wide-eyed

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has more than 100 interactive exhibits and an estimated 17 hours of interpretive content. Their website has a generous amount of educational resources, including a visitor’s guide and resources on teaching current events. If you can, take your class there! Need-based scholarships are available and applications can be completed online. I’ve heard they are even covering the costs of hiring buses from NYC, at least through this year.

No, it’s not about roasting peas around an open fire, an ironic form of itself, nor the latest Spanish shoe. It’s an unconference, and more than ‘un,’ it’s in. As media returns full-force to circles of communities educating each other, so does learning. Think of a knitting circle or a food co-op, but around podcasting. (Come on, we feed our ears like our bellies.) At Podcamp NYC, it might be your grandma teaching you, your roommate’s sexy boyfriend, or another hero in the field. And maybe you have your own recipe to share. Flavorpill arranges it before us like the tasty morsel it is:

Net-savvy New Yorkers know Web 2.0′s bevy of social-networking technologies and user-generated content are volatile but powerful tools that have the potential to topple textbook media and marketing; at NYC’s inaugural PodCamp, learn how to best use them all to your advantage. Bloggers, vloggers, and would-be podcasting personalities can attend how-to (and how-not-to) panels for amateurs; business-minded sessions gear pros towards marketing, branding, editing, and selling content; and seminars teach how portable media affects education and nonprofit organizations. Gung-ho newbies can test tips and tricks they’ve learned by volunteering to document the festivities for the Video Team. (IB)

Note: Registration is required. There’s also a networking party on Fri 4.6 (6-9pm) at Slate (54 W 21st St), free with RSVP.

For The Future
by Wendell Berry

It’s time to find a piece of earth and put some roots down. Take advantage of Arbor Day on April 27th as an opportunity to make NYC and our little Earth a cleaner, greener place, by doing a few of these little things:

Find a Location
If you talk with the Parks Department (contact someone in your borough’s office), they might be willing to help you plant on school grounds or a neighborhood park! My students and I will be planting a park close to our school off the BQE to try and absorb some of those particulates that are giving our students asthma.

Get the Trees
If you join the National Arbor Day Foundation, you’ll get 10 free trees. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has a School Seedling Program and you can get free trees or shrubs from them too! Talk with the Parks Department to decide which variety is best for your location. You can request a street tree from the City, but that can take awhile.

Extend the Activity
The Arbor Day Foundation has a bunch of free materials for teachers. They also have great resources for kids. Leaf Miner is fun for any age. And “The Giving Tree” (HarperCollins) and “Miss Rumphius” (Barbara Cooney) are good lessons on victory over tribulation.

Get Famous
The NYSDEC has a National Arbor Day poster contest for fifth grade students.

Just enjoy getting your hands dirty!

This week’s New Yorker has a quirky article on how one teacher is teaching the art of scrutiny in the form of ad-busting to kindergartners in Park Slope. A little reminder for teachers everywhere to figure out a way to incorporate critical thinking against the grain, using the most pervasive blandishments. Does milk really do a body good if it’s full of hormones? A question an early burgeoning eight-year old might be interested in.

There’s a slew of resources out there to stir things up, so the most profane rises to the top for an opportunity to be skimmed away – okay, stew season is over. Well, you won’t find talk of soup on Super Size Me, but if your students haven’t seen it, you’re sure to get them talking (Netflix is a write off for teachers, isn’t it?). I’m sorry to say I have Charlotte’s Web in my queue – not because it isn’t an excellent commentary on cruelty to animals, but because I heard it sucks. Nevertheless, my students loved the book and movies make their toes wiggle.

Clean Air NY is offering a free 5-day Air Quality Awareness curriculum for teachers. It helps educate and inform students about air pollution and prevention. Teachers are provided with everything they need – a teacher’s manual, workbooks for students and all other materials needed for the exercise. The program meets State Science Standards. They’ve got some great links for students up on their site to supplement their program, plus ideas on how individuals and organizations can reduce the ozone. Contact them if you’re interested in signing up.

The D.U.C. Program distributes books on contemporary art and culture free of charge to rural and inner-city libraries, schools and alternative reading centers nationwide. The program aims to actively further a more egalitarian access to contemporary art, and is committed to fostering partnerships between publishers, non-profit organizations, librarians and readers to enrich and diversify library collections. The D.U.C program offers well over 490 titles by 90 different publishers. The program reaches readers in all 50 states and has placed well over 200,000 free books in public libraries, schools, and alternative pedagogical venues.

I got some amazingly beautiful books for our library through this program!

D.U.C. is run by A.R.T. Press, which:

primarily publishes books based on artist to artist conversations. The conversation format permits a thorough and at the same time informal investigation of the artists’ practice and the larger social issues that inform it. By virtue of their clarity, personal focus, affordability, and innovative method of distribution, these books make possible the presentation of contemporary artists and their work to a wide readership.

Contact them at artpress@artresourcestransfer.org.

With the open market hitting the NYC Department of Education site in the next couple of weeks, it’s time to ponder transition. If you’re interested in teaching in a small school, register now for the New Visions Job Fair at Pace University on March 26, 2007 5:00-8:00 p.m. While you’re at it, read up on the concept of small schools and New Visions, explore their schools and create your profile and upload your resume. They’ll keep you posted on openings.

You can also check out openings in charter schools at U.S. Charter Schools. For more ideas, check out Educating Tomorrow’s Opportunities in Education.

Earthwatch, a leading environmental organization, has a fellowship, Live from the Field, taking educators on a journey of action professional development with lead scientists. During their expeditions, teachers share their learning experiences directly with classrooms at home through web posts of journals, photos, lessons, suggested activities, and teleconferencing. Sometimes they’re able to accommodate requests to be placed with another awarded educator or paying volunteer (note your interest on both applications). The application deadline for NYC Fellowships was March 1, but they accept applications until the positions are filled.

If you want to be involved, but can’t get into the field, consider being a host. Fill out an application indicating your curricular interests and scheduling preferences. Based on your application, Earthwatch will match you with a field research site and Fellow who’ll respond to your students’ questions via the web and teleconferencing. Check current field sites recruiting host classrooms.

If you want to organize a group expedition with your students, friends, families, clubs, etc., they offer customized group expeditions for educators or volunteers. You can even get your students, age 16 and up, into the field with their Teen Teams program. There’s a student scholarship program for all student teams. Nominate a high school student by emailing scap@earthwatch.org.

Teachers have a wonderful opportunity during the summer to step back, reflect and recharge before beginning the cycle all over again. If possible, summer becomes a door to the world and teachers can refocus their interests; some sublet their apartments and live from their backpacks, some take courses, or both. And if you’re one of those genuinely selfless spirits found among teachers, you extend your service by volunteering. Now is the time to design a rich summer – one opening into a new reality that nourishes and encourages depth, all of which is brought back and helps take students beyond the classroom.

Consider the Planet Drum Foundation. They’re seeking volunteers for their Ecological City projects in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador willing to contribute at least a month. Volunteers work re-vegetating the landscape by planting and maintaining native plants that reduce erosion and create habitats for birds and other animals. You’ll join neighborhood efforts to learn and use ecological practice, and help in renewable energy development. Your teaching mojo will come in handy as you teach bioregional environmental education groups for children and adults.

Benefits include free accommodation in a large shared apartment, extraordinary beach and wilderness recreational activities, and opportunities to improve Spanish skills as well as experience tropical Ecuadorian culture.

A background in environmental education and activities, Spanish language speaking ability, and cooperative living experience are desirable. However, willing hands and a desire to help restore our damaged biosphere are most important. Check it out, commit, and send a description of your qualifications and interests to Clay Plager-Unger, Field Projects Manager, planetdrumecuador@yahoo.com.

Looking for a change? Want to be an English missionary? Well, somebody’s going to do it if you don’t – the word is getting out. The Costa Rican government is starting a major English teaching initiative, mandating the English language education of 25,000 students, in part in response to the growth of call centers (and surely because of its booming tourist and retirement industry). They’re still in the primary stages of planning, so they’re just starting to advertise. One organization, Instituto Daza LTDA, is on the hunt for 30-40 teachers. They might be able to connect you with others schools too, in case you have your heart set on a location. You could always teach English by day, and estudie español por la noche so you’re prepared for the Spanish-language takeover of the U.S. by 2025.

They’re looking for applicants with a BA in the field of English teaching or similar, but not necessary, and English teaching certificate (you can arrive early and get TEFL certification there). Contract range from 6 months to 2 years, and are starting as soon as possible. The salary hasn’t be determined, by they’re saying it’ll probably be around $1000 – $1200 a month, including one time tickets back and forth from the U.S. or Canada to Costa Rica. A home stay might be included. Find out more and email: David Hansen, Zaida Gutierrez, Insituto Daza LTDA, ipedcr@racsa.co.cr.