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this is an example from last year..... remember - YOU can make a difference!

OVERLOOK GOING GREEN is our new web page

this is the letter that started it all.....

Dear Faculty,

The three of us, Emily D., Mac M., and Meghan H. are concerned,
along with many other students, about going green at our school.  We have
noticed in the passing weeks that our school wastes a lot of paper. The
environment has been an on going problem in our world. We as the student
body would like to implement something a little more modern in the time of
"going green". Students and teachers alike always talk about going green.
Some teachers have recycling bins in their classrooms and students always
talk about wanting a change, but we would actually like to do something
about this problem. There are a few things we would like to alter. We think
we waste too much paper in our school. We understand that white paper is
recycled at our school but why waste it in the first place? There are a few
solutions we have come up with for this issue. Instead of students passing
in hard copies of the typed and written assignments we do, we could email
them to teachers. We know that some students are not able to have access to
a computer, but if the majority of students emailed the assignments to the
teachers and only five or six passed in hard copies, think of how much paper
that would save. Also, when teachers hand out questions in class, they often
hand out questions and we are to do the answers in our notebooks. This
wastes both the paper from the question sheets and paper from our notebooks.
This is easily fixed by having teachers putting the questions up on the TV
or overhead projector, thus cutting the amount of paper used in half.
Teachers who print out big packets and give them to every individual student
could possibly print out four or five class copies for students to share,
and do the work in their notebooks. This way there are only a few pages of
notebook paper wasted, instead of the one hundred or so packets of thirty to
forty pages used. If the packets are workbooks then the teacher could post
the problems online and either have students do them at home and send the
answers, or teach a class in the computer lab once or twice a week and have
the students do them there. They could also make a digital workbook where
students fill in the answers to the problems and send the document back to
the teacher. If teachers use journals in class, which many teachers do, then
as an alternative they could use blogging. Blogging is like an online
journal where students can post their ideas, views, or comments on whatever
topic is being discussed, and the teacher and other students have the
ability to comment positively on the other students work. Teachers have
control over what goes on the blogs so they can discriminate between
inappropriate or off topic discussion. It is also a good way to get students
to interact with each other and positively influence each other's writing,
and allow shy or quiet students to voice their opinion. There are many blog
sites that teachers can use, such as blogmeister.com which we used in
Spanish class. We realize that this maybe somewhat difficult and take some
time to develop with email addresses and blogs given to each student with
computer access, but we would be willing to help set up the addresses and
blogs on a free site such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Blogmeister, and also make
permission slips for parents so they could approve this. If these ideas
didn't work then the teachers could at least print on both sides of the
paper and ask students to do so as well and if journals are necessary then
we could get journals with recycled paper in them. Each ton (2000 pounds) of
recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of
landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water.  If we
could use some of the solutions listed above then our school could be much
greener and environmentally friendly.

Currently colored paper is not being recycled at our school. We think this
is a major deficit in our recycling plan at Overlook. Many, if not every
single teacher in our school uses colored paper on an almost daily basis. We
understand the need for colored paper, for projects, special needs, and
cover sheets. The only problem is that a great amount of this paper is
thrown away every day. We need to be recycling this because if we throw it
away it spends years in a landfill polluting our environment. We hope that
there is a possibility of getting colored paper recycling bins in our school
or adding it to our recycling plan. If this is not possible, we would at
least like to decrease the amount of unnecessary use of colored paper.
Recycling colored paper is just as important as recycling white paper so we
believe it deserves the same amount of attention.

There are a few more things we can, but are not sufficiently recycling in
our school. This includes water bottles, cans from the Izzi sparkling water,
and milk cartons. We think that our school could use recycling bins for
these items. Some teachers have bottle recycling bins in their rooms already
so we know that it is a possibility. We would be willing to go around and
collect the additional recycling as we do in Tech Ed already and this could
be worked into Mr. Manser's preexisting curriculum. We the students could
get recycling bins for these things. We use and dispose of too many bottles,
cans, and cartons every day to let this continue to happen. We should not be
wasting this much plastic and recyclable material. It is very harmful to the
environment to throw plastic bottles, milk cartons, and aluminum cans away.
It takes an aluminum can two hundred years to decompose in a landfill. It
takes waxed milk cartons fifty years, and the longest of all, a plastic
bottle, takes four hundred fifty years to decompose. Think of just how many
bottles, cans, and cartons this school uses in a day. That number is at
least five hundred, the weekly amount in the thousands, and the monthly and
yearly amount in the millions and billions. Think of what our school alone
is doing to the environment. We need to do something about this issue
because it is already way out of control. If possible we would like to
change the milk cartons to milk bottles which would make them easier to
recycle. We know that Chartwells is in charge of all things that go on in
the cafeteria involving food and disposal, but we were hoping that if the
faculty supported us on this then we could change it. We cannot keep the
same habits we have now or we will seriously damage the environment.

There is also something new we would like you to consider putting into
operation. This is Single Stream Recycling. Single Stream Recycling is when
everything; white paper, colored paper, bottles, cans, and virtually
anything are put together in one single recycling bin, or a "single stream".
This would be beneficial to our school because then we wouldn't have to
worry about sorting the different materials. We do realize that this may
come at a cost and may not be possible for our schools budget, but if you
would at least take it into consideration, we think it is worthwhile.

We know that a few of the possible solutions to our recycling problems may
not be ideal and some may even come to a cost. We also understand that we
are in tough economic times and our school does not have the money for
extraneous expenses. We as students are willing to fund raise and even pay
for some of the things such as extra recycling bins and recycled paper for
journals and writing ourselves. We do not under any circumstances expect you
to take our ideas and just do them. We realize that we need to put our time
and effort into them as well. We are willing, as we have said before, to set
up email accounts and blogs for you or along side you if you accept that
idea. We are prepared to collect recycled materials from the bins ourselves
or with your help. We could set up and run a recycling committee or SWAP to
deal with the issues and efficiently solve them. One of the key principles
of the Overlook community is students and faculty working together. We want
to incorporate that into this project if you like it. Teachers always
encourage us to help the environment and recycle. Students always talk about
"Going Green"; we wear shirts and talk about doing so. Actions speak louder
than words and as Mahatma Gandhi said, "We must be the change we want to see
in the world". We want to give our school a "greener" way of thinking so
that they will be willing to help us create a more environmentally friendly
school.  Even though we are middle school kids, we want to make a difference
in our world. We are dedicated and enthusiastic to follow through with this
project, if we could get help from you, the faculty. If you think this is a
worthwhile idea then we hope you will contact us via the webmaster -
bmanser@awrsd.org.. Thank you for taking the time to read our email, we hope you will
support us.



                Sincerely,

                                Emily D., Mac M., and Meghan H.


 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION