VOL. VI, No. 35; Tuesday, April
10, 2007
Dear
Arthur,
Today's newsletter includes
(Note: You can now click on the blue hyperlinks below to go
directly to the story!):
Upcoming
Events for Balance of
2006-2007 School Year
Next High
School Discussion Group on
Saturday, April 14
Urban
Go-Team Moves on To Hadley
Township in Richmond Heights
Civitas Collaboration with Pulitzer Center for Crisis
Reporting including workshop for Teachers
Teacher Jane Garvin Featured in
Post-Dispatch Article
Update
for Middle School Model
U.N.
Civitas
now takes donations and payment of fees with
credit cards and PayPal. If you
want to make a tax-deductible donation or pay a fee, you may do
so by clicking here.
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Upcoming Events
DATE |
TIME |
PLACE |
ACTIVITIES |
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Sat.,
04/14/07 |
9:00 AM -
11:00 AM |
Crossroads |
Discussion Group #10 |
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Wed., 04/25/07 |
9:00
AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle School Model U.N. Session
#3 |
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Thurs.,
04/26/07 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle
School Model U.N. Session
#4 |
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Fri., 04/27/07 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle
School Model U.N. Session
#5 |
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Sat.,
04/28/07 |
8:30 AM - 12:00 Noon
1:00 PM -
4:00 AM
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KETC-TV (Channel 9) 3655 Olive (63108)
Crossroads |
Optional
(but inviting!) workshop for high school and middle school
teachers on using resources of Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting
Urban Go-Team Activity #2
(We will go to the 'Hadley Township' area in Richmond
Heights)
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Wed.,
05/02/07 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle
School Model U.N. Session
#6 |
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Thurs.,
05/03/07 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle
School Model U.N. Session
#7 |
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Fri.,
05/04/07 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle
School Model U.N. Session
#8 |
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Thurs.,
05/10/07 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
PM |
C.C.G.C. |
Middle
School Model U.N. Session
#9 |
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Sat.,
05/12/07 |
9:00 AM
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11:30
AM
12:00 PM
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3:00
PM |
Crossroads
Junior High
Park in Maplewood |
Urban Go-Team
Activity #3
Picnic &
Softball |
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Mon.,
05/21/07 |
4:00 PM - 5:00
PM |
Chevy's in
Crestwood |
Middle School Teacher Meeting
#4 |
Rev., April 3,
2007 |
Discussion Group this Saturday, April 14 at Crossroads
Our tenth (count 'em, 10)
discussion group of the school year is this Saturday, April
14, at Crossroads School (map)
from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM. The discussion group has
nothing to do with the Urban Go-Team; it is strictly
discussion. It should be a great time to talk as Congress
will be back in session and things may well be coming to a
head regarding continued funding of America's
expedition into Iraq. And just last week, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that the Bush Administration cannot prevent
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing
regulations to reduce the spewing of pollutants into the
atmosphere. On the local front, we have the continuing
saga of the St. Louis public schools, the upcoming madness of
more closings of Highway 40 (I-64), and then Arthur's
favorite topic of the year, "the socially redeeming values of
proms." Well, at the very least, are they too
expensive? Hope to see you there!
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"Urban Go-Team" will move from '63112' to
'63117'
After a
most successful activity on Saturday, March 31 in
the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood around Crossroads
School [Zip Code 63112] , the Civitas Urban
Go-Team will be moving about three miles to the southwest to the
Hadley Township
Area near the Richmond Heights Community Center
[Zip Code 63117] for its next session on
Saturday, April 28.
Below is
another map that hopefully will help you identify the area
within the context of the central portion of St. Louis
County.
The reasons why
we are so interested in this area are many, but three that come
to mind immediately are: (1) most of it is schedule for
demolition in the next year as a new development takes
shape. Many people will be moving out; many moving in. (2)
The neighborhood is adjacent to Highway 40 (I-64) and it will
have to endure many of the hardships of everyone along the
immediate corridor of the construction the highway over the next
three years or more, and (3) the neighborhood is immediately
north of where another similar community was uprooted five years
ago to make room for a Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and a host of smaller
retail outlets. With the Hadley Township area, Civitas has
can provide students with an opportunity to observe and possibly
influence a wholesale change of a long-standing neighborhood in
our community. The project will begin this April and
Civitas' involvement will continue for a number of years.
Our
first excursion to the area is on Saturday, April 28, from 1:00
PM - 4:00 PM (this is a change of
time from previously reported). The
first steps will be extensive mapping and photographing of the
area (similar to what we did on March 31 in the
Skinker-DeBaliviere area). If time permits, we will begin
interviewing residents. If we cannot begin the
interviews on April 28, we will do so on the morning of
Saturday, May 12 when we have our final Urban Go-Team activity
of the school year (prior to the summer program).
Because these activities will be away from
Crossroads, they will constitute field trips and students
will need signed permission
forms. Students listed below have valid
forms through the end of the school year as a result of their
participation in the February "Nuke Conference:"
Bonastia |
Bailee |
St.
Joseph's |
Coughlin |
Samantha |
M-RH |
DeBaun |
Morgan |
Rosati-Kain |
Dobinsky |
Jodi |
Parkway North |
Fanning |
Katie |
Lindbergh |
Faulkingham |
Logan |
M-RH |
Ghidey |
Teresa |
Parkway North |
Gunning |
Kyle |
Hazelwood Central |
Hendricks |
Anna |
Crossroads |
Hopkins |
Mary Kate |
St. Joseph's |
Jacobsen |
Jenna |
St. Joseph's |
Kowalski |
Mandi |
Collinsville |
Kramer |
Laura |
St. Joseph's |
Kroeger |
Matthew |
Hazelwood Central |
Lynch |
George |
Crossroads |
Madden |
Colleen |
St. Joseph's |
Madden |
Molly |
St. Joseph's |
Marks |
Kyle |
Hazelwood Central |
McGinnis |
Zora |
Metro |
Niedringhaus |
Megan |
St.
Joseph's |
Reed |
Allison |
Rosati-Kain |
Rochester |
Katie |
M-RH |
Rodriguez |
Patty |
Parkway North |
Rogers* |
Meg |
Rosati-Kain |
Roper |
Mandi |
Rosati-Kain |
Slovinski |
Ashley |
Collinsville |
Smith |
Vanessa |
Crossroads |
Spaunhorst |
Amanda |
St. Joseph's |
Webb |
Terrie |
Rosati-Kain |
Weeks |
Brynne |
Crossroads |
Witherspoon |
Colin |
Crossroads |
Yeckel |
Jeff |
DuBourg | * Form in but signature missing
Others will need to submit signed permission forms prior to
April 28. Interested students may download blank
forms from these two sites:
Completed forms can be:
(a) Sent to Civitas at 10845 Olive
Blvd., Suite #155; St. Louis, MO 63141-7760. (b) Faxed to Civitas at (314)
367-7742. (c) E-Mailed as
attachments to us at civitas@swbell.net. (d) Brought by hand to Crossroads where we will meet at
1:00 PM on Saturday, April 28.
As stated previously, Civitas will once again have a
program this summer in which students can intensely learn
and act upon urban issues in our metropolitan area. We'll
do some studying, we'll have lots of field trips, we'll have
interesting speakers, and we'll even try out some tasty
restaurants. This year, we call the program the Urban
Go-Team: "Show Me the Money in St.
Louis!"
If you are interested in
being a member of the Urban
Go-Team, it is not too late. Just show up
on April 28 or e-mail us at urban-go-team@civitas-stl.com.
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- Civitas Begins Exciting Collaboration with Pulitzer Center
We are all aware of
the schlock (yes, it's in the dictionary, "something of cheap or
inferior quality; junk") that often characterizes today's
mainstream news. Fortunately, there are still some real
journalists out there and among them is Jon Sawyer, director of
the Pulitzer Center for Crisis
Reporting. The Pulitzer Center was established
several years ago with the expressed intent of covering
under-reported international stories that are important in
themselves and important to citizens of the United States.
Over the past two years the Center has covered over a dozen
important stories from Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and
elsewhere.
It is not only important to report the
stories; it is important to have a broader audience. As
the Pulitzer Center
contracts with a number of accomplished journalists and
videographers, it is also working to expand its readership and
viewership into a number of colleges, universities, high
schools, and middle schools. Fortunately, St. Louis is
becoming the flagship for their high school and middle school
outreach.
One of the projects that the Pulitzer
Center is working on is the reclamation of the
Gorongosa National
Park in Mozambique in southeast
Africa. The park was trashed during the civil war from
1975-1992, but due to a strong commitment and lots of dollars
from an American philanthropist, it is being restored. The
sunshine story is not without its problems, but this is all
being reported by the Pulitzer
Center.
Director Jon Sawyer will be coming to St.
Louis along with his assistant Nathalie Applewhite and
Gorongosa reporter Stephanie Hanes
from April 25 - 28. Thanks to some
terrific work by Parkway District Social Studies
Curriculum Coordinator Liz
Morrison, they will be spending Thursday, April
26 in the Parkway district. With tremendous support from
KETC-TV Vice-President for Educational Services, Amy Shaw, Channel 9 will be
creating a series of multi-purpose videos in part from the
classes in the Parkway district that day.
On Friday,
April 27, Jon, Nathalie, and Stephanie will be coming to
St. Joseph's Academy
(9:30 AM), Collinsville High School (12:00
Noon), and Maplewood-Richmond
Heights High School (2:05 PM). In all
cases, they will be discussing the importance of the Gorongosa
story and how it relates to students' lives. Most
importantly, they are open to taking any and all student
questions.
Finally, on Saturday, April 28, all
parties concerned will join together to sponsor a workshop for
high school and middle school teachers who are interested in
using the myriad of resources from the Pulitzer Center.
Invitations to teachers involved in Civitas programs were
sent last week from Amy Shaw at KETC-TV (Channel 9). If
you misplaced the invitation, you can RSVP to Amy at ashaw@ketc.org.
Civitas has the
pleasure of working with the Pulitzer Center and others on
this project. One of our projects is to work to prepare
students and teachers and St.
Joseph's, Collinsville, and Maplewood-Richmond Heights for
the Pulitzer
visits on Friday, April 27. Last week, we had an
opportunity to meet with a terrific A.P. class at Collinsville
taught by Mark Schusky
and Barbara
Lindauer. Wow, what a terrific
group. We truly appreciate their fine interest, questions,
and most importantly, understanding of the need to focus on
stories such as Gorongosa. Photos (taken
by Collinsville
student Leslie
Miller) are available by clicking here.
Also, a number of students from St. Louis
high schools have been communicating on the Gorongosa blog with journalist
Stephanie
Hanes. You can access their questions and
comments as well as Stephanie's fine responses
by clicking here.
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St. Joseph's Jane Garvin Featured in
Post-Dispatch Article
Special
thanks to Amy Shaw, Vice-President of
Educational Services at KETC-TV (Channel 9) for alerting us to
the article that appears below that appeared in Friday's
Post-Dispatch. It features Jane
Garvin, teacher of world history, geography and
psychology at St. Joseph's Academy. Jane has been an
outstanding faculty advisor for Civitas for a number of
years. We are delighted to see her receive well-deserved
recognition.
Teacher
Challenges her Students with Field Trips By Michelle B.
Mueller SPECIAL TO THE
POST-DISPATCH Friday, Apr. 06 2007
Jane Garvin teaches world history,
geography and psychology at St. Joseph's Academy, but the
impact she makes on her students go beyond her classroom.
Garvin says students learn best when they become
involved in the material they're learning, so she
challenges them to take personal field trips to observe
and participate with people about whom they are learning,
especially in psychology class.
"Some may go to
an Alzheimer's unit at a nursing home or visit a school with kids who have disabilities," Garvin said. "They say they learn
a lot from the people there."
Outside her role
as a teacher, Garvin sponsors clubs and activities that encourage students to understand area and global humanitarian
issues.
Garvin began sponsoring a service club
called Angel Outreach last spring. In the past year, more
than 300 students have become members of the club. One of the
most popular activities in the club is working with Team
Activities With Special Kids at St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Catholic Church. St. Joseph's students help children and
teens with disabilities play various sports and take part in dance activities and other recreation each week.
Each month, the club posts a calendar with needs for
volunteers. "There are always kids in the hall outside my
classroom signing up for various activities," Garvin
said.
Garvin's latest plug for the needy is to raise
awareness of a program called The Invisible Children
Organization, which talks about the plight of child soldiers in Uganda.
Garvin has invited a speaker
to the school on Thursday who will talk about how children and
young teens are being abducted by warlords in Uganda to be used
as soldiers and be exploited in other ways.
Garvin
has taught at St. Joseph's for 16 years.
More about
Garvin:
Where did you go to high school? Nerinx Hall
High School.
Education: bachelor's degree in
political science and history from St. Louis University;
additional coursework in psychology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis
Hobbies: "I like spending time
with my family, reading and hanging out with friends."
Who inspired you to pursue a career in education? "I
always thought I would love to teach since the time I was
in school myself. I always looked up to my teachers."
What's the best part of your job? "Getting to meet so
many really fine young women who give me hope for a
future."
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Middle School Model U.N. Update
It's the calm before the storm so to speak for
Civitas' Middle School Model UN program. After two successful
General Assemblies at the end of March, we've enjoyed a couple
weeks of relative tranquility. Now the next "storm of resolutions" is upon
us as we gear up for the General Assemblies on April 25, 26, and
27, and May 2, 3, 4, and 10.
Teachers are
reminded to email their resolution rough drafts as soon as
possible to Lisa if they haven't done so already. She'll send your
students feedback on those drafts within a day or two so they
can make appropriate revisions in their final drafts. Our goal is to have all
the final drafts turned in and posted on our website two weeks
before the session so that students have plenty of time to
preview and prepare their thoughts on all the resolutions. From the drafts we've
seen so far it's obvious that the middle school students are
tackling timely issues that are vital to our planet's
future!
If you have any questions at all,
feel free to email (granichkovarik@sbcglobal.net)
or call Lisa (865-4704).
The General Assemblies will be held at Creve Coeur Government Center, 300 N. New
Ballas
Road, and will last from 9:00 until
noon. Here is a
link to directions if you need them: http://www.civitas-stl.com/map/cccc_dir.htm.
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ADDITIONAL LINKS
Civitas Home Page
Photo Gallery
Civitas Calendar for
2006-2007
Civitas
Intranets Site
Civitas Blog
Maps &
Directions
Previous
Newsletters
General Assembly
Countries
Security Council
Countries
Conference (Feb., 2007)
on "The Nuclear Club"
Checklist
for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution
Resolutions
(High School U.N.) for 2004-2006
Make donation to
Civitas
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