Our Partnership with Subject to Climate
The Cloud Institute Proudly Announces Our New Partnership With Subject To Climate
The mission of Subject to Climate is to make climate change teaching and learning accessible to all. By enabling educators from all subjects and grade levels to teach about climate change, we believe that the next generation will be inspired to take climate action. We agree. Subject to Climate is a rich resource database of K-12 teaching materials vetted by a team of former and current teachers, scientists, and climate activists. It is one of the best collections I have seen, and I really appreciate the seriousness with which they solicit and accept resources.
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OPINION: Jump in, the water is rising — it’s time to educate students for a sustainable future
We get what we educate for. That’s why it’s time to educate for the future we want: healthy, just and sustainable for ourselves and for generations to come. There are lots of ways to begin. In early grades, connecting children to the places where they live helps them learn to take care of those places — so the places can take care of them over time.
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Winter News | The Cloud Institute in Hong Kong
The Cloud Institute at Chinese International School
As part of Chinese International Schools Vision '33 Sustainability Pledge Jaimie Cloud was invited to host a week-long workshop for faculty to help develop curriculum that reflects EfS standards and best practices for the coming years.
Jaimie facilitated in-depth discussions on the backwards design process, assessments that produce learning, project-based learning, and analyzing student work. She also provided coaching, organized peer reviews, and hosted a live stream with Q&A for parents who wanted to know more about EfS at Chinese International School.
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Free Education for Sustainability Webinar
Metanoia is partnering with the Cloud Institute to offer a FREE introductory seminar on Education for Sustainability (EfS), which will be delivered by Jaimie Cloud, a global educator and pioneer in the field of Education for Sustainability (EfS).
As a pioneer in the field of Education for Sustainability (EfS) Jaimie Cloud is an international keynote speaker, thought leader, and educational consultant. Jaimie writes and publishes extensively, and is a leadership advisor and curriculum development coach to administrators, teachers, and curriculum specialists in schools around the world.
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No Ocean of Plastic
Submitted by Tina Bessias of Durham Academy
Last week I had a coaching session with Jaimie Cloud, who is advising DA about our curriculum and culture for sustainability. Our conversation was helpful on multiple fronts, but one detail particularly stuck with me. Jaimie mentioned the widely quoted finding that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. For her, it’s a perfect example of what NOT to teach. First, because it’s not true: it is a projection that assumes current trends continue, so it assumes we do not learn from the very kind of research from which this mangled quote is drawn. Second, because it promotes a sense of helplessness and doom. Jaimie argues that we need to emphasize the opportunity to make changes and guard against doom-and-gloom perspectives.
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Teaching and Learning Forum in Doha, Qatar
Jaimie Cloud was invited to speak at the Teaching and Learning Forum in Doha, Qatar in October 2022.
The events theme was Learning in Service and Action; Creating meaningful connections, and developing local and global learning communities.
Jaimie shared the “what” and the “why” of Education for Sustainability and explored the kind of thinking required to teach and learn in schools to contribute to the future we want.
The Education Development Institute’s Teaching and Learning Forum 2022 called educators to mobilize pedagogical approaches which integrate knowledge, skills, dispositions and understandings with community service action, as an integral part of the learning process to address societal, ecological and community needs within and beyond the school sites.
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Summer Newsletter | Faculty Coaching and Curriculum Design
We support the design and development of curriculum and instructional materials that educate for sustainability, and are documented, mapped and aligned to academic standards. We also support the building of assessments that measure and produce meaningful learning.
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Let's explore together what Understanding By Design/Backwards Design has to do with Education for Sustainability (EfS), what other popular frameworks and strategic initiatives align to the EfS Standards and Indicators, and what integrating EfS into your core curriculum and instruction will look like.
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Spring Newsletter | Introduction to Education for Sustainability and Curriculum Design Time
Join us for the popular Intro to Education for Sustainability (EfS) 1-Day Workshop or a full week of Curriculum Design & Coaching
Introduction to EfS will immerse participants in systems thinking games and simulations, group discussions about economics and quality of life, and the science of sustainability. Stories and case studies will be shared, we will explore contemporary ideas in EfS and we will envision what is possible when we educate for sustainability.
During the Curriculum Design Studio, we will use backwards design/ Understanding by Design (UbD), to re-orient, innovate, build, and map curricula designed to meet academic standards in addition to EfS standards, performance indicators, and enduring understandings - without additional class time.
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NeuroLeadership Institute | Summit 2022 Rewind: Beyond Survival - What’s Next For Organizations
For many organizations this year, survival-mode has been the norm. In the opening keynote of the NeuroLeadership’s 2022 Summit, you’ll learn how to get out of depletive and exploitative mindsets to set your organization up to adapt faster and make the shift toward sustainability and regeneration.
“I think it's incredibly exciting that the brain science can help us with moving from where we've been to where we wanna be... to the future we want.”
- Jaimie P. Cloud
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Report on K-12 Climate Change Education Needs in NJ
In June 2020, New Jersey became the first state in the U.S. to incorporate K-12 climate change education across content areas when the State Board of Education adopted the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards. Jaimie Cloud is a member of the Thought Leader Committee for this report.
New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy was a strong supporter of this initiative, and praised the State Board for its action. “The adoption of these standards is much more than an added educational requirement; it is a symbol of a partnership between generations,” said Murphy in a statement.
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Whole School Approaches to Sustainable Development
Whole School Approach (WSA) provides a framework for re-orienting and redesigning education considering emerging global sustainability challenges4. It invites a holistic, systemic, co-creative and reflexive effort by all stakeholders involved in education to meaningfully engage students in complex sustainability challenges.
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Third Grade Food Waste Warriors
Gwinnett Students Vigilance Keeps Lots Of Food Out Of Trash Can by Arlinda Smith Broady
Gwinnett County schools were participants in a nationwide initiative on food waste and its impact on the planet. Students’ findings have led to changes that mean a lot less food ends up in the garbage.
At Mason Elementary, one of 13 Gwinnett schools in the Food Waste Warriors Project the 3rd grade class took on the task of determining how much food is wasted, why it’s wasted and finding ways to turn those numbers around. The students succeeded in reducing food waste by 53% over 12 weeks.
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Winter Newsletter | Celebrating Big Ideas
Celebrating 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.
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Documenting and Mapping Curriculum: Solutions to Common Challenges
Using Online Curriculum Mapping tools, a procedure for documenting, mapping, viewing, reviewing, analyzing and evolving the operational curriculum in a classroom, school and/or district [a departure from the old paper binder days] was introduced in the mid 1990’s by Heidi Hayes Jacobs. Several companies have created mapping software and google drive is home for the curriculum maps of many schools. The benefits of curriculum mapping include increased student achievement, optimized collaboration among teachers, vertical articulation and continuity of curriculum, lateral interdisciplinary cohesiveness, and an innovative, flexible approach to teaching and learning.
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Three Recommendations for Sustainable and Climate Resilient Schools During COP26
We educators are responsible for preparing young people with the knowledge, skills and habits of mind that will build their capability to thrive over time. It is our role to understand and facilitate learning that equips us all to navigate the unique challenges that define our era — reversing global warming and adapting to climate change; regenerating the integrity of ecosystems; achieving social justice; developing sustainable, just and humane food systems; revitalizing the health of our oceans; improving the well-being of people; protecting biodiversity; and accelerating the shift toward a green economy and clean, renewable energy.
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