ECO-FRIENDLY PROJECTS

I belong to a generation that used to play outside, sharing toys and games with other children of the neighbourhood, that used stuff from the street to create new games and that didn't need a lot to have fun. 

At home we were taught not to waste because resources were limited and, eventhough we had everything we needed, we treated things well so that they could last long. It was a kind of slow times, opposing to the times we are living now: everything is immediate, everything is feeble, everything moves really fast, things can be found in a minute and achieved in a second. 

I sometimes miss things from those times (not everything, of course!) like the fact that everything was worthy: a special wrapping paper, a card, a sticker... finding a stamp or a coin from another country was a treasure! I also miss the fact that everything had a second use and a second life. I think it is important to bring those values back to  the new generations : to teach them that things can have a second life and that it is not always important to buy things new because you can make things out of other things you can find at home. It is what nowadays is called "boost creativity" but I call it "avoid over-spending and over-wasting, specially in things that you might not need more than 5 minutes". 

It was long ago that I heard about the quote One man's trash is another man's treasure and it inspired me to bring its spirit into the classroom and to start developing eco-friendly projects that show how we can save resources and contribute to make our environment a little bit better. 

One day -not long ago- one of my students said to me that she thought all this was very good but unrealistic. Her argument was that she and her classmates were just 20 children that could not do a lot for the environment eventhough they were very-very eco-friendly, and it was because maybe the rest of the world did not think in the same way and they could do very little to change that. Just by hearing her speech I realised that I had achieved my goal which, in the end, had been to raise awareness of a group of pre-teens about environment and their present and future role to make things change. 

KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE

When I became a teacher I started to do the things using my student perspective, not being fully aware of the fact that time had gone by and thinking that I had to teach my students the way I had been taught.
It lasted for very short time as reality showed me that we were not living in the 90s anymore, that children today live in a different world and that the only things that remained the same at school were the walls and the stairs, nothing else. It is something nobody teaches you during traineeship, while you are supposed to be learning how to be a teacher. Most times it is all loads of theory and theory, which are so far away from what you are about to face in the classroom.
Then, when I started to realise that I had to do things in a different way I felt overwhelmed as there were lots of things to be done: preparing lots of lessons, memorising lots of names of students, keeping reports up to date, checking homework, photocopying, attending meetings, using technology, trying to do your best, teaching stuff, making children learn...and an endless list. What I did then, was to start reading on blogs and webpages, getting information from experienced 21st century teachers that wanted to share their knowledge with the world, which eventually became the most helpful resource I could get.
Now, that I am gaining experience, what this experience is teaching me is that we need to focus on what really works, to keep things simple, to go straight forwards to what we want to achieve and to speak clearly to our students.
This is, somehow, the aim of this blog, to show some of the ideas that are simple and work at teaching and to share my experience. (All the experience and resources I keep in my teaching trunk).