Archives: January, 2008

World View is offering two new online courses to North Carolina educators through LEARN NC: “Globalization: An Introduction for Principals and Other School Leaders” and “Globalization: An Introduction for K-12 Teachers.” These courses immerse educators from all leadership roles and disciplines in an intensive exploration of the rapid global changes in government, economics, environment and health, culture, and technology impacting their schools and communities, our country, and the planet.

An online version of World View’s week-long on-campus “Global Education Leaders Program,” these six-week courses require participants to read, discuss, and reflect on the most important issues facing America and the world today. The courses will introduce educators to university and other resources for continued learning of global issues. As a final project, each participant will present an Action Plan for their classroom, school, or school system to support the development of globally competitive graduates. Four CEU credits are offered for successful completion of the course.

Spaces are limited, so please register early.

Whenever we watch teachers use the LEARN NC website — at workshops or in formal usability studies — we find that our search tool confuses them because it doesn’t work like Google’s (or like almost any other search tool on the web). While Google looks for sites matching all the words in your search query, ours matches any of the words you type — which can result in a lot of irrelevant search results.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve fixed this problem: Our search now matches all of the words you search for, so that a search for “English language learners” doesn’t find every page of our website with the word “learners” in it. The top hits will usually be the same as before, and so while this is a fairly drastic change to the functionality of our website, you may not actually notice a difference. But if you do notice, we think you’ll see an improvement.

As always, please tell us what you think! Leave a comment here, or drop us a line.

“Not Just a Scenic Road: The Blue Ridge Parkway and Its History” is a week-long Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and part of the NEH’s We the People initiatives. The workshop is hosted by Appalachian State University, which is located less than five miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway in Boone, North Carolina. Participants will have a chance to experience the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains while learning about the history behind the most visited National Park Service site. Based on the campus of Appalachian State University, participants will spend mornings in combination lecture and discussions along with hands-on sessions working with a variety of primary sources. Participants will also collect materials and ideas for use in developing curriculum projects. Each afternoon, the workshop members will go on field trips to explore many of the cultural resources along the Parkway. Evenings will be free to explore the Appalachian Mountain town of Boone, work in the state of the art library, or relax at one of the many local coffee shops while enjoying some traditional Appalachian music. Throughout the week, participants will have many chances to interact with faculty who are experts on the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the region of Appalachia as well as meet rangers and managers from the National Park Service. Read about this exciting opportunity on their web page.

“Not Just a Scenic Road: The Blue Ridge Parkway ad Its History” is one of twenty Landmarks of American History teacher workshops that will be held this summer at historic and cultural sites across the United States. The workshops are part of the Endowment’s We the People initiative to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. More than 2,000 teachers from across the United States will participate in these workshops. All teachers selected to participate will receive a stipend of $500. Additional money for travel is available on a case-by-cases basis. Public, private, and home school K–12 educators may apply. Applications are due by March 17, 2008. Contact: Dr. Neva J. Specht, BRP NEH, Department of history, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608. E-mail: brpasu@appstate.edu.

LEARN NC is seeking teachers to write innovative lesson plans that use multimedia to teach world history, culture, literature, and religion. We’ll provide the multimedia; you provide the teaching ideas, and we’ll pay you for your time.

Over the past two years we have built a collection of photographs and audio recordings from various countries, including Vietnam, Nepal, Bali, Turkey, Ecuador, Mexico, Thailand, and Malaysia. We’ve build slideshows around some of these photographs, including a retelling of the Ramayana.

To make these resources more useful to teachers, we want to build instructional resources that integrate them into North Carolina’s curriculum. We’re looking for detailed instructional plans that make innovative and meaningful use of the media to promote students’ understanding of other cultures. The plans can address any curriculum area, not just social studies. (Science, anyone?)

If you’re interested, please contact us and tell us a little about yourself, including your teaching experience and how you use multimedia in the classroom now. If you have ideas for using our media resources or thoughts about global education, share that with us as well. If we accept your application, we’ll ask you to complete the lesson plans by summer, and we’ll pay $500 for each completed lesson plan.

LEARN NC, in collaboration with the NC Virtual Public School (NCVPS), is developing a series of online Chinese language courses supported by a grant received by the NC Department of Public Instruction. The first course was successfully offered on a pilot basis in fall 2007 through NCVPS.

Coaches have been found for these courses. Thanks to all who applied!

Chinese language speakers are needed to serve as conversation coaches for high school students enrolled in the Online Mandarin Chinese Level I course for the second pilot, which begins in mid-January and concludes in late May or early June.

Coaches are expected:

• To spend approximately 1.5 hours per week, during (8 a.m.-3 p.m. Eastern) or outside of school hours, conducting online conversations with 4-5 students for a period of one semester or 18 weeks. Skype technology will be used for the conversation sessions.
• To listen and provide feedback to students so that they are actively using Chinese and become comfortable with spoken communication in order to work and converse with other Chinese speakers (fellow students, instructors, native speakers, etc.).
• To answer questions related to assignments and help students review.
• To provide information weekly to the instructor about the students’ progress.
• To implement the weekly meetings based on the instructor’s plan and directions. (Coaches are not responsible for the design of weekly meetings.)

Coaches should be fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Some background in teaching or tutoring is desirable.

The course will begin January 22, 2008 and will end June 4, 2008. During the pilot phase of course development, conversation coaches will be paid and will be expected to attend an online training session before classes begin.

If you are interested in serving as a conversation coach, please contact

Dr. Bobby Hobgood
LEARN NC
Work: 919-962-8944
bhobgood@learnnc.org

Nomination Period for the Class of 2010 Kenan Fellows Now Open

Applications Deadline: January 24th, 2008

The Kenan Fellows Program is an innovative model to promote teacher leadership, address teacher retention and advance K-12 science, technology and mathematics education. Kenan Fellows are public school teachers selected through a competitive process to participate in a prestigious two-year fellowship, all while remaining active in the classroom.

During these two years, Kenan Fellows work in partnership with distinguished scientists, university faculty, and the NC Department of Public Instruction, developing curriculum and teaching resources that bring cutting-edge research into the hands of students. Kenan Fellows are scientists, inventors, authors and leaders in our classrooms bringing curriculum to life!

Potential Kenan Fellows will be nominated online this year. School administrators, community leaders, parents of students, and former Kenan Fellows may nominate candidates. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pisgah Forest Institute at Brevard College in Brevard, North Carolina is offering Distance Learning: Earth/Environmental Science for Middle and High School Teachers from February 16-April 14, 2008.

This free on-line distance learning workshop will run for 8 weeks and is designed for traditional and non-traditional educators of grades 6-12. The workshop will focus on four general sections of earth and environmental science curriculum: geology, ecology, hydrology, and atmospheric conditions. Participants will be provided with background information, classroom presentations, lessons, and activities in these areas. This workshop will start with an orientation at Brevard College with the PFI staff. This course is geared to participants that are unable to travel to their week-long summer workshops. The workshop includes: online instruction, resource notebook, and many classroom takeaways!

Workshop participants are eligible to receive up to 4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits based on 40 contact hours, as well as Criteria III credit in the North Carolina Environmental Educator’s (NCEE) Certification Program. Three semester hours of undergraduate college credit is available through Brevard College. (This is a great way for lateral entry teachers to receive science credits!)

For more information and to pre-register, go to their website at http://www.pisgahforestinstitute.org and send e-mail to pfi@brevard.edu or call (828) 884-8229 with your questions.