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Friday, June 9, will be a remote workday for all DOE employees due to the unhealthy air quality. It will be a remote-instruction day for students scheduled to be in attendance.

Green Schools Committee Executive Board

Hexagon with green background and symbol of hand holding apple

Co-Chairs

Subcommittee Chairs

Recycling and Waste

Compost and Gardening

Biographies

Micki Josi, M.S.Ed.

Math Teacher, Math & Science Exploratory School, Brooklyn NY
Co-Founder, Educating Tomorrow
Co-Chair, UFT Green Schools Committee
micki@educatingtomorrow.org

Micki Josi grew up near Portland, Oregon, considered one of the greenest U.S. cities. She received a BS from the University of Oregon in Psychology. She then spent a few years as an Americorps VISTA in Oregon and New York working with credit union micro-loan programs. In 2002, she joined the New York City Teaching Fellows Program, received a Masters in Education from St. John's University in 2004, and has been teaching middle school mathematics for more than 6 years.

As a teacher, she has written and received grants for her schools to start, manage and maintain a school-wide recycling program. The recycling program in her previous school received Honorable Mention in the Golden Apple Super Recycler Awards from the NYC Department of Sanitation two years in a row. Frustrated by the lack of recycling in NYC schools, she co-founded Educating Tomorrow in 2007 and the UFT Green Schools Committee in 2008.

She is working to raise awareness about waste in NYC schools and to bring about solutions by educating students about the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling and composting. She has planned many lessons for her students related to these topics and seeks to share ideas with other like-minded people. 

Coquille Houshour, M.S.T, M.S.Ed.

Technology Teacher, Ronald Edmonds Learning Center, Brooklyn NY
Co-Founder, Educating Tomorrow
Co-Chair, UFT Green Schools Committee
coquille@educatingtomorrow.org

Coquille Houshour grew up in Oregon and earned a BA in Environmental Studies and International Studies from the University of Oregon where she worked with the campus recycling team. As part of her studies, she volunteered in England through Willing Workers on Organic Farms, at The Agroforestry Research Center in Belize and on Costa Rican coffee farms through The Earth Island Institute. After working with non-profits around human rights, she became a New York City Teaching Fellow, receiving Masters in Teaching in 2005.

She has incorporated environmental awareness into her curriculum, including composting in her classroom and implementing a school-wide recycling programs. In its first year, her previous school won the NYC Department of Sanitation’s Golden Apple Super Recyclers award for the borough of Brooklyn.

Her environmental educational projects received of grants from Captain Planet, the Go Green Initiative and Target. Concerned that most NYC schools were not recycling, she co-founded Educating Tomorrow in 2007 and the UFT Green Schools Committee in 2008 to help make NYC schools more eco-friendly. In June 2008, she testified before the NYC Council about the lack of recycling in NYC schools.

That same year, she received her MA in Education Administration with the hopes of starting a model eco-school in NYC. In the meantime, she is working on getting her current school recycling, gardening and composting. She is a certified Master Composter and Globe teacher. She is also an active member of Sustainable Flatbush, regularly speaks at Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board meetings and works on the Park Slope Food Coop Recycling Squad. 

Shannon Buckley-Shaklee, M.S.Ed.

Teacher, PS 160, Brooklyn NY
shannonbs@gmail.com

Shannon Buckley-Shaklee is a 4th year push-in ESL teacher at PS 160 in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Frustrated by the lack of recycling in her school, Shannon and colleague Juliana Germak started a school-wide, student-operated recycling program in the fall of 2006. In addition to maintaining the recycling program, Shannon co-advises an Environmental Club, comprised of 4th and 5th grade students, and she co-teaches a period of environmental education.

As a leader in her school's environmental programming and curriculum development, Shannon has been involved in school-wide projects that have included a coat drive, a used-crayon campaign, book exchanges, recycling contests, and eco-themed school-wide assemblies. In 2007, P.S. 160 was awarded the Department of Sanitation's Golden Apple Award for Brooklyn in the Reduce and Reuse Challenge. The winning monies were used to buy instructional materials addressing eco-friendly themes, including copies of The Lorax for PS 160's Book of the Month program.

Shannon has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Illinois, a M.A. in International Education Policy from the University of Maryland, and a M.S. in TESOL from Long Island University in Brooklyn. Prior to becoming a New York City Teaching Fellow, Shannon worked in higher education.

Juliana Germak, M.S.Ed.

Teacher, P.S. 160, Borough Park, Brooklyn NY
julianagermak@gmail.com

Juliana Germak graduated from New York University in 2005 with a B.A. in Anthropology and Linguistics. She immediately entered into the New York City Teaching Fellows program as an ESL teacher. In 2007, she earned an M.S. in TESOL from Long Island University in Brooklyn. In her three years of teaching at P.S. 160 in Borough Park, Brooklyn, she has been a leader in the school's environmental programming and curriculum development. In the spring of 2006, Juliana and colleague, Shannon Buckley-Shaklee, initiated an after school Environmental Club for 35 fourth and fifth grade students.

The following year, the Environmental Club took on the responsibility of starting a school-wide, student-initiated recycling program. They continue to maintain the recycling program through recycling education and collaboration with the school's faculty, administration, and custodial staff.

The Environmental Club has also organized projects to promote reducing and reusing, including a school-wide book exchange and coat drive.

The Club has also partnered with local non-profit organization, the Green Apple Corps, to explore and help clean up Prospect Park. In 2007, P.S. 160 was awarded the Department of Sanitation's Golden Apple Award for the Borough of Brooklyn in the Reduce and Reuse Challenge.