Last week, we gathered with an incredible group of educators, leaders, and changemakers for our annual Curriculum Design Studio. This signature workshop is always a highlight for us at the Cloud Institute, and this year was no exception.
Over the course of the week, participants came together in a hybrid format—both in-person and online—to design, refine, and reimagine curriculum that prepares young people for a sustainable future.
Read MoreThis year’s curriculum design studio will be hosted on August 11-15 in-person at the Omega Center in Rhinebeck, New York and online via Zoom. You can join us for the five day curriculum design & coaching program or for a one day introduction to Education for Sustainability.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce that The Cloud Institute’s annual Curriculum Design Studio will take place from August 11–15, 2025, at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. As always, participants will also have the option to join virtually. Stay tuned for more details!
Read MoreCelebrating Big Ideas
EfS Benchmarks for Individual and Social Learning
Big Ideas are also known as “Enduring Understandings”. They operate at the level of principles that are transferable. They describe the concepts that students will understand, and that will have lasting value in the real world over time.
The EfS Benchmarks for Individual and Social Learning recognizes the processes that include a whole system of dynamic and interconnected elements considered essential to educating for a sustainable future. The Big Ideas collectively frame the other essential elements of EfS and distinguish EfS from other fields of study.
Read MoreThanks to all of you who supported the upgrade of The Fish Game Online and to the team at Funatomic - educational game developers extraordinaire. The new Fish Game is now live! There are many new features to play with, including the ability to choose the number of fisher folk with whom you are fishing in each game; the ability to announce your intentions or not, and the ability to do or not do what you promised. You’ll see that everything you do and don’t do makes a difference. Let us know what you think!!!
Read MoreWhat perspectives are needed to weather our current social climate? What knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits of mind do we need to instill in young people to prepare them for tomorrow? How do successful leaders manage remote teams and achieve goals during times of change and uncertainty? What role will vision, imagination, and intention play in creating a future that is vibrant, resilient and thriving? We will explore these ideas and more in this free webinar series.
Read MoreWe are committed to the roles that teaching, learning, and thinking play in contributing to the shift toward a sustainable future. Our work with school systems and higher education institutions revolves around the curriculum, instruction, and assessment aspects of Education for Sustainability, as well as the strategic planning and leadership development that is required for lasting change.
Read MoreLearning About EfS From An Intern’s Perspective
“Well, I knew nothing about sustainability at all!” Nozomi Sakata explains when asked how she decided to apply for an internship at The Cloud Institute a few weeks ago. It turns out that she is simply graceful at stumbling. Happening on the Cloud Institute through an email from her school’s internship program, Nozomi was mainly interested in the fact that it produced innovative curriculum platforms; the Institute’s focus in Education for Sustainability presented, more than anything else, a foreign concept to explore. In that same happenstance way, she recently happened to see that Jaimie Cloud was presenting a two-day workshop called “The Essentials of Sustainability Education Workshop” at Columbia University Teacher’s College, where Nozomi is a student. The opportunity was, she explains, “a chance to learn about the ideology of EfS from an introductory perspective
Nozomi isn’t an anomaly. All the interns here at the Cloud Institute have different motivations and reasons as to why they were drawn to this office, providing an interesting window into the many facets of EfS.
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