The VA K-12 Site License Consortium is offering educators GIS training opportunities across the state this summer.  If you know of any interested people or districts, the following link will give them access to the calendar and the application: http://gs.cisat.jmu.edu/software/development.html

Some good news about the position of geography in the current mark up of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), previously known as NCLB, and now to be called Every Child Achieves:

Initially, geography was mentioned once in the document, but in the portion describing funding, only history and civics were listed.

John Wertman, the AAG’s Director of Public Policy, organized a panel session on the Friday of AAG with Sarah Bednarz; the Secretary of Education of Illinois, Dr. Beth Purvis; and a staffer from Senator Dick Durbin’s office. During that discussion, Sarah had the opportunity to speak to Beth and the staffer about geography’s omission.

Yesterday geography was inserted into the reauthorization, asserting our rightful position in the “social studies.”

If you wish to read the bill, here is a link: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114s1177pcs/pdf/BILLS-114s1177pcs.pdf.  The relevant section begins on page 320:

 ”SEC. 2304. NATIONAL ACTIVITIES.

“(a) Purpose.-The purpose of this section is to promote innovative strategies to promote innovative history, civic, and geography instruction, learning strategies, and professional development activities and programs for teachers, principals, and other school leaders, particularly for low-income students in underserved areas.

“(b) In General.-From the funds reserved by the Secretary under section 2301(b)(3), the Secretary shall award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities for the purposes of-

“(1) developing, implementing, evaluating and disseminating for voluntary use, innovative, evidenced-based approaches to civic learning, geography, and American history, which may include hands-on civic engagement activities for teachers and low-income students, that demonstrate innovation, scalability, accountability, and a focus on underserved populations; or

“(2) other innovative evidence-based approaches to improving the quality of student achievement and teaching of American history, civics, geography, and government in elementary schools and secondary schools.

“(c) Program Periods and Diversity of Projects.-

“(1) In general.-A grant awarded by the Secretary to an eligible entity under this section shall be for a period of not more than 3 years.

“(2) Renewal.-The Secretary may renew a grant awarded under this section for 1 additional 2-year period.

“(3) Diversity of projects.-In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary shall ensure that, to the extent practicable, grants are distributed among eligible entities that will serve geographically diverse areas, including urban, suburban, and rural areas.

“(d) Applications.-In order to receive a grant under this section, an eligible entity shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, and in such manner, and containing such information that the Secretary may reasonably require.

“(e) Eligible Entity.-In this section, the term ‘eligible entity’ means an institution of higher education or other nonprofit or for-profit organization with demonstrated expertise in the development of evidence-based approaches for improving the quality of American history, geography, and civics learning and teaching.

Wherever you will be May 15-25, we need your help putting biodiversity on the map!

Contribute to a global snapshot of biodiversity for National Geographic’s Great Nature Project by sharing photos of plants, animals, and fungi. To learn more and help spread the word, check out the media toolkit with pdfs of flyers, banners, postcards, and a guide explaining how to use the resources.

Email greatnatureproject@ngs.org with questions.

A satellite that detects elevation changes on Earth indicates the city of Kathmandu has risen between about 3 to 6 feet, or about 1 to 2 meters, after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that rocked Nepal on April 25. The Sentinal-1, a European Space Agency satellite, noted a significant horizontal shift as well. Read more and find photos at http://mashable.com/2015/04/30/nepal-earthquake-raised-kathmandu/

In light of NCGE’s 100th anniversary, in an effort to honor the next generation of geography educators, NCGE is unofficially launching its new NCGE Future GeoLeader Free Student Membership Program. Please feel free to let students throughout your state know about this opportunity and encourage students to take advantage of the membership benefits provided by this new program. This program was established to provide needed support and resources to an expanding geographic education community, while also providing an opportunity for student members to connect with the greater community of geography educators. You can access information about the program here: http://www.ncge.org/ncge-free-student-membership-program. The application form can either be filled out electronically (and then signed with an electronic signature), or printed and scanned from the VGA website and then emailed to slerner@ncge.org.

Below you will find the official position of the VGA.  Please write to your one or all of the Senators listed to tell them of your position.

We need your help!

The Senate version of the measure to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka NCLB or ESEA.) is being marked up in committee today. While the social studies were not ‘left behind’ in the Senators’ bill, geography most certainly was. Included are relevant passages below, but you can go to http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/S_EveryChildAchievesActof2015.pdf to see the bill in its entirety.

We are requesting that those who care about geography education write members of the committee to reinsert geography into the bill to counter the almost exclusive focus on American history and civics. My current understanding is that numbers of emails matter.  The committee members can be found here.

They are:

Republicans (by rank}

Lamar Alexander (TN)
Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Rand Paul (KY)
Susan Collins (ME)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Mark Kirk (IL)
Tim Scott (SC)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Bill Cassidy, M.D. (LA)

Democrats (by rank)

Patty Murray (WA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (PA)
Al Franken (MN)
Michael F. Bennet (CO)
Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
Tammy Baldwin (WI)
Christopher S. Murphy (CT)
Elizabeth Warren (MA)

The only mention of geography is on pages 290 and 529. However, page 290 is not clear since it isn’t mentioned again in description of how the allocated funds can be used.

You will also find dedicated funding for Civics and History on page 283…not social studies, nor geography.

What’s Included
Title II of the proposed bill (“High Quality Teachers, Principals and other School Leaders”) contains (under section 2003) provisions for the teaching of “American history and civics education.”

Section 2302 of Title II, creates a competitive grant program that would award grants to local education agencies (LEAs) to carry out activities promoting the teaching of traditional American history in elementary and secondary schools as a separate academic subject and not a component of social studies….

Section 2303, creates ‘Presidential and Congressional academies for American history and civics.’

Section 2304, creates a competitive grant program to promote innovative strategies to promote innovative instruction in history, civics and geography stressing serving currently under-served school populations. Grants will be awarded for developing, implementing and disseminating for voluntary use, innovative, evidence-based approaches to civic learning and American history, which may include hands-on civic engagement activities for teachers and students, that demonstrate innovation, scalability, accountability, and a focus on underserved populations.

How you can help
1. Share this news with your friends and networks. Encourage them to

2. Sign-up for legislative alert emails.

3. And today, write the Senators on the Education Committee demanding they include an equal representation of all the social studies disciplines in the ESEA bill!

Sandra R. Carter, Recording Secretary, VGA

The theme for 2015 is “Explore! The Power of Maps”

Join National Geographic in celebrating and exploring the power of maps during the week of November 15-21, 2015. Be sure to check out the Geography Awareness Week webpage to gain access to NGS’s suite of resources.

The two week-long “The Story of Virginia” Teachers Institutes will be held twice: June 29-July 3 and July 20-24. For $150 teachers receive all texts and materials, lunches and three hours of graduate credit from the University of Richmond’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. The classes are open to all teachers and the University of Richmond will provide housing for out of town participants at a very reasonable rate. Here is the link to the UR website:  http://spcs.richmond.edu/degrees/education/teacher-institute/index.html

The other two institutes are the E. Claiborne Robins, Jr., Teachers Institute and the online institute, Primarily Virginia.

This year’s Robins Institute is a two-day workshop “Teaching Alternative Voices,” that we have developed to address some of the changes in the APUSH standards. It too is open to all, but  was developed with secondary teachers in mind. The class meets July 13-14 and the cost is $125.

Primarily Virginia will give teachers the opportunity to work with their colleagues from across Virginia on using resources from the Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Congress to enrich student learning. Primarily Virginia: Emancipation and Reconstruction will begin on June 1. The institute consists of six modules, each led by a different scholar. The fee is $40.

All three institutes can be accessed by the link below.
http://www.vahistorical.org/attend-event/programs-and-activities/educator-programs