Here are some stereotypes for you. English teachers pride themselves in grammatically correct emails, texts, and tweets. Educators of math are exact and methodical. Teachers in the arts are creative, interesting, and dynamic. PE instructors and coaches are athletic and encouraging. History teachers extrapolate advice from past events applicable to current day experiences. You can mention any country in the world and the social studies or geography teacher can tell you where it is. And, science teachers are analytical, employing the use of the scientific method in everything they do.
Not only am I a science teacher, but my focus is biology and that affixes further considerations to my life. The Green Initiative at the school is really important to me. My family eats mostly organic. We recycle. Our car spends 95% of the time parked in front of our house and we’re in the process of getting rid of it, as we tend to opt for our bikes or public transportation. Two weeks of my summers are dedicated to taking students on conservation based ecology research expeditions, mostly because I want to “spread the word” and I feel greatest change will come from the younger generation. When traveling, I consider the impact of our journey. Basically, the things I teach pervade our lives.
So, my effort to live what I teach has just been taken to the next level. Our high school students have been challenged to participate in the Project Green Challenge. For whatever reason, it seemed realistic to me to support the effort by joining the challenge. Eagerly I entered my information and signed up. Well, the first challenge came through today in the form of an email. I decided to do both the “Green” and “Greener” challenges. It took me probably an hour (though the “Green” realistically only took about 15 minutes). Now worry fills me to think I might have committed to an hour each night for an entire month. That’s a lot of time!
Surprizingly, I learned a great deal from my endeavor. Do you know what the “Euro-Leaf” is and means? Were you aware that there is organic nail polish remover? My little projects veritably increased my awareness of organic products and instilled a greater desire to purchase organic especially in the areas of hygiene and cleaning supplies. So, it was worth it, tonight at least. It will be interesting to see where this month leads me. Will I regret my attempt to practice what I teach? I hope not!
Anyone else care to join? You can do anything for a month, right? Sign up here.