COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O. BOX 2120
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120
PRINS. MEMO NO. 54
September 17, 2002
ELEMENTARY / MIDDLE / SECONDARY
Patricia I. Wright
Assistant Superintendent for Instruction
History and Social Science Classroom Posters for Online Teacher Resources
The Virginia Department of Education is pleased to provide school divisions with history and social science educational posters for the websites entitled Virginia Studies: Ready Resources for the Classroom and Mali: Ancient Crossroads of Africa and for the professional development course entitled Geography Connects. The three posters that announce the new online resources for teachers will be mailed directly to all principals by September 30.
Please distribute the posters to the teachers of the appropriate history and social science courses. The posters may be used as a learning tool for classroom discussions, posted on bulletin boards, or referenced during the appropriate unit of study. Teachers are encouraged to use the new online websites that correlate to the Standards of Learning as they gather resources for their history and social science instruction.
Virginia Studies: Ready Resources for the Classroom website
The Virginia Studies: Ready Resources for the Classroom Web site is designed to assist teachers in implementing the Virginia Studies History and Social Science Standards of Learning. This website provides a collection of meaningful and engaging activities correlated to the skills, history, geography, economics, and civics strands of the Virginia Studies History and Social Science Standards of Learning.
The purpose of the Virginia Studies website is to enhance teachers' content knowledge and their use of instructional strategies for teaching the Virginia Studies Standards of Learning. Each Virginia Studies standard on the website includes selected instructional resources, background information, and literature connections. In addition, an announcements section will let educators know about opportunities for study seminars, courses that may be of interest, and new resources that may have been recently added.
Mali : Ancient Crossroads of Africa website
The Virginia Department of Education is pleased to provide teachers and school divisions with the website Mali: Ancient Crossroads of Africa. The website highlights the Virginia History and Social Science Standards of Learning (3.2, 3.4a, b, c, 3.8, USI.4c, WHI.1d, WHI.10a, b, d, WHII.1d, WHII.2a, WG.3a, b, c, and WG.4) and provides information about the early West African empire of Mali.
Mali: Ancient Crossroads of Africa is designed for elementary, middle, and secondary teachers as a guide in the instructional planning process for teaching the history, geography, and economics of the early West African empire of Mali. The Mali website includes information, pictures, maps, videos, lesson plans, links, and resources to support the appropriate History and Social Science Standards of Learning. The site will be a resource for teachers and students to find information on historical and modern Mali.
Geography Connects course
Geography Connects, a course supporting the Standards of Learning for teaching World History and Geography to 1500 A.D., will be offered in the fall of 2002 and again in the spring of 2003. The interactive course material is available on a CD-ROM, and teachers take their quizzes and communicate with the instructor on the Internet. Teachers may either enroll to take the course for free and earn 30 recertification points, or they may pay for the class through Old Dominion University and earn three graduate credits. More information on the class and registration instructions are available at the Web site.
The online teacher resource websites and educational posters were produced in collaboration with Prince William County Public Schools.
If you need additional information about the websites for online teacher resources, please contact: Betsy S. Barton (mailto:firstname.lastname@example.org), elementary history and social science specialist, at (804) 225-3454; Beverly Thurston (mailto:email@example.com), middle history and social science specialist, at (804) 225-2893; or Colleen Bryant (mailto:firstname.lastname@example.org), secondary history and social science specialist, at (804) 786-4640.