Dr. Harvey Larimore "Larry" Ragsdale, the Director of the Appalachian Center for Environmental Solutions (ACES), the administrative unit at Brevard College (BC) in which the Pisgah Forest Institute (PFI) is located, has announced his retirement effective at the end of the 2005 college academic year. Dr. Ragsdale was one the individuals whose vision contributed most to the establishment of PFI in 1999. He coordinated the partnership between the College and the USDA Forest Service which resulted in the staffing for the first workshop. Larry also helped to convince then President Tom Bertrand to provide seed funding to initiate the program and Congressman Taylor to assist in furnishing the initial major financial support that made it possible for the Institute to become a reality.
Dr. Ragsdale has had a productive and illustrious career at both Emory University (1968 - 1995), where he holds the title of Professor Emeritus, and Brevard College (1995 - present). At the latter institution he chairs the Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences Division as well as serving as the Dalton Professor of Environmental Studies. Larry has authored more than 100 scientific publications as well as presented more than 200 papers at professional conferences. He has served as a consultant to numerous private and governmental agencies including the USDA Forest Service. Currently he is on the Board of Directors of the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, Transylvania (County) Natural Resources Council (Chair), and the Gorges State Park Advisory Committee. In 2004 the Land of Sky Regional Council recognized Dr. Ragsdale with its "Friend of the River" Award.
Larry has provided wise council to the PFI staff. He also has facilitated the use by the Institute of classroom and laboratory space within the Moore Science Building. All of the PFI personnel join in wishing Larry an enjoyable retirement. He will be missed.
PFI’s website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
Spring is in the air in Northeastern Pennsylvania! Many tasks are being undertaken and KceeI staff is working continuously to prepare and enhance the organization. Registrations are arriving daily. The Geology of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Watershed Concepts course are presently filled at a 25 person capacity. Registrations are still being accepted, and names are put on a waiting list in the event that a registered attendee cancels. As the waiting list continues to grow, potential attendees are informed of other course offerings. Currently in the Geology course, six attendees chose the Wilkes University Graduate Education Credit option, 17 chose Act 48 Hours, and one person each chose CPE credit, and Keystone College Undergraduate Credit. In the Watershed Concepts course, 15 attendees chose Act 48 Hours, 6 chose CPE credit, and 4 chose the Wilkes University Graduate Education Credit option. The options available have certain deliverables associated with them. Due to the expansion of contacts, KceeI has also sought the assistance of a database consultant. This will help KceeI in the future as it expands.
The Pennsylvania Land Choices (PLT) course has been listed on the website and a mailing will be going out within the next two weeks to past attendees, school administrators, and teachers. This course is for teachers of grades 6-12. This will be a three day course which will be held on August 9-11, 2005. As with other KceeI courses, the workshops, materials, room, and board are offered for free. Attendees will have the option of receiving 30 Act 48 hours, or 2 CPE credits through the NEIU-19. The only charge is if an attendee chooses the CPE credit option, which is $75 per credit payable to NEIU-19.
Tim Eichner participated in another section of the Environmental Forum. The March 19th session consisted of a “watershed tour”. Some of the sites visited included a bore hole in Old Forge where students observed the impacts of acid mine drainage on the Lackawanna river; a gravity slope mine in Jessup where students investigated how a natural wetland passively treats effluent of a mine, in particular the reduction of the iron content; and McDade Park, Scranton, where students observed a stream channel restoration project that restored flow to a stream. Before the restoration, all of the water was entering the mine. The “Environmental Forum” is sponsored by NEIU-19, DCNR – State Parks, Lackawanna Heritage Valley and Pennsylvania American Water. It is a year-long program for high school students in grades 7-12 that focuses on the future of the Lackawanna Valley and how local communities are connecting to the area’s most prominent natural resources – the Lackawanna and Susquehanna Rivers. Approximately 75 students and 15 teachers from local schools work with local resource and higher education professionals, taking part in field trips, culminating with student service projects and a formal presentation with displays.
Tim Eichner, Scott Harris, and Joseph Kalusaitus are winding down the maple syrup production phase at Keystone. They have produced 10 gallons of sap to date. In addition the educational program at Keystone, Tim also presented on sugarbush management at Loch’s Maple where approximately 300 people were introduced to tree identification, timber-stand management, and the art of producing maple syrup. Loch’s website is located at: www.lochsmaple.com.
Just a reminder, if you would like to view the Northeast, check out our live webcam: http://atlas/video.htm
KceeI’s brochure may be viewed at its website in a printable Adobe PDF form (http://www.kceei.keystone.edu/Workshops.htm).
KceeI’s website is located at www.kceei.keystone.edu.
Brevard College
Brevard AAM has completed three Digital Storytelling Level I workshops during the past few weeks. On February 21st, 14 teachers premiered their digital stories at the Brevard AAM Computer Lab. Topics varied from “The WPA” to “Internment Camps: Loss of Freedom”. The next premier was held at Rugby Middle School on March 1st. Teachers chose topics ranging from “The Legend of Crazy Horse” to correlate with a children’s picture book to “
Upcoming Brevard AAM workshops for the spring include Digital Storytelling Level I at T.C. Henderson Elementary School, The Mountain Community School, and Brevard High School in April and May. Clear Creek Elementary School and North Henderson High School are in the process of scheduling Digital Storytelling Level I. Sunny View Elementary has scheduled a Digital Storytelling Level I workshop during the months of September and October.
For the summer, Brevard AAM is registering teachers for Digital Storytelling Level II, which will take place during June. Workshops for July are in the planning stages and potentially will include “The Library of Congress for Media Specialist” and “History Firsthand: Primary Sources for the Social Studies Teacher”.
Brevard’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.brevard.edu/aam/.
Mars Hill College
Mars Hill College AAM is pleased to announce that its updated Web site is now live at http://www.mhc.edu/aamind/. Designed by Andy Mrozkowski, the college’s Web master, it features a digital story by a MHC-AAM digital storytelling-trained teacher. The teacher who created the digital story is also spotlighted. Andy wrapped the digital story in Flash so that it will quickly stream to your computer. The digital story and the spotlighted teacher will change monthly.
In the near future, digital stories created by these teachers will be available for download. They will be arranged by name, grade level, and content area. The digital stories are mpeg files of 40 to 60 mgs. A broadband connection will be needed to download the files.
Another feature is the LOC picture bar across the top of the Web page. Andy also trimmed an LOC picture to place a figure in the foreground. The picture bar and foreground picture automatically change.
While you are viewing the MHC-AAM website, click on the MHC home page http://www.mhc.edu/, which is also completely new. All 4,000 pages of the MHC site have been redesigned by Andy to incorporate the new look. If you are interested in local history, check out the Ramsey Center for Regional Studies at http://www.mhc.edu/regional/index.asp.
AnneMarie Walter and Ed Shearin have been extremely busy delivering high quality professional learning for teachers via in-school digital storytelling workshops. The digital storytelling road show modules are delivered at the school. Laptops are configured for the workshop and are taken to the school and set up for each session. The laptops are loaded with Pinnacle Studio and other appropriate software. Each school has a digital storytelling folder on the desktop where the teachers store files. At times, three different schools in three different counties were using the laptops during the same week. The laptops are used for all the digital storytelling sessions except one. When LOC American Memory is taught and the teachers download pictures and music, they must have an Internet connection. In this case, the school’s computer lab is used. Most teachers have file folders on the school network where they can store materials.
Since August 2004, more than 200 teachers in 14 schools have been taught to tell their classroom stories using the above process. Workshops with teachers at Bald Creek Elementary, Weaverville Elementary, and Burnsville Elementary have recently been completed. Teachers developed digital stories to introduce units on weather, communications, and Presidents’ Day. Bald Creek teachers Ed Temple and Debbie Hensley made an engaging biography of Abraham Lincoln, as told by Lincoln’s ghost. Another Bald Creek teacher, Dawn Peterson, assisted a student in creating a digital story for the NC History competition.
AAM School Librarian Initiative
MHC-AAM started an initiative to bring more school librarians into AAM. Even though school librarians have been participating in AAM since the beginning, this initiative was started to foster collaboration between the school librarian and classroom teacher so that they can design instruction to help students engage in active learning using primary resources.
To begin this initiative, MHC-AAM hosted a focus group of school librarians to determine if this is a role in which the school librarians could participate. The focus group determined that collaboration with classroom teachers on curriculum matters is important. Twelve school librarians from elementary, middle, and high schools participated in the focus group. Also attending were representatives from the NC Department of Public Instruction Technology Division. The focus group participated in an interactive video conference with Judy Graves, Betty Brown, and Gail Petri at the LOC.
As a result of this effort, MHC-AAM is conducting a digital storytelling workshop for both school librarians and classroom teachers. Each librarian-teacher team (from the same school) will create a digital story using primary resources to tell a classroom story. The weekly workshop begins March 29 and ends April 26. Ed Shearin has located two print resources that will be used in the school librarian workshop:
- Bishop, Kay (2003). Connecting Libraries With Classrooms: The Curricular Roles Of The Media Specialist. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Press.
- Johnson, Mary (2003). Primary Resources In The Library: A Collaboration Guide For Library Media Specialist. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Press.
Both Bishop and Johnson are school librarians who collaborate with teachers using primary resources.
Mars Hill’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.mhc.edu/aamind/.
Montreat College
The Montreat Partner has been preparing for the many summer institutes that are scheduled. Several schools have requested private summer institutes for their faculty members. There are currently five summer institutes scheduled with Asheville Christian Academy, and two institutes for Asheville City Schools, Oakley Elementary, and Sunshine Elementary Schools. Registration is open for two institutes: Digital Storytelling, to be held June 28-30; and Primary Sources, to be held July 26-28. Registration is going very well; in just two weeks the Digital Storytelling Institute is over half filled.
Erwin High School started the digital storytelling workshop series on March 1, having completed the primary source series in December. The teachers are excited about learning new techniques for using primary sources. Pleasant Gardens began the digital storytelling workshop series on March 3, with 18 teachers who are energetic about incorporating technology through primary source-integrated digital stories. W.D. Williams Elementary School continued the digital storytelling workshop series on March 7, and will complete the 35-hour series on March 4.
Montreat’s AAM program website is located at: http://aam.montreat.edu/.
California University of Pennsylvania
AAM Workshops
Ringgold School district: On March 19th,,, six teachers from various grade levels and disciplines attended an “Introduction to the Library of Congress Workshop” and five teachers from various grade levels and disciplines attended a “What are Primary Resources Workshop”. This is Ringgold’s school district’s initial participation in the AAM project.
Washington School District: On March 16th,,, four teachers attended a Skills Applications workshop to continue work on classroom projects started during their AAM workshop series training. Project topics included WWI photographs, WW I speeches and documents, mathematics and geometry using quilts, and veterans’ oral histories.
Charleroi School District: Michael Brna, AAM director, met with Charleroi Superintendent Dr. Brad Ferko and District Technology Coordinator Bill Flanagan to begin the planning process for offering AAM during the 2005-2006 school year.
Integrating AAM into California University of Pennsylvania
§ 2/23/05 – Thirteen California University elementary education majors working in the field as student teachers attended a workshop titled “Information Literacy and the Library of Congress”. The workshop was also attended by California University elementary education faculty member Dr. Christine Peterson.
§ 3/2/05 – Twelve California University elementary education majors working in the field as student teachers attended a Library of Congress and Web Site Evaluation workshop. The workshop was also attended by California University elementary education faculty member Dr. Christine Peterson.
§ 3/14/05 – Ten upper-level honors students attended an Introduction to the Library of Congress Online Resources workshop. Prior to the workshop, students submitted to AAM staff individual areas of interest. AAM digital preservationist, Byron Holdiman, and AAM administrative assistant, Cindy Speer, researched the LOC website to locate resources related to each student’s area of interest and presented the resources to students during the workshop. The workshop was also attended by California University faculty member Marsha Nolf.
§ 3/22/05 – Fifty students from the 100 Level History Course attended an Introduction to the Library of Congress Online Resources workshop. The workshop was also attended by California University History department faculty member Dr. Sean Madden. Class topics were WWII and the Great Depression, and students were presented with a list of related resources available from the LOC.
§ 3/22/05 – Thirty-seven students from the 100 Level History Course attended an Introduction to the Library of Congress Online Resources workshop. The workshop was also attended by California University History department faculty member Dr. Sean Madden.
Community Outreach
On March 9th, 57 first-year teachers attended an Introduction to the Library of Congress Online Resources presentation. On March 10th, 76 first-year teachers attended an Introduction to the Library of Congress Online Resources presentation. The presentations were delivered at Intermediate Unit One as part of its Teacher Induction Program, which is a state required program for first-year teachers in Pennsylvania. Teacher Induction is considered to be an essential first step for facilitating entry into the education profession and learning to teach to high standards.
Other Activity
AAM director, Michael Brna, joined the advisory staff of California University of PA’s Frederick Douglass Institute. The Frederick Douglass Institute is to be a catalyst for the institutionalization of the concepts of multiculturalism with special emphasis on race, gender, and liberty. The Institute promotes the value of diversity throughout the California University community. It aims to further understand the past, support advancement and achievement in the present, and prepare for a more inclusive future. One part of Brna’s role will be exploring the LOC website to identify and access appropriate resources to enhance the mission of the Frederick Douglass Institute.
Cindy Speer has joined California University’s AAM team as the AAM administrative assistant. Besides being a graduate of California University’s English program, Cindy has excellent computer applications skills and Library Science experience. Cindy’s picture and contact information is posted at http://www.cup.edu/education/aam/aamcont.jsp. Please join us in welcoming Cindy to the AAM family.
March’s Monthly Feature on the AAM California University website is devoted to Women’s History Month. It can be viewed at http://www.cup.edu/education/aam. Monthly Feature is a subject specific collection of LOC online resources, which focuses on nationally recognized monthly themes.
CUP’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.cup.edu/education/aam.
Waynesburg College
The Adventure of the American Mind staff at Waynesburg College was busy in March planning for the summer workshops and conducting several in-service workshops for districts in the Waynesburg College territory. Dr. Canning traveled to North Carolina to attend the Brevard College digital storytelling workshop. She is developing the summer institute using digital storytelling, oral history, and local history. She came back to Waynesburg charged with ideas and suggestions from the Brevard team. Special thanks to Jodi Huggins and Symantha Petitt for their hospitality and sharing.
Concurrent workshops were held on March 4 both in the Carmichaels district (two groups of teachers) and for Central Greene teachers on the Waynesburg College campus. Twenty-two Central Greene teachers completed the newly developed Reading and Writing Local History, 90 teachers from Carmichaels Area School District completed Waynesburg’s Introduction to the Library of Congress session, and two groups of teachers at Carmichaels completed Mining Memories (LOC Search Strategies) and Digging Deeper (Analyzing Primary Sources). Ann Canning and Amy Martin completed the month with a cartoon analysis activity with Uniontown School District for 11 social studies teachers. WC AAM hosted a total of 175 teachers in March. There are two workshops scheduled for April: Writing Local History at Albert Gallatin School District and Digging Deeper (Analyzing Primary Documents) Uniontown School District.
Dr. Canning is working closely with Andi Buchanan, a teacher of gifted and talented students in grades 1-8 in the Central Greene School District, on a local oral history project. Ms. Buchanan is an alumnae of the first Waynesburg College Summer Institute and the Reading and Writing Local History workshop just conducted in March. Ms. Buchanan is using what she learned in the workshops to develop a local history web-based project to showcase her student’s work. Amy Martin, digital preservationist, is assisting with the technology and Web interface. The Waynesburg College Museum has been instrumental in providing local history resources such as newspapers, magazines, photographs, and land deeds. Ms. Buchanan is using WC AAM digital recorders, scanners, and cameras to complete the project. The AAM program is loaning the digital recorders, scanners, and cameras to teachers interested in completing projects in their classrooms.
The AAM staff continues to work with the local Main Street project, Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful, to develop community histories. Undergraduate students enrolled in a Service Learning class are researching historic Waynesburg buildings. Their research will be used in a workshop that blends local history with national history primary source documents available at the LOC. These building histories will be published on the college media web server.
Amy Martin has finished developing a web-based tool to conduct workshop evaluations. It stores results of the evaluations in a database, which allows for the creation of reports showing evaluation results for each workshop. It also allows for the comparison of all workshop evaluations. The ease of online completion and the professional reports have been well received. Each superintendent and principal of host districts receives a copy of the evaluation after each session. You may test a sample evaluation at http://iqweb.waynesburg.edu/aam/testsurvey.html.
Waynesburg’s AAM program website is located at: http://aam.waynesburg.edu.
Northern Virginia Schools Partnership
March was "music month" for the Northern Virginia partnership. More than 65 music teachers from four Northern Virginia school districts enjoyed a trip to the Library of Congress. The tour included a wonderful visit with a curator from the Performing Arts division. The teachers saw LOC treasures including scores by Mozart and Gershwin. Music teachers are participating in some follow-up workshops to save LOC resources to share with students. In addition to the music teacher LOC tours, the other AAM-NVA staff have been busy with the school-based workshop series that is running in about eight schools. The Arlington Traditional School in Arlington Public Schools finished off a full year of various AAM-NVA professional development activities with a staff retreat on Saturday, March 5th at the LOC. The entire staff came, enjoyed a tour of the Jefferson building, toured the exhibitions with special AAM-NVA activities, and finished off with a lunch where teachers had an opportunity to share how they have used LOC resources and suggest future professional development. AAM-NVA is looking forward to April which is "Art Month at the LOC”.
Northern Virginia’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.aamnva.org/.
Home School Program
AAM Home School Staff
The AAM Home School Program welcomes Joe Totherow as the Instructional Designer and Webmaster. Joe attended St. Anselm College for his undergraduate education and received his M.A. as well as a Doctorate of Philosophy in philosophy from Michigan State University. Joe’s experiences through teaching at the college level and online course development have prepared him for the educational and technical demands of this position. Joe may be reached at jtotherow@ercwc.org.
New Student Work
Home school students have been busy creating new projects with the skills they have learned through completing the AAM Home School lessons. Currently more than 11 student projects have been posted since January. Their work may be viewed at aamhomeschool.org/stuweb_spr05.htm.
Highlighted student projects this month are:
Todd’s Honey Bees: Todd researched the historical use of bees in various media throughout history.
Alexis’s Elections … the American Way: Alexis researched and explained the American election process throughout history.
The Home School’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.aamhomeschool.org/.
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