Eco-Schools Green Flag Accreditation

Last week HS students were given the chance to sign up for clubs and organizations. There was lots of commotion and, in the end, it seemed anecdotally that all groups were "ready go to". One such group is the ISKL Green Council, which started up the year with its first meeting just this past Wednesday, getting to work right away. It's first big agenda item?  Ensuring that the evidence is collected and compiled for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award, that the award application is completed and submitted.  

Two years ago ISKL was the first school in Malaysia to receive the prestigious international award, the Green Flag. It's an award that lasts for two years before a school goes through it's re-assessment process. But unlike other accreditation programs, this one is conducted by our student leaders entirely. Though it's difficult to know if we will be granted the prestigious award for a second time, the Green Council is primed to ensure that all our Education for Sustainable Development and service learning opportunities are well-documented, with obvious connections to our curriculum. 

What comes next is a rather stressful visit by the accreditation committee, often university professors and/or community leaders. To prepare our Green Council presenters train and practice and practice some more. Presentations and video are put together. Tours are planned. Practice question and answer sessions are put simulated. Then, finally, the visiting delegation arrives for a tour and presentation - ISKL's Green Council - inviting the Eco-Schools program to consider us for a subsequent Green Flag Award.

It's a stressful task, to be sure. But it's authentic and builds skills for students that are "real world". Public speaking, organizing, communication, creativity, critical thinking, all combined to make for a true authentic learning experience. It's what ISKL is all about!

Starting off with New Programs!

Hello to one and all from the Sustainability & Service Learning Office. By now, hopefully, a semblance of routine has found its way to your home. The new year brings a great many new initiatives/events on the sustainability and service learning front and, as is not customary, this article will do it's part to communicate what our students and community are up to in this regard. 

The second day back for our teachers was taken, in part, by training in service learning modalities and concepts. Cathy Berger Kaye spent four days with us providing training to all our faculty and a select group of student service leaders. It was a great initiation to what we hope will be an action-packed year of sustainability and service learning. 

The year also brings with it a new Middle School program in which we hope to engage our students in independent community involvement through the use of the service learning process. The program, nameless until our students find an appropriate name, will focus on documenting and highlighting things our MS students are doing outside the realm of their classrooms but that are none-the-less learning experiences in their community. 

At High School we are welcoming a new course: Global Issues, Local Solutions. The course is intended as a venue for students to pursue action-based learning to address sustainability issues. The course, coupled with the re-introduction of a Global Issues Network club should pave the way to a greater opportunity to address authentic learning. 

We are also taking our first baby steps to creating a Global Issues Network (GIN) program in the MS too. Though in the past we've participated in such events at other schools we are planning to host our first Global Issues conference (on a small scale) in February, largely based on our Global Issues classes. 

On a sustainability front we have created an Operational Sustainability Committee this year which will include all sorts of stakeholders, from our finance department to our facilities to cleaning staff, cafeteria vendors and transport office.  The idea, of course, is to bring everyone "to the table" so to speak, and identify ways that efficiency can be increased while ensuring operational sustainability.  

Our elementary school too won't be left behind. Typically service learning is alive and well at Melawati, but this year there are higher expectations of service learning in all grade levels. 3KD, in particular, will be using "water" as a consistent theme and participating quite extensively in the Eco-Schools programs, of which ISKL is a Green Flag school. 

Wow. That's a lot of new things starting up. Add them to an already extensive list of happenings, and you've got yourself a busy place. More to come as the year continues!

The Numbers and the Heart: 2014-15 Wind Down

Those fortunate enough to be at graduation last week will have listened to the excellent graduation speech by Michael Ortiz, a HS math teacher (who will serve as IB Coordinator next year), who focused on the "hidden curriculum" of what really matters in growing and learning. His point, regarding how much that matters is not often documented is an ever-present one. Like most things both education and life can only be 'defined' in part with numbers and data and the like. Much of it, though, lies in less-definable elements such as the heart, disposition, growth, where evidence can be much different. So too, is the case with ISKL's sustainability and service culture. 

The numbers will say this:

Indicator	Ampang	Melawati	Change from 13-14 (Total Amounts)
Water (m3) *	+ 0.5% (12,519 m3)	-37.8% (11,763 m3)	-21.7% (24,282 m3)
Electricity (kWh) *	+ 3.9 % (2,158,352 kWh)	- 8.0 % (984,657 kWh)	+1.6% (3,143,009kWh)
Paper (# of copies/prints) *	-0.6% (2,272,284)	-15.5% (689,050)	-4.5% (2,961,334)
Carbon emissions from ISKL flights (tonnes of CO2)			- 16.0% (1200 tonnes)
Recycling (kg)			+3.5% (11,027 kg)
Composting (kg - estimated)			+14.6% (17,045 kg)

They will say that, overall, ISKL has done a reasonably good job in moving toward being a more sustainable school. They will say that Melawati fared better than Ampang in that regard. They will also tell us that we recycled more, we composted more, we used less water (and fixed some leeks). But they won't talk about the heart, the disposition or the growth of our students. 

For that one needs to speak to children and ask them what they've learned. One has to see what they've accomplished. To recognize that during the course of the past two years over 100 service related initiatives have been taken on. Students have assisted with relief efforts in disaster affected areas and/or difficult political circumstances. In the process our students have learned about the challenges of being change makers. They have worked with communities in numerous less-developed areas and, in doing so, recognized how much "stuff" they have in comparison to others, but also that material things matter less in different circumstances that they might have originally thought. They have provided support in building homes for those who cannot build their own and recognized what is truly important in shelter, family and community. They have assisted with refugees and learned that the world is not always easy for people who have done no wrong. They have worked on bringing back the environment and realized how difficult it is to do so when monetary priorities imply that nature is less beneficial to an economy and, by extension, to a society. And yet, despite these seemingly massive obstacles, they still work and plant and teach and build. 

These are the "unwritten" learnings that our environmental indicator data cannot reveal and are hard to gauge. But they are there and they are necessary. For if we want out children to grow and be empowered to make the world a better place, to be the global citizens we want them to be, then all these things - the data and the learning - are important to set the course to a more sustainable present, and future. 

What a wonderful year it's been!  Our children are one year older, and wiser still. They are more capable of making change and, as the Melawati Way puts it, ".. taking care of each other and taking care of this place". Have an enjoyable summer, everyone!

Winding Down. Moving On.

The hubbub is either ending (if you're involved in activities) or just picking up (if you have exams) but regardless everyone is feeling that summer breeze coming fast. The community is somewhere between the combined tiredness of a busy but rewarding year and the exhilaration of well-deserved time off. But for sustainable decisions it's just another day. 

As the end-of-year quickly approaches we have a number of things going on at ISKL. Some involve finishing up the data collection on environmental indicators (waste, energy, water, flight carbon emissions). Others have to do with making adjustments to our physical plant (e.g. energy saving motion sensors in common rooms and solar powered fans for the busing waiting area). Still others have to do with planning for next year. A few highlights for the upcoming year are:

• Our service learning consultant, Cathy Berger Kaye, will be visiting ISKL on two occasions to train teachers and staff of all divisions as well as our HS service team leaders. 
• The service learning model we have is also being adopted by the International Baccalaureate (IB) as the process for CAS projects so we're thrilled that we have a Prep Junior to IB service learning framework that is consistent throughout a child's school experience. 
• Our MS is planning to make a small foray into the world of running Global Issues conferences with a small one-day conference planned for the second trimester. 
• Our HS will be introducing Global Issues, Local Solutions, a new elective course that focuses on global issues through the use of service learning as a learning strategy. We are pretty excited about it!
• Our MS is creating a new individualized program highlighting personal citizenship and community engagement currently being tagged as The Global Citizen Project. A self-initiated and voluntary project it will provide our students with an avenue to highlight their citizenship on their portfolios. Students will be supported by mentors (who can be teachers, parents and even HS students who will be trained in the service learning framework. 
• Our faculty and staff will have increased opportunities to participate in professional development offerings in sustainability education and/or service learning. 

Our Sustainability & Service Learning Coordinator might not be visiting too many classrooms these days (as classes prepare for year end) but there is lots going on still!  Lots to be proud of and lots to move on with. Life goes on, especially when the joy of summer approaches fast!  :-)

Nepal Earthquake Relief: Direct Efforts by ISKL

It's not often you have the chance, as a community, to "cut out the middle man" and do some direct good in a disaster affected area. This past week was a special kind of week for our school, with four faculty/staff members heading to Kathmandu, under the coordination of Kevin Brawn (HS Activities & Athletics Director). 

Kevin, with the support of Drew Davis, Monica Clear and Bendan Kiernan headed off to Kathmandu to take part in relief efforts, specifically targeting Ocean Nepal (website here) and surrounding communities.  Part of their work was to support the evacuation of the students at the orphanage, with a larger emphasis on providing food and shelter to those affected. 

Certainly ISKL's efforts are limited compared to those by international aid organizations but it was hard not to notice the day-to-day news coming from Kevin (handing out food and tents) and the international press (covering the bureaucratic problems with allowing aid to come in, leaving plane-loads of goods on the tarmac for days).

Much of the group's effectiveness was based on their own know-how of the area (we have several connections in Nepal and also run a good number of HS GAP programs there), but also on the money raised in the four days prior to the team's departure. We are told that Melawati (through coordinated efforts by the Red Hats) raised RM 43,000!  The Ampang crowd was just as impressive and, in total, over USD 20,000 (from all sources) was taken to Nepal for the direct purchase of rice and shelter before in-kind donations were made to those affected by the tragedy. 

Thank you to all of you for making a positive difference to those affected by the earthquake and, of course, a special and heart-felt thank you to those who gave their time, energy, efforts to exhibit caring and compassion to those in need, and for being wonderful role models for our children at ISKL.

Earth Week: Celebrating Nature; Celebrating You.

This week - Earth Week - has seen a busy schedule including, of course, our MS visits to the many beautiful and varied natural settings of Malaysia. The stories the students and chaperones come back with are sure to indicate that exposure and appreciation for nature, collaboration and personal growth all danced together in creating worthwhile educational experiences. There is a reason why experiential education is so powerful and that is often due to challenging circumstances, exposure to nature, working in teams, and using all one's senses to become aware of one's world and place in it.

For those who were not able to head out into the wild, there was plenty to do here on campus as well. Weekend climbing and hiking trips: The Farmer's Market and Community Recycling; ISKL Earth Hour; half day trips to FRIM; awareness videos at the HS; the uniform swap at the ES; a number of competition based games at HS; grade 1 trees planted at the ES; the careers and sustainability assembly in the HS; many curricular connections and conversations throughout the school. 

And yet, for many students it might not seem like it's that different. It's sort of like "business as usual" with a bit of an added twist. There are no big banners. No "one off" day-long special events. There are just many many small things to add value to the fact that we already do so much throughout the year. Nearly every person at ISKL participated in some way or another and that is what makes Earth Week so important. 

After all, how do you celebrate something while trying to minimize your impact?  How do we increase awareness without increasing the environmental price tag?  In our case, it's by utilizing means that already exist, and avoiding creating new ones. It's by adding a "stealth" factor to celebration of something important. It's by doing little things. Lots of 'em.

Thank you to all those to participated in the Earth Week events. And thank you to all of you who take the time to talk to those around you. Thanks for spreading awareness and for your personal choices that matter.

Earth Week 2015: Our Turn to Lead!

The Earth Day Network in the United States has given Earth Day and theme of "Our turn to lead". ISKL's Earth Week is currently being considered as a formal partner event for the Earth Day Network, which is a fun added benefit to our week-long set of things to do. 

This year, as usual, the MS is headed out to the "wild" for Malaysia Week during Earth Week. It's a fitting combination of environmental awareness and getting dirty and having fun with it too. 

That leaves the ES and HS to do a more indirect rendition of the Week. The schedule for the week can be found here. It highlights two weekends of outdoor experiences:

• Saturday, April 18: Farmer's Market & Community Recycling
• Sunday, April 19: Climbing for Everyone at Batu Caves
• Saturday, April 25: 
• Hike to Sungai Pisang waterfall
• KDE Loop clean up
• Sunday, April 26: Hike to Kemansah Waterfall (for ES families)

Apart from that, of course, there are a number of on-campus events both at Ampang and Melawati. If you are the parent of an ES student perhaps you'll considering sending some of your son/daughter's outgrown uniforms to the Uniform Swap (on Wednesday and Thursday) to exchange them for ones that fit. Classes are invited to join the ISKL Earth Hour on Tuesday morning as well in support of energy conservation and awareness. Other events include a prep senior trip to FRIM, a number of public service announcements by the Red Hats, HS competitions organized by the Earth Club, a HS photo competition and a mural as well. Lots of great stuff!

Earth Week is largely a celebration of the Earth. As it should be. Of course, with the increasing awareness of it beauty and fragility, and as the theme suggests, it's also a great time for action and conversations at home. After all Earth Day is every day, right?