ERC Newsletter
Issue No. 146
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

 

 

 

 

PFI is gearing up for the first workshop of the 2007 season. We begin with a distance learning version of the Earth and Environmental Science for Middle and High School Teachers on February 24th. (Note that this date is two weeks later than that published in our Fall newsletter in order to allow completion of our registration upgrade.) Modeled on our popular summer workshop, the distance learning workshop covers the same basic information, but does so in an online, computer-based format. Participants meet at Brevard College on the 24th to receive basic instructions on the course format and website, identification and login information, and lessons, activities, and take-aways in hard copy. The course then runs for 8 weeks, with new postings each week, and ends on April 20th. Approximately 15 people are already registered for the course, but we are able to host up to 24. Register at our new website, www.pisgahforestinstitute.org .

 

The new registration and website appear to be working smoothly as we register the first wave of participants for both the distance learning and summer workshops. Registration for all workshops is now open. Participants should find the registration process to be a little easier than in the past, but the biggest changes are behind the scenes. With both the website and its registration pages upgraded, PFI staff members are able to better track numbers of participants in each workshop, more quickly respond to queries regarding the workshops, and store, retrieve, and manipulate workshop data. The new registration system is better integrated with the participant database, which improves our ability to manage the data.  In order to fully utilize the new website, Ryan McCormack, curriculum coordinator for PFI, is enrolled in an online tutorial for Dreamweaver, the website software. Kevin Fischer, operations manager for PFI, is enrolled in a course for Microsoft Access, the software we use to manage all our databases.

 

Kevin was also certified this past fall as a qualified compost professional by the Carolinas Composting Council.  He participated in the week-long Carolinas Composting Council’s Compost School held in Raleigh. PFI hopes to work with the faculty and administration of Brevard College to set up composting on our campus, and then use the information learned as a model for teaching a workshop on composting at other school campuses. Because minimizing environmental impact by composting of biodegradable wastes is a personal interest to both Kevin and Jennifer (as well as previous PFI employee Jessica Sharp), we hope to build a long-term, sustainable relationship with Brevard College and its cafeteria management company to create a workable system that can be demonstrated for other public and private schools.

 

With the beginning of a new semester at Brevard College, several new student interns have joined PFI. Austin Brodfuhrer, a junior majoring in Environmental Studies, worked during the fall semester and will stay for the spring semester as well. With a special interest in photography, he has already worked to catalogue digital images from last summer’s workshops and acquire more. He will continue to use his photographic skills to assist us in creating materials for marketing, advertising, notebooks, and general office functions.  Hayley Lawrimore, a senior in Environmental Studies, joined us this spring. Because her interest is in environmental education, she will be involved in most every aspect of workshop preparation, from preparing lessons and activities to locating supplies and take-aways. Ryan Fiffick, a freshman, has a special interest in astronomy and will be working to develop an Astronomy workshop for the fall of 2007. Devin Gentry, a senior majoring in Environmental Studies with a minor in Geology, will be focusing on the geological concepts of each workshop. We are excited about working with all these Brevard College students, who we hope will be as productive and helpful as those student interns who came before them.

 

PFI's website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.

 

 

 

KceeI is anxiously awaiting the arrival of its 2007 brochures.  They are currently at the printers and should be in our hands by the end of this month.  We hope to increase the amount of brochures that we mail this year in the hopes of reaching a broader spectrum of teachers.  KceeI is also going to send about 200 of its brochures to each of the other institutes, Pisgah Forest Institute and the Pacific Forest Institute, and they will do the same.  This is a great way to cross-sell the programs that all three institutes offer.

 

Online registration began this week for two KceeI courses, Alternative Forest Products (March 10) and Amphibians and Reptiles (April 11).  A letter was sent out to all past participants informing them of this and letting them know that registration for the five other KceeI courses will open on February 5.  The five other courses are: Watershed Explorers (June 17-22), Astronomy (June 17-22), Forests and Society (July 15-20), Geology of Northeastern PA (July 22-27), and Exotic and Invasive Species (July 22-25).  KceeI lets past participants have priority to early registration before the brochure is released.  We feel that this is a great way for word to spread about our courses.  We also send multiple copies of the brochure to each past participant in hopes that they will be passed around to other teachers in their schools.  

 

KceeI’s current priorities are preparing for the 2007 courses.  This includes locking in facilitators, scheduling campus resources, working with food service, ordering materials, and reserving buses for field trips.  KceeI has also been busy exploring different avenues for the continued success of the program.  A number of scenarios have been developed and are being explored as potential ways to support the restructuring of the program.  KceeI continues to remain hopeful and confident in the future of the institute. 

 

On Tuesday, January 9, a session of the Environmental Forum - Community Connections to Our Watershed program was held at Keystone College.  There were almost 100 high school students that participated in this event.  Three different sessions were organized throughout campus and three groups of about 30 each rotated among them.  At the Water Resource Center, Tim Eichner, Assistant Director of KceeI, held a session on GPS applications.  Dr. Robert Cook, Keystone College Professor and hydrogeologist, held a session on well-water and Angela Lambert, DCNR Environmental Education Specialist at the Lackawanna State Park, conducted the other session on acid mine drainage. 

 

Nora Dillon, Operations Coordinator for KceeI, continues to research new educational materials for the courses.  One new resource that KceeI is excited to offer the 2007 Forests and Society course is a book called Breaking New Ground.  It is an autobiography of Gifford Pinchot, the father of forestry in America.  This book will be an excellent accompaniment with the tour of Grey Towers, home of Gifford Pinchot, which is part of the field trip for this course. 

 

Just a reminder…

 

 

KceeI’s website is located at www.KceeI.keystone.edu 

 

 

 

 

Pacific Forest Institute

 

We held a December 11th staff meeting at William Jessup University (WJU) that also included field representative Brian Jensen of Congressman Doolittle’s office; Lisa Perry California Forest Product’s Commission (CFPC) and WJU Vice President Kay Llovio.

 

The meeting included the following important issues:

 

  • Review of the 2006 programs with an agreement that the sessions had gone very well. At the same time we will make some adjustments based on the good ideas from our ERC retreat and “lessons-learned” at each of the two summer sessions.
  • Key elements to improve the PFI marketing plan. Basic to this will be the assistance by Lisa Perry through Talk About Trees (TAT). This CFPC sponsored program is provided to classrooms throughout California and will provide excellent contacts to many teachers by enclosure of PFI brochures with the TAT information
  • Review of the three one-day Saturday sessions that will be provided at WJU in February and March.
  • Finalization of our two summer sessions; June 24-29 and July 15-20, 2007.
  • The possibility that one, or two nights/days of the program will be at Lake Tahoe.
  • The potential of obtaining a keynote speaker for the first day of each session.
  • The final details for the 2007 PFI brochures.
  • Final review of the 2007 budget and narratives.

 

Now, PFI staff will be working on preparation for the 2007 programs that promise to be outstanding.

 

For updated information on the Pacific Forest Institute, please visit our website at:

http://www.jessup.edu/academics/pacificforestinstitute.

 

 

 

 

Please visit www.ercbroadband.org for more information.

 

 

 

 

Western North Carolina

 

PROPEL Workshop Series

 

“Empower,” the fifth workshop in the PROPEL professional development series, provides school librarians and media specialist with the opportunity to collect primary sources around a specific topic to create a pathfinder and instructional activity with a classroom teacher.

 

The Empower workshop begins with the activity “Presidents as Expert Leaders.”  This activity serves as a model throughout the different components of the day.  The morning session of Empower consists of a discussion about pathfinders and their use with primary sources.  Participants then direct their attention to a review of the Big6 model to help plan a primary source-based activity using “Presidents as Expert Leaders” as the example.  Next, participants are guided through how to locate primary sources for a specific activity. 

 

In the afternoon session, participants create a pathfinder of primary source items that will be used to develop an activity that media specialist will collaborate on with a classroom teacher from their school.  Participants collect the primary source items in a MS Word document table that has the required fields of item name, credit line, collection, permanent URL, suggested instructional use, and a thumbnail image.  Participants also plan and begin creating an exhibit board for the last workshop of the series, Launch.  The exhibit board will display the printed copies of the primary sources collected for the pathfinder.  The boards will contain the instructional activity that is created as a summation of the pathfinder items.

 

“Launch,” the sixth and final session of the PROPEL workshop series, is a time of celebration.  PROPEL participants invite their principals and curriculum specialists to this “graduation” of sorts.  The school librarians and media specialist bring their completed exhibit boards and instructional activities.  The invited guests view the gallery of exhibits and the participants explain their collaborative instructional activities.  Keynote speaker, Gail Buckner, Director of Media Services and Instructional Technology for Buncombe County Schools, addresses the audience about changing the culture of learning in schools and school districts.  Using illustrated children’s literature to explain the point, she keeps the audience laughing while delivering a message of positive change, and that change begins in the place where all students are touched:  the school media center or library. 

 

At the completion of Launch, all participants are awarded 3.0 CEUs and certification as a Primary Source Specialist.  With this added level of expertise in the school, AAM hopes to demonstrate, through PROPEL, that:

 

  • School libraries and media centers are an extension of the classroom;
  • School librarians and media specialists are a vital link for teachers in curriculum integration; and
  • Teaching and learning become inquiry-based and constructive.

 

The PROPEL workshop series is being offered once again to Western North Carolina media specialists and school librarians for the spring semester.

 

 

Introducing Primary Sources – An Online Professional Development Tool

 

Introducing Primary Sources is completed and in the piloting stage.  Brian Bartlett, Montreat College’s AAM Program Technical Support Specialist, and Bonnie Jensen, AAM Online Education’s Instructional Designer, introduced the tool to the Launch workshop participants in the PROPEL series at Montreat College and Brevard College. They are pleased to report the positive response from the media specialists.

 

The lesson is now being piloted with educators and library professionals. This online lesson will provide media specialists a tool to use with classroom 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.

 

More information about PROPEL is available at www.aamprogram.org and at www.aamlearning.org.  Also, the Western North Carolina partner AAM program Web sites are:

 

http://www.mhc.edu/aamind/

http://aam.montreat.edu/

http://aam.wcu.edu

http://www.brevard.edu/aam/

 

 

Barat Education Foundation

 

Barat Foundation has been busy with workshops and project implementation.  Since the last update, several new projects have been launched, summarized below.

 

Abraham Lincoln & Me Activity Book (K-3)
Capture students' imaginations with this fun-filled, cross-discipline activity book that helps them learn about Abraham Lincoln and make connections between this famous president and themselves.

 

Presidential Portraits (4-6)
Engage students using digital photos. They'll learn some new and interesting facts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as well as themselves, when they consider what it means to be presidential.

 

 

 

 

Print Advertising Across the Centuries (6-12)
Advertisements showcase products and the latest technology while reflecting life and society as we know it, or wish it to be. Using illustrations and their own imaginations, students analyze and compare and contrast historical, contemporary, and hypothetical print advertisements of the future.

 

 

 

The Star Spangled Banner: The Story & the Song

(K-3, 4-6 )
Primary-source, multimedia presentations and hands-on, engaging coloring activities will help younger students to learn the lyrics to our national anthem while also broadening their understanding of key events in our nation's history.

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, Barat AAM staff have learned that online learning is not loved by teachers, but they do find it worthwhile when they stick with it.  Given their love of classroom learning, this is not unexpected, but it is a cultural issue that must be carefully considered as the program moves forward.  To date, about 1,000 teachers have dabbled in the online learning, and more than 300 teachers complete all requirements of their modules. 

 

The first five students have completed the entire Barat Program and received three Master’s Credits.  These teachers have learned how to use the LOC online resources and have completed significant projects with their students.  Their teacher plan and student work was submitted back to the Foundation, and staff are excited by what is happening in the classroom.

 

Barat staff are currently enhancing the workshops to meet the goals of the new Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program and preparing for a full compliment of workshops this summer. 

 

Barat’s AAM program Web site is located at:  www.americanmemory.org.

 

 

DePaul University

 

DePaul University transitioned to the TPS program in October.  The program is progressive and includes two levels of professional development:  a foundation level (minimum time commitment nine hours) and advanced level (time commitment 12 hours).  Any participant who completes both levels of training or has completed a minimum of 21 hours of professional development is eligible to apply for the Ambassador Program.  Participants in the Ambassador Program are provided a laptop for use during the program.  The participants keep the laptop upon completion of the program requirements. 

 

DePaul continues to reach out to schools for onsite professional development sessions.  Several schools from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) were added to the program and two suburban high school districts are working on dates to secure their participation in the program. 

 

Several syllabi were generated from the AAM Phase III faculty development program and are now on DePaul’s AAM/TPS Web site.  Student work from the faculty development program will be scanned for placement on the Web site. 

 

DePaul’s AAM program Web site is located at:  http://aam.depaul.edu/.

 

 

Fayetteville Technical Community College & Wingate University

 

December 18 marked the final in-class session for the 2006-07 Congressional Scholars (CS) of the Wingate University cohort.  The teachers will begin their mentor projects in the spring of 2007.  Each teacher will mentor at least one teacher in his/her school or district in order to pass along the information gleaned during the fall of 2006:  the use of primary resources in the classroom through the aid of American Memory and how to best employ technology in the curriculum and pedagogical techniques.  The CS instructors anticipate an effective and exciting semester of mentoring for the teachers in the cohort.

 

FTCC’s AAM program Web site is located at: http://www.faytechcc.edu/scholars/.

 

Wingate’s AAM program Web site is located at:

http://www.aamprogram.org/introduction/aam_partners_detail.aspx?id=9

 

 

Illinois State University

 

Things continue to go well for the AAM program at Illinois State University. The fall graduate level semester course entitled “Teaching with Primary Sources” was just completed. Participates join the many others who find the Library of Congress Web site a fantastic resource for teaching and learning.

 

The ISU-AAM staff is working on a joint project entitled “Forever Young: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation.” This traveling exhibit is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Project partners include ISU’s Milner Library, local public libraries, the ISU History Department, David Davis Mansion, and the local Children’s Discovery Museum. Staff will identify learning experiences and primary sources related to Lincoln’s journey and make them available from the ISU-AAM Web site.

 

ISU’s AAM program Web site is located at: http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/aam.

 

 

Loyola University

 

Loyola AAM staff have been quite busy these past few weeks with many changes, including the addition of new team members.  In November, Kris Maldre accepted the position as Assistant Director.  Mousumi Mukherjee joined the team in January and will be the partner’s Administrative Assistant.  

 

Kris and Mousumi are extraordinary additions to both the Loyola team and the program. 

Kris’ experiences range from a social sciences secondary teacher to outreach specialist in the academic and nonprofit arena.  She has also worked with teachers and students in primary source education at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.  She was a leader in “History Day” training and instruction as well.  Further, Loyola is excited about Kris’ considerable technology background and knowledge. 

 

Mousumi comes to the program with a background in English and comparative literature.  In addition to working with the program, Mousumi also teaches Hindi and Urdu classes part-time at Loyola University Chicago.  She also continues her own education with graduate courses in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program at Loyola.  Mousumi has much to offer the Loyola team and the program. 

 

Along with staff additions, further groundwork for the upcoming AAM/TPS transition is being laid.  Area maps, contact networks, resource projects, and instructional concept designs have been discussed and drawn up.  For example, one project Loyola is working on is a resource packet for teachers which will include Chicago-based primary sources from the Library of Congress Web site.  The packets will serve to help teachers who would like to search the LOC Web site for resources, but do not have the time to search.  As such, these resources will be excellent timesavers for teachers looking for primary source-based items to use in the classroom without delay.  This packet is only one of many projects in development with the Loyola program. On a similar line, Loyola’s TPS Strategic Plan is being finalized and should be approved very soon.

 

Loyola’s AAM Web site is located at: http://www.luc.edu/schools/education/aam/index.shtml

 

 

Metropolitan State College of Denver

 

Librarian Days 2007

 

On February 23 and 24, AAM-Colorado, in conjunction with the Auraria Library and the Denver Newspaper Agency, will host the third annual Librarian Days, “Educating the Digital Learner: 21st Century Learning, Literacy and Thinking.” This two-day event offers educators from across the state of Colorado the opportunity to learn about the Library of Congress’ American Memory Web site and instructional applications for using digital resources in the classroom.

 

Instructional professionals throughout Colorado are invited to attend a full day of presentations free of charge on Friday and bring a teacher of their choice. AAM-Colorado will provide a continental breakfast, lunch, and parking. Substitute reimbursement is also available to the first 100 educational teams. Senator Wayne Allard is tentatively scheduled to speak.

 

On Saturday, all educators are welcome to sign up for one or two half-day workshops also free of charge. There will be a drawing and raffle on both days. For the past two years, Librarian Days has been widely acclaimed and highly successful. Staff look forward to another exciting and informative event.

 

Colorado Council for the Social Studies

 

Dr. Laura McCall, MSCD Professor of History, Susan Joseph, Visiting Professor of Education, and AAM-Colorado Director Peggy O’Neill-Jones are scheduled to present “Discovering, Inquiring and Applying Digitized Primary Resources in the Classroom” at the Colorado Council for the Social Studies conference on March 9 at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver.

 

Rocky Mountain PBS Presents “Teaching with Media and Primary Sources” Workshops

 

AAM-Colorado will team up with Rocky Mountain PBS to present three free one-day workshops designed to introduce the LOC American Memory Web site and the Rocky Mount PBS TeacherLine to all K-12 Colorado educators. Analyzing primary sources such as text, documents, images, audio and video, and using secondary source video from Rocky Mountain PBS will be demonstrated and discussed. The workshops will be held on January 23, February 13, and February 27.

 

Partnership with Jefferson County School District

 

AAM-Colorado and Jefferson County School District, the largest district in the state, plan to implement a program “to improve teachers’ appreciation for and knowledge of traditional American history through intensive, ongoing professional development” after the district received a three-year, $950,198 Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Read more at http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/aamco_twv3062106.shtml.

 

AAM-Colorado Fellows

 

AAM-Colorado Fellows continue their activities on behalf of the program. Michelle Pearson hosted a special on-location AAM-Colorado Workshop for Adams District 12 in November and will make a presentation on “Social Networking,” as well as teach a workshop called “Lincoln’s Letters” during the upcoming Librarian Days Event in February; Donna Levene taught a Workshop for Loveland’s Thompson School District and will present the “Library of Congress American Memory” at Librarian Days; Mary Johnson will host the “Historic Newspaper Project” during Friday’s Librarian Days presentations and hold a workshop on “Mastering American Memory…and More” on Saturday; and Cindy Stout is busy preparing our collaboration with the Jefferson County School District’s Teaching American History Grant project partnership.

 

Spring Workshops Begin

 

Starting mid-January AAM-Colorado American Memory Workshops begin for the spring semester. All Colorado K-12 instructional professionals are invited to register now for face-to-face or online workshop series free of charge.

 

MSCD’s AAM program Web site is located at: http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu.

 

 

Online Education

 

AAM Online Education Office – Year in Review

 

During 2006, the AAM Online Education office has created and piloted two new lessons, “Benjamin Franklin: Writer, Inventor, & Statesman” and “Maps In Our Lives” in the home school computer labs. These lessons are centered on the Library of Congress exhibits by the same titles. Parents and students in the AAM home school labs learned about these topics and presented their findings in PhotoStory, a free movie maker program from Microsoft. These lessons are in the process of being placed on the AAM Home School and AAM Online Education Web sites.

 

A second major accomplishment during 2006 has been the participation with the Western North Carolina AAM partners in the PROPEL workshop series. The AAM Online Education office created “Introducing Primary Sources,” an online lesson for the media specialists participating in PROPEL to share with the faculty at their schools. Ten AAM partners contributed content of this lesson, and Brian Bartlett, Montreat College AAM Program, and Oran Mosteller, Western Carolina University AAM Program, worked directly with the AAM Online Education staff to develop the lesson.

 

December 2006 marked the final AAM home school lab session at college campuses in Western North Carolina. The labs began in February 2002 with each college having an open computer lab one day each week for parents and students to work on lessons developed by the AAM Online Education staff. Since that time, the number participating colleges with open labs grew from eight to 11. During the past five years, more that 500 home school families attended the labs.

 

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. We call these articles Ed-U-Bits and include them with our monthly newsletters for home school educators and public and private school educators. The December Ed-U-Bit is Exhibitions, gives tips on locating exhibitions on the Web and suggestions for using them with students in the classroom. The Ed-U-Bit reviews the exhibition as a presentation format, and provides student ready documents for analyzing online exhibits, as well as planning for and creating their own exhibit.

 

The AAM Online Education program Web sites are located at: http://www.aamhomeschool.org/

http://aamonline.org/.

 

 

Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

 

SIUC AAM has recruited 22 in-service teachers for EDUC 550: An Adventure of the American Mind, the three-hour graduate level course based on the Library’s American Memory Web site.  Teachers complete the course by producing curricula based on digital primary sources, including lesson plans, multimedia productions, and Web-based instructional components.  Fourteen in-service teachers completed EDUC 550 in the fall semester, and will complete the requirements of the program by presenting workshops and seminars during the spring semester.  Refresher courses are planned for the summer semester.

 

Bill Bruns, Digital Preservationist for the SIUC AAM program, accepted a job at the SIUC Student Center, and began his duties there in October.  Best wishes to Bill in his new position.

 

AAM staff continue to make presentations to College of Education and Human Services classes at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.  At the  undergraduate level, pre-service teachers express great enthusiasm about the digital primary sources at the Library of Congress and American Memory.  They also the Learning Page can serve as a valuable resource in their course work. 

 

SIU-C’s AAM program Web site is located at: http://aam.siu.edu/.

 

 

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville

 

SIUE AAM presented four seminars in fall for the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program.  In order to keep the communication open and connectivity in designing their first learning experience that was due early December, there were assignments for discussion board postings and replies within BlackBoard that were quite successful for communicating and sharing of ideas and offering feedback.  The MAT students will be implementing their first lesson early this spring and turning in another lesson using the LOC resources that will be implemented by May 2007.

 

Workshops were delivered to middle and high school teachers from the Highland School District in Illinois.  A total of 52 teachers participated in two sessions.  Workshops scheduled for January and February include the Madison County Regional Office of Education (ROE) for K-5 teachers,  Lewis & Clark Junior High School in Woodriver, and Illini Middle School in Jerseyville.

 

Presentations, presentations, presentations!  There have been seven course presentations given to pre-service and in-service students currently enrolled in a social studies methods course.  A presentation was also given to four visiting faculty from University of Ibadan, Nigeria, on the SIUE campus in October and December of 2006.

 

SIU-E’s AAM program Web site is located at: http://www.siue.edu/education/aam.

 

 

Waynesburg College

 

Beginning February 1, the Waynesburg College AAM/TPS staff will offer Teaming Up with Primary Sources. Participants of this five-week workshop will form cooperative teams within their schools to create cross-curricular learning units that include a history, social studies, or English project and at least one from another subject area. Each team will develop critical thinking and analysis activities that support individual classroom objectives. Teaming Up will conclude on March 1st with a trip to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Participants will be treated to a customized tour of the Library.

 

Kristen Shaw, 11th grade language arts teacher at Trinity High School, recently put skills she learned in WC AAM workshops to work. Kristen’s students used Library primary sources to investigate turn-of-the-century immigration and lifestyles depicted in Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Students completed audio/visual presentations incorporating historic information and LOC primary sources.

 

Creative Writing Workshop 2006 at WC’s main campus, led by poet Susan Wooldridge and WC AAM/TPS staff, provided teachers and students the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities focused on poetry. Teachers investigated primary source sets, analyzing and interpreting the information as they drew conclusions about the historic time period each set represented.

 

Frank Hunter, history teacher at West Greene High School, established a history club to gather oral histories from local veterans. Nancy Wrick and Sue Wise continue to provide support to a dozen students as they investigate LOC primary sources in the quest to better understand American military history.

 

 
 


Waynesburg’s AAM program Web site is located at: http://aam.waynesburg.edu.