New UCIC Web Site

University Circle Interactive, Cleveland or UCIC has been working behind the scenes for the past two years to envision a dynamic content provider collaborative for videoconferencing and distance learning. The site is intended to lead educators to rich resources for their students that illuminate teaching and learning for understanding.

Register With UCIC

To encourage you to sign up for our registry, UCIC content providers are giving away free programs to teachers registering on our site. So, please sign up – Random drawings will be held; watch your email for a notification. You and your class could be the lucky winners! There is no cost to join the registry. Register with us

The portal site will be updated on a quarterly basis so you do not miss a thing! If you are on the registry, you will be emailed an e-update. If not, check back during the months of September, December, March, and June for exciting new programs and events.

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New Cleveland Institute of Music Distance Learning Progams

Cleveland Institute of Music is pleased to announce that effective January 2004, the lessons developed with support of Ohio SchoolNet Telecommunity funding will once again be available for no charge to Ohio schools. This opportunity is being made possible by a generous Support for Existing Projects grant from Ohio SchoolNet.

Cleveland Institute of Music is in the final stages of two additional interdisciplinary programs for students in grades 4-5 entitled, Musical Geography of Ohio and Musical Geography of America. These exciting new forays into the musical world will be available in September, 2005.

If you are a teacher from an Ohio School, go to www.cim.edu, and click on distance learning to register for these FREE lessons. Or, click on the links below to see a detailed description of each program then register from there. Have a great class!

Interdisciplinary Proficiency Programs include:

• Math & Music (grades 6-8)
• Science of Sound (grades 6-8)
• Percussion Summit (grades 6-8)
• Langston Hughes – A Legacy of Words & Ideas (grades 8-10)
• Evolution & Revolution (grades 9-12)
• Unity & Diversity (grades 9-12)

Professional Development Educator Sessions include:

• Distance Learning Connections
• Integrating Music in the Academic Curriculum
• Language & Learning
• The Mozart Effect
• Videoconferencing with Internet Protocol: A Best Practice Guide (May 2004)

Music Sessions include:

• Introduction to Musical Instruments & Concepts (grades 3-5)

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COLORVISION Explores Diversity Issues Through Independent Film

COLORVISION showcases the works of independent filmmakers and producers of color. A multicultural experience, COLORVISION creates a cross-cultural community while providing a new vision of a diverse world. This program brings together high school classes via the distance to create a community of understanding through art, creativity, self-expression and ethnic pride. This program is appropriate for students in Grades 10-12. This program is fully subscribed for spring, 2005. Please contact skreisman@universitycircle.org if you are interested in this program for fall, 2005.

These short films tackle American issues of minorities such as cultural identities, political realities and personal viewpoints while incorporating humor, art and animation. A series rich with culture, diversity and wit, COLORVISION provides audiences with a creative and fresh look at the world.

This distance learning program is organized in three parts and hosted by Cleveland filmmaker Robert Banks. It includes a Teacher-Student Workshop, two videoconferences to view film segments and connect with two other classes for post-film discussions. All videoconference connections will be 45 minutes.

The culminating events can be on-site or accomplished as a distance learning program. The on-site event takes place at The Cleveland Cinematheque in University Circle to view selected short films of Robert Banks and a foreign-film from the Global Lens series. A culminating videoconference event scheduled for participating classes unable to travel to University Circle will be scheduled with filmmaker Robert Banks to view and discuss his short films and learn about careers in film.

This program is appropriate for students in Grades 10-12 and Diversity Clubs.

English/Language Arts, Social Studies/Humanities and Fine Arts Classes would benefit from this program.

 Participation Fee: $150.00 per class.
Busing for the on-site culminating program must be paid by individual schools.

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Teachers Bank

The Teachers Bank is a unique feature of the UCIC portal web site. If you register as a teacher, UCIC content providers may call on you to apply to become a teacher partner and work with our institutions to assist with the writing and piloting of new lessons with your class. Teachers typically receive a stipend to work with us, not to mention the experience of a lifetime collaborating with our world class educators! Teachers play critical roles in the process of building a videoconferencing experience and assist with standards alignment and classroom extensions. Watch for these professional development opportunities in your quarterly e-updates. Register for Teacher Bank.

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Events Calendar

Poetry, PLEASE celebrates National Poetry month every April with an on-line writing and publshing project and videoconference in cooperation with Cleveland State University’s Poetry Center.

Past participating poets have included:

Mary Quade (2004) graduated University of Chicago and then attended the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded a Maytag Fellowship. In 2003 her collection Guide to Native Beasts won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Competition. Her work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Colorado Review and Chicago Review. She currently lives in Madison, Ohio on what is left of a hundred-year-old farm with her husband, who is a high school teacher, and her animals—a dog, ducks, chickens, and a bantam rooster.

Marilyn Krysl (2004) is also affiliated with CSU’s Poetry Center. In 1996 her collection of poems Warscape with Lovers was chosen as the winner of its poetry prize. She served as the juror in the 2003 Poetry Center first book competition, which selected Quade’s book.

Ms. Krysl has also published work in The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic and in Best American Short Stories 2000, O. Henry Prize Stories, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, Best Little Magazine Fiction, Sudden Fiction and Sudden Stories. She has received two NEA fellowships and is former Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Tim Seibles (2003) was born and raised in Philadelphia. He attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and remained in Dallas where he taught high school English for ten years. In 1990 he earned an MFA from Vermont College at Norwich University. He currently teaches in the MFA Program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.

Mr. Seibles is the author of four books of poetry, including Hurdy-Gurdy, and Hammerlock. In 1990, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1991 he was recognized with an Open Voice Award.

Eliot Khalil Wilson (2003) received his Ph.D in Critical Theory and American Drama in 2000. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The North American Review, Slate, Beloit Poetry Journal, Many Mountains Moving, The Journal, and Ploughshares, among others. The Saint of Letting Small Fish Go is his first book of poetry.

This video conferencing experience includes the writing of student response poems after reading a selection of two professional published poets, name & name. Selected teachers receive project packets with the poets books, selected poems for reading and a lesson plan for this project. Once received, teachers will lead their classes through these readings and lesson plan. Then, students will publish the six best class poems in an on-line chapbook prior to the videoconference.

On the scheduled day of the poetry videoconference, the published poets read their selected poems and the students will share their work. All participating classes will keep their books as resources and receive printed chapbooks of the annual student poetry event.

Timeline
Registration Deadline: March 4th, 2005
Packets Sent to Teachers: By March 14th, 2005
Students Publish Work On-Line: By April 18th, 2005
Poetry Sharing Videoconference: Friday, April 22nd, 2005
Pdf. File of Chapbooks Sent to participating classes: Week of May 9th, 2005

This is a multipoint conference with three classes connected with two poets.
There is a participation fee of $100 per class.
The videoconference will be one hour in length.
Recommended for grades 10-12 creative writing students.

contact skreisman@universitycircle.org to participate in this program or to receive more information.

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