Wednesday, January 12, 2011

It's Not Clean, Being Green--Could Be a Job for "Dirty Jobs"

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it!  

As for one of my 3rd graders this year, she proposes that Mike Rowe from The Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs does it.  The "it" in question... some of our environmental tasks that we take on as a Maryland Green School.  If for some reason you are finding yourself wondering "Who on Earth is this Mike Rowe?" and have never experienced Dirty Jobs or seen Mike in action, check out this promo for the show:


The following letter is a self-inspired moment of "taking action" by one of my Eagle Cove School 3rd graders this year.  Last Friday, after taking on our 3rd grade eco-duties of counting the campus-wide weekly Capri Suns, Ziploc bags, and Frito Lay chips that we upcycle through Terracycle, my gal went home with a mission.  She decided she needed to write the Discovery Channel's Mike Rowe and put out a plea, all the while pitching a show idea.  (She didn't even mention the resident 3 foot iguana--and it's bodily functions--that we're housing in our classroom for the science teacher during some reconstruction!)  

As you can see from her letter below, she's of the mindset of Kermit the Frog:  "It's not easy being green!"

Dear Mike:

My name is Mackenzie, and I am in third grade. Our school is a green school and we have to do lots of dirty jobs to keep us green.

Every Friday in third grade we do Capri Sun duty. You count the Capri Sun pouches from all week and wash the container out that they were in. It is gross and stinky. And, there is old juice goo in there. We also have to clean and count the zip-lock bags and potato chips bags... they are also really gross.

Other grades also have dirty jobs to do. Fifth graders are in charge of composting. We put all of our leftover food each week in buckets in the classroom. Fifth graders have to collect these buckets of old yucky composted food and put it in the large compost bin. They also measure it, since each month the class who has the least compost gets the Golden Pig award.

When I was in second grade we worked on the nature trail. That can be messy - we have poison ivy and biting bugs. You can also get wet (our school is on the Chesapeake Bay).
 
We also can get wet or dirty on Friday mornings when we go and check the oysters. We have to go on the pier and shake and check their cages. (We're growing oysters as part a Bay program.)

There's lots of other things we do like this! Please come be a student for a day and you'll see all of our dirty jobs we do to help the environment!

It's not clean being green!

Thanks,
Mackenzie B.
Eagle Cove School
 
To learn more about some of our Eagle Cove School "green, not clean" dirty jobs, check out  http://www.eaglecoveschool.org/current-actvities or click the title above.  To learn more about The Discovery Channel Dirty Jobs, check out http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/dirty-jobs/.

Bottom line...as I'm sure Mike Rowe would agree:  It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it!!  

(And Mike, if you're reading this, we'd love to host you and show you just how dirty it can get!)

Letter printed with both my 3rd grader's and her parents' permission!

1 comment :

  1. Mackenzie posted her letter on the Discovery channel's community message board. It is in the post "A dirty job that isn't a paid job (we do it at school)" by HezB

    You can find it here: http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8251971108/m/79219584701

    If you are interested in making your own comment, or supporting Mackenzie's invitation to Mike Rowe to come be a student at ECS, definitely visit this link!

    ReplyDelete