New Tools for New Year Networking

Educator Search
What better way to start a new year? There are great new ideas for collaboration in Educator Central, and now you can also use the TakingITGlobal Member Search to search for other educators and build your network. Just check the box next to "search Educators only?" and your search will be restricted to TIGeducators (members with the red apple Educator badge on their profile).

Office Hours
Stop in and visit the TIGed team during our new virtual office hours. We will now be holding weekly office hours using Elluminate so you can ask questions and seek support for using TIGed:

Mondays, 11 AM - 1 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Thursdays, 3 PM - 5 PM (Eastern Standard Time)

Visit the TIGed events page to learn more and join the Elluminate meeting: http://www.takingitglobal.org/tiged/ec/events.html

New Bookmarking Tools on TIG
We have launched new and improved rating, tagging, and bookmarking tools throughout the TIG site to help you and your students better organize your favorite content on TakingITGlobal.org! To learn more about these new features, read the TIG Site News blog.

And check out the Activities Database for new lesson plans including a Webquest on Child Soldiers from United Nations Cyber Schoolbus, as well as a human rights education unit created by Amnesty International and Kids with Cameras to accompany the Academy-Award winning documentary Born into Brothels.



Upcoming Featured Issues

Thanks to all who have participated in our new series of featured issues. In November we focused on Climate Change with the launch of TIG's New Climate Change Guide to Action.

In December, in recognition of World AIDS Day (observed on December 1) our featured issue was HIV/AIDS, presented in partnership with the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

Upcoming featured issues include:

January: Food Security
February: Corporate Social Responsibility

Come check out the resources and invite your students to share their perspectives!



Be the Change, Share the Story School Video Contest

TakingITGlobal and QuantumShift.tv have teamed up to launch 'Be the Change, Share the Story' School Video Contest, challenging 5,000 teams of students at schools across the US and Canada to make a difference and tell the world. Students pick a social or environmental project and make 2 short videos about their work on it. The first tells how you plan to make a difference, and the follow up video shows how you did it!

Friends, family and celebrity judges can log on and vote for their favorite videos. The top teams in each age group will win $50,000 in cash and prizes for their schools. Signup today to Be the Change, and Share the Story @ www.quantumshift.tv/schools



Upcoming Events

International Studies Schools Association
February 7-9, Chicago, IL

Northwest Council for Computer Education
February 26-29, Seattle, WA

Northeast Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
March 27-29, New York, NY

New York State Council on the Social Studies
April 2-5, Buffalo, NY

National Service Learning Conference
April 9-12, Minneapolis, MN

National Educational Computing Conference
June 29-July 2, San Antonio, TX

For more information on how to attend, please visit: http://www.takingitglobal.org/tiged/ec/events.html

Wrap Up
If you like what you've read don't keep it all to yourself! Please share this email with colleagues and friends in education, or direct them to our TIGed blog at http://www.tigblog.org/group/tiged.

We'd love to hear from you! If you have questions or feedback, or would like more information about TIGed, please contact us: education@takingitglobal.org. If you do not wish to receive future TIGed updates, please e-mail this address.