GNG has partnered with the Bezos Family Foundation and Architecture for Humanity to create Students Rebuild. This is an OPEN CALL to students around the world to collectively become a part of a movement of young people to help rebuild schools in Haiti. Students will lend a hand to their Haitian peers by jointly raising $500K to help reconstruct schools devastated by the earthquake. Did we mention this is a matching challenge grant?!? Thus, your students have the potential to help raise $1 million dollars for Haiti! (All amounts raised are welcomed, but there is a $2500 fundraising cap per school.)

As an educator, here is your chance to get your students fired up about this awesome opportunity by tapping into their creativity and leadership skills and giving them a forum to TANGIBLY RESPOND to most the devastating earthquake the Western Hemisphere has experienced in 200 years.

Students need not sit back and observe the images and sounds replayed in various media outlets - this is their opportunity to TAKE ACTION. BRING FRIENDS. AND TOGETHER, REBUILD.

Here are four simple steps to get started:

1. Sign-up for our Live FREE VCs

GNG will be on the ground the week of March 22-26. Click here to register or here to learn more!

2. Register a team at StudentsRebuild.org (or two or three!)

Reach out to your social studies department, your history department, your community service club, your French club, your architecture club, or better yet - reach out to the entire student body!

3. Watch our LIVE WEBCAST

GNG will be conducting a special LIVE webcast while we are on the ground - simply click the URL (to be provided) and hook your students in to what’s happening on the ground.

4. Start Brainstorming!

Be creative and have fun as you and your students brainstorm various ways to raise money to help rebuild schools for Haiti!

As this is a Rapid Response program, we are still in the process of planning and improving this program, so all times and dates are subject to change. For more information, contact Grace Lau- grace@gng.org or 212.529.0377.

Our team here at GNG is thrilled to bring you and your students this incredible opportunity to make a difference! Look forward to seeing you, in the field!

Grades K-8: Olympic and Arena Athletes **FREE**

March "In the News" from Connect2Texas provider
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame
Olympic and Arena Athletes


Friday March 5th
Grades K-8th
9:00 - 9:30 AM CST
FREE

Registration deadline: March 1st
Like the athletes of the Olympics, the women of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame fill people with excitement of the games. Discover the graceful athleticism of champion cowgirls as we compare the events of the arena to those of the Olympic Games. Join us as we discover just a few of these stalwart heroines as competitors, pioneers and winners in their events and the thrill of the game.
Most sites will be view-only!

Connect2Texas is a service offered by
Education Service Center Region XI
and the
Region Eleven Telecommunications Network (RETN)
3001 North Freeway
Fort Worth, TX 76106
Contact Lori Hamm at lhamm@esc11.net
(817) 740-3625 (817) 740-3625

Grades K-3: Celebrate the Birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel

To celebrate the birthday of “Theodor Seuss Geisel”, the
MVESC will be having a series of “special “ multi-point
student connections the 1st week of March. (See below for dates and times)

Students will discuss fun facts about Dr. Seuss, observe creative
experiments, share a wonderful story, and conclude with an
interactive game that tests their “seussical” knowledge.

* All multi-point connections are limited to 4 classrooms and schools MUST supply us with a static IP# in which to connect.
* PLEASE be aware of the grade that you are scheduling. Connections are grouped in like grade level combinations, and are LIMITED to 30 participants per scheduling site.
* Cost- $75.00 per connecting site

To schedule your school, please register online!

1.March 1st (KDG-1st) Celebration of Seuss (9:00am EST; 10:15am EST; 1:00pm EST)
2.March 2nd (2nd-3rd) Celebration of Seuss (9:00am EST; 10:15am EST; 1:00pm EST)
3.March 4th (KDG-1st) Celebration of Seuss (9:00am EST; 10:15am EST; 1:00pm EST)
4.March 5th (2nd-3rd) Celebration of Seuss (9:00am EST; 10:15am EST; 1:00pm EST)

*This lesson is similar to Egg-citing Eggs and Egg-speriments. Classrooms may not want to schedule both sessions.

Leslie Charles
Distance Learning Coordinator
I bleed scarlet and gray!!!!

Muskingum Valley Educational Service Center
205 North 7th Street
Zanesville, Ohio 43701
740.452.4518 ext 133
lcharles@mvesc.k12.oh.us
www.mvesc.k12.oh.us/tap/

Grades 7-12: Sexting

Special WVIZ ideastream
Distance Learning Program

“Sexting” – Town Hall Meeting

Recent studies have shown that approximately 1 in 5 teens have sent or received a sexually suggestive photo via text messaging, a practice known as “sexting.” What teens do not understand are the significant and long-term negative implications such risky behavior can have on them, legally, socially and psychologically. Such implications can be as simple as embarrassment or as serious as criminal liability. Once a teen presses “send,” all control over the image is lost – it can be forwarded repeatedly all over the school, town, state, country and world. Sadly, such behavior has led to at least two teens taking their own lives after suffering harassment by classmates who received their nude pictures, which had been repeatedly forwarded by other classmates.

On March 12, 2010 Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio will sponsor a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the legal, social and psychological impact of this risky teen behavior. Rick Jackson will moderate a panel of experts, who will discuss this recent trend and the real-life effects it has on today’s teens - today, tomorrow, and for years to come. The session will be interactive, allowing viewers and attendees to participate via text messaging. The session will be broadcast live from the WVIZ/PBS studio. Join us for this FREE program and plan to have your students participate in what will be a very dynamic and educational presentation.

Featuring:

Judge Thomas O’Malley Judge, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court

Michael A. Sullivan Assistant U.S. Attorney, USAO-NDOH

Robin Palmer, LISW, BA, MSSA Director, The Mokita Center, Inc.

Detective Charles Gute Berea Police Department


Date: Friday, March 12, 2010
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Transmission Modes: NOTA, eTech Ohio IP/ATM networks, Cleveland V-Stations

Schools interested in participating in this FREE educational opportunity should contact John Ramicone at 216-916-6360 or john.ramicone@ideastream.org by March 5th.

Grades 7-12: Engineering Aircraft : From Flying Wings to Flying Saucers? **FREE**

Engineering Aircraft : From Flying Wings to Flying Saucers?
Date: February 25th
Time: 8:30 PST and 11:00 PST (11:30 EST and 2:00 EST)

Topic: This special program will Introduce students to NASA aviation and review 4 Tools of aeronautics. Students learn about how NASA develops new aircraft concepts through research and testing which turns concepts into reality. Students will construct a flying model using principles learned during the videoconference.

Details: For more information, please visit the URL: http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/content/catalog/details/?cid=1674 If you have trouble reaching this URL, you can go to: http://dln.nasa.gov, click on “Event Catalog” and Choose the topic Engineering Aircraft.

Registration: FREE, please email Greg Pitzer at gregory.e.pitzer@nasa.gov with your school name, grade level, contact phone #, and # of students in class.


Greg Pitzer
Digital Learning Network Coordinator
Moffett Field, CA 94035-0001

Voice: 650-604-3292
FAX; 650-604-3445

Grades 5-12: Unholy, The Slaves Bible

February 25, 2010

There are some things you just know. They aren't chiseled in stone, but you just know. Slavery is always wrong!!!!! In this videoconference, meet David Mills, the author of UNHOLY: The SLAVES BIBLE. Mills' book explores a relatively unknown work - a 201-year-old Bible planned, prepared and published in London for the purpose of making slaves in the British West Indies and justifying that their status was ordained by God.

In UNHOLY: The Slaves Bible, David Mills completed extensive reUnholysearch and probed theological and ethical issues of slavery as endorsed by the scriptures of the Bible. In the Slaves Bible, entire books of the Bible and many chapters of the remaining books of the Bible were omitted for the purpose of making slaves and maintaining slavery. Unholy illustrates this use and misuse of the Bible to preserve slavery during hundreds of years of persecution. Both Protestants and Catholics owned slaves and developed elaborate biblical defenses to justify this institution.

The sacred scriptures of the Bible were used in The Slaves Bible to crystallize the practice of slavery with false views of God and people. These scriptures were used as the strongest authority to validate oppression and violence and enslavement of our fellow human beings.

The Bible was used to require slaves to submit to slavery and to wear their chains with humility. This false teaching condemned Africans and their descendants to slavery simply because they were slaves. But we know, that ALL people, slave or free, black and white and yellow and brown and red, are born free!

Slavery became a "biblically-based institution" immune to abolitionists appealing to Christian morality. Who were these "slave makers" who saw themselves as devout Christians. . .and yet shattered the lives of slaves in the name of God and freedom?

In UNHOLY:The Slaves Bible, David Mills comes to terms with the evidence, the facts, and the truth as he challenges assumptions and shines the light on this wickedness. This is a landmark book that will provoke relevant dialogue and uncover uncomfortable truths.

Unholy is an important videoconference in the unfolding revelation on the long road from freedom to slavery and finally again to freedom. "The truth will set you free" and the truth in Unholy will challenge, outrage, and begin to loosen the shackles that have remained through more than 500 years of slavery, humiliation, oppression, and degradation.

This videoconference discussing Unholy will transform your knowledge and understanding of Western Civilization's long journey from freedom through slavery to freedom.

Register online for all videoconferences at http://vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm. All videoconferences are 9:00 and 10:00 CENTRAL (10:00 and 11:00 ET). The cost is $75 per site. Contact Chandra Allison at chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu or 615.322.6511 with any questions.

Grades 5-12: Musical Journey to the Black History of the Blues

Musical Journey to the Black History of the Blues
With James "Nick" Nixon"
February 23, 2010
Grades 5-12
The journey of the Blues winds past the plantation houses of the Mississippi Delta to the south side clubs and tenements of postwar Chicago . While the journey of the blues is a somber, humbling, and distressing journey, it is also a joyful journey. The history of the blues is more than a musical chronology. The blues was born and raised amid the slavery of the Deep South and flourished in the dark heart of America 's largest cities. The slaves sang songs filled with words telling of their extreme suffering and privation. One of the many responses to their oppressive environment resulted in the field holler. The field holler gave rise to the spiritual, and the spiritual gave rise to the blues.

The blues is an African American-derived music form that recognized the pain of lost love and injustice and gave expression to the victory of facing down adversity and outlasting a broken heart. The blues truly evolved from hymns, work songs, and field hollers . . . . . from the music African Americans used to accompany their spiritual, work and social functions. The blues form was first popularized in 1911 by the African American composer W.C. Handy through the publication of Handy's "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues".

During the twenties and thirties, the blues became a national craze. Records by leading blues singers, in the twenties like Bessie Smith and in the thirties, Billie Holiday, sold in the millions. The twenties saw the blues become a musical form more widely used by jazz instrumentalists as well as blues singers. During the forties and fifties, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, and Elmore James played Mississippi Delta blues, backed by bass, drums, piano and harmonica, and began scoring national hits with blues songs. T-Bone Walker in Houston and B.B. King in Memphis pioneered a style of guitar playing that combined jazz technique with blues tones and repertoire.
Blues is the foundation of jazz and strongly influences all popular music including country, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll. Blues continue to shape music worldwide, is still evolving and is still widely played today. Join blues singer, James Nixon, for a musical journey through the fascinating black history of the blues.

James "Nick" Nixon is one of the foremost vocalists in the blues world today, as well as an outstanding guitarist and bandleader. As he enters his sixth decade of performing in the music business, Nixon has been recognized worldwide for his talents and as a velvet-voiced blues/R&B entertainer.

You can buy his music at: http://www.nicknixon.com/.

Register online for all videoconferences at http://vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm. All videoconferences are 9:00 and 10:00 CENTRAL (10:00 and 11:00 ET). The cost is $75 per site. Contact Chandra Allison at chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu or 615.322.6511 with any questions.