Click here for NPR’s well-balanced story.

We recently contributed this lesson and supporting materials on violent extremism.

We also helped PBS with the Bridging World History project.  Check out this series of videos and supporting resources for more historical background that provides the necessary context to understand current events.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

One of the most powerful demonstrations of the power of philosophy was shared in the keynote session by Dr. Stephen Covey, renowned author of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and Muriel Summers, award-winning principal of A.B. Combs Elementary in North Carolina. Combs faced a variety of issues, including low student achievement and low teacher and student morale, when Ms. Summers approached Dr. Covey with the idea that people shouldn’t have to be adults to learn the seven habits; they should be taught to kids in school starting in kindergarten.

Principal Muriel Summers

Summers went on to help integrate the principals into her school, starting with teacher training and eventually helping to write the book “The Leader in Me” with Dr. Covey which explains how to integrate the principles into schools. Now both staff and students share the common values of the seven habits, which in short are:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw (self-renewal)

The result is that relationships between teachers, students, and other members of the community improved dramatically, as did academic achievement and student self-confidence, not to mention staff and community morale. The most inspiring part of the keynote was hearing from two boys from the school who explained what it was like to attend it and about their goals for future. Wisdom beyond their years shown through everything they said…and how they said it, with warmth and humility. It was a powerful display of what Dr. Covey explained when he said that we can achieve incremental improvements if we focus only on teaching Skillsets and Toolsets to our children, but that it is changes in Mindsets that can lead to quantum leaps in our development as individuals and achievement.

Check back to Engaging Every Student’s blog soon for more details about ISTE 2011 and how the power of philosophy radiated out through so many of the speakers, poster sessions, and student presentations. Future blog posts will focus on the amazing stories of others in attendance, including Chris Leman and his students at the Science Leadership Academy in Philly, as well as the contributions of Alan November and many others who are leading the push for global education.

playagainfilm.com

Click hear for details on an upcoming screening and panel discussion at Lewis and Clark College.

You can also follow their Facebook page for details on more upcoming events here: http://www.facebook.com/playagainfilm
]]> http://www.engagingeverystudent.com/2011/06/02/play-again/feed/ 0 http://www.engagingeverystudent.com/2011/05/18/radio-disney-interview/ http://www.engagingeverystudent.com/2011/05/18/radio-disney-interview/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 22:07:25 +0000 Rick Reynolds http://www.engagingeverystudent.com/?p=719 Radio Disney just interviewed Rick Reynolds, our founder and author of The EverGreen Twins Activity Book. Click below to hear Rick talk about Engaging Every Student’s mission, the EverGreen Twins, and the movement to integrate environmental literacy and sustainability concepts into education.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Books are printed on premium 100% recycled paper and bound with EcoCoils which allow the books to open flat for easy coloring, drawing, and writing.

Visit our online store or contact us today for special discounts on multi-book purchases. We also offer gift packs that include sets of 12 premium, 100% FSC-certified EcoPencils.

Happy Earth Day, Every Day!

As we gushed in the last post, the last conference was an incredibly rich source of green and inspirational ideas. It was also fun to share the EverGreen Twins with enthusiastic folks from around the U.S. and Canada, and we can’t wait until next year when we will have another new book which teaches ecology and sustainability to kids, this one focused on early learners who can’t yet read the original book. We’re also working on a teacher and parent guide to accompany the original activity book with 40+ Eco-Activities, Games, and Outdoor Activities which should be ready long before then.

Late-breaking News! The conference website was just updated with details about the conference. Click here for the latest and greatest information.

I hope to see you there!
Rick Reynolds

Repeated accolades from teachers, students and program staff gave the EverGreen Twins a glowing review at the event. Farm to School programs applauded the organic food activity, Garden Box appreciated the composting and photosynthesis pieces, and teachers enjoyed the visual and upbeat tone of the book. “I LOVE the book because the graphics perfectly illustrate the concepts. I had to buy a second one to share it with a friend!” exclaimed Naomi Harper, Science Curriculum Educator from Will Rogers Middle School in Sacramento, CA.

Educators also loved the book’s versatility for integrating sustainability education with science, math, language arts, social studies, art, and technology education. Several schools also planned to use it with after school programs, such as Pine Jog Elementary’s amazing green program in West Palm Beach, Florida (see more information below about the school). Teachers and parents from other states such as California, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin (just to name a few!) were excited to use the EverGreen Twins with their kids, and we have already started to hear about how much the students are enjoying it.

The conference gave us opportunities to engage with 700+ educators and dozens of programs from around the U.S. and Canada. In addition, these inspirational stories of students doing amazing work in their schools really stood out:

Some of the inspiring students from Eire High Charter School pose with Rick Reynolds.

• Students from Erie High Charter School in Erie, Kansas enthusiastically shared news of their work towards creating what they hope to be the first LEED Gold-certified school building in the state. They are neck-in-neck with a nearby high school, and these teens have the passion, skill and creativity to achieve their goal. Already 25% of the schools’ LEED points have come as a direct result of student action. From engineering a walkway around their pond to designing educational media and sustainability-based curriculum, these students are creating a greener world for themselves, their community and generations to come.


Teachers and students from Prairie Crossing Charter School with one of their rain barrels.

• Chris Hershiser’s 5th and 6th grade students from Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake, Illinois are making rain barrels for water catchment using donated and discarded materials. The rain barrels are then decorated and sold as a fundraiser to benefit the school’s green initiatives.
• Pine Jog Elementary students in West Palm Beach, Florida, are using an advanced hydroponics system to grow thousands of strawberry and other plants using dramatically less water and no pesticides. The school’s leadership, including principal Fred Barch and Education Director Susan Toth, have helped to integrate nature, science, and art throughout the curriculum. Their ethnically and socioeconomically diverse students are thriving from the approach, and test scores have been rising significantly, among many other benefits.


Youth present the results from the Summit, including their school action plans.

• After meeting for only 3 days, a group of teens from across America turned leadership and environmental workshops into action plans for their schools, many of which are Green Charter Schools. Youth Summit representatives presented heartfelt and thoughtful ways to address social justice, clean energy and environmental awareness back at home.

Informative sessions covered a spectrum of themes from nature-based learning to creating energy efficient school buildings and new ways of teaching about climate change to healthier cafeteria food. Expeditionary Learning presented a compelling case for project-based education by providing stunning examples of student work and explaining the support and resources they provide to schools. The KidWind Project explained how teaching the physics of wind-generated energy is fun, easy and affordable when using adaptable and age-appropriate turbine models. Organic Valley, HealthCorps and the Food Family Farming Foundation shared innovative and low-cost methods to improve school nutrition with food reform programs such as SaladBarProject.org and the Teaching Garden Program.

Prominent keynote speakers gave us personal perspectives on the state of environmental education and our global health. David Sobel of Antioch University New England presented data that suggests place-based education can improve student engagement, attendance, and even standardized test scores in areas such as reading and math, not to mention the environmental quality of the school and surrounding community. Phillipe Cousteau emphasized the harsh reality facing our oceans and freshwater systems, especially the impact that oil spills and warming ocean waters are having on marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs. Will Steger shared hopeful and effective tools for discussing climate change with his pioneering way of connecting classrooms and glaciers through first-hand video observations from the Arctic.

The 2011 Green Schools National Conference will be in Denver, CO and we hope to see you there! Until then, we’ll keep engaging students with fun, hands-on activities that teach sustainability and promote environmental awareness, and we hope you do the same. The EverGreen Twins Activity Book is a great resource to begin with…or to support what you’re already doing with students in your school or kids at home.

Bicycles for rent: Another green sight in Minneapolis.

...and another.