There are so many ways you can share what you've learned with your community. Just like there are many ways to get involved in government and policymaking. Both actions are important and you should introduce both experiences to your students.

News Flash

Investigate your local media outlets, such as your local television stations, your town's major newspapers, local radio stations, and even your school. Make a list of all of them and write down their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and street addresses. Then go to www.kidsforsavingearth.org and click on the “Forms” link. You will find a “News Flash” form that you can fill out and send to all your media outlets. Before you write it, be sure you fully understand the issue you are writing about. Just like a journalist, you should know who, what, when, where, and why. Maybe it's just an announcement about an eco-carnival you are having at your school. Maybe you have been studying a topic like water pollution and you want to make your community aware of a local river pollution problem. This will be an excellent writing experience for your students. You will need to go through the editing process with them.

Likewise, for local television stations, you could make a quick video public service announcement to send in. For radio, you could make an audio recording of the same public service announcement.

Make It Fly

Why don't you make your ideas fly? Making a flier about an issue your students care about couldn't be any easier. All they need to do is select what they want to write about, pick a catchy headline to put in large print, and choose a compelling image or draw a picture. Then put some information about what the reader can do or where to learn more. Voilà! It's a quick and easy way to make an impact in your community. Ask to hang them in grocery stores, libraries, community centers, and anywhere else you can come up with. Save paper by printing them on the backs of used office paper!

Radical Radio

Make your voice heard across the Internet. Kids can send in audio statements about their environmental concerns to Common Good Radio (CGR), the only Internet radio program that lifts the voices of children. Visit www.commongoodradio.org.