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Dear Arthur,
Summer seems to prematurely pass (whatever
happened to it lasting through Labor Day?) and we
move into the school year. We have considerable
information about our high school and middle school
Model U.N.s. In addition, we have updated information
from our Urban Studies programs including a link to a
radio interview on KWMU-FM (NPR) and photos from
recent polling. As always, we hope that you enjoy this
newsletter!
In addition to reading our newsletters, you may also
want to visit our
web site by clicking here. We have a good deal of
current information, and through the year we will be
working on building up our archives from previous
years.
New Interactive Web Site Running Well!
Our new interactive web site is working very well. It
greatly enhances the ability of students and teachers
to participate in and initiate a variety of new
activities. Features include starting new discussion
forums, posting polls on the web, uploading resources
to the web, and a host of other features.
In addition, the Civitas calendar is much more clear
and accessible to everyone, and individuals will be able
to coordinate their own calendars with Civitas events.
If you wish, you can also utilize the Civitas web site as
an on-line private planner and contact manager for
yourself.
If you go to the web site (link listed below), we
suggest that you first click on "Just Visiting" and check
things out. In order to receive more information and to
participate in more advanced ways, you may click on
the "Join Now" link at the top of the page.
It may take up to a full day for you to receive full
member privileges.
We are eager to receive your feedback on the site and
answer any of your questions. Please do not hesitate
to send us suggestions for improvement.
We suggest that you bookmark the new website.
To our new interactive web site.
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Video Introduction on first Student Model U.N. Meeting on Sat., Aug. 31 |
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We have a video introduction about our first
student meeting for high school model U.N. students.
The meeting will be this coming Saturday, August 31.
It will be from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM at Crossroads School
(map). You can access the agenda to
the meeting by
clicking here..
The link to the video introduction is at the bottom of
this article.
Video introduction to August 31 student M.U.N. meeting. �
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High School Faculty Meeting on Saturday, September 7. |
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Our first and only faculty meeting for high
school model U.N. will be one week from this coming
Saturday, on September 7. It will be from 9:00 AM -
10:00 AM at Crossroads School
(map). Next week, we will include the
full agenda for the meeting. However, at this time we
can tell you that at least half of the meeting will be
introducing you to our new interactive web site.
Below is the link to a video introduction for the meeting.
Video introduction to September 7 high school faculty M.U.N. meeting. �
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High School Recruiting Materials |
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We now have materials for teachers and students to
use in recruiting more members for their M.U.N. clubs.
One item is a simple, one-page information sheet for all
interested individuals. You can access a sample of one
(that we have published for Rosati-Kain High School) by
clicking on the link below.
We also have our large (13" x 19") laminated posters
for teachers and students to post in their schools.
Please contact us to let us know if you are interested
in receiving posters and information sheets.
This is the time of the year with maximum potential to
recruit new students. We ask that any teachers or
students who are interested in helping us inform more
students about our activities contact us for these
materials!
Sample Recruiting Sheet (for Rosati-Kain High School) �
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Students interviewed on NPR regarding Urban Studies project; also begin polling! |
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Last Monday, August 19, students and staff from
the Maplewood-Richmond Heights Urban Studies
program were interviewed for KWMU-FM radio in
St. Louis. As most of you know, KWMU is the St. Louis
outlet for NPR (National Public Radio). Staff member
Arthur Lieber and student Nichole Tiggs were
interviewed by news producer and afternoon anchor
Hilary Wicai. The piece aired last Friday morning. You
can hear it by clicking on the link at the bottom of this
article.
During the past week, students have been polling
residents in Maplewood about the proposed buyout of a
residential area for a new Wal-Mart and SAM's
complex. You can access considerable information
about the issue and our work regarding it, including the
poll itself, by going to our interactive web site. Photos
of the proposed buyout area and of the students
polling can be accessed by
(clicking
here).
Our Urban Studies project has just begun and we will
continue it through the school year. We will keep all of
our readers informed of important developments.
Once again, check out the latest work in the project by
(clicking
here).
KWMU Interview on Urban Studies Program �
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Scholarship Awards to be Given to Outstanding Students this Year! |
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Civitas has begun soliciting businesses and foundations
to sponsor scholarship awards to students who excel in
Model U.N. and other Civitas activities this school
year. We are contacting local as well as national
institutions. We anticipate that we will have
approximately ten scholarships worth $500 each. The
awards can be used for college, private secondary
school tuition, or classes taken at non-profit
organizations.
The basic criteria will be two: (a) participation
[including in on-line activities] and (b) quality of effort
and performance. We will offer detailed information for
earning these awards at our first student and teacher
meetings of the year for students on August 31 and
teachers on September 7.
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Let's Not Forget About Our 8th Grade Model U.N. |
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With all the information that we have about our high
school model U.N. and our Urban Studies program, let's
not forget about the 8th Grade Model U.N. program.
Nearly twice as many students participate each year in
our middle school program than our high school one.
The 8th grade program includes far more on-site school
visits and classroom teachers have considerable
responsibility in preparing their students for the Spring
sessions.
The first meeting of 8th grade teachers will be on
Monday, September 16, from 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM at the
United Nations Association office (map).
We will have a
video introduction for the meeting available for next
week's newsletter.
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You can help us build our "Links Library!" |
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As you know, we are continuing to update and expand
our Web presence for Civitas. One of the features we
recently added, link manager, allows our community of
visitors to create a searchable list of links to relevant
websites. In essence, we are creating a "civitas"
search engine!
We need your help. We are asking you to spend a few
minutes searching the web for sites relating to Model
U.N. and Urban Studies issues. Our most important
current priority is links on Africa because of our
upcoming October conference on the U.N. and Africa.
When you find a good link site, please visit the web site
listed below and click "Add a New Link". With your
help, we will have a wonderful link library in no time!
Ultimately, this feature will be available to the visitors
of our site!
If you get to a website that has a link library of its own
(usually styled "links" or "our links" or "link library"),
please let me know by cutting and pasting the address
to the links page into an e-mail and sending it to me.
The software we are using to create our link library
allows us to import links "in bulk", too.
-- Courtesy of Scott Levine!
Our Linksmanager Web Site �
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Publication Day Changing to Tuesday |
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Beginning next week, our publication day will change
from Monday to Tuesday. Two reasons: (a) it's a no-
brainer for next week with a Monday holiday (Labor
Day) and (b) our research informs us that people are
more likely to read their E-Mail on Tuesdays rather than
Mondays. On the first day of the week, many people
just scan through their weekend E-Mail. In the middle
of the week, people presumably read their E-Mail more
carefully. We'll see!
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