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Newsletter // Nov. 18, 2015
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Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to our Teach About US newsletter, the first sent under our new umbrella platform, www.TeachAboutUS.org. We've had some busy months in Berlin, Lüneburg, and elsewhere in Germany and the U.S., but the result, we believe, is well worth the effort.
We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter in its new design and invite you to visit our new website with updated teaching resources, new ways to connect with colleagues and discover new and exciting content. Explore what might be in for you and your students. We can only keep up the good work if you and your students fill it with life.
Yours,
Joannis Kaliampos
on behalf of the Teach About US Team and Partners
 Joannis Kaliampos
Leuphana Universität | Scharnhorststr. 1 | 21335 Lüneburg Fon +49 (0)4131.677-1662 | E-Mail | Web
This newsletter’s topics at a glance:
Going Green merges with new Teach About US platform
Teach about US is the U.S. Embassy’s new online platform for teachers and students interested in up-to-date teaching content about U.S. culture in the EFL and CLIL classroom. Once again, the Embassy is partnering with the e-learning specialists at LIFE e.V. – eXplorarium and the Institute of English Studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg to develop state-of-the-art teaching materials and didactic content to facilitate exploration of U.S.-American culture and politics and engagement with timely issues such as the Presidential elections and sustainable development.
Building on our experiences of now two award-winning blended learning projects and teacher training campaigns, Teach about US now bundles the success of the U.S. Embassy School Election Project and Going Green – Education for Sustainability as well as the Teach about US blog.
New Going Green partner in the U.S.
We are very proud to announce a partnership with the Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP) at the Goethe Institute in Washington. Though mainly geared toward including American social science teachers interested in Germany in their outreach, TOP team members Wood Powell, Jan Marie Steele, Dr. Christoph Velthues and Jenny Windell will keep their eyes open for school partnerships between American and German classes via the Going Green project. Let us know if you are interested in a project partnership – which might even result in a school partnership. Send us a short profile of your school, course and project ideas. U.S. based teachers should contact TOP directly: top@washington.goethe.org. This is new territory for the Going Green project, but we hope that with the help of our Washington friends, we’ll be able to set something in motion here. We thank Deutsche Bank volunteering program for setting up this connection!
Going Green teacher trainings this fall: Get involved!
The launch of our new platform goes hand in hand with a number of teacher training seminars and conference meetings introducing the updated teaching curriculum for the Going Green project. So far, teachers and educators have participated in events in Berlin (July 9, September 11), Hamburg (September 18), Mainz (October 8), Wiesbaden (October 9), and this week in Munich (November 9), Nürnberg (November 10), Tübingen (November 11), and Speyer (November 12). More events will follow in Bonn, Wittenberg, and Lüneburg. U.S. Election project trainings will follow in March. Please check the “News” section at www.TeachaboutUS.org for more information. If you were unable to attend any of these meetings, please check our website for informational materials we have uploaded for you.
New Going Green campaign in full swing: Dates and developments
With one eye on the upcoming UN Climate Summit in Paris next month (COP 21), we invite you to engage in this school term’s Going Green project cycle with our new website. The project cycle will conclude with official student conferences throughout Germany organized by the U.S. Embassy, Consulates, German-American Institutes and our regional partners on Earth Day 2016 (April 22, 2016).
Like last year, a student competition for innovative ideas to promote community-based sustainable development will accompany the program with prizes for outstanding student submissions. You and your students will have time to plan, create, and submit your contributions until March 24, 2016. Of course, competition participation is not mandatory and you will be able to work with the Going Green e-learning materials beyond these dates. Please follow our website and upcoming newsletters for more updates.
New Going Green blog team: Make the blog part of your lessons!
Our two new bloggers will report on project updates and current events in the states from your students’ American peers’ perspective. Julianne Troiano is a PhD student in sustainability studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She recently completed a study trip to Iceland on which she reported in her latest post. Brandon Greenblatt is a sophomore student in political science at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Brandon is part of the editorial team of Georgetown’s political affairs journal The Caravel. His latest post is titled “Women, Climate Change, and Sustainability for Everyone” and reports on an insightful discussion panel that took place at Georgetown. Julianne and Brandon will both be available to participant courses for e-mail exchanges and Skype interviews.
Meet our team of experts
A team of renowned experts on American culture and sustainability will be available as our experts of the week. Each week we will collect student questions and forward them to our experts. Their answers will be posted on our blog and in the Virtual Town Hall course in the Going Green section of our platform. Experts include John Dean (Paris), Christianna Stavroudis (Bonn), our bloggers Julianne Troiano (Chicago, Illinois) and Brandon Greenblatt (Washington D.C.), as well as David Goldfield (Charlotte, South Carolina).
Regular school visits through the Embassy’s and the Consulates’ MeetUS program can also be arranged. Please contact Heike Mead at the U.S. Embassy Berlin. She will forward your request to the respective Consulate and arrange school visits herself in Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
Going Green 'Light' course pack (PDF)
Finally, we are pleased to offer you a Going Green 'Light' course pack (Teacher's Handbook and Materials) with worksheets and practical teaching notes in a print-ready PDF-format for download. You'll find this teachers handbook under the Going Green 'Light' tab on Teach about US (or click here). The materials featured in this teacher's handbook are essentially a condensed version of the online curriculum that you can copy and distribute among your students without them having to enroll on our platform. Although we do encourage you to try out our platform in class, it is also a reality that a steady internet connection and digital devices are not always available at school.
We would be very interested in your opinion on this and appreciate any kind of feedback. Feel free to contact us directly with any wishes or comments regarding this teacher's handbook.
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From our Teach About US Blog
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Thanks for Subscribing
The team at Teach About US wants to extend a hearty 'thank you' to all of our wonderful teachers, students, and readers. You've made the Teach About US community shine, and we want to keep that going! If you're not a regular just yet visit the Teach About US website for some exciting student projects, fun and interactive teaching resources on politics and sustainability in the U.S., and much more! |
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