Going green in the classroom

[TxZen]

Would anyone have any resources/ideas on making my classroom more green- as in supplies, reusing, reducing, recycling or just not buying? I am trying to figure out how to save money and be green at the same time. I am writing a proposal to the school board for next year. I just see so much waste and opportunity to save money and do things better. Any help would be appreciated.

[Chicken lady]

Well, I'm working with about $1.80/student/day. The parents know I will take pretty much anything they give me. I always go to them first when I need anything, and I am the queen of scavenging -

we keep our clay in ice cream and cat litter buckets, Some i have grabbed off the curb, we use scrap paper from the math class to make stencils, yogurt cups for water/glaze, old t-shirts for smocks and mats, my kids keep a hand towel from home in their lockers and I use sponges to clean tables except for the mandatory daily disinfect, chalk on a chalk board, no dry erase markers, crayons - nobody ever uses up crayons - I have hundreds of partly used crayons. They melt. You can make a solar melter and make "new" crayons.

Empty cardboard and plastic containers for molds and classroom organization, empty window cleaner spray bottles, plastic tableware that has been through my dishwasher for modeling, styrofoam trays, paper scavenged from all the partly used notebooks kids throw out. We pick up leaves off the playground for leaf impressions...

Our public library will let you "preorder" books to have ready to use in class

i generally use e-mail or 1/2 sheets of paper cut off the bottom of something else for notes home.

What kind of ideas are you looking for?

[TxZen]

One of the ideas is we have a local company that provide supplies like pen/pencils/markers that are all refillable. Support a local business and reuse the supplies, once purchased. Another company, locally, can provide large rolls of recycled paper- for mostly art project. Our art teacher did a wonderful craft with each grade using recycled materials last year. I think I could get her onboard. There is even refillable toner available. I know it takes money to go green at first but less waste, less money (down the road) and still being able to provide a quality education.

For the actual storage and décor in the classroom, hitting up thrift shops and what nots for those.

[Float On]

Can I just say that "more is more stimulating" is not a true statement. I am amazed walking through classrooms (K-3) the amount of visual clutter. Its overwhelming. Every bit of wall and surface does not need to be covered with objects, posters, 3-D (crumpled tissue paper seemed popular last year - because they get color and texture) with every color ever conceived. I think this can really effect classroom structure and attention span. Thanks for let me say my piece. Please go green by "less is more". I think if teachers toned down the exploded color box they might find more calmness in their classrooms.

[TxZen]

I agree float on. I will be teaching 4-8, so I want to give them intellectual stimulation, no overload with décor but nothing plain either. I found some really cool posters that are based on books- all the drawing is the story itself. I can understand the need for supplies because kids lose stuff and that school budgets do allow for enough for supplies. I just see SO much thrown in the trash or leftover. I think it could be done better, save some $$$ and save the environment a bit.

[mschrisgo2]

Last school year, I went for "less is more" on the walls in my room. And pleased the fire inspector who said only 30% of the walls could be covered with paper! I had a couple of inspirational posters, including one from Yosemite by my desk, the rest was either anchor charts for the units we were working on, or student work/project: one board for language arts and one for math. I saved a bunch of work that I put up the day of open house, but the kids complained loudly the next morning: the visual overload really and truly bothered them. They were very happy to help me take everything down, some they took home and a lot they chose to put in the recycle.

I made 6 small bins with crayons and markers, instead of passing one box to each student. We only used 12 boxes of each, instead of 35. We did go through a lot of pencils- they are such poor quality, they splinter and break when sharpened- and lots of erasers. I put their names on their pencils with Sharpie, and they had to turn in the stub to get a new pencil.

I used single subject spiral notebooks- 100 pages, 18 cents each before school started- one for math notes and homework, one for reading logs and notes, and one for spelling words/homework. That really cut down on the loose paper mess and a lot of expense. I hate standing at the copy machine- I often put problems on the board and had kids copy them to complete for homework. I used less than a case of copy paper (10 reams) for the whole year, with 35 students. That's an average of 14 sheets/student/month. And most of that was used up with the district tests, 3 times a year, 12-15 pages each for math and language arts. ARG!!

[Float On]

Last school year, I went for "less is more" on the walls in my room. And pleased the fire inspector who said only 30% of the walls could be covered with paper! I had a couple of inspirational posters, including one from Yosemite by my desk, the rest was either anchor charts for the units we were working on, or student work/project: one board for language arts and one for math. I saved a bunch of work that I put up the day of open house, but the kids complained loudly the next morning: the visual overload really and truly bothered them. They were very happy to help me take everything down, some they took home and a lot they chose to put in the recycle.

I made 6 small bins with crayons and markers, instead of passing one box to each student. We only used 12 boxes of each, instead of 35. We did go through a lot of pencils- they are such poor quality, they splinter and break when sharpened- and lots of erasers. I put their names on their pencils with Sharpie, and they had to turn in the stub to get a new pencil.

I used single subject spiral notebooks- 100 pages, 18 cents each before school started- one for math notes and homework, one for reading logs and notes, and one for spelling words/homework. That really cut down on the loose paper mess and a lot of expense. I hate standing at the copy machine- I often put problems on the board and had kids copy them to complete for homework. I used less than a case of copy paper (10 reams) for the whole year, with 35 students. That's an average of 14 sheets/student/month. And most of that was used up with the district tests, 3 times a year, 12-15 pages each for math and language arts. ARG!!

you get a :idea: (I don't have time to look for a gold star). Great job! Love that your kids were verbal about wanting less. Like the turning the stub in for a new pencil idea as well as shared crayons. I imagine the night custodial crew is really jealous of the one custodian that gets to clean your room.

[Zoe Girl]

there are already so many great ideas, i don't have much to add.

if you want to add recycle then i would teach them good sorting techniques and even possibly compost. then at least it is not building up trash even if there is not a direct cost savings.

i subbed for one teacher who had a small copier/printer in his classroom and a recycle paper bin. He would use the flip side of paper to print out individual math or other worksheets.

[mschrisgo2]

Ooh, I forgot to share something really important... I bought clear 8.5x11"ticket holders" and put one sheet of plain paper and one sheet of half-inch grid paper in each one. We used those as individual "white boards" with medium point dry erase markers. We used them almost every day for math practice, and often for outlines and drafts for essays, and drawings for science. Actually, they are wonderful for practice of all kinds, quick and easy to make changes. The kids also had to turn in their used up makers to get new ones; their names were on those, too. I figured we used an average of 3 per student over the year, but they got a LOT of use.

FWIW, I had a cup on my desk for the dry markers and pencil stubs. I could usually take care of them during morning announcements from the office. After teaching for a number of years, I finally feel like I have a good handle on the supplies, I don't spend much time at all dealing with them, and there is minimal cost.

Yes, Float On, the custodial staff often commented that there were no pencils, pens, etc. on my floor! They were just so amazed!