News reports recently left me a bit amused that the mighty Apple could get it so wrong. Apple has vowed that iBooks will reinvent school textbooks. My take is that this initiative is more about selling iPads than shaking up education. As noted by many, the textbook is a relic. It is all about transmitting knowledge or information on mass from an authority (a subject, a teacher, an institution) to the student. The textbook learning ...Read more
Feb. 17th, 2012
Enhance your Students’ Engagement through Community Action
It was a sad sad day for me as an educator the day I was supporting another teacher’s civics class. I introduced the concept of the community action project. It took a long time to convince the students that we were actually going to do the action project. We weren’t just going to write about it. We weren’t going to do a simulation, a ‘mock’ anything or a… We were actually going to do it. The students wouldn’t believe me. ...Read more
Feb. 7th, 2012
Give Peas a Chance
All they are saying, is, “Give peas a chance”: Occupy Gardens Toronto Challenges Unsustainable Global Food System This post was written by Katie Berger – MES Candidate, York University “It’s Thyme” they cry, “Lettuce Occupy Gardens for World Peas!” This is the callout from the organizers of the first annual World Peas Expo. The Expo, set for February 11, 2012 is the first major event held by Occupy Gardens Toronto, a growing collective of guerrilla gardeners inspired by the international Occupy ...Read more
Nov. 28th, 2011
Appreciation for Alternate Perspectives in Your Classroom: Effective Strategies
What the world needs now is another folk singer like I need a hole in my head. For some people, Cracker’s song lyrics are fighting words (but the tune is great…check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n8rfFRvIH0). But what does the world need now? Certainly, we need to get better at appreciating alternative perspectives. Not just tolerating…but actually appreciating them. Appreciating alternative perspectives requires a consideration of different ways of looking at issues in the process of forming opinions and taking a ...Read more
Nov. 28th, 2011
Bring Food Home…and to school!
This post written by Katie Berger – MES Student From October 27th to 29th, over four hundred food enthusiasts from around the province, a few from other parts of Canada and at least two super special guests from all the way across the pond- Sustain UK co-ordinator Jeanette Longfield and food systems expert Raj Patel – converged at Trent University in Peterborough for ‘Bring Food Home,’ Sustain Ontario’s annual conference. According to their website, Sustain Ontario is “a province-wide, cross-sectoral ...Read more
Nov. 4th, 2011
EcoLeague – Linking Education to Action
This post written by Angela Heagle – MES student and LSF Project Assistant A few weeks ago I did my first in-school project at North Kipling Junior Middle School in York Region. I, along with my LSF colleagues Randall and Katie, implemented two EcoLeague Recipes with some of the classes at this school. The first two action projects were with Grade Six classes and the last one was with a grade seven class. With the grade sixes, we ...Read more
Nov. 1st, 2011
The Right to Water?
This post written by Katie Berger, MES Student The research I’m doing for my latest assignment in my Environmental Policy course has me both fascinated and deeply disturbed. The professor has designed an activity in which small groups form panels to discuss issues of importance to environmental policy in the style of a mock-parliamentary hearing. I was assigned to the panel debating whether or not Canada should endorse the UN’s declaration of water as a fundamental human right which came into ...Read more
Oct. 26th, 2011
Key Ideas: “Sustainable Minds”
This post written by Angela Heagle-Kielbowska, Environmental Studies Graduate Student I recently read the “Sustainable Minds”[i] by Kate Davies in the Alternatives Journal. In this succinct article, Davies highlights the necessity of creating a learning society where humans learn together about living sustainably on Earth. Given the importance of this subject today, I decided to share her six strategies for learning societies. 1. Creating Learning Communities By learning in small groups individuals share diverse perspectives and ideas on sustainability issues. 2. Learning from Experience Giving ...Read more
Oct. 21st, 2011
Belfountain Public School: a school on a professional inquiry path
I have had the pleasure of working with the staff of Belfountain Public School for several years. They stand out in terms of professional practice on a number of levels. The result is a school learning experience that is engaging learners and consistent with the growing body of knowledge that supports students learning in the context of their local communities, working on meaningful, real world projects and bringing social land environmental issues into focus in age-appropriate ways. It is worthwhile ...Read more
Oct. 12th, 2011
So Little Time, So Many Opportunities to Spur Sustainability!
This post written by Katie Berger – Environmental Studies Graduate Student I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the many opportunities to advance sustainability on campus and beyond even before my graduate work began in September. From the Graduate Students’ Association’s campaign to ban bottled water on campus to the Maloca Community Garden crew to the Sustainable Purchasing Coalition, York is rife with people and organizations working together toward a more socially, economically and ecologically sustainable community. During our late summer ...Read more