Educating Tomorrow

Professional Development & Continuing Education

Attend conferences, workshops, seminars and courses around environmental education!

Educator Awards & Fellowships

Get rewarded for your green school contributions!

Enriching Content

Boost your environmental education with curriculum, film, speakers, pen pals, etc.!

Extracurricular

Extend learning with after school programs!

Field Trips

Take learning beyond the classroom!

Grants for Projects

Make your green projects a reality!

Instructional Web

Incorporate online learning!

Professional Organizations

Get informed and connected with your field!

Student Contests, Tournaments & Scholarships

Motivating students toward green greatness!

We’re not asking you to take on another New Year’s Resolution. You don’t need to till over another year to finally bring your seed-thoughts to fruition. We know you’re already eco-a-go-go. And we’re not going to get preachy about ours: SIGG is sexier than Poland Spring; get Irish guilty about not toting plastic bags; re-usable mug-tuggers deserve hugs; say no to take-out containers and hello to, "Can you put it in this?"; push earth-reverent lessons without getting called into the principal’s office; and green-wrench schools into little sun-capturing, worm-eating worlds.

We’re adding another: join WasteWise—EPA’s no-cost, voluntary program for reducing municipal solid waste. WasteWise helps set waste reduction goals and gives students a chance to create annual reports about how many precious resources they’ve saved—a pat on the back with math. There are also opportunities for public recognition, and if that means press, we’re in. (Doesn’t the public want to know summer vacationing teachers are saving precious tax dollars by running volunteer recycling programs?)

It’s about time the Department of Sanitation conduct a separate waste characterization study for schools so a cost benefit analysis can be done (why do we have to look to California data?), but in the meantime, let’s show how much paper and other right-to-new-lifers we can save from the landfill. Then it’s easier to talk about what non-recycling schools are stacking up in felled trees and racking up in tipping fees.

Plus, we’ll get a frameable annual graphic of waste and greenhouse gases our Green Teams averted. There’s even a support hotline for those moments when we feel we’re short our lofty goals: (800) EPA-WISE! Or, we can go local by calling waste reduction extraordinaire, Rachel Chaput, EPA Region 2, at 212-637-4116.

We’re going to kick it off with a little An Inconvenient Truth. Add a very convenient worksheet to pique students’ grade-getting attention during viewing. Then we’ll top it off with a trip to the Museum of Natural History’s Climate Change exhibit (NTS: download the exhibit worksheets, make double-sided copies). EPA also has a handy PowerPoint to make the connection between waste and global warming.  

So now that it’s on the list, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and find out if we’re really garbage-under-the-fingernails in it to weigh it; only 2009-time will tell.

The woman who made Blue Vinyl is hosting a screening of three in-the-works documentaries.  Coquille and I were invited to attend to give our feedback about a film called Garbage Dreams about kids who recycle up to 85% of their waste in Cairo.  Please come to the screening if you want to give your input on how to promote the film in the US:

http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T%2DMM5FD19

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 finally gives NYC a sustainability plan we can sink our teeth into. Thankfully, it sets forth goals for greening NYC schools around energy education, cleaner boilers and buses, and opening our schoolyards as public playgrounds. (Don’t bite down too hard though, because it doesn’t give you anything trashy to chew own—the Department of Sanitation’s Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan is supposed to take care of the waste side story.)

In order to increase the impact of energy efficiency, there are plans around energy awareness campaigns in schools (see page 111). This could be why there were conEdison comic books all over the place at the beginning of the school year. (Did someone feel the best way to reduce our City’s energy consumption long-term is to educate our youth? Perhaps the same principle could be applied to school recycling?)

City Council passed a Local Law 42 in 2005 mandating full-size schools buses be retrofitted to reduce emissions. PlaNYC gives this law a tougher jawbone by including small buses that tend to run on diesel. Plus, there’s a plan to get the old, gassy yellow dogs off the road a little sooner (127).

For those choking on the number four and six burn-off particulates coming from the monstrosities that hang out in our basements, breathing their heavy breath into our classrooms and asthma-ridden neighborhoods, there’s a plan too: “Currently, 478 city schools burn No. 4 or No. 6 heating oil; many of these are in neighborhoods where the asthma rates are over three times higher than the national average. By 2017, the City will modify the boiler systems of 100 of these schools, to enable the boilers to burn a cleaner fuel. Schools located in neighborhoods with the highest asthma hospitalization rates—generally rates greater than seven per 1000—will be prioritized in order to achieve the maximum local benefits (129).”

It’ll take a short while though, so crack the window a bit more than what might seem comfortable if you happen to live in one of the stricken, yet blessed to be chosen, areas in the neighborhoods of Bronx, Harlem, Central Brooklyn and along Jamaica Bay.

In the meantime, bring those carbon-eaters to you. You can request a tree be planted in the sidewalks surrounding your school building and because of the milliontreesnyc campaign, some dudes very well might arrive with thirsty, greenish creatures come spring (117).

Even yummier, of course, would be if NYC schools would recycle all of their paper. That way we could save a whopping four million trees by the time NYC puts down its millionth. Nothing like loving the world like your own backyard.

If you’re into a meatier bite—or let’s just say you like a bit more texture—why not try and beef up the Plan when it’s up for revision in about four years. It could use more waste management to round out the palate. Or, you could ask for exactly what you’d like on your school plate right now, “Daddy Bloomberg, can I have a little more school recycling with that?”

Listen, don’t take our word for it. Gorge yourself on the entire document.  Please. Because then we’re sure you’ll want more.

New York’s century-old water system faces new challenges as it stretches to meet the needs of a growing city. Can we ensure a supply of fresh water indefinitely? How can we reuse so-called “grey” water, and how can we keep sewage overflow out of the rivers?

Emily Lloyd, former commissioner of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, will discuss what her agency is doing to clean up New York’s waterways and upgrade its water system with Paul Mankiewicz, expert on wastewater and president of the Gaia Institute; Alex Matthiessen, Hudson Riverkeeper and president of Riverkeeper; and Christine Holowacz, co-chair, Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning. Presented in conjunction withGrowing and Greening New York: PlaNYC and the Future of the City.

WHAT:     From Faucet to Flush: The Future of New York's Water System
WHEN:     6:30 p.m. on Monday, December 15th  
WHERE:   The Museum of the City of New York (1220 5th Ave. at 103rd Street, Manhattan)

Reservations required, to RSVP call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395, or email programs@mcny.org

Tickets: $5 when you mention Environmental Advocates of New York; $9 general admission. 

“Collaborating On-line:
Together We Make Schools Green”

Join us for Educating Tomorrow and
the UFT Green Schools Committee monthly meeting.
   
Who:        People interested in “greening” NYC schools
What:       Network; take part in a discussion on collaborating on-line with a “green” community, plus we  will hear from CENYC's Teen Speakers Bureau, a group of high schools students will present on what they do to get the message out about school recycling.
When:      Tuesday, December 16, 4–6:00pm
(networking from 4-4:30)
Where:    UFT Headquarters 
50 Broadway, New York, NY 10004

Please RSVP: info@educatingtomorrow.org

Coquille Houshour & Micki Josi founded Educating Tomorrow to help realize successful school recycling programs in all NYC schools. They are working with other teachers to form a UFT Green Schools Committee. Find out more at www.educatingtomorrow.org.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

“Collaborating On-line:
Together We Make Schools Green”

Join us for Educating Tomorrow and
the UFT Green Schools Committee monthly meeting.
   
Who:        People interested in “greening” NYC schools
What:    Network; take part in a discussion on collaborating on-line with a “green” community, plus we will hear from the Teen Speakers on Recycling
When:      Tuesday, December 16, 4–6:00pm
(networking from 4-4:30)
Where:    UFT Headquarters 
50 Broadway, New York, NY 10004

Please RSVP: info@educatingtomorrow.org

Coquille Houshour & Micki Josi founded Educating Tomorrow to help realize successful school recycling programs in all NYC schools. They are working with other teachers to form a UFT Green Schools Committee. Find out more at www.educatingtomorrow.org.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

At the start of school year at my new school, I got onto the Department of Sanitation web site to find out what my new school's recycling collection schedule is. I'd been told this is where school recycling coordinators should go to find out when their school's recycling is collected. It's supposed to be as easy as typing in your address.

In the past, I never had an easy time finding out what my school recycling collection schedule was, but I kept trying because DOS and DOE people assured me it's simple, with a tone suggesting I must be doing something wrong.

Last year I ended up calling 311 to file a complaint that I couldn't verify my recycling collection schedule and that it was actually being collected when it was supposed to be. 311 said I couldn't get the number for my garage and I couldn't file a complaint unless I had put recycling on the curb on the proper collection day (that I wasn't sure of) and it hadn't been picked up. (But what if it had been picked up by a garbage truck because they put it out on the wrong day?) I explained that I'd made special arrangements with my garage for mechanized (dumpster) paper recycling and that's not reflected in the online schedule at all, but it didn't make a difference--they wouldn't help me.

So, here I was again. I was at another school and I had to set about trying to tackle an issue I felt I never really solved during the past four years as my previous school. 

This time around it went a little more smoothly. I'm hoping this is a result of the hearing. This is what happened:

I went to the DOS site and typed my school's address and this is what I got:

The collection schedule for 
300 ADELPHI STREET (Brooklyn) is: 

311: We don't have information for school recycling.
Me: Well, you are supposed to.
311: Your recycling collection is only one day a week, Fridays.
Me: Is that for all recycling?
311: Yes.
Me: That doesn't sound right.
311: Hold on one second. (I wait much longer.) We just don't know. They may go by the schedule I just gave you or they may be a different one. My supervisor suggests you call the Department of Sanitation Headquarters at 646-885-3769. 
Me: What are their hours?
311: It doesn't give me that information, but I'm guessing 9-5.

So I called the Department of Sanitation Headquarters (I think their hours are 6-2 PM) and they told me the name of my school garage and gave me contact information for the Supervisor: District 2 in Brooklyn: District Super of the Garage: Thomas Walsh, 718-768-4105 or 4128.

When I spoke with him (you have to catch them early in the day), I requested a paper recycling dumpster, which he said he would look into and get back to me the following week (I still haven't heard from him and now he won't return my phone calls). But the good thing was that he increased our paper collection to four times per week and glass, metal and plastics to two times per week. I immediately made a poster for the custodians.

I have since been able to get the Supervisor's Mr. Walsh's email, so I'm cc'ing the DOE on emails (and others) so I have an electronic trail.

I'm still frustrated that we can't get a paper dumpster. We have twice the student population of my previous school and they have six dumpsters.

I would like to hear everyone else's experience: coquille@educatingtomorrow.org.

K-12 educators from schools in Mott Haven or East Harlem who teach energy-related topics can enter the Con Edison Teacher Challenge by submitting a lesson plan incorporating the teaching of energy within their subject areas. Winners and their schools will receive cash prizes. Applications are available at www.TeacherChallenge.org. The deadline is December 1. For more information, contact Dr. Ray Ann Havasy or JoAnn Williams at www.cstl.org or (516) 764-0045.

You can bring the zoo to your school with a visit from Wildlife Theater from the Central Park Zoo. This program will highlight actions students can utilize to make a positive impact on wildlife conservation. These interactive 30-45 minute programs that can take place in auditoriums or classrooms are designed for students in grades pre-K-5. Wildlife Theater covers environmental science using puppets, theater, and music for a fun and unique educational experience. All Title I Schools receive a 10% discount on the program. For additional information, call (212) 439-6540, e-mail asaltz@wcs.org, or visit www.wcs.org/wildlifetheater.