April in Paris

The 2008 FNO Paris Mini Conference
Thursday and Friday, April 3-4 2008

Join Jamie McKenzie at The American School of Paris

New Century Social Studies
and Research

Combining the best of Authentic and Engaged Learning Strategies

This is also Marathon Weekend in Paris on Sunday, April 6. Info
How can we best equip the young with the thinking, problem-solving and inquiry skills they will need in this century?

Hosted at the American School of Paris, the seminar starts at 1 PM on Thursday afternoon, the 3rd and then continues through Friday, the 4th of April.

Jamie McKenzie leads the group through the planning needed to adjust school social studies programs to emphasize robust research challenges combining the best strategies of Authentic Learning and Engaged Learning along with powerful questioning skills.

Detailed outline below.
You can register and pay on line for this conference at
http://mckenzieseminar.com

Schedule of Events
Thursday, April 3, 2008

1:00 PM  -  4:00 PM 
Authentic and Engaged Learning
Learn how to employ the best elements of these two learning models so your students are challenged to wrestle with difficult questions while intrigued by the issues being explored. Much of the learning during this session will be done online in pairs and trios sharing laptops.

Jamie will also share the key concepts he presented in his keynote in San Diego for the NCSS (National Council of the Social Studies).

Keynote Title - The Brave New Citizen

New technologies promise all kinds of great miracles like stronger thinking and better writing, but it turns out that many of those promises amount to Fool's Gold, according to Jamie McKenzie, unless good teachers and good schools combat much of the marketing and pressure to substitute templates, wizards and short-cuts for careful research, logic and questioning. In this keynote, Jamie demonstrates the perils and the promises of new technologies as they may promote and nurture desirable citizenship behaviors or do the very opposite, spawning a generation content with the glib, the superficial and the well-packaged. A former social studies teacher and school leader, Jamie warns against what he calls the onset of "mentalsoftness" characterized by a preference for platitudes, near truths, slogans, jingles, catch phrases and buzzwords as well as vulnerability to propaganda, demagoguery and mass movements based on appeals to emotions, fears and prejudice. He shows how mind-mapping, strong questioning and the pursuit of "difficult truths" are the antidotes to the cultural drift.

5:00 PM  
French Revolution - Walking Tour of Paris conducted by Paris Walks
Limited to first 15 to register.

Enjoy a guided tour of the key locations where the events took place, then finish the day with dinner in one of the oldest (and best) restaurants in Paris - La Procope. Price of tour included in registration fee. Price of dinner is extra.

The FRENCH REVOLUTION on the RIGHTBANK Palais Royal to place de la Concorde: the Palais Royal, where new ideas were debated, the site of the radical Jacobin club and the ill-fated Tuileries palace. Hear of Marie Antoinette, Equality Philip, Robespierre, and Charlotte Corday, finish at place de la Concorde where the guillotine stood. Meet at metro Palais Royal, the main exit on the square, place du Palais Royal, beside the rue de Rivoli.

Le Procope
Le plus vieux café de Paris... Fondé en 1686 par Francesco Procopio del ... Le Procope • 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comédie
Friday, April 4, 2008

9:00 AM  -  Noon
Biographies and Character Studies that Stir Thinking
Learn how to set up biographical studies that require more from students than mere cut-and-paste thinking. Participants will employ mind mapping software and online digital resources to consider the character of one person from history, exploring questions of import. While a full study might require 20-30 hours or more of reading and inquiry, this session will introduce the learning strategies required.

Noon  -  12:30 PM
Lunch
A box lunch served on site.

12:30 PM  -  3:30 PM
Wondering with and about Images, Words and Numbers from Social Studies Content

Images
Paintings, photographs, sketches and other types of images can provoke a sense of wonder and engage students in valuable inferential reasoning as they seek to grasp explicit and implicit meanings. Jamie will lead the group through a series of examples ranging from propaganda posters of previous wars through paintings and current advertising. "What's the story here?" will recur as a persistent question driving interpretation.

Numbers
Research findings, climate data, economic data and other types of data collections are much like other information sources, as they can provoke a sense of wonder and engage students in valuable inferential reasoning as they seek to grasp explicit and implicit meanings. Jamie will lead the group through a series of examples ranging from recent reports of educational research through datasets for population, crime and climate as well as news articles claiming to report the meaning of such data. As with pictures, "What's the story here?" will recur as a persistent question driving interpretation of the numbers.

Words
Many passages offer much more than surface meaning, providing levels of metaphor or subtexts that may be more important than what first meets the eye. In some cases, these levels are poetic in their intention. In other cases, words are used to control, influence and persuade. Jamie will lead the group through a series of examples ranging from poetry to news reports, editorials, advertisements and policy documents, showing how students can learn to wonder, ponder and unwrap such documents. As with pictures and numbers, "What's the real story here?" will recur as a persistent question driving interpretation of the text.
Costs

Full Conference - $ 250.00 USD

Early payment and registration (March 1 deadline) - $ 200.00 USD

Additional discount for schools sending 5+ staff members. Email Jamie at


for details.