On May 10, Prince George’s County Public Schools held their environmental literacy awards ceremony and two Greenbelt teachers were honored.
Danielle Todd-Jones has coordinated environmental efforts and activities throughout Springhill Lake Elementary School for several years, helping to create a green culture. At the awards ceremony she was recognized for “taking on initiatives to empower students and teach them how they can care for the Earth on a daily basis.” Todd-Jones is the school’s Green Team coordinator and recycling coordinator and she spearheads the annual stream and campus clean-ups (see article on page 9).
Martha Leighty teaches middle school English at Dora Kennedy French Immersion School and is passionate about the environment. Over the last five years she has been at the helm of the school’s E-SWAT environmental club. The club’s recent green initiatives that she’s helped to lead include establishing and maintaining native plant gardens on the school’s campus, cleaning up a path between the school and Breezewood Park and partnering with the National Geographic Society to receive donated plants for their school gardens and sending students to work on a native plant courtyard at the Society’s campus.
The E-SWAT club also won a grant from the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Educators to create a “French-style” garden, including edible plants. To reduce schoolwide waste they held a repurposed or “upcycled” ornament contest, a repurposed material costume contest, an incentivized recycling drive for their candy grams and supported the annual waste-free lunch day. They also hosted a service-learning day during which students planted approximately 1,000 daffodil bulbs on the school grounds and hosted Earth Day and Arbor Day events, including partnering with the City of Greenbelt to plant trees on campus (see the April 27 issue of the News Review).
Green Schools
Three Greenbelt Green Schools – Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt Middle School and Springhill Lake Elementary School – were also recognized for their accomplishments this year. Eleanor Roosevelt High has implemented a cafeteria composting program this year to reduce food waste at the school, the Green Team at Greenbelt Middle has been promoting environmental literacy and sustainability throughout the school community and Springhill Lake Elementary this year implemented recycling throughout their building while continuing to promote cleaning up their environment.