This blog offers information, and connections to nurture recent graduates. We welcome your participation on this and on our Facebook Page. The NTC continues to be deeply grateful to MEDITECH for its long history of support for this program. Over the years, MEDITECH has made it possible for the New Teacher Community to serve a vital role in helping our graduates to persist in a challenging, yet deeply rewarding profession.
* What's the single greatest obstacle to creating more democratic classrooms?
* How can students make individual and collective decisions about learning?
* Is it realistic for students to participate in designing their curriculum?
If
we want students to take responsibility for their behavior and
learning, it is up to us to give them responsibilities. Research shows
unequivocally that students learn more effectively and care more about
what they are learning when they have some say about their experiences.
By contrast, they suffer from burnout when they feel powerless. Alfie
Kohn describes the whys and the hows of bringing students into the
decision-making process on many aspects of their learning.
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. He is the author of 14 books and scores of articles including Punished by Rewards, The Schools our Children Deserve, and The Homework Myth.He has been described in Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores."
"Be inspired this summer at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, as you
join colleagues from across the country for an exciting exploration of
the connections among American art, social studies, history, and
English/language arts. Attend one of our week-long institutes in the
nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Stay connected with your newfound
colleagues and museum staff throughout the year."
Summer Institutes: Teaching the Humanities through Art
Institute participants engaging with American art, enjoying a reception on the Museum’s portico, and creating original podcasts.
WEEK 1: Monday, July 11–Friday, July 15, 2016
WEEK 2: Monday, July 25–Friday, July 29, 2016
Be inspired this summer at the Smithsonian American
Art Museum, as you join colleagues from across the country for an
exciting exploration of the connections among American art, social
studies, history, and English/language arts. Attend one of our week-long
institutes in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Stay connected
with your newfound colleagues and museum staff throughout the year.
Core subject teachers for grades 6–12 may apply as
individuals or as part of a team. Priority will be given to social
studies, history, and English/language arts teachers.
What will teachers accomplish during the Institute?
A participant discussing William H. Johnson’s Café with a museum educator.
Gain expertise from museum educators, curators,
and content experts, through gallery talks, discussion groups, and
hands-on activities
Learn to use American art in the classroom to foster critical thinking skills and deepen student engagement with content
Make interdisciplinary connections among American art, social studies, history, and English/language arts
Experiment with digital tools you can use to bring art into your classroom
Develop and share lesson ideas with peers
What is provided for Institute participants?
During Institutes:
Teacher’s Tool Kit including color
reproductions, classroom discussion and writing exercises, project
guidelines, and teaching strategies
Behind-the-scenes experiences at the Museum
Opportunity to engage with leading scholars during keynote addresses
Access to featured technology
Daily breakfast and lunch
Optional evening events and opportunities to explore Washington, D.C., such as a bus tour of monuments
Throughout the year:
Exclusive access to a collaborative website
Connection to a national network of Institute alumni
Museum staff support for curriculum development
What is expected of Institute participants?
Teachers working together in the Museum’s galleries to interpret a painting.
Completion of pre-Institute assignments
Participation in the entire Institute; plan to arrive each day at the Museum by 9:00 a.m. and leave after 4:00 p.m.
Sharing of lesson ideas on the final day of the Institute
Contribution of ideas, comments, and resources to a collaborative website during the Institute and throughout the school year
What are teachers saying about the Institute?
"[The Institute] was a stunning success. I have
become visually literate, I have learned new teaching strategies and I
have access to an amazing collection of resources."
"This has been the most rewarding PD I have ever attended. The strategies and resources are of immediate practicality."
"I will look at art so differently from here on out. It won’t just
be ’something to look at’ but something to learn from. I will also have a
ton of strategies that I’m walking away with, which I really
appreciate. In addition to those, I’m walking away with practice in them
so I already feel like I know how to use them. And I will walk away
with a much deeper art background than I came with."
"To say that it changed the way I teach is an understatement."
How to Apply
Each applicant must submit a completed application online by April 3, 2016. Applications received after this date may be considered if space is available.
Important Dates
Applications Due: April 3, 2016
Acceptance Notification: April 22, 2016
Scholarship Applications Due: April 29, 2016
Scholarship Notification: May 6, 2016
Registration Deadline: May 13, 2016
Acceptance
A committee will review all completed applications and notify accepted applicants via email by April 22, 2016.
The Museum will attempt to accommodate all applicants’ date
preferences, subject to space limitations. Efforts will be made to
enroll educators from across the country for geographic diversity.
Registration and Cost
The registration deadline is May 13, 2016.
A non-refundable registration fee of $200 per person is required.
Participants are responsible for travel and lodging costs. A low-cost
housing option has been provided in past years through a local
university. For more information about transportation and low-cost
housing recommendations, please email AmericanArtInstitutes@si.edu. View tips for funding your professional development.
Scholarships
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is pleased to
offer a limited number of $500 scholarships per Institute. Scholarships
may be used to cover selected participants’ registration, travel, and
lodging expenses, as well as other potential costs of attendance. To
apply for a scholarship, submit the following to AmericanArtInstitutes@si.edu with the subject line "Summer Institute Scholarship." The scholarship application deadline is April 29, 2016:
One-page letter addressing:
What you value most about teaching
Your interest in the Institute
How you anticipate applying lessons learned to your work
Letter of recommendation written by and emailed from a teaching
colleague or school administrator addressing your collaborative spirit
and creative contributions as an educator
Résumé
Scholarship recipients will be notified via email by May 6, 2016.
Graduate and Professional Development Credit
Participants in the midst of a writing activity, looking closely at a landscape by an unknown folk artist.
If you are interested in receiving graduate credit for your participation in the Institute, please contact AmericanArtInstitutes@si.edu for more information.
Upon request, museum staff will provide documentation of participation including total contact hours.
Questions?
For more information about transportation and low-cost housing recommendations, please read the FAQs.
This is a
reminder to each of you that the deadline for applying for the 2016 Lesley New Teacher Community Enrichment Grants is January 31, 2016.
These
grants are a wonderful potential funding source for you!
In the past few years this generous program has granted teachers funds have been used for such things as classroom
supplies for specific projects, teacher enrichment such as attending a
conferences or mini-courses, or membership in professional
organizations.
You can access
our 2015-2016 Enrichment Grant application from our website.The
direct link is:
While we have your attention, here’s a heads up!Save the date!Save April 2, 2015 for our “Hooray, It’s Spring Event” on Social and Emotional Learning.We’ll come up with a catchy title, but for now, put a red circle around the date on your calendars!
All
the best,
Andi
Andi Edson, Ed. D.
Lesley University New Teacher Community
Director aedson@lesley.edu
Diverse Voices of the Vietnam War: Professional Development Workshop for High School Educators
Dear ,
We're collaborating with WGBH on a free professional development workshop about teaching the Vietnam War in high school social studies and ELA classrooms. Register now
Wednesday, January 20, 2016 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM (EST) WGBH 1 Guest Street Boston, MA 02135 View map
Join us for an early evening of interaction with new and innovative sources and activities to teach about the war. A lite supper will be served and all attendees will take home curriculum materials and a gift bag, including a Last Days in Vietnam (American Experience) DVD.
How great was our 12/5 workshop on "Funding for Teacher Travel, Study and Classroom Materials?" From time to time we're going to post links to different articles about teaching abroad or other funding opportunities. Here's a great one:
More wonderful reading ahead! "The
best in picture books, middle grade and young adult fiction and
nonfiction, selected by the children’s books editor of The New York
Times Book Review."
Notable Children’s Books of 2015
Picture Books
ASK ME.By Bernard Waber. Illustrated by Suzy Lee. 40 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $16.99.
This posthumous book by the great Waber (“Lyle, Lyle Crocodile”)
features a long, leisurely, lovely conversation between a father and
daughter out taking an autumn walk.
FINDING WINNIE: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear.By Lindsay Mattick. Illustrated by Sophie Blackall. 32 pp. Little, Brown. $18.
Written by a great-granddaughter of the Canadian soldier who bought a
bear cub from a trapper and took her to Europe in World War I, this
delightful account of the story behind A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” is
also a family history.
LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET.By Matt de la Peña. Illustrated by Christian Robinson. 32 pp. Putnam. $16.99.
In this wise, moving story, C.J. is full of complaints as he and his
peppery grandmother take a bus ride, but Nana helps him see the other
side of things, especially after they arrive to help at a soup kitchen.
THE MENINO: A Story Based on Real Events.Written and illustrated by Isol. Translated by Elisa Amado. 53 pp. Groundwood/House of Anansi. $19.95.
Our reviewer, Samantha Hunt, praised “the humor and the poetry” of this
original take on the strangeness of babies — the alien sounds they
make, the odd way they move — from the point of view of an older
sibling.
IS MOMMY?By Victoria Chang. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. 30 pp. Beach Lane. $15.99.
Children mischievously answer a question about their mommies on each
page in this buoyant, refreshing look at parent-child love.
POOL.Written and illustrated by JiHyeon Lee. 56 pp. Chronicle. $16.99. A wondrous, wordless tale of a girl and boy and the magical world they discover once they brave the depths of a pool.
THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT.Written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. 32 pp. Little, Brown. $15.99. This playful, extraordinarily charming bedtime book features a girl whose stuffed rabbit hosts a surprise sleepover party.
TOYS MEET SNOW.By Emily Jenkins. Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. 40 pp. Schwartz & Wade. $17.99.
The three toys from the “Toys Go Out” chapter book series get their own
picture book, a transporting look at the wonders of snow.
WAITING.Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes. 32 pp. Greenwillow/HarperCollins. $17.99.
Five toys wait on a window ledge, each for something different, in this
profound and beautiful take on patience and perspective from the
matchless Henkes.
Middle Grade
CIRCUS MIRANDUS.By Cassie Beasley. Illustrated by Diana Sudyka. 292 pp. Dial. $17.99.
An orphaned fifth grader, falling under the spell of his dying
grandfather’s tales of a magic circus, attempts to cash in a deferred
wish in this shimmering debut novel.
ECHO.By Pam Muñoz Ryan. 592 pp. Scholastic. $19.99.
Muñoz Ryan’s enchanting novel sends a harmonica traveling across years
and over continents and seas to touch, and possibly save, the lives of
three music-obsessed children, each facing serious struggles.
FIRSTBORN.By Tor Seidler. 227 pp. Atheneum. $16.99.
In this artful and affecting novel, a solitary magpie travels with and
becomes attached to a family of wolves who are repopulating the remote
Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
GOODBYE STRANGER.By Rebecca Stead. 289 pp. Wendy Lamb. $16.99.
A seventh grader recovering from a near-fatal accident navigates
changes in herself and her tight group of friends in this moving novel,
which our reviewer, Meg Wolitzer, called “masterly.”
LISTEN, SLOWLY.By Thanhha Lai. 260 pp. Harper/HarperCollins. $16.99.
The funny, gently heartbreaking story of a 12-year-old
Vietnamese-American girl who travels reluctantly to Vietnam with her
grandmother and learns to love the fractured country and culture her
family came from.
THE MARVELS.Written and illustrated by Brian Selznick. 665 pp. Scholastic. $32.99.
Half wordless illustrated tale, half prose narrative, this captivating
hybrid novel set over several centuries follows a family of theater
legends who may or may not have really existed.
NIMONA.Written and illustrated by Noelle Stevenson. 266 pp. HarperTeen/HarperCollins. $17.99.
A shapeshifting girl becomes a sidekick to a would-be villain in this
winning, genre-convention-busting graphic novel that charts the terrain
between magic and science.
ROLLER GIRL.By Victoria Jamieson. 240 pp. Dial. $20.99.
In this spiky, winning graphic novel, a summer at roller-derby day camp
helps a 12-year-old girl learn to rechannel her anger and let go of her
former, more uncertain self.
STELLA BY STARLIGHT.By Sharon M. Draper. 320 pp. Atheneum. $16.99.
An African-American girl in the Jim Crow South, a budding writer,
witnesses a frightening Ku Klux Klan event and decides to fight with her
family for change in this stirring, heartfelt novel.
THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH.By Ali Benjamin. 343 pp. Little, Brown. $17.
A shattering debut novel about a grieving, lonely girl, stung by the
treachery of middle-school social alliances, who tries to use the
scientific method to explain her former best friend’s death by drowning.
Young Adult
THE HIRED GIRL.By Laura Amy Schlitz. Illustrated. 387 pp. Candlewick. $17.99.Set
in 1911, this transcendent novel features a literature-loving teenage
narrator, raised poor and Catholic, who flees an abusive home and gains
acceptance and worldly knowledge working as a servant for a Jewish
family.
SHADOWSHAPER.By Daniel José Older. 297 pp. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $17.99.
“Magnificent,” our reviewer, Holly Black, called this sharp urban
fantasy set in Brooklyn, about a young muralist — a shadowshaper, able
to channel friendly spirits into art — facing an assortment of dangers.
SIX OF CROWS.By Leigh Bardugo. 465 pp. Holt. $18.99.
This crackling first book in a new series by the author of the Grisha
Trilogy assembles a team of outcasts who must band together to pull off a
heist in order to save the Grisha, a tribe with magical powers.
BECOMING MARIA. Love and Chaos in the South Bronx.By Sonia Manzano. Illustrated. 262 pp. Scholastic. $17.99.
In prose that shines brightly, the “Sesame Street” star recounts her
path from a poor Nuyorican family ravaged by her father’s alcoholism to a
scholarship at a prestigious college theater program.
The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2015
Every year since 1952, the Book Review has convened an
independent panel of judges to select the New York Times Best
Illustrated Children’s Books. Judged purely on artistic merit, it’s the
only annual award of its kind.
This year’s judges were Frank
Viva, Monica Edinger and Marjorie Ingall. Viva has written and
illustrated several acclaimed books for children, including “Along a
Long Road” — a previous Times Best Illustrated winner — “Outstanding in
the Rain” and “Young Frank, Architect.” He is a frequent cover artist
for The New Yorker and the managing director of the design firm Viva
& Co. Edinger has been an elementary- and middle-school educator for
more than 25 years and currently teaches fourth grade at the Dalton
School in New York City. She is also the author of the picture book
“Africa Is My Home” and blogs about children’s books at Educating Alice.
Ingall is a columnist for Tablet and a frequent contributor of
children’s book reviews to The Times and other publications. Her book
“Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do to Raise Successful,
Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children” will be published next year.
The 2015 New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books are, in alphabetical order:
Photo
Credit
From "Big Bear Little Chair"
Big Bear Little Chair
Written and illustrated by Lizi Boyd
This ingenious take on the “opposites” book shows the youngest
children that big, little and tiny are all in how you look at things.
Using just black, white and a velvety gray, with a bit of red, Boyd’s
delightful cut paper compositions juxtapose the large and the small in
unexpected ways: a “big meadow” is big because it’s full of small
flowers; a “big seal” towers over a “tiny castle” that’s made of sand.
32 pp. Chronicle Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 5)
Photo
Credit
From "A Fine Dessert"
A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat
By Emily Jenkins. Illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
Four vignettes, set in England, South Carolina, Boston and San
Diego, show how the creamy dessert called blackberry fool has been made
and enjoyed over the centuries. Our reviewer, John Lithgow, called out
the book’s “abundant charms.” Blackall’s warm, finely detailed
illustrations — done in ink, watercolor and blackberry juice — capture
the sweep of history and the constancy of family love.
32 pp. Schwartz & Wade Books. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8)
Photo
Credit
From "Funny Bones"
Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras
By Duncan Tonatiuh
This biography of the Mexican artist, who popularized calaveras
both as a form of political protest and a popular entertainment,
integrates Posada’s own prints with Tonatiuh’s winsome, cleverly layered
compositions. “Befitting its subject, the book communicates through its
visual aesthetic,” Maria Russo wrote.
“Tonatiuh’s eye-catching earth-toned digital collages, with occasional
blasts of dusky purple or blue, feature people who look like the swoopy,
postmodern descendants of Mexican folk figures.”
40 pp. Abrams. $18.95. (Picture book; ages 6 to 10)
Photo
Credit
From "Leo: A Ghost Story"
Leo: A Ghost Story
By Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Christian Robinson.
Leo, a little ghost drawn touchingly by Robinson as an improbably
sweet and hopeful-looking crayoned outline, feels unwanted in the house
he is haunting. So he moves to the city, where he befriends a girl who
thinks he’s strictly imaginary. After Leo thwarts a robbery, his real —
that is, ghostly — status is affirmed. Our reviewer, Marjorie Ingall, praised Robinson’s
“exciting” art. “I love the palette of ‘Leo,’” she wrote. “Black,
white, gray and various shades of moody blue, in a mix of acrylic paint
and chunky construction-paper collage.”
52 pp. Chronicle Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 5)
Photo
Credit
From "Madame Eiffel"
Madame Eiffel: The Love Story of the Eiffel Tower
By Alice Brière-Haquet. Illustrated by Csil.
In this imaginative telling
of the story behind the Eiffel Tower, the engineer Gustave Eiffel is
inspired by his love for his ailing wife, Cathy. With a strict palette
of black and white with dabs of light rosy red, Csil’s intricate, lacy
pen-and-ink illustrations convey Eiffel’s keen attention to detail,
along with the allure of Paris and the high-flying ambition of his
tower. The effect is romantic and utterly charming, inviting you to look
and look at the pages.
24 pp. Little Gestalten. $19.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8)
Photo
Credit
From "The Only Child"
The Only Child
Written and illustrated by Guojing
A small child is left alone all day
to fend for herself. She dozes off on a city bus and wakes in an
unknown forest, a silvery fantasyland up in the clouds where she bonds
with a flying deer, enormous whales and a seal pup. Our reviewer,
Samantha Hunt, was enchanted by this “dreamy, wordless debut,” lovingly
illustrated with smoky, mystical-looking pencil drawings. “The dark
current flowing underneath such lush imagery,” Hunt wrote, “is the
loneliness of childhood under China’s one-child policy.”
98 pp. Schwartz & Wade. $19.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 9)
Photo
Credit
From "The Skunk"
The Skunk
By Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Patrick McDonnell.
A nameless narrator, wearing a tuxedo, is trailed by a mysterious
skunk, even while taking a cab, attending the opera, going to a carnival
and visiting a graveyard. We never learn why, though like the narrator,
we come to see the skunk as more adorable than menacing. The book’s
witty retro look is done in a limited palette of black and white with
pale peach, gray and a little red. “The great Patrick McDonnell’s
drawings are, as always, perfect down to the last scratchy line,” our reviewer, Bruce Handy, said.
32 pp. Roaring Brook Press. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8)
Photo
Credit
From "Sidewalk Flowers"
Sidewalk Flowers
By JonArno Lawson. Illustrated by Sydney Smith.
“Something to treasure,” our reviewer, Carmela Ciuraru, called this dazzling
wordless book. As a girl and her father walk home through city streets,
she notices flowers sprouting in unexpected places. She picks them,
accumulating a bouquet that she distributes to a dog, a dead bird, a
homeless man and finally, back home, her sleeping toddler sibling. In
Smith’s elegant and moving drawings, as Ciuraru wrote, “the only pop of
color on the first page is the girl’s bright red hoodie, redolent of
Peter’s snowsuit in Ezra Jack Keats’s ‘The Snowy Day.’ More color
suffuses these pages as the pair gets closer to home.”
26 pp. Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 3 to 8)
Photo
Credit
From "The Tiger Who Would Be King"
The Tiger Who Would Be King
By James Thurber. Illustrated by JooHee Yoon.
Thurber’s 1956 comic fable
about a power-mad tiger who starts a deadly war is vibrantly
illustrated by Yoon in a dense, blocky print style, all in an electric
red, a cool blue-green, black and white. Each page teems with evocative
images of animal life. The effect is ferocious and ravishing, capturing
the beastliness of war along with emotions that include pride, boredom,
shock and sorrow.
40 pp. Enchanted Lion Books. $18.95. (All ages)
Photo
Credit
From "Tricky Vic"
Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
By Greg Pizzoli
This biography of the legendary con man who once managed to sell the
Eiffel Tower bursts with cheeky wit and verve. We follow Tricky Vic, as
he was known, from his birth as Robert Miller in what is now the Czech
Republic to his death in a federal prison in Missouri. In one of many
comic touches, a thumbprint stands in for Tricky Vic’s head. “Pizzoli’s
jocular, simple but graphically sophisticated collage illustrations draw
readers even further into a story it would be hard to be bored by,” Maria Russo wrote.
39 pp. Viking. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 7 to 10)
Join us for an early evening of interaction with new and innovative sources and activities to teach about the war.
