Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for SIRS Knowledge Source® subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their SIRS subscription(s), while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using their ProQuest solutions in a variety of settings.
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates to our SIRS family of products were recently completed and we wanted to bring them to your attention.
Election 2006 Results
Now that the congressional elections are over, SIRS Government Reporter has updated its U.S. Congress feature. Users will now find useful election results for all 33 Senate seats that were up for reelection or open and all House of Representative seats.
Look for information on members of the 110th Congress, including profiles of new and existing members, contact information and committee assignments, in early January.
Newest Articles & Graphics
Our editorial team updates SKS every day with new articles and resources. Here’s a short list of the timeliest and most topical articles added to your product this month. Publication dates may vary due to the editorial selection process.
The U.S. Supreme Court is the real “decider” in U.S. case law. There’s no higher court in the land – and the nine sitting judges on the court make decisions that impact everything from personal freedoms to separation of powers and everything in between.
This month, we’re proud to say that your SIRS Knowledge Source subscription is guilty – guilty of offering many vectors of access to everything you and your students ever wanted to know about the U.S. Supreme Court. Welcome to this month’s SIRS podcast from ProQuest.
To begin, access your SIRS Knowledge Source subscription, and click the SIRS Government Reporter link.
The first way to tap into the Supreme Court is to conduct a Subject Headings search for the words Supreme Court.
One the results page, you’ll see links to overarching subject areas related to the Court. Just click a link based on your interests to continue – or check one or more subject headings and enter a new search term in the box at the top to conduct an advanced search.
If you know which case you’re interested in, a second way to get Court data is to conduct a new keyword search. Just put the name of the person or persons involved in any case in quotes in the search box, or enter the case name itself.
Try Roe v. Wade, click the button next to Keyword, and click Search.
Next, you can browse cases via an alphabetical case listing. Under Database Features on the right, click U.S. Supreme Court. Near the top, click the Browse by Alphabetical Case listing link. Click a letter of the alphabet to sort through the results.
Going back to the U.S. Supreme Court page, you’ll see the Browse Cases by Constitutional Articles & Amendments link. That’s another way to focus your query if this is the type of Court data you’re interested in mining for information.
You may also more generally search cases by general topic. Go back to the U.S. Supreme Court screen and click Browse Cases by Topic.
Finally, don’t miss the Landmark Cases button on the right side of the Government Reporter search page! All of these cases have significantly altered constitutional doctrines. The evolution of national social policy can be traced by considering the general area of constitutional guarantees and following the path from the source to the present.
As you can see, Government Reporter is your link to comprehensive information about the past, present, and future of the U.S. Supreme Court. Thank you for your time and attention – see you next month for another edition of the SIRS podcast from ProQuest!
Download your copy of iTunes today, and subscribe to our free podcasts with a click of your mouse.
Don’t Miss a Single Teachable Moment: Free Curriculum & Lesson Plans
On the first of each month, our curriculum specialists deliver a powerful tool to thousands of K-12 teachers worldwide. And best of all, you can sign up to get this free, hands-on and classroom-ready content today at ProQuest.
Our monthly Teachable Moments email newsletter (December issue here) offers a treasure trove of innovative student activities that take full advantage of our complete line of K-12 learning solutions. Most can be easily augmented to fit into any classroom curriculum.
Sign up for Teachable Moments today using the box below, then browse our inventory of back issues. Consider it your own personal teachable moment with a professional development theme!
SIRS Leading Issues: This Month’s Top Picks
Our popular SIRS Leading Issues feature is dynamically updated daily with new content! New topics are added monthly along with "Your Top 10 Choices"--a list solely driven by end-user searches. Here's a list of some of our subscribers’ more commonly accessed topics:
Identity Theft and Awareness Month is one of a variety of December themes. "'The right to be let alone,' Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis once said, is 'the right most valued by civilized men.' That right seems under renewed attack today in a world where personal records are stored digitally and can be obtained by those clever enough to hack in or by simply grabbing a laptop computer.
"According to a Federal Trade Commission survey in 2003, about 10 million Americans--1 in 30--had their identities stolen in the previous year, with losses to the economy of $48 billion. Subsequent surveys, by Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research company, found that the number of victims had declined to nine million last year [2005], but the losses had risen to $56.6 billion.
In recent years Americans have been subjected to endless reminders about the need to protect their Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information. Yet all the personal vigilance in the world will be pointless if big organizations in government and the private sector do not exercise a similar amount of responsibility.
Activity: Select the Subject Heading option and type “Identity Theft” in the Search box. There will be more than 80 articles available for your mini-research report. Each student should address the following examples of essential questions for critical thinking in their report:
What are some of the strategies used by thieves to steal identities?
Why is this problem more pervasive today than it was in past years?
What strategies are being developed to provide people with protection?
What is the role of the federal government in preventing identity theft?
What is the responsibility of people to help protect their identities and assets?
Teacher can create other questions if appropriate. But essential questions are essential for all research activities if real learning and critical thinking are to take place. The format for a mini-research report can be found in the ProQuest guide at the following link.
The use of source documents offers students a direct glimpse into the past. But without context, these sources can confuse as often as illuminate.
SIRS Decades places these resources into a relevant framework for understanding that enriches both the content and student understanding of the material. SIRS Decades features more than 5,000 hand-selected primary and secondary source articles highlighting key events, movements, people, and places in 20th-century America.
Recently we completed a project to map all of our Document Based Questions (DBQs) with NCSS standards. You can connect to this critical information by clicking the State and National Standards Correlations link from the Decades homepage. It’s searchable, linkable and printable!
Find out more about SIRS Decades at our K-12 website.
PROQUEST PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: SIRS & ELIBRARY
Our professional development training program is a complete package that delivers the key processes to ensure successful program implementation, and the content to support ongoing use and customization across the entire curriculum.
The CEU-eligible program provides educators with research-based technology integration strategies and tools for customizing instruction and assessment using our SIRS and eLibrary online learning solutions. Schools receive the materials they need to build professional development and instructional models that can maximize teacher efficiency and effectiveness, and improve student achievement.
Educators receive rubrics, assessments, activities, and content designed to spur students' information literacy skills, critical thinking, and reading and writing abilities, while increasing their own technology usage. Plus, our flexible model ensures that all instructional staff in a school or system will benefit from the lessons learned.
Our fresh support for our line of SIRS solutions will train your teachers to fuse four types of literacy using SIRS resources with state and national learning standards. Find out more about this new program today--just in time for your spring training dates!
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. Our World Edition includes 190+ country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 70+ countries and all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
CultureGrams goes beyond mere facts and figures to deliver an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
Country:
South Korea
Capital: Seoul
Population: 48,422,644 (rank=25)
Area, sq. mi.: 38,023 (rank=106)
Area, sq. km.: 98,480
Real GDP per capita: $17,971
Adult literacy rate: 99% (male); 99% (female)
Infant mortality rate: 5 per 1,000 births
Life expectancy: 73 (male); 81 (female)
Did You Know?
Because of the Confucian emphasis on family hierarchies, Koreans keep detailed genealogies.
In Korean wrestling matches, combatants hold on to pieces of cloth tied around their opponent's legs.
To pass extremely competitive university entrance exams, students prepare intensively for months, often hiring private tutors.
Language
The Korean language is written in Hangul, a phonetic alphabet created in 1446 because classical Chinese (the only written language available) was difficult to master. Hangul made it possible for the commoner to read and write. It has 24 letters, 10 of which are vowels. Hangul also instilled a national pride in Koreans that helped them preserve their culture during periods of foreign occupation. The Seoul dialect is the standard taught in school. Korean used in South Korea mixes numerous Chinese characters with Hangul script in newspapers and government documents, but Korean is not closely related to Chinese.
Greetings
A common greeting between peers or for subordinates is Annyong haseyo? (Are you at peace?). Children often greet each other with a simple Annyong? To show respect for a social superior, one adds an honorific: Annyong hashimnikka? A Korean name typically consists of a one-syllable family name followed by a one- or two-syllable given name. Kim, Lee (Yi), and Park (Pak) are the most common family names. Women retain their maiden names when they marry.
Family
On a person's 60th birthday (a milestone rarely reached in the past), extended family members gather for a grand celebration (hwan'gap). Families may save money for months to pay for the event. Similar lavish attention is afforded to babies. After one hundred days of life, a small feast is held in honor of the child's survival to that point (also a date often not reached in the past). A much larger celebration (tol) is held at the first birthday. From the many gifts offered, what a child picks up first is thought to signal his or her fortunes in life.
Holidays
For the New Year (Jan. 1-3), families gather to exchange gifts, honor the dead, and enjoy large meals. People often dress in traditional clothing, though this is becoming less common in cities. After the memorial services, family members bow to each older person in a show of respect. Games are played and fortunes are told. South Koreans celebrate the Lunar New Year (January or February) by visiting hometowns or vacationing in resorts. The other major family holiday is Ch'usok (Harvest Moon Festival, held in September or October), when family members visit ancestral tombs to clean the grave site and leave food offerings in honor of the dead. Larger family reunions are common during this festival.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
As world events increasingly affect all our lives, it’s more important than ever to educate students about the world around them. CultureGrams and World Conflicts Today show students how the world’s peoples live... and what’s behind the major conflicts they face.
CultureGrams concise, reliable, and up-to-date information delivers a true insider’s perspective on daily life and culture of the world’s people. Explore 190 country reports that include 25 cultural categories, maps, images, bios, glossaries, statistics, and five local recipes per country.
World Conflicts Today provides new ways to understand the high-profile conflicts currently engulfing many of the world’s nations. Unbiased overviews of the history, background, obstacles, and implications analyze each conflict, alongside primary and secondary sources, interactive maps, slide shows, and other multimedia.
Conflicts include Afghanistan, Basque Country, Chechnya, Colombia, Darfur, Iraq, Jammu & Kashmir, Korean Peninsula, Northern Ireland, and the Palestinian Territories.
Together you get more than facts and figures; you give students unbiased cultural and social insights they won’t find in any textbook, website, or encyclopedia.
You can save 20% off World Conflicts with purchase of both* by 12/31/06.
And, with district purchases you may be eligible for up to 40% off CultureGrams!
* Existing CultureGrams Online subscribers are eligible
You’ll see why School Library Journal recommends CultureGrams for, “History, geography, foreign language, ESL, and current events teachers…[for] discussions, debates, presentations, research papers, reports, and reading and writing exercises.”
For more information, contact ProQuest toll-free at 1.800.521.0600, or by email at PQSales@il.proquest.com.
Each month, our SKS WebSelect™ and Discoverer WebFind™ editorial teams scour the Internet for top-quality sites that help teachers teach and students learn. Although no Internet site can supplant a quality research database, these vetted resources offer unique resources that are sure to be of interest.
"Conservation International (CI) focuses its efforts on 25 biologically rich areas around the world under significant threat of destruction. The remaining natural habitat in these biodiversity hotspots amounts to just 1.4 percent of the land surface of the planet, yet supports nearly 60 percent of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species." (CI) Explore the hotspots by region or the interactive map to access information about the ecosystem, unique biodiversity, human impacts, conservation action, and vital statistics.
"This exhibition is about how Leonardo da Vinci thought on paper. It contains some of his most complex and challenging designs. Although many other artists, inventors and scientists have brainstormed on paper, none of Leonardo's predecessors, contemporaries or successors used paper quite like he did. The intensity, variety and unpredictability of what happens on a single sheet are unparalleled." (V&A, GREAT BRITAIN) Visitors to this companion site to the V&A exhibit on da Vinci will need Macromedia Flash to view the incredible animated drawings of da Vinci's notebooks.
This special feature from the Web site of The Newshour with Jim Lehrer chronicles the threat of nuclear weapons in North Korea. Articles and interviews that explain the history and international politics in this region of the world are presented.
Our ProQuest product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription--and learn more about our other digital learning resources! We offer a wide variety of online training sessions each month.
Plus, all attendees can easily obtain a Certificate of Attendance (right) for any of our online courses! The certificate documents the course name, amount of class time, date, and verifies attendance. You can use the certificate to document attendance in the class and submit it along with the additional documentation your school district requires to award you with continuing education credits.
Be sure to tell your trainer that you would like to receive a certificate via email at the start of each class. They’ll be glad to help!
You can download three ready-to-print versions of forthcoming training dates and times in PDF format.
Our training sessions cover after-school hours within several time zones. Best of all, there's no cost to participate. All you need is a computer with Internet access, a phone, and one hour.
What features of your SIRS subscription do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are you planning to use SIRS as part of an assignment or student research project? How do you and other curriculum leaders in your institution use your ProQuest educational resources?
Share your experiences with peers working in schools across the country and around the world--through an upcoming Product News Bulletin! We're waiting to hear from you. Please send your ideas and stories to: tim.mclain@il.proquest.com
If we choose your submission, we'll contact you for additional information and permission to use your story in a future issue.
FORWARD TO A COLLEAGUE + EMAIL SERVICE INFORMATION
Increase the usage of your digital learning resources! Our forward to a friend service makes it easy to instantly send this product bulletin--and all the great ideas and information it contains--to others in your subscribing institution with a click of your mouse.
Also, be sure to encourage them to sign up for our SIRS, CultureGrams, ProQuest, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, eLibrary, eLibrary Curriculum Edition, and additional enewsletters as appropriate.
To change your email address, sign up for additional newsletter titles, or modify your subscription settings, click here.
ProQuest offers a growing family of K-12 classroom-focused,
subscription-based online research tools. Many of these education solutions offer reading level-linked
(lexile) content, support
21st-century information
literacy skills, and help schools differentiate instruction across all curriculum areas.
Learn more about all of our tools here, tap into our training resources and videos, and don't miss our new eLibrary research tool (more). We also have a pair of special resource pages just for teachers (with lesson plans) and librarians.
Cordially,
Your ProQuest K-12 Team
Your SIRS license agreement gives us permission to send you email about product upgrades, special offers, and new services. If you'd like to discontinue receiving these messages, you may unsubscribe. If you have any questions or are having difficulty, please send email to Tim McLain. Thanks for your interest in SIRS and ProQuest!
Now that the congressional elections are over, 
Don’t miss this month’s SIRS podcast, focusing on Student Bibliographies: 
Our popular SIRS Leading Issues feature is dynamically updated daily with new content! New topics are added monthly along with "Your Top 10 Choices"--a list solely driven by end-user searches. Here's a list of some of our subscribers’ more commonly accessed topics:
The use of source documents offers students a direct glimpse into the past. But without context, these sources can confuse as often as illuminate.
Country:
