Archives: April, 2008

A LEARN NC website development team headed by Director of Instructional Technology Phil Kaufman has received the 2008 21st Century Best Practice Distance Learning Award from the North Carolina Distance Learning Association (NCDLA).

The team, which also included LEARN NC Media and Web Librarian Lesley Richardson, Systems Designer Wade Minter, and Executive Director Melissa Thibault, won the award for developing The University of North Carolina Online website, the Internet gateway to the online courses and degree programs offered by the sixteen campuses of the University of North Carolina.

“LEARN NC played a critical role in the technical development and implementation of the sixteen-university online consortium,” said Kay Zimmerman, NCDLA Vice President and Awards Committee Chair. “Through the use of technology, The University of North Carolina Online is developing new and innovative solutions for distance learning in North Carolina.”

Given its robust Web experience in the field of education, LEARN NC was the natural choice of UNC’s General Administration to design the complex website, which was launched in the summer of 2007. LEARN NC’s website serves more than 25,000 teachers and students every day, delivering lesson plans, best education practices, and lesson content directly to schools in all of 115 North Carolina school systems, all 50 states, and 145 countries.

The LEARN NC development team accepted the award at the NCDLA’s Annual Conference, April 3, 2008, at the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center in New Bern.

The Pisgah Forest Institutes’s summer professional development workshops are filling up quickly. Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity! The free workshops are open to any traditional or non-traditional educator who works directly with K-12 students. Workshops are held on Brevard College campus in western North Carolina and participants stay in the campus dorms. A $50 deposit is required and will be returned on arrival to the workshop. Participants may choose a workshop in earth and environmental science, recycling and composting, forest invasives, or forest ecology. Visit the Pisgah Forest Institute website for more information and to register.

CHICLE, the Chapel Hill Institute for Cultural and Language Education, is pleased to offer a week of intensive Spanish instruction for Spanish teachers this summer. The class is scheduled for the weeks of June 23rd, July 7th, and August 4th in 2008. It meets from 9:30-4:30 Monday to Friday with a one-hour lunch break. The cost is $500. Taught only in Spanish, this immersion course attracts language teachers from around the state. If you or your school would like more information about it, please contact CHICLE at 919-933-0398. CEU credits are available for North Carolina students.

The Weyerhaeuser Corporation offers a Teacher on Summer Assignment (TOSA) program that allows North Carolina K-12 educators to gain first-hand knowledge of environmental issues and to experience real-world applications of concepts they teach in the classroom. Generally beginning the third week of June, the six-week assignments are held in various timberland and manufacturing facilities in Eastern North Carolina. Teachers are paid on an hourly basis and earn approximately $3,000. Lodging stipends are available for non-local, in-state teachers.

Teachers are required to work for the full six weeks of the program and attend all scheduled workshops. CEUs are available. They must create a lesson, activity, or curriculum piece for their classroom, make a presentation to the Weyerhaeuser team, do useful and valued work, and maintain a perfect safety record.

You may see current assignments on the North Carolina TOSA assignments page. For more information contact Linda Holton.