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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: CONGRESS IN THE CLASSROOM 2008
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Cindy Koeppel
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Apr 03, 2008 13:52 PST
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** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: CONGRESS IN THE CLASSROOM 2008 **
Deadline: April 15, 2008
Congress in the Classroom is a national, award-winning education program
now in its 16th year. Developed and sponsored by The Dirksen
Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas
and information on teaching about Congress. The Center will join with
the new Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service in
conducting the workshop.
Congress in the Classroom is designed for high school or middle school
teachers who teach U.S. history, government, civics, political science,
or social studies. Forty teachers will be selected in 2008 to take part
in the program. Selection will be determined by The Center. All online
applications must be received by no later than April 15, 2008.
Individuals will be notified of their acceptance status by April 30,
2008.
In addition to sessions dealing with Congress, the 2008 program will pay
special attention to the upcoming congressional and presidential
elections. The workshop consists of two types of sessions: those that
focus on recent research and scholarship about Congress or elections
(and don't always have an immediate application in the classroom) and
those geared to specific ways to teach students about Congress or
elections.
The workshop will be held Monday, July 21 - Thursday, July 24, at the
Hotel Pere Marquette -- http://www.hotelperemarquette.com/ -- Peoria,
Illinois.
The program is certified by the Illinois State Board of Education for up
to 22 Continuing Education Units. The program also is endorsed by the
National Council for the Social Studies.
Participants are responsible for (1) a non-refundable $135 registration
fee (required to confirm acceptance after notice of selection) and (2)
transportation to and from Peoria, Illinois. Many school districts will
pay all or a portion of these costs.
The Center pays for three nights lodging at the headquarters hotel
(providing a single room for each participant), workshop materials,
local transportation, all but three meals, and presenter honoraria and
expenses. The Center spends between $25,000 and $30,000 to host the
program each year.
Tentative session titles are listed below. (NOTE: Additional sessions
will be listed as presenters are confirmed. More information about the
content of each session will be posted as it becomes available.)
| | Opening Remarks: A View from Capitol Hill
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The Honorable Ray LaHood, (R-IL, 18th District, U.S. House of
Representatives) CONFIRMED
Congressman LaHood will retire from the House in January 2009, having
decided in 2007 not to stand for re-election in 2008. He has served
seven terms. The Congressman will discuss the current agenda in
Congress, offer observations about the upcoming election, and respond to
your questions.
| | Congressional Insight: An Interactive Simulation of a Member's First
Term in the House of Representatives
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Tara Smith, National Association of Manufacturers CONFIRMED
With Congressional Insight, you experience the high-pressured,
uncompromising environment in which legislators must operate. With
increasingly tight deadlines imposed by the simulation, you are part of
a team that must decide which bills to support, which committee posts to
seek, how much time to devote to fund-raising, and what tradeoffs to
make amidst constituent, party, special-interest, and media pressures.
The quality of your choices will be tested in a re-election campaign.
| | Sound Bite: Introduction to The Dirksen Center's Web Suite
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Cindy Koeppel, The Dirksen Center CONFIRMED
Sound Bites are 30-minute sessions devoted to a single topic. In this
one, Koeppel, the designer of The Center's Web suite, will introduce the
six sites within the suite and illustrate how teachers can use them in
their classrooms. Almost 1.5 million "unique visitors" generated about
70 million "hits" on the suite in 2007.
| | Running for Congress: A Consultant's Perspective
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Matt Bisbee, Illinois Executive Director, Victory Enterprises CONFIRMED
Founded in 1993, Victory Enterprises is a comprehensive political
consulting and communications firm. The firm offers a full array of
campaign services including survey research, media production and
placement, direct mail design, grassroots messaging, web strategy and
design as well as one-on-one campaign consulting. Since our inception,
we have been involved in over 1,500 campaigns. The presenter will talk
about how congressional candidates are recruited and how they develop a
strategy for election.
| | On the Road with Presidential Candidates
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Jodi Enda, Journalist
This presenter has covered the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential
campaigns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Knight Ridder Newspapers.
Since then she has done considerable freelance writing for various
magazines. Enda will talk about the challenges of reporting on this
beat, suggest story lines to look out for in 2008, and evaluate the
state of presidential campaign reporting this year.
| | Reception at Bradley University
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Workshop teachers
Enjoy refreshments on the campus of Bradley University and learn more
about the University and the Institute for Principled Leadership in
Public Service.
| | Running for Congress: A Candidate's Perspective
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Jim McConoughey, candidate in the Republican primary, 18th congressional
district, and CEO of the Heartland Partnership. CONFIRMED
In his first run for public office, the presenter finished second in the
primary to replace Congressman Ray LaHood. McConoughey will talk about
his decision to run, the development of a campaign strategy, and the
unfolding of the race.
| | Where We Stand in the Presidential Race and What to Look For
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Tim Teehan, National Sales Director, Campaigns and Elections. CONFIRMED
Campaigns & Elections magazine is a nonpartisan publication with more
than 84,000 readers involved in the political process. Lieberman has a
unique vantage point from which to observe the unfolding presidential
campaigns. Prior to serving as publisher, Lieberman consulted on many
campaigns and advocacy programs in the United States and abroad.
| | "I’m No Lady, I’m a Member of Congress": Women in Congress, 1917-2006
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Kathleen Johnson, Historical Publications Specialist, Office of History
and Preservation, House of Representatives CONFIRMED
As one of the authors of Women in Congress-a book chronicling the
history of the more than 200 women who have served in the House and the
Senate-Johnson will provide background on the publication and its
corresponding web component which contains educational materials
designed for use in the classroom. She also will discuss the forthcoming
publication of Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007, and the many web
resources created by the Office of History and Preservation that
document the history of the House of Representatives.
| | Sound Bite: Yes, It is Possible to Find Humor in Congress
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Frank H. Mackaman, The Dirksen Congressional Center CONFIRMED
Relying on gems located in the archives of Members of Congress, Mackaman
provides examples of what constituents expect of their representatives.
Consider this request of former Congressman Jon Dent: "I am a future
inventor. Tell me some of the inventions of the future so I can start
on them now."
| | Teaching with Primary Sources
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Cindy Rich, Project Director, Teaching with Primary Sources, Eastern
Illinois University CONFIRMED
The Library of Congress's Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program
works with an educational consortium of schools, universities,
libraries, and foundations to help teachers use the Library’s vast
collection of digitized primary sources to enrich their classroom
instruction. Schools that have participated in the program know that it
encourages educators to embed primary sources into curriculum through
all disciplines and grade levels to build a foundation of knowledge,
enhance understanding, increase comprehension, and develop
multimedia/information literacy skills.
| | From the Campaign Trail: Observations from a Reporter
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Tanya Koonce, political reporter, WCBU Radio CONFIRMED
How do reporters decide what to cover in a congressional election? What
factors affect their relationships with the candidates? How do they know
when they've been "spun"? What qualities or skills are required of
political reporters? Koonce, who currently covers the 18th congressional
district race to replace retiring Congressman Ray LaHood, will address
these questions and more.
| | Predicting the Outcome of the Presidential Election
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Frank H. Mackaman, The Dirksen Congressional Center CONFIRMED
Historians, political scientists, economists, and hobbyists all have
devised various models, some sensible, some strange, to predict the
outcome of presidential elections. Mackaman will introduce you to
several of them before focusing on the one that has proven the most
prescient.
| | How to Get Your Point Across to Congress Members
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Stephanie Vance, Advocacy Associates, Washington DC CONFIRMED
How do you break through the "noise" to communicate with a member of
Congress? Vance has the answers. She advises clients on how to reach
Congress people effectively by understanding how congressional offices
function and process information. She will introduce her online
advocacy course - something you can use even after the workshop ends.
Take a look at The Dirksen Center Web site -
http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm -- to
see what participants say about the program.
* Registration *
If you are interested in registering for the Congress in the Classroom®
2008 workshop, you can complete an online registration form found at:
http://www.dirksencenter.org/programs_CiCapplication.htm
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