The staff of PFI
was pleased to meet staff from both the Keystone College Environmental
Education Institute (KCeeI) in Pennsylvania
and the Pacific Forest Institute (PFI-CA)
in California
at the first director’s conference. Ably planned and coordinated by the ERC’s
Tanya Bruce
and Sophia Yugay,
we enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the other programs and to
exchange ideas. PFI
was happy to host one morning at Brevard
College,
where each group presented information on its program. It was also a pleasure
to learn more about forest issues in our own backyard. Tanya was able to
arrange a tour with the Biltmore Estate forester in which he demonstrated and
explained their forest plan. As a private estate, Biltmore must manage several
different factors that include aesthetics, public use, and profitability when
it comes to harvesting their forest. We also had a private tour of the Cradle
of Forestry’s outdoor demonstration trail, and much appreciated Gaye Owen’s
interesting descriptions and knowledge. Not only did we learn from these tours
and from each other, but really enjoyed our time together with staff from the
other programs and the ERC.
Dr. Frick-Ruppert has been exploring possible methods of
collaboration with the local Transylvania
County
school system. They are particularly interested in seeing how closely our
workshops support the science standard course of study. Our staff is working to
identify the standards that each workshop presentation, lesson, and activity
meet. A continuing theme raised by many of the teachers who attend our
workshops is their desire for teachers and students to participate together in
on-going research projects. This possible development of teacher/student
inquiry-based science education is an interesting area of potential and one
that may quickly expand beyond Transylvania
County.
Kevin Fischer has become certified as a Leopold Education
Project workshop instructor by participating in a training session that was
held at the North American Association of Environmental Educators conference.
His certification dovetails nicely with the active local chapter for the
Leopold Project that Forest Service employee Alice Cohen-Goldstein coordinates.
The local chapter recently held a “Celebrating Our Common Ground” event at the
Transylvania County Library in which Dr. Frick-Ruppert participated as a
featured reader.
PFI
also met recently with a delegation from South
Korea. Led by Dr. Ju-Hee
Lee, a professor at Daegu
University,
the delegation consisted mainly of representatives from the Korea Forest
Service. Libby Wilcox, the Certification Program Manager for the NC Office of
Environmental Education, hosted the group during their weeklong visit to
western North Carolina.
The Director General of the Forest Management Bureau, Gil-Bon Koo, was
particularly interested in a possible collaboration with PFI
to develop a similar program in Korea
that is supported by the Korea Forest Service. A member of his staff may be
able to attend some of our workshops this summer.
PFI's website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
As KceeI begins to plan in more depth the details of its
2007 courses, there are many factors that need to be considered when scheduling
campus resources. This summer will be a
busy one on Keystone’s campus with multiple activities being held like the
Pennsylvania Governor’s Institutes, the Poetry Institute, and the Woodlands
Resource Adventure Camp just to name a few.
It is necessary to plan the logistics of these courses now in order to
avoid conflicts with scheduling. So far,
KceeI has been successful with our plans for the summer.
The 2007 KceeI brochure has been approved by Keystone College and is currently at Condron and
Associates for the final design and printing.
KceeI is excited to see the final version that will include pictures
from 2006 courses as well as participant quotes, something that has never
appeared on our past brochures.
KceeI attended the First Annual Director’s Conference from
November 9-12 which was held in Asheville, NC.
This conference was hosted by the Education and Research Consortium of
the Western Carolinas, Inc. Present at this
conference were the members of KceeI, the Pisgah Forest Institute, and the Pacific Forest
Institute. This was such a wonderful
opportunity for all three institutes to come together and meet for the first
time and share each others strategies and approaches to its courses.
Besides the wonderful meals we were treated to where we
conducted most of our “brainstorming” sessions, other places that were visited
during this conference were: The Biltmore Estate with a private tour of the
grounds with the Estate Forester, Brevard College to visit Pisgah Forest Institute’s facilities, and the Cradle of
Forestry. Asheville and the surrounding area is very
beautiful with so much to see and do.
KceeI thoroughly enjoyed the time that was spent here and would like to
extend a special thank you to the ERC for organizing and hosting this
great educational event.
In more recent news, KceeI held its
bi-annual Advisory Committee Meeting on Friday, December 1. To get things started at the meeting Howard
Jennings, Director of KceeI, showed a PowerPoint presentation on the
background, history, and current state of KceeI (this presentation was also
shown at the Director’s Conference).
Other items on the agenda included: Proposed courses for 2007, Input on
resource suggestions and relevant educational materials for upcoming courses,
Input on future courses within the parameters of the grant, Current marketing
strategies and suggestions for improvement, Distribution of the 2006 brochures
and plans for the 2007 mailing, The First Annual Director’s Conference in
Asheville, NC, and Current Challenges.
All members of the advisory committee
were present except Dr. David Reese, Assistant Executive Director of the
NEIU-19. Feedback was very positive and
many helpful suggestions were offered.
Following the meeting the group had lunch in the Fireplace Lounge on
Keystone’s campus where more discussions continued.
Just a reminder…
KceeI’s
website is located at www.KceeI.keystone.edu.
Pacific Forest Institute
Pacific Forest Institute (PFI-CA)
staff members Mary McFarland,
Mark McReynolds and Bill Dennison
were hosted by ERC
Executive Director John Hunter
and Tanya Bruce
during the November 9-12 Forest Service Environmental Education Programs
Director’s Conference 2006 in Ashville, NC. The attendance by Keystone College
Environmental Education Institute and Pisgah
Forest Institute provided
opportunities to compare and improve our California
programs.
Prior to the joint meetings, PFI
Staff met with John and Tanya for a budget session to better understand the new
fiscal year funding mechanism and to review our specific budget proposals.
The Conference meetings began during our Thursday, November
9, dinner in Ashville and ended with a tour of the Cradle of Forestry near Brevard
College.
A field tour by the Biltmore Estates Chief Forester outlined
a good example of urban forestry that is operated under simple and laudable
goals:
1) To
improve the recreational and esthetic quality of the forest,
2) Preserve
the historic heritage of the forest,
3) Improve
the health and vigor of the forest,
4) Provide
for the establishment and growth of younger generation of tress, and
5) Earn
revenue from the sale of forest products. (They understand that to sustain a
forest, revenue must exceed costs.)
Other workshop discussions included: a) the importance of
determining our strengths that can best serve as the basis for one-day workshops,
b) the need to share the brochures from other institutions, c) expand our
workshops beyond just the basic, core forestry classes (e.g. alternative forest
products, amphibians and reptiles, watersheds, geology, invasive species,
recycling, etc.) d) use of an exceptional keynote speaker at the beginning of
the sessions, e) opportunity to hold some of the sessions at a library to
permit public attendance, f) consideration of inviting one or two of the
previous class members to attend as classroom assistants, g) the need to allow
some social/curriculum development time during each day and, h) various
assessment descriptions, such as requiring a passing grade on an exam, and/or a
research paper on one , or more of the class stewardship subjects.
The institutes have found the following as good items to be
given to the teacher/students during the workshops: 1) Roller Bag—filled with
the resource material. Include an assignment for the teachers to go through the
entire bag at the beginning of the session to familiarize themselves with the
class procedures and subject matter.. 2) Backpack for the geology class. 3)
Microscope for watershed study with at least one hour for instructions on their
use. (compuvisor.com) Cost about $80-100 each. 4) Obtain a daily journal from
each participant. 5) Provide demonstrations on the use of classroom materials
and resources provided in the workshops.
Suggestions for websites material, included: a) Mission
Statement, b) staff biography’s, c) Institute history, d) Sponsor list, and e)
inclusion of the weather patterns and temperatures in the workshop areas.
Marketing potentials discussed included: a) obtaining new
names and addresses from them past attendees, b) displaying other program
brochures on display and discussing them during orientation, c) development of
classroom curriculum on the last day and,
d) attendance at various educational fairs around the state.
Pacific Forest Institute is very appreciative of the
educational and social time and courtesy provided by the staff from Education
and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas, Inc., Keystone College
Environmental Education Institute and Pisgah
Forest Institute. It is our hope that
we can convene another conference in 2007, either in Pennsylvania,
or California.
For updated
information on the Pacific Forest Institute, please visit our website at:
http://www.jessup.edu/academics/pacificforestinstitute.
As 2007 approaches, ERC
Broadband is excited about the opportunities for growth that exist. To date, ERC
Broadband has built two fiber rings in Asheville
and a third is underway. Leased fiber through the region provides long haul
transport through the western Carolinas to include the Upstate of South Carolina. ERC
Broadband offers Internet as well as transport and dark fiber on its network.
Additionally, services including disaster recovery, off-site data storage, high
performance computing and networking are offered.
ERC Broadband primarily serves the education, government and
non-profit sector as a partner in the technical economic development of Western North Carolina.
Currently ERC Broadband is a participant in the HUB project and works closely
with the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, Buncombe County
and other participants in planning the technology cluster activities.
Hunter Goosmann serves as General Manager and is often invited to speak formally
and informally about the organization, its mission and its impact. As a result
many community members are aware of ERC
Broadband and the important role it plays in bridging the fiber and technology
gaps in the western Carolinas to make this region more comparable in services and pricing to
larger communities.
Please visit www.ercbroadband.org for more
information.
Western
North Carolina
PROPEL Workshop Series for School
Librarians
As part of the PROPEL professional development series for
school librarians and media specialists, the Western North Carolina AAM
partners completed the curriculum development for the fourth workshop entitled “Prototype.”
Prototype is designed to help
participants connect teaching styles and learning styles with Library of
Congress online primary sources.
Participants in the Prototype workshop experience are
developing activities using LOC primary sources and are beginning to
identifying which learning styles are addressed in each activity. Some of these
activities include images puzzles, map analysis, discovery storytelling,
treasuring hunting, mirrored writing, storyboarding with images, and political
cartoon analysis.
As an extension of instructional design, participants are
led through a basic Shewhart Cycle for continuous improvement in education.
This “Plan, Do, Check, Act” cycle demonstrates an easy way to remember and
accomplish continuous improvement in teaching.
Participants also have an opportunity to become familiar
with developed products using Library of Congress primary sources.
Identification of learning styles addressed within each product is also a major
part of this experience. Some products participants review are WebQuests,
newsletters, digital historical narratives, physical and virtual exhibits,
scavenger hunts, student-centered journals, model development, poem
composition, and planning and organizing productions.
To complete the Prototype workshop, participants have an
opportunity to revisit their teaching styles and how discuss how learning and
teaching styles play a role in deciding which activities and products teachers
should consider using to help students learn. Collaborating with classroom
teachers is a critical component of this workshop. Participants are now
equipped to go back to their schools and collaborate with teachers about
locating primary sources, activities, and products that fit curricular topics,
the various teaching styles, and the learning styles of the students.
The next professional development workshop is entitled
“Empower,” which is designed to help participants discover the path to using
primary sources in their schools. Participants will build on previous
experiences and create practical, hands-on resources and harness these to
enrich learning experiences in their schools.
Online Professional Development Tool
Update
Development of the online professional development tool for
educators, “Introducing Primary Sources,” is nearing completion. The tool will
be available for independent online use or as a part of a workshop. The first
piloting will be during the final workshop of the PROPEL workshop series. This
online lesson will provide media specialists a tool to use with teachers when
introducing the why and how of incorporating primary source materials in the
classroom. The beta version of Introducing Primary Sources is available online
at http://www.aamonline.org/primary.htm.
Introducing Primary Sources Presented
to North Carolina
School
Library Media Association
Dr. Pam Johnson,
AAM
Online Education Director, presented “Introducing Primary Sources,” a
professional development tool for K-12 educators, to the media specialists as a
part of a presentation on PROPEL, a six-workshop series being offered in
Western North Carolina. Dr. Beth Coulter,
Western Carolina University, Wendy Fusco,
Montreat College, Jodi Huggins, Brevard College, and Anne Marie Walter, Mars
Hill College, presented an overview of the PROPEL series with a focus on
student ready activities for media specialists to share with their teachers.
More information about PROPEL is available at www.aamprogram.org and at www.aamlearning.org.
California University of Pennsylvania
AAM
Workshops
Seven teachers from Ave Maria Catholic School attended their
second workshop in a series of six scheduled AAM
Basic Skills workshops. The workshops
were delivered on-site at the school by Byron Holdiman.
Veterans Oral Histories Project at California
University
of Pennsylvania
AAM
staff members have been busy this month expanding access to veterans’ oral
histories. Twelve new oral histories
have been added to the AAM
Web site, bringing the total number of Internet accessible oral histories to
62. In addition, six new oral histories
have been digitized and are being readied for Web site access. Administrative Assistant Donna Hoak has taken
the next step to making the oral histories accessible to persons with hearing
disabilities by transcribing eight oral histories, six of which have been added
to the Web site. This is a tedious task
as each hour of recorded oral history requires approximately eight hours of
transcription time. AAM
staff has also partnered with the Department of History and Political Science
to create a themed collection of oral histories centered on local veterans who
were affiliated with the Tuskegee Airmen.
This project is in the preliminary stages.
Presentations
Byron Holdiman gave a presentation entitled “The Adventure
Begins: Digital Resources at the Library of Congress” to members of the
Pennsylvania Library Association at a workshop in Harrisburg. The workshop, “Digitization: Here, There,
Everywhere,” was partially funded with Federal Services and Technology funds
administered by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries and was attended by
librarians from across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
AAM
in California
University
Classrooms
AAM
Director Michael Brna facilitated a working session for 18 California
University
freshmen students in an Honors Information
Literacy class at the University’s Manderino Library. The working session focused on literature and
Library of Congress electronic resources.
Prior to the class, the students contributed to a list of books they had
chosen for a classroom assignment. The
class faculty sponsor, Ms. Marsha Nolf, then forwarded the list to AAM
staff members, who researched the Library’s Web site and compiled a list of
resources related to some aspect of each book.
After an introductory session to the students about the LOC Web site,
the list of resources was distributed to them and they were allowed time to
view the related resources. The review
was followed by a group discussion about the selected books and the relevance
of the selected resources.
Other
Byron Holdiman and Donna Hoak prepared and exhibited two
themed displays of prints and photographs in Manderino Library at California
University’s
display case located in a prominent position on the library’s first floor. Byron and Donna selected prints and
photographs from the LOC Web site for two different themes, the first being
Veterans Day and the second being the holiday season. Each display consisted of 12 framed prints
and photographs with a placard naming the resource locator. The displays were alternated with the veterans
theme featured during the first two weeks of the month and the holiday theme
showcased during the last two weeks of the month.
Michael Brna gave a presentation about AAM
and the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program to the College
of Education
and Human Services Advisory Board, which consists of school district
superintendents, principals and board members, along with university faculty,
administrators and staff.
CUP’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://www.cup.edu/education/aam.
Waynesburg College
WC’s Fall Institute, “WebQuesting at the Library of Congress,”
was a great success. Teachers had the option of working in WC computer labs on
campus or taking the class online, via WebCT. Topics ranged from cartooning to
careers and Pearl Harbor
to September 11. The workshop concluded on November 14 with a presentation of
the new teacher-created Web pages. Each WebQuest was designed to lead students
on a learning adventure analyzing and synthesizing information collected from
the Library’s primary source documents. While the number of teachers involved
was small, the quality of the WebQuests they produced was exciting. Check them
out at: http://aam.waynesburg.edu/spotlight.html.
WC AAM
staff also conducted two presentations for education faculty and students in
September. One was for student teachers in the WC secondary education program
and the other was for Social Studies Methods in the Elementary Classroom. These
participants, new to the AAM/TPS
program, were given materials describing the services available to teachers and
student teachers and reminding them to take advantage of LOC and AAM/TPS.
Coincidentally, WC Yellow Jacket reporter,
Kristen Corbett, “got the scoop” and was the first local publication to
announce the TPS program. Read the article at: http://aam.waynesburg.edu/webquests/yellowjacket.
WC AAM
participated in the September 2006 Directors Meeting and look forward to a
smooth transition from AAM
to TPS. Karin Hedberg
at AAM
and Elizabeth Ridgway,
Vivian Awumey
and George Daves
from the Library deserve a hearty “Thank You” for getting the transition off to
a great start!
An on-campus workshop called “Primarily Poetry: Sources for
Historic Evaluation,” was held with high school language arts teachers in
conjunction with the WC admissions department Creative Writing workshop program
for middle and high school students. This workshop focused on the use of
primary sources to enhance the historical and cultural contexts in which a work
of poetry was written.
In addition, Vivian Awumey
visited WC on November 27th. The staff hosted a luncheon with past participants
of WC AAM
workshops, providing an opportunity to share their experiences with Vivian
directly. Afterward, the Vivian discussed upcoming changes with the staff.
Waynesburg’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aam.waynesburg.edu.
Northern
Virginia Schools Partnership
To date, the Northern Virginia
partnership has served over 4,614 teachers from more than 100 schools in the
four participating school districts through their various professional development
offerings. Participants have been populating the Primary Source Learning
Experiences Collection with primary source-based learning activities rooted in
best instructional practices. Visit the Collection at www.PrimarySourceLearning.org.
Several participants and staff members presented at the
Virginia Social Studies Educators conference in October in Richmond.
There were eight presentations in all which showcased learning experiences
inspired by participation in the Learn with Primary Sources workshop series.
AAMNVA
launched its Teacher Research Action Course this fall. Twenty Northern
Virginia educators are participating in a
graduate level three-credit course designed for Ambassadors who are new to
teacher research and those who would like structured guidance through the
teacher research process. This graduate course will lead researchers through
the research process towards the final product of publishable research paper
and public presentations.
Northern Virginia’s
AAM
program Web site is located at: http://www.aamnva.org/.
Online
Education
AAM
Home
School
Labs Ending
The AAM
Home School Program has offered open computer labs at Western
North Carolina colleges and community colleges
since February 2002. These labs have provided a unique piloting ground for the AAM
Online Education lessons. During the past five years, more than 1,400 home
school educators and students have attended these labs and completed the online
lessons developed by the AAM
Online Education staff. During the past year these lessons have been used by
online students and educators in all 50 states and 10 countries. Thank you to
the participating colleges for providing use of the computer labs and allowing
home school students and educators on their campus. Staff would also like to
thank the AAM
Home School Computer Lab Assistants for their feedback to development team as
the home school students and educators completed the online lessons.
WNC
Colleges with AAM
Home
School
Labs
Asheville
Buncombe
Technical
Community College
– Main Campus
Asheville
Buncombe
Technical
Community College
– Enka Campus
Blue
Ridge Community
College
Brevard
College
Haywood
Community College
Isothermal
Community College
– Main Campus
Isothermal
Community College
– Columbus
Campus
Mars
Hill
College
Mayland
Community College
– Burnsville
Campus
Montreat
College
Tri-County
Community College
– Andrews Campus
AAM
Home
School
Computer Lab Assistants
Ava
Williams, AB Technical
Community College,
Main Campus
Margarit
Apostolova, Montreat
College
and AB Technical
Community College,
Enka Campus
Rachel Kane, Blue
Ridge Community
College
Zia
McConnell, Brevard
College
Juanita
Brady, Haywood
Community College
Cheryl
Lawter, Isothermal
Community College,
Main Campus and Columbus
Campus
Rhonda
Goldsmith, Mars
Hill
College
Bradley Boone, Mayland
Community College,
Burnsville
Campus
Lucy
Garrett-Outen, Tri-County
Community College,
Andrews Campus
Ed-U-Bits
Each month, the AAM
Online Education staff writes a short article on topics of interest for
educators who are using online resources as a part of their curriculum. These
articles are called Ed-U-Bits and are included with the monthly newsletters for
home school educators and public and private school educators. The November
Ed-U-Bit is Evaluating
Informational Materials from the Web. This Ed-U-Bit introduces the use and
variety of timelines available for students,
reviews the why and how of evaluating a Web site, and provides a student
ready practice for a basic evaluation for the younger learner or more detailed
evaluation for the older student.
The AAM
Online Education program Web sites are located at: http://www.aamhomeschool.org/
http://aamonline.org/.