A major recent initiative of PFI
has been to upgrade its website and registration process. The website upgrade
is now complete, and the registration databases should be completed within the
month. PFI
hired a local website designer, K.Co., to make the website more user-friendly
and more attractive to potential participants in our workshops. We are working
with another local designer at Appalachian State University to produce
web-searchable databases for registration and participant contact lists, workshop
evaluations, distance learning quiz formats, and inventory. The database of
past participants is an important point of mailing contact for advertising
future opportunities, and making it easier to use is a priority. Because the
registration process is also an important way for us to learn about our
participants, including how PFI
reached them, why they are interested in our courses, and how they work with
their students, integrating registration into a more functional database is
also a priority. By incorporating workshop evaluations and distance learning
quizzes into the same style of database, their results should be easier to
access and use as we work to improve our workshop offerings. Maintaining an
up-to-date inventory is a challenge, but is necessary when ordering supplies
for multiple workshops. PFI
curriculum coordinator Ryan McCormack has been charged with this large task.
PFI
has also been exploring ways to not only improve its distance learning
workshop, but to integrate computer use into all its workshops. Technology has
become such a pervasive aspect of our society at large and students in
particular, that we feel strongly compelled to make it part of each workshop we
offer. By introducing our participants to various web-based technologies, we
can minimize resource use at the same time that we provide training to our
participants. As an example, setting up the workshop evaluations into the
databases already mentioned means that all our participants will gain
experience with data entry, we will more efficiently process evaluations by
avoiding paper copies that must be entered by another person, and we will be
able to manipulate the data to produce reports designed to answer specific
questions. As another example, Brevard
College
is part of the Appalachian College Association (ACA), which is currently
providing the resources needed to access the Sakai
open-source program with its many features related to the “virtual classroom.” PFI,
again represented by Ryan, is in touch with the ACA and with the ERC
to determine the feasibility of moving the Sakai
program from the college level into the K-12 classrooms of western North
Carolina. If successful, a
major new pathway for technology use in the classrooms of the western Carolinas
will be opened.
While Ryan has worked on these two initiatives, Kevin has
been equally busy with budget and other projects. September 30 closed the 2006
budget and October 1 began the new 2007 budget cycle. With a complete turn-over
of staff, it has been a steep learning curve with regards to budget cycles! PFI
is indebted to the ERC,
particularly the extra efforts of grants manager Tanya
Bruce, to close our previous budget year and
start the new budget on a firm footing that we all understand.
Staff participation in Environmental Education and Science
conferences is not only an opportunity for professional development, but is a
great way for us to meet and interact with potential participants in our
workshops. This year, PFI
has focused on the Environmental Education conferences, attending both the
North American Association for Environmental Educators national convention held
in St. Paul Minnesota from 9-14 October, and the Environmental Educators of
North Carolina annual conference, held in Fayetteville (Ft. Bragg) from 2-5
November. On a similar theme, PFI
helped to sponsor the Environmental Education Certification Ceremony, at which
all the newly certified Environmental Educators in North
Carolina (approximately 300)
were honored. We hope that our participation and visibility at such events
makes PFI
come to the forefront whenever educators consider workshop opportunities and
excellence in environmental education.
PFI's website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
KceeI’s current
priority has been working on the preliminary design for the 2007 brochure. Right now, the brochure is in the hands of Keystone College’s publication office for review
before it is sent to Condron & Company for the final design. The photograph on the cover of the 2007
brochure is a beautiful shot of a Pileated Woodpecker taken by Keystone College art student, George Boudman. In coming years KceeI hopes to hold a contest
for the best photo taken by a past participant.
The photo will appear on the cover of a future brochure.
Preparations are also underway for KceeI’s trip to Asheville, NC for the 2006 Director’s
Conference. Attending the conference
will be representatives from the following organizations: The Education and
Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas, Inc.; The Pisgah Forest Institute – Brevard College; The Keystone College Environmental
Education Institute - Keystone College; and The Pacific Forest Institute –
William Jessup University.
Each Institute will be given time to make a brief presentation. KceeI has prepared an overview of its
background, history, and courses.
Howard Jennings, Director of KceeI, attended the 2006
National Association of Biology Teachers conference in Albuquerque, NM on October
11 – 14, 2006. Howard took part in many sessions related to
Global Warming and brought back a lot of useful information that will aid KceeI
in the planning of Climactic Change and the Forested Ecosystem, a course that
will hopefully be offered in 2008.
To facilitate the development of this course, KceeI has
recruited the help of Dr. Robert Cook, a Keystone College professor who teaches a course on
Global Change at Keystone. Dr. Cook,
along with Tim Eichner, Assistant Director of KceeI, attended the American
Quaternary Association’s (AMQUA) conference on “Teaching Climate Change:
Lessons from the Past,” in Bozeman, MT back in August.
In other exciting news, President Bush visited Keystone College on October 19th to
attend a luncheon for Congressman Don Sherwood of the 10th District
in Pennsylvania.
He was only on campus for about an hour and a half but security was
extremely tight. The campus was covered
with secret service agents and snipers on rooftops awaiting the President’s
arrival. Classes were cancelled for the
day because of the difficulties in accessing the campus and nearby roads. Nora Dillon, Operations Coordinator for KceeI,
was among a group of students, faculty, and staff members that were allowed to
act as “greeters” for the President’s arrival.
It was an exciting day all around.
Just a reminder…
KceeI’s
brochure may be viewed at its website in a printable Adobe PDF form at http://www.kceei.keystone.edu/Documents/2006/brochure.pdf
KceeI’s
website is located at www.KceeI.keystone.edu.
Pacific Forest Institute
The Pacific Forest Institute (PFI)
staff has been evaluating means of improving our workshop presentations and
increasing the number of teachers that we can reach annually. As a start, we
are scheduling five (5) additional workshops and broadening the scope to issues
that are supplemental to our forest management curriculum. Initially, we will
be offering the following Saturday Workshops:
Project Learning Tree (PLT)—November 18, 2006
and March 3, 2007.
PLT
is the work of many educators and is produced by the American Forest
Foundation. It is an award-winning environmental education program for teachers
and other educators, parents and community leaders who work with K-8 students.
Their partner is the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The program
focuses on forests and their inhabitants and thus PLT
is able to explore and present the over-all concepts of diversity,
interrelationships, ecosystems, structure and scale, and patterns of change
with all of the activities correlated with the California State Science
Standards.
Flying WILD—February 10, 2007
This is a new resource for teachers and environmental
educators who enjoy birds and aware of their ecological importance. Flying WILD
follows the tradition of Project WILD and Project WILD Aquatic in that is also
produced by the Council for Environmental Education. Designed for middle-school
students, but adaptable to lower grades, the contents emphasize bird
conservation and biology through classroom activities and the development of a
bird festival. Fly WILD delivers a large quantity of classroom tested
educational activities interesting for both the students and teachers.
Project WILD and Project WILD Aquatic
are nationally known and respected interdisciplinary conservation and
environmental education programs for grades K-12 which emphasize wildlife
(Project WILD), and water, wetlands, and aquatic animals and plants (Project
WILD Aquatic). Both programs are
sponsored by numerous state and federal natural resource agencies, including
the California Department of Fish and Game, our partner in putting this
workshop together. All
Project WILD and Project WILD Aquatic activities are correlated to California
State Science Standards.
The Pacific Forest Institute, at William
Jessup
University
informs and excites educators to teach about stewardship of California
forests through use of hands-on, inquiry based learning activities while using
nature as a laboratory. As noted, the Saturday Workshops will be supplemented
by other seminars during FY 2006-2007 FY. PFI
also will be conducting two free week-long summer sessions on forest
stewardship, June 24-29 and July
15-20, 2007.
For updated
information on the Pacific Forest Institute, please visit our website at:
http://www.jessup.edu/academics/pacificforestinstitute.
Hunter
M. Goosmann, General Manager of ERC Broadband, met in Clyde, NC, with regional
representatives of NCTA (the North Carolina Technology Association), BellSouth,
Lenovo Computers, and Congressman Charles Taylor as he awarded the Riverbend Elementary School a $250,000 technology
grant. This opportunity will help lessen the digital divide not only at
Riverbend, but throughout Haywood County.
Mr.
Goosmann has also been active making presentations on regional networking
efforts. He has spoken at Blue Ridge Technical College and to a class of Western Carolina University students.
Mrs.
Jennie Pressley, Business Development
Manager, recently attended the Southern Economic Development Council's
annual conference in Orlando, Florida. Her representation at
this conference is valuable the ERC Broadband and the Western Carolinas by offering her a
platform for networking our technical services to those outside the region and
grow a diversified tech economy.
ERC Broadband is continually expanding its service
offerings. For any question about Internet connectivity, high performance
computing, disaster recovery including data backup and recovery, or other data
center services like co-location, please contact the ERC Broadband team at (828)
350-2415 or visit us on the web at www.ercbroadband.org.
DePaul University
With the transition to the Library of Congress Teaching with
Primary Sources (TPS) program coming sooner than later, DePaul started the
transition to the new program by removing the AAM
workshop matrix from its Web site. One professional development program model
being tested includes a six-hour “Introduction to the Library of Congress and
American Memory” session for lead teachers followed by 10 hours of professional
development workshops for all teachers.
Several schools in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS)
system within five to seven miles of each other were approached to determine
their interest in participating in the TPS program and their willingness to
work with other schools in establishing a schedule. Although the interest in participating in the
TPS program is high, scheduling issues and school priorities prevent the
schools from participating as a group.
DePaul is working with a Curriculum Council of Catholic
Schools in the western Chicago
suburbs to determine interest in the TPS program. If there is interest, the schools will
participate as a group. Several suburban
school districts have indicated an interest in the TPS program and their
willingness to participate as a group.
DePaul was asked by Chicago
State
University
faculty members to provide professional development to 40 teachers in two master
level courses. The session was very well received and CSU
faculty later reported teacher's experiences incorporating Library resources in
their teaching.
DePaul has provided professional development to 67
pre-service teachers on campus.
DePaul’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aam.depaul.edu/.
Federation
of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities (FIICU)
Several of the faculty presented sessions on using the
Library of Congress at the Illinois Association of Teacher Educators meeting,
October20-21.
FIICU’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aam.nl.edu/.
Eastern
Illinois University
In the midst of the active fall 2006 semester, AAM
at Eastern
Illinois
University
is collaborating with teachers in a range of ways. In recent months, conference
presentations were offered to educators at both general education and
discipline specific conferences
and in-service events. These included
the annual High Schools That Work Conference and a session at the Dirksen
Congressional Center’s 15th Annual Congress in the Classroom Program in Peoria
as well as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. In October, sessions at the EIU History
Teacher Conference and the Illinois Historical Society sponsored Annual
Conference on Illinois History allowed EIU AAM
to share information about Library of Congress resources and classroom
application with educators.
In addition to local K-12 schools, Director Cindy Rich
has presented information in a variety of graduate and undergraduate education
courses at EIU this fall. The
pre-service teachers are enthusiastic about the new wealth of resources that
they are now able to incorporate into learning experiences. Current classroom teachers enrolled in
graduate courses are often alumni of EIU AAM
workshops and share experiences and how they have adapted what they learned
into their teaching. The EIU
Constitution Day Committee again called on EIU AAM
to present information for local educators.
The Constitution Day Resources for Educators page was featured on the
university Web site, posters, and in the press.
The first edition of the “Central Illinois Teaching with
Primary Sources” newsletter was published in October. This is a joint project of the SIU
Edwardsville and EIU AAM
programs. Each monthly newsletter is
themed and will also feature items that are meaningful to Central
Illinois.
The November edition will feature a theme of veterans.
EIU’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://www.eiu.edu/~eiuaam/.
Illinois State University
Illinois
State
University’s
AAM
program continues to impact Central Illinois
teachers and library information specialists. ISU-AAM
staff recently attended the Illinois Library Association’s conference
in Chicago
and presented a poster session about the program.
As we focus on ways to sustain the efforts of the AAM
program, we continually look for opportunities to connect with pre-service
teachers. Our staff introduced the program to the coordinators of the nine
professional development schools associated with Illinois
State
University’s
College
of Education.
Follow-up meetings with members of this group offer some interesting connections
and opportunities to work within these schools with pre-service as well as
mentoring teachers.
ISU’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/aam.
Southern
Illinois University-Carbondale
SIUC AAM
recruited a cohort of teachers for the fall 2006 semester. Fourteen
teachers are enrolled in EDUC
550: An Adventure of the American Mind.
The teachers are completing projects which require
them to learn about the value and efficacy of incorporating digital primary
sources into the classroom. The instructional components for the course
include topics related to the Library’ American Memory Web site, including
activities incorporating use of materials from the Learning Page. The teachers
also learn searching strategies for American Memory. Each teacher will
prepare a comprehensive lesson plan which incorporates elements such as state
standards, rubrics, student artifacts, and enabling skills, for example.
Other topics covered in the three hour graduate course include copyright for
teachers, developing WebQuests, evaluating Internet resources, and training in
selected multimedia applications.
SIUC AAM
is continues recruiting an in-service teacher cohort for EDUC
550 for the spring 2007 semester. The AAM
staff has initiated discussions with area Regional Office of Education (ROE)
directors to explore the possibility of delivering EDUC
550 off-site during spring or summer 2007 semester. Teachers in the
service area have expressed an interest in participating in the course at a
site which would not require extensive travel.
SIU-C’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aam.siu.edu/.
Metropolitan State College of Denver
Welcome and Goodbye
AAM-Colorado
bids a fond farewell to Online Communications Developer Lisa Bradshaw who
recently accepted a position as Program Director with Westwood College Online.
Lisa was a tremendous asset to the team and will be missed. At the same time, AAM
welcomes student employee newcomers Keith Patterson and Jill Mielenz, as well
as new Administrative Assistant Daria
Macaluso.
AAM-Colorado,
along with the Auraria Library, is gearing up for its third annual Librarian
Days. This two-day event affords librarians, teachers and other educators the
opportunity to learn about the American Memory program and digital primary
sources from the Library and other collections, including local initiatives
such as the Denver Public Library's Blair Caldwell Library and Western
History/Genealogy Department and the Collaborative Digitization Program. For
the past two years, Librarian Days has been widely acclaimed and highly
successful. The staff looks forward to
another exciting and informative event as the project continues to take shape.
Tentative plans suggest a date toward the end of March 2007.
AAM-Colorado
looks forward to its upcoming poster session at the Colorado Association of
Libraries Conference this month. This year’s conference
will be held November 9-11. AAM-Colorado
will hold its session on Friday the 10th.
MSCD’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu.