We're excited to share with you our new Educators Resource Page. Some of the improvements include: an easier-to-browse library of past study guides and a new Education Blog to give all of us (that means you!) a forum to discuss the joys and challenges of teaching the humanities. This space is still a work in progress: we're working on better ways for you to access audio and video from our top-notch scholars, along with lesson plans that are both topical and relevant to your curriculum. Help us make this the most dynamic and accessible online education resource by sharing your comments and suggestions.

Here's to a great start to the school year!

Comment below and tell us where you’ll be!

THE TOP 10 TEACHER PROGRAMS

1. Sam Shepard: 2010 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize

2. Dan and Bill Savage: Savage Love

3. Sarah Jones: One-Woman Performance

4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Body at its Finest

5. Ourselves as Others See Us: Obama’s America

6. William and Greta Flory Concert: The Music of Sondheim’s Follies

7. Bill Charlap and Sandy Stewart: The Helen B. and Ira E. Graham Family ASCAP Cabaret

8. Lady Antonia Fraser: Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter

9. E.O. Wilson and Rebecca Skloot: 2010 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prizes

10. Rebecca Goldstein: The Mind-Body Problem presented by American Airlines

Which programs are you interested in, and why?

Want even more politics for your classroom? Check out our education library at http://www.chicagohumanities.org/en/Festival/For-Educators.aspx

At CHF’s upcoming spring festival, Stages, Sights, and Sounds, Scotland’s Puppet State Theatre will be performing an adaptation of Jean Giono’s environmental fable called The Man Who Planted Trees.  The company uses comedy, puppetry, and storytelling to recount the life of one man who planted an entire forest by himself, transforming a wasteland into a beautiful, friendly place to live. Their performance not only emphasizes that nourishing the environment makes the world a better place, but it also demonstrates that one person can make a difference. The story, appealing to a younger crowd, but no less enjoyable or pertinent to people of all ages, inspires us to take responsibility for ourselves and our environment.  In addition to attending the performance, teachers will be able to further educate their students about trees, the environment, and individual responsibility with our study guide on environmentalism that accompanies The Man Who Planted Trees!   

It is up to each and every one of us to determine how we want to live. The Jewish customs of Tu B’Shevat taught me to love and care for the world around me—let the Puppet State Theatre’s performance of The Man Who Planted Trees instill these values in your children. 

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar (http://www.chicagohumanities.org/Genres/History/2010-Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar-The-Body-at-its-Finest.aspx),  writer Jennifer Finney Boylan's personal story on being transgendered (http://www.chicagohumanities.org/en/Genres/Literature/2010-A-Life-in-Two-Genders.aspx), Raynard Kington on the state of health disparities in America (http://www.chicagohumanities.org/en/Genres/Public-Affairs/2010-State-of-Health-Care-in-America.aspx), 
and Paul Bloom (http://www.chicagohumanities.org/en/Genres/Philosophy/2010-Spencer-Foundation-Lecture-How-Pleasure-Works.aspx)
exploring how pleasure works.

You can even bring your whole class! http://www.chicagohumanities.org/Festival/Group-Ticket-Inquiries.aspx

See you there!

Mr. M explained that he wanted the students to create an interactive, multimedia collage representing one of four specific scenes from their current text: The Ramayana, an epic Hindu poem dating from the 5^th or 4^th century B.C. The computer lab buzzed with conversation as the class started brainstorming elements to incorporate into their collages. Before long, several students were searching adeptly for images on the Internet, accurately citing websites within their PowerPoint document, and adding relevant video clips. I couldn’t help but reflect on PowerPoint presentations I had created at my former job, which were boring, stale things in comparison to the work these students were producing in a matter of minutes.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one behind the times. “Hey Kelsey, can you show me how to make this picture slide into the next one?” As I turned to help one exasperated student, his neighbor chimed in. “When you’re done helping him, can you tell me how to make this image explode?” Embarrassed by my lack of technical know-how, I asked one of their particularly computer-savvy classmates to show us the ropes. Soon, a small crowd had gathered to admire her multimedia collage, which featured bursts of color, twirling stars, and realistically crackling fire. She described some of PowerPoint’s functions and demonstrated the more advanced options while explaining the reasoning behind each feature. “I wanted the snow to start trickling into the autumn scene,” she offered, “so I just animated this image and layered it over the first one.”

All of this came back to me recently when my colleague at the Chicago Humanities Festival shared information about the 2011 Summer Institute for Teachers (SIT). This year’s SIT features digital learning experts James Gee and Nichole Pinkard on the topic of New Media Literacy. With Gee and Pinkard guiding the way, participants will discuss the changing nature of writing in the 21^st century and explore digital media narration. Educators will learn strategies for bringing new media literacy into the classroom, as well as view digital artifacts made by local high school students. With an emphasis on visual, interactive, textual, and musical elements, the two-day seminar promises to be lively, engaging, hands-on – and given my experiences with the sophomores last fall, highly relevant.

Other than a nominal $5 processing fee, SIT is free. What a great opportunity for teachers to join together with their colleagues and enjoy being students themselves. Ten CPDUs are available for this session, which takes place on Wednesday, July 13^th and Thursday, July 14^th from 9 am – 3 pm at YOUmedia at Harold Washington Library Center. Lunch will be provided. Learn more about the program and sign up here.

Out of our sessions in July, SIT facilitator (and DePaul University Library’s Coordinator for Reference Services) Paula Dempsey produced two study guides – one for students K – 8 and another for high school learners. Paula’s experience and insight from many years of working with college students (many of whom struggle with the very issues we set out to address in SIT 2010) supported an incisive and interactive exploration of the challenges teachers face and the misconceptions that many of us have about using the web for serious research. Her approach was collaborative and these guides represent not only her expertise but the crowd-sourced wisdom of the participating teachers. These teachers came from city and suburbs and taught in both public and private institutions. They represented the primary grades through college, and worked in an array of subject areas: English, Math, Visual Arts, Computers, History. We know only a handful of teachers (well, fifty) can attend SIT each summer and so we hope these guides will bring the collective insights unpacked during the program to a much wider audience, yourself included. Please let us know if they are useful to you. And check back in the spring to get information on SIT 2011.

We hope to see you there!

Note: The event has passed 

  
http://www.technewsdaily.com/ibms-watson-to-battle-jeopardys-brightest-humans-stunt-or-stunning--2156/
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/watson-jeopardy/
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/26/the-dark-side-of-young-adult-fiction
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller 

I grew up in quite a unique environment. My parents, Juilliard trained musicians turned lawyer and artist manager, constantly exposed my brother and me to the wonderful notes composed by the likes of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and many more. This early musical influence encouraged and sustained my interests in playing the violin, and later, in singing opera. Classical music fostered my creativity, collaborative skills, and discipline, and opened doors to new avenues, experiences, and people.

CHF recognizes the many benefits of stimulating a young person’s interest in music. By combining music with art and dance in its Physical Music lesson plan, educators can ignite a passion for music in their students. This hands-on lesson allows young children to connect to music with their brains and their bodies, creating a long-lasting interest and appreciation for music. This experience with music will serve our youth well, especially in the exciting times ahead for Chicago’s classical music scene.

Over the past few years, Chicago has emerged as one of the leading cultural capitals, ringing in world-renowned Maestro Riccardo Muti as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s music director. Aside from Mr. Muti’s impressive credentials and clout, he champions the importance of the accessibility of classical music. One of Mr. Muti’s goals is to provide classical music to the masses by erasing its perceived cultural and age barriers. Mr. Muti recently launched his campaign to broaden the classical music audience when he debuted for the first time as the music director of the CSO at a free concert in Millennium Park this past summer. He succeeded. Thousands attended and marveled in the magic of this special event. 

In addition to making music more accessible, Chicago’s cultural institutions are focusing on arts education and exposure. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and opera star Renée Fleming are coming to Chicago institutions to promote educational programs in music. They place great emphasis on exposing young children to music, believing that the opportunities music and the arts provide are infinite. I too share this belief, and I therefore hope that productions such as Physical Music continue to present innovative ways of incorporating music into a child’s education.

NUCHR is the largest undergraduate student-organized and student-attended conference on human rights in the United States.  The organization facilitates a critical discourse that challenges assumptions and broadens perceptions on international human rights issues on the Northwestern University campus and throughout the world.  Last year, I attended the conference, sitting in on a panel discussion in which academics and activists shared their thoughts and expertise on urban slums.  The panel was extremely fascinating and interactive with its audience, resulting in an in-depth understanding of the present issues of urban slums and of possible solutions to these imperative problems.

The issue of forced migration, this year’s NUCHR theme, is one that Susan Gzesh took on in her presentation at CHF’s The Body in the fall of 2010.  As part of her discussion, Ms. Gzesh argued that human rights are fundamental rights of the body.  Individuals should be able to enjoy these rights simply because they are human beings.  Ms. Gzesh will be speaking at the 2011 Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights in a panel discussion titled Defining Forced Migration.  This panel takes place on Friday, January 21^st at 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the McCormick Tribune Center on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus.  A schedule of other events of the conference can be found at http://nuchr.net/.  I will most certainly be there, and I hope to see many attend this unique conference! 

CHF has also developed lesson plans that help you bring past CHF presenters into your classroom with easy to launch multimedia that can be accessed in any internet-connected classroom.

On the heels of such a successful year, we eagerly turned our attention to Classics in Context 2011.  After spending the summer planning with our wonderful Classics partners, we have put together what I think is a really top-notch series for this coming year.  We’ll begin the year in February at the Franke Institute for the Humanities with a discussion of dystopian sci-fi classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.  I saw Blade Runner for the first time a couple of years ago when the Final Cut version was released, and I was riveted.  I’m really looking forward to delving into the source material.  In addition to exploring the ever-present anxiety of so many science fiction classics (that human technology will have unforeseen and dire consequences), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? should have lots of connections to last year’s discussion of Frankenstein. What, if anything, distinguishes the androids (like Frankenstein’s monster) from human beings, and what is the moral obligation of the human characters to these creations?  Bill Brown, Karla Scherer Distinguished Service Professor in American Culture at University of Chicago, will lead the discussion.

In March we will return to the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago for a Classics in Context first: a session on a classic of the Portuguese language.  Professor Alfredo Cesar Melo, an expert on Portuguese culture and literature with a focus on the experimental novel, will lead this discussion of João Almino’s Samba-Enredo, a novel in the Brasília Quartet.  Drawing on another common theme in depicting technology in literature, the sentient computer, the novel is written in short chapters from the perspective of a computer.  João Almino is one of Brazil’s most acclaimed contemporary authors, in addition to serving as the Consul General of Brazil in Chicago.  We are extremely fortunate to have not only the benefit of reading a new, yet to be published translation of Samba-Enredo, but also to have the author himself as a special guest speaker at this session.

A mere month later in April we’ll join DePaul University Professor John Shanahan to discuss the contemporary short story “Literary Devices” by Illinois’s own Richard Powers.  “Literary Devices” is, in Prof. Shanahan’s words “one of the most important literary meditations on writing and creativity in the age of web 2.0.”  The story centers on a correspondence between an author and a piece of seemingly intelligent computer software that can generate stories and letters.  As in our discussion of As I Lay Dying this past spring, we’re likely to address themes of the implications of technological advancement   for art and creativity.  We’ll also be trying something new with the scheduling of this session.  We wanted to offer an alternative for those who aren’t available on the weekend, and for whom an evening event might be more convenient.   So, rather than a Saturday morning, this session will be held on a Thursday evening from 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm. 

We’ll close Classics in Context 2011 with a session at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern University with a session on Bram Stoker’s gothic classic Dracula. I’ll admit that, at first, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the very mention of vampires (even literary classic vampires).  What I came to find out about Dracula, however, was how well-deserved its classic status is and just how closely it fits with the theme of technology.  This novel was written at a time when England had reached a point of prosperity, Imperial power, and technological sophistication that was believed at the time to be the apex of civilization.  But the citizens of every empire since Rome have feared the fall, and the people of Victorian England were no exception.  Dracula is often considered part of the horror genre, which seems appropriate given that it represents the fears of a society with everything to lose.

Registration for all four sessions begins January 6!

The council is open to students who will be in grades 9-12 during the 2010-11 year. The commitment is approximately 1 hour per month, September through May, and students can receive school or community service credit for time served on the council.

Teachers and students interested in learning more about the council may call 312.661.1028 ext. 17 or contact Associate Director, Marketing & Communications Jara Kern at jarak@chfestival.org.

Peggy's students were wild about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's program. Which events have you and your students loved?

Have you successfully implemented a Teaching Method in your classroom that you would like to share with others? Have you and a colleague introduced an effective strategy with your student population that other CPS educators might be interested in learning? If so, then you (or you & a teacher friend!) should apply. The Chicago Foundation for Education (CFE) $1,100 Study Group Coach Grant application deadline is quickly approaching; all submissions must be made by Monday, February 28th! The Study Group Coach Grant offers Chicago Public School elementary educators the opportunity to develop and lead "Study Groups" focused on specific teaching methods or instructional strategies
that have proven to be effective in the classroom.

Please visit www.CFEGrants.org for additional information and to begin working on your CFE Coach Grant proposal today!