January 2006
Over the last few years, with financial support from The
Ontario Trillium Foundation,
Green Teacher has been editing and publishing a series of books
to serve youth educators in both formal and non-formal settings.
Having published a quarterly magazine for the past 12 years,
Green Teacher's Co-editors Gail Littlejohn and Tim Grant long
wanted to do a "best-of-GT" series. Each of these
200-250 page books will contain at least 50 of the best articles
and activities contributed by educators from across North America
since 1991. It is our hope that these "targeted”
collections will inspire a much larger number of educators to
adopt innovative environmental education strategies in their
programs and classrooms.
But these books are far more than collections of reprinted articles. In late 2002 and early 2003, the editors recruited over 500 reviewers from across North America to critique the articles and activities selected for each book. More than 150 experienced educators reviewed the proposed contents of the middle school book in early 2003. Their candid comments and suggestions helped the editors decide which past articles should be included, which ones need updating and what new articles and activities were needed to make the book more useful to educators. The review comments were, on the whole, much appreciated by the authors, who then undertook to update and improve their original articles.
All three books offer considerable guidance to enable young people to learn about diverse ecosystems, resource consumption, green technology projects and the world around them. These collections will inspire educators who are seeking innovative strategies for incorporating ‘green’ themes into their programs. Each book will be highly interdisciplinary, rather than focus solely on science as is the case with many environmental education publications.
We completed our first book Teaching Green - The Middle Years: Hands-on Learning in Grades 6-8 in August 2004. Our book Teaching Green - The Elementary Years: Hands-on Learning in Grades K-5 was published in May 2005. We are currently working on our final book for educators of high school students, which should be available in the winter of 2009.
Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn are former high school teachers and editors of Green Teacher magazine, North America's award-winning environmental learning resource for youth educators. They have also edited two other Green Teacher books, and live in Toronto, Ontario.
