NETWORK OF ALLIANCES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION 2013-2014 GRANT GUIDELINES

NETWORK OF ALLIANCES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION 2013-2014 GRANT GUIDELINES NETWORK OF ALLIANCES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION 2013-2014 GRANT GUIDELINES Overview The mission of the Arizona Geographic Alliance (AzGA) is to promote geography education and be the advocates for geographic literacy. Since 2003, we have conducted over 343 inservice trainings that have impacted over 16,100 teachers who are teaching more than 616,000 students. This training has taken place in schools and school districts as well as in state and national level settings. Each year we conduct our annual geography conference. We also host various day-long workshops that focus on a region of the world or on a teaching strategy. We impact hundreds of preservice teachers through education methods classes. Our membership totals over 3800 educators. Our major means of communicating with the membership is through emails and via our website and Facebook accounts. Our website (http://geoalliance.asu.edu/azga/) features a wide selection of classroom ready maps. Our newest resource for teachers is 36 new geography civics lessons and a bank of 55 plus on-line demonstrations of teaching those and other lessons on the website. A series of virtual workshops on how to teach geography to ELLs is also featured. The 200 plus GeoHistory, GeoLiteracy and GeoMath lessons on the website are all updated to the current Common Core standards. Both GeoLiteracy (2003) and GeoMath (2005) programs have been nationally recognized by the National Council for the Social Studies, and the virtual workshops have received the 2010 Geography Excellence in Media Award from the National Council for Geographic Education. The leadership cadre of the Arizona Geographic Alliance is comprised of 150 Teacher Consultants. To become a Teacher Consultant (TC), an educator attends an Alliance Summer Geography Institute (ASGI). Since 1994, the Alliance has held 11 ASGIs. In 2013, twenty teachers from Arizona are scheduled to participate in 10 days of classroom instruction and field experience focused on STEM under a fee-for-service arrangement with Mesa Community College. Each participant is expected to become an advocate for geography. As an advocate for geography they help other educators become better teachers of geography and work towards legislation that would assist geography education. Every other year we hold an Advanced Alliance Summer Geography Institute (AASGI). These institutes are themed based, and some of the themes have been GeoHistory, Physical Geography of the Mountains, Deserts, and Oceans, GeoSpatial Technology, Route 66, and Borderlands. This experience is reserved for Teacher Consultants of the Arizona Geographic Alliance. The Co-coordinators are Professor of Geography, Dr. Ronald Dorn, and retired teacher, Gale Olp Ekiss. The Office Manager is Cathy Davis. They are assisted by professors emeritus of geography, Drs Malcolm Comeaux and Robert Mings. Donna Campbell is the strategic planning consultant.