Big Deal Book Newsletter – 8/15/2011

Grow a Program or ProjectAre
you working to start a community action project or program? Do you
need money to put your ideas into action? If you answered, “yes,”
you are eligible to apply for a $500 Do
Something Seed Grant.
These grants can be used toward project ideas and programs that are
just getting started or to jump-start your program and realize your
ideas for the first time. The grants can also be used toward projects
that are already developed and sustainable to expand your project and
grow your impact.
Deadlines:
Ongoing; grants awarded weekly; grant winners will be notified two to
three months after submission of applicationClick Here for More Information

Plant the Seeds of LearningPublic
and/or private third- through sixth-grade teachers, with classes of a
minimum of 15 students, may apply for an indoor
or outdoor herb garden
grant. The Herb
Society of Americawill award five schools each year indoor windowsill herb gardens. The
classrooms selected will receive three windowsill herb garden kits,
including pots, soil, seeds and educational materials to use in the
classroom. The Herb Society of America will provide the educational
materials. The Herb Society of America will select four
schools/classrooms to receive $200 “Seed Money” to establish an
outdoor herb garden. The funds may be used for supplies, such as
soil, plant trays, containers, child- or youth-sized tools. The Herb
Society of America will provide the educational materials and herb
seeds.Deadline: September 1, 2011 for proposals
Click Here for More Information

Do Something After SchoolSchool
is back in session, but sometimes it’s what youth do after school
that makes the biggest impact on their lives. Do
Something and
JCPenney
have teamed up to support youth-led after-school programs and
projects across the country. Ten grants of $500 and five grants of
$1,000 will be awarded for projects started by young people who are
providing after-school activities that help youth in their community.
Deadline: September 15, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Envision the City of Tomorrow

The
National Engineers
Week Future City
Competition is an
example of problem-based
learning with
computer simulation. It is an integrated, multidisciplinary, holistic
approach to relevant issues and is a strong example of STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education that addresses
national and state academic content standards. The program asks
sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students from around the nation to
team with engineer–volunteer mentors to create—first on computer
and then in large, three-dimensional models—their visions of the
city of tomorrow.

Deadline: Registration now open; check Web site for details after September 1
Click Here for More Information and Registration Form

Develop Proofs without Words
The
2011–2012
USA Mathematical
Talent Search
(USAMTS) is a free
mathematics competition open to all U.S. middle school and high
school students with a new format consisting of three rounds of five
problems each. Unlike most mathematics competitions, the USAMTS
allows individual students a full month to write careful
justifications for their solutions to each problem. Students’
solutions are graded by mathematicians, and comments are returned to
the students. Each solution earns a score of from 0 to 5, evaluated
on both mathematical correctness and writing style. The goal is to
help all students develop problem-solving
skills, improve their
technical writing
ability and mature
mathematically. The USAMTS is one of the ways to enter the process of
selecting the USA Mathematical Olympiad team, which participates in
the International
Mathematical Olympiad.
Deadlines:
Problems for the
first round available on Web site in early September; solutions for
each round due one month later
Click Here for More Information

See the World Through the PastA
new, free
tool encourages
students and teachers to use Twitter as part of their study of
history. With TwHistory,
users can participate in or create their own reenactments of
historical events to help them gain a better understanding of
historical figures or events as they unfolded. The process is simple:
Students or volunteers pick a well-documented historical event. Then
they choose real historical figures who were at that event and create
tweets based on original source documentation. These tweets are then
scheduled to be broadcast in real time. Instead of reading about a
month-long campaign in just a few hours, followers experience the
campaign over the course of a month, all in real time. Together, the
separate tweets combine to paint a complete and unique picture of a
small segment of history.Click Here to Sign Up for Free Tool

Travel the Deserts and Mountain Passes of Central AsiaFrom
Silk to Oil: Cross-Cultural Connections Along the Silk Road,
a global studies
curriculum
funded by the U.S.
Department of Educationand produced by the China
Institute, begins in
the second century BCE and ends in the contemporary period. The 23
curriculum units
consist of a lesson
plan,
written
and visual
documents,
maps,
tablesand even a Silk Roads
board game. There is
also a glossary
and lists of additional resources—including hotlinks to relevant
Web sites—in PDF. From
Silk to Oil is
directed at teachers of high school world history, global studies,
social studies, geography, literature and art. Some units are also
suitable for advanced middle school. The book can be downloaded in
eight separate sections from the China Institute’s Web Site. A CD
with the entire text and color images is also available.Click Here to Download Free Book

Say It in Simple EnglishWikipedias
are places where people work together to write encyclopedias in
different languages. Simple
English Wikipedia is
a version of Wikipedia that uses simple grammar and basic English
words. The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone, including
children and adults who are learning English. Presently there are
72,692 articles on the Simple English Wikipedia. Knowledge groups
include Applied Sciences; People and Social Studies; Daily Life, Art
and Culture; Natural Sciences and Maths; Government and Law; Religion
and Beliefs. All of the pages have been published under both the
Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 and the GNU Free
Documentation License, so they are free
to use.Click Here to Access Free Simple Wikipedia

Plus:
Wiktionary
in Simple English
is an online dictionary that uses simple words, so it is easy to
understand. Presently the dictionary has 17,022 entries. To find a
word, type it into the Search box and press Enter or browse the
entries by initial letter—both uppercase and lowercase letters are
linked. Many of the entries include audio pronunciations, synonyms,
related words and images.Click Here to Access Free Simple English Wiktionary

Navigate the Common Core Learning EnvironmentWith
educators and policymakers asking for tools to help meet the Common
Core State Standards
(CCSS), Common Core
has released comprehensive K–12
English Language Arts
Curriculum Maps.
Written by teachers for teachers, the curriculum
guidesimprove instruction and student learning in the new CCSS environment.
Through its Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project, Common Core
sought input from teachers to improve the Maps and strengthen
utilization in the classroom. This new edition of the Curriculum Maps
includes guidance for differentiated instruction; nearly 200 new
writing, grammar and research activities; more informational and
contemporary texts; library of 70 digital resources; and art and art
activities in all units. Helping educators meet the expectations of
the Common Core State Standards that call for the standards to be
“complemented by a well-developed, content-rich curriculum,” the
Maps present a comprehensive, coherent sequence of thematic
curriculum units connecting the skills outlined in the CCSS with
suggested student objectives, texts and activities.Click Here to Download Free Language Arts Curriculum Maps

Provide Your FeedbackTwo
groups of states currently are working on documents that will help
educators teach the common core academic standards and assess
students’ knowledge of them. The blueprints developed by the
Partnership for
Assessment of
Readiness for College
and Careers (PARCC)
and the SMARTER
Balanced Assessment
Consortium (SBAC) are
available for feedback this month. PARCC’s frameworks are open forpublic feedback
until August 17
and possibly later. The SMARTER Balanced specifications are open for
a first round of comments until August
29, and for a second
round, on a revised draft, next month. SBAC plans to release math
content specifications
later this month for two rounds of feedback.
Click
Here to Download and Provide Feedback on the PARCC Framework

Click Here to Download and Provide Feedback on the SBAC Specifications

Align Common Core Standards with 21st Century SkillsThe
Partnership for 21st
Century Skills has
released the P21
Common Core Toolkitdesigned to
help state and district education leaders implement Common Core State
Standards. The new toolkit links Common Core State Standards with the
Framework for 21st
Century Skills,
providing both an overview
of alignment between
the two and examples
and sample lessons.
It also includes a compilation of Common Core and assessment
resources
for education leaders. The complete 45-page toolkit is available as a
free
PDF download. Additional details can be found on P21’s Common Core
Toolkit portal.
Click Here to Access Free Common Core Toolkit

Turn Your iPad into a Second Display MonitorSplashtop
Whiteboard allows
teachers and students to turn their iPad into an interactive
whiteboard. By connecting to their classroom computer over Wi-Fi,
they can watch Flash media with fully synchronized video and audio,
control their favorite applications and annotate lesson content all
from an iPad. The app is available in multiple languages for $9.99 in
the Apple iTunes App Store.
Click
Here to Visit Web Site

Click Here to Visit App Store

Use Mobile Devices with Special Needs StudentsSNApps4Kids
is a community of parents, therapists, doctors and teachers who share
information on how they are using the iPad,
iPhone,
iPod Touch
and Androiddevices with children who have special needs. SNApps4Kids has
partnered with Easter
Seals to offer
reviews
of more than 30,000 apps
for special
education, as more
children with disabilities are using iPad apps to help improve their
cognitive and motor skills and to connect socially. Registering with
the site allows access to forums and groups; you can start your own
group, ask questions, share stories and get advice.Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus:
SNApps4Kids has created an iPad
Funding Sources Directory
to help get a device funded. The directory is a compilation of
organizations that grant iPads and similar devices to families who
have children with special needs.Click Here to Access Directory

Eliminate the Need for a BackpackTextbook-centric
Kno has
released a free
iPad app
that gives students full access to textbook layouts, highlighting,
note-taking and sharing as well as a book manager that sorts by the
course. The iPad edition can read generic PDF documents and will work
in landscape as well as Kno’s usual portrait mode. Students can
preview chapters without leaving the library view and leap into a
particular page. The new Journal
feature automatically
transfers any highlights, pictures, stickies or notes from students’
textbook into a digital notebook, centralizing important information
and allowing students to search and add annotations to their notes.
In the next release, Journal will include the ability to add
handwritten notes, photos, video, audio recordings and even share
notebooks with friends. In addition, the new Quiz
Me feature turns any
diagram in any textbook or PDF into an instant quiz. The Quiz Me
feature hides the text labels of any image or diagram, prompting
students to fill them back in and in turn helping them to study more
effectively. Students can track their progress and see their scores
improve over multiple tries. Books that don’t scale smoothly to the
larger size support multi-touch zooming. Download the app, at no
charge, from the
Apple iTunes App Store.
Click
Here to Visit Web Site
Click Here to Visit App Store

Teach Online SafetySign
up for a free
Learning.com
account and get a complete Online
Safety curriculum for
your class. With your free
account, you’ll gain access to standards-aligned, peer-reviewed
content—one place for teacher resources from industry-leading
publishers (such as LEGO Education and NASA), open education
resources (such as Curriki and PhET) and materials from teachers for
teachers. Sign up for your free
account before September
30, 2011and receiveEasyTech Online Safety
for free.Click Here to Sign Up for Free Curriculum

Explore the World of InsectsThe
Bugscope project
provides free
interactive access to a $600,000 scanning
electron microscope(SEM) so that students anywhere in the world can explore the
microscopic world of insects. This educational outreach program from
the Beckman
Institute’s
Imaging Technology Group
at the University of
Illinois supports
K–16 classrooms worldwide. Bugscope allows teachers everywhere to
provide students with the opportunity to become microscopists
themselves—the students propose experiments, explore insect
specimens at high-magnification and discuss what they see with the
institute’s scientists—all from a regular Web browser over a
standard broadband Internet connection.Click Here to Visit Web Site

Build Students’ Science VocabularyThese
free, downloadable
Science Picture
Vocabulary Cards were
developed by teachers as a classroom resource for building ESL
students’ science literacy. The full-color cards can be downloaded
with images
and translations
and used on a word wall or in a vocabulary enrichment center.Click Here to Download Free Resource

Explore Diverse Cultural Perspectives on Shared Human Experiences
Art
Through Time: A Global View,
featuring 13 half-hour video-on-demand
programs,
a guide,
text
and other Web
resources,
takes a thematic approach to art
history
and appreciation.
Rather than a linear chronology, the materials explore connections inWestern
and non-Western
art,
illuminating the breadth, complexity and beauty of works produced
around the world and at different periods of time. In each program
focusing on a particular theme, a diverse group of leading experts,
together with a living artist, contextualize and connect featured
works from different cultures and eras. The themes of the 13 episodes
are Converging Cultures, Dreams and Visions, History and Memory,
Ceremony and Society, Cosmology and Belief, Death, Domestic Life,
Writing, Portraits, The Natural World, The Urban Experience, Conflict
and Resistance and The Body. The Web site, guide and text provide a
variety of opportunities to extend learning.Click Here to Visit Web Site

Bring Poe into the Modern DayIf
you’ve ever written a love poem, seen a horror movie or enjoyed a
murder mystery novel, then you have experienced a part of popular
culture inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. In fact, he is still influencing
popular culture 160 years after his death. Locked-door murders,
romantic poetry and trips to the moon are just part of who Poe was
and what he wrote. Activities on the Edgar
Allen Poe Museum’s
Web site introduce
students to Poe’s life and works. Students can watch one of Poe’s
stories brought to life or solve the mystery of his death. After they
investigate the links on the site to learn more, students can submit
their own theory about Poe’s untimely demise.Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus:
The Web site also offers a complete Educators
Packet, which
includes a biographical
timeline of Poe’s
life and several fun and informative lessons
plans for the
classroom. To receive the packet, middle school and high school
teachers may use the link on the site to fill out the request form
and provide their school address.
Click Here to Request Free Resource

Discover the True Twain Through His Writings
Appreciators
of Mark Twain and learners of all ages will enjoy the resources and
educational materials included in this section of the PBS
Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain
Web site. Students will explore Mark Twain’s life story through a
collection of his writings and recollection of artifacts found in the
Interactive Mark
Twain Scrapbook.
Teachers will find five classroom
activities for middle
school and high school students that teach the importance of
observation to writing, how slavery impacted Twain’s writing and
how Twain used humor and satire. Students will also learn how a
scrapbook can be used to collect creative ideas and is a reflection
of its creator’s time, place and values.Click Here to Visit PBS Web Site

Contribute to a Tapestry of Modern HistoryHistory
Heard is a free
database of
primary source video
interviews
for students to tap into as they conduct research for class
assignments or extra-credit projects. Created by two high school
students who have experienced the research process, History Heard
aims to make history research “come alive” for middle school and
high school students across America. Your students can help to grow
the video collection by creating video interviews with individuals
who have been firsthand witnesses to modern history. The events may
be as broad as describing life in a particular community during a
specific era, or the moment in history may be as specific as a single
event. The Getting Started section of the Web site provides
information on how to create a History Heard video.Click Here to Visit Web Site

Browse
K12TeacherStore.com for
a wide variety of products published by leading K–12 education
companies, all of them delivered digitally. Many of the ebooks can be
used on interactive whiteboards and various mobile reading devices.
All of the books whose covers you see displayed are on sale at a 15%
discount. To stay informed about what’s going on with ebooks in
K–12 schools, sign up for the enewsletter,K12
TeacherFile.

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