The 2013 Speak Up Survey is open through December 20. This national survey is completely voluntary and participation is not required by the WVDE. However, this survey may provide insight into community viewpoints about key educational issues, particularly concerning 21^st century education and technology. The results of the survey will be available to participating schools in February.

I know this is late notice with only two weeks before the survey closes. But, there is still time to encourage participation among students, parents, teachers and administrators if you would like to solicit their feedback. Anyone can complete the survey. Only students are asked to provide a password, which is su_wv.

Steps for completing the 2013 Speak Up Survey:

1.      Go to http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013/

2.      Choose the Parent, Educator, Community Member or Student survey

Student Survey password is su_wv

3.      Enter the zip code or chose WV to search for your school

4.      Complete the survey

National History Day is announcing a pilot program with Noodle Tools, an online research organizing platform.  Teachers can sign up and receive account access for all of their students to help complete their NHD projects.  Noodle Tools can help students track their sources, take notes, organize their ideas, and create their annotated bibliographies.  The program allows the teacher to see the progress the students have made and offer direct electronic feedback.

This is being offered for FREE to all NHD teachers and their students.

For more information and to register for these accounts, go to http://www.noodletools.com/tools/nhd.php

Please consider participating in this pilot program and watch for an online training webinar in January.

Happy Holidays from NHD!

Robert “Joey” Wiseman Jr.

Assistant Director

Office of Secondary Learning

Instructional Materials

Social Studies

Click Image Above to Enlarge

www.gilderlehrman.org/nhtoy

Do you have questions about the rules for the National History Day contest? We are here to answer them!

On Tuesday, December 10, 2013 from 4:00-6:00pm ET, NHD will be holding an online discussion about the NHD contest rules where staff members will address questions from teachers, students and parents. (If you are not available during this time, don’t fret! All questions and answers will be posted on the WVDE social studies website for your convenience.)

What do I do? If you would like, you can send us questions ahead of time from December 6 – 9 by emailinginfo@nhd.org. Please make sure you have “NHD RULES DISCUSSION” in your email subject line. To send us questions during the 4 – 6 pm discussion time, follow the chat instructions included on the following page.

Where do I go to see the discussion? Go online to the National History Day website, www.nhd.org. There will be a button on the homepage that will take you to the Rules Discussion page. Once on this page, follow the chat instructions.

Please remember that this discussion is about NHD rules; unrelated questions will be addressed at a later time. (You can always send your other questions to info@nhd.org.) Please also be aware that appropriate questions and behavior are expected. NHD staff reserve the right to remove questions and block contributors should we deem your actions to be inappropriate.

Robert “Joey” Wiseman Jr.

Assistant Director

Office of Secondary Learning

Instructional Materials

Social Studies