In this issue&

FRONT PAGE

The Grand Canal ExpERIEnce 2007: Don't miss the best teacher institute ever. It's coming July 8-15!

Geofest 2006
Last fall's Geofest in NYC was a great success. Read all about it.

In Memoriam:
Mary Atkins

Editor's Best for 2007 - What we recommend for reading, viewing, and visiting this winter.

Re-Discovering the Grand Erie Canal
Where to go to find traces of New York's gift to the nation, the Erie Canal.

Opportunities for Teachers in 2007

Amazon Trip

Environmental Expeditions offers teachers a great opportunity to experience the Amazon Rainforest. Read more about this trip in the article on the upper right.

Hudson River

The Hudson River is one of New York's most important and scenic treasures. It is an estuary from New York City to Troy, so it has been a highway to America's interior for centuries.
For those of you who live and teach in the Hudson Valley, the National Park Service offers some great opportunities for you. Read the article to the right.

Calligraphy Lesson

The Program for Teaching East Asia at the University of Colorado is offering a terrific program on Japanese history and art. Read the article on the right to find out more information.

Erie Canal

Don't overlook NYGA's own great opportunity for 2007 - The Grand Canal ExpERIEnce! If you want more information about our geographic tour of the Erie Canal, click here! (Pictured here is Lock 2 in Waterford).

Opportunities for Teachers to Learn about Geography

RAINFOREST WORKSHOPS -
TEACHERS & STUDENTS TO THE AMAZON

Visit http://www.travel2learn.com to learn about two exciting ways for
teachers and environmental educators to travel to the Amazon Rainforest.

1. Sign-up for the 15th annual Educator's Amazon Rainforest Workshop, scheduled from June 30 to July 9, 2007. Co-sponsored by Selby Botanical Gardens, this 10-day event is a professional development opportunity for teachers to work side-by-side with a spirited faculty of scientists.

Experience a 1/4 mile Rainforest canopy walkway, get involved in a village service project, and see how indigenous cultures use the forest for medicine, food, and shelter. Academic credit and an extension to Machu Picchu are available. Land cost for this educator workshop is $1998, plus roundtrip airfare.

2. You can TRAVEL FREE during our 8-day Student Amazon Rainforest workshops in June and July 2007, while giving your students and their families the benefits of educational travel to one of the most diverse environments in the world. You will participate in a life-changing Service Learning project in a village along the Amazon River.

Bring a group of 6 and travel with all of your expenses paid. Land cost for students and families is $1898, plus air.

For expedition information or funding ideas call Dr. Frances Gatz at 1-800-669-6806, or email fgatz@earthlink.net
or visit the website http://www.travel2learn.com

Environmental Expeditions, 9335 Fraser Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Frances Gatz, Ph.D., Director, Rainforest Workshops
Fax: 301-585-4899
Phone: 800-669-6806 or 301-585-7027
Web site: http://www.travel2learn.com

Teaching the Hudson Valley

Teaching the Hudson Valley is a project of the National Park Service, Hudson River Estuary Program/NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College, and Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and Greenway.

Application materials for THV's place-based curriculum development proposals are now posted at http://www.TeachingtheHudsonValley.org.
Proposals for the 2007-08 school year are due March 15.

Schools and sites in Albany, Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam,
Rensselaer, Rockland, Ulster, and Westchester counties may apply. Eligible
sites must be open to the public and have a mission that embrace interpretation or preservation of some aspect of the Hudson Valley’s culture, ecosystem, or history. Places include, but are not limited to, art galleries, archives, libraries, museums, nature preserves, parks, and other heritage or historic sites.

Projects may be interdisciplinary or focus on a single area, such as art, geography, or science, and should:
" Create or deepen partnerships and effectively model continuing collaboration between schools and significant places.
" Link sites with curriculum and standards.
" Generate place-based lesson plans featuring sites.

In anticipation of 2009, the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river, THV will give five extra points to projects that address the Hudson-Fulton- Champlain Quadricentennial. For instance, projects might compare the river and valley of today with the 1600s or study the meeting of Europeans and native peoples.

We urge interested teachers and site staff to review the materials on the web site, especially the application form, frequently asked questions, and the how to apply section. If you need additional assistance phone 845-229-9116 x 35, FDR National Historic Site, or e-mail,
rova_TeachingtheHudsonValley@nps.gov.

Other grant opportunities

Watershed Education. Schools and nonprofit organizations serving pre-K
through 12th grade audiences and teachers in the New York City and the
West-of-Hudson Watershed, including Greene and Ulster counties.
Applications and information are available at www.cwconline.org; go to
Programs, Education. Call 845-586-1400, ext. 29 (toll-free 877-WAT-SHED)
to obtain an application packet by mail. Questions may also be directed to
galusha@cwconline.org. Proposals must be postmarked by February 2, 2007.

Visualizing Japan:

Teaching Japanese History Through the Arts

The University of Colorado's Center for Asian Studies is offering a wonderful program for teachers who want to experience Japanese history and culture. It will be held from July 18th to the 27th. The institute will examine five periods in Japanese history through case studies of art forms that are emblematic of each period. Participants will study with scholars and practitioners, examining specific art forms as historic texts that reflect trends and developments at times and places in Japanese history. Designed for social studies, literature, and art teachers, the institute wil touch on major questions and content from the national Standards for World History.

The Program for Teaching East Asia at the Univeristy of Colorado invites application to "Visualizing Japan: Teaching Japanese History through the Arts." Enrollment in the 2007 summer institute is limited to 20 teachers. Preference will be given to those teachers who have the opportunity to incorporate the content and materials from the institute into their 2007-08 teaching assignments. All major costs of the institute attendance are underwritten by a grant from the Freeman Foundation. Participating teachers will also receive materials and a stipend for conducting a follow-up workshop for other teachers.

To receive an application for this institute, please contact the Program for Teaching East Asia, University of Colorado.
Email: Sara.Thompson@colorado.edu

Applications will be available starting in January 2007 on our website:
http://www.colorado.edu/CAS/TEA
Completed applications must be received by close of business on March 6, 2007.

Geography Book Reviews

by Virginia Figura, Co-coordinator of the NYGA

"Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir" by Franz Wisner

When Franz Wisner gets stood up at the altar by his bride-to-be, he realizes he has his honeymoon all paid for. He invites his brother Kurt to go on the trip with him. This leads to life-changing experiences for both of them. Both brothers are in positions in their lives where they are ready for a change, and manage to take 2 years off to travel together after the "honeymoon". They travel to Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. The author comes to grips with losing the love of his life, and he weaves a poignant and funny tale. Geographers will enjoy the book for the many examples of cultural geography, the "culture bumps" the brothers experience when they don't know a custom or language, the magic of meeting children around the world, the abject poverty and astounding wealth they encounter. A lovely part of the book is the letters home to their step-grandmother LaRue who is in an assisted living center and who shares their travels with all her neighbors. This memoir appeals to the wanderlust in all of us.

"Home Ground, Language for an American Landscape", Barry Lopez, Editor; Debra Gwartney, Managing Editor

If you were a very good geographer, perhaps Santa brought you this incredible book for Christmas. "Home Ground" was on two book lists on NPR and rightly so.This is the most poetic of reference books. The editor believed that , as a society, we were losing geographic terms and meanings specific to the United States. Old words for places were being homogenized and, in some cases, disappearing. To remedy this, he produced a dictionary of this distinct vocabulary. However, the writers of each entry are authors and poets, so the definitions fairly sing off the pages, and flow like the rivers, creeks, and streams they describe. 45 writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Jon Krakauer, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Gretel Ehrlich are represented, so terms like embouchure and fosse, huerta and nivation hollow are preserved. In many cases, margin notes incorporate works of other famous authors who have used the term in their writings. Of particular interest to New Yorkers is the definition of drumlin. Did you know close to 11,000 drumlins lie in New York between Rochester and Syracuse? Joyce Carol Oates, a native of Lockport, frequently sets her novels in upstate New York. The margin note references her novel "Tattooed Girl" in which she uses the term drumlin describing the fictional Mount Carmel Hill. "Home Ground" will be an asset to any geographer's bookshelf.

Newsnotes of the

In this issue&

Opportunities for Teachers to Learn about Geography

Visualizing Japan:

Teaching Japanese History Through the Arts

Geography Book Reviews