OUR STORY
At Bollman Bridge Elementary School, we needed to make changes. Paper was being tossed into the trash without thought. Water bottles and soda cans filled the garbage cans in the staff lounge. Styrofoam trays were used and dumped at alarming rate- roughly 500 styrofoam trays per day from our school community, haphazardly filling our local landfills.
Little attention was being paid to what we were doing or why we might want to do better.
However, over the last few years, Bollman Bridge has begun to take its role in the world more seriously. We are working to change the minds and hearts of our community by learning and educating, by distributing recycling bins, by school-wide announcements and presentations throughout the community, by absorbing expertise from our community members and spreading their knowledge, by active involvement in our school's recent renovation. We have made great efforts to learn, to share, and to encourage new habits.
Our work began with our Green Teams- small groups of students meeting during their recess and lunch hours. These groups began meeting in 2010. Our initial goals were to understand the basic ideas of reducing, reusing, and recycling, learn their hierarchy and importance, and then spread the word!
Through our entire journey, the concept of student leadership (not just student involvement) has been critical to our movement. As our students hear continuously, their young voices are far more powerful than those of the adults. Students present the most compelling arguments. They must share their passion with their families, with their teachers, with their communities. If this change is going to take hold, they must lead!
We have worked hard to spread the word that "green" ideas should be woven into every facet of the life of our school and its community. Lessons across the curriculum have taken on environmental issues in the forms of educating, forming opinions, and inventing change. Recycling has become routine at our school. Students write their own announcements and speak to the entire school body regularly, either advertising a specific environmental program, celebrating the success of a particular group of students in their environmental efforts, teaching about what and how to recycle, or reminding the community about improving our efforts. Students lead class discussions urging their peers to do better and answer questions people still have about reducing, reusing and recycling. Students have called meetings with community members, enacting change in our school building's renovation and in the cafeteria. The cafeteria has become a far less wasteful space, and we work to make that consciousness routine. Our teachers are far more aware and excited about the concept and the ease of adding environmental discussions to every part of their days. Our staff members have taken a professional interest and worked to increase their knowledge and personal experiences with the environment. The extensions of their own learning are marvelously tangible throughout their lessons and actions in our community and our world.
In early 2013, we advertised and created our Green Leadership Team. The team is a compilation of students, staff members, and parents who are passionate about enacting environmental improvements. While we knew that the Green School application would be in our future, we have always been very clear that Green School status is not our goal. While it would be valued recognition, our goal is to change the habits of the community. We want to make people aware of what we are doing and inspire them to join us. We plan events, we organize competitions, we make community resource connections, we learn about environmental issues.
We meet on alternating Fridays after school is dismissed.
Becoming "greener" has been a process, and will continue to be so. But, only now do we feel that our community has reached a place of awareness, of knowledge, of celebration, and of sincere excitement about doing better for our earth. We are finally in a place that applying for Green School status is a true reflection of our values as a community. We are proud of where we are and what we have done to get us here!
We believe our application is a strong reflection of the community effort that has brought us this far. Even in the activity descriptions, the voices of multiple students, staff members, and parents are audible, as a wide range of voices worked to write this application. We knew we needed such widespread involvement if the campaign were to take hold.
Our Bollman Bridge Elementary School community has come a long way. And, we have more work to do!
At Bollman Bridge Elementary School, we needed to make changes. Paper was being tossed into the trash without thought. Water bottles and soda cans filled the garbage cans in the staff lounge. Styrofoam trays were used and dumped at alarming rate- roughly 500 styrofoam trays per day from our school community, haphazardly filling our local landfills.
Little attention was being paid to what we were doing or why we might want to do better.
However, over the last few years, Bollman Bridge has begun to take its role in the world more seriously. We are working to change the minds and hearts of our community by learning and educating, by distributing recycling bins, by school-wide announcements and presentations throughout the community, by absorbing expertise from our community members and spreading their knowledge, by active involvement in our school's recent renovation. We have made great efforts to learn, to share, and to encourage new habits.
Our work began with our Green Teams- small groups of students meeting during their recess and lunch hours. These groups began meeting in 2010. Our initial goals were to understand the basic ideas of reducing, reusing, and recycling, learn their hierarchy and importance, and then spread the word!
Through our entire journey, the concept of student leadership (not just student involvement) has been critical to our movement. As our students hear continuously, their young voices are far more powerful than those of the adults. Students present the most compelling arguments. They must share their passion with their families, with their teachers, with their communities. If this change is going to take hold, they must lead!
We have worked hard to spread the word that "green" ideas should be woven into every facet of the life of our school and its community. Lessons across the curriculum have taken on environmental issues in the forms of educating, forming opinions, and inventing change. Recycling has become routine at our school. Students write their own announcements and speak to the entire school body regularly, either advertising a specific environmental program, celebrating the success of a particular group of students in their environmental efforts, teaching about what and how to recycle, or reminding the community about improving our efforts. Students lead class discussions urging their peers to do better and answer questions people still have about reducing, reusing and recycling. Students have called meetings with community members, enacting change in our school building's renovation and in the cafeteria. The cafeteria has become a far less wasteful space, and we work to make that consciousness routine. Our teachers are far more aware and excited about the concept and the ease of adding environmental discussions to every part of their days. Our staff members have taken a professional interest and worked to increase their knowledge and personal experiences with the environment. The extensions of their own learning are marvelously tangible throughout their lessons and actions in our community and our world.
In early 2013, we advertised and created our Green Leadership Team. The team is a compilation of students, staff members, and parents who are passionate about enacting environmental improvements. While we knew that the Green School application would be in our future, we have always been very clear that Green School status is not our goal. While it would be valued recognition, our goal is to change the habits of the community. We want to make people aware of what we are doing and inspire them to join us. We plan events, we organize competitions, we make community resource connections, we learn about environmental issues.
We meet on alternating Fridays after school is dismissed.
Becoming "greener" has been a process, and will continue to be so. But, only now do we feel that our community has reached a place of awareness, of knowledge, of celebration, and of sincere excitement about doing better for our earth. We are finally in a place that applying for Green School status is a true reflection of our values as a community. We are proud of where we are and what we have done to get us here!
We believe our application is a strong reflection of the community effort that has brought us this far. Even in the activity descriptions, the voices of multiple students, staff members, and parents are audible, as a wide range of voices worked to write this application. We knew we needed such widespread involvement if the campaign were to take hold.
Our Bollman Bridge Elementary School community has come a long way. And, we have more work to do!
Top five accomplishments
Our top accomplishments have more to do with the everyday lives of our community members than the exciting events. While we certainly enjoy events and celebrations, our goal has been to affect change in the everyday habits of our community. Of that we are most proud.
- Building Awareness- Our greatest team accomplishment has been moving a school with little environmental awareness to a school instrumental in affecting change in our community.
- Lunchroom Norms- We used to toss 500 polystyrene trays per day into our landfills. Now we recycle, we Terracyle, and we reuse in our lunchroom. We still throw away some lunch trays, but our average is closer to 50 trays per day, and the trays are biodegradable.
- Classroom Norms- According to our custodial staff, roughly 75% of our classroom trash used to be paper. While we are not at 0% for our classrooms, we are far better in our recycling rate. But, even better, our teachers are considering not making copies, not using paper, and making better use of our document cameras in order to reduce waste.
- Green Days- Our Green School Leadership Team worked for about 2 months to prepare for our first annual set of Green Days. During Green Days, the entire school community is enveloped in environmental activities, from the creation of an all-school Green Alphabet Book, to 2 science experiments per grade, 2 books and language arts activities per team, and universal student-made recycling videos to learn about more responsible behavior in the lunchroom and classrooms.
- Garden Build- In September 2013, Erica Glass, first-grade team leader and Green School Leadership Team member, organized a clean-out and garden build of the courtyard in the center of our school. She collected Green Team members, staff members, and family members to clear out the invasive species, then build and plant a vegetable garden. About 50 community members showed up with energy overflowing! It was a picture of what our Green School movement is about- a wonderful event. And, the courtyard has become a place commonly used for learning, for observing, measuring, and eating vegetables, for art classes to work in natural light, and for outdoor enjoyment. In the coming years, we hope to extend this project to a full and organized outdoor classroom.