Tennessee DEN

Calling all TN DEN members!

We are about to launch our first official get-together in East Tennessee.  Thursday, May 3rd, we will meet in Knoxville for the weekly downtown summer concert series, "Sundown in the City."

We will meet and greet outside the Preservation Pub on Market Square to the right of the Sundown stage from 5:00 to 5:45 PM.  DEN Members and their significant others will spend the time getting to know one another, share some ideas, and discuss future "more serious" endeavors!

For more information on parking, lodging, and such, check out the Sundown in the City website.  The featured band is The Wailers.  Check them out on their website also.

Please RSVP to Teryl Magee, our East TN Council Chair, by May 1st to receive a certificate of attendance for the event.  Hope to see all of you there!

There are plans in the works for a DEN gathering at NECC in Atlanta!  In order to make this a successful event, we need all DEN members to take a short survey.  Literally, it is only two clicks and you’re done!

You can access the survey by clicking here.

Thanks for your help!  It could be a terrific time in Hotlanta!

The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) will be conducting a teacher institute in Chattanooga from 8:00am Friday, 20 July through 1:00pm Sunday, 22 July 2007.  There   will be a combination of content sessions, teaching strategy sessions,  receptions, meals, and tours of the Chattanooga area battlefields.  Teachers are responsible for their own room and travel, but meals are included in the program.  There is a $50 refundable registration deposit, but there is no other registration cost.  The Read House Hotel will be the site of the activities.   

A mixture of methods and content knowledge will be presented at the institute.  The purpose of the program is not to provide a series of lectures; rather, our goal is to help teachers find practical, usable classroom ideas to boost your students’ skill and motivation.   

And, you will have the opportunity to network with teachers from across the country.  Eminent historians James I. Robertson, Jr., and William C. Davis will be featured at this event.  Dr. Robertson is a prominent author as well as Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  Mr. Davis is the author or editor of more than 40 books in the fields of Civil War and Southern history who was featured on   the A&E network series Civil War Journal.

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To date, workshops include Dancing the Civil War, Southern Newspapers, Making Local Connections, The Navies, Country Music and the Civil War, Controversy and the Causes of the Civil War, Patrick Cleburne, Textbook Strategies for Struggling Readers, and Period Perspectives on Slavery’s End.  Field trip choices include either Chickamauga or Lookout Mountain.

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To register or obtain further information, contact Jen Rosenberry at jrosenberry@civilwar.org or call 301.665.1400 X 204.

I know it is short notice, but the following information was sent to me by Karla Halcomb about a week ago.  I apologize for the lateness in getting it posted!

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American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS is pleased to announce a new fellowship opportunity for elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers of social studies, history, and language arts for summer study in Moscow, Russia. With funding that has just been awarded from the US Department of Education (Fulbright-Hays), American Councils has fellowships of $4,000-$5,000 available for school teachers of all levels to support their participation in the summer 2007 Contemporary Russia program.

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A five-week program focusing on area studies, Contemporary Russia offers courses about Russian economics, politics, and culture; all content-based classes will be taught in English by faculty of the Moscow School of Higher Economics, one of Russia’s most prestigious centers for the study of social sciences. Program participants will also receive six hours per week of Russian language instruction at the appropriate level.  (We will be able to accommodate participants of all proficiency levels, including those who have never studied Russian before.)

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A full-time U.S. resident director will oversee the program, and serve as a liaison between university faculty, administrators, host families and participants. The program fee of $6,000 includes round-trip international travel from Washington, DC to Moscow; room and board two meals per day on the weekday and three meals per day on the weekends); tuition; weekly cultural excursions; Russian peer tutors; ten graduate semester-hours of academic credit thro ugh Bryn Mawr College; pre-departure orientation in Washington, DC.; international health insurance; and Russian visas.

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Area-studies courses conducted in English:

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Russian Politics Today: domestic and foreign policy, major political parties and actors, the war in Chechnya, Russia’s relations with the West.

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Russian Economics in Transition: the transition from communism to the current economy, problems of corruption and organized crime.

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Russian Contemporary Culture: pop culture and mass media, Russia ’s cultural and social mores, historical background.

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Program dates: June 26 - July 30, 2007, beginning with the pre-departure orientation in Washington, DC. Eligible applicants must have a passport (valid at least through the end of 2008) at the time of application.

Application Deadline: April 25, 2007.  An application can be downloaded from website below:

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Outbound Programs

American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS

1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 700

Washington, DC  20036

Telephone: (202) 833-7522

Email: outbound@americancouncils.org

Website: www.acrussiaabroad.org

Cindy Putnam alerted me to a podcast website for Memphis City Schools.  I’ve been listening to some of them, and they are awesome!  It makes me really jealous that our system is so "behind the times"!  I’ve now added this site to my favorites list so I can continue to learn from our partners across the state.

They recently posted a podcast titled "Talking Things Over in the DEN."  When you get to the podcast site, scroll down the a little to find this one.

Thanks Cindy!  And thanks to the West TN Leadership Council!

I just received this from Karla Halcomb today.  Sorry it is posted a little late, but please read…

4, 3, 2, 1…. That’s right… the final countdown in rolling!  3 days left to make sure you have your application in to the National Institutes.

I have to tell you, I went to the National Institute last year in Silver Spring, Maryland, and it was a turning point for me.  I learned so much about how to integrate technology into my lesson plans and into the lives of my students.  I was introduced to digital storytelling, podcasting, and more.  We worked hard. We played hard.  We even got to be the first people in the world to see the Atlas: China episode….WOW!  That doesn’t even cover the really cool free software we got!!

If you can, this is an event you will not want to miss.  If you have already applied, you should have received a confirmation email.  If you have not, please email Jannita at Jannita_Demian@discovery.com ASAP.

Good Luck!  We are looking forward to seeing you at the institutes!

Calling all DEN members in Tennessee!

Don’t forget to post your DEN events for the Spring Training Promotion.  You can post them here.  Three events by June qualifies you for a DEN baseball cap!

Also, there is still time to register for one of the Summer Institutes.  The three possibilities include Maryland, California, and a Cruise!  Here is the registration form.  The cut off date for registrations is April 13.

Until next time!

i-lighter is an interesting little tool that I am trying to decide if I really like or not.  i-light is a free download that allows you to highlight text on any webpage, add your own notes, and then save the highlighted text and notes in a file for later review.

I had a little trouble with error messages early on, and had to ask tech support exactly how to save the files (I couldn’t find them easily).  However, once on track, it is a fairly easy program to learn and use.

Their tech department told me that updates are coming at the end of the month that will make i-lighter work easier with stronger web integration.

Here is a brief slideshare to show you how it works.  Let me know what you think about it.