Fall Newsletter | EfS Standard Sustainable Economics

Education for Sustainability Standards and Performance Indicators: Sustainable Economics

The knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits of mind of Education for Sustainability (EfS) are embedded in The Cloud Institute's Education for Sustainability Standards and Performance Indicators.

Aligned to national and state educational standards, each EfS Standard has a set of coded Performance Indicators used to guide educators as they infuse their school culture, curriculum, instruction and assessment practices with Education for Sustainability. We believe that by meeting these EfS standards, young people will be prepared to participate in, and lead with us, the shift toward a sustainable future.

Sustainable Economics is Standard D and includes the evolving set of theories and practices of economics that integrates the economic, and social systems with the ecological systems required to support and maintain life on the planet. Students will know and understand 21st century economic practices and will produce and consume in ways that contribute to the health of the financial, social, and natural capital.


Presenting at the Teaching & Learning Forum in Qatar

Jaimie Cloud was invited to speak at the Teaching and Learning Forum sponsored by the Education Development Institute (EDI) at the Qatar Foundation in Doha, Qatar in October 2022.

The events theme was Learning in Service and Action; Creating meaningful connections, and developing local and global learning communities.

Jaimie shared the “what” and the “why” of Education for Sustainability and explored the kind of thinking required to teach and learn in schools to contribute to the future we want. She also facilitated a new session on “All the ways we Un-Intentionally Educate for Un-Sustainability” which was very well received by participants.

EDI’s Teaching and Learning Forum 2022 called educators to mobilize pedagogical approaches which integrate knowledge, skills, dispositions and understandings with community service action, as an integral part of the learning process to address societal, ecological and community needs within and beyond the school sites.

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Register for The Green Schools Conference 2023

February 27 - March 1, 2023
Sheraton New Orleans

The Green Schools Conference (GSC) is the only event to bring together all the players involved in making green schools a reality: people who lead, operate, build and teach in schools. Designed to educate, connect and inspire, attendees of the three-day in person conference will explore interdisciplinary content during general sessions, while also having dedicated time with peers to work through specific challenges, share best practices, and generate momentum to further green school actions across the country.


We’re Now Working with Chinese International School

The Cloud Institute is now working with Chinese International School to develop curriculum exemplars for every grade level and discipline.

Curriculum innovation is connected to the school’s Vision ‘33 goals for personalized learning and the sustainability pledge.

CIS is a community of learners at the confluence of East and West, empowered by a bilingual, inter-cultural program to discover new paths, build bridges, and flourish in pursuit of excellence, commitment to service, and stewardship.


The Cloud Institute exists to ensure the viability of sustainable communities by leveraging changes in PreK-12 school systems so that we may prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future. Friends like you make it possible.

Your gift to The Cloud Institute gives us the flexibility to create new opportunities for the teachers, students and the communities we serve.

Teaching and Learning Forum in Doha, Qatar

Teaching and Learning Forum in Doha, Qatar

Jaimie Cloud was invited to speak at the Teaching and Learning Forum in Doha, Qatar in October 2022.

The events theme was Learning in Service and Action; Creating meaningful connections, and developing local and global learning communities.

Jaimie shared the “what” and the “why” of Education for Sustainability and explored the kind of thinking required to teach and learn in schools to contribute to the future we want.

The Education Development Institute’s Teaching and Learning Forum 2022 called educators to mobilize pedagogical approaches which integrate knowledge, skills, dispositions and understandings with community service action, as an integral part of the learning process to address societal, ecological and community needs within and beyond the school sites.

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Summer Newsletter | Faculty Coaching and Curriculum Design

Summer Newsletter | Faculty Coaching and Curriculum Design

We support the design and development of curriculum and instructional materials that educate for sustainability, and are documented, mapped and aligned to academic standards. We also support the building of assessments that measure and produce meaningful learning.

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Let's explore together what Understanding By Design/Backwards Design has to do with Education for Sustainability (EfS), what other popular frameworks and strategic initiatives align to the EfS Standards and Indicators, and what integrating EfS into your core curriculum and instruction will look like.

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How To Be Socially Impactful As A Young Person

As part of the annual Sustainability Week with DC BOCES in April 2022, student and Climate Justice Activist Xiye Bastida shares her story about how she began creating awareness on the urgency of the climate crisis at school, then citywide and soon worldwide.

Here she conveys that even if you are young, you can make yourself heard when you have a solid argument and a personal story. Xiye gives ten tips on how to become involved in the climate justice movement as someone passionate about creating a livable future for all.

About The Speaker: Xiye Bastida is a 19-year old Climate Justice Activist who advocates for the centering of frontline communities in the Climate Movement. She was born in Mexico as part of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community where she saw the impacts of the climate crisis first hand when her town flooded in 2015. She began organizing climate strikes with Fridays For Future when realizing the power that youth have in changing the narrative. In 2020, she co-founded Re-Earth Initiative, a youth-led organization that focuses on highlighting the intersectionality of the climate crisis. Xiye is the author of the opening essay in All We Can Save. She attends the University of Pennsylvania where she is pursuing a degree in Environment Studies and Latinx Studies.

Kids Inherit The Earth

Kids inquire: What are our rights in the cafeteria?

In starting to think about the way we, as civic-minded humans, relate to our planet, our team zoomed in on a relatable microcosm of democracy - the school cafeteria. A cafeteria is clearly a bountiful common (shared) space - and a veritable cornucopia of conflicting civic values for 5th graders, which is our grade focus. It’s a place all kids have a relationship with and strong opinions about.

Spring Newsletter | Introduction to Education for Sustainability and Curriculum Design Time

Spring Newsletter | Introduction to Education for Sustainability and Curriculum Design Time

Join us for the popular Intro to Education for Sustainability (EfS) 1-Day Workshop or a full week of Curriculum Design & Coaching

Introduction to EfS will immerse participants in systems thinking games and simulations, group discussions about economics and quality of life, and the science of sustainability. Stories and case studies will be shared, we will explore contemporary ideas in EfS and we will envision what is possible when we educate for sustainability.

During the Curriculum Design Studio, we will use backwards design/ Understanding by Design (UbD), to re-orient, innovate, build, and map curricula designed to meet academic standards in addition to EfS standards, performance indicators, and enduring understandings - without additional class time.

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NeuroLeadership Institute | Summit 2022 Rewind: Beyond Survival - What’s Next For Organizations

NeuroLeadership Institute | Summit 2022 Rewind: Beyond Survival - What’s Next For Organizations

For many organizations this year, survival-mode has been the norm. In the opening keynote of the NeuroLeadership’s 2022 Summit, you’ll learn how to get out of depletive and exploitative mindsets to set your organization up to adapt faster and make the shift toward sustainability and regeneration.

“I think it's incredibly exciting that the brain science can help us with moving from where we've been to where we wanna be... to the future we want.”
- Jaimie P. Cloud

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Report on K-12 Climate Change Education Needs in NJ

Report on K-12 Climate Change Education Needs in NJ

In June 2020, New Jersey became the first state in the U.S. to incorporate K-12 climate change education across content areas when the State Board of Education adopted the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards. Jaimie Cloud is a member of the Thought Leader Committee for this report.

New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy was a strong supporter of this initiative, and praised the State Board for its action. “The adoption of these standards is much more than an added educational requirement; it is a symbol of a partnership between generations,” said Murphy in a statement.

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Third Grade Food Waste Warriors

Third Grade Food Waste Warriors

Gwinnett Students Vigilance Keeps Lots Of Food Out Of Trash Can by Arlinda Smith Broady

Gwinnett County schools were participants in a nationwide initiative on food waste and its impact on the planet. Students’ findings have led to changes that mean a lot less food ends up in the garbage.

At Mason Elementary, one of 13 Gwinnett schools in the Food Waste Warriors Project the 3rd grade class took on the task of determining how much food is wasted, why it’s wasted and finding ways to turn those numbers around. The students succeeded in reducing food waste by 53% over 12 weeks.

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Winter Newsletter | Celebrating Big Ideas

Winter Newsletter | Celebrating Big Ideas

Celebrating Big Ideas
EfS Benchmarks for Individual and Social Learning

Big Ideas are also known as “Enduring Understandings”. They operate at the level of principles that are transferable. They describe the concepts that students will understand, and that will have lasting value in the real world over time.

The EfS Benchmarks for Individual and Social Learning recognizes the processes that include a whole system of dynamic and interconnected elements considered essential to educating for a sustainable future. The Big Ideas collectively frame the other essential elements of EfS and distinguish EfS from other fields of study.

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Documenting and Mapping Curriculum: Solutions to Common Challenges

Documenting and Mapping Curriculum: Solutions to Common Challenges

Using Online Curriculum Mapping tools, a procedure for documenting, mapping, viewing, reviewing, analyzing and evolving the operational curriculum in a classroom, school and/or district [a departure from the old paper binder days] was introduced in the mid 1990’s by Heidi Hayes Jacobs. Several companies have created mapping software and google drive is home for the curriculum maps of many schools. The benefits of curriculum mapping include increased student achievement, optimized collaboration among teachers, vertical articulation and continuity of curriculum, lateral interdisciplinary cohesiveness, and an innovative, flexible approach to teaching and learning.

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Three Recommendations for Sustainable and Climate Resilient Schools During COP26

Three Recommendations for Sustainable and Climate Resilient Schools During COP26

We educators are responsible for preparing young people with the knowledge, skills and habits of mind that will build their capability to thrive over time. It is our role to understand and facilitate learning that equips us all to navigate the unique challenges that define our era — reversing global warming and adapting to climate change; regenerating the integrity of ecosystems; achieving social justice; developing sustainable, just and humane food systems; revitalizing the health of our oceans; improving the well-being of people; protecting biodiversity; and accelerating the shift toward a green economy and clean, renewable energy.

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Morrell Park Is My Community GreenFutures Elementary Student Work

Morrell Park Is My Community GreenFutures Elementary Student Work

With support from GreenFutures, a program of the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), the Fairmount Water Works, the educational outreach arm of the Philadelphia Water Department, the Cloud Institute and a cohort of elementary faculty from the SDP developed and piloted two new Units of Study for the 4th and 5th grades to expand FWW’s 6-UNIT Middle School Curriculum (grades 6-8 ) Understanding the Urban Watershed Curriculum. These 4th Grade and 5th Grade Units provide an opportunity for upper elementary school teachers to connect their students to the community and to the environment outside of their classroom, and to one of the most fundamental elements of all living things-water. Together, teachers and students explore their role and responsibility to individually and collectively protect and sustain this shared resource for today, for tomorrow and for future generations.

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Fall Newsletter | Useful Resources for Educators

Fall Newsletter | Useful Resources for Educators

Check out the Climate Change Education Resource Guide for Schools produced by the team at the Center for Sustainability and Climate Education at the Dutchess County BOCES. Find ideas, resources and activities to start the conversation about our climate and the actions that we, our students and colleagues can take as global citizens.

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Sustainable Development Goals - Useful Resources

Sustainable Development Goals - Useful Resources

We don’t know too many schools and districts that are teaching about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.

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Chris Wyland on Place-Based Learning and Education for Sustainability

"... the other aspect in terms of educating for sustainability, is that, it just makes sense. As an educator, from seeing the impact it has on the authenticity of the student learning, but also, the impact is has on student engagement in society. Too often we expect kids to sit and receive, and not enough do we bring them in to the decision-making process. It's not fair to give them this world that has climate change and has all of these negative aspects going on around them, and to not give them the skills and the chance and the opportunity to make changes for a more sustainable future." - Chris Wyland on Place-Based Learning and Education for Sustainability

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