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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.

This month’s newsletter features back-to-school lesson plans. For middle grades, there are lessons that will help you develop a safe and cooperative community where students successfully complete interactive lessons, engaging group activities, discussions, ans simulations. High-school lessons provide ideas and activities to help establish classroom expectations, tips for discussing controversial issues, and team building.

The newsletter also includes civic education news and opportunities for educators. Read Matt Damon’s speech given at the “Save Our Schools” teachers rally in July. Also, find an update on the new Common Core and Essential Standards from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

For students, there are two civics education competitions. The first is a scholarship for the United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) for high school juniors and seniors. The second is the First Freedom Student Competition, a national essay and video contest for high school students.

There are several great seminars for educators coming up in October: The Freedom Riders and the American Civil Rights Movement, Poverty and the Challenge of Equality in America, and Making Cents: Youth Innovation in a Troubled Economy,

In addition, there is information about grant awards and scholarships offered by the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies. These are available for pre-service and current social studies teachers. The deadline for these opportunities is December 31, 2011.

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

LEARN NC is now hiring an Executive Director. The official description follows:

Executive Director, LEARN NC
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Education
EPA Non-Faculty Position

The Executive Director will collaborate with the School of Education’s Director of Research and Professional Development for Outreach to provide vision, planning, and leadership and for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s B-12 outreach endeavors as well as manage all operations for LEARN NC.

Responsibilities include:

50% Operations and Project Management: Exercise creativity and initiative in designing strategies to increase effectiveness in operations continuously improving the quality of LEARN resources and services based on valid and reliable data; Maintain a system to ensure all LEARN NC resources are easily accessible, relevant, and current.

25% Personnel Management: Supervise the day-to-day activities of the LEARN NC staff and consultants and ensuring the integrity of the technical infrastructure and business processes. Promote the continuing professional development of the LEARN staff.

25% Outreach: Establish and maintain collaborative relationships with key educational partners across the state, including P-12 school and district personnel, higher education, and state agencies; Develop and implement curriculum and oversee the online professional development programs offered through e-Learning for Educators in line with state and national content standards. Make available to P-12 educators the results of current educational research; and remain current on the latest research on topics related to online learning and content delivery and communicate this knowledge to staff, faculty, and students

A graduate degree in education or related field is required. Successful experience in leadership position with excellent management supervisory and project management skills; exceptional interpersonal and team-building skills; and demonstrated success in using technology to facilitate student learning and professional development.

Click on the Direct Link URL at http://jobs.unc.edu/2501689 from any internet browser to apply for the position and attach the following; a letter of interest; a curriculum vitae; and a list of at least four references including their name, addresses, and telephone numbers/email addresses. Review of applications will begin on or after October 1, 2011. For more information, email Professor Cheryl Bolick, cbolick@email.unc.edu.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

The Outreach Center of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies is offering a free webinar for teachers, featuring educator-created resources and lessons plans for teaching about September 11 in 5th- through 12th-grade classrooms.

The one-hour webinar, entitled “Responding to the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 in the Classroom,” is scheduled for August 25th and will begin at 7 pm EDT. Presentations and discussions will take place entirely online, using an Elluminate virtual classroom. This platform runs through Java, and does not require any downloading of additional software.

For more information and to register, see the webinar description on the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies website.

On Thursday, June 16, UNC-TV will air the documentary “Learning with the World,” which visits classrooms across the state to see how students are learning about critical languages — Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and Russian.

LEARN NC has supported and helped produce North Carolina’s critical language program, creating online courses and digital language textbooks for the Department of Public Instruction.

The 26-minute documentary will air at 9:30 p.m. For more details, see Learning with the World on the UNC-TV website.

Big changes are afoot at LEARN NC as we pack up and move to our new physical location on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. During this transition, from June 9 to June 15, our offices will be closed.

But, as always, you can still find us on the web at www.learnnc.org!

The Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) is a program of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). This program is offering a professional development opportunity for middle and high school teachers from the United States to participate in a program aimed at globalizing U.S. classrooms. Travel destinations under this program include Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Morocco, and Ukraine.

Activities include:

• An online course designed specifically for US teachers aiming to globalize their classrooms;
• Two Global Education Symposiums in Washington, DC (pre- and post-travel); and
• An international fellowship through a two-week country visit upon successful completion of the online course.

Participants are selected through a national, open competition. Eligible applicants must be U.S. citizens and full-time secondary-level (middle or high school) teaching professionals with five or more years of classroom experience in disciplines including English as a Second Language, English Language or Literature, Social Studies, Mathematics, or Science.

Watch this video to hear teachers tell of their experiences in the programs.

The deadline for applications is June 15, 2011. For more information, download the application instructions (PDF) and apply at the IREX Application System page.

The North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, a program of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, is offering two free trainings this summer to any current middle or high school educator interested in teaching about local government.

2011 Local Government Training: What Does Local Government Do & How Do I Get My Students to Care?

June 27 & 28, 2011
Durham, NC

Every day, local government touches the lives of North Carolinians and provides the services essential for functional communities, growing businesses, and healthy families. It is local government that supplies water to our faucets, collects our trash, moves traffic through our downtowns, and cuts the grass in our parks and ball fields. It is also local government that delivers care and counseling to those facing difficult times and responds with qualified personnel to life’s emergencies.

Participants in this seminar will learn first-hand the role of local government in North Carolina and then explore pedagogical strategies for teaching young people about how local government in North Carolina works. Highlights of the training will include: meeting with elected and appointed local government officials, sharing dinner with the Assistant County Manager of Durham, and attending a Durham Bulls game! For more information and to register for this training, click here.

Challenges to Democracy

UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, Room 3301
July 11 – 13, 2011

Lee Hamilton said regarding American democracy, “Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving.” The Program in the Humanities & Human Values at UNC-Chapel Hill & the NC Civic Education Consortium are offering teachers the opportunity to analyze our democracy via a unique, three day exploration of the theme Challenges to Democracy.”

Through assorted lectures led by renowned professors and historians, participants will investigate the ways in which democracy has struggled and changed throughout various time periods. From scrutinizing a 1700s democracy that claimed “All men are created equal” while enslaving thousands of people, to discussing our democracy’s growing diversity, twenty participants will have a unique opportunity to examine our nation’s democratic principles through the lens of history and current events. Throughout the scholarly exploration of these topics, participants will also learn pedagogical strategies for teaching these issues in the middle and high school classroom.

To access the tentative agenda, click here. For additional information and registration details, click here. Registration for this free, three-day event is limited and based on a first-received basis, so sign up today!

It seems like September was only yesterday, but it’s suddenly May — which means we’ve reached the end of our year-long series on differentiated instruction. Through research-based articles by experts, classroom videos, slideshows of student work, interactive web conferences, and an online professional learning community, we’ve explored a variety of topics related to differentiation through the lenses of theory and practice.

The article series, Reaching Every Learner: Differentiating Instruction in Theory and Practice, will remain on the LEARN NC website, where readers can access the entire series or any one of the media-enhanced articles:

• Tiering to Avoid Tears: Developing Assignments That Address All Learners’ Needs
• Deaf Learners and Successful Cognitive Achievement
• Managing and Improving Behavior in Inclusive Educational Environments
• Who Cares? Using Real-World Perspectives to Engage Academically Gifted Learners
• Inclusion Strategies for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Inclusion in the 21st-Century Classroom: Differentiating with Technology
• Using Knowledge of Student Cognition to Differentiate Instruction
• The Power of Nonfiction: Using Informational Text to Support Literacy in Special Populations

Those who missed the web conferences, in which educators had a chance to bring their most pressing questions to the experts, can access the archived sessions.

And, as always, our landing page for differentiated instruction includes numerous additional resources, including many related to English language learners.

In closing, we’d like to extend our deep gratitude to the many people who made this project a tremendous success: the article authors who shared their extensive knowledge; the web conference presenters who responded thoughtfully to teachers’ questions; the teachers who let us film in their classrooms, shared student work, or participated in interviews; the web conference participants who spent time with us on Monday afternoons; and the PLC members who learned from each other throughout the entire year. We sincerely appreciate your participation.

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 first day of May was Holocaust Remembrance Day and the May newsletter from the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium provides lesson plans for eighth- and ninth-grade classes. The lessons are aligned to curriculum objectives of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and address the individual lives behind Holocaust statistics, the people that resisted the tyranny of the Nazi regime, the impact of anti-Semitic propaganda on the ultimate outcomes of the Holocaust, and more.

The newsletter also includes civic education news and opportunities for educators. The Consortium offers seminars and trainings throughout the year. In one seminar, teachers explore ways to encourage students to care about their local government, while another delves into the “Challenges of Democracy.” The third offering looks at the life and work of Mark Twain. K-8 public school teachers will also be interested in the NEA Foundation-Nickelodeon sponsored grants, with awards of up to $5,000. Applications for the “Big Help Grants” are due by June 1, 2011.

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

UNC-TV airs the final story in its series about critical languages in North Carolina with a feature on Japanese. This feature will focus on Japanese Language classes and students who have working to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross. The story will air as part of the nightly news magazine show North Carolina NOW on Wed, May 11, at 7:30pm.

Previous stories in the series featured Russian and Arabic language programs in North Carolina schools, including the work LEARN NC has completed with the Department of Public Instruction to produce a digital textbook for Arabic language instruction.