Georgia Historical Society's Black History Month Essay Contest

The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) announced its 2006 Black History Month Essay and Public Speaking Contest, in cooperation with the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools' Teaching American History grant. Students in grades nine through twelve in local public or private schools are encouraged to submit an essay on the topic, "The Price of Activism: Self-Sacrifice in African-American History." The deadline for entry submission is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 10, 2006, at the Georgia Historical Society. First Prize is a cash award of $500, second prize is a cash award of $250, and third prize is a cash award of $100.

Essays will be judged by a panel of qualified judges from the Georgia Historical Society, Savannah State University and Armstrong Atlantic State University, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools. The top five essay writers will be invited to present their essays at a public reception at the Georgia Historical Society (501 Whitaker Street) on Friday, February 17, where the three winners will be selected by a second panel of judges.

Students are encouraged to use the scholarly resources at their disposal in Savannah as they research their essays. The Georgia Historical Society has an extensive collection of materials related to African-American history, including manuscripts and books, visual materials and other artifacts, and clippings files. Reference librarians are prepared to assist students with their research. Other materials can be found at Savannah's public libraries and in the libraries of Savannah State and Armstrong Atlantic State Universities.

Complete details and registration materials are available by following the education link at the Georgia Historical Society website.

Interested students and teachers may also call GHS at 651-2125, ext. 17 for more information or to request additional entry forms

Annenberg: IMPORTANT TELECOURSE POLICY CHANGE

Annenberg Media video courses are available free of charge as telecourses for non-profit educational institutions from fall 2005 through summer 2006. However, beginning with the fall 2006 term, there will be a license fee for their use as telecourses. A telecourse is defined as a video series and associated materials used as a complete credit or non-credit college course. A list of instructional series used as telecourses can be found at http://learner.org/redirect/december/telecourse1.html.

For details on this policy change, including fee information, please visit the website at http://learner.org/redirect/december/telecourse3.html or call 1-800-LEARNER.

Teacherline

Happy New Year from GPB and Teacherline. Get your year off to a great start by updating your teaching credentials with convenient and affordable Teacherline courses. Teacherline allows educators to save time and money by providing online graduate and re-certification classes.

GPB /PBS Teacherline courses are:

Convenient: The 6-week courses can be taken anytime, anywhere with Internet access -- no need to drive anywhere, arrange for childcare, buy books or tapes; all of your videos, interactives, and readings are online.

Certified: The courses can be used for re-certification or pay upgrades; graduate credit is available for an additional fee.

Affordable: 30 hour courses: 30 seat hours/2 credits/40 points ($199 seat fee)

15 hour courses: 15 seat hours/1 credit/20 points ($169 seat fee)

Courses offered:

Technology:

TECH145 Teaching with WebQuests for Grades K-12

TECH160 Putting Technology to Use in the Classroom: Where to Start

TECH195 Teaching and Learning with Graphic Organizers: Featuring Inspiration

TECH300 The Computer for Personal Productivity

TECH320 Introduction to a One-Computer Classroom

TECH340 Evaluating and Organizing Internet Resources and Content

TECH400 Capstone Introduction

TECH410 PBS TeacherLine / ISTE Capstone Certificate Program / Capstone I

TECH415 PBS TeacherLine / ISTE Capstone Certificate Program / Capstone II

Instructional Strategies:

INST120 Creating Units to Support Differing Learning Styles

INST125 Building Critical Thinking Skills for Online Research

INST180 Differentiated Instruction (Grades 6-8)

INST300 Curriculum Mapping I by Heidi Hayes Jacobs

INST305 Curriculum Mapping II by Heidi Hayes Jacobs

INST315 Teaching for Multiple Intelligences

INST320 Connecting Family, Community and Schools

INST325 Using Assessment and Evaluation

Math:

MATH120 Fostering Cooperative Learning, Discussion, and Critical Thinking in Elementary Math (Grades 1-5)

MATH126 Ahead of the Curve: Exponential and Other Functions for Grades 6-8

MATH165 Enabling Students with Special Needs to Succeed in Math Class (Grades 4-8)

MATH181 Math in Everyday Life for Grades K-5

MATH186 Math in Everyday Life for Grades 6-8

MATH196 Shaping Up: Teaching Geometry Using Technology in Grades 3-5

MATH246 Rational Numbers, Fractions, Decimals, and Percents in Grades 5-8

MATH250 Understanding Numbers and Operations: Addition and Subtraction in Grades PreK-3 MATH415 Seeing Math(tm): Transformations of Linear Functions

MATH420 Seeing Math(tm): Linear Equations

MATH435 Seeing Math(tm): Quadratic Functions

MATH455 Seeing Math(tm): Data Analysis

Reading & Language Arts:

RDLA125 Children's Authors on the Web: Online Sites that Motivate Students to Write (Grades K-6)

RDLA130 Teaching Reading in Science

RDLA135 Teaching Reading in Mathematics

RDLA145 Early Literacy Learning (K-2)

RDLA150 An Introduction to Underlying Principles and Research for Effective Literacy Instruction (Grades K-8)

RDLA155 Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Phonics (Grades PreK-3)

RDLA160 Teaching Phonics and Spelling for Emergent Readers (Grades PreK-K)

RDLA165 Teaching Phonics and Spelling for Beginning and Transitional Readers (Grades 1-3)

RDLA170 Teaching Vocabulary: Word Meanings and Word Knowledge (Grades PreK-2)

RDLA190 Teaching Narrative and Expository Comprehension (Grades 4-6)

RDLA215 Effective Writing Instruction (Grades 4 - 6)

RDLA220 Teaching Writing in the Content Areas (Grades 6-12)

RDLA340 Teaching Reading in the Content Areas - all grades

Science:

SCIE125 Fostering Cooperative Learning, Inquiry, and Critical Thinking in Elementary Science (Grades 1-4)

SCIE130 Fostering Collaboration, Inquiry, and Critical Thinking in Middle School Science (Grades 5-8)

For course descriptions, syllabi, registration dates and payments, including course refunds, please visit
www.myetv.org/teacherline.

For more information, call 1-800-277-0829 or send an email to Teacherline@scetv.org.

February is SUPER CYBERCHASE SCIENCE Month!

This month-long exploration of math-science connections links 20 encore episodes of the award-winning math mystery cartoon to new and integrated online resources. Kids will discover how our world is shaped by math and science through the following four weeks of themed programming: How Things Work, Measuring Up, Making Predictions and Puzzling Patterns.

Check it out on the CYBERCHASE website

Visit "Pick a Project" on the website for cool science project ideas and the new CYBERCHASE The Quest online game. While you are there, help protect the animals of EcoHaven from Hacker's dastardly schemes and see the all new CYBERCHASE Math in Science & Engineering Activity Guide.