Teachers Training for Sustainability Harley Nadler March 31st, 2016

Agenda Opening Remarks What is sustainability? Why teach sustainability to students? Going to the bank Creating Lessons

Opening Remarks Introduction PowerPoint/resource availability Registration/Feedback forms

What is sustainability Social Environmental Economic

Why sustainability? “There is not enough time. There is simply too much too cover in the regular curriculum.” Resolution: Sustainability is a part of the curriculum. Therefore, we must make the time just as we make the time for any other part of the curriculum. There are implications for different subject areas including: Science & Technology, Ethics and Religious Culture, Geography, History and Citizenship Education. The QEP’s Broad Areas of Learning imply implications for all subject areas.

QEP: Broad Areas of Learning

Why sustainability? “Okay, that’s fine, but in reality we will probably only teach English and Math. It is more important for our students to be able to read and multiply numbers.” Resolution: Sustainability education does not take away time from developing these skills, it enhances it. Students tend to care more when they can see direct links between what they learn in school and the real world. This fosters intrinsic motivation in the subject area (which has traditionally been one of the greatest challenges even for veteran teachers!) Examples: bringing in news articles for English Language Arts or calculating the fuel efficiency of a car in Math.

Why sustainability? “We never (or seldomly) cover sustainability in our courses and, therefore, we do not have the tools to integrate sustainability education into our teaching.” Resolution: As professional inheritors, we will always encounter new material to teach throughout our careers. As such, we will always need to learn new things to stay up-to-date as teachers. In fact, that is exactly why we are here today! We are engaging in professional development to stay up-to-date as teachers. As a result, everyone attending our workshop today will get a jumpstart on their sustainability education and will be given access to our extensive bank of resources!

Going to the bank Attendees of today’s workshop, who provided their e-mail address on the registration form, will be given access to our Resource Bank. 70+ resources from unique organizations including: UNESCO, Stanford, US National Park Service, US Department of Energy, NOAA, Oxfam, WWF, and many more! Resources are organized as International, Canada, Quebec, USA, medium, and by subject area. Descriptions to quickly determine if a resource is pertinent to your lessons. Resources are authentic sources. Meaning, they are primary sources for members of the public interested in sustainability; not simply synthesized as a resource for school children. This implies that teachers will generate lessons from the source material.

Creating Lessons The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how to use the existing resources adapted to our pedagogical needs. With so many resources, what is the best way to go from the bank to lessons? It can be tricky to have a lesson in mind and then find a resource to fit it. One approach is to start with a resource and create a lesson inspired from the resource itself.

Creating Lessons: Example

Creating Lessons: Example

Creating Lessons: Example

Creating Lessons: Example Questions to ask when consulting a resource: What is the resource trying to tell me? What is the bias of the resource and how will that affect the presentation of the material? What do I want my students to gleam from the resource? Specific to My Children’s Future: Citizenship is not freely available to all people of the world. A bias towards democratic ways of thinking and western ideas of human rights. Citizenship carries great significance for our rights & liberties and, therefore, should never be taken for granted.

Questions?