Campwide Briefings

 

Campwide Briefing September 9-13

 

WELCOME  to the first week of Camp Internet programming for the 2002-2003 school year! This is your first Campwide Briefing for the year.

We have a special WORLD PEACE POEM PROJECT opening September 11th, and all regular Expeditions launch this week.

 

What is a Briefing?

 

This type of communiqué you are reading is our important CAMPWIDE BRIEFING, sent out weekly, and addresses news on upcoming events relevant to all teachers and classes. You will often get a second briefing from us, and this will be your EXPEDITION BRIEFING, and it only goes to fellow classes registered for your specific expedition theme. On the main Camp portal, you will find a listing of all Campwide Briefings you can read via the web, vs. email, anytime. Inside your track, there is a briefing link that will let you read those expedition-specific briefings. We will add images to many of the web-posted briefings, but the email briefings you receive will be text only. Watch for great learning activity news each week!

 

SPECIAL FEATURE THIS WEEK – World Peace Poem Project

 

Invite your students to write world peace poems that promote compassion, understanding, and tolerance, and then bring them online on September 11th in the CAMPWIDE FIELD REPORTS to post their works. You might spur them by asking: “Can you imagine a world at peace? What do you think such a world would be like? Do you have any ideas for steps the world could take to build world peace?” We will invite World Peace Leaders to view the student poems and the classroom posting the most poems will win an autographed book by Dr. Robert Mueller, founder of the United Nation’s University of Peace in Costa Rica. The World Peace Poem Project ‘Grand Opening’ is September 11th, and then the room will be open to add more poems all month long. Winning classroom will be announced September 30th, but ALL classrooms that post poems on the merits of peace will receive a special award.

 

READY TO GET STARTED on your EXPEDITION?

 

Jump on in and have fun with your students – discover new ways to teach AND learn. Teachers usually set up their ‘Camp Internet Outpost’ with a bulleting board featuring a poster / backpack and any other expedition related materials to help focus student attention, and make their computer access as inviting as possible.

 

Campwide activities this week are:

 

  1. Explain Camp Internet navigation and acceptable use to your students, show them the introductory features, and get them working on this week’s Internet Dig for your track (open Tuesday-following Monday) – and many teachers also start the program by showing a related video.
  2. Copy the black line masters to create passports (masters are also available online),  handout the folios, provide the acceptable use guidelines – and hit the online learning trail!
  3. Go to your expedition track’s FIELD REPORTS and post a school intro from your classroom this month – and read about other schools you can link up with who post their reports in your common field report room.
  4. Start planning a GPS or digital image project for the Fall months.

 

How to Reach Us

 

We have been busy over the summer with teacher training and mailing out materials, and everyone should now have their log ins and Teacher Journal (a brand new project management tool). If you find you need support, or are missing any supplies, please let us know by emailing camp@campinternet.net, or calling 1-800-889-2823. You can also order additional supplies, including the GPS unit, digital camera, or video computer camera.

 

Updates and Tips

 

We have some new features to share with you, and some suggestions for project management in your classroom to help integrate technology activities into your curriculum any week.

 

First, each Expedition TRAILHEAD, as we call the portal to each learning expedition, will be updated regularly to feature the current topics we are featuring each week. You still have access to any teaching and learning resource you would like to use from the left side bar, by subject, but our interactive events will follow the themes listed in the center of the TRAILHEAD.

 

Second, each week there will be several INTERNET DIGS active so you can launch students on self directed research projects any week of the year. New this year, the Digs can be accessed from inside your trailhead –as well as from the main page. We suggest entering from the main TRAILHEAD page for your expedition track as it shouldn’t require additional log-ins to recognize students as authorized users.

 

Third, each month there are featured SPECIAL PROJECTS that cross expedition themes and all are welcome to participate - GPS activities, reading and writing contests, and Family Nights. The Teacher’s Journal covers those, they are on the online calendars, but new ones will come up, like chats with Trail Guides, so watch the briefings and special bulletins to catch these valuable learning activities. You can plan many out months in advance, or catch them if they are new arrivals.

 

Fourth, we are working on bi-lingual WRITE DOWNS and will be piloting these (Spanish and English). We are starting with Channel Islands as it was the first expedition created, and will be working our way through all expedition programs all year.

 

Fifth, the GIS Mapping Center is growing – new maps, new tools, new projects. ALL CLASSES ARE WELCOME to use these resources, and suggested GPS activities are featured each month.

 

Sixth, while you did sign-up for a primary Expedition track, please feel welcome to stop in to any track, anytime, if there are resources there that you need. We have six tracks this year – Channel Islands, California Backcountry, Ancient Southwest, Global Garden, GIS Mapping – and new this year in its first pilot – America’s Original Promise – a refreshing look at highlights, heroes, and leaders in American history. You can use another track’s Dig if you find it relevant to your classroom too.