With so many questions around the future of learning and education, it is certainly a challenging time. But I do feel this is also an unprecedented moment full of potential should we wish to take it. With bold leadership I think we have an opportunity to shift away...
A movement cannot rely on just one person or organization to grow and create change in the world. It requires many helping hands, working together, lifting each other up. At the Green Schools National Network (GSNN), nurturing long-lasting, meaningful partnerships...
With many resources available offering recommendations and options for a safe return to school and how to implement physical distancing, it seems a great time to have a conversation about what ‘A Return To Learning’ could look like. One with a greater focus on the...
A traditional education is not suitable for every student. Malcolm Drips, a precocious nine-year-old of mixed racial heritage, is one of those students. At 18 months of age, he was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For him, the...
COVID-19 has directly impacted students through widespread school closures, loss of learning, and widening disparities. It has also had consequential indirect impacts on students. A troubling rise in child neglect (Thomas et al., 2020), stress related to food...
COVID-19 has changed our world in many ways. How we shop, work, govern, and attend school have all been altered due to this global pandemic. Education has been hit particularly hard. Closing out the 2019 – 2020 school year was a chaotic and disjointed effort for most...
Our world is in crisis: a global pandemic, economic inequality, racial disparities, and…climate change. Although climate change may not move as fast as COVID-19 or have immediate consequences, it too threatens human lives and the global economy in real and dramatic...
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a time of reckoning for our country’s institutions, including schools. Our response to this crisis must include bold, new ideas for what schools should look like and prioritize. Now more than ever, schools must focus on...
I first fell in love with biomimicry while attending a county-wide science leadership meeting in February 2017. I was there in my capacity as science department chair at Oak Park High School in California’s Oak Park Unified School District. It was toward the end of...
This brief essay isn’t intended to reiterate the long history of design thinking as best expressed by the brilliant David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school, as there are numerous resources readily available for educators. Instead, it’s meant to...
Educators face a daunting task—preparing the next generation with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to work toward a more sustainable way of life. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of seventeen global goals set by the United Nations...
Creating change at the school district level is hard. Systemic changes need to be implemented. Educational programs and teaching and learning focus needs to be shifted. Culture needs to be created and supported. These efforts require careful coordination and change...
In a much celebrated article entitled, Twelve Places to Intervene in a System, Donella Meadows wrote that the power to transcend mindsets or paradigms is the most upstream place to intervene in a system to make positive systemic change. The mindset or...
Learning and moving inside and outside the classroom – seems like a simple idea that is easy to do – but we know from research and everyday life that ‘moving’ for well-being is easier said than done. Daily physical activity and movement in schools is a topic that has...
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting two schools of our customers in West Virginia. We have worked closely with both schools, MUEE (Marshall University Early Education) Stem School and Explorer Academy, to create learning environments that connect to their...
Those of us who are engaged in environmental and sustainability literacy talk a lot about developing a “sense of place,” or a better understanding and appreciation for our immediate environment. This is not an easy task within the confines of a classroom environment....
Every year an amazing group of people from across North America come together with the purpose of laying the foundation for the next strategic steps for the Green Schools National Network (GSNN). It is also a perfect time for us to break out of our day to day, deepen...
As 2016 comes to an end, it is important to stay connected to the people and places we care about most. In my world, the schools and communities with whom I work keep me connected to the real mission and vision of the Green Schools National Network (GSNN): to...
The world is a big place, and for many of us it’s difficult to fathom how the Earth’s natural systems and cycles function on a global scale. What happens when environmental education becomes so broad it starts to become less relatable and comprehensible? Has...
What is One Stone? One Stone launched in 2008 as a nonprofit supporting after school experiential service opportunities for high school students (grades 9-12) seeking deep involvement in sustainable outcomes to improve the greater Boise, Idaho community. Co-founders...
Sprig, the last classroom table you’ll ever need
