Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Project Look Sharp: Media Literacy Summer Institute

The mission of Project Look Sharp is to provide materials, training and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all educational levels. As part of this mission, the following Media Literacy Summer Institute is being offered:

Media Literacy Summer Institute
This is an intensive, weeklong media literacy course for teachers, support staff, college faculty, and other professionals working with students in an educational setting. Participants receive training in the theory and practice of media literacy, learn applications for digital technology, and work individually with a Project Look Sharp "coach" to develop and implement a media literacy integration project. Hands-on production is Mac-based.

2006 Summer Institute Overview

Dates: July 10-14, 2006
Location: Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
Continuing Education Units: 2.8
Fee: $572.00 (Registration is NY State aidable through TST-BOCES)
Registration: Register online at www.tstboces.org (directions on second page of flyer). Registration begins after 04/01/06.
Registration Deadline: 06/30/06

A four-and-a-half-day immersion course in integrating media analysis and production into any curriculum for K-12 teachers, technology/media specialists, librarians, community educators, and others interested in the field of media literacy

MORNING MEDIA LITERACY CLASS-THEORY AND PRACTICE
Learn to use media analysis and production to support, deepen, and enliven core curricula through the teaching of critical thinking skills, understanding bias in visual representation, evaluating credibility, using instructional media effectively, having students produce media, and more.

AFTERNOON MEDIA PRODUCTION TRAINING
Learn to use video camcorders, microphones, and digital editing to produce short video projects. Please note that hands-on training is Mac-based. Participants will also learn to integrate video, still images, and presentation programs like PowerPoint into your curriculum. Trainings will relate to the morning classes, encouraging curricular integration and student production. Extra lab hours will be available Wednesday & Thursday, 3:30 - 6:00 pm

CLASSROOM INTEGRATION PROJECT
Throughout the week participants will meet individually with a "coach" to develop and design a media literacy integration project for their classroom to implement during the coming year. Participants will make presentations on their media literacy integration projects on the final morning.

For details about costs and more information, visit the website.
email Cyndy Scheibe, schiebe@ithaca.edu (Project LookSharp)

Sunday, May 7, 2006

FREE Resources for Educators

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) is a Web site which offers federally supported teaching and learning resources at no cost. Subjects covered in the Web site include science, social studies, foreign languages, health and safety, language arts, mathematics, physical education, educational technology, vocational education, and art.

Each subject on the Web site is searchable, and learning tools for Educators and students such as videos, primary documents and images can be found on FREE. New resources that cover multiple subjects are added to the Web site daily.

Users of FREE may receive headlines and new resources several times a week by signing up for Really Simple Syndication (RSS), which is offered to help keep educators updated on what's happening on the site weekly.

FREE was created by more than 30 Federal agencies in 1997 to make federally supported resources easily accessible to educators and students, and is now one of the federal government's most popular Web site's.

For more information about FREE, please visit the Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/free

To sign-up for RSS feed, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/free/rss.html

Irasshai's Golden Week

Golden Week is one of Japan's busiest holiday seasons of the year. It is a collection of four national holidays that fall within well-placed weekends. Greenery Day, April 29th, Constitution Day, May 3rd, Between Day, May 4th, and Children's Day, May 5th, make up the holiday week.

Irasshai holds its own celebration of Golden Week by hosting an annual Quiz Bowl where Irrasshai students, via audio bridge, are tested on their knowledge of Japanese language and culture. Teams compete at three different levels (JPN I, II, and III) and advance to additional rounds through elimination-style competition.

Participants all receive authentic Japanese prizes such as folding fans, tea cups, wind chimes, calligraphy brushes and paper lanterns. Last year's Quiz Bowl was enjoyed by 10 schools from seven states, with Cabot High School, in Cabot, Ariz., coming out the winner in both JPN I and JPN II categories.

This year's 8th Annual Quiz Bowl will begin April 24 and conclude with the championship round on April 27.

Saturday, May 6, 2006

PRISM Public Awareness Campaign

Georgia's Partnership for Reform in Science & Mathematics (PRISM) has kicked-off an awareness campaign this year among parents, teachers, business leaders, the community-at-large and students.

Increasing awareness in Georgia about the importance of math and science is the goal of this campaign and is apart of the PRISM initiative to increase the state's student achievement in these subjects.

This campaign is a "call to action" for parents and the community-at-large with the primary focus being on parents.

Stressed in the campaign is the importance and need for all P-12 students to be prepared for, have access to, and succeed in challenging math and science courses.

"Math + Science = Success" is the campaign's theme and will be featured along with taglines in advertisements that promote the importance of math and science. Billboards, television, newspaper and magazine ads will be spread throughout Georgia.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by the University System of Georgia, PRISM is a five-year collaborative effort whose primary focus is to improve student achievement in science and mathematics at all levels of education throughout Georgia.

Awarded to the University System of Georgia in 2003, the initiative is scheduled to be funded through the school year of 2008.

The initiative will impact 170,000 students and 10,000 teachers in approximately 275 schools within the four pilot regions. Eventually, it will impact the 1.4 million P-12 students in Georgia.

For more information about this campaign and PRISM, visit www.gaprism.org

Monday, May 1, 2006

Digital Production Course for Educators

A course on Digital Production in the Classroom will be offered for three graduate credit hours at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina this summer. This course is available for degree and non-degree seeking students.

Aimed at teachers, the course will provide participants with the skills that are needed to create digital media for use in K-12 classrooms. Emphasis will be on using technology as a means of expression and on developing activities that further the aims of student-centered classroom environments.

Course content includes digital photography and scanning, image manipulation in Photoshop, creative approaches to Power Point, video production/digital video editing, and web page design and publication.

Jeff Goodman is the instructor for this course and has worked with teachers for the last 15 years to develop creative applications of computers and other technologies for the classroom. His own classroom experience at the elementary, middle grades and high school levels includes teaching math, science, English and technology.

Dates: July 17th to July 21st
Housing will be available for interested participants.