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The North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, a program of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, works with schools, governments, and community organizations to prepare North Carolina’s young people to be active, responsible citizens. Each month the Consortium delivers an email newsletter with news and opportunities for civic engagement.

The January newsletter highlights two lesson plans. For the middle grades, students will participate in a Socratic seminar as they learn about Martin Luther King, Jr. and how his legacy still resonates today. High School students will learn about African Americans and the war in Vietnam through political cartoons, an anti-war comic book, and a lesser known speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The newsletter also highlights current professional development opportunities for educators including conferences, seminars, and fellowship programs in civic education. In addition, there is information about the Third Annual First Amendment Cartoon Contest open for K-12 students nationwide.

To read the newsletter, visit the Consortium’s website. To receive the newsletter via email, contact Anita Buie.

Kathleen Lane, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education professor of special education, will present a series of professional development sessions for local K-12 educators during the spring. The five, once-a-month sessions — entitled Project Screen and Support — is offered at no charge to all K-12 teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and parents interested in learning more about proactive, systematic methods for students who might require additional assistance to experience success in school. The sessions will be held at the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence on Seawell School Road in Chapel Hill. Sessions are held one Tuesday evening per month from 5 p.m. to 7 pm. To register for one or more sessions, visit the CCEE registration page.

Happy New Year! We’re thrilled to announce that we are starting 2012 with a new Executive Director.

It is our great pleasure to welcome Dr. Steve Bronack as Executive Director of LEARN NC. Prior to joining LEARN NC, Dr. Bronack held faculty positions at Lehigh University, Appalachian State, and Clemson University. He also taught high school English in Caldwell County, North Carolina.

Dr. Bronack holds a B.S. and M.A. In Education from Appalachian State University, and a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from the University of Virginia. His scholarship regarding the use of virtual worlds, simulations, games, and augmented reality is helping to guide the development of new educational systems and methods of instruction. Steve brings a wealth of expertise and experience to LEARN NC.

We are delighted to have Steve join the LEARN NC team! I know you’ll be hearing from Steve soon as he leads LEARN NC in the development of innovative online resources for North Carolina educators!

Welcome Aboard, Steve!

The National Humanities Center offers professional development seminars for educators to improve teacher content knowledge, promote discussion-based instruction, and provide fresh material for students. The seminars are free for North Carolina K-12 teachers (use promotional code: NHC2012). Seminars are eligible for recertification credit. The spring 2012 schedule includes:

The Role of Medical Care in the Civil War: The hospital and the battlefield

Thursday, February 2, 2012 — 7:00-8:30PM, Leader — Margaret Humphreys, Josiah Charles Trent Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at Duke University; National Humanities Center Fellow

Art and the New Negro

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 or Tuesday, March 27, 2012 — 7:00-8:30PM, Leader — Richard J. Powell, the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art History at Duke University; National Humanities Center Fellow

Teaching Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield and Adolescent Rebellion

Thursday, April 12, 2012 — 7:00-8:30PM, Leader — Grace Elizabeth Hale, Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia and National Humanities Fellow

Nation, Race, and Genocide

Thursday, April 19, 2012 — 7:00-8:30PM, Leader — Jonathan Reynolds, Professor of History, Northern Kentucky University

Using Art in History and Literature Classes: What’s the Story? Parts 1 & 2

Tuesday, April 24 and Thursday, April 26, 2012 — 7:00-8:30PM, Leaders — Ashley Weinard and John Coffey, North Carolina Museum of Art

Spain and Its North American Empire in the Eighteenth Century: The Other Revolution

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 — 7:00-8:30PM, Leader Cynthia Radding, Gussenhoven Distinguished Professor of Latin American Studies, Professor of History & Director of Graduate Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and National Humanities Center Fellow

For detailed descriptions of the seminars and to register, visit the National Humanities Center website. Email Caryn Koplik, Assistant Director of Education Programs for special pricing.

NCCAT, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, is a recognized national leader in professional development, conducting interdisciplinary, content-specific seminars for educators in all fields and arenas. In celebration of twenty-five years of service, NCCAT is offering the best of their past enterprises in a new venue, the Legacy Seminars. These seminars are open to teachers in public or private schools and other educators including retirees, educators from other states and countries, and faculty from other educational organizations.

Registration is open for their first seminar, “Island People, Island Culture” that will run February 13-17, 2012 on Ocracoke Island. There participants will engage in experiential activities that explore history, culture, economy, and diverse environments of this North Carolina coastal village from the islanders’ perspective.

This 5-day/4-night seminar includes programming (at least 30 contact hours or 3.0 CEUs), meals (Monday dinner through Friday breakfast), and lodging (enjoy a private, single-occupancy room). The price for this seminar is $499.

Upcoming seminars include:

• “Salty Dogs and the Lore of the Sea” — April 9-13 in Ocracoke — $499
• “Appalachian Spring Wildflowers” — April 23-27 in Cullowhee — $449
• “U.S. Coast Guard: Guardians of the Sea” — May 7-11 in Ocaracoke — $499

To find out more about Legacy Seminars, visit NCCAT’s website. Contact them at registrar@nccat.org. or 828-293-5202.

We’re pleased to report that the Kenan Fellows Program has opened the application period for the Class of 2013. K-12 public school teachers from all NC school districts are eligible for fellowships. Applications are due by January 23, 2012.

About Kenan Fellows

The Kenan Fellows Programs offers a unique opportunity for North Carolina K-12 public school teachers from all disciplines to collaborate with research and industry professionals to integrate relevant science, technology, engineering, and math into classroom instruction. Fellows develop new, inquiry-based curriculum to share with other teachers and become part of a respected network of accomplished teachers who serve as leaders in their districts and across the state of North Carolina.

As part of their fellowship, Kenan Fellows participate in a five-week externship experience with a research mentor whose work is relevant to their academic content area. Fellows attend focused professional development designed to advance teacher leadership, model instructional best practices, and facilitate the strategic use of technology in the classroom. Fellows work individually and as groups on creative ways to incorporate concepts and insights gained during their externship into lessons for students and instructional resources for other educators. Fellows receive a stipend of $5,000 and a Lenovo laptop and tablet to support their work.

Instructional plans created by Kenan Fellows can be found on the LEARN NC website.

Nominate an innovative teacher or apply on the Kenan Fellows website.

The story of the first Thanksgiving has resonated with Americans since the holiday was first celebrated. But how much do you — and your students — really know about the Pilgrims who were present, or about the Wampanoag Indians? And what was the food really like?

The guide Teaching About Thanksgiving, by historian Kathy Walbert, compiles a wide variety of sources to ensure that your conversations about this American holiday are historically accurate, culturally sensitive, and situated in a broader historical context.

Find detailed descriptions of 17th-century clothing worn by Pilgrims and Wampanoag (hint: feather headdresses don’t appear at all), learn concrete strategies for identifying and avoiding biases in curriculum materials, and get recipes to make your classroom Thanksgiving feast both tasty and historically accurate.

Other resources offer ways to connect American Thanksgiving with similar celebrations from other world cultures — whether they’re harvest festivals, special holidays set aside to give thanks for prosperity, or holidays that center on feasting and family togetherness.

No matter what grade level you teach, the Teaching About Thanksgiving guide is a rich resource for making the holiday relevant, historically correct, and fun.

The North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, a program of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, works with schools, governments, and community organizations to prepare North Carolina’s young people to be active, responsible citizens. Each month the Consortium delivers an email newsletter with news and opportunities for civic engagement.

The November edition of the NC CEC newsletter provides links to civic education lesson plans for both middle and high school classrooms.

The newsletter also highlights current professional development opportunities for educators including workshops seminars, and awards in civic education. There is also an article from Education Week titled “Scholars Put Civics in Same Category as Literacy, Math: Research papers lay out obstacles, opportunities” by Jaclyn Zubrzycki.

To read the newsletter, visit the Consortium’s website. To receive the newsletter via email, contact Anita Buie.

Our sincerest thanks go out to everyone who made the 2011 LEARN NC fall conference such a successful event: The conference presenters who generously shared their time and expertise, the educators who logged in and contributed to lively discussions, and the tech support people who ensured that everything ran smoothly.

All participants who completed the conference survey will be entered into a drawing for a free professional development course. We’ll notify the winner within the next week.

Also within the week, all of the recorded conference sessions will be made available on the LEARN NC website. We’ll publicize the URL for the archived sessions via this blog and our newsletter.

Thanks again for your participation and support. We hope you’ll join us for future events!

We’re tying up the loose ends for the LEARN NC annual fall conference, and we hope you’re planning on joining us! The conference will take place entirely online, and you’ll be able to listen to the presenters, pose questions, and interact with other participants from any internet-connected computer. And, as always, the conference is entirely free!

This year’s impressive roster of presenters will cover a wide variety of topics relevant to educators at all levels and in all subject areas.

For more details and to access the conference URL, please see the conference website. We look forward to seeing you there!