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Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for eLibrary® subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their subscriptions, while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using their ProQuest solutions in a variety of settings.
Don't miss our online archive for access to past issues, and to make changes to your newsletter options.
PROQUEST EDUCATION SOLUTION UPDATES
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates or content additions were recently completed, and we wanted to bring them to your attention.
Top Searches
Here are the top five searches conducted in eLibrary in February. Try these keywords to see some of our most popular content today:
Global Warming
Abortion
Stem Cell Research
Gun Control
Child Abuse
March eLibrary Podcast
Let’s face it--no matter how many times we visit our favorite online learning resources, we’re bound to miss a feature or two. This month, our free video podcast focuses on one of the least-known but most useful feature sets of your subscription:
Training & Support Resources @ proquestk12.com.
When it comes to online research, no one does it better than ProQuest CSA. In tens of thousands of libraries, classrooms, and homes, researchers of all ages rely on eLibrary, SIRS, CultureGrams, ProQuest, and CSA online solutions to find answers to the most pressing questions of the day.
This short video will help you tap into our growing collection of training resources to help learners of all ages make the most of their subscriptions. Let’s get started!
Whether your school provides access to eLibrary, SIRS Knowledge Source or Discoverer, ProQuest Historical Newspapers -- or any of our other 30-plus research and learning solutions -- your first stop for help should be proquestk12.com.
Our training resources are just a click away via the black Training & Support tab.
To view this month's video, subscribe to a ProQuest CSA podcast channel today, or view the video via Google Video or YouTube.
Plus, don’t miss our free monthly Web training sessions, which are eligible for CEU credit!
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
March is the month when a number of health-related themes are celebrated. These themes of the month include National Kidney, National Nutrition, Mental Retardation Awareness, and National Workplace Safety and Health.
With so many themes featuring health, this would be an excellent time in the school year for Health and Physical Education teachers to create mini-research assignments that go beyond textbook facts and provide in-depth knowledge of health issues that can benefit students over their lifetime.
Activity: ProQuest has created a variety of BookCarts on engaging health issues that teachers can assign to their students for their mini-research reports and projects.
ProQuest also provides a mini-research guide that supports Health educators by providing models with procedures and a rubrics evaluator for written reports in the Appendix section.
To copy the ProQuest model health BookCarts to your local collection, go to this link. Open our BookCart Editor, click on the ProQuest Carts tab, then open the Health & Physical Ed folder.
Each of these BookCarts has several essential questions included. These questions provide teachers with models to assign their students for their research reports. Teachers may want to create their own as well. Here are some examples from a Middle School BookCart: Foods, Nutrition, and Disease.
- What are some diseases related to poor nutrition and how do they affect people?
- How are nutrition related diseases related to poverty and lack of education?
- Why does the school have a responsibility to provide education on nutrition and the nutrition itself?
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ELIBRARY BOOKCARTS: MODELS, COLLABORATION, AND MORE
Did you know that eLibrary BookCarts can be used by teachers and librarians as lesson plans for inquiry-based learning activities? Using the present format of our curriculum-focused BookCart Editor, teachers can include lesson plan information such as:
- Essential questions for critical thinking about the topic/issue.
- State standards for content and information literacy skill.
- Simple directions to the students for the activity.
- A QuizCart to assess understanding of content prior to the actual research process.
This significant information could and should be included in the existing Description and State Standard information boxes. Since all inquiry-based activities are really lesson plans, why not include this important information in the Description box to make the BookCart easier for students to understand what they have to do with the BookCart learning resources?
Unfortunately, almost all existing BookCarts created by teachers and librarians use the Description box to provide information that simply restates what is obvious by the BookCart title. For example, if the Title states “Civil War Battles” then the Description box usually includes “Resources for learning more about the Civil War battles.”
Including this lesson plan additional information sounds like a lot of extra work, doesn’t it? But most teachers have to do this planning work for each activity if it’s going to be effective for learning. They also have to communicate the plan to students as part of each assignment.
Why not combine planning elements and the BookCart together?
Better yet, why not copy the best ProQuest model BookCarts -- from more than 500 -- that support your assignments, and type in your lesson plan elements?
That way, ProQuest has done almost all the work for you.
Librarians can copy (learn how) any or all of the ProQuest collection to get teachers excited about using BookCarts for lesson planning as well as using all the great eLibrary resources selected by our editors for each curriculum topic/issue.
Here are some samples of Science BookCarts that include Quizzes and Essential Questions for each core curriculum area (click the Science and BookCarts with Quizzes folders:
Science Teacher Resources | Professional Development | All
Endangered Animals | Science -- Environmental | ES
The Carbon Cycle | Science--Earth/Space | MS
Nuclear Fusion--Energy of the Future? | Science -- Tech. | HS
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PROQUEST® PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: ELIBRARY & SIRS
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 eLibrary and SIRS 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!
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CULTUREGRAMS™ IN FOCUS
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. The World Edition includes 190+ country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition, Provinces Edition, and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 70+ countries, all 50 states (including Washington, D.C.), and the Canadian provinces.
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.
Kentucky: Did You Know?
- Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Union and Confederacy presidents, were both born in Kentucky, less than 100 miles (161 km) apart.
- Two sisters from Louisville wrote the song “Happy Birthday to You” in 1893.
- Fort Knox's underground vaults hold more gold than any other place in the world.
Settling the Frontier
Some trappers explored Kentucky, but the Appalachian Mountains kept many settlers from entering the region. In 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker found a way through the mountains. The Cumberland Gap, as he called it, allowed people to get to Kentucky. Daniel Boone explored the area, and in the 1770s, he and another man named James Harrod began settlements. The colonists found the land rich and inviting, but the Native American tribes in the region didn't want to give up their hunting grounds. Each side fought fiercely over the land. During the Revolution, the British encouraged Native Americans to fight against the Kentuckians. Nine years after the Revolution ended, Kentucky became the 15th state.
The Civil War
When the Civil War began, Kentucky's citizens had mixed feelings. Slave owners wanted to secede (leave the Union) because they were angry about Lincoln's election. However, many others felt tied to the North. The legislature declared neutrality (didn't take sides), but the citizens didn't listen. Thousands joined the Confederate army, and about twice as many joined the Union army. Families were sometimes split by the issue, with brothers facing each other on the battlefield. In fact, the opposing presidencies were both run by men who were born in Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln led the Union and Jefferson Davis headed the Confederacy.
Cultural Note
Kentucky has long been known for its lightning-swift horses. The first thoroughbred horses were brought to the region in the 17th century. Almost a century later, a young American named Lewis Clark was touring Europe when an idea struck him. He would build a track in Kentucky to race the fine thoroughbreds raised there. When he returned, he raised some money and obtained 80 acres of land from his uncles, the Churchills. In 1875, the track, which came to be known as Churchill Downs, officially opened. The Kentucky Derby has been held in Louisville every year since then. Kentucky horses have won about three-fourths of all Derbys!
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
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TOP 3 WEBSITES
Each month, our SIRS® WebSelect and SIRS® 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.
Women Who Changed History
Organization: Scholastic Inc.
"Discover women who have made a difference." (SCHOLASTIC INC.) Learn about amazing women in history, explore women's suffrage, take a women's history quiz and more in this site that celebrates women's achievements.
Cartoon America: A Library of Congress Exhibition
Organization: The Library of Congress (LOC)
"James Arthur Wood, Jr., began collecting original cartoon art as a childhood hobby....The Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature contains more than 36,000 original cartoon drawings and is a jewel among the Library's special collections, illuminating his astounding lifetime legacy of American creativity." (LOC) View 102 drawings from the collection. The cartoons are divided into the following sections: Illustration, Political Illustrations, Caricature, Animation, Gag & Single Panel, Cartoons, and Comic Strips.
Cosmic Journey: A History of Scientific Cosmology
Organization: Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics (AIP)
This is "the story of the colorful individuals, startling ideas and ingenious tools that brought us knowledge of the vast and strange universe we inhabit." (CENTER FOR HISTORY OF PHYSICS, AIP) Discover the ideas and tools of cosmology, beginning with the ancient Greeks to the present.
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FREE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
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.
Register for an eLibrary or additional ProQuest solution course today.
You may also sign up for a timely enewsletter to receive training dates each month via email as soon as they're available.
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CALL FOR USER TESTIMONIALS
What features of eLibrary do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are planning to use it 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.
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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.
Cordially,
Your ProQuest CSA Team
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