|
Announcements Note: If you have non-commercial announcements that would be of value to GCSS members, please submit them to the webmaster.
The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), funded by the Freeman Foundation, is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools nationwide.
Launched in October 1998, this nationwide program is a collaboration of the East Asian Studies programs of seven institutions: the University of Washington, the University of Southern California, the University of Colorado, Indiana University, University or Pittsburgh, Columbia University, and the Five College Center for East Asian Studies at Smith. Since its inception NCTA has conducted introductory seminars for over 13,000 teachers in 48 states.
NCTA seminars serve more than 1,000 teachers yearly. Participants interact with East Asia specialists, receive extensive readings and other materials, and discuss effective strategies for bringing East Asia into their classrooms. Each seminar leader or team facilitates a seminar on East Asia that incorporates primary-source selections from the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean traditions. NCTA offers seminars in different delivery methods to accommodate the different needs, schedules and preferences of teachers. Seminars can be taken in a face-to-face setting, online, or in a blended format.
NCTA targets teachers of world history, world geography, other social studies courses, and language arts/world literature as the primary audience of its programs. Teachers of Asian languages, media specialists, librarians, and art teachers who play a key role in teaching Asian studies content also are eligible for NCTA programs. NCTA seeks to develop a community of inquiry among educators interested in East Asian studies that serves as a forum for collegial discussion of issues relevant to the teaching of East Asia.
Participant Benefits
National website: http://www.NCTAsia.org
For more information, contact: Lynn Kalinauskas - Administrative Consultant
New Revised GPS Guides Now on GCSS Web Site
Newly revised GPS guides aligned with the Social Studies Precision Review conducted by the Georgia Department of Education have been posted to the GCSS web site. To view these guides, click here.
Instant Grants for School Field Trips to Georgia Nature Center
World Environmental Organization is awarding Instant Grants up to $1,500 toward environmental-related field trips to the Georgia Nature Center, located at 3001 Salem Road, Watkinsville, Georgia, near Athens.
Most schools have reduced or eliminated budgets for field trips this year, or have limitations on how far buses can travel. Given the importance of hands-on environmental education, the Georgia Nature Center (GNC) has developed programs to address these challenges so students can still take engaging field trips. All GNC programs correlate to K-12 GPS Standards. :earn about school field trips to the GNC at: http://FieldTrips.NatureCenter.com.
INSTANT GRANTS - If your budget is limited, receive an instant grant up to $1,500 toward a school field trip. View details at http://Grants.NatureCenter.com.
DISCOUNT CHARTER BUSES - If your county limits how far school buses can travel, you can arrange an affordable Deluxe Charter Bus Package. Instant grants can even be applied toward the cost of charter packages. Details are at: http://Buses.NatureCenter.com.
SCHOOL ASSEMBLIES - If your school is unable to travel at all, GNC staff can bring the nature center to you! Learn about in-school programs here: http://Assembly.NatureCenter.com.
GIFTED STUDENTS - For schools lucky enough to have special funding for gifted students, GNC has one- and two-day EcoCamp programs available at: http://www.EcoCamp.Org.
FREE CARNIVOROUS PLANTS - Reserve a field trip or school assembly within the next 4 weeks, and receive $80 worth of free carnivorous plants.
So what happens during a visit to Georgia Nature Center? First, a GNC valet will meet you, and transport lunches and coolers from your buses to our covered picnic area. The tour begins with a demonstration of a hybrid car. From there, a GNC naturalist will lead students on a 20-minute walk through "Tornado Alley" -- the only nature trail in the Southeast where students can view firsthand the destructive force of a 900-foot wide tornado. Along this walk, students will learn how weather impacts the ecology of a hardwood forest. Next, students learn about, and even get to touch thousands of rare carnivorous pitcher plants, some as tall as 3-feet.
From here, students begin a presentation at the GNC solar-powered stage where they will learn about clean energy and wind power. Solar kits are passed around so students can see up close how these technologies work. Students are shown even more carnivorous plants including rare Sundews and Venus Flytraps. Several free plants are given away. Additionally, the Center has an educational shop where students can purchase live carnivorous plants during lunch for as little as $3 each.
Next, students go on another nature walk to a geothermal earth tubes exhibit, and then walk along Greenbrier Creek to visit an organic farm. From here, students pass by an animal rescue area and the solar-powered Next Generation Home, the only home of its kind in the world. This usually wraps up the 1- to 3-hour educational program customized to GPS standards; the length of the program is based upon how much time your school has to visit.
Students then proceed to the Nature Center's picnic area, where they enjoy a bag lunch before heading back to the buses and returning to school.
If this sounds like a fun educational experience, don't miss your chance to receive a grant up to $1,500 to attend this program. If you have any questions, please call GNC founder Jeff Gold at 1-800-800-2SUN or check the GNC website.
New "Presidents and The Constitution" Curriculum Launched by the Bill of Rights Institute
The Bill of Rights Institute has released its latest curriculum, Presidents and The Constitution, Vol. I, to help students understand the powers delegated to the executive branch by the Constitution. Spanning over 200 years, Vol. I helps students explore how various presidents understood and exercised their constitutional powers.
Each of the 15 lessons is tied to national civics, history, and social studies standards, containing content-rich background essays and research-based teaching strategies. Presidents and The Constitution, Volume I includes a complete answer key, critical thinking questions for students, thematic essays that introduce each unit, and additional educational resources.
The Immortal 600: New Civil War Educational Package Announced
The Archaeology Unit of the Georgia Department of Transportation and representatives of other agencies and organizations have teamed up to produce an educational package that examines a group of 600 Confederate POWs that were left on the battlefield and exposed to cannon fire from both Confederate and Union forces. Entitled "The Immortal 600," the package contains historical information, a downloadable curriculum, teacher's guide, and access to a video. Georgia Public Broadcasting has added a link to the material on its "Georgia Stories" website at www.gpb.org/georgiastories/story/immortal_six_hundred.
For more information, call Eric Duff, Archaeology Unit Manager, Georgia Department of Transportation at 404-699-4406 or e-mail to eduff@dot.ga.gov.
National History Club
The National History Club is an initiative in partnership with The History Channel to encourage high school students across America to become involved in history-related programs through creation of school-based history clubs. Much more information can be found on the NHC's online newsletter (click here to view the Fall 2008 issue). A link to the NHC website has been added to the Useful Social Studies Web Links page.
Bill of Rights Institute Announces New Teaching Material on Property Rights
The Bill of Rights Institute announces the release of Property Rights in America: Yours, Mine, or Ours?, a new resource that provides teachers with a week of lesson plans to educate students about the foundations and on-going importance of property rights. The 40-page book will help students understand some of the rights that serve as the foundation of so many other rights enjoyed by Americans.
Property Rights in America provides teachers with fresh, exciting materials that connect the Constitution to students' lives. Lesson content focuses on economic philosophy, the Founding documents, Supreme Court cases, intellectual property, and ways technologies like the Internet can challenge property rights.
Students analyze various primary sources, including the Magna Carta, Second Treatise of Civil Government, by John Locke, Property, by James Madison, The Rights of the Colonists, by Samuel Adams, and numerous Supreme Court Cases. These lessons develop the skills necessary for future study and research on the history of America.
The creation of Property Rights in America was made possible through generous grants from the Philip M. McKenna Foundation and the Aequus Institute.
For more information, contact Rachel Bezanson (703) 894-1776 (extension 25) or e-mail to RBezanson@BillofRightsInstitute.org.
Key Ingredients: America by Food
The Smithsonian Institution announces a new traveling exhibition that explores the connections between Americans and the foods they produce, prepare, and present at the table. The Georgia tour of Key Ingredients is a project of the Georgia Humanities Council. The tour stops at 12 locations. For a map of the Georgia locations, click http://www.gafoodtour.org/tour/tour.html.
New American History Resource for Elementary Educators
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has just announced the release of American History: Elementary School Edition, a multimedia resource kit providing teachers in grades three through eight with a variety of innovative tools that students can use to explore America’s past. American History: Elementary School Edition is the fourth volume of the Institute’s History in a Box series of multimedia resource kits. The American History Box includes ten color-coded units, each featuring an overview of the unit topic, primary source documents with questions, discussion cards featuring individuals both ordinary and famous, classroom activities, and a poster. The box also includes the DVD, An American Sampler: Poems and Songs that Celebrate our Nation’s Past, and a CD-ROM with printable versions of the box contents. The box is available on the Institute’s website at www.gilderlehrmanstore.org.
For more information, contact: Sarah Bowman
Stone Mountain Historical Field Trips
Stone Mountain Park is more than a place to go to watch a fabulous laser show. The park also offers many historical field trips to choose from. There is also a large Civil War collection and museum, and an antebellum plantation with 18 original buildings from around the state built between 1783 and 1875. Students can tour through 100 years of Georgia history and experience live, interactive demonstrations that depict the daily activities of pioneer life. The park features an Indian Festival and Pow Wow in the fall, Frontier Days in the spring, and several on-going field trips through the school year, including the very popular Hands On History Program led by Peter Bonner.
For more information, contact Maureen Slawitschka, Stone Mountain Park Specialty Markets Coordinator. E-mail: mslawitschka@stonemountainpark.com
Georgia Historical Society Online Educational Resources for Teachers
The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) has a new online resource for Georgia teachers and researchers. From Tomochichi to Juliette Gordon Low to Charles Herty, the new online resources highlight past GHS's Georgia Days honorees and feature brief biographical sketches and suggestions for further reading and research. Each entry also provides references to corresponding materials from the collection of the GHS. To view the online educational resources, access www.georgiahistory.com and follow the Georgia Days link.
Preventing Genocide, Promoting Peace: A Podcast Conversation with Arn Chorn Pond
Facing History and Ourselves, in partnership with Taking It Global and the Genocide Intervention Network's student division, STAND, presents a free podcast event, Preventing Genocide, Promoting Peace: A Podcast Conversation with Arn Chorn Pond. Tune in with your students this week and hear a special conversation between Cambodian Genocide survivor, Arn Chorn Pond, and Facing History and Ourselves students. Taped on April 11, the podcast features students asking Arn about how his personal history affects the choices he has made. Arn also offer advice on what kids can do to help raise awareness about the current genocide in Darfur.
The audio podcast is available now on Facing History's interactive website, Be the Change: Upstanders for Human Rights (www.facinghistory.org/BeTheChange).
The podcast makes for a great homework assignment, extra-credit opportunity, or activity in the classroom. After-school clubs will want to listen and discuss, too. Background materials on Arn, and suggested activities, are available on the website. And, you and your students can share your reactions and thoughts in an online discussion.
For more information, contact: Beth Healey
© Georgia Council for the Social Studies |
|
|
