Usually, when my class are all completing individual work like Quickwrites or silent reading, I will use the time to complete the roll, send emails to parents or other preparations. The other day in our computer suite, I taught the students to embed video clips in their blogs, and then got them to complete a quickwrite response. I did it too, with the following post:
Last night Sarah sent me the following video:
I really enjoyed this, because it didn't sugarcoat the truth - we are destroying our planet, our homes. We are cutting down trees (maybe forgetting the important role trees play in our lives) as if they will regrow really quickly. We are using fossil fuels like they are replaceable (scientists aren't absolutely sure, but they think that it takes the earth hundreds of thousands of years to break plants and small animals into oil). We are filling the oceans with plastic and rubbish, which is killing fish and marine life, as well as altering their bodies on a cellular level.
This is all very true, and there are lots of videos, songs, books and social media posts pointing out the way the earth is heading. Here is another one:
The problem I have with all of these videos is that they don't offer up real solutions. Yes, you and I can walk or bike more and put out our recycling, but is that enough? People will still cut down trees because we need paper, cardboard, tissues, toilet paper, packaging. We need wood for our houses and buildings and playgrounds.
To me, one of our biggest problems is plastic, for two reasons. Firstly because of the issue of plastic ending up in landfills and our oceans, secondly because of one of the ingredients in plastic - oil. Yes, our precious oil is an ingredient in plastic. Have a look at this list of products which contain oil. It is a real surprise to see some of those items. Read about all the clothing we wear that contains oil. Your school shirt, polar fleece and socks all contain oil.
What are we going to do to save our world? I don't know, which makes it worse. It will take major changes from not just each of us, but businesses and governments to stop the decline. At the moment, people across the world can't even agree that change needs to happen.
Tomorrow, you'll wish you had started today
So What?
The experience was good for the students - they saw that their work had value because I was doing it too. My post also served as a good model, because I wrote with more depth, proposed solutions and showed how when they are working online, they can add more information with links.
What Now?
I will complete work alongside students more often, so they can see its value as well as have a model of the work done to a high standard.
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