Minister of Education congratulates EcoSchools! Click on the video to see Ontario's Minister of Education, the Honourable Laurel Broten give a message for 2012 certifying EcoSchools!
Beaver Valley's EcoTeam
Welcome sign in DSBN
Site visit in LDSB
Certification update and early bird winners! Beaver Valley PS in BWDSB is a keen first time applicant and the winner of our early bird draw! Congratulations Beaver Valley!
Beaver Valley has won an all expense paid outdoor experiential excursion of their EcoTeam’s choice. Beaver Valley will spend a beautiful spring day exploring the outdoor grounds of the Bluewater Outdoor Education Centre.
The Beaver Valley EcoTeam enjoyed "coming together as a team from various classes and age groups with a common interest and learning what steps, large or small, can be made to help our school and community become more environmentally friendly".
May and June is a time for celebration and site visits in EcoSchools across Ontario! We have received over 1750 applications from over 49 boards to mark another incredible jump in the growing community of schools addressing environmental issues through the EcoSchools program.
A well deserved congratulations to all the EcoTeams making a difference in your community. It's so rewarding for us to meet with EcoTeams and hear about your experiences as an EcoSchool!
Schools can see the level awarded and feedback by signing into their application online and clicking on “Application Summary”.
Naturalization proposal chosen by EcoTeam
Students implementing the proposal
Greening in grade 11: a growing success Grade 11 students at St. James High School in Wellington Catholic District School created naturalization enhancement proposals for land located on the school grounds as a culminating assignment for their Social Sciences & Humanities class.
Student created proposals were realistic plans for designing and constructing a naturalized garden for the school property as well as an outdoor classroom. The proposals specified a company name, goals for the site, a site survey, selection of native species to plant, plan drawings and a budget.
Elementary student conferences: building strong EcoSchool networks Hamilton Wentworth DSB and Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic DSB both celebrated and supported their Elementary EcoTeams by hosting a student conference this April.
HWDSB's first annual EcoFair brought together 90 elementary students from EcoTeams across the board for a day of collaboration and sharing. Students shared tips, tricks and strategies with other schools, thereby building new networks and addressing current challenges in a positive environment.
For the event, each team created a ‘storefront’ display detailing what they’ve done this year. Teams then did a gallery walk through the fair, filling in a Passport to the Environment to document what they learned. They also had time to weigh in via a blogging café and a speakers corner.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Staff and students at ALCDSB took at step in the right direction during their 4th Best Foot Forward Eco-Conference. Two conferences were offered, one for the 15 western area elementary schools and one for the 21 eastern area elementary schools.
Host school EcoTeams acted as environmental ambassadors and enthusiastically showcased a wide range of green initiatives including school ground greening plans, student planted gardens, raised beds for vegetable planting, composting systems and an apple orchard.
While students attended sessions, staff focused on the certification and grant writing process with assistance from team certification veterans.
Le coin FrancÉcophone: L’union fait la force - un projet de verdissement bien enraciné Les élèves et les membres du personnel de l’École élémentaire Jeanne-Lajoie, du conseil scolaire Viamonde, ont tous et toutes mis l’épaule à la roue afin de reverdir leur cour d’école.
Ils ont planté huit grands arbres (2 platanes, 2 tulipiers, 2 érables rouges et 2 érables argentés) et une centaine de plantes et de fleurs vivaces autour de la base de chaque arbre. Ce projet a été possible grâce à un don de $3,500 de la Fondation des amis de l’environnement TD.
Les 350 élèves de l’école, de la maternelle à la 6e année, ont participé à l’exécution du projet. Les 4e, 5e et 6e années étaient responsables de creuser les gros trous, de transporter la terre et le paillis et de remettre la terre dans les trous une fois les arbres placés.
Testers needed for new EcoSchools online community Ontario EcoSchools is hard at work creating an online community for EcoTeam teachers to connect, support each other, share, network, mentor, collaborate and celebrate.
We need some interested people (web savvy and not web savvy) to test our site.
From Monday Aug. 20th to Fri. Aug. 31st (only a couple of hours required as a minimum, up to as much as you like).
What you get: We will give participants a brand new Ontario EcoSchools ecobag as a thank you.
How to sign up: Send an email to rjari (at) ontarioecoschools.org expressing your interest..
Teaching and Learning with Monarch Butterflies - a two-day workshop that provides teachers with the
knowledge, skills, and resources to raise Monarchs
in the classroom and create outstanding learning
experiences for their students.
Resources
Sustainable Happiness and Health Education: is a teacher's guide in both English and French that looks at the curriculum through a "sustainable happiness" lens. The resource outlines simple lesson ideas (grades K-6) that bring together the basic concepts of
learner-centred pedagogy, educating for sustainability, and the field of "positive psychology" and applies them to health and physical education.
The information on this website is for information purposes. Please use your professional judgment in ensuring resources/activities meet your students' needs and your school's/board's policies.
