Climate Emotions in the K-12 Classroom: A Cross-Generational Conversation

In this workshop, join Kate Schapira and Carolyn McGrath as they discuss climate emotions, how they show up in the classroom, and how teachers and counselors can help students work with and through them. Kate and Carolyn will be joined by students who helped review the Educator’s Guide to Climate Emotions. The ecological changes happening in the world evoke strong feelings, especially for young people whose lives are being and will continue to be altered by a changing climate. Educators bear a responsibility, not only to teach students about the causes, consequences, and responses to climate change but also, with counselors and parents, to help young people navigate the emotional terrain of living on a rapidly warming planet. Please download the Educator’s Guide before this workshop: Educator's Guide to Climate Emotions.

Meet your hosts:

Carolyn McGrath is a visual arts teacher and school sustainability leader who has worked in New Jersey public schools for over 26 years. She is a passionate advocate for interdisciplinary climate change education thatintegrates art, justice, emotion, and action. As part of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, she co-authored An Educator's Guide to Climate Emotions.

Kate Schapira has been listening to people about climate change for ten years, at the Climate Anxiety Counseling booth and elsewhere. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches nonfiction writing at Brown University and is involved with local efforts toward environmental justice, climate justice and peer mental health support. The exercises in her first work of nonfiction, Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth, offer actionable steps for connecting with others, identifying and activating community abundance, matching your skills with organized climate activism, and imagining a radically more livable future in order to bring it into being.

Meet the student panelists:

Maksim Batuyev is a musician and Founder of Climate Cafe LA. Maksim has reached millions and helps others do the same for their causes. Aside from his artist project, he helped launch the global mental health start-up Force of Nature in 2020 and has collaborated with several ambitious leaders to deliver impact. DoSomething's "Generation Future" award winner, he served on the Gen Z advisory board for the Climate Mental Health Network, the Youth Council for Hinge's
"OneMoreHour" initiative, and currently sits on the International Youth Advisory Board for The Resilience Project.

Vanessa Villanueva, daughter of Mexican immigrants, grew-up in the Inland Empire and centers community resilience as the focal point of every project she undertakes. She has over a decade of experience in grassroots activism that addresses climate, environmental, and social justice that uplifts community in the Inland Empire. She is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Natural Resource and Environmental Management with a specialization in Community and Cultural Resource Management.

Meet the moderator:

Meghan Wise (she/her) is a settler descendant of Danish, Irish and Ukrainian farmers who grew up in the territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. Meghan has a background in Political Science with research experience in ideology and climate denialism, parallels between the Covid pandemic and climate change, climate migration, gender and climate, and the intersections of mental health, wellbeing and non-weaponized community resilience. Meghan works as a climate action coordinator, facilitates climate care workshops, authors community-facing climate resources, and is an enthusiastic nature lover and artist.

Limited discount tickets are available for students and individuals facing financial hardship. Please email info@climatepsychology.us if interested.

Attend all three events to receive discounts from $5-$20 off ticket prices.

The events:

Planting the Future Speaker Series: Climate Emotions in the K-12 Classroom: A Cross-Generational Conversation (Oct 5)

"What to Do When Climate Change Scares You": Strategies for Supporting Children ages 6-12 in the Clinic and Classroom (Oct 19)

How to Teach, Learn, & Process Climate Anxiety & the Toxic Knowledge of Climate Injustice with College-age Students (Oct 26)