2012 Call for Award Nominations
The National Council for Geographic Education is dedicated to recognizing educators and advocates who have made outstanding contributions to geography education. Awards are given for teaching, research, and service.
Award nomination materials can now be submitted to awards@ncge.org. The Central Office will forward all materials to the appropriate committees for evaluation. Winners are announced in early summer and recipients are recognized at a special ceremony during NCGE’s annual conference.
NCGE is now accepting nominations for the following awards:
E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Grants for Research in Geographic Education: to advance the frontiers of geographic education by supporting and promoting innovative research in theory, practice, and application
K-12 Distinguished Teaching Awards: to recognize and support excellence in geography teaching at the primary and secondary levels
Higher Education Distinguished Teaching Awards: to recognize and support excellence in higher education geography teaching
Natoli Dissertation Award: to encourage dissertation Higher Education Distinguished Teaching research in geography teaching and learning
Herff Jones Nystrom Geography Award: provides a monetary award for K-12 teachers for exemplary lesson plans
Award for Outstanding Support for Geography Education: honors individuals who work outside of the formal classroom, but have made outstanding contributions to support geography education
Distinguished Mentor Award: for College/University professors whose guidance and influence is significant for students becoming geographers and/or classroom teachers
Geographic Excellence in Media Award: for all forms of media in 2010 that exhibit outstanding geographic content or teaching methods
Women in Geographic Education Scholarship: monetary award and travel stipend for a female undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a program leading to a career in geographic education
Suggestions may also be made for the following awards:
Journal of Geography Awards: for the best content articles published during the previous year in NCGE’s flagship journal
The Geography Teacher Journal Awards: for the article of significant value in the teaching of geography to K-12 students.
George J Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Geographic Education: the Council’s highest award, for distinguished service in geographic education
Don’t Forget:
Geography Department Chairs or Representatives, remember to notify us of your department’s Excellence of Scholarship Award winner(s) by May 1, 2012
For complete descriptions, deadlines and documentation requirements please visit the Awards Section of the NCGE website. Please direct any questions to jwaite@ncge.org.
NCGE Distinguished Teaching Award
Hello fellow geographers,
If you know of anyone who you think should be nominated for this award, please let me know, and as a member of NCGE I can nominate them.
This is a great honor, and it would be great to have someone from New Hampshire represente
K-12 Distinguished Teaching Award
The K-12 Distinguished Teaching Award is designed to recognize and support excellence in geography teaching among elementary, middle, and high school teachers. NCGE proudly honors teachers who have displayed continued dedication to geographic education.
K-12 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients will receive recognition within the geographic education community and a plaque at the National Conference on Geography Education in San Marcos, TX in October 2012.
Nominators must be NCGE members, but any K-12 teacher may be nominated for this award. Applications are reviewed by an NCGE task force and evaluated for teaching skills, leadership, professional development accomplishments, involvement in student activities, and development of innovative teaching materials and strategies. See the award flyer and documentation requirements for further details.
Complete nominee materials must be submitted to awards@ncge.org no later than March 19, 2012.
DTA K-12 Application Requirements
Letters of support must be sent electronically but may be sent separately. See application requirements for more details.
Lara Bryant
Department of Geography
New Hampshire Geographic Alliance
Keene State College
229 Main Street
Keene, NH 03435-2001
lbryant1@keene.edu
603-358-2428
Web Based GIS Study
Jung Eun (Jessie) Hong is working on doctoral dissertation research at the University of Colorado, Boulder focusing on training middle school social studies teachers in how to create and customize web-based maps. A total of 30 teachers in Colorado participated in the designing and developing process of the study. Thanks to their support, she has been able to finish developing web-based GIS training tutorials to help teachers develop curricula with web-based maps: GIS for Social Studies (http://www.colorado.edu/geography/cartpro/gisedu/).
She is now undertaking the main testing phase. Teacher participation is vital to assessing the final version of training tutorials. These are online tutorials, so you can test the tutorials anywhere you are available. They are training materials for teachers, so you do not need to use these lessons in your classroom in order to give feedback. Pick one or more topics you want to test. Each topic should take between 45min to 90min to complete. Once you are done, please take the survey (http://www.colorado.edu/geography/cartpro/gisedu/survey.html – the survey password: gisedu). The survey should take between 10min to 15min to complete and the responses will remain anonymous. The results of this study will depend on the feedback from the survey.
If you have any questions, please contact jung.hong@colorado.edu.
Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
The Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for ESD, sponsored by Fulbright Japan, will provide up to 24 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 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 24 educators from Japan will travel to the U.S. in late April, and up to 24 educators from the U.S. will travel to Japan in June. At the end of the program in each country, all 48 educators will gather for a few days of joint collaboration.
Please visit our website at http://www.iie.org/esdteacher for more information or to start an application. The application deadline is January 31, 2012.
U.S. – China Teacher Exchange Program
U.S. – China Teacher Exchange Program
The National Committee on U.S.-China relations is now seeking applications for an exchange program for teachers in American and Chinese schools. This is an unusual opportunity for schools and districts wishing to begin or strengthen Chinese language and culture programs and for teachers wishing to live and teach in China.
Since the program’s inception during the 1996-97 school year, we have had American teachers from across the country in selective secondary schools throughout China, including Beijing, Chendu, Dalian, Anqing, Hefei, Ma’anshan, and Yangzhou. We anticipate continuing to work in some of these cities in 2012.
The American teachers in China teach English as a foreign language. The Chinese teachers, all of whom teach English as a foreign language in China, may teach Chinese history, language and culture, and/or English as a second language at participating American schools.
The National Committee sponsors orientation programs in the United States and China during the summer before the exchange year. For American teachers, this covers “survival” Chinese, the teaching of English as a foreign language, and an introduction to China and its schools. The orientation session for Chinese teachers covers the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language, instruction on American
teaching methodology, and an introduction to the United States and its schools.
If you are interested in the exchange, please e-mail tep@ncuscr.org or
send a letter to:
Teachers Exchange Program, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
71 West 23rd Street, Suite 1901, New York, NY 10010
for more information and an application package.
The application deadline for the 2012-13 school year is March 1, 2012.
2012 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BEE
LAST CHANCE FOR SCHOOLS TO REGISTER FOR THE 2012 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BEE
The National Geographic Bee is a school competition for students in any grades four through eight. Excite your students about the world around them and reward those who excel in their knowledge of geography by giving them a chance to compete in a school geographic bee.
The final deadline for registration has been extended to December 9, 2011. After October 15, the registration fee increased to $110. School level Bees can be held up to January 13, 2012. Go to National Geographic Geobee to get complete
information and other dates and deadlines.
Principals must register their schools to receive the contest materials necessary to conduct a school level Bee. All we need is a letter on school letterhead, signed by the principal, with the $110 registration fee (check or purchase order made out to National Geographic). The registration is not refundable, so make sure the school registers only once. If paying by purchase order, note that when the school sends payment on the PO it must be clear that the check is payment on a PO that was sent earlier so that the school will not be entered twice in the system. You can go online and check to verify the school registration has been received and processed.
Mail the registration letter and fee, in the same envelope, to National Geographic Bee, National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036-4688.
We look forward to many more schools giving their students the opportunity to excel and also be encouraged to know more about the world in which we live and share, by participating in the National Geographic Bee.
Geography Awareness Week
“Happy Geography Awareness Week from NHGA! This year’s theme is ‘Geography: The Adventure in Your Community’. So we hope you get outside and do some Geography. National Geographic is partnering this year with The Geography Collective to offer an interactive online set of missions designed to get your students out into the community. Once they have completed a set of missions they can earn virtual badges in their online account. Visit Geography Awareness Week to find out more about this year’s theme.”
SpeakUpForGeography
Let’s send 10,000 letters to Congress in support of geography education at SpeakUpForGeography.org.
The 112th Congress needs to know that you support the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act (TGIF). TGIF authorizes $15 million per year for five years to fund programs to improve pre-service geography teacher training, integrate geospatial technologies into the K-12 curriculum, and provide teacher professional development, among others. Federal education legislation recognizes geography as a “core academic subject” but unlike other core subjects such as history, civics, economics, foreign languages, and the arts, there is no federal funding dedicated to advancing geography education. Even if you think your Senators and Representative will not cosponsor the legislation, it is important that your voice is heard.
The Speak Up for Geography website tallies all of the letters sent and then the gathered information will be used to demonstrate widespread support for geography teaching across the United States. There are no restrictions on who may use the speakupforgeography.org website; everyone living in the United States is eligible to contact Members of Congress including non-registered voters and non-citizens.
Make your voice heard on Capitol Hill at SpeakUpForGeography.org, encourage others to send letters to Congress, and spread the message that teaching geography is fundamental.
New Lesson Plan
Check out our new lesson plan.The early elementary internet GIS lesson is in draft form and currently being piloted. Feel free to try it and give us your feedback.
Where do American Toads Live
“The programs offered by the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance are possible due to the support of the National Geographic Education Foundation and Keene State College.”
