VGA member Chris Bunin, Albemarle High School, has a great new article on using GIS, complete with examples, in the history–or any other classroom. It appears in the March 2015 issue History Matters! Ideas, Notes, and News About History Education, an online publication of NCHE (National Council for History Education). Check it out.

“Ancestry in your Classroom” is a workshop on doing ancestry research with your students, It will be offered by Judith Painter and colleagues at Andrew Lewis Middle School in Salem, Virginia, on Saturday April 18. Deadline for registration is April 6, or April 1 if you will need lodging.

We are excited this year to be offering a workshop on Ancestry research for your students and ideas to incorporate Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and Fold3 into your classroom. This workshop is for teachers of all curricular areas and all levels. The features covered are all available for FREE to teachers. We will be offering you even more ideas for incorporating geography and history through these two aspects into your classrooms!!!

Join us for these sessions at Andrew Lewis Middle School, in Salem, VA.

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Teachers will be engaged in learning how to utilize Ancestry Classroom, Newspapers.com, and Fold3 as well as Journey Through Hallowed Ground’s lessons relating to Civil War soldiers. Ancestry Classroom offers a unique opportunity for teachers to incorporate ancestry research by their students into existing curriculum.

Newspapers.com will give teachers access to historic newspapers from 1700-today from their locality and the world (not all newspapers have been digitized). Fold3 is a database of soldiers from the Revolutionary War to modern era that often includes artifacts about the soldier. Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a non-profit organization that promotes the history of the Civil War on Route 15 from Monticello to Gettysburg. Their current work includes planting a tree for every soldier (north and south) who died during the Civil War.

Websites are FREE.

Three teachers will be presenting on Ancestry and extension activities at the workshop.

Registration form

NCGE’s Member Spotlight this month features Bob Morrill. Go to http://ncge.org/member-spotlight to read about his life in geography.

Help to shape the 2015 NCSS Annual Conference by submitting a proposal to present a session or by reviewing proposals! Deadline for submissions is March 1, 2015.

The 95th Annual Conference will be held in New Orleans, November 13-15, 2015. Visit NCSS Proposal Submissions(http://www.socialstudies.org/ncss2015proposals/openconf.php) for more information.

A BBC photo essay on the economic and environmental impacts of the drying of Aral Sea is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-a0c4856e-1019-4937-96fd-8714d70a48f7

Includes before and after aerial photos.

School teachers (grades 6-12) are invite to apply to participate in one-week workshop, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, on school desegregation in Virginia and the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision.  During this workshop, to be held in Richmond, Virginia, in late July 2015, teachers will interact with leading scholars in the field, visit historic sites and archives related to school desegregation in Virginia, and discuss curricular and instructional strategies related to teaching this subject.

Project directors:
Dr. Yonghee Suh, Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University
Dr. Brian Daugherity, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

For more information, visit http://thelongroadfrombrownneh.weebly.com/

Please contact  ThelongroadfrombrownNEH@gmail.com with any questions.

FLYER

The 2015 Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) will provide up to 14 U.S. K-12 teachers and administrators with the opportunity to travel to a conference in San Francisco and to Japan to learn about ESD efforts and strengthen ESD curricula in both countries. The program, administered by Fulbright Japan and funded by the Japanese and U.S. governments, is fully-funded with the exception of some meals. ESD is “a vision of education that seeks to balance human and economic well-being with cultural traditions and respect for the earth’s natural resources,” according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Up to 14 educators from Japan will travel to the U.S. in late April, and up to 14 educators from the U.S. will travel to Japan in June. At the end of the program in each country, all 24 educators will gather for a few days of joint collaboration.

Please visit the program website at http://www.iie.org/Programs/ESD for more information or to start an application. The application deadline is February 11, 2015. Contact esdteacher@iie.org with any questions.
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