Tag Archives: newrochelleschooldistrict

New Rochelle Junior becomes Environmental Activist

2 Comments

Meet Anthony Baker, a Junior at New Rochelle HS. He can remember that at some point in his elementary school times at Trinity elementary school, We Future Cycle got hired and eliminated Styrofoam trays from the schools and started the recycling program that is running in all schools. By now, it is normal behavior for students to walk up to the station and quickly sort their lunch waste into recyclable packaging, non recyclable materials and organic materials to be composted.

Anthony has recently decided to become more active and fight for even more change. He went to a recent Board of Education meeting to present the need to remove even more single use plastics from our lunchrooms.

Recently, he wrote this letter to his former elementary school principal. These are powerful words and I asked his permission to post his letter publicly.

Dear Mr. Hildebrand, 
My name is Anthony Baker, I am a junior at New Rochelle High School. You may or may not remember me, I spoke at the board of education meeting at Albert Leonard. I went to Trinity and I am extremely passionate about the environment.
I consider Trinity to be the birthplace of my passion, for it was there that I was taught how to recycle, how to reduce, and how to reuse. Trinity was the first place I was exposed to environmental issues and it was the first place that I became aware of the planet on which we live. I remember watching a brainpop video in my second grade CILA class about climate change; I remember feeling scared, and hopeless. 
I remember when I used to be served lunch on styrofoam trays in the Trinity cafeteria, I always used to use my plastic fork to poke holes in my tray. I realize now that this whole picture was just wrong. Now our cafeterias are void of styrofoam but this picture has two parts. Not just styrofoam but also plastic. Plastic is the cancer of our dying world. Our planet is infested with tumors of plastic, slowly choking her organs, day after day after day. I wonder how much longer our planet can even sustain itself with our plastic output. But this factor of fear, this image of destruction, this is what deters so many from action. We all fall into the closed mentality that it is a problem that is too big to fix; we feel guilty, we feel like victims. And at the worst, we are forced to recognize our own error. Our collective human error. We share a sense of mutual guilt with one another. We are afraid to be called out and we are afraid to call out. But now more than ever, we need to call out. We need to scream, we need to shout. 
When I spoke to the board of education about plastic output I spoke with genuine concern. I spoke because I was scared. I spoke because I saw something happening that was wrong. And I speak now because I continue to see a practice that is detrimental to ecological stability and the welfare of our human ecosystem.
This practice is the distribution of plastic utensils. I believe it is time that we at the very least consider the thought of a world in which New Rochelle Public Schools do not supply students with plastic utensils. A world where we use metal utensils not just at home, but at school too. 
This is not an ambitious idea, it is not a new idea, it is simply the way things used to be. It may seem outlandish to some, but that is simply because we have become accustomed to a world of single use and a world of disposability. 
With this, I am asking that you consider a motion for a plastic utensil free Trinity Elementary School. I believe that we have to start somewhere. No matter how small the change is, it is still change. And every step further into the direction of progress gives my generation a little more hope for our future. One school sets the precedent for another, 2 schools set the precedent for a district. A district sets the precedent for a county. And a county sets the precedent for a state. It is a domino effect that must begin somewhere, and it has already begun in a small town in Minnesota. I am hoping that you will be open to consider change. 
Styrofoam vanished because someone was brave enough to call for it to be removed. I am hoping the same can happen with plastic. 
In the end, I am simply a kid. A junior at New Rochelle High School. But I will not rest, I will not be silent until I see change. 
Sincerely,
Anthony Baker 
On behalf of my humanity 🌲

New Rochelle Davis Students commit to making a difference

Leave a comment

Writing for a purpose, putting words on paper to commit yourself to a course of action.

That is what New Rochelle Davis students did. Challenged by the prestigious Nina Chin Green Writing contest, 48 students rose to the challenge and committed to making a difference.

Last Thursday, Davis’s auditorium was filled with third, fourth and fifth grade students, all excited and nearly shaking with anticipation.

Who will win?

One by one, Assistant Principal Laurie Marinaro called up the winners, and under thunderous applause the proud students walked up to receive their certificate and their envelop with a cash prize.

This contest is sponsored by the family of the late Nina Chin. Ms Chin was a life long educator and she knew that better writers are better learners. So she sponsored from her own money every year a writing contest for her students, challenging them to rise and put words on paper as a written commitment. And it worked! Nina Chin’s family is proud to continue this tradition and Anna Giordano, Executive Director of We Future Cycle has been honored to administer this grant now for 8 years. This year, two New Rochelle students were chosen.

Even though the contest is only open to 3rd to 5th grade, one second grader decided to participate and wrote a wonderful essay explaining how recycling brings hope for good change. Talia’s grade was not part of the auditorium award ceremony, so she got a visit to the classroom by the Assistant Principal and all the dignitaries to be presented with her certificate. And she got great cheering from her classmates. I am sure, that 2nd grade class cannot wait to participate next year.

Grade 2
Talia Goldsmith wrote a beautiful and long essay entitled “More Recycling, More Hope” and she explains to the reader that plastics do not turn into dirt when they are thrown out and she then launches into a long list of what can be done to educate others and how to do hands on solutions.
Grade 3
Abigayle Mills explains how she is making a difference by doing the 6 Rs actually, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Rethink, Repair and Refuse. She is explaining how every person can do follow the 6 Rs and she cites interesting facts she collected while researching for this essay.
Ben Kessler is pointing in his essays to many overlooked environmental problems. He lists how people are wasting power and are putting chemicals on their lawns that can hurt people and animals and is causing pollution in our water. He explains the looming problems associated with global warming and then he launches into a detailed description of how he and his families are actively making a difference by bringing all food in reusable containers, picking up trash when they are on a hike and growing a garden. He ends with a powerful call to action :” Everybody can do more. The environment is our life and we need to take care of it”
Xavier Pichardo organizes his ideas to make a difference into small, medium and large and give examples as to what can be done and how small, medium or large effort it takes to do. He lists examples of picking up trash, eliminating single serve cups and bags and donating ones christmas tree to be part of a new beach dune.
Declan Fleming explains how he and his dad are actively sorting their waste into paper, commingled and non -recyclables on Saturdays, and that they are doing food composting in the yard. He explains that he brings his reusable water bottle every day  and that he pledges to take shorter showers and switching off any light. He has lovely pictures as part of his essay to illustrate his points.
Iona Conneely leads the reader right into the topic why asking for their help in terms of making the world a better place. She concentrates on the evils of plastic straws and how they harm wildlife, turtles in particularly, She offers many solutions that are easy to do and she calls for actions to go around and ask restaurants to stop giving out straws. That sounds like a GREAT idea.
Leyah Perdomo starts her essay by highlighting just how beautiful this Earth is and how littering, hunting and wasting water is damaging this awesome world. She calls the reader to action to help her save the world by describing that anything dumped on the floor gets washed into the oceans and that will hurt animals. She explains the effects of wasting water and hunting animals and ends with the intense plea to make good choices and help save this Earth.
Grade 4
Gemma Gilmartin outlines how she is personally affected when she sees people litter. She shares that some classmates are just emptying their wrappers on the ground and it makes her upset. She emotionally describes how many little things can make a bid difference and give many example such as picking up trash, using reusable bottles instead of single serve ones, She shared a story where she saw her classmates after the plant sale with plastic bags and upon asking them if they really needed the bag, she collected them all to bring back to the plant sale for re-usage. That is very proactive thinking and just maybe, her actions made the plant sale moms think to ask if someone actually needed a bag. She carefully illustrated with colored pencil drawings her ideas. Gemma even founded a Nature Club in 1st grade.
Gabriella Collins focuses on combating litter. She has colorful pictures about litter and how easy it is to just pick it up by just carrying a bag when you go somewhere. She knows that her actions do not stay unnoticed and by herself modeling to pick up, others will follow in this effort. She ends with a call to action by being a change agent in our society.
Carmel Weiner explains what is all recyclable and what can be composted, he lists how these simple actions help the world and how they are important values in his family. His family owns an electric car and he describes how fun it is to drive know that you do not burn gas. He also shares that he never uses paper or plastic ware at home and even though it means he has to do more dishes, he does not mind the extra work because it is worth it to help take care of our planet.
David Lore shares some shocking data with the reader. He observed that there are many plastic water bottles on ball fields and learned through research that in the US every single hour over 4 million plastic bottles are used but only 25% of them make their way into recycling. He shares that he reminds his mother to bring the reusable bags to the store so she would not need plastic bags.
Grade 5
Angela Mathew shares her story of going the extra mile by picking up litter to dispose of it correctly. It made her feel good and she is proud of herself and wants to do it again. She understands how important trees are to life and has planted many seeds to help plants to grow. She shares the story of the Taj Mahal in India having been really dirty but then people came together to clean it up.
Millie Stevenson is leading others to do better. She fixes other students sorting mistakes because she cares. She describes how trash thrown carelessly out of the window can hurt animals and plants.
Sophia Ochoa helps her community by recycling because she knows that when people start to care about recycling, they will also not litter anymore. She realizes that garbage has a terrible effect on communities and it creates pollution and global warming.  Sophia also understand that recycling lowers the need for raw materials and thus helps the earth. She ends by imploring people to recycling more and not be a lazy lizard.
Yuna Ueno draws the reader in by recounting a story of how people that litter often think someone else will come along to pick it up anyways. She researched this issue and realized that according to her information over 75% of our waste can be recycled, but currently the average is only 34%. She lists many good ways of how personal choices of reducing waste can make a huge difference. She gives many example on where we can do the right thing such as at home, on our way to school or where ever we see trash on the ground. It is easy to do and you can find a friend to do it with.

New Rochelle Trinity students write for the environment

Leave a comment

The auditorium at New Rochelle Trinity school was packed with excited 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. There was a hushed silence with raw anticipation. Up front were 4 dignitaries and the assistant principal welcoming the kids to the auditorium.

4 weeks ago, Trinity students were invited to participate in a green writing contest. With real money for the winners. And over 75 students rose to the challenge and wrote beautiful essays about the topic ” Everything I do matters!” and it was such a beautiful affair to see and hear the students cheer for the classmates that were called up one by one to receive their certificate and their envelop.

This writing contest is sponsored by the family of the late Nina Chin. Ms Chin was a lifelong educator and believed strongly that good writers are good learners and to encourage her own students to write, she sponsored every year a writing contest from her money. Her family loved this tradition that they chose to continue it in her memory and every year one or two New Rochelle schools are chosen to become recipients of this award. Anna Giordano, from We Future Cycle, the organization that is hired by the New Rochelle school district to bring sustainability programs and education to all 11.500 students is the administer of this award and is always delighted to help schools run this exciting contest.

This year, the essays all centered around the garbage in the oceans and the students all realized that everything they did mattered!

Here are some excerpts of the main points by the winners.

Third Grade
Mariah Valencia has done extensive research into plastics going into the oceans and how they never bio degrade but only brake into smaller plastic pieces until they are micro plastics and she ends with a plea to think before you buy.
Gaby Sanchez pledges to share her knowledge about the need to clean up with others, she will encourage others to be clean, to not throw garbage around so they understand that the world needs to be clean again.
Mateo Rojas shares that he always picks up trash when he sees it because he knows that animals die when they eat plastics. He thinks far in the future, realizing that we only have one world and that we must think about our actions in terms of how it affects our planet long term.
Zaire Spencer explains how sorting in the lunchroom is a big step of making the world a better place and shares about personal plans to create machines that will pick up plastics and make plastics back into fuel to use in cars. Great ideas!
Samin Ashrafi has a beautiful coverpage with a picture of the world and a thermometer in its mouth, showing how our world is being made sick by all the garbage. Samin shows that the motto “everything I do matters” really goes to the heart of doing the RIGHT thing.
Katherine Kann discusses in depth how pollution and garbage causes health problems to not just animals but also to people. She did extensive research and has interesting examples of rivers in India. And then she asks the reader what can be done about the problem and points out that what Trinity students do every day in the lunchroom is the basic solution to the worlds garbage problem. She ends with the powerful call to action. Be Part Of The Solution!
Fourth Grade
Ricardo Mendoza lays out the problem in a very visual way by outlining that our actions of putting materials in the garbage can, leads often to that garbage ending up in the oceans harming wild life. He then lays out ideas of upcycling materials by making creative new products out of bottlecaps. He lays out solution by organizing clean ups and how to create less garbage.
Kristina Sacarello is looking back to the time when Trinity students were not sorting in the lunchroom, and realizes that schools can lead the way and help our Earth little by little. She pledges for all people to come together and not throw wrappers or cans out of the window anymore. She ends by forecasting a dire future of our one planet if we don’t save it.
Fifth Grade
David George writes about hands on solution. He says we can help make the world healthy again by taking all the trash out of the oceans and sorting our land waste. He goes beyond garbage by pointing out that our energy uses and water uses are important too and suggests that people close the faucet when they don’t need water and that they don’t leave the lights on . And he talks extensively about personal choices that affect garbage by what we buy, what we use and how we dispose of it.
Kamryn Tung goes into details on how personal choices make a big difference. He cites how Trinity student divert everyday 97% of their trash by simply sorting it and he points out that being vocal and spreading the word about how these simple every day activities make a real difference is where the power of change lies.
Lincey Basile goes in detail of her personal deeds to save the world., She takes short showers to save water and energy, she spreads the word about how important recycling is, she picks up trash, recycles at school every day and stop using single use things, rather use a real metal fork and wash it. She ends up by underlining that many little changes make a big change. Way to go.
Lennon Dascal starts out by engaging the reader with the simple question. “does my little straw hurt anybody? It won’t make a difference. And then he explains how everything matters because it is never just one little straw, it is always many many many straws., He describes that in his house only reusables are used as it is so important to reuse rather then to throw plastics away that will never go away. Because there is no “away” on this Earth. Wise words
Kelis Gardner offers many examples of what to reusable options we have that will not result in trash. She lists examples on how to be green inside and outside of school by picking up garbage and sorting correctly and she explains in detail the horrible effects that plastics in our oceans have on wild life. She ends with a call to action :DO NOT USE PLASTIC ANYMORE.
Andrea Storvig Newson describes how she and her friend went to a picnic in the park and suddenly realized just how much trash was around and that made them spring into action to clean up. Feeling good about ones good deeds is the basis to repeat good deeds and that is what she pledge will do. Andrea also shared a story of finding a bird in the bush that was all entangled in a fishing line. She brought the animal to the vet and it was saved, but she underlines that even though this bird was lucky to get saved many others are not that lucky and that is why we have to tackle pollution.
Michelle Zheng stats facts about how much trash is being produced per person and how it multiplies through the population to astronomical amounts. Michelle realizes she has the power to teach and influence others to make changes through small adjustments. Because reducing by reusing, recycling is not hard to do. Yes, students like Michelle have tremendous power to influence others to do the right thing.

Recycling from 3500 students in 2 days at New Rochelle HS

Leave a comment

New Rochelle HS is in its second year running the We Future Cycle recycling program and it has become the new normal to sort. Watching HS students coming up to sort their waste, while chatting with the friends, without hesitation and without issue is the shining light on how the power of one can transform a system.

7 years ago, Anna Giordano saw the mountain of garbage coming out of each lunchroom and how mindless the students were when discarding all of their lunch in one garbage can, no matter if the milk was opened or the apple had a bite taken out, and decided to do something about it. Starting with data collection, a survey of all the accumulated garbage (all 35 bags) revealed that most is either recyclable or compostable if it was just sorted out. So, with some trial and error the lunchroom sorting station was developed and kids were taught to sort.

And now, New Rochelle is boasting 11,500 students that sort their lunch waste every day, generating compost and recycling and practically no trash. As a matter of fact, the entire district only generates around 44 lbs from all 10 lunchrooms combined, that is truly remarkable.

While most people might look at these pictures and think….eeek garbage, I can only see the beauty of sorted recyclables and I know that this was done because a generation of kids now cares!

New Rochelle Trinity Lunchroom Cleaner empowering students

Leave a comment

Meet Brian, New Rochelle Trinity’s long term lunchroom cleaner. He is running one of the busiest lunchrooms in the district with about 150 kids per lunch period by himself. And it does not phase him. Calmly he keeps everything clean and organized and the kids love him.

Trinity is one of the first New Rochelle schools to run the We Future Cycle program and has never wavered and by now, the entire school population has never seen anything  but calmly getting up, walking to the recycling station and sorting their lunch waste into excess liquid, recyclable, non-recyclable and compostable, thus reducing garbage by 97%.

Brian has been helping with this process and thanks to his friendly and inviting attitude, he has student helpers every day, clamoring for the job. Brian’s only rule is that the students have to have eaten first and then everybody gets a chance to help. Sometimes he has more helpers than space, but he is a wonderful sport about it.

This kind of adult support is what makes the Trinity program so special and sustainable, there is buy-in from all adults and it permeates through the building.

Thank you, Brian for all you do.

New Rochelle Trinity 1st Graders learn about Worms and love them

Leave a comment

Walking into a classroom of 1st graders, armed with a bin of worms is a fun thing. Students usually squirm a bit, are slightly afraid and timidly even voice that feeling, but in general, get engaged very quickly to learn about why wriggly, slimy worms are so important to our world.

Students learn that worms are living beings that breathe through their skin. I enjoy watching them looking in disbelief at their skin trying to grasp the concept. Worms can eat enormous amounts , half of their body weight every day. To demonstrate that to the students I have them get up and put their hand at slightly above their waste and ask them to look down upon their legs and to imagine to have THAT much to eat every day.

After learning how they move, what muscles can do, how worms reproduce (by laying cocoons that contain 2 to 3 live worms, just in case the intrepid reader of this post was interested in these details), students had a chance to get up close and personal with a handful of worms.

image4Checking out to see the castings in the translucent tail sections of the worm gave way to great excitement and when we found the mother load of cocoons, the students were beside themselves with excitement.

Teaching students that every living being has important jobs to do and without these jobs done, everybody is in trouble is an important life lesson for kids to learn. All worms ended up with names. Jeffrey seemed to be the favorite. Students wrote afterwards what they learned about worms and they all agreed that worms are our friends.

 

New Rochelle Ward Green Team makes recycling posters to educate the whole school

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

New Rochelle Ward Elementary school has a bustling green team, comprised of 35 3rd, 4th and 5th graders under the leadership of the Science teacher David Nodiff. It is a coveted position to be part of the green team and students actually have to write an essay at the beginning of the year to become part of it and not every applicant makes it.

Lunchroom recycling station helpers are members of the green team and they make sure that K and 1 students are sorting correctly. With great pride, gloves and a badge around their neck, they are making sure all material goes into the correct bin.

In order to help with the classroom and building wide recycling system, the green team decided to make a series of posters explaining some of the trickier details to the whole school through captive audience education. On stairs, where students are often lined up in an orderly fashion, with some delays if there is “traffic”, students tend to look around and Green Team students have now strategically placed information posters at these locations.

And it is working!

Students now know that only hard plastic items go into the green commingled bins. Soft plastic items like wrappers or baggies go into the trash. All paper and cardboard can go into the blue bin for paper recycling.

Thank you Ward Green Team for educating the whole school community!

 

New Rochelle Davis Elementary School replaces thousands of single use water cups with reusable bottles

Leave a comment

Some of New Rochelle’s buildings have these stylish water fountains, where kids got a little cup if they wanted a drink.

New Rochelle Davis Elementary School decided to do something about these 1000 of paper cups and and under the leadership of Principal Anthony Brambrola and the PTA, every child was supplied with a reusable water bottle, decorated with the Davis Dolphin to encourage reusable rather then single serve when it came to going to one of their temporary water dispensers in the hallways.

This has cut down on the usage of literally thousands of small paper cups per day.

Thank you Davis PTA for investing not only in the water bottles, but also bringing this kind of sustainable thinking to the fabric of the school.

 

New Rochelle Jefferson students have fun hunting for environmental clues

Leave a comment

We Future Cycle had the pleasure of taking the 4th and 5th grade students of Jefferson Elementary School in New Rochelle on an environmental Scavenger Hunt.

The students were eager participants and it was a huge success!

12 colorful boards were highlighting a series of environmental problems with some shocking data and pictures. Students read through the  “Did you know?” posters and and while searching for clues, learned many details about their impact on the environment.

They learned just how Westchester County disposes of all of our waste by burning it into our air. They learned the effect of plastics on our environment and how bits of plastics end up in our marine animals and ultimately killing them. And they learned about the shocking environmental destruction that is caused by aluminum  mining, all so we can wrap our sandwich ?! -shudder- 

The students would scavenge through all of the information and find the answers to the questions on the questionnaire.  We Future Cycle representatives guided students through the activity, helping them with difficult words and inviting them to think deeper into the topic.  Students were very proud to finish the questionnaire and had a lot of fun while learning a great deal. Even though the activity was geared toward 4th and 5th grade, some 3rd graders were very excited to participate ….

Bringing environmental education through play to the students will ensure the longevity of the recycling program that is run in the lunchroom. Every day, students carefully sort their lunchwaste into compostable, recyclable and non recyclable materials, thus diverting a whopping 97% of their waste from the trash. Because if the heart knows why something is done, it is easy for the hands to do it.

 

New Rochelle Isaac Young’s Green Team in motion

Leave a comment

New Rochelle School District is running the We Future Cycle recycling program for over 6 years now, working its way up the grades. First all the elementary schools then the middle schools and lastly the highschool 2 years ago. Together, 11.500 students are sorting their waste every single day. In the lunchroom and in their classrooms.

Isaac E Young MS has a vibrant Green Team and under the leadership of their Green Team coordinator as well as the head custodian William Coleman, a well oiled recycling machine was created.

20190125_143655Twice per week, teachers put out in the hallway their blue and green recycling bins with carefully sorted materials. Green Team students grab large rolling toters and go from classroom to classroom to collect the materials for recycling.

It creates ownership of the process for the building, the custodial staff appreciates the help and is sponsoring a pizza party for green team members on a regular basis and the kids feel empowered to be part of the solution. A win-win all around. We Future Cycle is proud to be part of this process.