On Monday, April 4, we’ll host the seventh in our year-long series of free web conferences about differentiated instruction. For this session, we’ll feature Dr. Silvana Watson and Dr. Robert Gable, authors of the article “Using Knowledge of Student Cognition to Differentiate Instruction.”

The presenters will discuss the concept of working memory and how educators can use knowledge of cognition to maximize students’ learning potential. As always, the session will include plenty of time for participants to ask questions.

The web conference takes place Monday, April 4, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Registration is free, and spaces are still available. Sign up for this event, and other conferences in the series, on our web form. For more information on the series of articles and web conferences, check out Reaching Every Learner: Differentiating Instruction in Theory and Practice.

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 March newsletter features two lesson plans that were highlighted at the North Carolina Social Studies Conference. The middle grades lesson “explores North Carolina’s rich history of African American leadership and service.” High school students will think about ways to reduce the federal budget in the lesson titled “Get a Pencil! You’re Tackling the National Deficit.”

The Consortium is offering two training opportunities for educators. In addition, they are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with a two-day event for 8th grade social studies teachers. This special event is being hosted by the Consortium and the UNC Program in the Humanities and Human Values. The deadline for registration is March 31, 2011.

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

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, the newsletter features an end-of-course review for high school Civics and Economics. Each of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study goals are represented with an end-of-course practice test and sample questions. Lesson plans for both middle and high school classes honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this month.  Also highlighted for middle grades classrooms is a lesson about the Lumbee Indians and the battle of Hayes Pond in Maxton, North Carolina.

The January newsletter also includes information on grants, professional development workshops, trainings, and teacher institutes. In addition, there are two civic education contests available for student participation.

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

The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series lets students in middle school, high school, college, and adults not currently enrolled in a literary program to be mentored for four to six months on a dozen pages of their original poetry by a Distinguished North Carolina poet. The program is in its eighth successful year with wonderful reviews by past participants.

The deadline for application is November 1, 2010. The mentoring begins in November 2010 and lasts until April 2011 when readings by the student poets and Distinguished Poets are held at colleges or universities in the regions. In addition, the North Carolina Center for the Book hosts poetry readings of each participant (accompanied by their Distinguished Poet) in the public library of the student poet’s home town.

See below for the contact persons. For submission tips and guidelines see the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series website.

Distinguished Poet by region

Eastern North Carolina: Dr. John Hoppenthaler, Asst. Professor of English and Creative Writing at East Carolina University. Contact person for the east is Dr. Becky Godwin, Chairperson, 252-399-6364.

Central North Carolina: Dr. Rebecca Gould Gibson, Associate Professor of English, 1989 – 2008, Guilford College. The contact person for central North Carolina is Dr. Ted Wojtasik, Chairperson, Faculty in English and Writing, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, 910-277-3948.

Western North Carolina: To be announced. The contact person for the west is Dr. Catherine Carter, Chairperson, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of English Education, 828-227-3931.

Now that school is out and you’ve got more free time, it’s a great time to visit some of the beautiful and historic sites North Carolina has to offer. Discover NC! is LEARN NC’s guide to local educational resources throughout North Carolina.

Discover NC! will help you find nearby museums, working farms, art galleries, historical sites, Indian villages, and much more. Search for trip opportunities by county, or within a certain number of miles of your ZIP code. In addition, each county’s page now includes multimedia and text resources for teaching about your county.

Use Discover NC! to scout possible field trip opportunities for the coming year, or just plan a weekend outing for your family. For more information please visit the Discover NC! page on the LEARN NC website.

LEARN NC provides relevant, inclusive, research-based online professional development for teachers. According to end-of-course surveys, course participants overwhelmingly felt LEARN NC online courses were relevant to their jobs, and made them feel like they were part of a learning community.

What does that mean? Several research studies have linked effective professional development with student achievement. If training directly relates to a teacher’s subject and focuses on how students learn, it translates into better student performance.

Download our new flyer to learn how LEARN NC professional development can make a difference in your teaching. To find a course for you, please visit our Open for Enrollment page.

Registration is open for three professional development workshops developed by the North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network. These workshops are designed to deepen participants’ science content knowledge and to strengthen their ability to encourage inquiry. Participants will examine misconceptions, reflect together on instructional strategies designed to engage young students.

Each session lasts nine days (five days in the summer and four days during the 2010-2011 school year) and focuses on the major science themes in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for its particular grade levels. These sessions will also emphasize the authentic integration of literacy, mathematics, and technology.

SITE: K-2 Science

June 21 – 25, 2010 plus four days to be scheduled during the 2010-2011 school year, 8:30 – 4:00 daily at the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Durham, NC.

• Earth Systems (weather features, Earth materials, and solar energy)
• Force and Matter (properties of matter, energy, properties of force)
• Living Organisms (needs of organisms, cycles of life, variety of organisms)

SITE: 3-5 Science

June 21 – 25, 2010 (NCSSM) plus four days to be scheduled during the 2010-2011 school year, 8:30 – 4:00 daily at the North Carolina School for Science and Math in Durham, NC. Content will include:

• Rock Cycle (soil properties, composition/uses of rocks and minerals and landforms)
• Ecology (plant growth and adaptations, animal behavior and adaptations, and interdependence of plants and animals)
• Energy/Forces (light, heat, magnetism and electricity, and forces and motion)
• Weather and Climate (wind direction & speed, precipitation, cloud cover, air pressure, weather patterns, influence of geography on weather)

Assessment in science and managing science materials also will be included in this institute.

SITE: 6-8 Science

June 28 – July 2, 2010 plus four days to be scheduled during the 2010-2011 school year, 8:30 – 4:00 daily at the North Carolina School for Science and Math in Durham. Topics included in this institute are:

• Life Systems (human body, microbiology, pandemics)
• Earth Systems (hydrology, lithosphere, and population dynamics)

Assessment in science and managing science materials also will be included in this institute.
Registration information

• Registration deadline: May 1, 2010
• CEUs — for each session educators will earn 5.4 CEUs for 9 days
• Cost — $100/day ($900 total) for teachers residing on NCSSM campus or $85/day ($765 total) for commuters. Breakfast and lunch included for residents; lunch included for commuters. Four days of instruction are scheduled during the school year; teachers need substitutes to attend the two Friday/Saturday sessions at NCSSM.
• Tuition Waiver — For teachers serving in schools designated as Low Performing or Priority on the NC Report Card, grant funds will be applied and the tuition will be waived. Teachers qualifying for the grant must pay a $25 registration fee.
• Support from the grant does not cover the cost for substitutes for teachers attending instructional days during the school year.

To register, follow this link to the registration process. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, and seats are limited.

For more information, contact Carole Stern, (stern at ncssm dot edu), (919) 416-2635.

Bobby Hobgood will present at the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina Spring Workshops in Asheville, N.C. on Saturday, March 13, 2010.

Classroom assessment by the minute: Teaching students to monitor their own learning from no-tech to high-tech

The pressure of covering the curriculum while preparing for EOCs or EOGs often prevents us from integrating formative assessment strategies that lead to higher quality learning. The secret to overcoming those external pressures lies in how we think about assessment opportunities minute-by-minute. During this interactive session, we will rethink the roles of teacher and student as we explore easy-to-use strategies for preparing students to monitor their own learning. Participants will leave with simple strategies to help their students see ongoing, formative assessment as an essential learning tool for learning. Examples range from no-tech to high-tech strategies for engaging students while gathering feedback.

Last year, LEARN NC made $125,000 in matching-funds awards to North Carolina schools to use for online professional development. More than 750 teachers benefited from a total of ten awards to elementary schools, middle schools, rural and urban LEAs, and a four-county education partnership in North Carolina.

In 2010, LEARN NC will again aid educator development in North Carolina with the Invest in Teachers Award. The LEARN NC Invest in Teachers Award will make awards for online professional development ranging from $2,500 to $50,000, accompanied by a matching amount from the schools, so teachers will still receive the training and support they need to help their students succeed in the classroom and in life.

Applications are accepted through April 30, 2010. For full details and application instructions, please visit the main Invest in Teachers Award page.

LEARN NC Fall 2009 Interactive Conference

Discover. Teach. Share.

Thursday, October 1st
1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

In less than twenty-four hours, North Carolina educators filled all the face-to-face seats at the LEARN NC 2009 Interactive Conference. But just because you can’t attend in-person doesn’t mean you have to miss this day of collaboration and new ideas. Register today to attend the conference virtually.

What to expect

Virtual attendees get the same great afternoon sessions as face-to-face participants, including sharing free resources, technology integration, professional development strategies, and more. Interact with fellow educators from around North Carolina via web conference software, Twitter, and the online back channel. Virtual participants may join for the entire afternoon or for whatever portion of the conference is convenient.

Who should attend?

Teachers, media specialists, technology coordinators, professional development coordinators, administrators, and other leaders in curriculum and instruction will all benefit from this conference. Whether you are teaching students in the classroom, or working at the school or system level developing curriculum and delivering professional development, the LEARN NC conference will provide new ideas and identify opportunities for collaboration to help you make the best use of your scarcest resource… time!

Cost

Free.

Technical Requirements

Minimal.  If you’ve never participated in a virtual conference before, there’s nothing to fear.  The only hardware you’ll need is a computer with speakers, and the only software you’ll need is a current version of Flash Media Player.  We’ll provide you with all you need to test your set-up in advance of the conference so that connecting is a cinch.

Register

Register for the LEARN NC 2009 Interactive Conference and discover, teach and share with LEARN NC.