Teaching for a Positive Future
Sustainability Education Summer Institute 2009
WWU Sustainability For New Teachers
Dr. Rosalie Romano
Beyond the Algorithm: Moving into instructional practice and Standard V
This presentation will describe a pilot class that brought teacher-candidates into a classroom for guided practice over one term. Working with the same cooperative group of 7th graders candidates were to build background knowledge around sustainability, applying math concepts to the amount of paper, plastic and water used each day over time. 7th graders created a poster of their understanding of the problem (finite resources and over use) as well as options for addressing these problems. The learning of the candidates will draw from their weekly reflections of their teaching practice, as well as from student work.
Dr. Lauren McClanahan
First Person Singular: Documenting Climate Change in Alaska
This session presents results of a multi-year project in which Native Alaskan children used photography and writing to document evidence of climate change in their communities. Preservice teachers were involved in this work through email communication with the students as well as in a student teaching internship in one of the villages. The project serves as a promising prototype for use of a variety of media and examples of student-based evidence to assess preservice candidate impact on student learning. The project could easily be replicated in other contexts focusing on sustainability such as food production, conceptions of community, urbanization and media influence. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their own strategies for implementing similar projects in their programs.
Dr. Molly Lawrence
Constructing a Pedagogy for Sustainability Education
This session will engage participants in making sense of a pedagogy for sustainability education as it relates to their own practice. Specific ways in which this pedagogy has shaped the presenters’ practice as well as additional examples from colleagues at WWU will be incorporated. In addition, challenges associated with education for sustainability as well as ways to address these challenges will be explored. This session will be collaborative, practical, and thought- provoking while aligning with principles of the new Standard V. We welcome your insights, experiences, and questions as we work together to envision what a pedagogy for sustainability education is like and the implications of this for our own work with students.
Dr. Christine Schaefer
Master In Teaching Sustainability Education
This session will describe how the secondary Master In Teaching (MIT) program in Seattle integrated sustainability education into existing coursework, specifically, into educational foundations courses. It will use selected candidates as case studies to show how the information transferred into work in other courses, their student-teaching and jobs. This presentation will also show the ultimate transfer: how the candidates' students integrated sustainability into other aspects of their lives as a result of the MIT sustainability education program.
Dr. Joanne Carney
Learning to Teach for Sustainability in a School with a Garden
Join us to discuss how we might better prepare teachers to teach for sustainability. The presenter will report on a grant-funded Sustainability for New Teachers partnership and describe how four teacher candidates learned to teach for sustainability in an elementary school with a garden—highlighting both useful resources and barriers. Attendees will share their perspectives on how teacher education programs might prepare sustainability-literate teacher candidates, how practicing teachers can be provided the professional development opportunities they need, and how schools might create a generation of responsible citizens for an environmentally sustainable, globally interconnected, and diverse society.
