2011 CLEARING Compendium
Lessons for Teaching in the Community and Environment
This new, regular feature by CLEARING “master teacher” Jim Martin explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula.
Read series hereTHE BEST OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Learn the secrets of successful environmental education programs! Read the perspectives and opinions of experienced teachers! Discover new ideas that can turn your classroom into an innovative and dynamic hub of place-based learning! The Best of Clearing is full of fresh ideas and old wisdom to help you create powerful learning experiences for your students.
Learn more and buy it today!ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY and the CLEARING COMPENDIUM
Attention: Clearing is currently compiling case studies that demonstrate what ideal school-based environmental literacy programs & activities can look like. These case studies will help teachers understand how to more effectively integrate environmental literacy into their classrooms, and will be featured in the 2011 Clearing Compendium published this fall!
Tell us about a model program that you think deserves recognition!
Read the 2010 edition here!
Guest Writers: Voices of the PNW
, Eckstein Middle School,
Jessica Levine
Seattle, Washington
Gregory Smith,
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
Harmony Roll,
Taiga Teacher, Anchorage, Alaska
Lindsay Huettman,
Wilderness Awareness SchoolINTERVIEWS WITH CONSERVATIONISTS
What is the link between conservation and environmental education? Chris Gertschen, founder and former director of the Sawtooth Science Institute, talks to the leaders of conservation in the west to get their perspectives on the issue.
Read the interviews here
Jim Martin, Feb
1
Lessons for teaching in the environment and community – 10
Filed Under Environmental Education, Environmental Literacy, Inquiry, Jim Martin, Questioning strategies, Science | Leave a Comment
“Lessons for Teaching in the Environment and Community” is a regular series that explores how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula.
Part 10: Assimilation
When the world outside becomes the world inside
by Jim Martin, CLEARING guest writer
tarting in the world outside our skin, our personal tegumental boundary, I have claimed, is the best way to learn. By ‘learn,’ I mean integrate new material into old understandings so that they become a part of you. Part of you because they begin their synaptic lives with you by adding protein to the synapses they innervate, piles of stones along a new path, so they can find their way again. Becoming protein within you, they are you, a part of yourself that will travel with you wherever you go.
An enchanting thought, that, one that all teachers could give to their students in every class they teach. Learning for understanding, carried through each person’s life. I would think that thought would drive education, but it doesn’t. Even so, I’d like to talk about it for a bit.
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This is the tenth installment of “Teaching in the Environment,” a new, regular feature by CLEARING “master teacher” Jim Martin that explores how environmental educators can help classroom teachers get away from the pressure to teach to the standardized tests, and how teachers can gain the confidence to go into the world outside of their classrooms for a substantial piece of their curricula. See the other installments here.
Jan
9
More than a metaphor: Solar energy in the classroom
Filed Under Energy Alternatives, Energy Conservation | Leave a Comment
Understanding Electricity Through Photovoltaics from green levine on Vimeo.
by Jessica Levine
Eckstein Middle School
Seattle, Washington
As a student of David Orr at Oberlin College I helped design the Adam Joseph Lewis Center (AJLC) for Environmental Studies. The building was designed to generate more energy than it consumed– a phenomenal concept for a building. It turned out it was also a pioneering concept for education.
Taking my Oberlin education into my own educational practice has been easy. I teach the science of sustainability in a year-long physical science curriculum for 6th graders at Eckstein Middle School in Seattle. So, recently, I considered some of the same questions we had set out to explore for the AJLC. Was it possible to generate energy from solar—even in Seattle? Could I maintain a system as a demonstration, for students, families, and community, of what is possible with renewable energy? Could I go off the grid in a large urban public middle school? Read more
Jan
7
Gertschen Interview: Rick Johnson, Idaho Conservation League
Filed Under Chris Gertschen, Conservation, Environmental Education, Interviews, Perspectives | Leave a Comment
Rick Johnson has served as executive director of the Idaho Conservation League for 16 years. ICL is Idaho’s leading voice for conservation.
Interview by Chris Gertschen
CG: Is there one particular event or series of events that led you to a profession in conservation?
RJ: Yes, if you focus on the profession part. I got into conservation as a volunteer for a lot of reasons wrapped around love of Idaho’s outdoors and a sense I could contribute, but I got into the profession because of a single event. Read more
Dec
30
Without Leaving the Classroom
Filed Under Children and Nature, Harmony Roll, Schoolyard Classroom | Leave a Comment
by Harmony Roll, Taiga Teacher
ou don’t need to be an environmental educator, you don’t have to stray from traditional norms, or be on the cutting edge to incorporate place-based education into your daily practice as a teacher. The goal is to create connections, connections to what the learners already know about the world around them. Activate their prior knowledge. Read more
Dec
21
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