The past two months of the new year have FLOWN by! As of January 1st, I decided to go ‘Zero Waste’ both at home and school. There have been so many great things happening, and I am learning about myself, my students, and my school. It has been really difficult to stay consistently zero waste, especially when there are a lot of limitations as to what I can do successfully. I have learned that I cannot just zoom to the finish line, and to take small steps which will turn into big progress over time.
In going zero waste, I am using sites like Zero Waste Nerd and Going Zero Waste to help me learn what I can do (and teach) to be more ‘Zero Waste’ in my life. I have also created a Zero Waste Pinterest board to help me collect recipes I can use (and teach!) as alternatives to buying things and adding to my carbon footprint.
I am continuously creating partnerships that will help my school (and me!) become less wasteful. The City of Newark now recycles all cartons, so I am able to not only recycle plastic and paper in my classroom, but we are recycling milk and juice cartons too! That greatly reduces our trash footprint. Capitalizing on my students excitement for learning, I am teaching them about where their trash goes. I was able to visit Covanta Energy and made a video to educate my students on what happens after they throw something in the garbage.
My students are absolutely amazing at keeping me motivated and inspired to continue on this path. They love cleaning, love learning about new waste to recycle or reduce their trash, and they are taking ownership over the classroom more and more each day. Which also means that, as a teacher, I have to let go of some things that they can do by themselves. If you have any experience working with kids with special needs, this is a scary and exciting time, because they are becoming independent (which is EXACTLY what we want) and we have to let go of that fear of them failing or not being able to do something.
Here are some of my Zero Waste School goals for the next month:
Ensure that recycling and reducing waste is happening throughout my entire school. In doing this, I am using my Video Modeling study to create videos of my students recycling items, and then sharing it with other classes so they can create their own routines for recycling in their classrooms.
The biggest goal that I would want my students, and everyone, to know, is that your little changes and efforts really do make a big difference. Use less paper towels, turn the water off, eat all your lunch – these are just some of the many things individuals can do to minimize their environmental impact. I really want students to learn that the biggest and most important goal is to not create as much waste, which is really hard in a school – schools are so wasteful!
The month of March is always Dr. Seuss themed, ending with The Lorax, which will take me into my unit for the rest of the school year: How to Help the Earth. These next two units are not only my favorite, but will also help with my Zero Waste Goals.
My personal goal for this month, and the months to follow, is to post on this site at least twice this month. So stay tuned for Dr. Seuss posts, zero waste updates, and teacher reflections!
