FutureMakers Update, 20 April 2024

An item for my Kiwi readers as they begin their week.

FutureMakers Newsletter 20 April 2024 Kia ora koutou Five years ago when my wife and I moved to Wellington we made a decision to do everything we can to eliminate plastic from our house – no cling wrap or plastic containers etc. for us. Our shopping now avoids anything wrapped in plastic or coming in plastic containers. It’s our way of demonstrating a commitment to the principles that are the focus of this year’s Earth Day on April 22nd. While schools won’t be open on this day in NZ, it’s still worth thinking about how you might incorporate these themes into your programmes over the next school term. I’ve devoted this newsletter to sharing ideas that can help you achieve this. Ngā mihi In this newsletter… April 22nd – Earth Day! Earth Day – Why it is important Projecting the environment through interdisciplinary learning Social Action Project Ideas ERRATA: AI Articles for Education April 22nd – Earth Day! Here’s a great opportunity to plan an event at your school to address ideas about the future with your students and your communities. Earth Day is celebrated every year on 22 April. The theme for Earth Day 2024 is “Planet vs. Plastics”. There are some excellent project ideas on the TKI site, plus more from these sites: Resources and books on plastic pollution from the National Library Education resources for Primary Students from Plastics NZ Plastic Pollution Resource Pack on Twinkl Resources for Creating Plastic-Free Schools from the Plastic Pollution Coalition Go Plastics Free! resources from Save the Children Oceans and Plastic Pollution Classroom Resources from the WWF Resources for the plastic phase-outs from the Ministry for the Environment Plastic Pollution resources from LEARNZ Earth Day – Why it is important For some background to Earth Day this web page from the World Economic Forum is worth a read – titled Earth Day: What is it, when is it and why is it important? They point out that official Earth Day campaigns and projects aim to increase environmental literacy and bring together like-minded people or groups to address issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss and other challenges. For more insights, take a look at the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 which finds that environmental risks make up half of the top 10 risks over the next 10 years. Protecting the envrionment through interdisciplinary learning Having a social purpose can help students apply academic concepts to real-world challenges and work to create solutions. This report from Digital Promise provides some really great ideas on how to incorporate key areas of the curriculum into projects that immerse students in historical, cultural, or natural settings to help make academic content more relevant to real life. It’s part of the Ciena Solutions Challenge, a global design challenge by Digital Promise and Ciena that invites middle and high school students to design solutions that address Sustainable Development Goals within their communities. Social action project ideas If you’re looking for ideas to inspire you for creating purposeful, cross-curricular project ideas with a social-action focus, check out the page of project ideas and links for teachers which can find from the Curriculum page on the FutureMakers website.. These project ideas deal with the sorts of issues that our young people will face in the future. This includes the extensive set of resources associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goals! ERRATA: AI Articles fo Education Unfortunately the links included in the paper I included in my last newsletter didn’t seem to work for some reason when saved as a PDF. These were the range of articles, links and resources that I’ve included in previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter I’d pulled together into a single document – so I have been through and included the actual URLs in this version of the document and checked they all work – so hopefully you’ll find the articles and links this time and they’ll be useful to you :-) Free Playbook Download your own copy of Agency By Design: An Educator’s Playbook from the Aurora Institute Website and use this to help guide you and your staff/school through the process of creating a learning environment where learner agency can flourish. This playbook has been designed especially to be used either personally or as a focus for your professional learning community. You can download the whole book or separate chapters, and then capture your own notes and reflections in the areas provided in the text, But wait, there’s more… At FutureMakers we use a range of forums to curate good ideas and resources. Check out the following… Derek’s Blog – regular posts available on the FutureMakers website Previous newsletters – access all of the previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter from this one place Resilient Schools Online Community – brought to you in partnership with Transcend My slideshows from recent presentations curated on SlideShare Hybrid Learning – a collection of resources on the FutureMakers website Learner Agency – another collection of resources on the FutureMakers website If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter please feel free to forward it to others to read, or better yet, ask them to become a FutureMakers subscriber so they will receive their own updates delivered to their mailbox. Subscribe to The FutureMakers Newsletter I’m always interested to hear your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see included in future newsletters – please use the link below to email me with your suggestions. Email Derek

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