Resources Spotlight

Peace Corps World Wise Schools - Classroom resources based on Peace Corps volunteer experiences:

• Connect with a volunteer
• Find a speaker
• Curriculum materials sortable by grade, geographic area, or subject area
• Service learning lesson plans and ideas
• Language lessons and audio (listen to languages from around the world)
• Videos, podcasts, etc.

National History Education Clearinghouse - builds on and disseminates the valuable lessons learned by more than 800 TAH projects designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge and understanding of traditional U.S. history.

• Web site reviews
• Ask a historian
• Examples of historical thinking
• Using primary sources
• Teaching with textbooks
• Teaching guides
• Lesson plan reviews

The Genographic Project - The Genographic Project is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.

• Atlas of the human journey
• Globe of human history
• Educator guide with lesson plans, etc.
  
  
• Have you used any of these resources in your teaching? If so, what feedback do you have about them?

Cultural Diversity Day Returning to U-32

U-32 sophomore Simone Labbance has been busy this spring writing a concerto, choreographing a dance and organizing the school's second annual Cultural Diversity Day scheduled for Friday. This year's celebration will include not only a full day of activities representing different countries around the world for students and staff, but also an evening line-up of events open to the public.

Beginning at 8:15 a.m. with African Drums, there will be ethnic food, music, dancing, guest speakers, a mini fashion show and art exhibits until the end of the school day. At 6 p.m., the cultural festival is open to the public and kicks off with John Mullet playing the fiddle. Evening guests will be treated to African drumming and dance, a fashion show, a Bollywood dance, face painting, ethnic foods and the Burlington-based band Guagua. The evening is free and open to the public.

Adopted from Calcutta, India when she was an infant, Labbance has spent the last few years of her life getting in touch with her Asian heritage."I really wasn't into my culture at all for the longest time," said Labbance, until she attended a Bharat Natyam dance performance and fell in love. Shortly after that performance two years ago, Labbance began taking dance lessons with one of the Bharat Natyam dancers. At 7:15 p.m. on Friday, Labbance will show her skills in the spiritual dance as a prelude to the Bollywood dance she choreographed with 12 fellow dancers.

Cultural Diversity Day was initiated by Labbance after she consulted with Cultural Links creator Carolyn Shapiro. The first year was an experiment that turned into a huge success, according to both. This year a throng of students and staff have stepped up to help. "She's really drawn in other students," said Shapiro, who noted that a Rwandan play will be performed by students during the day. "It's going to be a really engaging evening with food and dance and face painting for kids."

Several classes are scheduled to have speakers from around the globe and others are slated to make international culinary treats. "People are definitely excited, I'm really excited about the music," said Labbance, who will be performing the concerto she wrote by playing her sitar with members of the orchestra. "I read a lot about Indian music and try to listen to as much as I can and try to observe what's going on."

While discovering her own background, Labbance has exposed her school community to other cultures. This year, that invitation is going out to the central Vermont community. "The evening is just this huge cultural festival," said Labbance about the event that is scheduled to take place outside on the U-32 campus, weather dependent. If there is rain, the event will take place inside the atrium of the school.

By Sarah Hinckley Times Argus Staff - Published: May 21, 2009

Photo courtesy of http://www.timesargus.org.

National Standards...What Do You Think?

I received the following email from Ana C. Post, Director of External Relations & Council Communications at the National Council for the Social Studies. Please use this blog and the attached survey to give your feedback:

Dear Affiliate Leaders,

We wanted to share with you the following key points regarding the attached WP Hearing Summary, as well as article links (below), to keep you informed of a state-led initiative towards a building a common, voluntary set of standards, and how this may affect states, local school districts, administrators, teachers, classrooms and students. We also would like ask you to think of, and share with us, implications this might have on social studies (at the local/state level) and on the direction of future advocacy efforts at the state and national levels. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with any questions.

Sincerely,

Ana

Key Points (from NCSS staff):

The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices, are anticipating that states will have a state-led set of common standards for k-12 math and English/Language Arts by the end of this summer. Standards for other core academic subjects would follow.

At the end of April, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how states can better prepare their students to compete in a global economy by using internationally benchmarked common standards.

Key points expressed during the hearing were:

• Every state needs a well-educated workforce to compete in the global economy.
• Rigorous and relevant core standards – around what young people need to know and be able to do – need to be developed.
• Despite suggestions to contrary, teachers want this kind of reform and would like to be involved in process.
• High quality state assessments need to be designed based on the standards-- aligned tests, real accountability and high-quality instruction for all of our kids is needed for standards to work – developing assessments was cited as a potential area for federal involvement.
• Enlist teachers to design curriculum aligned with state standards

Please click here for an in-depth hearing summary.

I am also including the links to two articles that provide some more background on this topic:

“How to Raise the Standard in America’s Schools” by Walter Isaacson in the Electronic TIME issue of 4-15-09 http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891468,00.html; and“Push is on for National Academic Standards,” by Cynthia Howell in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/News/258833/.

• Do rigorous and relevant core standards need to be developed in social studies?
• Do teachers want this type of reform?
• Do high quality state assessments, aligned with these standards, need to be developed?
• How would this initiative impact social studies in Vermont and around the country?

Stephen J. Johnson, So. Pomfret, VT Resident, Awarded National Fellowship

Stephen J. Johnson, a teacher at Rivendell Academy in Orford, NH has been awarded a James Madison Fellowship by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation of Washington, D.C. in its eighteenth annual fellowship competition. A total of 55 fellowships were awarded in 2009. James Madison Fellowships support further study of American history by college graduates who aspire to become teachers of American history, American government, and social studies in the nation's secondary schools, as well as by experienced secondary school teachers of the same subjects.

Named in honor of the fourth president of the United States and acknowledged "Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights," the fellowship will fund up to $24,000 of Mr. Johnson's course of study toward a master's degree. That program must include a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the United States Constitution.

Mr. Johnson was selected for a James Madison Fellowship in competition with applicants from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the nation's island and trust territories. The fellowship--funded by income from a trust fund in the Treasury of the United States and from additional private gifts, corporate contributions, and foundation grants--requires its recipient to teach American history or social studies in a secondary school for at least one year for each year of fellowship support. The award is intended to recognize promising and distinguished teachers, to strengthen their knowledge of the origins and development of American constitutional government, and thus to expose the nation's secondary school students to accurate knowledge of the nation's constitutional heritage.

Founded by an act of Congress in 1986, the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the federal government. Additional information may be found at http://www.jamesmadison.gov/.

Bernie and Leahy Support Civic Education

To friends and colleagues in Vermont:

We are pleased to inform you that Senator Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders have cosigned a letter to the chair and to the ranking minority member of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations subcommittee requesting funding for the Civic Education Program (ESEA II-Part C3) in the Department of Education, which supports the domestic and international programs of the Center for Civic Education.

We hope that you will show your appreciation for Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders's action by faxing each a note of thanks. The senators' contact information is listed below my signature. Also, please let your Vermont friends and colleagues know about Senator senators' support for civic education in our nation's schools.

Thank you for considering this request and for continuing your efforts in encouraging your other members of Congress to cosign.

Charles N. Quigley, Executive Director

Center for Civic Education

5145 Douglas Fir Road

Calabasas, CA 91302

818-591-9321

818-591-9330

FAX Senator Patrick Leahy

United States Senate

Washington, DC

United States Phone: 202-224-4242

Phone: 802-863-2525FAX: 202-224-3479

Senator Bernard Sanders

United States Senate

Washington, DC

United States Phone: 202-224-5141

FAX: 202-228-0776

For many online resources that support civic education in the classroom, go to http://delicious.com/sigridlumbra.

Education Secretary Seeks Input on NCLB Reform

From a U.S. Department of Education press release:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will travel to 15 or more states in the coming months to solicit feedback from a broad group of stakeholders around federal education policy in anticipation of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The tour will gather input on the Obama administration's education agenda, including early childhood, higher standards, teacher quality, workforce development, and higher education.

The tour, "Listening and Learning: A Conversation About Education Reform," officially began May 4th with three events in West Virginia.

Duncan said that the primary purpose of the Listening and Learning tour is to, "Have a national dialogue about how to best deliver a complete and competitive education to all children—from cradle through career. We want to hear directly from people in the classroom about how the federal government can support educators, school districts and states to drive education reform. Before crafting education law in Washington, we want to hear from people across America—parents, teachers and administrators—about the everyday issues and challenges in our schools that need our national attention and support."

Other states targeted for potential events include Michigan, Vermont, California, Montana, Wyoming, New Jersey, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Utah, and Alaska. Additional states and events may be added during the course of the tour.

• How do you think NCLB should be changed in the future?
• How has NCLB affected you as a social studies educator? How has it affected your students?