Tapped In Newsletter: February 1998
----------------------------------------------------
********** ...ON THE TAPIS **********
----------------------------------------------------
Issue # 7 February, 1998
----------------------------------------------------
...ON THE TAPIS is a monthly letter with updates on TAPPED IN and related events. Check our website to learn more. Contact us
if you forgot your password or user name.
Quote of the Month:
"The man who can make hard things easy is the educator." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
---------------------------------------
[1] Expert Office Hours in TAPPED IN
[2] AFTER SCHOOL ONLINE
[3] TAPPED IN Quick Notes
[4] FYI Expanding Your Horizons for Girls
[5] Announcing a summer workshop for teachers
[6] Collaborative Activity for students
[7] Why TAPPED IN?
[8] About ...ON THE TAPIS
---------------------------------------
[1] Expert Office Hours in TAPPED IN
------------------------------------
TAPPED IN is home to many partner organizations. To learn more about each of these organizations and what they can offer you stop by and talk to their staff during their office hours. (If you can't make it to their office hours then email them and arrange a time to meet them online.)
-ED's Oasis
Monday-Friday 12-1 pm (Pacific)
2-4 pm (Pacific) Tues & Thurs
7-8 pm (Pacific) Thursday nights
-Geological Society of America
Fridays 8:30-10 am (Pacific)
-Lawrence Hall of Science/IOESL and SEPUP
Tuesdays 12:30-1:30 pm & 3:00-4:00 pm (Pacific)
-New Haven Unified School District
Monday & Wednesday 1-2pm (Pacific)
Wednesdays 8:30-10:00am (Pacific)
During ED's Oasis office hours you can learn more about their wonderful website http://www.EDsOasis.org and talk with Terrie Gray and Mike Menchaca. The mission of ED's Oasis is to make it easier to use the Internet with your students by providing links to the best educational web sites, role models to help visualize how to use those sites, resources for lesson-planning, and contact with peers for collaboration and just plain "figuring things out."
Stop by during Geological Society of America's Office Hours and meet Holly Devaul. She is the project coordinator of the Earth and Space Science Technological Education (ESSTEP) project at the Geological Society of America. ESTTEP provides educators with training and support for optimal classroom use of computer and other information-based technologies in earth, space, and environmental sciences.
Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) offers many science programs for teachers, including the Issue Oriented Elementary Sciene Leadership program (IOESL), and Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP). Come meet Din, Marlene, or Barbara. Din is a SEPUP developer who also works on IOESL as well as SEPUP's high school course. He taught junior high school for 8 years in Oakland CA. Marlene is a former elementary school teacher who is SEPUP's IOESL coordinator. Barbara is Co-Director of SEPUP for development of high school and middle school life science courses.
In the New Haven Unified School District Office hours you can Lyn Nichols and Cathy Hampton, two mentor teachers in New Haven's New Teacher Programs. Lyn is a mentor teacher with the Single Subject Partnership Program (an alternative creditialing option created by NHUSD and CSU Hayward). Cathy is director of the beginning teacher support and assessment (BTSA) project for K-4.
[2] AFTER SCHOOL ONLINE
-----------------------
After School Online is every Monday and Tuesday from 3-4 pm Pacific (6-7 Eastern). We've added a new East Coast Edition on Wednesdays 1-2pm Pacific (4-5 Eastern). After School Online is a time for teachers to get a chance to talk to other teachers, and a time to come learn about a topic that interests them.
We sent the After School Online February Schedule out under separate cover on 1/30/98. Contact us if you have any questions. We'd love to hear from you about the times After School Online occurs. Let us know if the times are not good for you.
Remaining this Month:
February 23 Talking across Disciplines 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern
February 24 Science! The relationship between cancer and aging 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern
February 25* TEACHER TALK! 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern
* denotes 1-2 pm pacific (4-5 eastern)
We'll mail out the March Schedule next week. Go ahead and mark the times on your calendars for March, because they won't change. And also...add Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. (pacific/9:30 eastern) as a new discussion time. More details in the March After School Online Schedule.
[3] TAPPED IN Quick Notes
-------------------------
Congratulations to our 700th and 800th Members in TAPPED IN (names to be announced as soon as I get permission from them)!
This is a big month, because this is the first time we have had two 100th member marks in the same newsletter...
A big welcome also to the Education graduate students from George Mason University who have been exploring TAPPED IN, and to the Preservice Teachers from Indianapolis University.
[4] Expanding Your Horizon Students get TAPPED IN on April 12
--------------------------------------------------------------
Log in and talk with 6th to 9th grade girls who will be in TAPPED IN as part of the 19th annual Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) in Science and Mathematics conference at San Jose State University on Saturday, April 12. TAPPED IN staff Patti Schank, Denise Gurer, and Judi Fusco will be leading three workshops (at 10:25-11:30, 11:45-12:50, and 1:40-2:45 Pacific Standard Time) in which the girls will be logging in, constructing simple virtual objects (like pets), and discussing them with other girls and any visitors online. Most of the activity will take place in the Student Activity Center and the Woodlands. This will be the girls' first time in TAPPED IN, so feel free to help them out! EYH is presented by San Jose State University and the Math/Science Network. For more information about the EYH conference check out http://www.elstad.com/msneyh.html.
[5] Announcing a Summer Workshop for Teachers
----------------------------------------------
--Teaching Steps to Tolerance--
A one-week professional development program for fifth and sixth grade teachers and library media specialists. This workshop is brought to you by the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. The program (and associated travel) is funded by a grant through the U.S. Department of Education. One week workshops will be held during the summer of 1998.
Teams of up to five members may apply. Deadline for application is April 17, 1998. For more information and an application packet please email tfadale@wiesenthal.com or call 310-843-0018.
Educators today are faced with unique challenges in creating school communities with so many different cultures and religions coming together. People come from more than 140 countries make their homes in the U.S. Over 105 different languages are spoken within out schools.
Teaching Steps to Tolerance is a professional development activity that will explore creative ways for teaching tolerance and understanding.
Some of the activities that participants in the workshop will take part in are: Explore issues of diversity, Experience the Museum of Tolerance as a workshop in human behavior, develop an understanding about teaching tolerance in the classroom, engage in dynamic discussions on the issues of tolerance, examine children's literature that promotes the teaching of tolerance, and explore multimedia technology to create classroom lessons and
student projects.
[6] Collaborative Activity for students studying Civil Rights
-------------------------------------------------------------
Students of Brian Simmons at Thurgood Marshall High School in San Francisco will be studying Civil Rights in their history class in May. These juniors will be looking at the subject both historically and contemporarily from a variety of perspectives - both in terms of different cultural groups and different issues. They will be publishing their research as Web pages.
It would be helpful to have a forum on civil rights, past and present, in order to explore the topic more deeply. Ideally, the forum would involve discussion with peers engaged in similar research as well as with experts in the field.
If you are interested in participating in such a forum with your students or as an expert, please contact Technology Resource Teacher Hulda Nystrom or look up HuldaN when you log in to TAPPED IN.
We hope to be get at least two classes of students (plus experts) interacting online in the Student Activities Center of TAPPED IN (see item [7]).
[7] Why TAPPED IN?
------------------
This a new feature we will run in the newsletter for the next several months to answer some of the questions we have been asked about TAPPED IN.
Q. Can my students become members of TAPPED IN?
A. Sort of. If you would like to be able to explore online activities with your students (k-12) let us know. We give K-12 students special memberships in TAPPED IN (please *don't* sign them up on our website). These special memberships allows us to maintain the professional atmosphere and environment in TAPPED IN. If you are interested in sharing TAPPED IN with your students let us know. Contact us for more information about bring students into TAPPED IN.
[7] About ...ON THE TAPIS
-------------------------
Postings of all ...ON THE TAPIS issues are available online. Contact us
if you have any questions about your subscription, login name or password, or if you have any news items that you want to share with the community for ...ON THE TAPIS.