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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.
Check out our online archive to read past issues.
WHAT'S NEW @ SIRS
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.
New Leading Issue: Human Trafficking
Our SIRS editorial team has added a new Leading Issue on Human Trafficking.
The group determined that
students are often searching for information on this topic, and by adding it to Leading Issues SIRS now provides students with an overview, pro/con analysis, and other valuable information for researching and writing a paper on this important topic. Look for more new Leading Issues topics to be added to your subscription in the coming months!
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.
March SIRS 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!
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:
- Global warming
- Marijuana
- Gangs
- Capital Punishment
- Abortion
- Teenage pregnancy
- Same-sex marriage
- Eating disorders
- Child abuse
- Immigration
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LESSON PLANS
One of the many themes for March that is timely is Ethics Awareness Month. Over the last few years, many new stories have featured ethics abuses both in business and in government. The public is looking for new leaders who have the courage to legislate new rules that will encourage ethical behavior in business and in government.
Activity: Teachers can create a variety of assignment that deal with ethics abuse and ethics reform. Assign student either a business ethic abuse or a government ethics abuse. Students should select a specific example of an ethics violation from the results list:
- Type “business ethics” in the Subject Heading box.
- Click the Business Ethics link, or...
- Type “political ethics” in the Subject Heading box.
- Click the Political Ethics link.
Teachers should assign Essential Questions to ensure students are using critical thinking skills and not just copy/paste summaries. Here are some examples of essential questions that teachers can assign or create others.
- Why do we ethical behavior in business and government?
- How can business people or government officials be unethical without breaking laws?
- What would you recommend to prevent this type of abuse in the future?
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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!
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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.
- Capital: Stockholm
- Population: 9,001,774 (rank=84)
- Area, sq. mi.: 173,732 (rank=54)
- Area, sq. km.: 449,964
- Real GDP per capita: $26,750
- Adult literacy rate: 99% (male); 99% (female)
- Infant mortality rate: 3 per 1,000 births
- Life expectancy: 78 (male); 82 (female)
Did You Know?
- More than 80 percent of Swedes live in the southern third of the country.
- Swedes usually address each other by first name; they use titles only in very formal situations.
- With the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize, Sweden awards the Nobel Prizes each year.
Population
At least 85 percent of the people are ethnic Swede. Finns compose about five percent of the population; most of them are immigrants from Finland, but some are native to northern Sweden. A small indigenous minority (up to 20,000 people), the Sami (pronounced “SAW-me”), lives in the north. Traditionally, they herded reindeer for a living. While some continue that occupation, most are involved in other fields. The Sami are sometimes called Lapps, but this is a derogatory term and therefore not encouraged in Sweden.
Language
Swedes speak Swedish -- a Germanic language that is closely related to Danish and Norwegian, and more distantly related to Icelandic. It developed from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Swedish emerged as a distinct language around the 10th century, but speakers of Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian can still understand each other.
Religion
Sweden, like most of Europe, is a highly secular society. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution. Most Swedes (about 80 percent) are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church but rarely attend church services. The Lutheran Church still enjoys limited support from the state; however, a complete legal separation of church and state took place in 2000. Now all church decisions are made by church leaders rather than the government.
General Attitudes
Sweden has created an egalitarian society in which men and women enjoy equal access to opportunities for personal advancement. In addition, Swedes highly value their extensive social welfare system, which provides for most of the population's health, education, and retirement benefits. While public sentiment in the early 1990s led to some cuts in the system, most people oppose deep changes in what are called “cradle-to-grave” benefits.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
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TOP 3 WEBSITES
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.
Corridos
Organization: ArtsEdge, The Kennedy Center
"Listen to audio clips of traditional and modern Mexican corridos with this multimedia resource. Sing along to historic recordings about key figures during the Mexican Revolution, and inspire students to compose their own corridos by listening to lyrics written by fellow high school students. Student composers featured on this resource were winners of the University of Arizona Poetry Center's Bilingual Corrido Contest for High School Students, an annual contest supported by the University of Arizona College of Humanities." (ARTSEDGE, THE KENNEDY CENTER) The lyrics are available in English and Spanish.
Freevibe: Anti-Drug Web Site
Organization: National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
This anti-drug site for teens provides information on the dangers of drug abuse, including the dangers of specific illegal drugs. Site visitors can ask questions on drugs, relate their drug stories, learn why people take drugs and focuses on strategies for avoiding drug use. Information on cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse and depression is also featured.
Say It Plain:
A Century of Great African American Speeches
Organization: American Public Media
"Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most famous black orator in history. But he was hardly alone. For generations, African Americans have been demanding justice and equality, reminding America to make good on its founding principles of democracy. These orators, and the very act of speaking out, played a crucial role in the long struggle for equal rights. Hear some of those seminal speeches at Say It Plain." (AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA) Read or listen to speeches from notable African Americans such as Marcus Garvey, Fannie Lou Hammer, and Barack Obama.
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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 a SIRS 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 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.
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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
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 CSA!
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