Spring - National Peace Corps Association

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A Teacher Workshop in the Amazon, by Nancy Paul Most elementary teachers have read The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry or The Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley to their classes. And most Returned Peace Corps Volunteers jump at the chance to travel when they can. I’m lucky to be an RPCV who is also a teacher and gets to travel every summer. While perusing NPCA’s Global Education News, I often saw an ad for a trip for teachers to go down to the Amazon in Peru and work with scientists and learn ways to bring the rain forest back to their classrooms. Last summer I finally went and met with teachers from all over the U.S. who ranged from kindergarten teachers to high school Spanish teachers. The experience was magical. At night I fell asleep to the rousing symphony of insects and frogs. In the early morning with mist rising off the river we went bird watching and saw birds representing every color of the rainbow. We walked on swinging bridges overlooking the green canopy, which was like looking over the ocean, going on for miles and miles and never ending. Most surprising to me, was that unlike the posters in my classroom that showed an abundance of animals gathered together, animals were difficult to find, and we wouldn’t have seen anything if it wasn’t for our expert guide Lucio, a Peruvian national. Instead we quietly followed him as he pointed out the amazing mimicry and camouflage abilities of the various insects, reptiles, and birds. We also had a community service project where we painted a school and got to meet villagers who lived along the river. Even though my former Peace Corps site was in the Marshall Islands thousands of miles away in the Pacific I pulled up a chair and felt right at home. People who once dressed in woven fibers from the trees were singing away and sharing food dressed in jeans and t-shirts that Americans had probably donated to the Salvation Army. If you decide to go it is worth stopping in Lima a day or two early to check out the museums and the restaurants for the tasty Peruvian cuisine. An optional extension tour of Machu Picchu is offered. The Educator Academy in Peru is again being offered July 2-11, 2013. For details go to www.amazonworkshops.com. Professional Development in Costa Rica Join 13 teachers from across the U.S. and discover how you can bringCosta Rica and the MDGs into your curriculum! We are accepting applications for a 5 week professional development program in Costa Rica this summer, June 14-July 19 (approximately). The theme of the program is “Teaching the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals: Costa Rica.” Full-time K-12 teachers in the social sciences, humanities and Spanish from across the U.S. are eligible to apply. Cost is $1,000 and covers round trip airfare from Detroit, lodging, meals, admission fees, transportation in Costa Rica. Sponsored by Michigan State University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the College of Education, and the Earth Charter International Secretariat in Costa Rica. Application deadline is March 11. For more information & an application: http://2013costarica.wordpress.com GEEO Summer Programs for Educators Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that runs summer professional development travel programs designed for teachers. GEEO is offering 23 different travel programs for the summer of 2013: India/ Nepal, Italy, Portugal/Spain, Amalfi Coast, Eastern Europe, Budapest to Istanbul, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Comfort Thailand, Thailand/Laos, Cambodia, China, Comfort China, Russia/Mongolia/China, Turkey 15 day, Turkey 8-Day, Kenya/Tanzania, South Africa/Mozambique/Zimbabwe/Botswana, Morocco, Peru, Ecuador, The Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica. The registration deadline is June 1st, but space is limited and many programs will be full well before the deadline. Educators have the option to earn graduate school credit and professional development credit while seeing the world. The trips are 8 to 24 days in length and are designed and discounted to be interesting and affordable for teachers. GEEO provides teachers educational materials and the structure to help them bring their experiences into the classroom. The trips are open to all nationalities of K-12 and university educators and administrators, as well as retired educators. Educators are also permitted to bring along a non-educator guest. Detailed information about each trip, including itineraries, costs, travel dates, and more can be found at www.geeo.org. GEEO can be reached 7 days a week, toll free at 1-877-600-0105 between 9AM-9PM EST. The travel programs featured on this page target teacher professional development and/or curriculum development. For an experience geared more towards hands-on service, educational programs and a close-up view of the impact of volunteer service, consider traveling with the National Peace Corps Association’s Next Step Travel. Learn more about this unique program at http://travel. peacecorpsconnect.org 10 Global Education News, Spring 2013 www.peacecorpsconnect.org
A new COMPASS has just been published The 2012 version of COMPASS: Manual for Human Rights Education with Young People has just been published by the Council of Europe. The new, updated manual includes much of the material which made the 2002 edition so useful for facilitators of human rights education, but builds upon and expands this material to incorporate new issues such as disability and disablism, religion, remembrance, war and terrorism. Altogether, COMPASS users can now benefit from over 60 proposed activities for human rights education, as well as new and exciting ways of addressing human rights issues and values. For instance, Chapter 1 has been re-organised and addresses human rights education as a human right and considers the potential of the European Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education to provide more possibilities for more scope and flexibility in human rights education. Some of the activities in the 2002 edition that were less used have been dropped. Altogether this results overall in a larger edition of COMPASS with more relevant, practical and useable activities. Compass has become a reference manual for many young people involved in value-based youth work and non-formal education. Available in more than 32 languages, in some states Compass has become an integral part of human rights education in schools and for many practitioners. The French and Russian versions are expected in the course of 2013. Guidelines for the translation into other languages can be sent to interested partners upon request. We hope that this new edition will be as widely disseminated as the first. COMPASS 2012 can be ordered from www.book.coe.int The 2002 edition remains available and downloadable at www.coe.int/compass Fulbright Canada Programs Fulbright Canada, part of the worldwide Fulbright Program, supports focused academic exchanges between Canada and the United States. Along with joining the prestigious Fulbright network, all of our grantees receive a cash award ($12,500 - $25,000), a health benefit plan, a three-day orientation in Ottawa, and can apply for our enrichment opportunities such as our mobility funding (up to $800) to participate in academic activities outside of their host region, our Alumni Internship Program, our Eco-Leadership Program and our Community Leadership Program. I would like to draw your attention to a number of specific opportunities for scholars. We are currently seeking applicants for our various research chairs, all valued at $25,000 for one semester. Fulbright Canada offers an outstanding 43 different visiting research chairs which are available at 22 Canadian Institutions. Please visit the website with a catalogue of our awards: http://www.fulbright.ca/programs/ american-scholars/visiting-chairsprogram.html These chairs offer an extraordinary opportunity to scholars seeking to do comparative research in a welcoming and engaging environment. We are also recruiting American scholars and students for our self-placed traditional awards that can be held at any institution across Canada. For more information about all of our awards, please visit our website at www.fulbright.ca. Please note that the deadline to apply for the 2014-15 academic year is August 1, 2013 for scholars and October 17, 2013 for graduate students. I have attached the Fulbright Canada Winter Newsletter; page 7 has a list of our upcoming programs with competition opening and closing dates. Flyers can be downloaded here: • American Scholars: http://www. fulbright.ca/programs/americanscholars.html • American Students: http://www. fulbright.ca/programs/americanstudents.html For general information about our programs, please contact kinnes@fulbright.ca. If you have specific questions about the Fulbright Visiting Research Chairs, please contact Brad Hector, Program Officer at Fulbright Canada, at bhector@fulbright.ca. Sincerely, Kaitlyn Innes Program Officer, Recruitment, Outreach and Alumni Relations Reviewers sought We occasionally receive books or curriculum in the office that authors would like reviewed in this publication, so we are seeking reviewers. In exchange for writing a review, you get to keep the materials! Interested Send an email to globaled@peacecorpsconnect.org with your name, address, and a description of the grade level(s), subject area(s), and/or types of materials you would be interested in (e.g., books, curricula, online materials). We’ll follow up by email with a description if there is a match with what we have and, if so, send it along to you! Thank you! Join GlobalEdNews Get global education information hot off the wires! Sign up for the free global education monthly e-newsletter. You can subscribe by sending an email to globaled@peacecorpsconnect.orgwith your email address in the body of the message and “subscribe globalednews” in the subject line. Or go to www.peacecorpsconnect.org/resources/education/ and click on “subscribe.” www.peacecorpsconnect.org Global Education News, Spring 2013 11
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Spring - National Peace Corps Association

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