From: "The George Lucas Educational Foundation" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: (GLEF Blast Newsletter) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 15:44:20 -0700 Subject: GLEF Blast Newsletter: April 17, 2002
GLEF Blast, April 17, 2002 "By telling these stories, we honor the courageous pioneers -- parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and educators at all levels -- who are blazing a trail to a new horizon." -- George Lucas, Chairman New Home Page and Video Gallery: The George Lucas Educational Foundation welcomes you back to Edutopia Online, the new title for our Web publishing site. Along with a brand new home page giving clearer access to the depth of site content, we have created a special feature called the Video Gallery. The Gallery is an archive of all our short documentaries and expert interviews that allow visitors to see into innovative classrooms and hear directly from teachers and students. Detailed articles, research summaries, and links to hundreds of relevant Web sites, books, organizations, and publications are also available to help schools and communities build on successes in education. And now, step into the world of Edutopia Online ... ------------------------------------------------------------ I. What's Working in K-12 Schools II. Featured Video III. Expert Interviews IV. Free Newsletter - Spring 2002 Edutopia newsletter online! V. Books and Videos - New Book and CD now shipping VI. Conference Announcements and Grants VII. Blast Subscriptions ------------------------------------------------------------ I. What's Working in K-12 Schools * The Key Learning Community: Cultivating "Multiple Intelligences" Swimming against the tide, the Key Learning Community, a public K-11 Indianapolis school, emphasizes project-based exploration and deep understanding over rote memorization. The school's program is based on Harvard researcher Howard Gardner's theory of "multiple intelligences," which holds that each individual possesses different forms of intelligence to greater or lesser degrees. Students often work in multiage, and multigrade "pods" designed around themes that include Healthy Living, Managing Money and Finances, Literary Legends, and Take Five, a movie-making class. http://glef.org/keylearning.html * The Virtual Mentor Founded in 1995 to help students at a Colorado school connect with Hewlett-Packard engineers, the International Telementor Project (ITP) now serves more than 550 schools and home-schooling families throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and Germany. ITP matches business professionals for online mentoring with students during their classroom projects. Project Director and founder, David Neils says, "ITP's real focus isn't about technology or even telementoring. It's about helping students redefine learning where success is measured by how effectively the student is leveraging resources at school and home, in the local community, and globally to pursue unique interests. Grades, GPA, and standardized test results become byproducts rather than the focal point." http://glef.org/virtualmentor.html * Handhelds Go to Class In one of the largest school implementations to date, District 230 in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park has equipped its three high schools with 2,200 handheld computers. According to English, biology, and social studies teachers in the district, use of the handhelds has increased student productivity and efficiency across all disciplines. In just one example, Laura Ritchey had her biology students use the handhelds to create an "ecological footprint," a measurement of the human impact on nature. Sidestepping the tradition of handing out paper assignments, Ritchey "beamed" the assignments to her students' handheld computers via an infrared ray. The students then used their handhelds to collect field data and instantly input the data into the school computer for further analysis. http://glef.org/orlandpk.html ------------------------------------------------------------ II. Featured Video: The Key Learning Community This 8 1/2-minute video gives you an inside look at the Key Learning Community and how it has shaped a curriculum that honors "multiple intelligences" and supports intellectual exploration and creative expression. http://www.glef.org ------------------------------------------------------------ III. Expert Interviews * Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., psychologist and author of "Flow" and "Creativity," describes what schools and parents can do to promote optimal learning experiences for children. http://www.glef.org The Key Learning Community helps students embody Dr. Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow." Hear the principal and two teachers at the Key Learning Community weigh in on the "flow room," the school's approach to "multiple intelligences," projects, and alternative assessment. * Pat Bolaņos, Principal, Key Learning Community http://glef.org/bolanos.html * Bev Hoeltke, Teacher, Key Learning Community http://glef.org/hoeltke.html * Geoff Davis, History and Geography Teacher, Key Learning Community http://glef.org/davis.html ------------------------------------------------------------ IV. Free Newsletter - Spring 2002 Edutopia newsletter is now available! This 20-page issue addresses the many creative ways educators and students are using the Internet and other multimedia tools to build global understanding. Download a PDF version of the newsletter at http://www.glef.org/edutopia.html. Or subscribe to receive a free subscription to the newsletter at http://www.glef.org/subform.html. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. Books and Videos * Edutopia: Success Stories for Learning in the Digital Age - $19.95 This new book is filled with more than 40 articles, includes full-color photos, and contains a useful list of books, Web sites, and organizations. It comes with a unique CD-ROM that contains more than 70 minutes of video footage from inside the featured classrooms. Covering a range of topics from assessment to technology integration, Edutopia is perfect as a course textbook or reader in both teacher preparation courses and inservice institutes. * Teaching in the Digital Age: Project-Based Learning and Assessment - $15 This two-hour videocassette contains the fourth installment in the Teaching in the Digital Age series: stories of classrooms where learning is taught in the context of real-world challenges and where assessment provides a more complete picture of student progress. Our online shopping cart is available at http://glef.org/products.html or call 1.888.GLEF.ORG (1.888.453.3674). All our products are available online. We offer Free Shipping for orders sent Ground within the continental United States. ------------------------------------------------------------ VI. Conference Announcements and Grants The George Lucas Educational Foundation is a nonprofit operating foundation and does not give grants. However, we encourage visitors seeking grants or grant information to check the resource list on our Web site. http://www.glef.org/grant.html * Schools for a New Millennium This program offers K-12 educators an opportunity to improve the teaching of a humanities subject throughout the entire school. Funded projects will engage teachers, administrators, students, scholars, and others in two years of intensive collaborative work. The project will emphasize professional and curricular development and the use of new technology. Any U.S., nonprofit, IRS tax-exempt organization is eligible to apply. State and local governments are also eligible. Deadline: October 2, 2002. Grants provide up to $100,000 for a project lasting up to two years. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/milschools.html * American Honda Foundation Grants are created for nonprofits, including K-12 schools and school districts, education institutions, nonprofit scientific and education organizations, and national programs involved with curriculum development that encourage innovative education methods and techniques. Eligible projects focus on math, science, the environment, and technology. The foundation also supports youth job-training programs. The grants typically range from $10,000-$75,000. The upcoming application deadline is May 1, 2002. http://www.hondacorporate.com/community/?subsection=foundation *The Tech Museum Awards The Tech Museum of Innovation is accepting global nominations for individuals and organizations that have either developed new technologies or are using existing technologies in an innovative manner to address the societal needs of a large population in the area of education. Five finalists will be honored at a black-tie dinner in November. The winner will be awarded a $50,000 cash prize. Nominations will be accepted until May 7, 2002. http://www.thetech.org/techawards/ *The Digital Media Academy This series of weeklong technology-immersion courses on topics including Web design, digital video, 3-D modeling, desktop publishing, and animation will be held at Stanford University in June, July, and August 2002. The courses are designed for K-20 educators, adult learners, and high school and college students. http://www.DigitalMediaAcademy.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------ VII. GLEF Blast Subscriptions To subscribe, send an e-mail to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. Send "GLEF Blast Newsletter" administrative queries to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. For further information about GLEF, send an e-mail to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. GLEF does not sell or otherwise distribute to third parties the e-mail addresses of list members. ------------------------------------------------------------ The George Lucas Educational Foundation is a nonprofit operating foundation located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Established in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas, the Foundation documents and disseminates materials sharing hundreds of powerful examples of learning and teaching already successful in our nation's schools. We hope this information will stimulate active involvement and guide choices in school reform. ******************************************* For digest instead of individual postings, send the message: set k12newsletters digest to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, click and send (no body or subject: required) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] K12 Newsletters mailing list is a service of Classroom Connect - http://www.classroom.com Archives for K12 Newsletters can be found at: http://www.classroom.com/community/email/archives.jhtml?A0=K12NEWSLETTERS **********************************************************
