I have always loved kids. There is something about them that grounds me whenever I am around them. Sometimes we adults get caught up in the stress of life—we’ve got bills to pay, people to see and there is always work to be done. But when I play with my new baby niece, my focus […]
It’s January. The holidays are over. A new year has begun. It’s the time when people who love the cold or snow are relishing winter while folks like myself are pining for the light and warmth of spring. It’s no coincidence the first month of the new year is named January. Janus was the Roman […]
I spent the third week of October with my 6th grade students in the Santa Cruz Mountains, learning about poison oak and banana slugs, compost and food waste, gardening and invasive plant species, and how ecosystems change as one moves higher in elevation. We ate Redwood Sorrel (tastes like green apples), munched on Douglas Fir […]
I was in class three times last week learning about land and water. The first was Laura Honda’s 4th grade class at Manor Elementary School in Fairfax, California. Laura is a Teacher Ambassador for the Education and Environment Initiative Curriculum (EEI) and uses the EEI extensively with her students. Laura was teaching Lesson 5 from […]
Our Teacher Ambassadors (TAs) are teachers who advocate for environment-based education. They are teachers who believe that the real key to combating climate change and the destruction of our natural world is through teaching future generations every day in the classroom about the environment and how it ties in to all the other subjects they […]
In 2010 when I stepped down from my long-term position as principal of the K-12 Head-Royce in Oakland, I set out on a journey to help grow greener, more sustainable schools. Aware of all that I needed to learn, I visited well over 125 public and private schools serving K-12 students, a number of colleges […]
(Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood ~ Nina Simone) My esteemed colleagues here at Ten Strands have been putting out some great blogs for a few months now, as you may know. Initially they encouraged me to join the fray, but they finally gave up after several polite (and not-so-polite) declinations. Chalk it up to shyness […]
It was Mr. DeSanto’s biology class in 12th grade that first had me in awe over the intricate systems prevalent in all plants and animals. For me, science had always been a routine class where I did what I needed to get a good grade, but had no passion for what I was learning. Things […]