Free Workshops from The Georgia Historical Society!

The Georgia Historical Society has announced its upcoming Landmarks in American History and Culture Workshop for Community College Faculty, entitled "African-American History & Culture in the Georgia Lowcountry: Savannah & The Coastal Islands, 1750-1950." Two week-long workshop sessions are available: July 13-18, 2008 and July 20-25, 2008. The workshops are free of charge and participants will receive a $500 stipend for lodging and travel. These workshops are part of the National Endowment for the Humanities' We the People initiative. Full-time and adjunct Community College Humanities faculty may apply.

For more information about the workshop, please visit www.georgiahistory.com and follow the Landmarks link, or contact the Program Assistant, Charles Snyder, by phone at 912.651.2125 x.40, or by e-mail at csnyder@georgiahistory.com.

February Broadcast Schedule

Click the links below to view the schedule for GPB Education's Satellite Network -- Channels 410, 420 and 430.

• Channel 410
  
• Channel 420
• Channel 430
  

Program Deletion List

African American Lives 2

African American Lives 2, produced by PBS station WNET (New York City, NY) and presented in Georgia by Georgia Public Broadcasting, builds on the original African American Lives to bring your students a broader, deeper perspective on the lives and contributions of a broad spectrum of African Americans.

Like the original series, African American Lives 2 will profile some of the nation’s most intriguing and well-known African Americans in a fascinating and revealing way. Combining personal interviews, historical research, and cutting-edge technology, host Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (pictured) and a team of genealogical experts will set out to tell the unique and powerful histories of the celebrity guests. Utilizing family lore, historic records, and a DNA sample from each guest, the series will explore the mysteries and surprises of the guests’ origin and heritage. The powerhouse guest list for African American Lives 2 includes Tina Turner, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Don Cheadle, Bliss Broyard, Tom Joyner, Linda Johnson Rice, Peter Gomes, and Maya Angelou. Also featured in the series is Kathleen Henderson, an “ordinary citizen” selected from over 2,000 nationwide applicants for genealogical examination.

Lesson plans and related educational materials designed to support use of the broadcast program, Web site, and print materials in standards-based classroom instruction have been developed by WNET. To enable the successful use of these materials in Georgia classrooms, Georgia Public Broadcasting is having all African American Lives 2 instructional materials correlated to the new Georgia Performance Standards for social studies.

Additionally, GPB, with a grant from WNET, is producing a training webcast, to be available to all teachers on demand via the Internet. The webcast will include representatives from WNET demonstrating one of three instructional modules prepared to accompany the African American Lives 2 broadcast. It will also include lesson plans and reproducible related educational materials that may be downloaded from the webcast and copied in quantity for classroom use. The webcast should be available online and on demand by February 22. Please check the education section of GPB’s website (www.gpb.org) for an announcement of availability.

African American Lives 2 will be presented on Georgia Public Broadcasting from 9:00 PM until 11:00 PM on February 6 and February 13. There will be multiple repeats.

Major corporate funding for this new production and its outreach initiatives is provided by The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson. Additional funding is provided by Buick. Funding is also provided by public television viewers and PBS. Additional resources and materials for the teacher training workshops are provided by Ancestry.com.

High School Graduation Initiative

As a part of GPB Education’s new High School Graduation Initiative, existing programs and organizations focusing on the critical issue of Georgia’s High School Graduation Rates will be identified and partnered with for various projects. The Youth Art Connection (YAC), a program of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, is one of the first groups that GPB Education is collaborating with in this developing initiative.

Working with the Boys & Girls Club/YAC gives GPB Education a unique opportunity to follow the adventures of individual high school students while they participate in the Beijing Project, a pioneering endeavor that will take students to Beijing, Xian and many other areas of China this summer.

In the preliminary meeting for the project held in January, GPB Education captured the initial reactions of the students selected to participate. These interviews will be used along with feedback collected from the students during the course of their experience to build a framework on how the project is impacting their views and goals.

GPB Education will also play a significant role in this program by aiding in the development of a method for participants to digitally transmit their impressions, feelings, questions and overall view about their encounters, while in China, to other youth in Georgia.

YAC Director, Rebecca DesMarias, describes the three components of the Beijing Project: 1 – five monthly meetings at YAC to prepare for the Trip; 2 – the Trip to Beijing, Xian and other areas of China; 3 – outreach to Boys & Girls Club members about China and the Xian Terracotta Warriors during fall 2008/winter 2009 in conjunction with the exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors at the High Museum of Art.

The Metropolitan Opera Education Project

In a groundbreaking series, the Metropolitan Opera offers live, high-definition performance transmissions to movie theaters throughout the world. This opportunity initiated a collaboration between GPB’s Education & Radio Divisions and the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA). A component of this partnership includes music educators and their students attending performances of the Metropolitan Opera broadcast in HD at selected theaters in Athens, Augusta and Valdosta. The season runs through April, 2008. Renee Wicker-Wilson, GMEA Choral Chair reports on the January 1 performance of Hansel and Gretel: “The production was absolutely incredible and the education department at The Met really outdid themselves by showing lots of interesting ‘behind the scenes’ items.”

The Metropolitan Opera’s high-definition simulcast to movie theaters is an event open to the general public. The following website lists participating theaters. Contact the theaters directly for viewing times and costs.

http://www.fathomevents.com/files/METLISTING/met_live.html

Super Saturday

GPB Education and A Place of Our Own/Los Niños en Su Casa are excited to host Super Saturday (formerly Spectacular Saturday). Super Saturday will be a one-day conference for child care providers held at Rockbridge Elementary on March 29, 2008 (formerly scheduled for February 2008). Child care providers that work in centers, in registered family care, or as a family, friend and neighbor provider (including informal caregivers, non-registered caregivers and nannies) are encouraged to attend. Training sessions will be offered in both English and Spanish covering topics on the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive growth of young children. Select sessions will provide state credit.

For information, e-mail supersaturday@gpb.org or e-mail Meghan Welch at mwelch@gpb.org.

Child Care Nominations

Nominate child care providers for local and national recognition! Please submit nominations of child care providers that work in centers, in registered family care, or as a family, friend, and neighbor provider (including informal caregivers, non-registered caregivers, and nannies). See attached forms.

Child Care Provider Nomination Form - English version

Child Care Provider Nomination Form - Spanish version

Where We’ll Be

GPB Education will be at the following conferences. Stop by our exhibit booth and learn all about our educational resources!

February 13 -15, 2008
GSTA
Classic Center
Athens, GA

February 25 -26, 2008
GMSA
Marriott Riverfront Hotel
Savannah, GA

Programs to Look for in February

Sweet Honey in The Rock, Songs for the Children
Channel 420
Friday, February 15 @ 6 AM

Sweet Honey In The Rock possesses a stunning vocal prowess that captures the complex sounds of blues, spirituals, traditional gospel hymns, rap, reggae, African chants, hip-hop, ancient lullabies and jazz improvisation. Sweet Honey’s collective voice, occasionally accompanied by hand percussion instruments, is filled with soulful harmonies and intricate rhythms.


Art in the 21st Century
Channel 420
Friday, February 8 at 1:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Art in the 21st Century is the only series on television to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists in the United States, and it uses the medium of television to provide an experience of the visual arts that goes far beyond a gallery visit. Fascinating and intimate footage allows the viewer to observe the artists at work, watch their process as they transform inspiration into art, and hear their thoughts as they grapple with the physical and visual challenges of achieving their artistic visions.

C-47 Legend

You probably have heard about C-47 by now and know that around GPB it is our Georgia Short Film Showcase, but you probably have wondered what exactly a C-47 is and why we chose to call our stellar showcase a C-47. To get this answer, we will need to take a little glimpse into the world of filmmaking.

Filmmakers rely on many factors to create a desired effect and mood to a scene, but one in particular is very important: lighting. Since Shakespearean times, lighting has been one of the single most important elements to a set or scene. As you can probably imagine, lighting a scene in those times were quit different than today. The difference between the times is wine glasses and color correction gel or diffusion that is used in today’s filmmaking.

These color correction gels or diffusions used in modern times are simply transparent colored materials placed over a light on a film set. There’s one small catch – the lights on a set tend to get extremely hot and something durable that can withstand the heat of the light is needed to hold the color correction gel in place. What would this durable, outstanding material be? It would have to be the one and only, ever so heat-resistant wooden clothespins that are known by filmmakers and the film industry as C-47s.

These handy, non-heat transferring C-47s make changing a color correction gel much safer than touching the light directly. They are used so often on the set that some in the industry refer to them as “bullets” because crew members have them pinned everywhere including their belts for use at any given moment.

For why the filmmakers decided to call wooden clothespins a C-47 is really up to debate. Some believe it was for budgeting purposes to make the tool sound more exclusive than it really is, and some believe it came from a box label. Either way, the clothespin with a humble beginning as just a device used for hanging clothes on a clothesline is now as famous as some of the filmmakers themselves – stage name and all.

Without C-47s, lighting just wouldn’t be the same on a set. We decided this tool represented exactly what we think short films represent – something filmmakers can’t live without.

To learn more about C-47: Georgia Short Film Showcase, visit http://www.cforty7.com/. The next deadline for submissions is December 31.

GPB Education Resources Available for Download

GPB Education is working diligently to make our resources available for download from GPB Education Streaming (formerly known as unitedstreaming), a digital video-based learning resource that has been scientifically proven to increase academic achievement. GPB Classroom Chemistry: A Study of Matter and GPB Classroom Physics Fundamentals full-episodes are now available for download by logging into http://gpb.unitedstreaming.com. For more information on these science-related resources provided by GPB Education, please e-mail us at classroom@gpb.org.

Lee y serás Training Sessions

Learn how to use everyday family activities to help children become better learners and readers using stories from the rich Latino cultures and traditions in Lee y serás: Family Album’s FREE two-day training sessions on January 22 and 23, 2008 at Georgia Public Broadcasting. These training sessions are brought to you by GPB Education and the Department of Technical and Adult Education’s Office of Adult Literacy in partnership with Scholastic, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and Verizon.

Lee y serás is a national Latino early literacy initiative that empowers and engages families and communities to foster children’s literacy development. By providing research-based, in-culture, and bilingual curricula and materials for families, childcare providers and leaders, the program's goal is to create long-term attitudinal and behavioral change in an effort to help close the education achievement gap.

If you are interested in attending these training sessions, please e-mail Carol Veatch at CVeatch@gpb.org. Seating is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Future additional training dates may be arranged if we cannot accommodate everyone during this round of training sessions.

For more information visit www.leeyseras.net.

Hands on Literacy

Georgia educators and teaching artists had the opportunity to experience a storytelling technique called Story Basket Theater as a tool for introducing literacy skills to young learners. Karina Naumer, Master Artist, National Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, provided both a master class around the classic tale The Tortoise and the Hair and an interview. In the master class, Karina demonstrates the techniques of developing a Story Basket Theater lesson and works with the group to give them practice. In the interview, Karina answers questions about using drama techniques to foster literacy skills in very young learners. The technique of Story Basket Theater is the particular focus of this interview.
To see this strategy in action, you can view Hands On Literacy and Story Basket Theater. Both of these programs highlight the on-going drama and literacy work being done by Seaborn Lee Elementary School and The Alliance Theater.

Additional resources:

The Center for Education at Wolf Trap

www.wolftrap.org/foundation/center.html

Alliance Theater

www.alliancetheatre.org/

Watch these programs on the GPB Education Satellite Network:

Hands On Literacy

Channel 420:

January 4 at 9:30 AM

January 11 and 18t at 6:30 AM

January 25 at 10 AM

Story Basket Theatre

Channel 420:

January 4 at 11:00 AM

January 11 and 18 at 8:00 AM

January 25 at 11:30 AM

Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest

GPB is proud to announce the Fourteenth Annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest taking place January 1 – March 3, 2008. The contest challenges children in kindergarten through third grade to draw upon their verbal and artistic abilities by writing and illustrating their own picture storybooks. First place winners from each grade level will go on to compete in the National contest.

Prizes:

Winners of the national competition shall be awarded the following:

* First Place Winner – The first place winner in each grade level shall receive a laptop computer.

* Second Place Winner – The second place winner in each grade level shall receive a flat panel TV and DVD player.

* Third Place Winner – The third place winner in each grade level shall receive an MP3 player.

* Winners in all of the above categories will also win 3 sets of 5 Reading Rainbow DVDs and matching feature books – one each for their school, community library and home.

Rules:

* Each Kindergarten and First grade participant must submit an original, single authored story (no co-authored stories) with a minimum of 50 words and a maximum of 200 words.

* Each Second and Third grade participant must submit an original, single authored story (no co-authored stories) with a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 350 words.

* For purposes of counting words, include such words as “a”, “an”, and “the”, but do not include words on non-story pages such as the title page.

* Stories may be fact or fiction, prose or poetry.

* Text must be typed or printed legibly.

* Participants who cannot write may dictate their story to an adult, but the story must be the original work of the child.

* Invented spelling will be accepted.

* Stories must include at least five original, clear and colorful illustrations.

* Text and illustrations (or a combination of both) must appear on one side of each piece of paper and page numbers must appear on the back side of each piece of paper.

* Any failure to adhere to these Contest rules may result in disqualification.

Entry Form

* Each story must be accompanied by a completed entry form signed by the participant’s parent/guardian or teacher.
* Applications can be downloaded by clicking here.


For More Information:

* Contact Education Services at (404) 685-2550 or education@gpb.org.

2007 TIE Network Recap: Look What We Did!

What a year we had in 2007! The GPB Education TIE Network has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception on January 1, 2007. Now as we celebrate our first birthday, we can proudly boast that our statewide professional network is 675 members strong with over 100 Georgia school districts represented! With help from active members who have shared their favorite technology-enhanced projects, we have over 300 digital resources uploaded to the TIE Network Resource Center.

In our first year, we have also continued to enhance the TIE Network website features and capabilities. Now TIE Network Community bloggers are able to reach a broader audience with selected posts appearing on the TIE Network homepage and feeding into the GPB Education and GPB homepages! Check the TIE Event Calendar for upcoming webinars on how to maximize your TIE Network Community Blog entries.

Not only have we grown significantly in 2007, but we’ve also shared our ideas and resources during regional and statewide events, and we couldn’t have made it happen without the support of the following Educational Technology Training Centers and universities located across the state:

Georgia Southern University in Statesboro (March 2007)

Dalton State ETTC (April 2007)

Albany State ETTC (May 2007)

Pioneer ETTC in Cleveland (June 2007)

Valdosta State ETTC (July 2007)

CSRA RESA/ETTC in Augusta (September 2007)

Armstrong Atlantic State University ETTC in Savannah (October 2007)

Columbus State ETTC (December 2007)

We also “showed our TIE green” at the following conferences:

NECC in Atlanta (June 2007)

COMO Conference on Jekyll Island (October 2007)

GaETC Conference in Atlanta (November 2007)

Some of our event themes included “Go Green with TIE,” “Dive into Technology,” “Kick Off the School Year with Technology,” and “Wrap Up 2007 with Technology.” To view photos from these events, visit our TIE Network Google Web Albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/gpbtienetwork and click on the event album that intrigues you the most.

We have scheduled regional TIE Network events for 2008, and you can view these upcoming opportunities by visiting the TIE Network Calendar. We look forward to seeing current TIE Network members at the First District ETTC event scheduled for Saturday, February 23rd and during the Georgia Middle School Association Conference in Savannah February 26-27.

For more information on the TIE Network, please visit www.tienetwork.org.