Free Online Course for Teachers on East Asia

Flash from my good friends Björn Hennings at the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence and Bogdan Leja of the NC Teaching Asia Network.    


Columbia University and Teachers College have put together an On-line, Asynchronous Mini-Course Series on East Asia as part of the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia. 

This is a wonderful opportunity for NC teachers to participate for free and upon completion of the course be eligible for a highly subsidized educational travel tour of East Asia.  

Wonderful opportunity is right.  For more information go here.  And hurry, because the course begins September 9th.  Participants may earn two CEUs for completing the course. 

If you have any questions, you can contact Bogdan Leja at lejaATemailDOTuncDOTedu  

ePals For the New School Year

One of the most exciting ways to include global connections in your teaching is literally to connect your class with a class in another world region. 

I"ve mentioned ePals in another posting, but it's well worth mentioning again, now that the new school year is underway.  If you're worried about how you're going to find another class on the other side of the world, you can select and one easily on ePals.  If you're worried about what project you might work on together, you can find one (dozens!) to choose from on ePals.  And, as I've mentioned before, it's free.

So there you go.  No more excuses.

If you still need convincing, listen to some young people talk about communicating globally.  These could be your students.  Click on the ePals site here and scroll down.

Hurricanes Are Global

Updated 8/20/10

Just around this time every year, I start remembering Floyd.  You probably do, too, if you were a North Carolinian in 1999. 

Hurricane Floyd wreaked havoc, especially in the eastern part of our state, and it is (still) the greatest natural disaster North Carolina has ever experienced. 

No one can forget Floyd.  But I also remember his older sister Hurricane Fran.  The night Fran raged inland was wild and windy, with torrents of rain falling, at time, sideways.  I remember the streetlights blinking on and off, buffeted by the storm.  My neighbor recalled the scent of salt water and pine sawdust.  The ocean was passing over us, and it carried the aroma of the trees it had torn to shreds on the way. 

For those of you thinking about the hurricane season (and who among us isn't?), here's a link to WRAL's Storm Tracker.  Let's hope we don't have to consult it too often.

I love this interactive map, because it makes abundantly clear that the hurricanes that sometimes sweep over our coast (and inland, as well) are global weather phenomena.  "Our" hurricanes begin as storms off the coast of West Africa, and, if they last, make their way westward across the Atlantic. 

The WRAL map can show us these storms from quite a bit out there in the Atlantic, and tracks their path (and landfalls) along the eastern coast of the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the north coast of South America (Venezuela and Colombia).  So while we're planning locally (school closings?), we can also see globally.  Share with students during hurricane season to increase understanding of global weather patterns and reinforce geographic knowledge. 

Bonus:  Learn more about how we can study coastal flooding in this YouTube video on CI-FLOW.  Great images of Floyd's aftermath here, as well as commentary by former Governor Jim Hunt.  (Thanks to Terry Kirby Hathaway of NC Sea Grant for the link.)

Change in Perspective

 Not Back to School.

Forward to School.

(Repeat as necessary.)

The EU on NPR

If you're teaching Europe next year, refresh your knowledge and understanding of the EU.  Here's an NPR series well worth listening to.  Thanks to Gali Beeri of UNC's Center for European Studies for the links.

• A Fitful Dream: European Unity Shaken by New Woes
• From Stalwart to Skeptic, Germany Rethinks EU Role
• Can the European Welfare State Survive?
• Spain's Boom to Bust Illustrates Euro Dilemma
• In Europe, Obstacles to a More Perfect Union

You can receive regular updates on events and resources for teaching Europe and the EU by subscribing to the CES/EUCE listserv.  Send an email to galiATuncDOTedu with the subject "Please subscribe me to your newsletter."  

Professional Development: AP for Social Studies--Deadline July 30th

Free professional development opportunity in August for NC K-12 social studies teachers.  Read below, follow the link, and act fast--deadline is July 30th.

To support the mission of the NC State Board, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) is providing a two-day professional development opportunity for K-12 Social Studies teachers. This two-day training will focus on preparing social studies teachers for the rigors of advanced placement courses as well as building capacity for social studies teacher to add rigor to their honors and standard classes.

Date: August 3-4, 2010
Location: Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina
Cost: FREE!
The goals of the institute are to:

• Build teachers’ capacity for teaching AP courses
• Build teachers’ capacity to add appropriate rigor to their instruction and assignments
• Build capacity for K-8 teachers who could help prepare students to take AP courses upon entering high school
• Provide on-going dialogue about AP courses, teaching strategies, and teaching resources through the use of an on-line medium 

To learn more, click here.

Happy Independence Day

Nineteenth-century poet Walt Whitman had something to say about American education when he spoke at the dedication of a new school in Camden, New Jersey, in 1874.

Only a lot of boys and girls?
Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?
Only a public school?

Ah! more—infinitely more . . . . 

And you, America,
Cast you the real reckoning for your present?
The lights and shadows of your future—good or evil?
This Union multiform, with all its dazzling hopes and terrible fears?
Look deeper, nearer, earlier far—provide ahead—counsel in time;
Not to your verdicts of election days—not to your voters look,
To girlhood, boyhood look—the teacher and the school. 

You can read the entire poem, "An Old Man's Thought of School," here.

Happy Fourth of July!