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Teaching for a Positive Future
Teaching Resources


Higher Ed/Teaching College

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
AASHE is a member-based association of colleges and universities working to advance sustainability in higher education in the U.S. and Canada. Their mission is to promote sustainability in all sectors of higher education - from governance and operations to curriculum and outreach - through education, communication, research and professional development. Businesses, NGO's, and government agencies can participate as AASHE partner members.

The Cloud Institute
T
he mission of The Cloud Institute is to ensure the viability of sustainable communities by leveraging changes in K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future.

Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education (Evergreen State College)
We work with faculty, staff, and administrators at regional and national levels to support student engagement and academic achievement, particularly for students underrepresented in higher education.

The Piedmont Project (Emory University)
A curriculum development project that seeks to foster an invigorated intellectual community to address global issues and local environmental awareness.

The Ponderosa Project (Northern Arizona University)
The Ponderosa Project at NAU is an interdisciplinary faculty group effort to incorporate environmental sustainability issues into university courses with the ultimate goal of providing future citizens the education and skills necessary to achieve sustainable communities and societies. 

K-12 Resources

Social Education:

The Mosaic Project
The Mosaic Project, nonprofit organization, works towards a peaceful future by reaching children in their formative years. The Project unites young children of diverse backgrounds, provides them with essential skills to thrive in an increasingly diverse society, and empowers them to strive for peace.

Teaching for Social Justice Links
A website by State University of New York at Oswego with several resources for teachers looking at social justice.

Teachers Against Prejudice (TAP)
TAP is a non-profit group dedicated to fighting prejudice, intolerance and bigotry through education. TAP stands for a future built on the respect and acceptance we can all create today.

Justice Matters!
Justice Matters’ mission is to bring about racially just schools by developing and promoting education policy rooted in community vision.

Educational Justice
The Educational Justice Program promotes access to quality education for students from all racial and cultural groups.

Environmental Education:

People for the Puget Sound Education Site
People for the Puget Sound offers in class visits, curriculum guides, beach walks, and other teaching resources looking at ecological issues in the Puget Sound.

Washington State Department of Ecology Climate Change Site
A look at what global climate change means to Washington State.

Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Site
The EPA's climate change site has many resources looking at climate change.

Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Kid’s Site
A colorful, animated site looking at climate change targeted towards elementary students. 

Department of Agriculture’s Outreach and Education Site
The Department of Agriculture has a Education and Outreach section with facts and resources involving our agricultural practices in the United States.

NOAA’s Education Site
This site has been designed to help students, teachers, librarians and the general public access the many educational activities, publications, and booklets.

Washington Native Plants Society Education Site
Find out how teachers can become informed and involved with native plants. This site also has a list of further resources for native plant education and action.

The Edible Schoolyard
"The Edible Schoolyard, in collaboration with Martin Luther King Junior Middle School, provides urban public school students with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Using food systems as a unifying concept, students learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce. Experiences in the kitchen and garden foster a better understanding of how the natural world sustains us, and promote the environmental and social well being of our school community."

Economics Education

World Watch Institute's Sustainable Economics Site
This site has many useful readings involving sustainable economics. 

Sustainableeconomics.org's Education Site offers an extensive reading list looking at all aspects of making economics sustainable. 

Center for Economic and Social Justice
The Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), established in 1984, promotes a free enterprise approach to global economic justice through expanded capital ownership. CESJ is a non-profit, non-partisan, ecumenical, all-volunteer organization with an educational and research mission.

Pre-Service Teachers

Americorps members serve through more than 3,000 nonprofits, public agencies, and faith-based and other community organizations, helping meet critical needs in education, public safety, health and the environment. The variety of service opportunities is almost unlimited. Members may tutor and mentor youth, build affordable housing, teach computer skills, clean parks and streams, run after-school programs, or help communities respond to disasters.

 

Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships after-school. Our programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing students in the middle grades for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

Edutopia's Teacher Preparation Site offers resources and ideas on teacher preparation.

Local Resources

Building a Network of Community Allies in Bellingham, WA.

Sustainability is looking at the broader connections between economy, society, and the environment in order to build a disciplined approach to understanding how we might affect change positively, systemically, and comprehensively.  This project is focusing on how to introduce pre-service teachers to these concepts, to give them the tools to re-create this knowledge in their classrooms, and to weave some of these broader discussions throughout their curriculum. 

Every community is home to a unique population, a unique environment, and is facing unique challenges.  There is a wealth of resources in every community to help guide learning opportunities for our diverse classrooms, subject areas, and students. We encourage you to find allies in your communities to help you build place-specific curriculum and experiential learning opportunities to work for a positive future. 

There are many organizations working to build a culture of sustainability and social justice in our community, here in Bellingham, WA. Our greatest resource in building a culture of sustainability in our schools, is to utilize these community allies, to become familiar with their work, and to organize formal learning experiences highlighting their areas of expertise. Teachers can use local resources to focus community-based research projects, to find public speakers, or as a venue to generate service-learning opportunities. It is crucial to build relationships between teacher colleges, schools and the larger community for these reasons. Our communities are a learning resource. Here are just a few examples of local organizations that are working for a just and sustainable future, right here in our community. 

 

Society  education, social justice, democracy

Schools
Western Washington University

Woodring College of Education
     Center for Educational Pluralism
     Center for Holocaust Education-Genocide and Ethnocide Education
     Center for Service Learning
The Outback Experiential Learning Site

Local schools and teachers taking the initiative to affect change
Geneva Elementary
WellSpring Community School


Place-based experiential education, stewardship
North Cascades Institute

We inspire close relationships with nature through direct experiences in the natural world. Since 1986, North Cascades Institute (a nonprofit organization) has worked to conserve and restore Northwest environments through education.

Social Justice Organizations


Social Justice/Economics/Environment
C2C; Community to Community Development
Community to Community Development is a place-based, grassroots organization committed to creating alliances in order to strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice.
 
Small Potatoes Gleaning Project
This group is a volunteer based gleaning organization, also focusing on making food security a visible need in our community. 
http://www.foodjustice.org/

Social Justice
Peace and Justice Center

A diverse group of concerned citizens, who are working to promote peace and justice in our community, and beyond. 

Democracy/Independent media
Democracy Now!
can be found on KUGS 89.3
Whatcom Independent
Whatcom Watch

Economy self-reliance, social responsibility


Sustainable Connections - Maximize Community Benefit | Minimize Environmental Impact
"We envision sustainable business practices that lead to a healthy environment, meaningful employment, strong communities and buying local first as commonplace in our region and a model for the rest of the world."

Community building/Economics/Environment
Community Food Co-op


Environment  education, conservation, stewardship   

Community Education
ReSources
RE Sources empowers children and adults in the Pacific northwest region to do all we can to protect our home. By providing key information, citizen trainings and workshops, and volunteer-led field programs, RE Sources helps community members actively safeguard our marine waters, rivers, lakes, beaches and air.  Re Sources offers, youth education programs- invite them to your classroom!

RE Sources' education team offers free, in-class presentations to schools throughout Whatcom, Skagit and Island Counties.  These presentations about air quality, recycling & waste reduction, and global warming get local students out of their seats and actively participating in solution-oriented learning.

Recycling building materials, environmentally sound construction
Re Store

Network of local organizations
Sustainable Bellingham

City initiatives, government, public works
City of Bellingham
  -  endorses the Earth Charter!

Stewardship and volunteer opportunities
Bellingham Parks and Recreation
   Volunteer opportunities
   Park Stewards
   Backyard Habitat Mentor Program


Environmental education, stream restoration, habitat preservation
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association

Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) is a community–based nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring sustainable wild salmon runs in Whatcom County.

Puget sound restoration and education
People for the Puget Sound
People For Puget Sound is a citizens' group working to protect and restore the health of Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits through education and action. Our vision is a clean and healthy Sound, teeming with fish and wildlife, cared for by people who live here.

Community education, conservation, stewardship
Audubon Society

Audubon's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.

Place-based experiential education, stewardship
North Cascades Institute

We inspire close relationships with nature through direct experiences in the natural world. Since 1986, North Cascades Institute (a nonprofit organization) has worked to conserve and restore Northwest environments through education.

There are many more groups who are working for a just, sustainable future in our community, some do not have websites or we are not aware of, and so are not shown here. We encourage you to explore these sites, to search for other potential allies, and to really become familiar with this amazing community and the work that is done here! Please contact us if you should be on this page! positive.future@wwu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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