Washington students go green for different reason

Editor’s note: Washington Elementary School has created four leadership teams to replace the traditonal student council so more students get the chance to be leaders. This is the first in a series of stories featuring each of the leadership teams.
 
Students and staff members at Washington Elementary School were wearing green last Tuesday not only for St. Patrick’s Day, but for No Waste Day. 
Members of the Green Team coordinated a day for the whole school to work together on reducing waste for the entire day. 
“It was created along with three other leadership teams. We decided to do these leadership teams instead of doing your basic student council because we noticed that all of our students in our school can have a better chance to be leaders,” said Green Team adviser Andrea Morse. 
Students who are interested in the team sign up at the beginning of the year. This year, because so many students signed up, Morse split them into three teams of 14 students each, one for each trimester.
“Our mission is to lead and to educate our school in keeping our world clean and healthy,” Morse said. 
At the beginning of each trimester, Morse meets with team members to brainstorm ideas on projects they want to complete and what their goals are. 
The first team, made up of second-graders, decorated recycle bins given to the school from Waste Management for each classroom. They also created board games out of household items and taught their classmates how to play them. 
“They used a ton of different things to show their friends that they don’t have to go out and buy toys and games, but they can make them reusing things instead of throwing them away,” Morse said. 
The second team, made up of third- and fourth-graders, was in charge of coordinating No Waste Day. The students came up with the idea, created and hung posters around the school and planned a week’s worth of announcements to get the school ready for the day by giving them suggestions on how to reduce their waste. 
Morse feels this club is valuable to an elementary school setting because it gives the students leadership skills. 
“It gives students the confidence to know that they can be a leader even at a young age. They think, ‘I can make a difference at my school and in my world even if I am a student or a child,’” she said. “It also gives them the skills that they will need later on in life to be able to take that leadership role and that step of creating ideas and thinking outside the box.”
Morse said the kids continue to surprise her. 
“I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am a free-flowing teacher, so I am really open to having them guide it, and I will be there as needed. Sometimes I have to steer the train in the right direction, but for the most part I am pretty impressed with how they know exactly what they want to do. They have a plan in place, and they are determined to get it done,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot from them, and it has made me really excited to continue to create these leadership skills within our students.” 
Third-grader Kathryn Sande decided to join Green Team this year because it sounded fun and worked with her schedule. 
“You get to help the environment, and it is a good time to experience something new and meet new people. You get to work together to plan stuff,” Sande said. 
Sande said the club is important because members remind people to recycle and protect the environment. 
The two main challenges the club faced were scheduling around the other clubs so students wouldn’t have to choose between one or the other and coming to an agreement on which T-shirt design to use. 
“We figured it out, and we learned to compromise,” she said. 
Fourth-grader Eli Dvore has been on the team for two years now. 
“I wanted to do it because I didn’t have that many friends, and I thought that the club would help me get more friends, and it did,” he said. 
Dvore had such a good time last year that he decided to sign up again this year. He said he enjoys the club because he gets to help out and be with friends. The club is important because “we remind everyone to be green and to not throw as much stuff away,” he said. 
The biggest challenge for the team has been arguing over ideas, Dvore said. 
Fourth-grader Tatiana Farrington decided to join the team this year after her classmate, Dvore, told her how much fun it was. 
“We get to think as a group, and we get to say our ideas freely,” she said. 
Farrington thinks the group is important because students can teach other students what is good for the environment instead of the teachers always having to tell them. 
All three of the students agreed that No Waste Day went well, and they were sad it was over. 
“I think it went really well. I think the most important thing is that it started creating important conversations and also made students and staff more aware of what they waste and how much they waste,” Morse said. 
The next group will make a video to educate the school on how to reduce, reuse and recycle to prepare them for Earth Day.