Workshop: Teaching Modern Geography at the AAG Annual Meeting
Call for Participation
April 14 - 15, 2008

AAG Annual Meeting
Boston, MA

Objectives: This workshop is designed to help geographers and professional development (PD) providers make their courses and activities more attractive and responsive to the needs of education majors on campus and teachers in schools, while providing useful ideas for enhancing the spatial thinking skills of all students.  Many elementary and secondary education majors take one or more undergraduate courses in geography to acquire the content background and skills proficiencies they need to satisfy certification and degree requirements. College and university geography instructors are often interested in how their courses can better meet state and national geography content standards. The workshop will present information that future teachers should know and be able to apply.

Materials: Workshop participants will review and evaluate samples of materials developed by the Teacher’s Guide to Modern Geography grant from FIPSE for use in pre-service teacher education programs and in-service professional development.  The materials consist of a multimedia CD used to demonstrate applications of spatial thinking, sample student activities, and a set of color and B&W transparency and PowerPoint masters.  Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop computers.

Dates and Times: The workshop is scheduled for Monday, April 14, and Tuesday, April 15, 2008  It will be led by Phil Gersmehl (Hunter College), Joseph Stoltman (Western Michigan University), and Susan Gallagher (AAG).

Funding: The participants will be provided a $200 honorarium. 

Application: Faculty from community colleges, four-year institutions, graduate students and educators who provide in-service professional development are invited and encouraged to apply.  Priority will be given to individuals teaching courses that fulfill degree requirements for elementary and secondary education majors and educators providing professional development for teachers.

To apply, please complete and return the following one-page application to Susan Gallagher at sgallagher@aag.org.  Applications will be accepted until all spaces are filled, but not later than  April 7, 2008.

PAST WORKSHOPS

1. South Carolina Geographic Alliance – revised slope and spatial-thinking packages
2. Howard University – revised slope and capital location packages
3. Association of American Geographers – workshop on spatial-thinking skills and education
4. New York City Alternative High School teachers meeting – slope and history package
5. New York State Council for the Social Studies – slope and history package
6. In-service teachers conference in Illinois – preliminary slope package and revised Korea materials
7. Texas history-geography conference – preliminary capital-location package
8. National Council for Geographic Education – preliminary spatial-thinking-about-Korea package