How do we root urban public schools in the urban environment? Teaching Our Cities partner schools are creating a growing collection of practice toolkits -- including videos, blog-style reflections, resources, and practice descriptions -- that share what's working at our schools. The practice toolkits below are just a starting point; we will be creating and posting more toolkits over the next year, and deepening the quality and variety of resources included in each.
Practices
Learning Expeditions
At the Greene School, all core content teachers are involved in co-planning semester-long learning expeditions to engage students in relevant topics that are aligned to standards and our school's mission.
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Environmental Leadership Portfolios
At Common Ground High School, every student creates an online portfolio that shows their growth as a powerful community and environmental leader. Defending this portfolio before a panel of adults and an audience that includes their peers, families, and community members is a graduation requirement.
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Magnet Theme Days
At Connecticut River Academy, we believe place-based experiential learning motivates our scholars because of the relevance to their lives and the connections they make in their community. This commitment to place-based learning grew into a year-long series of 4-8 Magnet Theme Days, tied to our school’s values of Awareness, Diversity, and Action.
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Growing Outdoor Leaders
For nearly a decade, Common Ground’s Outdoor Leadership class has helped students build the confidence and skills they need to explore the natural world. Over the last two years, a grant from the EPA Healthy Communities program has helped strengthen this semester-long experience and develop its curriculum into something that could be shared beyond our small school community.
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Neighborhood Schools Connect Around the Environment They Share
Between 2022 and 2024, three public schools in New Haven – Common Ground, Brennan Rogers and Elm City Montessori – found new and deeper ways to learn about and steward our urban environment. Our work was fueled by support from the Environmental Protection Agency, who entrusted the New Haven Ecology Project – the community nonprofit that operates Common Ground High School – with $100,000 in funding through their Environmental Education Grant Program.
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Student Leadership For Healthy Schools: A 4PBL Curriculum Toolkit
This curriculum toolkit -- developed by Common Ground High School with support from the Green Schools National Network -- aims to support schools and organizations committed to engaging young people in building healthy, sustainable schools. It leverages the 4PBL model, developed by Jenny Seydel and Gerald Lieberman -- which engages learners in compelling Phenomena, Place-based invesigations, tangible Projects, and real-world Problem-solving.
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Teaching A Sense of Place
Educational experiences at New Roots are designed to give students a deep and strong connection to the place they call home. We have designed our schedule and academic year with the following structural and programmatic elements to create expanded opportunities for students to engage in community-based learning.
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Green Exhibitions
At the end of each school year, Boston Green Academy students and teachers at each grade level come together to create real products and performances for public audiences, all tackling significant environmental issues in their community.
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