questions 

 

Do you teach ESL or have newcomer students in your classroom? Teachers and eco-embassadors at Greenwood Secondary School (an all-ESL high school) have been developing many effective strategies for teaching ecoliteracy to newcomer high school students.  

 

 

This workshop is part of the annual secondary school ESL/ELD mini-conference and will focus on school-wide and class-based activities that help raise awareness about the need for ecological stewardship. Bring a memory stick for take-home resources.

 

 When: Friday, Feb. 15, 8:30 am-3:00 pm. Participants select two workshops from the morning and afternoon sessions.

Where: John Polanyi CI, 640 Lawrence Ave W

Register: Go to Key to Learn  (on a TDSB networked computer) and search for "Celebrating Linguistic Diversity Lite!"

More information: Contact iva.kinclova@tdsb.on.ca.







Break your evening's hibernation for a hike, dinner out, and Chasing Ice!! *

The ETT Environment Committee and Forest Valley Outdoor Education Centre staff are sponsoring a winter wonderland hike in the Don River Valley, followed by a light dinner and the stirring, multi award-winning film Chasing Ice! This visually stunning film assembles evidence of climate change using time-lapse photography to, in the words of the promo "compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice as they disappear at a breathtaking rate." Organizers hope to have director Jeff Orlowski or researcher-photographer James Balog skyped in to join us. Don't miss it!

 

Click to see the trailer and read more about Chasing Ice.

 

*Who can come? This event is for ETT and OSSTF members.  

When: Wednesday, Feb. 27th, 4:15 hike; 5:15 film

Where: Forest Valley Outdoor Education Centre

Questions: Contact Pam Miller 

Register: By Feb 20 at 4PM. ETT members register online.

                   OSSTF members contact Tim Heffernan   

Click for  event details including map.

Earth Hour electricity savings at the TDSB 2008-2012 

 

The TDSB was an early adopter, demonstrating a solid 22% reduction in energy use during the first Toronto Earth Hour. Take a look at the graph to see our history at a glance. Can we match (or exceed!) the remarkable 30% drop in energy consumption we achieved in 2011?

 

   

TDSB Earth Hour Energy Savings*

Earth Hour Graph
*Compared to 2007


Introducing the Earth Hour Forest

"The world's first Earth Hour Forest will be created in the East African nation of Uganda, to fight against the 6000 hectares of deforestation that occurs in the country every month. With much of the forest converted to wood fuel, the rapid deforestation rate is threatening to wipe out the entire green cover of the 'Pearl of Africa'." Read the whole story here.

 

Earth Hour 2013 will take place on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30pm local time.

 

TDSB Earth Hour: Friday March 22nd, 2-3 pm 

EcoSchools Section 1: Question 1.6, Section 4: Question 4.5, 4.6, 4.7; Section 5: Question 5.7

In this challenging year some schools are worried about losing momentum. Earth Hour provides a great opportunity for a Earth Hour Logo sharply focused, awareness-building effort. Students can take the lead in this simple, direct action campaign and organize their school to do as little or as much as it can manage. Imagine the learning opportunities for building environmental citizenship skills!

Why bother turning out the lights for an hour? Isn't it just symbolic? Yes...and no. Many of our schools have gone way beyond the hour. And symbolic actions, like the minute's silence on Remembrance Day, can be very powerful. Instead of a minute, it's a whole hour observed by millions of people around the Earth to build awareness of our need to reduce energy use--and create an appetite for doing more. Participation in Earth Hour is about daring to taking positive environmental action, wherever we can make a difference.

 

What about teaching? Earth Hour is a sure-fire way to add a new note to teaching about energy or citizenship action that has created change. Or writing that inspires questions to expand the action of the hour! 

 

For action ideas check out ecoschools.ca>earthhour or the WWF global Earth Hour site.



We dare you to take up the EcoSchools Earth Hour "Dare to Dance" challenge!





Our EcoSchools central team loves collaboration, action and a good dare.  

Here's the deal: If 100 schools each send in a photo of a school-wide Earth Hour eco-action, we'll produce a celebratory Earth Hour slideshow of the collection. AND Deborah Moffett, our newest EcoSchools team member, will take up our dare to dance down Toronto's Yonge Street (from Lawrence to Queen's Quay) on the Sunday before Earth Day (that's April 21st). All who dare to join her for any part of the dance journey will be welcome--rain, shine or snow. (Who can say? It's a climate-changed world.) Are you up for it?  

 

Click here to read more!  



R4R's winter outdoor learning: the action "down under"  

r4r.ca is Learning for a Sustainable Future's searchable database of interdisciplinary lesson plans, curriculum units and other teaching resources. All resources have been peer-reviewed and are linked to provincial curriculum.

 

 

Seeing snow in a new light
Read "Packed to the Hilt" by Jeff Hull
, an article about life under the snow and measuring the impacts of global warming.

 

Did you read in the January 2012 issue "What about snow?" and "Winter quick-starts." 

EcoSchool Section 4: Questions 4.2, 4.3, 4.4  

 

Climate change is replacing the weather in elevator talk with strangers musing about why our last two winters have had so little snow. Beyond its recreational and aesthetic value, snow plays an important role in our ecosystem. Underneath that quiet white blanket hums a world of activity. When we get our next good snowfall, your school grounds can be a great place to engage students in subnivean (that layer under the snow) explorations!

 

Check out the cross-curricular activities in Step Outside's feature article "Snow--the Action Down Under" for some new winter outdoor learning ideas. Try out "Melting Ice," one of R4R's top picks, which explores the effect of melting ice on global systems (middle and secondary grades). Partway down the article, clicking on Solidifying warm gelatin in clear canisters will take you to a 13 page pdf of "Winter Wildlife" activities from Edwards Camp and Conference. Or simply take a walk after a fresh snowfall and invite students to search for different types of snow (see the list of Inuit words for kinds of snow by scrolling to the bottom of the main article).









Smart highways in the Netherlands  

 

Highways that glow in the dark? Motion-activated street lighting? Magnetic fields that charge electric cars while in motion? Sounds like a science fiction movie, but it isn't. A Dutch design firm will begin transforming roads in southern Holland into smart highways, this year! Check it out here.

 

Science kits and ecoliteracy  

 EcoSchool Section 4, Questions 4.4, 4.5  

 

Are you looking for hands-on science experiences for your students? The Science and Technology department offers kits that do just that. Not only will students have fun as they experiment, but the skills they develop will help to build the foundations for ecological literacy. You can borrow most kits for up to six weeks.

 

Do solar panels work in the winter?  

Of course they do! Book the grade 6 electricity kit and build electrical circuits powered by batteries or solar panels. Discuss energy (renewable and non-renewable) on a local and global scale with students by starting with a live solar pv system right here in Toronto. Students can get an online view of the live system at Sir William Lyon Mackenzie (generating energy right now!).  

 

For a complete list of other Science kits available for booking, visit the Library and Learning Resources site (Medianet) and do a full catalogue search for "Science and Technology Kits."
 If you are on a TDSB networked computer, click here.

green teacher



Green Teacher webinar winter 2013 series


One hour sessions, led by innovative
and experienced educators. Each session features a 20-30 minute presentation, and 30-40 minutes for questions.

On Feb. 18 (7:30-8:30 pm EST) Stephen Glazer will describe how community treasure hunts animate learning as students get to know their local environment. Integrated learning inevitable!


For a list of upcoming events and to register click here 
Do you teach outdoors? Are you interested? Read on!

You can help us to entice teachers to "step outside" more often for some of their classroom program delivery!

 

Here's a chance to share your experience! The Back to Nature Network, Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO), Green Teacher magazine, and Ontario Society for Environmental Education (OSEE) are co-sponsoring a call for articles from Ontario teachers and TAs (K-8) who regularly use the outdoors as the context for teaching environmentally themed lessons.  

 

An online publication will be the end result. For more information about the publication and what to include in your article, visit the website.

.TREC KWE logo

Kids' World of Energy Festival  

The 2013 Festival will be held from  

May 8-11 at the Evergreen Brickworks.

If you are interested in participating, volunteering, registering your class or sponsoring the upcoming festival, check out the festival webpage for more information.

 

Young people yearn for environmental action!  

Naeve Allen, a vocal 10 year-old from Vernon, B.C. wants to know why her local politicians aren't doing more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Click here to find out more about her presentation to city council.

 

We know many Toronto youth are active and engaged. Help us find and share stories of inspiring young Toronto activists who are demanding change from our civic leaders. Submit your ideas to Deborah.moffett@tdsb.on.ca.




Are backyard rinks an endangered species?  

  

   

Listen to Professor McLeman on CBC's Ontario Morning here.

 

Go online and enter your backyard rink or just to have a look at who is skating outside in Canada this week!  

 

Calling all "hosers"! Researchers at Wilfred Laurier University are using backyard rinks to track climate change. Rinkwatch is a recently launched website that invites Canadians to become part of a giant Canada-wide science project. All you have to do is send weekly and annual reports on the condition of the ice in your backyard.

 

You may not think of it as science, but that's exactly what you will be doing--making regular, systematic observations about environmental change in your own backyard. You will be joining a growing league of citizen-scientists from every province and territory in Canada.

 

Geography and Environmental Studies professor Robert McLeman hopes that this project will help get families observing changes in climate by monitoring their own backyard rinks.

 

Pooling enough data from across the country will enhance the data coming from weather stations, giving researchers the kind of resolution they don't get from weather stations alone.  



From the editors' desk...  

  

 

  

Carrying on....  

 

One teacher whose school will not apply to certify this year has written: "Rest assured we are still very much an EcoSchool. It has become a part of our genetic code. However, without extra-curriculars, such endeavours suffer. This year we continue to weave environmental action into our curriculum and school and community psyche."

 

 

 

 

 

Special thanks to Akash Patel and Deb Moffett whose help in assembling this newsletter was essential.

Keeping the spirit alive!

  

Preparing to become a (re)certified EcoSchool is always a challenge. And it's not strictly required--even though it is enmeshed in curriculum, student leadership, community engagement and reducing our schools' environmental impact. That's why it is such a heroic enterprise.

 

Of course becoming certified is a more difficult task this year. While achieving certification is valuable, maintaining the spirit of EcoSchools and continuing as much of the good work as possible no matter what is even more valuable.

 

We feel lonely. Please stay in touch even if you are not planning to have a certification audit this year. And thank you to each one of you for carrying on as best you can.

 

Through rain, shine or snow...

 

Our very best wishes,

Eleanor Dudar, Jenn Vetter and Diana Suzuki