SYSTEMIC SUSTAINABILITY OVERVIEW
For a school to see itself as a Green School, it strives to create a culture that unites broad goals with everyday experience (think globally, act locally). St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School elevated its long-standing and on-going environmental activities into a structured, intentional, and activity-oriented Environmental Stewardship Signature Program in 2014. As a preschool-through-8th grade school, with an educational philosophy that emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach, St. Martin’s builds on a child’s sense of wonder about nature.
At age-appropriate levels we integrate environmental learning that informs and inspires both students and teachers and leads to changes in ideas and behavior. Our students experience real, hands-on learning about the world around us—its sights, sounds, smells, and textures, its other living beings, its delicate interplay of land, water, and air.
“Systemic sustainability” is a term that can apply both to the vigor of the school as a learning habitat and to the future viability of natural systems. In the words of the physicist Richard Feynman, “Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.” So, too, in this section of our Green School Reaccreditation application, we will look at the pieces of the fabric that make up the instructional Green tapestry of St. Martin’s.
1.1 Curriculum and Instruction: Environmental issue instruction is documented by descriptions of lessons taught that are, in turn, supported by photographs and examples of student work. Each grade (Preschool through 8th) is represented by at least one lesson plan that specifies Objectives; Essential Question(s); Material; Subjects/Skills; Activity; Assessment/Celebration; and Resources/Partnerships. All these lessons are actually taught and are specified as to time of year (Fall, Winter, Spring). In addition to all grades and all subjects being covered, we include lesson plans and documents for what we at St. Martin’s call “Specials”—Art, Technology, Leadership, and Library/Touchstones Discussions. We also include document for a STEAM project (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). This is not by any means an exhaustive collection of the green instruction at St. Martin’s. Rather, it is intended as a sampling that is meant to indicate how environmental stewardship infuses our curriculum. Here are some highlights:
Preschool
Critters of the Bay, a visiting classroom from the Annapolis Maritime Museum, introduce young children to the importance of water quality to animal life in the Bay. Moving classrooms come to the school to introduce students to various animals, conservation principles, and the needs and beauty of wild creatures.
At age-appropriate levels we integrate environmental learning that informs and inspires both students and teachers and leads to changes in ideas and behavior. Our students experience real, hands-on learning about the world around us—its sights, sounds, smells, and textures, its other living beings, its delicate interplay of land, water, and air.
“Systemic sustainability” is a term that can apply both to the vigor of the school as a learning habitat and to the future viability of natural systems. In the words of the physicist Richard Feynman, “Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.” So, too, in this section of our Green School Reaccreditation application, we will look at the pieces of the fabric that make up the instructional Green tapestry of St. Martin’s.
1.1 Curriculum and Instruction: Environmental issue instruction is documented by descriptions of lessons taught that are, in turn, supported by photographs and examples of student work. Each grade (Preschool through 8th) is represented by at least one lesson plan that specifies Objectives; Essential Question(s); Material; Subjects/Skills; Activity; Assessment/Celebration; and Resources/Partnerships. All these lessons are actually taught and are specified as to time of year (Fall, Winter, Spring). In addition to all grades and all subjects being covered, we include lesson plans and documents for what we at St. Martin’s call “Specials”—Art, Technology, Leadership, and Library/Touchstones Discussions. We also include document for a STEAM project (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). This is not by any means an exhaustive collection of the green instruction at St. Martin’s. Rather, it is intended as a sampling that is meant to indicate how environmental stewardship infuses our curriculum. Here are some highlights:
Preschool
Critters of the Bay, a visiting classroom from the Annapolis Maritime Museum, introduce young children to the importance of water quality to animal life in the Bay. Moving classrooms come to the school to introduce students to various animals, conservation principles, and the needs and beauty of wild creatures.
Preschool lunch time develops reduce, reuse, and recycle habits. In addition, students go nature walks around the campus each season (fall, winter, spring). All classes visit a farm in the fall to learn about sustainable foods and farm animals.
Elementary
Students plant and harvest a salad garden, sponsored by the Bill James Environmental Grant, under the aegis of the Keep Maryland Beautiful program, Maryland Environmental Trust. This plays a part in our emphasis on healthy eating. The garden is located near where we eat outdoors when weather permits. It is part of our campus habitat care.
Students plant and harvest a salad garden, sponsored by the Bill James Environmental Grant, under the aegis of the Keep Maryland Beautiful program, Maryland Environmental Trust. This plays a part in our emphasis on healthy eating. The garden is located near where we eat outdoors when weather permits. It is part of our campus habitat care.
Part of our Bay habitat conservation is our Oyster Recovery Program, which is school- wide (K-8) and hosted by our 3rd/4th grade elementary class. (In 2014-2015, our 3rd and 4th grades are combined and team-taught).
First and 2nd grade plants one dozen native Atlantic white cedars at Beachwood Park in Pasadena.
Kindergartners raise and release horseshoe crabs under the auspices of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and a DNR-certified classroom teacher.
First and 2nd grade plants one dozen native Atlantic white cedars at Beachwood Park in Pasadena.
Kindergartners raise and release horseshoe crabs under the auspices of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and a DNR-certified classroom teacher.
A long-time 2nd grade rite of passage has been an interdisciplinary study of the history, geography, animals, and ecosystems of the Galapagos Islands.
Middle School
Fifth graders hike in Patapsco State Park and picnic near a waterfall. They study erosion in their academic curriculum and observe the effects of erosion in nature. They reflect on their experiences, sketch from nature, and celebrate a hike together.
Fifth graders hike in Patapsco State Park and picnic near a waterfall. They study erosion in their academic curriculum and observe the effects of erosion in nature. They reflect on their experiences, sketch from nature, and celebrate a hike together.
All students eat lunch outdoors every possible day. They compiled a Spanish-language cook book, part of our healthy eating theme. Middle schoolers run the reduce, reuse, recycle program. They pick up around campus and remind us about energy-efficient ways to save on morning announcements. They have an Environmental Club.
Sixth and 7th graders (we have a combined 6th and 7th grade class this year) go on a Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) kayaking trip, exploring the Bay and appreciating the need for clean water. Eighth graders spend two night on a CBF island as the culminating event of their time at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School. This is always a bonding experience and a capstone of their outdoors education at St. Martin’s.
Sixth and 7th graders (we have a combined 6th and 7th grade class this year) go on a Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) kayaking trip, exploring the Bay and appreciating the need for clean water. Eighth graders spend two night on a CBF island as the culminating event of their time at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School. This is always a bonding experience and a capstone of their outdoors education at St. Martin’s.
Middle schoolers participate in an oratorical contest, choosing an individual response to a set topic. Their passion about environmental stewardship, nurtured by the school, is reflected in choice of subject, such as wildlife conservation and habitat preservation.
1.2 Professional Development. All faculty and staff at St. Martin’s Episcopal are aware of the Green School application process, and each member has contributed in multiple ways to this report. Our preschool through 8th grade teachers, as well as Specials teachers, have talked in full faculty meetings as well as in smaller divisional meetings about their environmental curriculum, including global studies (the Out of Eden Walk, sponsored by the National Geographic Society).
A number of our lessons are multi-grade, buddy lessons (cross-divisions), and interdisciplinary (art and science, for example). This requires communication and collaboration. As evidenced by the lesson plans, well over the majority of teachers if not all are engaged in environmentally related educational activities at multiple points in their curriculum. Well over MAEOE’s benchmark of 10 percent of teachers have participated in environmental education professional development.
In the winter term, two preschool teachers (SL, KB) participated in a Growing Up WILD workshop offered by the Council for Environmental Education and Project WILD. By spring 2015, all preschool teachers will have received certificates from the workshop (scheduled after submission of this report) for a total of nine teachers (also AB, LC, KD, CL, LS, CW, KW).
A number of our lessons are multi-grade, buddy lessons (cross-divisions), and interdisciplinary (art and science, for example). This requires communication and collaboration. As evidenced by the lesson plans, well over the majority of teachers if not all are engaged in environmentally related educational activities at multiple points in their curriculum. Well over MAEOE’s benchmark of 10 percent of teachers have participated in environmental education professional development.
In the winter term, two preschool teachers (SL, KB) participated in a Growing Up WILD workshop offered by the Council for Environmental Education and Project WILD. By spring 2015, all preschool teachers will have received certificates from the workshop (scheduled after submission of this report) for a total of nine teachers (also AB, LC, KD, CL, LS, CW, KW).
In September 2014, nearly 100 percent of faculty and school administration participated in a faculty field trip to the Maryland Yacht Club to learn about oyster restoration from Environmental Stewardship parent-advisor Carl Treff of the Marylanders Grow Oysters, Oyster Recovery Partnership sponsored by the Magothy River Association and the Department of Natural Resources. The oyster recovery project is one of our “Top 5 Accomplishments” cited in this report. Early in the school year, teachers learned to “model” what our students would be doing in the course of the year.
Professional development is not only about receiving information; it’s also about providing it. Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards call for an environmental education program that entails, for example, populations, communities, and ecosystems, as well as humans and natural resources, health, and society. St. Martin’s K-8 connection with Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk (OOEW), which is sponsored by the National Geographic, encompasses these geographic themes. In October 2014, both Cynthia Barry, librarian and special projects director, and Kim Carson, academic director, presented a panel discussion at the Association of Independent Maryland and D.C. Schools (AIMS) Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD, on OOEW and its educational implications. Mr. Salopek was Skyped in from Turkey.
Preceding this was a Google Hangout, organized by AIMS and St. Martin’s faculty and attended by St. Martin’s teachers from preschool, elementary, middle school, and the resources staff, as well as linked-in faculty from other Maryland and D.C. independent schools. This was an AIMS-interregional video conference with Paul Salopek, who spoke about his seven-year walk around the world exploring human communities and impacts on environment, ecosystems, and society. Our Global Studies Signature Program interrelates with Environmental Stewardship through curriculum connections that unite the global world with the local, exploring issues such as climate change, agricultural use, and indigenous flora and fauna. Our guiding principles are the four "cardinal" concepts: Local, Global, Reflective, Active.
For more than a decade, St. Martin’s-in-the-Field had a unique educational relationship with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. That came to an end in 2103, but St. Martin’s teachers have a wealth of experience as a result of this relationship, and CBF’s emphasis on outdoor education is guiding our approach going forward. We have since filled the educational partnership gap by engaging the "Team DNR" program offered by the department of Natural Resources. In April, the fifth grade will engage in the STREAMS program. Taking a lead role among faculty in our Environmental Stewardship program is our science teacher, Virginia Ready, who is a finalist for the 2015 Excellence in Education Anne Arundel County Private School Teacher of the Year award to be announced in April 2015.
One major outcome of our collaborative, integrative approach was the achievement of AIMS accreditation in 2014. While not directly connected with environmental education, our recent AIMS accreditation attests to our faculty’s ability to professionally collaborate for a common goal, as we are doing in our Green School Reaccreditation.
1.3 School-wide Environmental Behavior Changes (not required). Our school and individual behavior has changed as a result of the Green School Reaccreditation process. Examples will be documented Student-Driven Sustainability Practices.
1.4 Celebration. Celebrations are special occasions when we take time to gather together and make note of what matters to us. Celebrations can be big events uniting communities, and they can be small events deepening an individual’s appreciation of the moment. At St. Martin’s-in- the-Field we celebrate being green at annual school and community events as well as on special occasions and in everyday school life.
An example of celebrating being green at the personal level—where change happens--is in the preschool classrooms where at every lunch time, the young children unfurl their handmade gift from their teachers: individual cloth napkins and placemats. The students know that reusing their placemats cuts down on paper waste. In the eyes of a child, lunchtime is a celebratory moment. Our students associate it with being green. They’ve received a gift from their teachers, and that makes the everyday moment special, too.
For more than a decade, St. Martin’s-in-the-Field had a unique educational relationship with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. That came to an end in 2103, but St. Martin’s teachers have a wealth of experience as a result of this relationship, and CBF’s emphasis on outdoor education is guiding our approach going forward. We have since filled the educational partnership gap by engaging the "Team DNR" program offered by the department of Natural Resources. In April, the fifth grade will engage in the STREAMS program. Taking a lead role among faculty in our Environmental Stewardship program is our science teacher, Virginia Ready, who is a finalist for the 2015 Excellence in Education Anne Arundel County Private School Teacher of the Year award to be announced in April 2015.
One major outcome of our collaborative, integrative approach was the achievement of AIMS accreditation in 2014. While not directly connected with environmental education, our recent AIMS accreditation attests to our faculty’s ability to professionally collaborate for a common goal, as we are doing in our Green School Reaccreditation.
1.3 School-wide Environmental Behavior Changes (not required). Our school and individual behavior has changed as a result of the Green School Reaccreditation process. Examples will be documented Student-Driven Sustainability Practices.
1.4 Celebration. Celebrations are special occasions when we take time to gather together and make note of what matters to us. Celebrations can be big events uniting communities, and they can be small events deepening an individual’s appreciation of the moment. At St. Martin’s-in- the-Field we celebrate being green at annual school and community events as well as on special occasions and in everyday school life.
An example of celebrating being green at the personal level—where change happens--is in the preschool classrooms where at every lunch time, the young children unfurl their handmade gift from their teachers: individual cloth napkins and placemats. The students know that reusing their placemats cuts down on paper waste. In the eyes of a child, lunchtime is a celebratory moment. Our students associate it with being green. They’ve received a gift from their teachers, and that makes the everyday moment special, too.
Through morning announcements on the Public Address system, we celebrate and call attention to our student-driven reduce, reuse, recycle program. The students research, write, and speak the morning announcements, which regularly focus on helping St. Martin’s Be Green.
Early in the school year, we had an All-School Assembly presented by the 8th graders in our Parish Hall to preschool 3s through 7th graders about St. Martin’s being green. Skits were enacted about conserving energy and recycling. Students were allowed to wear green that day.
Early in the school year, we had an All-School Assembly presented by the 8th graders in our Parish Hall to preschool 3s through 7th graders about St. Martin’s being green. Skits were enacted about conserving energy and recycling. Students were allowed to wear green that day.
Earth Day is celebrated on or around April 22 each year to show support for the protection of our environment and to appreciate the gifts of nature. Our school’s Green Motto is: There is no Planet B, so each year we celebrate Planet A. St. Martin’s-in-the-Field originated the Severna Park celebration of Earth Day and hosted the event on our campus for many years until 2011. By that time, it had become so successful and had engaged so many people that the now town-wide celebration was moved to a larger venue. St. Martin’s students and teachers continue to contribute by hosting booths, displaying student-made posters, and offering crafts. All classes celebrate Earth Day with environmental projects, research, and posters.
St. Martin’s invites outstanding people to speak to our students as part of the Inspirational Visitors program (formerly called Distinguished Visitors). In the fall of 2013, National Geographic writer and explorer Jennifer Holland addressed all three of our divisions—preschool, elementary, and middle school--as the first all-school speaker. At age-appropriate levels, Ms. Holland spoke from personal experience as an explorer and writer. She is author of Animal Friendships. She thrilled the students with stories about flying in zero gravity over the Gulf of Mexico, diving with tiger sharks, and climbing trees in the Amazonian rain forest. This was a whole-school celebration of the wonder humans find in nature when they respect it and try to understand ecology and biology.
The Distinguished Visitors program also brought Paul Salopek to speak about the Out of Eden Walk. On March 19, 2015, Paul Salopek Skyped from Tbilisi, the capitol of the Republic of Georgia, for a Curiosity Conversation with all St. Martin's middle schoolers and teachers. Students asked questions about climate, animals, and habitats. St. Martin’s was also the first school he addressed about his worldwide walk in the footsteps of our early human ancestors. The educational applications of the OOEW are now in hundreds of schools in the U.S. and internationally. We celebrate the Out of Eden Walk throughout our K-8 curriculum in Walking Parties and in a school-wide Global Bazaar, planned for May 2015.
We’ve received funding from the National Association of Episcopal School, with the strong possibility of year-to-year renewed funding. This will celebrate the diversity of human cultures and landscapes. Parents and families are also invited to "join the trail."
We’ve received funding from the National Association of Episcopal School, with the strong possibility of year-to-year renewed funding. This will celebrate the diversity of human cultures and landscapes. Parents and families are also invited to "join the trail."
The significance of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed is celebrated in preschool through 4th grade as students observe Maryland Day (March 25). The Bay is central to the celebration of our state and learning about its animals, songs, flag, and other symbols. Students write researched essays on the natural world of Maryland, such as the blue crab, Baltimore oriole, checkerspot butterfly, and diamondback terrapin, among others, and create artwork.
St. Martin’s middle school students participated in the 2014 Annapolis Optimist Club’s Oratorical Contest and will be competing again this year. This was a school-sponsored optional activity for which about half of our middle schoolers volunteered. The challenge was to speak in public, before a panel of judges, on the topic: How my passion affects the world. Caring for the environment was the passion of a number of speakers, including the 2nd place winner who spoke about “Hobbit Houses”--sustainable architecture. Examples of other topics were wildlife protection and shark conservation.
Each year middle schoolers participate in a STEM Science Fair that is judged by a panel made up of local scientists, engineers, and members of the faculty. Again, reflecting our school’s emphasis on environmental stewardship, almost 30 percent of all projects in 2013-14 related to environmental issues such as water quality, LED lighting, and solar energy. The students demonstrate curiosity, collaborative skills, and creative and critical thinking.
St. Martin’s middle school students participated in the 2014 Annapolis Optimist Club’s Oratorical Contest and will be competing again this year. This was a school-sponsored optional activity for which about half of our middle schoolers volunteered. The challenge was to speak in public, before a panel of judges, on the topic: How my passion affects the world. Caring for the environment was the passion of a number of speakers, including the 2nd place winner who spoke about “Hobbit Houses”--sustainable architecture. Examples of other topics were wildlife protection and shark conservation.
Each year middle schoolers participate in a STEM Science Fair that is judged by a panel made up of local scientists, engineers, and members of the faculty. Again, reflecting our school’s emphasis on environmental stewardship, almost 30 percent of all projects in 2013-14 related to environmental issues such as water quality, LED lighting, and solar energy. The students demonstrate curiosity, collaborative skills, and creative and critical thinking.