Dear Catholic Secondary School Educator:
This is the November/December 2006 edition of E-News. This newsletter is a monthly update of information designed to support the ministry of the Catholic high school, a service provided for you by the Secondary Schools Department of the National Catholic Educational Association. This newsletter highlights programs and events focusing on and supporting administrators, educators and students. We hope you find this information helpful as the summer break ends and the new school year begins.
For your convenience, this ENews is arranged under the following headings:
NCEA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Frontiers of Justice, a joint program of Catholic Relief Services and the National Catholic Educational Association for
Catholic high school teachers and administrators, is now accepting applications for the 2007 program. Through prayer and reflection on Catholic social teaching, participants will connect with CRS' overseas work in education, counter-trafficking and peacebuilding in the United Nations administered province of Kosovo in southeastern Europe. Participants will also work with a Kosovar teacher on a global solidarity partnership project that will link their students over a school year. The Kosovo trip component of the program will be held over two weeks in summer 2007.
Application deadline is January 5, 2007. To learn more about the program, visit
www.crs.org/frontiersofjustice
Special Needs Conference for K-12 Educators, Orlando, January 14-16, 2007
This conference will explore various issues relevant to special needs teachers and administrators. Limited to a small group (30-50), special needs practitioners can interact with the speakers and with one another in this first of a continuing series of conferences on special needs students.
For more information and to download the registration form, please
click here.
NCEA National Convention, Baltimore, April 10-13, 2007
Convention registration and hotel reservations are available online. Check here for more information:
/events/ConventionExposition.asp. Join 12,000+ colleagues from across the country at the convention!
Wisdom & Witness, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, June 28-July 1, 2007
Join us for NCEA's biennial conference for high school religion teachers, campus ministers and service directors. If you are interested in Wisdom & Witness and want to be on the mailing list, please contact us at
nceasec@ncea.org.
FINANCING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Are you paying for faculty and administrators to attend conferences from the school budget? At two recent NCEA conferences, LINKING LEADERS in Orlando for assistant principals and deans of discipline, and ASSESSING 21ST CENTURY LEARNING SKILLS for superintendents, administrators, curriculum specialists, and faculty members, a number of attendees had their expenses paid through Title IIA – No Child Left Behind funding. The successful recipients (from New Jersey, Florida and California) had someone become familiar with the process and engage in consultation with the local educational agency (LEA). Such faculty development programs are permitted expenses. Two of the schools reported funding in the neighborhood of $150,000 per year for faculty formation. We encourage schools to pursue these available funds.
E-rate
The National Association of Secondary School Principals reports: Schools hoping to receive additional funding for telecommunications services and Internet access can submit their applications for grants under the E-rate program between November 14 and February 7.
In announcing the filing deadline, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also released its annual Eligible Services List (ESL) that indicates whether specific products or services may receive discounts under the schools and libraries support mechanism. The list was amended this year to include interconnected voice over Internet Protocol and a keyboard-video-mouse switch, which allows a user to control more than one computer with a single keyboard, monitor, and mouse. In addition, the FCC clarifies that charges for universal service fees on a school’s telephone bill are eligible for the discount, but charges related to the program’s administration are not.
The FCC reminds all applicants to review the special eligibility conditions at the end of the ESL in addition to all the entries applicable to the services or products they are requesting. The full list can be accessed at
www.universalservice.org
By now schools should be gearing up to observe Catholic Schools Week January 28 to February 3, 2007. This annual week is an opportune time to focus attention nationally on the value of Catholic schools. This year’s theme—the Good News in Education—is an apt expression of a Catholic school education. .
December 15 is the last day to order Catholic Schools Week marketing support materials to guarantee delivery for January. The CSW marketing kit and other imprinted materials may be ordered online from
http://www.catholicschoolsweek.org/. The marketing kit contains the handbook with ideas for cerebrating, the liturgy guide and a disk with artwork for a variety of uses. Note that the printed liturgy guide is included with the kit and is not sold separately or available online from the NCEA Web site.
Some advertising specialty firms have decided to capitalize on the popularly of Catholic Schools week and now offer their own versions of imprinted materials, often using combinations of past slogans and art. The address above is the only source of official CSW materials authorized by NCEA and the USCCB, joint sponsors of the week. Any profits from the sale of these materials go toward the continuing advancement of Catholic education.
The following links and programs are for your consideration. Inclusion on this list does not constitute an endorsement of any particular program or resource.
CONTESTS, AWARDS and STUDY TOURS
Passports soon to be required for travel to Mexico, Canada, Caribbean
Students, teachers and chaperones traveling by air will be required to carry a valid U.S. passport to reenter the United States starting Jan. 8, 2007, according to a new regulation issued by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and State. The new plan, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), adds Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda to locations requiring a passport or selected other documents. The Departments of State and Homeland Security also plan to require passports to reenter the United States by land and sea. The deadline for that mandate will be on or before June 1, 2009.
“This is a major change facing schools offering their students international educational travel opportunities, and there has been considerable confusion about the start date and other specifics,” said Michael Palmer, executive director, Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA). ”We urge all schools to be aware of this new requirement and act now to encourage their traveling students to obtain a passport in order to simplify the travel process.”
Information about obtaining passports can be found at
www.state.gov or by phoning The National Passport Information Center, 1-877-487-2778.
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR ESSAY CONTEST
Our Sunday Visitor invites high school students in Catholic schools to answer the question: "How has your Catholic faith helped you live out Matthew 25?"
They invite high school students to write a 250-word essay answering that question.
The three best essays will be published in the Jan. 28 issue of Our Sunday Visitor and authors of the published essays will receive a one-year subscription to Our Sunday Visitor, Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Church History by Matthew Bunson and When Did We See You, Lord? by Bishop Robert J. Baker and Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R.
Essays must be submitted by Jan. 8, 2007 and can be submitted via mail to Our Sunday Visitor Essay Contest, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750, via fax to (260) 359-9117 or via e-mail to oursunvis@osv.com (please type "Essay Contest" in the subject line).
JAPAN STUDY TOUR
Toyota International Teacher Program has announced a 12-day study tour to Japan in June 2007. Teachers from anywhere in the United States are eligible to apply.
Applications are due by January 8:
http://www.iie.org/programs/toyota/
Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education
The Goldman Sachs Foundation and Asia Society are pleased to announce the 2006 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education. The prize ($25,000) will be awarded to a high school with a strong international education program.
The deadline is January 12, 2007. Click the link to learn more
about the prizes.
THE CHRISTOPHERS' ANNUAL POSTER CONTEST
The Christophers invite high school students to take part in their annual poster contest. Awards are up to $1,000
. Application deadline is January 19, 2007. More information is available here:
http://www.christophers.org/poster17.html.
EXPLORAVISION STUDENT SCIENCE COMPETITION
The Toshiba/ National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) ExploraVision Awards program motivates students in grades K-12 to discover the fun and excitement of science. Students teams choose a current technology, research and explore its background, then imagine what it might be like in 20 years. Students ground their creative ideas using real science and present their invention using written descriptions and artwork. They also discuss the possible positive and negative consequences that could occur should their vision become reality. Awards are up to $10,000. More information is available here:
www.exploravision.org.
The deadline for ExploraVision entries is January 30, 2007.
FREE SAT AND ACT PREPARATION RESOURCE
eKnowledge LLC announced that it will continue the donation of its $200 SAT and ACT Test Preparation programs to all Catholic high school students for a second year. Last year, eKnowledge and a group of NFL Players donated more than $10 Million worth of their $200.00 SAT and ACT Test Preparation programs to every Catholic high school student nationwide. Click
here for more information about these interactive video CD/DVD programs and information on how to request one of the donated programs.
Because of the rise of eBay and other re-selling venues, eKnowledge & VSG have agreed to not allow bulk shipments of these programs to schools or areas. They ask that any parent or individual student that desires the program, to simply request it online or by phone. The student only need pay shipping and handling ($9.95).
This link takes users directly to the Web page with the donation code already encoded. Please distribute this information to your students and parents as you see fit.
National Catholic Educational Association
