CESS Informational Blog

*Exceptional Opportunities for Professional Development • *Limited
Openings Exist

*/**Place as the Context, Service-Learning as the Strategy,
Sustainability as the Goal**/*
We are pleased to announce a series of unique opportunities for
professional development this summer. Each Institute represents an
opportunity to make deep connections between your curriculum and your
community. These events are offered in partnership by Community
Works, Shelburne Farms, and the Sustainable Schools Project. Each event
is distinct in content, while sharing purpose, conceptual unity, and a
nationally recognized faculty team. All events are appropriate for K-16
teachers, administrators, and community-based educators. Graduate credit
is also available for each event. More information, along with a
downloadable brochure, is available on the Web at: www.TheInstitutes.org

*• **Community Works Institute on Service-Learning*
*—**July 21-25, 2008**—*at Shelburne Farms, Vermont
/This premier national event that has now helped educators from more
than 35 states and abroad /
/work together to put //service-learning best practices into action
within their own programs. /
/Spend an inspiring week with like minded educators in a magnificent
setting./
Contact: Joe Brooks at 802-655-5918 • jbrooks@vermontcommunityworks.org

www.communityworksonline.org

*• **Education for Sustainability Institute*
*—early **July 2008*—at Shelburne Farms, Vermont
/Curriculum development, community partnerships, campus ecology and
collaboration./
Contact: Jennifer Cirillo 802-985-8686 • jcirillo@shelburnefarms.org

www.sustainableschoolsproject.org

*• **Principles and Best Practices of Place-Based Education*
*—**June 22-24, 2008**—*at Shelburne Farms, Vermont
/A practical framework for creating and using place-based curriculum./
Contact: Pat Straughan, 802-985-8686 x 43 •
pstraughan@shelburnefarms.org
www.shelburnefarms.org/educationprograms/professional.shtm

*• **Discovering Community: Students, Digital Media, and Place-Based
Learning*
*—**July 14-18, 2008*—at Vermont Technical College
/Hands on experience with community based research and documentary
production./
Contact: Greg Sharrow 802-388-4964 • gsharrow@vermontfolklifecenter.org

www.discoveringcommunity.org.

*** Details, Web links, and contact info follows below ***

*/Community Works Institute on Service-Learning 2008/*
*at Shelburne Farms, Vermont • July 21-25, 2008 *

Don't miss this nationally acclaimed event! Join with educators from
across North America and beyond for a unique professional development
opportunity in a spectacular setting. The Institute supports K-16 and
community educators—beginner to advanced—at both the classroom-program
level and the site level. Service-Learning is the focus, with an
emphasis on educating for sutainability. Our large and diverse
multi-state faculty of experienced practitioners will share tools and
exemplars and are available for direct support to participants
throughout the week.

"Super! Incredibly useful to hear the ‘voice’ of others. Having this
experience not only enriches myself and my practice, but will also
enrich the practice of my coworkers as we share these ideas back home.”
/—Elliott Lax, Science Teacher/City Works Coordinator/
/City High School, Tucson, Arizona /

/“A wonderful experience! Thank you for the time and patience displayed
by the faculty./
/You are a great group of people.”/
//—Margot Glenos, Teacher//
//East Park Elementary—//Moss Point, Mississippi//
/
/
"Thank you all for your thoughtfulness in planning out such a well
rounded and stimulating program. It was clear that you were there to
help us learn and understand and that you had ongoing dialogues and
reflection on how you were meeting our needs.”
—Terry Yamamoto-Edwards, Science Teacher
Asst. Director, Luke Center for Public Service
Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii
/
/
“I cannot relay to you how powerful the Institute on Service-Learning
was to me. It has literally changed my life, my perspective and my
goals, both professionally and personally…. With distance and time, I am
realizing more and more how my time in Vermont was a unique, blessed,
and inspirational opportunity.”
/—Joanne Vanderhorst, Outreach Director/
/All Saints Day School, Carmel, California/

More extensive information on/ Community Works Institute on
Service-Learning/, our faculty, an exciting array of workshop offerings,
and a downloadable brochure, along with information on discounted local
accommodations can be found at:
Community Works On-Line: www.vermontcommunityworks.org

Or contact us at: 802-655-5918, jbrooks@vermontcommunityworks.org

/*** Institute 2007 enrolled to capacity so early registration is
recommended!/ ***

****************************************************************************************************************************

*/Education for Sustainability Institute/*
*at Shelburne Farms, Vermont —early July 2008*
/The Education for Sustainability Institute/ is an opportunity for
educators interested in curriculum development, community partnerships,
campus ecology and collaboration.

The three primary goals of the sustainability movement are environmental
integrity, economic prosperity, and social equity. Education for
Sustainability helps to bring these three goals closer to reality. It
promotes an understanding of the interconnectedness of the environment,
economy, and society. EFS links this knowledge with inquiry and action
to help students build a healthy future for their communities and the
planet. In other words, EFS develops the knowledge and skills for taking
care of all living things within the means of the earth’s resources.

"Education needs to be meaningful—it needs to make sense. Sustainability
is the thread that sews the pieces of the curriculum together. It helps
students find meaning in what they’re learning.”
/—Suzanne Clarke, Kindergarten Teacher/

“My students ... showed genuine interest, to me that means they are
learning,” They said the sustainability stuff was the most interesting.
I think that is because it was so ‘hands on,’ and they had ownership. I
found tremendous value in seeing the connections between my work and
other teachers’ work.”
/—Tom Sabo, High School Science Teacher/

The Institute will feature experienced practitioners sharing models from
the field along with a wealth of resources drawn from the Sustainable
Schools Project and other sources.
More information on the/ Education for Sustainability Institute/ and a
downloadable brochure can be found at: www.sustainableschoolsproject.org

Or, contact Jennifer Cirillo at 802-985-8686 •
jcirillo@shelburnefarms.org

****************************************************************************************************************************

*/Principles and Best Practices of Place-Based Education/*
*at Shelburne Farms • June 22-24, 2008*

/Principles and Best Practices of Place-Based Education/ is an exciting
workshop that will provide a practical framework for using your local
community and environment as an integrating context for your teaching.
Take your students’ place-based learning about the cultural and natural
history of their town to another level, as you discover ways to
translate that knowledge into service-learning projects and activities
that can enhance your community’s understanding of their place.

Acquire practical teaching strategies to nurture your students’ sense of
place, their commitment to practicing stewardship and their enthusiasm
for school-community relationships. Discover outstanding regional case
studies, methods for accessing local resources and opportunities to
practice the application of ideas. The optional third day will include
curriculum development training and work time to synthesize your program
learning into your own work plan, as well as one-on-one or group
consultation with resource specialists in hands-on habitat explorations,
community-based service learning projects, mapping skills, questing, or
other topics indicated by participants in an advance needs assessment.
We strongly recommend you apply with one or more colleagues from your
community or school.

More extensive information on/ Principles and Best Practices of
Place-Based Education/ can be found at:
www.shelburnefarms.org/educationprograms/professional.shtm

Or contact Pat Straughan at 802-985-8686 x43, or
pstraughan@shelburnefarms.org

****************************************************************************************************************************

*/Discovering Community: Students, Digital Media, and Place-Based Learning/*
*at Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center • July 14-18, 2008*

Sponsored by The Vermont Folklife Center,/ Discovering Community:
Students, Digital Media, and Place-Based Learning/ brings together the
methods of ethnographic field research and the techniques of documentary
production to facilitate the development of projects that both draw
knowledge from—and return knowledge to—students' home communities. Over
the course of an intensive week-long program participants will work with
cultural researchers, documentary media specialists, artists, and fellow
educators in a rich, hands-on learning environment. Participants will
experience a week that nurtures creativity, modeling ways to structure a
similar environment in their own work with students.

/The Discovering Community Summer Institute/ builds on our many years
working with teachers on community study projects, the near-universal
availability of digital cameras and recording equipment in schools, and
the do-it yourself editing capability that digital technology now allows.

Participants will gain the tools and means for building students'
knowledge and relationship to their home communities, as well as for
using the community, its people, its cultural heritage, and its
institutions, as a powerful resource for teaching. Institute faculty and
participants will also form an ongoing network of like-minded peers who
will provide feedback and support for each other’s classroom and program
initiatives.

More extensive information on the/ Discovering Community Institute/, our
nationally recognized faculty members, rich workshop offerings, and a
downloadable brochure can be found at: www.discoveringcommunity.org
.
Or contact Greg Sharrow at 802-388-4964,
gsharrow@vermontfolklifecenter.org