Environment!

February 11, 2013

I got my 8th grade students super excited about being environmentally friendly. We had a lesson about state parks in America and how so many people come to visit the parks because they are clean and beautiful. I asked the students if they thought our local parks in Qazax were clean and they all said no. We have such a huge problem with litter all over our village. There are no trashcans and there is no trash pickup system, so trash always gets burned in peoples backyards or in the streets. Much of the trash is also just thrown on the streets, in the creeks and in the school. After people picnic in the mountains they will leave their trash. I asked my students how we can change this and they said we should pick up trash! We organized to a school trash pickup day on Monday. All of my 8th graders showed up after school to pick up trash with me! The school principle and one of my Azerbaijani co-teachers were there to watch (although culturally women and older people will never pick up trash). My students now want to meet a few times a month to pick up trash together! I’m so excited that my students are so excited about this project and I hope that we clean up the village!

Example of trash everywhere.