People You Should Know

Molly Cashion

Molly Cashion is a Program Manager for the Wells Fargo Regional Sustainability Teacher’s Academy at Arizona State University (try saying that 5 times fast!). She is passionate about sustainability and education, and is also delightfully hilarious.
Findings: Molly's biggest messages are that students need opportunities to learn on their own to become invested in learning about sustainability, and gardens are the hugest step to take toward teaching students about sustainability and the environment. For her, sustainability is about so much more than just reducing your carbon footprint. It's also about social justice, nutrition, and accessibility for people who lack resources. These work together to shape our world and influence how people interact with it.
On gardens: One of the reasons Ms. Cashion encourages so many schools to have gardens is because they teach children about nutrition, which she said is the "first step to it all." When students know how to nourish their bodies, and understand how to eat healthy, they are capable of understanding why it's important to care for other parts of the world, too. Additionally, having a garden promotes other educational experiences as well. For instance, Molly told us of one school in Tucson, Arizona, where students are actually able to sell produce from the garden at street vendor prices. This brings them exposure to the economy and teaches them how to handle money. Additionally, there is new research showing that gardens have a positive social/emotional benefit on students and teachers who work with them.
On teaching: Molly's favorite style of teaching is project-based learning. It encourages students to take a hands-on approach to learning, and allows them to ask the questions and find the solutions. In her opinion, teachers are there to guide and fill in the gaps, not to lecture or directly teach. Students need to make personal connections to their education in order for it to be meaningful. Don't leave out ethics and values teaching either--get to know what your students genuinely believe. Incorporate that into your teaching.
On getting parents involved: At the same school in Tuscon previously mentioned, the garden was built by parents. Many of the parents at this Title I school are skilled laborers. So, when the garden was built, the school asked for parents to help. This allows parents to feel involved in their child's life, and it allows the child to see their parent as an "expert" in something. Parents also brought in seeds and plants of their choosing. This same school also does "coffee hour" once a week. Parents and students are invited to come to school an hour early and drink free coffee while parents can talk to each other and other school faculty. While this is not directly related to sustainability, it builds a sense of community and motivates more parents to become more invested in their student's education.

Maria de Leon

"Recycling Mom"

Maria is the mother of a student who goes to a school in the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona. The teachers and parents know her as "Recycling Mom". Maria grew up as a vegetarian which contributed to her awareness of the environment. She has continued to this day to make sure her family lives a low carbon footprint life by reusing items that can't be recycled for crafts or materials for learning. For example, she showed how she uses foil chocolate wrappers to model array's. Most currently, Maria has been taking on projects to reduce school waste, expand recycling, and share the benefits of recycling in schools. "Recycle Mom" is invested in sharing her vast knowledge about helping conserve our planet!
Findings: One way Maria suggests that teachers invest students in the environment is by showing students how relevant making sustainable choices is in their everyday lives and by helping them realize that there is not an endless supply of resources.
Maria believes that students should be aware of the process it takes for us to get the materials we use or foods we eat. An example she gave is what she describes as the "life cycle" of a lollipop. We must think about where the sugar or corn syrup comes from, and how and where the stick and waxy wrapper is made. Each part of the lollipop is made from something different which takes energy to create, and ultimately impacts our environment and the people involved in the process.
She suggests some ways we can engage students in wanting to learn about sustainability by giving them scenarios like, "If you're lost in the desert and only have a gallon of water, how will you use the limited resource?" or by "Having them [students] carry around all the waste they create for two days."
As for getting parents involved, Maria suggests that we get our parents invested in terracycling, the process of "recycling items traditionally not recycled!"

Laura Cuthbertson

Laura is a teacher for the Autism Program at Royal Palm Middle School
Findings: The paper recycling program at Royal Palm was started by another teacher to help the environment and provide a job skill for the students in the program. The occupational therapist at the school started the task of collecting can and bottles to provide another job skill for students. At home, Laura recycles and has solar panels on her rooftop. At school, she teaches a short lesson on the importance of recycling and explains why the kids are collecting it at school, but doesn't go into much more detail. She feels that students need to feel like their actions matter in the grand scheme of things, which will in turn motivate them to make any sort of change. Laura suggested doing a hands-on sustainability activity to maintain student engagement, like making crafts from recyclables.She also offered the idea of a community night for parents and community members to be more willing to contribute after seeing that the funds go right back into the kids and the program.

Katherine Bailey, Christa Matthews, & Danielle Tobin

Katherine Bailey: Kindergarten Christa Matthews: 6th Grade MathDanielle Tobin: 6th Grade Math
All three are teachers in the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona.
Findings: Katherine, Christa, and Danielle all discussed how they implement recyling into their own lives. Crista shared that we should be talking about the "little things that are taken for granted [in our world]". Katherine continued by saying we should teach our students that "our choices affect other people and the world around us". Crysta suggested that in order to engage students to want to learn about sustainability, we need to touch their emotions, "discuss sad facts about animals and the earth", and Danielle shared that we should be showing our students how "it's easy to make small changes!"

Megan Gray, Sandy Rochford, & Melissa Rodgers

Megan Gray: Kindergarten Sandy Rochford: KindergartenMelissa Rodgers: 2nd Grade
All three are teachers in the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona.
Findings: Megan, Sandy, and Melissa all told us about ways that they make sustainabile choices at home. Melissa talked about how at home, her husband and her are very consious on the water they use and always make a point to unplug electronics if they aren't being used. Sandy discussed how at home, they hand donwn clothes and eat a lot of leftovers to reduce waste. Megan shared with us that she collects rain water to use to water her plants! We asked if they had seen any students demonstrating a current interest in making sustainable choices and were impressed with the responses. Melissa shared how she had a past student who reguarly would donate clothes to goodwill. Megan shared how once a day, the students collect trash around campus. Not only does this help the earth but it also helps the facility manager. As for teaching children about sustainability, we should "use standards and build in STEM activites" with the idea in mind of "how can we help the school and community?" Megan suggests that we use technology to hook students in and make sustainabiity interesting and engaging for students.

Audrey Griffin, Emma Williams, & Carol Worsnup

Audrey Griffin: KindergartenEmma Williams: 3rd GradeCarol Worsnup: 2nd Grade
All three are teachers in the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona.
Findings: Emma shared that most recently, she has made the switch from plastic to hard straws to help the environment. In Audrey's home, they use all non-toxic products, and Carol recycles and disposes of bottles and cans to her local church to help pay for their camp. In the past, Audrey and Carol have both noticed a boost of interest from the students in cleaning up the school or planting a tree after learning about environmental topics. In order to engage our students about sustainability, Emma and Audrey both shared similar points in saying that if we show interest and excitment in sustainability, then the kids will share the same love for the topic. They also discussed how at their school, they have a "recycling mom" who visits classrooms and talks about recycling to the kids and also spoke about incorporating teracycling into schools. At Carol's school, they have won an award for using the least amount of energy in WESD. In her school, they have had past projects where students are taught how to sort trash.

Tamara Whalin, Corinn Klues, & Madelaine Sporbert

Corinn Klues: 6th grade mathTamara Whalin: 7th grade math Madelaine Sporbert: 4th Grade
All three are teachers in the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona.
Findings: Tamara brought some great insight about recycling from her current school and past school she worked at. While at Palo Verde, she let us know that the NJHS was in chrage of collecting recycling for the school during an intervention period. This allowed students some designated time in the day to make sure the recycling was handled on campus. She also let us know about how at her current school, a students made a written complaint about how their school has no recycling system in place. Tamara is big advocate for providing more sustainable choices at school and is looking for a form to bring it into her current school. Corinn has stated that at their school they have a recycling at their school.

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