Dr. Chad Oliver,
the Gordon Pinchot Professor of Forestry and
Environmental Studies at
Dr. Oliver also
brought one of his graduate students, Aaron Hohl, who
is developing a variation of
PFI will be
cooperating with the Yale Department of Forestry and Environmental Studies in
the development of instructional materials and techniques that utilize forestry
information to help K-12 students better understand and appreciate forest
ecology as well as natural resources. The staff of the
Institute bring to the table a wealth of practical teacher training
experience as well as a proven track record of getting their information and
methodology into classrooms at every grade level.
The new
Institute t-shirt, which incorporates logos designed by PFI Operations
Coordinator Heather Cosby and is produced by the Cradle of Forestry in America
Interpretive Association, have proven to be well received by the 2004 workshop
participants. The extent of initial purchases have
prompted another production run. All profits from the sale of these garments
benefit the Interpretive Association, whose Executive
Director and PFI Advisory Board Vice Chairperson
PFI’s website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
KceeI has
just concluded its second workshop – “Watershed Concepts for Teachers, Grades
K-6”. The workshop commenced on Sunday,
July 25th with 9 participants from the
The week began
on Monday with Howard Jennings, Director of KceeI and
Keystone College Professor, leading a group discussion about Global Water
Issues. Angela Lambert,
Tuesday included
a session on biological monitoring and identification of macroinvertebrates
found in Ackerly Creek with Angela Lambert. Participants were introduced to continuous
stream monitoring techniques occurring on Keystone’s campus with Dr. Robert
Cook, Assistant Professor, Coordinator of Water
Resource Management Program at
On Wednesday,
the group went on a traveling “Watershed Tour” to various sites in the local
area with water-related issues. These
included Little Rocky Glen, a property in the midst of being acquired by
Countryside Conservancy, a local land-trust.
Dr. Robert Cook and Mary Feeley, Executive
Director of Countryside Conservancy provided information on the geological
history of the glen and history of the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed. The group then visited the Lithia Valley
Water Company where Bob Baker spoke on the history of the Lithia Valley Water
Company and modern day issues of bottled water.
The group went on to visit Lazy Brook Park where Shane Kleiner, Director of the Wyoming County Conservation District,
discussed historical and cultural issues such as logging and flooding, as well
as modern day streambank improvement projects. The group enjoyed lunch at the
The presenters
on Thursday included Dr. Robert Cook, Assistant Professor, Coordinator of the
Water Resource Management Program at Keystone College; Rich Gulyas,
Bradford
County Conservation District; Kelly Pollock, Nescopeck State Park; Shane Kleiner, Wyoming County Conservation District; and Dr.
Chris Crane. Topics covered were an
introduction to groundwater, wetlands (soils, vegetation, and hydrology),
watershed microscopy, and children’s literature. The participants compared planktons from the
State Park and
The Watershed
Concepts workshop concluded on Friday, July 30th with an
interpretive hike on Keystone’s Water Discovery Trail, and a virtual tour of
the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Atlas. After lunch, collaborative presentations of
group projects were given by the workshop participants.
In conclusion, a
post-test was given to compare before and after results. Participants received a CD-ROM with photos of
the week’s experiences, a resource notebook, and a travel bag filled with
educational materials. KceeI will soon be in the process of analyzing the
participant’s workshop evaluations and planning for future workshops.
KceeI’s website is www.kceei.keystone.edu.
In addition to the first workshop series of the summer entitled “Web
Development…WebQuests Using Primary Sources,” Brevard
AAM has also completed a second workshop series entitled “Visual
Literacy.” This 12-hour workshop
provided teachers with many ways to use LOC primary source images to promote
communication and critical analysis skills with their students. Evaluations following the workshop indicated
a high level of interest in this approach to teaching literacy and an eagerness
to implement the many ideas in the upcoming school year.
The final workshop series entitled “Using Primary Sources in the K-12
Classroom” was a 30-hour week-long event. To begin the workshop series,
teachers were introduced to the LOC website and American Memory primary sources
through a video conference with the LOC.
Following the introduction, teachers moved through several mini
workshops throughout the week that focused on photo, document, audio, video,
and map analysis techniques. At the end
of the week, teachers participated in a “Make It and Take It” workshop and also
learned to create online scavenger hunts focusing on LOC primary sources and
using Dreamweaver.
All participants
in Brevard AAM’s Summer Institute workshops received
a
As the new
school year approaches, Brevard AAM has scheduled four workshops for the month
of August with schools in its service area and four more throughout the fall semester. Recruitment is underway with the remaining
schools which have yet to receive their recruitment materials.
Brevard’s AAM
program website is located at: http://www.brevard.edu/aam/
Throughout the
months of June and July, the Mars Hill College AAM staff members Dr. Ed Shearin
and AnneMarie Walter have been conducting digital
storytelling workshops. Both Level I and
Level II teachers are learning techniques and producing digital stories that
they can use in their classroom.
Level I
workshops focus on using digital cameras, taking better photographs,
storyboarding, and strategies for using digital storytelling to enhance the
writing process across the curriculum.
Level II workshops add digital video to the process. In each workshop, teachers use images and
music from American Memory along with photos and video that they have taken to create
digital stories.
The digital
stories will be used in a variety of ways.
Teachers have created introductions to books that their students will
read, follow-up learning units to extend fiction into their lives, and examples
of work that their students will do. One
teacher created a story that her first graders will use in a center.
Glenna Rayburn,
a fifth grade teacher at Bethel Elementary School, will follow up the reading
of Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
with a digital story that explores what migrant workers do and how they
live. Glenna uses American Memory photographs
from the 1930s to explain the westward migration during the Dust Bowl and
juxtaposes them with video she took of farm workers in our community.
Glenna and
Jennifer Scruggs of Hominy Valley Elementary also produced a digital story told
entirely with LOC photographs from the American Memory Collection, “
These are just a
few examples of the fine work that our teachers are producing.
AnneMarie and Ed are
developing protocols to meet with principals in the service area to bring
Digital Storytelling to the schools.
This will be a "road show" workshop at the schools. Teachers will receive digital storytelling training
and then they will create a digital story for use in their classroom.
MHC digital
storytelling workshops are based on the National Staff Development Council
(NSDC) Standards for Staff Development (http://www.nsdc.org/index.cfm)
whose goal is that
"All teachers in all schools will experience high-quality
professional development as part of their daily work by 2007.” These standards were adopted by the NC State
Board of Education for use as guidelines to determine high-quality staff
development. By 2006, all professional
development for teachers in NC must meet the national standards. MHC Digital Storytelling meets these standards.
Mars Hill’s AAM
program website is located at: http://www.aam.mhc.edu/
The third Summer
Institute of the season was held July 20-22 on the
The Montreat
partner offered an additional six-hour workshop on July 13 for attendees
from the second Summer Institute. In this session, attendees created
stories using their own photos and information, incorporating them with at
least 50 percent of the story information coming from the LOC website.
There were seven attendees who left with completed (and great) stories.
On July 8, the
Montreat Partner hosted another LOC video conference, "Working with
Primary Sources" at the Black Mountain Campus of Montreat College.
Seventeen teachers attended the session.
Montreat’s AAM program website is located at: http://aam.montreat.edu/
WCU AAM staff
plan on a big year of workshops and traveling to schools. Staff members are
organizing offices and schedules to accommodate teachers’ needs. Under development is a master schedule of
schools in the area (the seven western-most counties of
The staff is also
currently updating the WCU AAM website to coordinate with the national AAM website
in appearance. The redesign nearing completion and can be viewed at http://aam.wcu.edu.
Dr.
SPECIAL NOTE
ON THE TELEPHONE HOTLINE
The AAM Hotline
is staffed by a variety of talented adults who have experiences with teaching,
computers, and Library of Congress primary sources. The hotline staff is also trained to respond
to teachers and get them the help they need as soon as possible. It is
recognized that many AAM teachers, especially Phase I teachers, will be naturally
inclined to call their AAM Partner for help; however, as Phase II approaches,
the numbers of teachers being served multiplies exponentially. Please consider promoting this service to the
workshop teachers as a valuable resource that can help save time and
frustration. There has been an increase
in the number of calls and satisfaction of help given. The majority of the
calls involve five-minute or less consultation and have all been addressed to
the satisfaction of the caller.
WCU’s AAM program website is located at: http://aam.wcu.edu/newaam/
Interviews for
the digital preservationist position are underway. The interviews are being conducted in a two-step
process: the actual interview and an
instructional demonstration which should bring the candidate’s essay to life
through audio or video. The second part
of the process is planned for July 28-30. The interview panel consists of a
group of four: the
Dr.
CUP’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.cup.edu/education/aam
The first Summer
Institute at
The Summer
Institute consisted of two separate but identical 12-hour workshops. The workshop agenda included the LOC
Introduction, Search Strategies, Primary Source Document Analysis, and Historic
Panoramic Maps. At the end of each
workshop, participants presented a curriculum-related primary document project
in the format of a PowerPoint slide show. The notes format in PowerPoint was
used to record source citations and list critical thinking questions that
teachers and students could use with each document. A project template gave participants more
time to focus on content and analysis rather than technology frills. Projects varied from Civil War photographs to
the supernatural and will soon be posted on the program website.
Evaluation
comments from Summer Institute participants included:
·
“Such
an interesting and enjoyable session! Non-threatening lab experiences for a
veteran teacher!”
·
“How
wonderful to make this information known to us.
You are so prepared and the binder of materials is wonderful to keep on
hand.”
·
“This
session got me thinking about how I can utilize these resources in my
classroom. The technical aides (having the PowerPoint template ready for us to
use) was great!”
·
“I’m
a big fan of letting my students build knowledge from what they already know.
Comparing the historic panoramic map to Waynesburg today will help facilitate
that process.”
·
“This
workshop was a joy to take! I didn’t
yawn, fall asleep or fidget…the day flew by and I learned so many things to
share with my students and fellow teachers.”
·
“I liked
that there was a good balance with freedom and structure. I also liked that there was plenty of lab
support/help.”
Waynesburg’s AAM
program website is located at: http://www.aamprogram.org/introduction/aam_partners_detail.aspx?id=25
Northern
AAM NVA has been
busy during the last month implementing its Summer Curriculum Institutes, which
were a great success. Elementary and secondary social studies teachers from
AAM NVA is also
in the process of planning out its programming for the 2004-2005 school year, and hopes to offer expanded programming to maximize
the impact of its resources. Substantial
work is being done on upgrading the AAM NVA website to support online
registration for professional development events, participant communication,
and a web-accessible database of SQL Connections and lesson plans using LOC
primary resources. The professional development staff is also developing an
online implementation-assessment form for teachers to use after they have tried
out their new LOC lesson plans.
Tri-County
Community College joins the AAM Home School Program
The AAM Home
School Partner will offer free computer classes for home school educators and 3rd
through 12th grade students in Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties
at the Andrews campus of
This brings the
total AAM Computer classes to 10 colleges in
Asheville-Buncombe
Technical Community College–Main Campus – Wednesdays
Asheville-Buncombe
Technical Community College–Enka Campus – Mondays
Blue
Ridge Community College – Tuesdays
Mars
Hill College – Mondays
Tri-County
Community College - Thursdays
The
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