November Meeting Cancelled

The November meeting is cancelled.  There are not any further meetings scheduled at this time.  There will be a survey sent out soon to gauge interest and ideas for the future.  Thanks to all that have been a part of the group so far. 

November Meeting

For the November meeting, it was thought that a return to the original intent of the group should be revisited, which would be collaboration and networking with other teachers.  Please bring a lesson or two that you'd like to share with others that involves sustainability in schools.  Also to be discussed would be anyone's experiences at the "A Case for Sustainability: Local Schools Go Green" event recently.  An interesting idea was brought up at the event to begin discussion on a possible group of teachers that could someday meet with local congressmen to bring ideas and concerns to the state.

Green Classroom Professional Certificate

The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) is currently developing the Green Classroom Professional (GCP) Certificate Program, which will enable preK-12 educators to gain knowledge on maintaining a healthier and sustainable classroom. Armed with a strong understanding of sustainability in educational settings, Green Classroom Professionals create and advocate for healthier environments in which to work and teach. A certificate holder’s classroom can serve as a living laboratory, creating foundational awareness of greener lifestyles, energy savings and environmental health in students.

As the GCP is developed for official launch in 2012, GBCI is seeking preK-12 educators to participate in the Beta test of the program, taking place entirely online from November 7 – 21, 2011. The Beta will consist of taking an online course and an online virtual animated assessment, with a total duration of 2-3 hours over the two week period. In exchange for their participation, the first 150 participants will be able to earn the GCP certificate for free. The Green Classroom Professional Certificate Program will be fully available beginning in 2012.

To sign up for the Beta next month, educators simply need to complete this survey as soon as possible: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22DEWEZJ3C7.  Please share this information with any preK-12 educators in your networks, including teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators, and encourage them to sign up for participation in the Beta test.

Green Schools Happy Hour

Green Schools Happy Hour

¨The Sustainable St. Louis Education Committee invites you to join us for appetizers and networking

¨Thursday September 29, 2011 from 5:00 to 7:00PM at

¨Salt

¨4356 Lindell 

St Louis, MO 63109

¨Cash bar

¨http://ourgreenschools.eventbrite.com

Future Meeting Dates

The next meetings to finish out 2011 will be held on the 3rd Sunday each month.  The meetings will still be held from 7-9pm, at Schlafly Bottleworks, in Maplewood.  The dates we have scheduled are the following:

9/18
10/16
11/20

Hope to see you all there and keep spreading the word.  Suggestions for meeting topics and speakers are always welcome.  Please contact me if you have any ideas.  Thanks.

August Meeting Notes

Another very informative meeting this month.  We focused on pollinators, specifically bees and our gardens.  Thank you to Scott and Jane from Isabees for attending the meeting a sharing a lot of great information with us.  Just some of the simple tips we learned in the meeting:

• Native pollinators are a much easier and cheaper solution that honey bees
• many flowers and fruits from our gardens are not well pollinated by honey bees - cucumbers, squash, tomatoes
• native bees loves herbs
• there are thousands of native bee species out there to attract

Some other bee resources to check out:

• Great Sunflower Project
• Xerces Society
• Book - Honey Bee Democracy 

Other topics that were discussed:

• Missouri Farm to Schools - check out webinars and new info on funding for schools
• Shaw Nature Reserve classes
• Fruit Tree Planting Foundation - orchards donated to schools/organizations

There is not a scheduled date for a September meeting yet, but I will post as soon as I know.  Keep up the good work and spread the word to other teachers.  Thanks.  

Next Meeting 8/14

Hello, the next meeting of the St. Louis Teachers for Sustainability will be this Sunday, 8/14, 7-9pm, at Schlafly Bottleworks.  Just confirmed for the meeting will be members of Isabees and Nativepollinator.com.  This should be a very informative meeting.  Here are their websites if you'd like to take a look:

http://www.isabees.com/index.html
http://nativepollinator.com/

This should be a good meeting right before most of us go back to school, if you haven't already.  Spread the word and hope to see you all there.