Lesson 3. Reducing Our Carbon Foodprint

The Lesson

Lesson three was a positive look at where we can take steps to reducing the impact we have on the planet. Our key focues is onvreducing our unnesessarily vast consumption of animal products and thinking about where to buy our pet food. Lesson 4 will look more at food waste.

Issues

Some of the issues I was told by people in our facebook group usually lesson involved vocabulary. When it comes to climate change awareness there is an awful lot of complex vocabualry We'll talk about how weare going to be tackling that issue later in this post.   

The biggest problem we had with this lesson was just how much there is we can do to help the planet by modifying the way we eat. From the dairy industry to the transport of strawberries. The issues run so deep it was hard to find a key focus for the lesson. In season two we are going to focus more on how things are done and take a much closer look at the topic of our carbon foodprint.

Don't tell me what to eat

One of the big problem we've found with the subject of food is people's unwillingness to listen. If someone buys something covered in unnecessary plastic plastic and you tell them it's bad for the planet. they'll listen. They may even think twice the next time they're at the supermarket. If doesn't cook with lids and you point out they can save electricity,  they won't get angry. They may even end up thanking you. But if you tell someone that what they're eating is bad for the planet then they have a tendency to feel attacked. 

It's especially a problem amonst teens and kids because they're not the ones who buy and make the food. It's their parents you're going to irrate. I'm sure every parent has felt how infuritating it can be when a child doesn't eat. So alianating parents is also a huge issue when teaching food's enormous carbon footprint. 

That's one of the main reasons we looked at our pets carbon pawprint.

Trying to find the balance between preachy and raising awareness is very tricky. Despite my own opinions, an all guns blazing approach to to teaching the negative effects of an animal based diet is never going to work. Making small and gradual changes is absoultely vital and not attacking yourself if you do slip up and gentry reminding others what they could also do. 

 Coming up

As we mentioned earlier we've releasing some "vocab shorts" five to seven minute videos explaining the key words coming up in the next lesson. 

Speaking about our next lesson, it's a special subject lesson. In these lessons we are going to interview  an expert and talk to them about their passion. In Wendesday's lesson we talk to Amy from @honeyhousebarcelona. She tells us some facts about bees, how to help save them and all about delicious honey.

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Lesson 2: Water Waste at Home

 What's New?

Since lesson one quite a lot has happened. It's a new year and for many of us a new start. some of us have gone back into lockdown while others are fighting the elements simply to get into work and get on with our classes. 

Resolutions

I'm sure that most of us have made a whole raft of new year's resolutions. Some of which are personal and a number of which, I'm sure have already been broken. Well, don't give up. 

My personal opinion on NY resolutions is that I'm not a huge fan. I like to set myself goals, short, medium and long term. I try and make them as realisitic as possible but if I don't quite make it, I pick myself up and try again. 

One resolution, however, that everyone in the world needs to make is to be greener. That's not to say we need to look more like the grinch, but let's try and reduce the impact we're making on the planet. 

What can we do?

As teachers we are in a unique position. 

We can:

1. Have an effect on what hundreds of people do, on a daily basis. 
2. Set targets and challenges. 
3. Provied a model for our students to follow. 

This is why we've created Renewable English. So we as teachers have the matierial to help influence our students on a wide variety of issues. It will allow us to show them how our every action can either help or hinder the planet. 

If you're teaching English online, want some extra homework materials or want to raise clime change awareness in your students, you've come to the right place.

The Lesson

This week's lesson was all about water waste (Lesson 2 Video) in the class we review the vocabulary for the different household items that use water, we hear about some very disturbing facts about water use at home and we speak to a water saving expert about how we can save not only water but also money with a few very simple actions. 

As always there is a What Can I Do? Project for the students to get them thinking about how they can help save water at home. 

Special Guests

We're trying to make sure that every lesson has a special guest. They're going to share their knowledge so we can see what positive change we can have on the world around us. This week we spoke to Shirley Cato an octogenarian who has been doing her bit to save water for the past 30 years. Shirely is an inspiration for me, not only because she's my nanny, but also because she shows us that thinking ahead isn't something only young people should be doing. She leads by example showing that even older generations can change their habits to help the planet. We didn't even get started on her recycling regime. 

Coming Up 

In lesson three and four we are going to take a closer look at what we eat, where it comes from and what effects it has on the planet. We'll be speaking to a world class executive chef, who turned vegan a few years back. He's going to talk about how his own lifestyle change has had an effect on how he prepares his menus. We'll be getting some tips on how we can eat more sustainably and he'll begiving us some advice on how to reduce our carbon footprint in the kitchen. We're also going to be speaking to  bee expert Amy @honeyhousebarcelona from the amazing Honey House Barcelona about bees and what life would bee like without them. 

If you'd like to join our Facebook Group please go ahead, we'd love to hear your ideas for future classes we're also on insta @renewableenglish and twitter @renewablenglish with daily updates, tips on being greener and general chit chat about sustainability. 

We hope to see you next time. Until then. 

Stay safe, stay green and stay renewable.

Lesson 2 Video

#RenewableEnglish #savetheplanet #ELT #sustainability #learnEnglishOnline #staygreen #climatechangeawareness

We have lift off

We have lift off 

Today we launched our first lesson for Renewable English. A supplementary English course aimed at raising climae change awareness. 

The Lesson

In every 30 minutes (approx) lesson we are going to tackle a traditional course book unit and see what we can do to help the planet, in relation to said unit. Lesson 1 and 2 are taken from the Home unit we traditionally see in books. In the first of these lessons we aim to raise awareness about electricity consumption at home. The second aims to reduce water waste.  Each lesson will provide audio visual materials for learners and educators. 

The Course

The course comprises of 12 seperate lessons. Each with it's own focus. Such as fashion, the weekely shop and travel. Each of these 30 minute lessons will provide insight into what we can do to make a change. While it's obvious we need an awful lot of help from government and huge multinationals, our small steps can turn into great strides if everyone is on board. 

Social Media

We can be found across various social media platforms.

https://youtu.be/9J-0holGXrA

Facebook group

Instagram: @renewableenglish

Twitter: @renewablenglish

email: renewableenglish@gmail.com

Coming Very Soon

 

And so it Begins

A few months back I was a week away from posting my short course aimed at climate change awareness and sustainability. 

Alas, things like paid work got in the way and my passion project I've been cooking up for quite a while had to take a back seat. I'm now fully prepped and ready to go. Before the Christmas holiday you'll your first class posted and ready to recycle. 

The Course

This course has been designed for teens, however, the message is universal and can easily be used with adult groups too. Each section has a focus on traditional units in textbooks. These classes will provide you with a CLIL based lesson (or in some cases two) which relate directly to the subject matter of the course book. For example most textbooks contain something about The Home. The first unit will have 2 lessons on that subject. Electricity Consumption and Water Waste.

If you feel your current text books could do with some supplementarty Climate Change content, then this course will be perfect for you. 

The Classes

Every lesson will have its own worksheet, that can be viewed online. Let's not waste paper when we don't need to. They're going to be posted in a format which can be used by both teachers and students.

 

With each skill tested throughout the course,with various reading and vocab tasks added to the interviews and videos provided. The classes will last an hour with a planet promise and practical project to close.  

At first it will be a twice monthly course but I am hoping to go live with each lesson in webinar format by unit 3. 

All materials will be available from the description page on youtube.

Unit 1 The Home, Lesson 1 Electricity Cosumption

In the first class we look at what we can do at home to reduce the impact made by the production of electricity. One key aim in this section is to redirect the focus of why we save energy at home from that of a financial one to a more conciencious view. 

We look closely at our Carbon Footprint, how we get electricity and we tackle some mind blowing numbers when looking at our carbon emissions. 

The Reasons Behind Renewable English

Hello and welcome to Renewable English.

The idea really started back in 2016. I spent a few years working in a private school not long ago where nothing was done in any way shape or form about changing habits. Air conditioners were left on in rooms which were unoccupied, and I was seen as being crazy for suggesting people bring a bottle to work instead of using 7 or 8 plastic cups a day. The final straw for me (pun intended) was when the head of year openly mocked my attempts to heal something that didn’t even exist.  

It drove me crazy; it was 2018 and there were educated people still denying the existence of climate change. It’s time we stopped asking people if they believe in in climate change and start asking if they understand it. 

Inspiration isn’t hard to come by when it comes to climate change activists. A term that, in my opinion, shouldn’t need to exist. A two decades we had Al Gore. Then Leonardo Di Caprio brought his ideas forward and now we have Greta Thunberg. Climate Change, Global Warming, The Greenhouse Effect. Whatever you want to call it has been on the spectrum since I was at school (that was quite a while ago) yet we are now left clinging to last hopes. It is the 11th hour and things need to change on both a micro and a macro scale. 

Something a huge number of people are currently doing within the ELT industry and across the globe of course are trying to raise climate change awareness and of course change habits. The ELT footprint group for example, are taking huge strides in raising awareness and it was a chat with one of its founder members, Ceri Jones at the FECEI conferences (the first paperless conference I’ve ever spoken at) in 2019 that really got me thinking.  

Why is it course books always have 1 unit on the environment? Any why is it that unit is always about plastic and recycling? Of course, we need to do our bit in these areas but that simply isn’t enough. The subject becomes tiresome. There is a kind of double failing here in that students have “early closure” that is they are already sick of this climate change unit by the time they’re really old enough to properly understand it and see how each and every person on the planet can make a difference. Especially if we all try to make that difference.  

Secondly these units aren’t enough to really address the situation. What Ceri and I spoke about, albeit briefly, and what my wife and I often speak about is raising awareness with every unit we do. So, I’ve created this course to run alongside most coursebooks and they’re most traditional unit titles. It’s aimed at ages between 10-16 with a level of between a2 and b1. However, as the topic is so universal you can obviously adapt it to your students' needs.  

The materials will be available free to download in PDF. Feel free to follow me on twitter and even subscribe to this channel. I’ll be trying to get a Renewable English Episode out every week and they’ll be supplemented by some regular training videos.   

If you’re a student doing the lessons then feel free to press pause to complete the activities whenever,  If you’re a teacher please do get back to me with any feedback and feel free to send on any project videos your students do (if they have permission) or post them in our closed Renewable English Facebook group. 

Renewable English. The Series

Firstly, thanks for dropping by. I just wanted to introduce my new supplementary Climate Change awareness course. It's called renewable English.  We're going to bring you a differnet unit you could come across in a book and give you some ideas and materials to supplement your classes and raise your students' awareness about climate change. Each unit has either 1 or 2 lessons and ends with a project for homework. 

These classes are perfect for both face-to-face and online classes. There is a little list below about what we have in store for you here at Renewable English. 

Renewable English: What and When

Lesson 1- The Home:  Electricity Consumption 

Lesson 2- The Home:  Water Consumption

Lesson 3- Food:  Food Waste

Lesson 4- Food:  Veggie Airmiles and Agriculture's Massive Carbon Footprint

Lesson 5- Celebrations - Plastic usage and Overindulgence 

Lesson 6- Animals

Lesson 7- Tourism. An Eco Holiday

Lesson 8-  Transport 

Lesson 9- School- Litter and Recycling

Lesson 10 - Fashion

Lesson 11- The Weekly Shop

Lesson 12- Weather- Watching Climate Change.

Where to find us

I'll be brining you plenty more videos with general class ideas throughout the course. So don't forget to subscribe. 

Feel free to join our Renewable English Facebook group and why not give us a follow on

 instagram @renewable.english.