Summary of Activities and Goals
Students, families, staff, and community members of Stoneleigh Elementary School know what it means to be green. We have incorporated activities into our daily routines so that being green is now our way of life. When we started our green efforts in 2007, we wanted to make a difference for everyone in the Stoneleigh Community. Now, nine years later, we can say that we have in fact made a difference. The projects, lessons, programs, and events described on the following pages reflect the tremendous effort and impact that going green has made on our students, staff, families, and entire community into "environmental stewards". We are thrilled with the efforts that have been made thus far, and we are all looking forward to continuing these efforts, and more, as we apply for Maryland Green School recertification this year.
Stoneleigh Elementary became a Maryland Green School in 2009. Since then, we have worked hard to learn about and implement new and engaging ways for our students and staff to become aware of our environment and its needs. The four main areas on which we focused since our initial certification are habitat restoration, energy conservation, solid waste reduction, responsible transportation, and celebrating our environmental studies. Through collaboration, hard work, and dedication, we have created lessons, activities, and school-wide programs, to demonstrate our efforts in these five areas.
Our four year goals:
* to get a water source outside of our building so we can move ahead with plans to fix a very large bare spot. After our whole school renovation we discovered our outside water valves were no longer there. This will be a very costly activity. The Green School Committee is working to find grants to accomplish this goal.
* to reinstall an outdoor classroom that was taken down during the renovation. We are working with the Parks and Recreation Council of Towson and a local Boy Scout group. The Rec. Council has given permission for use of the park area behind our school as an outdoor classroom. The Boy Scout Troop is working on planning the classroom.
* to continue to enhance our recycling program to include more and more cafeteria waste.
*Vocal Trash Band from Texas is entertaining our student body in an assembly in October of 2017 to keep the motivation in our recycling program.
*to continue support of the Green Club with the students leading the environment projects.
Our six year goal:
* to work on completing a large outdoor learning garden and play area our large playground bare spot.
*professional development for staff on curriculum to support learning in the school garden.
Our ten year goal:
*to create a working vegetable garden with in our outdoor learning garden.
*growing curriculum to support learning in the school garden.
Since 2007 when our journey began, Stoneleigh has worked closely with community partners to promote our green school efforts. Community members have come together to work with our school to enhance programs and lessons, share new ideas, and to celebrate our great accomplishments. We have enjoyed assemblies and guest speakers that have motivated our students and staff to continue their green efforts. Our green school flag flies proudly as a reminder of our accomplishments, in hopes that our hard work and determination will influence those in our community to do the same.
Our faculty has come together on multiple occasions to share ideas and creative ways to enhance classroom instruction relating to environmental issues. Through these discussions, teachers have developed engaging lessons, projects, and activities that focus on the best management practices set by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Instruction. The lessons and activities highlighted in our application showcase the outstanding instructional efforts that Stoneleigh teachers have continued to implement since becoming a green school. Multiple teachers have spent time outside of the school day to attend professional development workshops that focus on environmental instruction. These teachers were able to come back to the faculty and share new ideas and lessons that could be used to enhance instruction for students. Providing students with real world connections allowed students to understand environmental issues outside of the classroom and be able to apply what they have learned in the community.
This application reflects our Green School accomplishments from September 2014 through March or 2017.