In the waning moments of Earth Day...

...we are more mindful of lights that actually need to be on and those that don't.

There were two "official" hours for turning off your lights today. From 8 to 9 AM, schools and businesses were encouraging their employees to work in half the usual light for one hour. I turned off all the classroom lights and invited my first period class to go outside to pick up litter. We netted four bags full in little over 30 minutes. Sadly, we covered only the north end of the school property. There are many more bags of trash left to collect, I"m sure.

The students began to notice just what ends up as litter, as they came upon many familiar wrappers that contain lunch or snack items. We all noted the ubiquity of plastic bags and how they wrap themselves around branches, weeds, and fences.

We talked about what was recyclable and what would end up in a landfill. Many of the students were already aware of the Lights Out Akron campaign and talked about continuing the effort during the evening time slot between 8 - 9 PM.

I actually began Lights Out much earlier, falling asleep during the non-stop blab fest prior to the Pennsylvania primary returns. Unfortunately, I therefore wasn't awake to turn the TV off at 8 PM. But at least I conscious effort to participate, unlike First Energy.