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Join NEA HIN and Eco Boys and Girls® in Making Every Day, Earth Day!
Earth Day is April 22—and every year, this is an opportunity to renew our commitment to a safer and healthier world for our children. NEA HIN believes that all of us have a role and a responsibility to help teach children on how and why we should protect the environment.
While there are many resources available to teach kids about the earth, one worth noting is the Eco Boys and Girls® lesson plans and activities series. Prepared by Maria Snyder Inc., and endorsed by Friends of the United Nations, the Eco Boys and Girls® curriculum focuses on educating students in grades PreK-3 about the value of respecting the environment by protecting natural resources and respecting all living things on earth.
The curriculum centers around a team of characters called “Eco Boys and Girls®” whose mission focuses on caring for the earth and each other.
The “Eco Boys and Girls®” team includes:
- Ernie Earth®
- Lulu Love®
- Patsy Peace®
- Ray Recycle®
- Sammy Sun®
To learn more about Eco Boys and Girls® visit http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/39179.htm.
Other PreK-12 lesson plans can be found at:
- www.epa.gov/students/teachers.html
- www.earthday.org/knowgreen-lessons
- www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Kids-and-Nature/Educators.aspx
- www.classroomearth.org/
This Earth Day, join NEA HIN and the “Eco Boys and Girls®” in celebrating our precious earth and pledging to make every day, earth day! If you are implementing environmental education lesson plans in your classroom, we want to hear from you. Share your experiences and favorite lesson plans with us!
Green Schools are Healthy, Efficient and Inspiring Learning Spaces – Is Yours?
Earth Week is almost upon us (April 22-26), and the green schools movement continues to grow. Here are the latest activities and some great tips that can help improve the health, resource-efficiency and sustainability learning opportunities in your school from Jenny Wiedower, K-12 Manager, Center for Green Schools, US Green Building Council.
This year, the Center for Green Schools drew attention to the condition of our country’s public school facilities in our 2013 State of our Schools report, released in March. We estimate that it will take approximately $271 billion to bring our nation’s 100,000 PK-12 school buildings up to working order and comply with laws.
Together with dozens of organizations, the Center for Green Schools is calling for an updated survey on the condition of America’s schools. This will provide more detailed and accurate information to direct our efforts to restore, repair and revive our schools, which will help direct our limited dollars to where they are needed most.
NEA and NEA HIN – two of our many partners – agree. "Our job—as educators, as parents and as elected officials—is to remove barriers so that all students can succeed," said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. "This means investing in the right priorities. Children need and deserve safe and healthy environments so they can learn. It’s not more complicated than that.”
Educator and student resources….You can help raise awareness about the impact that the conditions of school facilities have on student performance and health.
- Join a local Green School Committee,
- Work on the ground to improve community schools through our Green Apple Day of Service,
- Give the gift of our Green Classroom Professional Certificate to a teacher, principal, custodian or educational support staff you know, or
- Connect with your local legislator on these important issues.
We think “11 Ways to Green Your School” is a great place to pick up new ideas for how to engage students, staff, school stakeholders and community members in making fun, action-oriented improvements in your school.
For the college bound….The Center for Green Schools is pleased to announce the release of The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition. In its fourth year of publication, the guide highlights exceptional institutions of higher learning for their leadership in sustainable operations, sustainability in curriculum and green living on campus. As the only comprehensive and free resource of its kind to the majority of prospective students who say that they are looking for a green college to attend, this is a wonderful resource to share with your high school guidance counselors and high school students alike. More information can be found on The Princeton Review’s website.
And don’t miss….
- The Center for Green Schools on NBC’s TODAY Show on Monday, April 22! TODAY is scheduled to celebrate Earth Day by building six green living walls on Rockefeller Plaza with local students from Bronx public schools. The segment will highlight the Center for Green Schools and our flagship event, the Green Apple Day of Service. Tune in!
- Also, on Monday, April 22, the U.S. Department of Education will announce their 2013 Green Ribbon Schools awardees. USED will be live-streaming the event at 10 am on this website.
- Get free 20-minute-or-less web trainings with all the information you’ll need to make your Green Apple Day of Service activity on September 28, 2013 a success. The first web training will be “Save Water” on Thursday, April 25, tune in, these webcasts will introduce you to project ideas, volunteer recruitment tips, fundraising ideas and more.
- As always, check in with the Center for Green Schools regularly to learn how others are making a difference in their schools and communities and share your story with us!
National Healthy Schools Day is Tuesday April 30, 2013
Fifty-four million K-12 students spend every school day in 130,000 public and private schools. These children are more vulnerable to environmental toxins than adults. Yet many children are exposed in school to some combination of contaminated air, polluted drinking water, molds, asbestos, PCBs, formaldehyde, vinyl chloride, toxic cleaning solutions, pesticides, and other environmental toxins. Seven million teachers and other school employees also are exposed.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was established to assure safe working environments for adults. However, no such agency has been similarly charged to assure safe school environments for children; and no data are collected to assess the extent to which children are exposed to toxins in schools.
U.S. schools are in such disrepair that one analysis suggested it would cost $270 billion just to bring our schools back to their original conditions, and twice that to bring them up-to-date. Any effort to renovate schools should maintain some focus on reducing toxins in schools.
Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Inspector General concluded that, largely due to budget cuts, EPA is not doing what it could to help reduce environmental toxins in schools. Helpfully, EPA has issued voluntary State School Environmental Health Guidelines; and the Healthy Schools Network along with the Coalition for Healthier Schools has issued Towards Healthy Schools 2015, a state-by-state assessment of America’s environmental health crisis for children. NEA Health Information Network (NEA HIN) Executive Director Jerry Newberry supported this report, “NEA HIN’s teachers and education support professionals understand the connection between a healthy school and academic achievement. By working together, we can make the changes needed to make every school a safe and healthy place for both students and staff.”
What can you do to help reduce toxins in your school? For the past 10 years the Healthy Schools Network in collaboration with EPA has sponsored National Healthy Schools Day; held this year on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Go to the National Healthy Schools Day Website to learn what others are doing—and what you can do—to reduce toxins in schools. You can make a difference!
Dr. Lloyd Kolbe is a member of the NEA HIN Board of Directors.
Health Equity Now
April 5th is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As we honor Dr. King’s astonishing legacy and celebrate the civil rights gains that he inspired, the NEA Health Information Network also recognizes that we as a nation have not done enough to ensure that all minority communities have quality access to health and healthcare.
This disparity has received federal attention. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established April as National Minority Health Month to recognize the disproportionate rates of access and achieve health equity.
This year, the theme of National Minority Health Month is, Advance Health Equity Now: Uniting Our Communities to Bring Health Care Coverage to All.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has outlined a clear action plan to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities:
- Transform health care;
- Strengthen the nation’s health and human services infrastructure and workforce;
- Advance health, safety and well-being of the American People;
- Advance scientific knowledge and innovation; and
- Increase efficiency, transparency and accountability of HHS programs
Many federal agencies partner in this effort: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA), to name a few.
In support of such work, NEA HIN implements a number of programs that focus on the health issues that disproportionately affect minority populations. In the area of nutrition, NEA HIN recognizes that the prevalence of obesity disproportionately affects African-American, Hispanic, and Native American children. That’s one reason why NEA HIN has launched the Bag the Junk initiative, to ensure all children have access to healthier food and beverage choices in schools.
NEA HIN also knows that Black and Hispanic households with higher rates of food insecurity, over 25 percent. That’s one reason why NEA HIN launched a Breakfast in the Classroom initiative to increase breakfast consumption among schoolchildren and spark the academic and nutritional gains associated with the morning meal. Since 2010, NEA HIN has worked in 13 high-need school districts to help bring breakfast into the classroom to all children.
Approximately 7 million children (ages 0 to 17) in the U.S. have asthma, with poor and minority children suffering a greater burden of the disease. 16 percent of non-Hispanic black children suffer from asthma in the U.S. compared to 8.2 percent among non-Hispanic white and 7.9 percent among Hispanic children. NEA HIN’s environmental health programs aim to educate NEA members on asthma and help reduce exposure to common asthma triggers in schools. Learn more about asthma and asthma triggers by taking NEA HIN’s online course Managing Asthma in the School Environment: What NEA Members Need to Know. To access the course, go to www.neaacademy.org/leader-to-leader/managing-asthma-in-the-school-environment-what-nea-members-need-to-know.html.
During National Minority Health Month, you can visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website to get more information about health care initiatives, statistics, publications and workshops on minority health. You might be inspired by a way you can take an action to help improve the health of our communities and increase access to quality, affordable health care for everyone.
School Lessons On Hurricane Sandy's Aftermath
Still fresh in our minds is the devastation that Superstorm Sandy caused a little over a month ago all along the east coast. In addition to damaging, devastating, or destroying homes and communities, Sandy wreaked havoc on countless numbers of schools in 24 states. Some schools closed so they could serve as emergency shelters, some schools closed because of power outages, and some closed because of massive flooding or other destruction.
Damage from Sandy, most specifically the water damage that it caused in homes and schools, can cause widespread health problems for children. Children are more susceptible to environmental contaminants because they eat, drink, and breathe more than adults and many of their vital organs are still in the development phase. Standing water and wet drywall, carpet, insulation or other building materials can serve as a breeding ground for mold, viruses, and bacteria which can cause disease and trigger allergic reactions and other health effects.
There are many different types of molds, but ALL molds have the potential to cause health effects. Common health effects from mold exposure include headaches, breathing difficulties, skin irritation, allergic reactions, and aggravation of asthma symptoms. Since mold must have water to grow, it is important to prevent moisture problems and/or clean up excess water within 48 hours. While most schools are back in operation and have cleaned up the damage, it’s important to be vigilant about the signs that might indicate there is a problem brewing.
Sign to look for:
- Smell for musty/moldy odors
- Evidence of water-damaged materials, such as stained ceiling tiles and walls, buckling floor tiles, or bubbly paint
- Any sign of mold, including in out-of-sight places. Mold can be hidden behind walls, under carpet, and on the back sides of dry wall, wallpaper, or paneling.
- Any health symptoms that you or students might be experiencing since the damage occurred.
There are many resources available to help schools in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
- NEA HIN
- Materials for parents, teachers, and crisis teams on how to talk to kids after a natural disaster, PTSD, and surviving traumatic events.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- U. S. Department of Education
Help schools affected by Hurricane Sandy! Give to the NEA HIN Disaster Relief Fund, a 501(c) (3) tax exempt charity that provides aid to education communities in the wake of large scale disasters. NEA HIN staff works with state and local NEA affiliates to give grants to local aid organizations positioned to meet the needs of disaster-struck education communities. If you would like to support the fund, donate to the NEA HIN Disaster Relief Fund.
NEA Members: Champions for Safe and Healthy Schools
As I reflect on 2012, I am amazed by how NEA members, working with our NEA HIN partners, have taken remarkable action to improve the health and safety of students and educators. Here are just a few of this year’s accomplishments:
- NEA members helped thousands of students from being hungry. More than 1,000 NEA members—teachers and ESP—participated in the NEA HIN co-sponsored Breakfast in the Classroom program in eight states, helping feed more than 41,000 hungry students in high-need schools. These are students who otherwise would not have breakfast that morning.
- With guidance from NEA members and allergy experts, NEA HIN worked with the USDA to produce the (first-ever) booklet on food allergies. This booklet identifies the role that every member of the school community plays in keeping kids safe. This information can be life-saving, and it is now online and available to every one of the nearly 99,000 public schools in nation.
- Recognizing the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, NEA affiliates and members sent thousands of dollars in donations to the NEA HIN Disaster Relief Fund. Donations continue to come in and will provide needed supports to NEA members and their school communities. If you wish to donate, please make your tax-exempt contribution here.
- Over 1,300 NEA members and other educators across the country took NEA HIN training to advance health and safety in their schools. Topics covered school safety, food allergies in schools, healthy eating, managing stress, and implementing breakfast in the classroom.
This year, NEA HIN also completed an analysis of our previous year’s work to improve indoor environmental quality. We learned that NEA members who took NEA HIN training had used NEA HIN materials to train their colleagues. Their actions more than doubled our original reach, and today 5,000 NEA members are informed and are taking action for healthier schools.
While there is much more to do, we are grateful for every one of the NEA HIN partners who helped in this work—and especially for the thousands of NEA members who acted to help students succeed and fellow educators thrive.
In this season of gift-giving, NEA HIN appreciates the greatest gift: the caring, dedication, and professionalism of NEA members.
Season’s Greetings,
Jerry Newberry
How Healthy Is The Air At Your School
Since the beginning, NEA HIN has worked closely with partners in the public and private sectors to help create healthier, safer schools. In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we are highlighting some of the partners who are joining us in the Hall of Health on June 30-July 2.
Do you know how healthy the air is at your school? Do you have students who suffer from asthma? Is mold wreaking havoc in your classroom or hallways? Poor IAQ is one of the top health and safety issues reported by NEA members and can negatively impact health, learning, and job performance.
Join NEA HIN in the “Hall of Health” at the NEA Expo June 30-July 2 in Washington, DC, and visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools booth (#406). EPA will exhibit and highlight the IAQ Tools for Schools Program and other healthy school indoor environment resources. IAQ Tools for Schools resources provide clear and easily-applied guidance that will help schools develop and implement an IAQ management plan, identify and resolve existing IAQ issues, and prevent future IAQ problems. Stop by the booth to learn about mold, radon, asbestos, asthma, and other IAQ pollutants. Get your questions answered and pick up free resources for your school. Don’t wait any longer to get the ball rolling. You and your students deserve a healthy and safe school environment!
The Lorax and Healthy Schools
Read Across America Day 2012 is showcasing The Lorax and while there may be many a Truffula tree planted, it's also a great time to think about the indoor environment of your school.
NEA HIN has a host of resources that can help you improve the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of your school. Superior IEQ is one of the many components of a green, high-performance school. Our partners at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offer the IAQ Tools for Schools program to reduce exposures to IEQ contaminants in schools
through the voluntary adoption of sound and effective IAQ management plans. You can also learn more about "greening" your school by visiting the U.S. Green Building Council's Center for Green Schools.
So after you enjoy the book or the movie and have decided whether or not you need a sneed, think about how you can help create safer and healthier schools for all!
CNN's Sanjay Gupta Investigates Indoor Air Quality with NEA VP Eskelsen
NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen worked with CNN on a special news piece that reveals just how hazardous crumbling schools are to student learning and health.
CNN will shine the national spotlight on indoor air quality (IAQ) in schools across America with a segment airing on Saturday, January 14 (8 p.m. and 11 p.m.) and Sunday, January 15 (2 a.m., 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.)
The segment highlights CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta as he visits schools in Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut and examines the impact of poor IAQ on students and school employees. During his travels, Dr. Gupta spoke to NEA members and leaders, including NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen (read Lily’s blog), who emphasized the dire need to fix our schools, making clear the impact that IAQ has on student health, safety, and performance.
An estimated 14 million American children attend public schools that are in urgent need of extensive repair or replacement and have unhealthy environmental conditions, including poor air quality, unsafe drinking water and inadequate safety systems. NEA and its members are urging Congress to pass President Obama’s Fix America’s Schools Today Act, which would provide $25 billion for modernizing and repairing public schools, with half of the funds funneled to schools that need it most.
To get a sneak peek at a behind the scenes video of the
segment, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBxGwLCkN4s.
During the week following the segment, we'll continue to discuss the modernization of schools, IAQ, and their effect on performance.
Stop Radon Before it Stops You!
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these five ways can help raise awareness of radon and save lives in your school and community.
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Set a bold goal for your community to reduce radon risk. Whether you are conducting a single National Radon Action Month event, or developing an entire radon risk reduction program for your community, it is important to set goals to define what you will achieve. See the Event Planning Kit for more information.
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Collaborate with local radon partners. Coordinate with your state radon program and local radon professionals to hold events and measure results.
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Plan a National Radon Action Month activity or event to kick off your campaign. Conduct activities and events designed to raise awareness, recognize successful efforts, and share best practices. Set goals and establish ways to measure results from your activities and events. See the Event Planning Kit for tips and tools.
An excellent way to get your entire community involved is the National Radon Poster Contest. Students ages 9-14 are encouraged to create posters that raise radon awareness. Entries will be accepted from March through October from students in all U.S. states, tribal nations and U.S. territories. Visit http://sosradon.org/2011-poster-contest for more information about this year's contest and how you can get involved.
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Promote your activity or event on EPA’s Web site and elsewhere. Use tools such as blogs and the Share Your Story feature on www.radonleaders.org to promote your activities and share outreach ideas with the broader radon community.
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Work with the media to spread your message. Work with your local media outlets to run Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and generate media coverage of radon topics, events, and activities in your community. View and order customizable radon PSAs. See the Event Planning Kit for tips on preparing press releases and Op-Eds.
Tell us about your planned activities to promote Radon awareness at your school by tweeting us at @NEAHIN or posting on our Facebook wall at NEA HIN.
The Future of Crumbling Schools
Recently, I took a trip back in time. I drove 3 hours (my DeLorean was up to task) to Reading, Pennsylvania where I, along with NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen, visited Southern Middle School.
Southern Middle, like so many other schools across the country, is falling apart….literally. Over 90 years old, Southern Middle School is feeling its age. Crumbling paint falling from its walls, floors that have buckled under the swell of water damage, a heating system that leaves 6th floor classrooms at 80 degrees in the middle of winter WITH THE WINDOWS WIDE OPEN, and broken water fountains preventing students from rehydrating after sitting in these extreme conditions.
Lily and I spoke with one of the most dedicated group of teachers and support staff that I have met. They are totally committed to the children of the Reading community and their one wish is that their school, built as a beautiful model in the 1920s, could be retrofitted to support great teaching and learning.
“The message these kids get when they look up and see their classroom ceiling leaking and falling in is, ‘I don’t matter,’” says Eskelsen. “How can we expect students to achieve in this environment? Given that 35% of America’s schools have similar conditions, this is a national crisis. We need to repair our public schools to keep our children healthy and allow them to learn.”
Stepping into Southern Middle School was like taking a trip back in time. I recognized everything from the type of construction to the refreshing resolve of the faculty, staff, and students. We need your help in re-writing the future!
Here are 3 things you can do:
- Urge your member of Congress to pass the Fix America’s Schools Today Act which will provide $25 billion to modernize and repair public schools nationwide. Visit NEA’s Legislative Action Center for details.
- Take NEA’s online course, “What’s Your IEQ? A Roadmap to School Indoor Environmental Quality” to learn about mold, asbestos, and other pollutants and how you can organize around IEQ as a local association. To take the course visit www.neaacademy.org.
- Let us know how crumbling schools are affecting you. Tell us your story about crumbling schools,comment on this blog, post to our Facebook page or our Twitter account.
