Green School

Environmental Stewardship
Living Green Everyday - View our Green School Presentation

GREEN SCHOOL FLAG RAISE

By Cynthia Barry
On a damp, misty recent morning, pre-school, elementary and middle school students gathered with their teachers and a number of parents and parishioners to raise the Maryland Green School flag at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Day School, recently awarded Maryland Green School status.
Head of School Sharon Holsclaw noted many of the environmentally conscious steps the school has taken in the past two years to be certified as a Green School. In addition to hosting the Greater Severna Park Earth Day event for many years, the school incorporated outdoor education, teacher development and campus environmental improvements to achieve the coveted Green School award.
Other efforts include ramping up recycling and field trips to recycling facilities. Outdoor education spirals through the grades as a result of a long-time partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, initiated 17 years ago by first-grade teacher Anne Hodges. Environmental education is cross-disciplinary - elementary school students recently painted water barrels that will be placed around the campus to capture rain water for re-use.
All the efforts in three categories - curriculum development, professional development, and campus management - were documented by Cristina Decker and the Green School committee. Church facilities manager Doug Blake raised the green banner, as the assembled students and teachers recited a Green Pledge written by the Seventh Graders for the occasion.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
The School has been active with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Environmentally aware curriculum and practices have been shown to increase reading and math achievement on state assessment, build teamwork throughout a school, and—most important—make learning fun and authentic. The environment provides a context for learning across the curriculum in subjects you might expect such as science, math, and reading, but also in subjects you might not initially expect, such as art, music, physical education, and languages. For example, when 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Graders went to Quiet Waters Park and created a mural of Monet’s Bridge, that field trip blended the disciplines of art, French, and outdoor education. We have hosted Earth Day at our Campus for several years which we like to incorporate into our curriculum. The first celebration was held on April 19, 2008 and had nearly 30 participating groups including the individual classes at St. Martin's Day School, with over 400 patrons attending. In 2009, we increased those numbers to nearly 40 participants and 600 attendees. Earth Day Photos