From attending professional development opportunities to volunteering with projects, our staff leads by example and is always enthusiastic when students ask for help with a new project idea. Teachers, support staff, and administrators continue to learn more about environmental issues and to prepare lessons that are relevant to students' interests. They have divided plants for our students to give away, brought in gardening supplies, donated tools and art supplies, helped students calculate scale drawings, and completed numerous surveys and audits. They have also challenged themselves to lessen their personal environmental impact at school and at home.
TEACHER QUOTES:
"It is evident that people are making a conscience choice to recycle. There is a definite buzz at our school." -Kara Cosgrove
"There's just such an energy about the environment here. Mount View has really developed an ongoing message to think about the environment, and it has made me more aware of what I'm doing in terms of energy conservation each day." -Jacob Jennifer
"There's just such an energy about the environment here. Mount View has really developed an ongoing message to think about the environment, and it has made me more aware of what I'm doing in terms of energy conservation each day." -Jacob Jennifer
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Green Team Committee:
A new teacher committee was established in the fall of 2009 to promote
environmental awareness at Mount View and to help design our Green School application.
In our first
two years, the committee has been working on learning about the Green School
program, assessing our staff's professional development needs, and working with staff and students to write up our
application. Our committee members represent all grades in our school, and they serve as liaisons to grade level team meetings, answering questions about environmental issues and listening to staff concerns about our school's environmental initiatives. Throughout the school year, they report back to their teams with information about upcoming projects and initiatives.
This school year, the committee has begun expanding its role. It has introduced staff to new environmental opportunities like our local CSA farm (see below) and has begun identifying the environmental skills of our
staff members in order to pair them with student groups working on environmental
initiatives. The committee has also sponsored an Earth Day school t-shirt sale and is currently working on a monthly bulletin to educate staff members about household environmental topics, such as best practices for using fertilizers and how to vermicompost.
(committee members: Dan Yetter, Jennifer Barr, Gayle Gavazzi, Audrey Bross, Linda Monti, Joan Merza, Shelley Stout, Susan Mako, Melanie Poknis, Tim Guy)
Attending Green School Workshops:
The Howard Conservancy in
Marriottsville sponsored a series of workshops to help Howard
County schools learn how to become a Green Certified school. Members of
Mount View's Green Committee attended these workshops and learned about
local resources such as the Master Gardener's program and the county
recycling center. They also learned about the requirements for becoming
a green certified school and met with county employees (like Diane
Sweeney from the Energy Efficiency Office) who could help with our green
initatives.
(attended by Jennifer Barr, Shelley Stout, and Susan Mako in November 2009, January 2010, November 2010, and January 2011)
(attended by Jennifer Barr, Shelley Stout, and Susan Mako in November 2009, January 2010, November 2010, and January 2011)
Environmental Literacy Committee:
A staff member is representing Mount View on a county environmental literacy committee sponsored by the science supervisor, Mary Weller. This newly formed committee is developing a vision for environmental education in Howard County and examining how our county curriculum can support this vision. Our staff is excited to hear reports from this committee and to keep up with the latest news on the movement to include environmental literacy as a graduation requirement. (member: Gayle Gavazzi)
Recycling Tour:
In January 2010, a staff member toured the Waste Management
recycling facility in Jessup to learn more about our county recycling
program. Information learned at this tour was brought back and shared with the Green Team committee to help us set goals for increasing our school's recycling in the coming school year and to better educate our staff and students about what can be recycled. (attendee: Susan Mako)
CSA Participation
Staff were invited to learn about a community farm located near the school and to sign up for its CSA
program. Staff learned how community supported agriculture programs
provide organic local food and reduce the carbon footprint of their
meals. Four staff members are now picking up weekly shares from the
farm, and more members are signed up to learn about CSAs.
(CSA members: Pam Stumpfl, Karyn Littlejohn, Debbie Finley, Susan Mako)
(CSA members: Pam Stumpfl, Karyn Littlejohn, Debbie Finley, Susan Mako)
Back To School Meeting: August 2009
An important aspect of professional development at Mount View is assessing the needs of our staff and determining how we can create professional development opportunities that match these needs.
One of the first identified professional development needs was to educate teachers on how to use less paper. Our school was using so much paper that it had to dip into its next year's allotment in order to have enough paper for the school year. Our goal was to end this cycle. With the support of our principal, all staff met at our back to school session in August 2009 to learn to use an e-learning site called Moodle. Converting our school to this site eliminated the need for a paper distribution of our staff handbook. Committee minutes, computer sign ups, bell schedules, and more can be found on the Moodle and read on our computer screens. The Moodle also has classroom applications including online quizzes, "handouts", and activities. At this same meeting, staff then chose to attend a workshop of their choice, such as how to use a document camera that can display written samples of student work eliminating the need for class copies. Staff members were assigned copy codes to track their paper use, and halfway through the school year a meeting was held for staff to evaluate how much paper they had been using. Staff remained cognizant of paper use throughout the year, and Mount View met its goal of not dipping into the next year's paper supply. The professional development has continued into the 2010-2011 school year with paid workshops to attend additional technology trainings, such as using a clicker system that allows students to electronically respond to questions without using paper worksheets.
In addition, a student committee has prepared a training slide show explaining how teachers can reuse paper during classroom instruction instead of asking students to get out a fresh sheet. This slide show is being shared at our next staff meeting in May.
(Staff meetings: August 2009, January 2010) (Staff workshops are on the second Monday of the month.)
(Workshop Leaders: Melanie Pokins, Amy Mastria, Octavia Cutsail, Jim Ford, Megan Remmel)
(Professional Development Committee: Megan Remmel, Kara Cosgrove, Debbie Finley, Steve Lewis)
One of the first identified professional development needs was to educate teachers on how to use less paper. Our school was using so much paper that it had to dip into its next year's allotment in order to have enough paper for the school year. Our goal was to end this cycle. With the support of our principal, all staff met at our back to school session in August 2009 to learn to use an e-learning site called Moodle. Converting our school to this site eliminated the need for a paper distribution of our staff handbook. Committee minutes, computer sign ups, bell schedules, and more can be found on the Moodle and read on our computer screens. The Moodle also has classroom applications including online quizzes, "handouts", and activities. At this same meeting, staff then chose to attend a workshop of their choice, such as how to use a document camera that can display written samples of student work eliminating the need for class copies. Staff members were assigned copy codes to track their paper use, and halfway through the school year a meeting was held for staff to evaluate how much paper they had been using. Staff remained cognizant of paper use throughout the year, and Mount View met its goal of not dipping into the next year's paper supply. The professional development has continued into the 2010-2011 school year with paid workshops to attend additional technology trainings, such as using a clicker system that allows students to electronically respond to questions without using paper worksheets.
In addition, a student committee has prepared a training slide show explaining how teachers can reuse paper during classroom instruction instead of asking students to get out a fresh sheet. This slide show is being shared at our next staff meeting in May.
(Staff meetings: August 2009, January 2010) (Staff workshops are on the second Monday of the month.)
(Workshop Leaders: Melanie Pokins, Amy Mastria, Octavia Cutsail, Jim Ford, Megan Remmel)
(Professional Development Committee: Megan Remmel, Kara Cosgrove, Debbie Finley, Steve Lewis)
Back To School Meeting: August 2010
Our next goal of our professional development was to educate staff about
the Green School application and how they could facilitate the student
groups leading our green initiatives. Our Green committee members used the knowledge they learned at the Green Workshops and prepared a slide show for our staff about the Green School application process. At our back to school meeting in
August 2010, staff watched the slide show and they were introduced to our
new and improved recycling stations in the cafeteria, teacher's lounge,
and workroom. Staff were then challenged to continue reducing their
paper use by consciously reducing or eliminating the use of paper for 5
assignments during the 2010-2011 school year. Now as staff members
complete each assignment, they check
off their progress on our online learning community (Moodle), and once a
staff member has completed modifying 5 assignments, he/she is visited
by a stuffed Lorax to congratulate him/her for a job well done!
STUDENTS NOTICE THAT TEACHERS ARE GOING GREEN!
What do the students notice about their teachers' environmental efforts?
The teachers at Mount View are spreading the Green message through their displays and actions by doing many things. One thing that teachers have in their classroom is a "scrap paper" bin or shelf. Here the teachers along with the students can place paper that is already used but not completely. The backs of worksheets are often used as scrap paper. Also, teachers are using the website, mvmoodle.com, that allows them to put in notes, dates, online quizzes and much more. Teachers are now saying "recycle" instead of "throw away" in communication with their students. Teachers turn off their lights and always encourage students to participate in the school's environmental activities. *WBS