Happy Earth Day!

April 22nd, Earth Day, is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  It's a day when people all over the world join together to discuss how we can care for our Earth.  It's a day to take a look at our habits and truly reflect on how they impact our world.

For example, when we ask students to take notes or complete an assignment, students may mindlessly take out a new piece of notebook paper to complete their assignment, only to be tossed (hopefully recycled) in the not too distant future.  What if we challenge students to rethink that simple action?  What if we challenge them to show what they know in new and different ways that may be more sustainable?   Can we use a Google Doc?  Screencastify?  Possible answers will be different depending on the resources we have at our disposal.  Perhaps a white board or the back of an assignment could work.

The solutions that the students generate may not be perfect, but that's not the point.  Could we challenge ourselves to have an entire paperless day, and still meet our content objectives?  On this Earth Day, can we all be more mindful of the choices we make each and every day?  Can we be problem solvers as we assess our impact on the Earth?  And can we use our problem solving skills to truly make a difference in our world?  Happy Earth Day, everyone!