Sustainability and Service Learning Growing in the Region

For some select few the past Spring Break brought with it an opportunity to attend the EARCOS Teachers Conference in Bangkok. There were a number of ISKL representatives both attending and presenting. I had the chance to present ISKL's direction as a sustainable school and highlight some of the many things we do on our campuses. Among other things that were covered were the ISKL ESD standards and benchmarks current under review and development. 

What struck me about the conference was the plethora of workshops focusing on sustainability and service, and the level of participation in them. In a conference packed with so many topics, these workshops were often overflowing. There is obviously a trend toward sustainability in education, and ISKL is sitting right at the forefront of it. In such a light we participated in the Sustainable, Environment and Service Learning Job-Alike that took place there and were invited to attend a Sustainability and Service summit in September aimed at determining the educational direction and opportunities collaboratively with other schools across the region.

The second thing that jumped out is just how far ISKL has come in the past 14 years. From our humble beginnings of our Green Team, ISKL is well positioned in terms of what we offer our students. Perhaps the most important element of that is the connection between sustainable future, powerful learning and making a difference to the world here and now through service learning. We have already been contacted by several schools to offer our know-how, our experience and to provide exemplars for moving forward. We are proud to be an important player in this regard and so support and assist both students and communities in the region and beyond. 

Though ISKL is still developing its sustainability education programming and service learning opportunities it is heartwarming to know that we are moving in the right direction and we're walking hand in hand with an ever increasing number of schools. There is power in holding firm to our direction, but being flexible enough to bend with the circumstances, and we are doing this quite nicely. 

Missing Water, Dirty Air and Opportunities for Personal Growth.

The haze outside must be way over 100 with little seen even across the street. Add the water rationing situation and we are experiencing first hand what we often talk theoretically about in terms of global issues. Except now we're no longer talking about smog in Beijing or water limitations in Africa that we see on YouTube. This is here and now. 

The silver lining is the singular opportunity to experience water shortages and dirty air (though still nothing severe or chronic) and the learning that these difficulties lend themselves to. Parents as well as teachers should take this opportunity to partake in conversations with their children/students. Not to complain about it, but to step outside of it and look at it from a global and local perspective. 

For example, the water outage on Tuesday prompted a stop-gap purchase or paper plates and plastic single use utensils as an immediate solution. It did provide opportunity to eat, but also added waste. This, in turn, resulted in frank conversations about alternative solutions such as the bringing of personal containers and utensils or interacting with our vendors to promote the preparation of foods that will not generate excess waste. There are probably as many solutions as there are creative minds and we might need a more systematic approach if the water shortages continue for long. 

Similarly, the haze offers itself to some deep and powerful conversations within the social studies and humanities classes school-wide. It also offers an excellent opportunity for the discussion of the connection between economy, environment and society at school and at home. Recognition of connections both in terms of the "global issues" and in terms of local and/or personal solutions provides tools to increase our knowledge and skills with regard to dealing with such issues.

This is how growth takes shape. So even if we're stuck with the current problems, we might as well get started on understanding and solving them!  

ISKL Eco-Schools Mini Conference a Success!

Last week my article focused on the ISKL Eco-Schools Mini Conference, and especially about the power of collaboration. Now that the conference has come and gone I wanted to make sure that it's success did not go unnoticed. 

Overall there were 54 participants from nine different schools, WWF Malaysia and MESYM attending. The event was very well received by all and Mr. Thiaga Nadeson from WWF Malaysia was impressed by our use of the Pyramid 2030 as a decision-making and action planning tool. 

A number of schools shared their environmental projects and our Green Council members then led them through a process to determine an Eco-Schools theme to focus on. After some deliberation and discussion the students determined that waste was an appropriate topic.  The Pyramid 2030 structure allows the students to ask successive "why?" questions to address to global issues reaching deeper and deeper into the real issues behind current problems. Once they managed a solid understanding of the issues, students were split up into four groups, each being facilitated by three ISKL Green Council members, for the action planning portion of the morning. 

Utilizing our Google Drive documents the four groups were able to create action plans through discussion and further deliberation. During this time the teachers also had some time to talk about the Eco-Schools program and issues of organizational and administrative support for their students. 

The final portion was the return of the delegations, the sharing of their action plan proposals and the final decision to focus on recycling programs. The specific plan includes internal recycling efforts (perhaps with a competitive class-based format) and the creation of videos to document each school's initiative. 

The Mini-Conference took just four hours. It included a good deal of networking, "greenstorming", a short campus tour and a promise to continue to work together. Nine schools with one purpose: To bring sustainability into the forefront of our awareness and to share information through a collaborative platform.

Now comes the harder part. Keeping together and moving through the labyrinth of real-life circumstances to involve people in recycling and increase awareness independently and collectively. Our students have a wonderful way of impressing. This was no exception. Global Citizen Leaders in action.

ISKL Eco-Schools Mini Conference: Collaborating & Future Shaping

Collaboration is a big word at ISKL. We talk about it all the time. Student projects require it and teachers are often utilizing it to engage their students in an exceptional education. But though collaboration is essential to our educational being, it has been challenging to walk outside that font gate of apply it externally. 

This coming weekend our school's Green Council executive - which has grown in size lately from eight to 15 members - will be organizing it's first true outreach program. The ISKL Eco-Schools Mini Conference is a bit of a two-in-one idea with both teachers and students engaged in workshops, collaborative activities and "greenstorming" sessions. 

The idea is simple. Bring in delegations from around the city and ask them to share what they're doing. Then, walking them through a process called Pyramid 2030 (www.pyramid2030.net), our Green Council executive members will facilitiate a number of sessions of brainstorming (a.k.a. "greenstorming") that will focus on true collaboration between the schools. At the same time, the teachers will be involved in their own professional development of sorts, by participating in a teachers-facilitating-teachers session dealing with issues of administrative and organizational matters. 

By and large we hope that the half-day event will be powerful enough for the nine participating schools that we can make it an annual (or semi-annual) event. The idea is that students can do more when they are united. Can you envision our youth greening the Ampang and making it the "greenest" suburb of the Klang Valley?  How about students leading a movement to eliminate plastic bags from KL?  Or perhaps they can work with architects and planners to increase "green" building practices in schools around the country? The students can envision so much more than our adult minds can muster.

Students can truly shine if given that tools and opportunity to do so. We see it every day on our two campuses. Now it's time to let them shine in the community as well. If our future is to be a great one, let us give them the chances to exhibit decision-making and leadership here, now. 

Go on. Make the world a better place.

On My Pedestal for Service Learning

So, this kid walks into a coffee shop and asks for a drink. A few minutes later, and after he's paid, he receives what he asked for and nestled cutting into his drink, peering out from the top of the glass is a plastic straw. Later in the same visit the experience is shared by others who have walked into the place. Which prompted our little friend to ask "why so many straws?"

Apparently that was the beginning of a service learning project developed by then-nine-year-old Milo Cress in Vermont. Since then Milo has done his research (did you know that in the US they use 500,000,000 straws a day?) and spread the word, starting with going back to that very same store and asking them - apparently with an angelic face - if they would mind not giving out straws unless requested and his placing table announcements educating his community about why straws aren't being handed out. 

Cathryn Berger Kaye, who visited this past weekend to conduct a service learning workshops to about 30 participants, noted that little Milo was able to reduce straw use in his town by over 80%. One kid did that!  More stories were shared too, the most notable of which is was called "In Our Village" and is the story of students in Africa writing a book about where they live. Similar books have now been made in a variety of places.

The weekend workshop concluded on Sunday afternoon and I found myself being filled with adrenaline and optimism and dreams. If it was up to me at that specific instant every teacher and kid at ISKL and beyond would start service learning immediately and never stop. In every class at every level we would give our students the opportunities to follow their own passions, answer their own questions, create their own solutions and make a change for the better now, here. The youth of the world would all become empowered and conscientious citizens and community, in any and all ways we define it, would be better off.   

In a simulation we did I found myself chatting with a teacher from IS Beijing. We started with "environmental disasters", moved quickly to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, moved toward similar local concerns, determined that there must be some plan for dealing with possible catastrophic events here in Malaysia, identified where we would get the necessary information from, devised a plan to train a small cohort of HS students who would act as educators for their community, but would also be on standby to be deployed in a quick response team in support of environmental clean up in affected areas when time is of essence. The twists and turns of our conversations was astounding. The engagement was awesome!  The wonderful thing is that any other combinations of individuals would have started in the same place, but ended up in a completely different direction. 

I cannot say where ISKL's future lies in regard to service learning, but I am hopeful that more and more of our teachers will utilize this process in their classrooms. The students would love it, I am sure. I don't know what I'll be saying after that rush of the workshop fades, but I am sure that, in there somewhere, there will be the knowledge and motivation I need to support my colleagues in ensuring that our students are actively becoming socially responsible global citizens. 

After the workshop was over, I revisited our school's vision statement. Developed a few years ago by students - long since graduated - I am convinced that it was written with service learning in mind: "learning is stimulated, curiosity is sparked, vision is cultivated and action is inspired". Wow.

MS Eco Challenge Week Starts Up

In an earlier article we have a number of new eco clubs across the school. The clubs, by nature of their sustainability-related mission - are all automatically part of the Green Council and, by extension, part of our Eco-Schools program efforts. The MS Roots & Shoots Club, newly created, is moving forward with an Eco Challenge Week next week. Their slogan "Dare to Care" is apt as they hope to involve middle school students in a number of awareness-raising events:

• Monday is Paperless Monday
• One day without paper (better bring the laptops!)
• Tuesday is Carbon Footprint Awareness Day
• In their home groups students will participate in doing personal carbon footprint analysis of their lifestyle choices
• If you want to take a look feel free to visit www.cooltheworld.com
• Wednesday is Make A Pledge Day
• Using www.padlet.com home groups will participate in making pledges for the environment/health
• Thursday is Swap Day 
• MS students are encouraged to bring a gently-used item to swap for something different!)
• Friday is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and... Refuse Plastic!" Day. 
• Drink things that don't come in that plastic bottle!

Apart from the obvious benefits of the day's reduction in waste related behaviors, we are hopeful that the MS will use the week to participate in important conversations regarding not just the world's resources but perhaps more importantly, discussions about the impact of personal choice in creating solutions for a sustainable future. Nicely done MS Roots & Shoots!

PS. Two seniors just made a great PSA video a week or so ago regarding recycling, specifically to address the issue of proper separation of recyclables at source. If you're interested take a look HERE.

Re-natural Learning Spaces

Part of the job expectations of the Sustainability & Service Learning Coordinator is to allow our community to become involved in the development of natural spaces, particularly for learning. A big component of that is the recognition that a school is not merely a building. It can serve as a very powerful learning tool, particularly with regard to sustainability. 

This past December break the grounds staff of both campuses were working on two projects in this regard:

On the Melawati campus the project was the creation of an interactive garden, initiated by Prep Junior teacher Lisa Nazim. An Annual Fund donation allowed the construction of the foundation and, over the course of this semester, the students in the Prep classes will be helping to plant appropriate plants that will highlight natural sights and sounds and smells up close and personal. It will take a while to reach the ideal set up, largely due to the learning component of the project, which is the direct involvement of our 4 and 5 year olds. But once up and running it should be a perfect model of the marriage of space and learning!

On Ampang the break brought with it the building of a learning space (balcony) over the central stream in the back parking lot. On several visits by environmental experts this area was identified as an ieal on-campus water-based learning space. For anyone taking a stroll to that area (does anyone do that?) we've allowed an area for water quality measurement and observation. The space, if all goes to plan, will be adopted by our 7th grade Earth Science classes as part of the River Ranger program in the Klang Valley. The HS environmental studies classes will establish an action plan on how to best 're-naturalize' the space through the addition of plants that will give the area a more natural look, and hopefully invite insects and birds to the space. The parking spaces might also benefit from more natural shade. 

People who are eager to see things finished immediately might find the process a bit frustrating. But learning, particularly with nature, has to be done in time. Certainly the marriage of learning and physical outdoor space is no simple task. But we hope that with the engagement of students in planting, identifying and supporting existing micro-ecosystems, and participating in water quality testing, there is much to be learnt in slowing down the process to real time, natural time. It's as beautiful as sitting back and watching things grow... young minds and natural splendor simultaneously.