The Junior Ranger Experience

Description

In this workshop, teachers will get a chance to watch children participate in educational activities based on Stones River National Battlefield's curriculum-based lesson plans. Educators will also learn about the National Park Service's Junior Ranger and Web Ranger programs so that they can encourage their students to explore and learn from Stones River National Battlefield and other national parks on their own.

Contact name
McKay, John
Sponsoring Organization
Stones River National Battlefield
Phone number
615-893-9501
Target Audience
PreK-6
Start Date
Contact Title
Education Coordinator
Duration
Three hours

One-day Teacher Institute on Abraham Lincoln

Description

This institute invites educators from across the country to learn about Abraham Lincoln through the Library of Congress's primary and web-based materials. Participants will leave with strategies and materials they can use in their schools. The institute uses the Library's exhibition "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition" as its foundation.

Contact name
Mordan, Susan
Sponsoring Organization
Library of Congress
Phone number
202-707-9203
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Duration
Seven hours

One-day Teacher Institute on Abraham Lincoln

Description

This institute invites educators from across the country to learn about Abraham Lincoln through the Library of Congress's primary and web-based materials. Participants will leave with strategies and materials they can use in their schools. The institute uses the Library's exhibition "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition" as its foundation.

Contact name
Mordan, Susan
Sponsoring Organization
Library of Congress
Phone number
202-707-9203
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Duration
Seven hours

One-day Teacher Institute on Abraham Lincoln

Description

This institute invites educators from across the country to learn about Abraham Lincoln through the Library of Congress's primary and web-based materials. Participants will leave with strategies and materials they can use in their schools. The institute uses the Library's exhibition "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition" as its foundation.

Contact name
Mordan, Susan
Sponsoring Organization
Library of Congress
Phone number
202-707-9203
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Contact Title
202-707-9203
Duration
Seven hours

Invest in Teachers Grant

Description

Teachers affect the growth and development of every citizen in the United States. However, North Carolina schools have been asked to return $58 million to the state, and as schools tighten their budgets teacher professional development is often the first item cut. Thanks to a variety of partnerships, the LEARN NC Invest in Teachers Grant will award several grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, accompanied by an additional 50 percent match from the winning schools, so teachers will still receive the training and support they need to help their students succeed in the classroom and in life. Grant funds must be used for LEARN NC online professional development.

Sponsoring Organization
Learn NC
Eligibility Requirements

Applications must be accompanied by a letter of support from an authorized school or LEA officer, printed on official letterhead; grant winners are expected to add a 50 percent match to all awarded funds; grant funds must be used for LEARN NC online professional development; preference will be given to schools in the rural low-income school program, as defined by the United States Department of Education for the 2008 fiscal year.

Application Deadline
Award Amount
$5,000-$50,000
Location
NC

School House to White House: The Education of Presidents

Description

Like other citizens, U.S. Presidents attended elementary and secondary schools and then college. They went to classes; did their homework; joined clubs; participated in band, debate, and sports; worked on newspaper staffs; and ran for class office. The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum will host the National Archives traveling exhibit, "School House to White House: The Education of Presidents." Visitors journey back to the schooldays of the 20th-century presidents through photographs, archival materials, and museum objects revealing fascinating detail about the children who would one day grow up to be President of the United States. In conjunction with this exhibit, a teacher workshop will be held. Educators from four Presidential Libraries (Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, and Clinton) will share information and teaching activities for use in the classroom.

Contact name
Heuertz, Tom
Contact email
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Phone number
816-268-8241
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
$25
Duration
Six hours

Schoodic Education Adventure Residential Program

Description

Participants in this program join Acadia National Park staff for the Schoodic Education Adventure (SEA). Educators bring their 4th through 8th grade students to this three- or four-day residential program at the Schoodic Education and Research Center in Winter Harbor, Maine.

Curriculum-based classroom activities and hands-on field experience offer an invaluable learning experience in a unique setting. Situated on the rugged coast of Maine, the campus is accessible to shoreline, wetland, and forest ecosystems and provides a rich educational environment for students.

The SEA program is aligned with Maine State Learning Results and integrated across the curriculum. Opportunities for study include math, social studies, language arts, physical education, science, technology, health, and art. The program combines curriculum-based classroom activities
and hands-on field experience taught by both park rangers and teachers.

To attend the Schoodic Education Adventure, teachers can apply as early as the preceding fall, but no later than May in the spring before they plan to come. The program is offered in the fall from mid-September to mid-November.

Contact name
Petrie, Kate
Contact email
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Acadia National Park
Phone number
207-288-8808
Target Audience
4-8
Cost
$50 for a three-day program and $75 for four-day program (per participant; some chaperones are free, based on group size).
Contact Title
SEA Director
Duration
Three to four days

American Indians in the United States

Description

Participants in this course will discover American Indian history in the United States from the earliest evidence of human habitation through first contact with Europeans, conflicts in the West, World War II and other key events in 20th-century U.S. history, the American Indian rights movement, and into the present day.

Archaeological finds, traditional stories, the writings of early European explorers, government documents and treaties, oral histories, photographs, the arts, newspaper articles, and more will enrich exploration of key issues in Native American history nationwide.

The course will proceed chronologically. Within each topical module participants will have the opportunity to choose from several different geographically grouped assignments, allowing them to customize their own learning experience based on their interests, the demands of the curriculum, and their own priorities for teaching American Indian history.

For example, in any given unit, they may choose to focus on the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Northeast, or the Southeast. They may either follow one geographical track throughout the course or mix up their selections to allow for a broader view of American Indian history.

Sponsoring Organization
Learn NC
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
$225
Course Credit
3.0 CEUs
Duration
Eight weeks

The Civil Rights Movement in Context

Description

Too often, students view Civil Rights in isolation—they do not understand the rich historical background of African American history or the legacies of the movement in the more recent past. They often know some of the major civil rights figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks, but they do not grasp the complexities of civil rights leadership, or the experience of the movement's foot soldiers—the students in SNCC, the freedom riders, or the everyday people who marched, boycotted, protested, and volunteered to make the movement happen. This course will try to explore the movement from all of these perspectives using, where possible, firsthand accounts from the people who lived this important history.

The instructor will assume that the main historical outlines of the movement are familiar to K–12 teachers—instead of recounting that basic history, participants will spend much of the time delving into lesser-studied events of the movement and the primary sources that will allow them to explore their own ideas about the movement and its meanings in detail.

This course will allow for the opportunity for deep historical analysis and interpretation using primary sources. The best way to learn history is by doing history. Participants will tackle documents, images, newspaper accounts, artistic expressions, film, and other sources. By doing so, they will develop their own arguments and ideas about the movement, and help future students do the same. Many of the resources participants will use have been recently added to the internet and they should be exciting additions to the course, and to historical scholarship more broadly. As participants mine these sources, they will hopefully enjoy the historical process and also get some great ideas for classroom activities for their students.

The instructor has selected websites and multimedia resources that will give participating teachers access to literally thousands of documents including newspaper accounts, oral history interviews, government documents, photographs, works of art, film clips, and more. Participants will have the opportunity to analyze these sources through engaging activities to create a lesson plan for classroom use; to receive individualized, constructive feedback and answers to content-oriented questions from a well-versed instructor; and to join other teachers from across the state in lively online discussions throughout the course.

Sponsoring Organization
Learn NC
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
$225
Course Credit
3.0 CEUs
Duration
Eight weeks

African American History to 1950

Description

Participants in this course will examine African American history in the contexts of United States, North Carolina, and world history. They will begin by connecting the experiences of African Americans in early U.S. history to the histories and cultures of the African communities of their ancestors and will follow those cultural connections between Africa and the United States throughout the course.

Course topics include African Americans in the colonies and the early Republic, the Middle Passage, American slavery and the experiences of free African Americans in the antebellum period, the abolition movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the experiences of African Americans during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Throughout the course, participants will discuss African American activism through churches, political organizations, and communities and discover African American culture through art, music, and other cultural forms.

Sponsoring Organization
Learn NC
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
$225
Course Credit
3.0 CEUs
Duration
Eight weeks