Grants, Competitions and Other “Winning” Opportunities
Recognize Students’ Writing TalentsThe
school-based Promising
Young Writers program
was established in 1985 by the National
Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
to stimulate and recognize students’ writing talents and to
emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade
students. Students who are eighth-graders in the present academic
school year are eligible to be nominated by teachers for the program.
The
nomination process requires that students each submit two pieces of
writing; one is theme-based and the other, an example of the
student’s best writing.
The theme for 2012
is Flash Back, Forge
Ahead. As
writers, students have the freedom to play with time—flashing back
in history or in their own memories, or forging ahead into a future
that they imagine, hope for or perhaps even fear.
Teachers may nominate an equal (additional) number of entrants who
are English language learners (ELL). Teachers should briefly describe
each entrant’s current level of language acquisition. The program’s
website provides a rubric and judging guidelines, which may be
downloaded as a PDF file. Students selected for superior performance
in writing will receive a letter and certificate of commendation from
NCTE. Deadline: February 15, 2012 Click Here for More Information
Plus:
NCTE’s Achievement Awards in
Writing is a
school-based writing program established in 1957 to encourage high
school students in their writing and to recognize publicly some of
the best student writers in the nation. Only students who are juniors
in the academic year 2011–2012 may be nominated for 2012 awards.
Two written compositions (best and themed) by each student are
required. Both writings should go through a recursive process of
drafting and revision and be in two of the following genres: poetry,
narrative, argument, expository. Deadline: February 15, 2012 Click Here for More Information
Submit Problems to ScientistsThe Kids’ Science
Challenge(KSC) is afree,
nationwide competition in which students in grades 3 to 6 submit
experiments and problems for scientists and engineers to solve. Each
year KSC selects three science topics and a panel of expert
scientists and engineers. The entry process has three steps: students
conduct research on the three topics
(in 2012, Zero Waste, Animal Smarts, Meals on Mars);
then they brainstorm their ideas, experiments or problems; and
finally they submit their ideas or experiments for scientists to
solve. Students may enter in more than one science topic, but they
must complete and submit a new application for each entry. There is a
limit of one entry per topic for an individual or team. Students are
not required to complete a project or build a prototype; the KSC
entry form requires only a well thought-out written essay and an
optional drawing. If students need help in coming up with creative
ideas, they can check out the brainstorming
tool to get started.
A grand prize is given to a winning student (or team) in each of the
science topics. The grand-prize winner for each topic will win a trip
to visit and work with a scientist or engineer to test their winning
idea in a lab, workshop or research setting. The first 1,000 entrants
receive a free Science Activity Kit
with hands-on projects related to the three science topics.
Underscore the Importance of Science LiteracySiemens
Science Day is a
joint effort with the Siemens
Foundation offering
teachers hands-on activities to help reinvent science class for
kindergarten through grade 6. Each activity is partnered with a video
from Discovery
Education.
Teachers also have access to a special Teacher Support area, related
websites and a teacher toolkit. In addition to the digital content,
teachers in two schools and grade ranges (K–3 and 4–6) have the
opportunity to win an Ultimate
Cool School Assembly.
Enter daily to increase your chance of winning. Deadline:
February 28, 2012 Click
Here for More Information Click Here to Enter Sweepstakes
Recognize the Impact of Technology Use in EducationSponsored
by the International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the Kay L.
Bitter Vision Award
recognizes a preK–2 educator whose work has had a significant
positive impact on technology use in education. (The award is in
honor of Kay L. Bitter, who was involved in early childhood education
for more than 20 years and effective in bringing technology into her
classroom on a daily basis.) The person selected will be honored at
ISTE’s annual conference and exposition and will receive a one-year
ISTE standard membership and complimentary ISTE 2012 conference
registration. The awardee will also receive a $1,000 scholarship to
be used for the recipient’s program or own continued professional
development. The ISTE website provides information about nomination
materials, criteria and the judging rubric.
Count Down to Election 2012iCivics,
the organization founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor, is marking the countdown to Election Day 2012 with the
launch of its latest freeonline video game, Win the White
House. In this
game, students take on the role of a presidential candidate from
primary season through Election Day, making tough choices about the
party platform and vice presidential selection as well as where to
fundraise, poll and spend valuable campaign dollars on appearances
and advertisements. News coverage recaps their successes and failures
as they campaign for their 270 electoral votes. Students also have to
make decisions about the kind of campaign they will run: will they
focus on their platform or on attacking the stances of their
opponent? Win the
White House prepares
young people for meaningful citizenship by helping them see the value
of voting and different candidates’ reasons for choosing different
strategies for engaging the public. The iCivics
Politics and Public
Policy Curriculum Unit
also offers a broad array of resources for educators, including lesson plans, additional games
and game guides.
iCivics content is designed by educators and is standards aligned. Click Here to Access Free Resources
Control Where Tax Dollars Go
A free,
challenging online
game makes civics
and economics
accessible and fun for students. Budget
Hero lets
students try to balance the federal budget. First students choose one
to three “badges” that reflect their political values. Then they
try to earn these badges by choosing from more than 70 policy
options. The game is built on the Congressional Budget Office model,
which incorporates pro and con arguments for each policy, drawn from
dozens of sources and vetted to ensure the game is nonpartisan.
Players make their own decisions about health care, military spending
or environmental protection. In the end, students can see how long it
takes before their budget goes bust and share their results with
friends via Facebook or Twitter. To date, the game has been played
more than one million times. Budget
Hero was created by
the Woodrow Wilson
Center and American
Public Media. Click Here to Access Free Game
Enhance Learning Outcomes with Instructional Technologies EmergingEdTech’s 2012
Free
Education
Technology Resources
eBook contains 65 pages of articles and insights into dozens of the
Internet’s best free
educational technology resources. The 2012 edition includes chapters
focused on iPad apps, the use of Facebook in Education, free
productivity resources and more. To get your free
copy, just sign up to receive EmergingEdTech posts via email by
providing your name and email address.Click Here to Sign Up for Free eBook
Celebrate Black History MonthA free online resource guide
from Primary Source
offers a new fact for every day of Black History Month. Facts also
include links to additional information and resources. Navigate
through the guide week by week using the tabs at the top of the web
page.
Think Fast About the PastTHIRTEEN’s Mission US: Flight
to Freedom is the
second in a series of innovative role-playing games developed to
transform the way middle school students learn United States history.
Launched on January 24 in time to support and extend curriculum
activities connected to Black History Month, Flight
to Freedom immerses
learners in the experiences of a runaway slave in the years before
the Civil War. In the game-based interactive, players take on the
role of Lucy King, a fictional 14-year-old enslaved in Kentucky in
1848. As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio via the
Underground Railroad, they discover that life in the “free” North
is dangerous and difficult. Players encounter a diverse group of
people—from abolitionists to slave owners—and make decisions that
affect the game’s outcome. “Flight to Freedom” helps students
learn how enslaved people’s choices—from small, everyday acts of
resistance to action that sought an end to slavery—affected the
lives of individuals and ultimately the nation. Educators and
students can access the game via streaming or download it, free
of charge, through
any Internet-connected computer. Click Here to Access Download Free Game
See Democracy in ActionA free,
downloadable study
guide from Facing
History and Ourselves supports educators and students in their use of the documentary Freedom Riders.
This film tells the powerful story of the Freedom Riders, who took
brave and decided actions to dismantle the structures of
discrimination—specifically segregated interstate bus
travel—through nonviolence. From award-winning filmmaker Stanley
Nelson, the documentary features testimony from the Riders
themselves, state and federal government officials and journalists
who witnessed the Rides firsthand. Visit the Facing History website
to view video clips
of their testimonies and download the study guide.
Celebrate!
Holidays in the U.S.A.
discusses the 10 federally
recognized holidays
in the United States, as well as many celebratory
days, such as
Valentine’s Day. There’s also a section addressing four recognition months
commonly acknowledged in the United States: Black
History Month (February), Women’s History
Month (March), Asian
Pacific American
Heritage Month
(May) and Hispanic
Heritage Month (September
15–October 15).
Set Your Sights on Bird-WatchingTheNational Audubon
Society has updated
the iOS version of its bird-watching
field guide. The app
offers a number of new features, including eBird,
the ability to locate birds in real-time based on recent sightings,
locations of rare birds and maps to all the birding hotspots across
North America. The app also offers a journal
feature so that bird-watchers can track what they’ve seen and
where. To help with identification, the app has a rich image
library with more than
3,000 images that help users recognize birds by gender, age and
plumage. The app, which is compatible with the iPhone,
Follow America’s March Toward IndependenceThe Revolutionary War
app
by Multieducatorcombines paintings,
firsthand accounts, multimedia presentations and documents to tell
the story of America’s march toward independence. The app makes
full use of the capabilities of the iPad, iPhone
and iPod Touch.
The program allows users to email or print any presentation or text.
The app uses Air Play so that videos can be played through an Apple
TV. Major sections include “Causes of the War,” “Major Battles
and Events,” “200 Biographies,” “Myths and Stories,” “The
Journals of the Continental Congress,” “Letters Between John and
Abigail Adams,” “Diary of the Revolution,” “Americans of the
Revolutionary War Period,” “Economics During the War” and
“Documents of the Period.” The app is available in the iTunes App
Store for $4.99.
Imagine, Create, Share with OthersScribble
Press is an iPad
app that lets
students build and illustrate their own ebooks. The free
app offers numerous story
templates and drawing
tools, guiding
students through the story-writing and book-layout process. The books
that are written with Scribble Press can be shared with others—either
via Facebook or Twitter or by email. They can also be posted online
on the site’s gallery; books remain private unless shared there.
The app is available at no
cost in the iTunes
App Store. Click
Here to Visit Website Click Here to Download Free App
Experience Science on Earth and BeyondInteractive
science & engineering
(for nine- to eleven-year-olds) includes games
involving light, sounds, forces & motion, earth & beyond, and
electricity. Students can go undercover with Silicon
Spies, brave the
rides with ParkWorld
Plot, launch
themselves into Alien
Attack,
immerse themselves in Ocean
Odyssey and take
a giant leap into Astro
Adventure.
They’ll also find out how engineers use science to help people and
what exciting new inventions we’ll be using in the future. Click Here to Visit Website
Engineer the Past
On
the Time Engineers
website, students come across a Time
Engineers binder
that contains confidential information on a time-travel machine that
the United States government built to travel back in time to obtain
and document the history of engineering. The document contains three
chapters, each with their own space–time coordinate for time
travel. The chapters contain mission briefings, engineering tasks and
mission commander assistance. The final document contains a map
showing the location of the time machine and start-up procedure. With
the documents in hand, students are ready to begin their journey back
in time. The catapult
simulation covers
algebra, physical science, technology and history.Click Here to Visit Website
Take Math into Today’s WorldThe Yummy Math
website presents mathematics
problems and scenarios
based on things happening in the world today. For example, an
activity for January 26 has students study historical Super Bowl data
to reflect on average (mean, median and mode) losing scores, winning
scores and range of scores. They are asked to judge which of these
central measurements seems the most meaningful and explain their
reasoning. Another activity has students plot the cost of a 30-second
Super Bowl ad over the past 45 Super Bowls. How has the cost of a
Super Bowl ad changed over time? Has it grown linearly?
exponentially? Yummy Math lists activities chronologically as well as
by mathematics subject area. Two mathematics teachers, Brian Marks
and Leslie Lewis, developed Yummy Math and welcome suggestions from
other mathematics teachers.
Unlock Rubik’s SecretTeachers
who want to include the Rubik’s
Cube in classroom
lessons can access lesson
plans and activitiestied to state standards on the website YouCanDoTheCube.
On the site, the cube—believed to help develop problem solving and
spatial thinking skills—is used in math lessons, helping students
visualize fractions, geometry and algebra problems. Download a free,
PDF version of the You CAN Do The
Rubik’s Cube Solution Guide
in English
or Spanish.
Plus:
The free,
downloadable Rubik’s
Cube Mosaic Builder Guideand templates
of six historical
figures (Abraham
Lincoln, Sitting Bull, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Albert
Einstein and Anne Frank) allow educators to combine fun with math,
science, history and art. Students can learn about algorithms,
geometry, problem solving, spatial relations and more, while also
learning about pixels and significant historical figures. Click Here to Access Mosaic Templates
Connect with Peers in an Education CommunityThe edWeb
is a social networkingwebsite that makes is easy for anyone in the education community to
connect with peers, share information and best practices, spread
innovative ideas and provide professional development. The edWeb
provides an easy and intuitive Web 2.0 platform that includes blogs,
discussions, file sharing, shared calendars, wikis, live chat,
messaging, polling and shared links. Communities (groups) can be
created and linked for closer collaboration. Teachers and
administrators can share best practices, information on what’s
working and support one another across schools, districts, states,
the country and even around the world. Schools and districts can
create professional learning communities and practice groups, improve
teacher and principal quality and technology skills, and provide
mentoring and support. The edWeb is free
for professionals in education and for educational institutions.
Plan Project-Based Learning ActivitiesThe BUCK Institute
has created the BIE
Electronic Online PBL Planning Site,
a place to plan Problem-Based
Learning (PBL) units.
Simply sign up for a free
account and begin putting down your ideas for a Project-Based
Learning activity. If you don’t have time to finish your unit in
one sitting, you can keep what you’ve entered in your file cabinet.
You’ll be able to return using any computer from any place that has
Internet access. You can also keep all of your projects in the My
Project file cabinet.
They will stay there for you to use, print, share and edit as you
revise your projects from year to year. Under the Share button,
you’ll find a link to copy and send your unit to a colleague; or
just enter an email address, and the BIE
Project Planner will
send it. Those collaborators will need a free
BIE account. If you’re not sure what everything on the form means,
then check out the BIE
Do It Yourself Kit. Click Here to Access BIE Do It Yourself Kit Click Here to Visit Website
Explore Environmental Issues from Different PerspectivesThe Smithsonian
is offering teachers a multidimensional resource for expanding and
enriching curriculum with Shout,
a free environmental
exploration program.
Through interactive
webinars,
comprehensive lesson-planning
materials and
hands-on activities,
In February, March and May, the program will look at water from the
Smithsonian’s many points of view, from marine biology to American
history. Students will explore both water quality (how we can ensure
that water is safe for ourselves and for the environment) and water
quantity (how we can manage crises of too much water and not enough
water). The program as a whole addresses curriculum standards for
ecological, social and economic systems; human impact on the
environment; and civic responsibility. New to Shout this year is Smithsonian Badges,
a digital-recognition
program that
encourages and rewards student participation. Students complete
challenges centered on global environment issues to earn specific
badges, demonstrating their understanding of ecological, social and
economic systems affecting water; the human impact on the
environment; and civic responsibility in sustaining water resources.
Educators can also receive badges for being facilitators of student
learning.
Bring to Life Pivotal Moments in American HistoryHistory
and social studies educators have free
online access to a comprehensive, multimedia collection of teaching
resources from the Pare
Lorentz Centerat theFranklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library.
Pare Lorentz created groundbreaking documentaries for the New Deal
agencies of the Roosevelt Administration, shedding light on
environmental and social problems in the 1930s and 1940s. The
resource collection includes an interactive
timeline, distance
learning
opportunities, video curriculum
guides and a film
library containing
filmmaker Lorentz’s body of works and other historical footage. The
collection brings to life emergent themes and pivotal moments in
American history, including the Great Depression; the New Deal
Programs; Social Security; Conservation of Natural Resources; the
Presidency and the Supreme Court; The Surprise Attack on Pearl
Harbor; World War II; Japanese American Internment; The Tuskegee
Airmen; creation of the United Nations; and the Legacy of Eleanor
Roosevelt.
Hear the Voices of HistoryHistory
and Politics Out Loudis a collection of audio materials, capturing significant political
and historical events and personalities of the twentieth century. The
materials range from formal addresses delivered in public settings to
private telephone conversations conducted from the innermost recesses
of the White House. Students can hear key speeches by Martin Luther
King Jr., Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson,
Richard Nixon and others. They can listen to King’s “I have a
dream” speech,” President Roosevelt’s speech to Congress
declaring war on Japan, Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech and
more.
Chronicle Journalism’s Journey WestOne
of the features of Stanford
University’sRural West Initiative
is an interactive map
of the growth and
decline of newspapers
in the United States. You can use the timeline at the top of the map
to see how many newspapers were in an area at a given time, from 1690
to 2011. Click one of the placemarks on the map to find links to more
information about each newspaper. The newspapers mentioned in the map
are linked to the Library of Congress website where you can find out
which libraries in the United States have copies of those newspapers.
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 freeenewsletter,K12
TeacherFile.
Get
a freecopy
of The
Big Deal eBook of Resources for 21st Century Teaching and Learning:
From the 3Rs to the 4Cs.
Explore
this collection of resources to help students move beyond the 3Rs and
embrace the 4Cs—Communication, Collaboration, Critical
Thinking and Creativity—the
21st century skills cited by industry as keys to innovation and
invention in an increasingly challenging global economy.
Sign
up at The
Big Deal Book
Web site for hELLo!,
afree quarterly ELL e-newsletterthat
includes a wealth of information on interactive resources for
students, teachers, librarians, principals and others involved in the
education of English language learners.
Download a free eBook of the popular print edition of The Big Deal Book of Technology for K–12
Educators. Explore the many
opportunities to fund your special programs, access timely reports and articles,
locate free and inexpensive resources
and identify engaging interactive Web sites.
Join The Big Deal Book
of Technology’s “Amazing
Resources for Educators” communityon the edWeb to get more frequent updates on grant
deadlines, free resources
and hot new sites for
21st century learning.
And, of course, you can share any great new resources that you’ve
unearthed!
Browse the new Big Deal eBookstore, in partnership with K12TeacherStore.com!
Find thousands of titles from your favorite educational publishers.
Explore
the Web
Wednesday
feature onwww.bigdealbook.com.
Here you’ll find
new interactive
experiences and resources
that incorporate 21st
century themes
and skills
into the study of core subjects.
To forward a copy of this newsletter to a friend, please
click here
.If you received a forwarded version of this newsletter and wish to subscribe for FREE, visit:
http://www.bigdealbook.com. If you wish to unsubscribe to this email newsletter, please email info@bigdealbook.com with “unsubscribe” in the subject.
