YouthLearn
Web Roundup, Issue 36 - November 27, 2002

Here's a whirlwind tour of news and information about learning programs
enhanced with technology. We hope this assists you in your important
work! If you like this newsletter, please feel free to e-mail it to a friend.

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News

Next Week is National Inclusive Schools Week
The National Institute for Urban School Improvement invites educators,
students, and parents to celebrate the 2nd Annual National Inclusive
Schools Week, December 2-6. This event puts the spotlight on the
progress made in providing quality education to diverse populations,
showcasing examples of improvements and welcoming suggestions on
what else can be done. A free "Celebration Kit" is available to download.

http://www.edc.org/urban/

Education Week Highlights Election Results on Education
This review of the midterm elections by Education Week finds broad
voter approval for additional funding of education. Despite the struggling
economy, voters supported generous spending to improve schools in
California, Florida, and other states. [Connect for Kids]

http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=11ballot.h22

Young Scientists and Programmers Focus on Helping People
The recent Denver Post article, "Kids' altruism computes: Many projects
in science competitions address needs of the disabled," identifies an
emerging trend in student research and innovation. Increasingly,
submissions to national contests are explicitly designed to address
problems in modern society and help people with special needs. [ENC]

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E996078%257E,00.html

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Grants and Awards

Youth Leaders for Literacy Grants
The National Education Association and Youth Service America join in
this initiative to inspire youth-driven reading-related service programs
for children. Proposals for service-literacy projects, to be conducted
during a six-week period in March and April, will be considered for a
$500 grant. Hurry! Deadline is December 6. [PEN]

http://www.nea.org/readacross/volunteer/youthleaders.html

Gun Violence Prevention Challenge Grants
The Alliance for Justice is offering support to gun violence initiatives
created and led by youth. Matching grants of up to $10,000 will be
given to non-profit organizations or government agencies working with
these youth groups. Deadline: Rolling. [OSI]

http://fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/rfp_item.jhtml?id=2000030

iCademy Award for Educational Digital Movies
Submissions for the 2003 iCademy Awards, sponsored by Apple Computer,
are now being accepted. Educators and students from K-12 through
higher ed may enter digital movies, drawing on classroom curriculum and
teaching standards, in this competition. Winning movies will be shown at
the Microcomputers in Education Conference. Final deadline is Feb 1.

http://mec.asu.edu/html/icad

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Info

Report on Strengthening School-Community Relationships
While both schools and communities invest in efforts to teach and
support youth, they often work in isolation. In the spring of 2002
representatives from K-12 education and youth organizations joined a
forum on establishing stronger school-community links and working
collaboratively for positive youth development. The National Collaboration
for Youth, the Coalition for Community Schools, and the Institute for
Educational Leadership summarized the discussions in their report,
"Helping Young People Succeed: Strengthening Relationships Between
Schools & Youth Development Organizations."

http://www.nydic.org/nassembly/Final%20web%20document.11.6.02.pdf

Research, Advocacy Lead to Afterschool Ed as Popular Policy
"Afterschool Education: A New Ally In School Reform," from the current
issue of the Harvard Education Letter, notes the increasing attention
and resources given to afterschool programs. The author, Gil G. Noam
of the Harvard School of Education's Program in Afterschool Education
and Research (PAER), offers a short history and explanation of trends
in public support and policy favoring afterschool programming. [PEN]

http://www.edletter.org/current/index.shtml

Concept to Classroom Workshops for Educators
The Disney Learning Partnership and Thirteen Ed Online have
collaborated to offer Concept to Classroom, a series of free online
workshops on relevant issues in education. Presented by some of the
leading experts in the field, these workshops cover collaborative learning,
inquiry-based learning, afterschool programs, and many other topics likely
to be of interest to YouthLearn subscribers. Teachers may be able to
obtain professional development credits.

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/index.html

Inquiry-based Learning in Math Class: A Teacher's Story
Math and Science come alive through facilitated inquiry, writes a teacher
in this article from the latest issue of the Eisenhower National
Clearinghouse Focus Magazine
. She tells the story of how a lesson on
polygons became a transformative experience for a student when he
followed the inquiry process. Her helpful tips for facilitating inquiry
discussions follow the article.

http://www.enc.org/focus/urban/document.shtm?input=FOC-002946-index

Community Mapping and CTC Publicity/Outreach Panel
How can you bring more attention and resources to your program? See
what experts in the community technology field suggest in this archive
of a recent online panel discussion, hosted by the America Connects
Consortium. Participants share promising practices for collaborating with
community stakeholders, celebrating successes, leveraging technology
assets, being inclusive, and, overall, building community.

http://ctcnet.org/americaconnects/panel13/index.htm

SITE Conference 2003 Final Call for Presentations
The Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education
International Conference will be held March 24-29 in Albuquerque. The
deadline for submitting presentation proposals is December 6.

http://www.aace.org/conf/site/

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Ideas

Explore National Geographic for Kids
From activities and experiments to games, articles, and homework help,
the Kids section of the National Geographic site offers a huge variety of
fun, educational content. There's plenty here to entertain and engage
young animal-lovers, adventurers, scientists, artists, photographers, and
explorers of all stripes.

http://www.nationalgeographic.org/kids/

Browse the New International Children's Digital Library
Just launched: what's to become "the largest bookmobile in history"!
This growing digital collection features full text children's books from 27
cultures in 15 languages, free to readers everywhere. Kids teamed with
researchers at the University of Maryland and the Internet Archive to
design this library to meet the needs of young readers.

http://www.icdlbooks.org


Highlights from the YouthLearn Website

*Acting Out the Story
Want to animate story time? This activity shows how to engage
younger children as puppeteers for a story you read aloud.
http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/language/acting.asp

*Teaching Digital Photography
See our common-sense pointers for introducing kids to digital
cameras and promoting their imaginative use.
http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/multimedia/photo1.asp

We welcome your feedback!

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YouthLearn
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This newsletter is produced by the YouthLearn Initiative at EDC especially for
members of the YouthLearn discussion group.

YouthLearn is a project of the nonprofit
Education Development Center, Inc.
Designed for youth-development professionals, teachers, educators, and other
caring adults, YouthLearn provides resources and tools for developing effective
learning programs enhanced with technology, particularly in out-of-school settings.

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