NIW, Part 2

So remember in Jaunary when I spent a week trying to be really green?

Yeah, well... I'm doing it again. And this time, I got the smart idea of trying to involve the entire school. So far I haven't honestly been that successful (only 7 people offically signed up for the group). But... people are asking me about it, and today I got rid of the trash can in my class which completely shocked the kids. It was awesome! (Although, it's also for my own happiness because at least for this week I don't have to feel horrified as I watch my notes and handouts make their way into that grey plastic bucket versus the student's binders.)

Tomorrow's focus is on Transportation... so, since I will NOT be taking the bus or any public transportation in Houston (that sounds more terrifying than it did in Dallas), I need to go bug some co-workers into letting me carpool with them for the rest of this week.

I will say what I'm most excited about doing No Impact Week this time around is that our Student Council is participating in it. Unfortunately, Amy, their advisor's, blurb didn't make it into my first blog post for yes! magazine (so cool that my school shares the same name as the magazine!), so I figured I'd post it here...

After introducing the No Impact Project to my High School Student Council class, I got mixed feelings. Most of the students at YES Prep come from lower income families and therefore it is hard to focus on eating food that only comes from farmers markets when you are not necessarily sure your next meal will come at all. Although I don’t think any of the kids in my class are starving, when responding to the question, how environmentally conscious are you, what I heard was, “my community does not recycle or anything so naturally I don’t think about it much.” My follow up thought was “yea, I guess you have bigger problems.” However, after processing this through the weekend, I have decided that my goal for this week will be to get them to think about it. At least a little if not much. Even if that means they don’t make huge changes beyond this week at least they will know what they could do. And that is half the battle.  Ultimately, this issue is not just for those with money or those with time, but it’s for all of us!

Our first challenge was to collect trash on Sunday and bring it to school Monday. They were so shocked that I asked them to bring their trash to school! So I am excited to see how this week pans out! Little do they know….

Can I just say they are already doing a better job than I am, because I refused to collect my trash and carry it around in a bag. I figured hiding the trash can under my desk for the week would be enough.

Anyway, stay tuned for yet another crazy green adventure. I promised my kids (and Amy) that I'd aggregate the experiences of any students involved in the project into a blog, so if I can't fit them into my posts for YES, they will definitely go here.