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LSF's Quarterly Newsletter
Fall 2013 | | |
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Greetings!
Welcome back to a new school year! Learning for a Sustainable Future is here to assist you with new ways to engage your students - be it outdoors, embracing responsible citizenship, or other facets of transformative learning!
Fall Highlights Include:
Enjoy,
Pamela Schwartzberg
Executive Director
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 NEW! The Our Canada Project 
The Our Canada Project was created to inspire all youth to be engaged, responsible citizens and to take action toward a more sustainable Canada. This is a platform for youth to share their voice and the actions they have undertaken or wish to undertake in their school and community.
- What's your vision of a better Canada?
- What are you doing to make it come true?
Six Step Citizenship Lesson Plan for Educators:
1. Students read 'Other Goose' or another citizenship themed book found on R4R.ca.
2. Students brainstorm what they enjoy and what they would change about Canada/their local community.
3. Students discuss what they would change about Canada/their local community and how this change could occur (What's your vision of a better Canada?).
4. As a class or in small groups, students create a list of simple actions they can take individually or collectively to move towards their vision of a better Canada (What are you doing to make it come true?).
5. Encourage your students to create an art piece, take a picture, or make a video showcasing their ideas.
6. Students log-on to www.ourcanadaproject.ca to share their vision, action plans and picture/video with other students across Canada.
Coming Soon: The Our Canada Project Video!
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Professional Development Survey Tell us what you want in a PD Experience!
Learning for a Sustainable Future believes that educators should identify and pursue the Professional Development that they deem relevant to their practice. Doing so will improve their professional inquiry. LSF is conducting a survey to identify the features of PD which will support this approach to professional learning. This survey will ask you a series of questions about yourself, your professional development interests and needs, and the resources you have to support your professional development. The first 50 respondents to complete the online survey will receive a free 1 year subscription to Green Teacher Magazine.
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NEW! Teacher Resource
Protecting Our Sacred Water
The guide, developed with support of First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) Elders and educators, focuses on how to respectfully incorporate FNMI knowledge and culture into your classroom and engage Aboriginal youth to take action and create change on an issue they care about. The Action Process has been designed to utilize and honour FNMI ways of knowing.
Download the guide online. Contact angela@lsf-lst.ca for professional development workshop opportunities.
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LSF Jack Layton Award
LSF Jack Layton Award for Youth Action in Sustainability
LSF established the LSF Jack Layton Award for Youth Action in Sustainability to honour Jack Layton's passion for optimism and hope in creating a more sustainable future. Nominees for the LSF Jack Layton Award have responded to community challenges with creativity, responsible citizenship, and in novative action.
Congratulations to Chedabucto Education Centre/ Guysborough Academy in Nova Scotia, the winner of the 2012-13 LSF Jack Layton Award for Youth Action in Sustainability!
Students at Chedabucto Education Centre/ Guysborough Academy planned and hosted a school board-wide food security symposium, engaging over 100 students, teachers, and community members at the event. As part of the LSF Jack Layton Award the school received $500 in funding from LSF to continue their sustainability efforts throughout the school year.
Make sure to check out their entry on the Our Canada Project website.
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EcoLeague™ Youth Forums
LSF's EcoLeague™ Youth Forums offer hands-on, skill-building workshops about local sustainability issues. The youth forums act as a springboard for students to develop and implement their own action projects within their school and community. Teachers attend a teacher workshop to gain resources and skills in integrating sustainability education into their classrooms.
Register for an Upcoming Youth Forum: |
EcoLeague™
Linking Education to Action 
Action Project Funding Apply for up to $400 in funding to engage your class in a sustainability action project. Online applications are due by November 1, 2013.
EcoLeague™ Success Story: William G. Davis Public School, 
Ontario Grade one students did a front yard cleanup and planted a community garden with the help of a local secondary school...Continue reading. |
R4R Hot Topics This year, you can view our Hot Topics Calendar, to learn which national and international campaigns R4R will feature throughout the school year. You can use these events to connect your students to some of the efforts being made to address important issues that are affecting our planet.
The October Hot Topics for 2013-2014 are:
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Resources for Rethinking (R4R.ca)  Online Video Resources
R4R.ca now features a searchable-database of video resources. This inventory was created to supplement our print resources and further help students and teachers explore specific Education for Sustainable Development concepts, themes and issues. These short programs ranging from 2 to 10 minutes have been identified based on their potential to engage students and provide meaningful support in addressing current curriculum.
All of the programs featured have been identified and reviewed by teachers and recommended for use in conjunction with specific course outcomes.
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Get acquainted with Alien Invaders!
Did you know that there are thousands of invasive species across Canada--from Rusty Crayfish to European Common Reed--posing threats to existing ecosystems, and native plants and animals? Find out how you can help identify, and act, on these invasive species and help an ecosystem in your community. Visit R4R.ca and check out the 22 new lesson plans, books, and videos on this hot topic. Thank You to the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network for their support in identifying these educational resources.
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Step Outside
Your Guide to Nature's Events
 It is now fall and we are excited to start a new school year full of opportunities to teach outside! Step Outside will help your students explore the wonders of nature, without even leaving the school yard! All Step Outside guides are linked to R4R curriculum-connected resources to help you extend the learning.  Check out the Early October Nature Guide, Nature Paints: Fall Foliage. Visit r4r.ca/step-outside to sign up for the guides. |
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Professional Development in Transformative Learning
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LSF encourages teachers and students to apply to the Aviva Community Fund! Starting September 23rd, submit your idea for community change
Learning for a Sustainable Future is excited to once again partner with Aviva Insurance for the launch of the 2013 Aviva Community Fund. The Aviva Community Fund
is Canada's longest running online community competition. With over $3.5 million dollars given away to date, the Aviva Community Fund is making a difference in communities across the country.
LSF's Resources for Rethinking (R4R.ca) database provides great ideas for school action projects that you can use to create your submission with your class. Submit your idea for positive change and have a chance at sharing in this year's $1 million Aviva Community Fund.
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Water Docs @ School
Learning for a Sustainable Future and Ecologos are partnering to bring Water Docs @ School to your classroom! Water Docs @ School is a hands-on, interdisciplinary learning program for Grade 8 classes in the Greater Toronto Area. This year ten classes will have the opportunity to explore local water issues through action and film.
Participating students will:
* discover water issues affecting their local community;
* develop action projects to address the issue;
* capture their success in a documentary, and
* compete for an opportunity to showcase their film and project at the Third Water Docs Film Festival in March 2014.
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| Check out all the LSF Programs: |
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and inspire a new generation
of responsible citizens!!
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How to Contact LSF...
Questions? Comments? Innovative ideas? Please contact: |
Thanks 
to our
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