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Get students thinking about their life goals and build closer
connections across generations through the Legacy Project
’s annual Listen to a Life Essay Contest . The grand
prize includes a Lenovo ThinkCentre computer for the
student, along with $25,000 worth of Orchard educational
software for the school. There’s also a free
online activity kit filled with life interview ideas
and goal-setting activities with curriculum
connections . To participate in the contest, a student
between 8 and 18 years of age interviews a grandparent or
grandfriend 50 years or older about the older person’s hopes and
goals through life, how the person achieved the goals and
overcame obstacles or how dreams may have changed along the way.
The student then writes a 300-word essay based on the interview.
In addition to the grand prize, there are 20 runners-up prizes
of $400 worth of Orchard software and an MP3 player.
Deadline: March 29, 2010
Click Here for More Information
Teach Math
in the Kitchen
Culinary topics are an excellent way to introduce math
concepts , science principles and even artistic
ideas . Measuring ingredients and converting recipes seem
more like fun than math! Is it more interesting to read about
yeast in a book or bake bread from scratch? How many ways can
food be presented on a plate to create a pleasing visual
experience? The answers can be found in the Culinary
Institute of America ’s Culinary in the Classroom .
Click Here for More Information
Plus : Let the CIA Chef from the Culinary
Institute of America explain some of the basic math
skills you will be using on a regular basis in the kitchen.
Click Here to Access Free Lessons
Calling Young Inventors
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of
Earth Day this April, PBS KIDS GO!'s Design Squad is launching
the nationwide 2010 Trash to Treasure competition on April 5 at
www.PBSKIDSGO.org/designsquad/contest . Kids across
the country ages 5-19 are challenged by the award winning series
to recycle, reuse and re-engineer everyday materials into new
inventions. Three young innovators will win a trip to
Boston to see their designs built and have the process
chronicled for an upcoming episode of the engineering TV series.
Cash for College
Cash Starved students can be put in touch
with new sources of funding at
www.tuitionu.com . This fully owned subsidiary of
Cology, Inc. claims to offer student loan solutions from
not-for-profit credit unions as well as peer to peer lending,
connecting student borrowers in all 50 states with lenders who
will fund private college loans.
Census Curriculum
For the 2000 census Jerry Blumengarten of
the United Teachers Federation had his students use the data
from the census tracts of where they lived to learn about their
community. He also had them create their own census
questionaire and conduct a census of the school population.
Now retired, Blumengarten wants to pass these tips on to
teachers-and his website,
www.cybraryman.com/population.html . This site has
links to sires to help track census date by community and other
ideas to use the census in classrooms.
With the online lesson entitled “ Labor History:
Hardballs and Handshakes ,” from the American Labor
Studies Center , you can use your students’ interest in
baseball to teach them about collective bargaining by examining
the history of labor relations in America’s Pastime. The
contract between Major League Baseball’s owners and players
expires on December 11, 2011, and some serious bargaining will
soon be under way.
Click Here to Access Free Online Lesson
Explore STEM
Careers
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center is an ever-expanding
resource for anyone interested in exploring career
opportunities in science , technology ,
engineering , mathematics , computing and
healthcare . Students can explore more than 185 degree
fields and find out about education requirements, salaries,
networking, precollege ideas and career planning resources. They
can also browse interviews with hundreds of professionals who
offer candid insight into their own diverse careers. Most
resources are also accessible as free downloadable PDFs,
PowerPoints and podcasts.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation ’s Music Matters
Grants will focus on educational reform in school music
programs and independent music programs across the United
States. Grant amounts for 2010 will range from $1,000 to $12,000
each and will be made on an annual, one-time basis. To be
eligible, U.S. schools must already employ a music educator or
educators and have an existing music program in place. Grant
requests must articulate specific music program needs for
existing and/or planned programs.
Deadline: February 5, 2010
Click Here for More Information
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School Bridge LEAGUE is the product of a
nonprofit youth philanthropy organization working
together with business leaders to introduce philanthropy
to students through the game of Bridge .
The LEAGUE is supported by a contribution from Bill
Gates and Warren Buffett , who are avid
players and passionate about the life lessons that can
be learned from the game, especially in decision
making , critical thinking and teamwork
. Annually, the top School Bridge LEAGUE
student-pair that places highest in three out of the six
tournaments, plus performs community service , is
awarded a trip to the annual LEAGUE National Awards and
Recognition event. This event, generally held in June in
New York City, celebrates and recognizes the
top-performing students for their accomplishments and
service efforts.
Click Here for More Information
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A publication of World Wise Schools , Voices from
the Field presents ten stories written by
Peace Corps authors . Lesson ideas and student
work accompany the stories, which are set in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Guinea–Bissau, Liberia, Niger,
Poland and Papua New Guinea. The stories and accompanying
materials are designed to strengthen students’ reading and
writing, inspire students to create their own personal meanings
and narratives, and broaden students’ perspectives of the world
and themselves.
Click Here to Access Free Publication
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From Ellis Island to Orchard Street , an online
exhibition produced by the Tenement Museum ,
allows students to play the role of an immigrant
to New York City in 1916. Students will learn about the
immigration experience by creating an identity and
making decisions about earning a living in the Lower
East Side. Video clips of an actress playing the
role of an immigrant add context and give students
helpful advice. Panoramic photographs of rooms in
a tenement apartment give students a unique perspective
into the lives of immigrants in the early twentieth
century.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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Forget about baseball, football and the Academy Awards.
The hottest new fantasy-league game involves the Supreme
Court. A month-old Web site called FantasySCOTUS.net
allows people to predict all of the high court’s
pending cases. Josh Blackman, a law clerk for U.S.
District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
created the game in his spare time. The growing fantasy
league has 2,000 members, mostly students, who can sign
up for free . The court will hear about 80 cases
before wrapping up in late June. The league’s winner
will then receive the first “Chief Justice Award.”
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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The Secret Life of the Brain presents a history of
efforts to understand the brain, a three-dimensional tour
of the brain, optical illusions and an animation
showing how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) works.
Video clips examine how the brain evolves and differs from
infancy to childhood and adolescence, and through adulthood.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
Innovative Reading Grant supports the planning and
implementation of programs for children that motivate and
encourage reading, especially with struggling readers. Selection
criteria include the potential to measure and evaluate a
literacy project that promotes the importance of reading and
facilitates the learners’ literacy development by supporting
current reading research, practice and policy. To be eligible
for the $2,500 grant, reading programs must be specifically
designed for K–9 students in the school library setting.
Deadline: February 1, 2010
Click Here for More Information
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Completely Web-based and powered by the Google Earth
TM API, Nystrom ’s StrataLogica
TM is a social studies product designed for
computers, projectors and interactive whiteboards. The
program includes NYSTROM Herff Jones Education
Division’s complete line of age-appropriate maps
and globes , in addition to e-atlases and
charts . The product’s features allow you to
compare selected views, side by side, using the dual-map
viewer; zoom in and out and pan across continents; use
tools and symbol banks to customize views; save
customized views, notes and lessons; and use thematic
overlays to compare and contrast content.
Click Here to Learn More and Sign Up for
Free Trial |
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Plus
: Enter the StrataLogica In the
Classroom Video Challenge for an opportunity to win
an interactive whiteboard, laptops or StrataLogica
licenses for your school.
Deadline: February 15, 2010
Click Here for More Information
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Exploring a new city is always fun, but if you can’t get
there, a gorgeous, zoomable 360-degree view photo can be
an acceptable substitute. 360 Cities , a Dutch
company, has created a stunning panoramic photo of
Prague in the Czech Republic. What makes this
panoramic photo interesting is that you can zoom in and
out, move up or down or change your view—much like with
Google Street View maps. If you zoom in enough, you can
even see laundry hanging out to dry in some of the
buildings. As of December 2009, the image was the
largest spherical panorama in the world.
Click Here to View Panoramic Photo
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Looking for a good book for your students? Want to know
more about your favorite author? At America Writes
for Kids! , you can search for information about
authors and their books alphabetically or by
state. Just go to the AUTHORS page and click on the map
or an alphabet letter to get started. The site is a
project of Drury University ’s School of
Education and Child Development .
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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RGK Foundation’s grants include programs that focus on formal
K–12 education (particularly mathematics, science and reading),
teacher development, literacy and higher education. All
applicants must complete an electronic Letter of Inquiry (LoI)
from the Web site as the first step. (RGK Foundation will
entertain one electronic Letter of Inquiry per organization in a
12-month period.) Foundation staff reviews electronic Letters of
Inquiry on an ongoing basis and will send an email message
either declining your request or inviting you to submit a formal
application packet for further consideration. The Grants
Committee typically meets four times each year to consider
requests over $100,000 that have been recommended by staff for
review. (Allow up to four months for proposals to be reviewed.)
Deadline:
Ongoing staff review; Grants Committee meetings to take
place June 5, September 4 and December 4, 2009
Click Here for More Information
CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G) and Discovery Education have
announced the seventh annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes.
The program gives K–12 schools nationwide the opportunity to win
a 21st-century classroom, complete with tablet or notebook
computers, wireless cart, interactive whiteboard, student
response system, projector, printer and document camera. CDW-G
and Discovery Education also provide on-site training to all Win
a Wireless Lab grand-prize winners. The 2009 program will award
five grand prizes. In addition to the technology hardware
included in the 21st-century classroom, Discovery Education will
award a $5,000 digital media grant to the five grand-prize
winning schools to help them more fully utilize the technology
and engage students in learning. Public and private school
teachers, administrators, and school and district technology
specialists may enter the sweepstakes by filling out an online
form. For each prize drawing, winners will be randomly selected
from all eligible entries received.
Deadline:
Sweepstake entries accepted until May 1, 2009
Click Here for More Information
LabWrite is a tool for instructing students in organizing and
preparing proper lab reports. The tool is organized into four
sections: PreLab, in which students answer a series of questions
to prepare an introduction; InLab, a laboratory notebook for
taking notes on lab procedures and recording data and
observations; PostLab, a guide for writing the report; and
LabCheck, a guide and checklist for checking over and revising a
lab report before submitting it. Each section operates in a
choice of modes: self-guiding, hardcopy handouts or interactive
tutoring. LabWrite provides full support for descriptive labs
and labs that students design for themselves. And it includes an
extensive set of resources, such as an Excel tutorial and guides
for creating tables and graphs, which students can use on their
own or teachers can use for in-class instruction.
Click Here to Access LabWrite
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of cognitive objectives is one of the
best ways to differentiate the curriculum to meet the needs of
your students. Because of its six levels of
thinking—Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing,
Evaluating and Creating—Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy can provide a
framework for planning units that incorporate low- to high-level
thinking activities. An introduction to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
includes a thorough breakdown of each of the six levels of the
revised taxonomy as well as a list of useful print and Internet
resources. A free, downloadable set of colorful posters explains
each of the six levels of the taxonomy: each poster presents a
brief definition of the term as well as sample thinking skills
(verbs) that relate to that particular level of the taxonomy.
Click Here to Access Bloom's Revised Taxonomy
Plus:
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy blooms digitally on this site.
Click Here to Access Bloom's Digital Taxonomy
Get to know the women who have changed our world. The 2009
National Women’s History Project (NWHP) honors women in the
environmental movement with new biographies of Rachel Carson,
Julia Hill, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters. In addition, NWHP
showcases new biographies of women who took center stage on the
2008 campaign trail: Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama
and Sarah Palin. An updated timeline includes events in politics
and the environmental movement through 2008. Check back each
week during March (Women’s History Month) for a new online
Women’s History quiz.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Plus:
Download a free calendar and bookmarks, from Gale/Cengage, in
celebration of Women’s History Month.
Click Here to Download Free Calendar
Click Here to Download Free Bookmarks
Astronomers hope students from across the world will participate
in an international star-hunting project to track light
pollution and report their findings, via the Web, during a
two-week period. This year the annual event will take place
March 16–28, the 13 days when the Orion constellation will be
visible to naked eyes from almost any location on Earth. The
project, known as GLOBE at Night, is run by the National Optical
Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Arizona, and Global
Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), an
interactive science-based education program with members in 110
countries. On clear nights during the specified two-week period,
students go outside an hour after sunset and find the
constellation of Orion, including the three distinctive stars
that make up Orion’s Belt. They then compare what they see to
eight GLOBE images, which teachers may download freely from the
GLOBE site. Back at school, students log on to the GLOBE Web
site, identify their latitude and longitude and report their
observations. GLOBE compiles the information and produces maps
for teachers to use in lessons about population density, light
pollution, geography and related topics.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
AT&T and the AT&T Foundation have committed $100 million over
four years (2008–2011) in their Aspire initiative for high
school success and workforce readiness. The four key components
of the Aspire program are (1) grants to school districts for
high school retention and preparation for college and/or the
workforce; (2) job-shadowing initiative, in partnership with
Junior Achievement, giving 100,000 students the chance to see
firsthand the job skills they will need for success in the
future; (3) underwriting of major research on the high school
dropout issue and solutions for engaging educational
practitioners; and (4) funding for 100 state and community
dropout prevention summits led by America’s Promise Alliance.
Deadline:
Ongoing
Click Here for More Information
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is
launching a national anthem singing contest on YouTube. The
winner will receive a trip to Washington, D.C., and the
opportunity to perform the national anthem on Flag Day (Sunday,
June 14, 2009). Take a look at the sample videos for an idea of
what the museum is looking for. Don’t worry, though—all of these
people are Smithsonian employees or family, and so they aren’t
eligible for the contest. Think you can do better? Start
recording yourself singing now! Join the mailing list to be
notified when the contest begins, along with instructions about
how to upload your video and enter to win.
Deadline:
Visit the site for announcement
Click Here for More Information
Plus:
View the American flag mosaic made up of stories and photos from
people like you. Share your thoughts about what the American
flag means to you and your submission may become a part of the
mosaic.
Click Here to Share Your Story
One of Wired.com’s most popular photo contest themes over the
past year was squares. Now Wired wants you to round things out
and give them your best shot at circles. Use the Reddit widget
on the homepage to submit your best circle photo and vote for
your favorite among the other submissions. The 10 highest-ranked
photos will appear in a gallery on the Wired.com homepage. Show
glowing halos or dazzling crowns. Scour the circumference of the
globe for your perfectly round photo. Just be sure to return to
where you started.
Deadline:
Photo submissions and voting are ongoing
Click Here for More Information
Building Homes of Our Own is a free, interactive teaching tool
for middle and high school classrooms developed by the National
Association of Home Builders. Challenge students with this
innovative simulation that presents a macro view of the entire
home-building process, from site selection to final sale.
Students collect information, solve problems and make choices as
they build a 3-D home against a budget. Then they review credit
applications and sell to the buyer of their choice.
Click Here for More Information
Plus: An
accompanying teacher’s guide provides additional activities,
exercises and projects. A cross-indexed, content-standards
listing ties activities and gameplay to specific national
standards. View sample lessons for math, science, technology,
social studies and English.
Click Here to View Sample Lessons
PBS Teachers?? recently introduced PBS Teachers Activity Packs,
a growing library of Web-based widgets that contain links to PBS
education resources and activities focused on a specific
curricular theme for multiple grade levels. Presently more than
30 Activity Packs are available, free of charge, for educators
to “grab” for classroom use or to post on their classroom and
school Web sites or favorite social networking sites. Activity
Pack themes cover a wide range of subject areas, including
reading/language art, science, social studies, health and art.
Some currently available themes are Arts Everywhere; China;
Forensic Science; Great American Authors; Healthy Choices; Money
in America; Mysteries of the Universe; Unsung Heroes in African
American History; Technology & Ethics; and Volunteerism.
Click Here to Access Free Widgets
A new ad campaign uses humor to educate teens about when online
communications (IMs, phone pictures, social-network comments)
cross the line into harassment. The campaign and its Web site,
ThatsNotCool.com, encourage teenagers to set their own
boundaries. It is intended to appeal to all teenagers, not just
those with serious problems. On the site are 35 “callout
cards”—brightly colored messages teens can send by email, post
to their Facebook or MySpace pages or download—that are meant to
tell someone they have crossed a line. The site also offers an
area where teenagers can seek advice, such as how to stop a
boyfriend from nonstop text messaging. For more direct advice,
the site tells teenagers to call or conduct a live chat with
trained volunteers. The campaign is sponsored and co-created by
the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the Office on Violence
Against Women and the Ad Council.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
“John and Abigail Adams” offers insights into the birth of
American democracy, the American Revolution, life in the
colonies, the Founders, the branches of government, lawmaking
and politics. Learn about key people and events: John and
Abigail, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Franklin, King George III,
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, the Boston Massacre, the
Revolutionary War, the Continental Congresses, the Presidency
and Vice Presidency, the Alien and Sedition Acts and more.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Blues Journey travels from the coasts of Africa, through the
cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, across the hills of
Appalachia, to the streets of Chicago and beyond. The roots of
blues can be found in slave songs, spirituals and field hollers
of the American South; its sounds can be heard in early
rock-and-roll and in today’s alternative and hip-hop landscapes.
Through this interactive ArtsEdge site, you can take the journey
to learn about the influences and impact the blues has had on
musical culture.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Wired for youth
Visit
the Wired for Youth Center at
www.wiredforyouth.com/books/index.cfm?booklist=audio,
where students can read books of high interest with teen themes.
Consumer concepts
Produced
by the Federal Trade Commission,
www.ftc.gov/youarehere uses interactive games and
activities to teach kids ages 8-12 key consumer concepts as well
as the role of the FTC in American commerce. Teachers can use
the site in classroom activities related to consumer economics,
government, social studies, history, language arts and other
related topics.
Airborne® Teacher Trust FundTM invites
elementary and middle school teachers from public and private
schools throughout the country to submit proposals for art and
music programs that their schools are unable to fund. A panel of
judges will then review and select proposals quarterly, and
awards will be announced monthly. Teachers and their schools
will receive grants from $200 to $10,000 to be used to implement
their programs. Teachers can submit applications year-round. At
the end of each quarter, the judges will select recipients from
the applicant pool. Recipients will be announced each month of
the following quarter. The number of recipients and the
recipients’ projects will determine how many announcements are
made each month.
Deadline: Ongoing; next round February 1
through April 30, 2009
Click Here for More Information
Action For Nature will award cash prizes of up to $500 to
young Eco-Heroes from around the world for their
outstanding accomplishments in environmental advocacy,
environmental health, research or protection of the natural
world. Their individual initiatives will inspire others to
preserve and protect our fragile environment.
Deadline: February 28, 2009
Click Here for More Information
An extensive (though not complete) archive of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” to the
nation, between 1933 and 1945, can be streamed and downloaded
from the Internet Archive. These are especially
intriguing in light of President-elect Obama’s now giving weekly
addresses to the nation via YouTube, as he faces international
and financial challenges that invite comparison to those during
FDR’s tenure.
Click Here to Access "Fireside Chats"
If your students cannot get to the battlefield, the
Gettysburg National Military Park offers its Civil War
Traveling Trunk. Through various clothing items, military
accoutrements, pastime activities, photographs, literature and
music, students will be able to appreciate what the daily life
of a Civil War soldier was actually like. The curriculum
and clothing in the trunk are targeted for the
fifth-grade student, but can be made adaptable for students in
grades 4–8. You may set up the six learning stations in your
classroom or use a common room so that the whole school can
become involved. The trunk is available for a two-week timeframe
throughout the school year for a requested donation to cover the
cost of shipping and handling. If you are interested in
receiving a trunk, fill out the Traveling Trunk Reservation
Request form and submit it to the Education Coordinator,
Gettysburg National Military Park, 1195 Baltimore Pike, Suite
100, Gettysburg, PA 17325.
Click Here for More Information
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Little Explorers, from Enchanted Learning,
is an online picture dictionary with links. It
includes close to 2,500 entries, with each word used in
a meaningful example sentence. Most entries have links
to carefully chosen, child-friendly Web sites from
around the world. There are seven different versions of
the dictionary, including a version organized by the
initial sound of the words in English.
Click Here to Access Free
Picture Dictionary |
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Plus:
Information scavenger hunts, for use with the Little
Explorers Picture Dictionary, include free
Find It! Quizzes for Beginning Readers, Find It!
Quizzes for Grades 2 and 3 (or ESL) and Look It
Up! Quizzes for Grades 2 and 3 (or ESL).
Click Here to Access Free
Quizzes |
Martin Luther King Jr. received a “C” in his public
speaking class. Yet with his passion and ability to overcome
adversity, he delivered one of the most famous speeches of all
time. On this Google Video page, you can view the full,
unedited version of Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “I
have a dream” speech. Notice, in particular, when King
abandons his prepared speech and extemporaneously delivers his
inspiring words.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Pay It Forward Mini-Grants are designed to fund
service-oriented projects identified by youth as activities
they would like to perform to benefit their school, neighborhood
or greater community. To be considered in the grant-making
process, projects must contain a “pay it forward” focus—that is,
they must be based on the concept of one person doing a favor
for others, who in turn do favors for others, with the results
growing exponentially. Grant applications are reviewed and
considered by a selection committee throughout the year.
Mini-grants of up to $500 are available for projects on a
one-time-only basis. Because funding is limited, projects
requiring smaller amounts will be given priority
Deadline: Applications received by February 15,
2009 will be considered for second semester funding, on or about
March 1.
Click Here for More Information
This comprehensive lesson plan for English language
learners focuses on the final part of Barack Obama’s
presidential victory speech. Students complete pre-
and post-listening activities, including a focus on the
literary style of the speech and Internet-based research tasks.
The lesson is available at intermediate and advanced
levels, along with a video clip, on OneStopEnglish.
Click Here to Access Video of Speech
Click Here to Access Intermediate Activities
Click Here to Access Advanced Activities
With financial support and assistance from Microsoft Corp.’s
U.S. Partners in Learning, students across the nation now
have access to CareerForwardTM, a free
online course covering globalization, career planning,
financial literacy and entrepreneurship. CareerForward empowers
students at any grade level in middle and high school to take
charge of their own education, career path and future
prosperity.
Click Here to Access Free Online Course
The Wordle Web site lets users create word clouds. Simply
enter descriptive words about yourself or a topic of interest.
Then choose fonts and background colors to make your image more
powerful.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open
access to more than 640,000 images digitized from the
The New York Public Library’s vast collections, including
illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare
prints, photographs and more. Browse by Subjects, Names, Library
Divisions or My Selections. Subject categories include Arts &
Literature, Cities & Buildings, Culture & Society, History &
Geography, Industry & Technology, Nature & Science and Printing
& Graphics.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
At the Museum of Online Museums (MoOM), you’ll find links
to online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of
interests. The MoOM is organized into three sections: The
Museum Campus contains links to brick-and-mortar museums
with an interesting online presence. Most of these sites will
have multiple exhibits from their collections (or, in the case
of the Smithsonian, displays of items not on display in the
Washington museum itself). The Permanent Collection
displays links to exhibits of particular interest to design and
advertising. Galleries, Exhibition and Shows is an
eclectic and ever-changing list of interesting links to
collections and galleries, most of them hosted on personal Web
pages. Aside from the quarterly updated list of links, MoOM
pulls out five collections of particular interest and highlights
them on the site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence
recognizes extraordinary contributions by educators across the
United States who are elevating the level of science literacy
through creativity in the classroom and motivation of students.
To be eligible for the award, applicants must be full-time K–12
classroom teachers, in public or private schools, whose major
responsibilities include teaching science and who work in
California, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico,
Rhode Island or Washington State. Recipients will receive an
unrestricted cash award of $5,000, and the recipient’s school
will receive a restricted grant of $5,000 to be used for the
expansion or enhancement of a school science program, for
science resources or for the professional development of the
school’s science teachers.
Deadline: February 2, 2009
Click Here for More Information
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The Can Do! Web site offers stories,
activities and other resources to help create
a better understanding and deeper appreciation of how
people can overcome their challenges and reach their
dreams by using their abilities and a “can-do” attitude.
The ever-growing collection of free, downloadable
Can Do! Mini-Posters are aimed at fostering
ability awareness and inspiring “can do” attitudes! Hang
the posters on the wall of your classroom to remind your
students that with a Can Do! attitude, “anything is
possible”!
Click Here to Access Free
Resources |
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Plus: Check out
CanDoozle, the official blog of the Can
Do! site, to learn about resources, thoughts, ideas and
people that inspire a can-do attitude.
Click Here to Access Blog |
Common Sense Media provides educators with resources that
address parents’ questions and concerns about television,
movies, the Internet, gaming and much more, giving schools the
tools they need to run a media education program for parents and
faculty. The free program provides resources on more than
30 topics, including cyberbullying, virtual worlds,
advertising, social networking and the impact of media on
children’s health and development. These interactive
materials help parents guide their children in becoming
responsible media consumers and creators and help public schools
meet NCLB and Title I requirements for parent involvement.
Click Here to Access Free Parent Resources
For more than 30 years, PBS’s MASTERPIECE has been
known for its high-quality adaptations of classic works by
authors such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Eliot and James,
as well as more contemporary literature. Browse the selection of
online Teacher's Guides to help you use these films in
the classroom. The next Teacher’s Guide will accompany new
Charles Dickens adaptations, airing in March 2009. A new
feature, MASTERPIECE Book and Film Club, provides
discussion questions, activities and resources,
plus general tips on creating and running a MASTERPIECE Book and
Film Club.
Click Here to Access Free Resources
SecretBuilders, a Silicon Valley startup, has launched a
virtual world with an emphasis on creativity and
historical adventure for children aged 6–14. On
SecretBuilders.com, children are exposed to stories and
concepts from the arts and humanities as they
interact and play among fictional and historical characters,
including Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Galileo and Socrates.
The site also provides creative contests with real-world
impact. The latest contest invites children to come up with new
toy concepts. The winning entry will become a virtual toy
available for sale within the site’s virtual economy, and the
inventor will win a cash prize. In addition, children enjoy
quests that expose them to classic books, such as
Treasure Island and Alice in Wonderland. Other
favorite activities include getting published and commenting on
other players’ submissions in The Crooked Pencil
online magazine, hovering around famous artwork in
Frank ‘n’ Stein’s Gallery, ordering slimy treats at the
Weird Brew Café (run by the Weird Sisters characters from
Macbeth), chatting with Sherlock Holmes and visiting
Copernicus’ home to take a challenge quiz. SecretBuilders’
partners—including Art in Action, The Monterey Bay
Aquarium, Wild Planet Entertainment and Stone
Soup magazine—host features, contests and activities
within the SecretBuilders site. Children also get involved in
charity drives. A One-for-All section allows players
to raise money for their schools by answering math, English and
general knowledge questions.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where
territories are re-sized on each map according to the proportion
of different resources they share, and by their contributions to
human society. Presently the site includes nearly 600 maps.
Maps 1–366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the
menu at the top of the homepage to find a map of interest.
Subjects range from Youth Literacy to Education to Pollution and
even to Population in Year 1 and Year 2050!
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists introduces
students to penguin biologists, glaciologists, cosmologists,
geologists and marine scientists working in Antarctica and the
Arctic. Using cameras and blogging tools, they are documenting
their adventures so students can follow their research, ask
questions and share in their discoveries as they occur. This
experiment gives students an up-close-and-personal look at
research in extreme environments through the thoughts and
experiences of the scientists working there. Their photos,
videos and blogs are posted on the site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
In an effort to encourage American high school students to stay
in school and increase their competitiveness with counterparts
from other countries, AT&T Inc. and Junior Achievement
have launched a multimillion-dollar, multiyear job shadow
initiative that will match 100,000 students in grades 9–12
with more than 50,000 AT&T employees to help strengthen student
success and workforce readiness. The program will bring students
into the world of business through classroom instruction
followed by on-site mentoring in which students get to interact
with a wide range of AT&T employees, including technical and
customer service representatives, product and service managers,
and marketing and advertising executives.
Click Here for More Information
Smilebox® creates a new category of service called
“creative messaging,” which draws elements from photo services,
scrapbooking and ecards to deliver a new medium for
communication that conveys mood, thought and emotion. Unlike
other solutions that focus on organizing, editing and sharing
photos or sending pre-packaged ecards, the Smilebox service
enables users to create something by choosing from hundreds of
multimedia designs, easily personalizing them with photos,
video, music, words and style, and sharing them via email, blog
or print. The service is free, safe and secure.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
At the World Wildlife Foundation’s Web site, students can
send a postcard to a friend or play one of the
interactive wildlife games and learn about endangered
species, wild places and global challenges along the way. Check
out the WWF online Action Kit for more activities and
find out how your students can to be a force for nature.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future is an
online writing and publishing project for students, aged 13–18,
co-sponsored by Google and the National Writing
Project. Young people were invited to write about the issues
and concerns that they feel are central to their future, issues
they would hope our next president would act on. Topics were
chosen by students to reflect their specific personal, regional
and age-related interests. Teachers and mentors guided students
through the process of writing a persuasive letter or essay
using Google Docs. Read students’ letters on the issues that
matter most to them.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
KerPoof is a free online multimedia software
that allows children to explore their creativity by drawing,
making animated movies, writing and illustrating stories,
producing pictures and cards, and more. The software is
intuitive and easy to use, giving children—even those who aren’t
proficient in art—an opportunity to produce and share successful
artwork quickly and easily. KerPoof’s library of stock images
goes far beyond ordinary fare. The color palettes vary from bold
to subtle, and the tools that invite children to consider and
adjust an object’s perspective are among the attributes that
makes this Web site stand above others offering similar
activities.
Click Here to Access Free Multimedia Tools
What makes VirtualFishtank.com different from any other
Web site is the ability to Build-Your-Own-Fish online and
release them into the Virtual FishTankTM exhibits at
the Museum of Science, Boston, and the St. Louis Science Center.
Students can create their fish, save them, go to the museum and
use an interactive kiosk to retrieve and release them into the
museum tank.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The Captain Planet Foundation funds hands-on
environmental projects to encourage youth aged 6–18 (elementary
through high school) to work individually and collectively to
solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and
communities. Generally, the range of grants awarded by the
foundation is between $250 and $2,500. All projects must promote
understanding of environmental issues, focus on hands-on
activities, promote interaction and cooperation within groups
and help young people develop planning and problem-solving
skills.
Deadline: December 31, 2008
Click Here for More Information
“Make It Matter” is a new initiative of the Reader’s
Digest Foundation. The foundation will give away $1 million
to nonprofit organizations based on inspiring stories submitted
by the public. Every month for ten months, Reader’s Digest will
choose one individual whose story of giving back serves as an
inspiration to others. For each story, the Reader’s Digest
Foundation will donate $100,000 to a nonprofit organization that
is associated with either the story or the cause. These
individuals and their stories of giving back will appear every
month in the new “Make It Matter” column in Reader’s Digest and
on
www.rd.com, beginning with the April 2009 issue.
Deadline: January 1, 2009
Click Here for More Information
One of the great photography troves in history is available
online, free, and even ready for your download and
manipulation. Millions of photographs from the LIFE
photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today, chronicle
the 20th century in a breathtaking series of frozen moments.
Most were never published and are now available for the first
time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. For
example, you can download not only Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Marilyn
Monroe-in-black-turtleneck image that ran in the magazine but
also the other frames Eisenstaedt shot that day. Students can
download images of the (last) Great Depression to their computer
and, if they disagree with the original cropping, frame them in
their own way and use them to illustrate a school report.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Education.com, a Web destination for parents of
school-aged children, and the American Association of School
Administrators (AASA) have launched a Special Edition
on Bullying at School and Online. This resource provides
new information and tools to help parents take an active role in
addressing bullying. In creating the Special Edition,
Education.com and AASA worked with contributors from around the
world to compile new evidence-based, peer-reviewed content to
dispel common myths and empower parents and their children to
take effective action against bullying. The result is a
collection of more than 30 original reference articles,
plus video clips, quizzes, online workshops,
community forums and quick-fact lists—all
available free of charge on the Web site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Reporting America at War explores the role of journalists
in covering America’s wars. The Web site, companion to a PBS
documentary, offers lessons on press censorship, message
control, the power of pictures, finding the right words and
works by Ernie Pyle and Edward R. Murrow. The documentary
examines the challenges of reporting from the front lines and
the role of the correspondent in shaping how wars have been
understood and remembered.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Google has added a new twist to its popular 3-D map tool,
Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to
visit a virtual ancient Rome. Google has reconstructed
the sprawling city—inhabited by more than 1 million people as
long ago as 320 BCE. The model contains more than 6,700
buildings, with more than 250 place marks linking to key sites
in a variety of languages. Users can zoom around the map to
visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the center of the
Colosseum or swoop over the Basilica. The 3-D models are based
on a physical model of the city, called the Plastico di Roma
Antica, created by archaeologists and model-makers from
1933 to 1974 and housed in a special gallery in Rome’s Museum of
Roman Civilisation.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
One Life: The Mask of Lincoln celebrates one of our
greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, with an online exhibit of
30 portraits aimed “to show the changing face that Abraham
Lincoln presented to the world as he led the fight for the
Union.” Select “audio tour” to hear answers to questions, such
as How did Lincoln try to manage the explosiveness of the
Emancipation Proclamation? How does a photo at his second
inaugural (March 4, 1865) foreshadow his death?
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Schools and other nonprofit groups are collecting
“non-recyclable” packaging such as drink pouches, yogurt
containers, energy bar wrapper and cookie wrappers as part of a
free, nationwide program called TerraCycle.
Schools can raise funds while teaching students about recycling,
conservation and the environment. Sign up at the TerraCycle Web
site. You will pay no shipping costs, but earn 2 to 5 cents for
every piece of used packing you collect.
Click Here for More Information
A practice guide titled Organizing Instruction and
Study to Improve Student Learning was developed by an
expert panel convened by the Institute of Education Sciences.
The guide offers a set of seven research-based recommendations,
with a summary of the research evidence and a level-of-evidence
rating provided for each recommendation. The seven
recommendations have been synthesized to result in the four
recommended practices on this Web site. This practice guide is
the foundation for all the Doing What Works content on how to
organize your teaching.
Click Here to Access Practice Guide
The award-winning documentary Split: A divided
America is available free to teachers for fall
classroom use. The film’s six independent chapters explore U.S.
politics and “blue/red division” through a nonpartisan lens.
This teaching tool is intended to help educators explore and
facilitate dialogue regarding the 2008 campaigns. The
accompanying Web site hosts an interactive forum for
online debate. You can also download the Teacher’s Guide
Introduction.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
NSF and the Birth of the Internet is a multimedia story
of the creation of the Internet. Learn about the individuals who
began connecting computers in the 1960s. Listen to Vint Cerf,
often referred to as “the father of the Internet,” describe
their work. Find out about TCP/IP, packet switching, CSNET and
other technologies and initiatives. Trace developments back to
the first Internet message (October 29, 1969) and the first Web
page (August 6, 1991). And see predictions about what’s next.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Discovery Education has joined forces with Walden
University, mimio, Adobe Systems, Inc., Elmer's Products, Inc.
and CDW-G to launch New Teacher Survival Central,
featuring an array of classroom tools designed to welcome and
support educators new to the teaching profession. In the
Technology 101 area of the site, educators can access
concise, practical information on how educational technologies
promote student engagement in learning and what tools are
available for use in the classroom. Free K–12 student
resources are highlighted for teachers in the Tech Tools for
Students section of the site. With a variety of interactive
games, virtual labs and lessons, new educators have access to a
broad collection of quality tools that can help engage students
across the curriculum. Another section of the site, Homeroom
Headquarters, allows educators to access information on the
art of classroom management. Featuring actionable advice on
creating a positive classroom environment, communicating with
parents and managing students, this area provides educators with
tips and guidelines to help them run a classroom smoothly and
efficiently. New educators also will find videos covering
a broad array of topics, such as lesson planning, community and
parental involvement and effective use of technology. In
Survival Tool Kit: Best of the Web, useful Web sites for
teachers are collected in one place.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Plus: New Teacher Survival
Central is offering $50,000 in weekly prizes until
January 31, 2009. New educators are encouraged to enter
every week to improve their chance of winning.
Click Here for More Information
Arithmetickles, a show performed in school auditoriums
and produced by a New Jersey nonprofit, aims to get young
students excited about math by using music and student
participation to get the message across. By exploring the most
imaginative and entertaining aspects of learning,
Arithemetickles combines comedy, pantomime and sound effects to
demonstrate how learning math can be exciting, challenging and
fun! Students become “stars of the show” as they apply their
understanding of basic math to answer grade-appropriate
questions, resulting in positive confidence building. Watch a
preview online.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Colonial Williamsburg’s 2008–2009 Electronic Field
Trip series launches October 16 with “The Will of
the People,” a timely premiere for this year’s election
season. The presidential election of 1800, one of the most
bitter in U.S. history, is part of a surprising lesson for a
21st century student. Thomas Jefferson explains how negative
campaigning, partisan politics and contested elections have been
part of our political system since the early days of the
republic. “The Will of the People” is the first of seven
Electronic Field Trips broadcast one Thursday each month from
October through April at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Eastern time on
participating PBS stations and cable channels across the
country. Targeted to grades 4–8, the distance learning
programs span a broad range of historical subjects about
people, issues and events from colonial times to the present
day. Each Electronic Field Trip is supported with lesson
plans, interactive student resources and other
materials to help make history exciting and relevant for
students. All materials have been developed by teachers,
historians and museum educators and meet state standards for
history, technology and literacy. Selected programs also
correlate to state science and arts education standards.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The U.S. Department of Education recently launched a Web
site, College.gov, aimed at motivating students to go to
college. The site, which features video testimonials from
students, includes links to statistics about how much more money
college graduates earn, pointers on how to find academic and
financial support, and a customizable checklist of steps for
students to take.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Saluting Our Vets
The History Channel wants your K–12 students to take a veteran
to school. This nationwide initiative strengthens community ties
and brings history to life. At the History Channel website, you
can find curriculum resources and all the information you need
to organize your own
Take a Veteran to School Day .
Go Wacky for Wikis
Does it feel like every one is talking about wikis, except you?
These simple, easy-to-edit group websites are a great teaching
resource that lets a class connect any time and anywhere the
Internet reaches.
Wikispaces is giving away 1000,000 wikis to K–12 teachers.
The sites have no advertising, come with unlimited usage, and
are completely free. Get a wiki of your own, and see what the
buzz is all about.
Comics for Economic Literacy
The economy is on everyone’s mind today, so why not give your
students a primer on economics? The Federal Reserve offers
twelve different free
comics that teach children about the history of money,
foreign trade, the importance of saving, and more.
Schools and other nonprofit groups are collecting
“non-recyclable” packaging such as drink pouches, yogurt
containers, energy bar wrapper and cookie wrappers as part of a
free, nationwide program called TerraCycle.
Schools can raise funds while teaching students about recycling,
conservation and the environment. Sign up at the TerraCycle Web
site. You will pay no shipping costs, but earn 2 to 5 cents for
every piece of used packing you collect.
Click Here for More Information
Contests tap students' creativity,
inventiveness
Details of two contests for students in
grades 5-8 are available at
www.nmoe.org, the website of the National Museum of
Education.
Invent something that using bubblewrap
cushioning. Top prize is a $10,000 US Savings Bond.
The deadline is November 3.
Create an invention that incorporates the
use of rubberbands. More than $20,000 will be given away
in prizes for students and mentoring teachers. The
deadline is November 14.
Related standards based teaching materials
are on the website.
Recycle for your School!
Terracycle lets you earn money while you
recycle. What do they pay for? Lots of stuff: used
20 oz. plastic soda bottles, yogurt containers, foil energy bar
wrappers and drink pouches. There is no cost to join the
program. In addition to promoting recycling practices,
your school can raise money at the same time! You will
also receive prepaid mailing materials to ship the stuff to
Terracycle. These materials are "upcycled" into
affordable, eco-friendly products, including organic cleaners
and fertilizer, handbags, backpacks and pencil cases. For
more info, visit
www.terracycle.net .
Seaworld/Busch Gardens Awards for Student
and Educator Environmentalists
These awards recognize outstanding efforts
of students and teachers working at the grassroots level across
the country to protect and preserve the environment. This
year, eight project will be selected. Each winning group
receives:
$10,000 to benefit the project
An all expense paid trip for three students
and one adult leader to and Anheuser-Busch theme park for an
awards event
100 T-shirts to share with school and
community partners
From the eight projects, one outstanding
environmental educator/leader will be recognized and receive:
A $5,000 award
An all expense paid trip for him or her and
one guest to an Anheuser Bush theme park for an awards event
An all expenses paid trip to the 2008
National Science Teachers Association national conference
All schools grades K-12 in the US are
eligible to appl. Entries must be received by 5 pm on
November 28, 2008. To learn more go to
www.seaworld.org/conservation-matters/eea/index.htm
NEA Books Across America Library Books
Award are made in collaboration between NEA and the NEA
Foundation. Approximately 50 grants of $1,000 are awarded
to help public schools that serve economically disadvantaged
students to purchase books for their school libraries.
Originally created to help school libraries in the Gulf Coast
region devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the program is
now open to public schools and libraries around the country.
School libraries in need can apply for the grantsby visiting the
NEA website at
www.neafoundation.org/grants.htm . The deadline to apply is
November 20, 2008.
A practice guide titled Organizing Instruction and
Study to Improve Student Learning was developed by an
expert panel convened by the Institute of Education Sciences.
The guide offers a set of seven research-based recommendations,
with a summary of the research evidence and a level-of-evidence
rating provided for each recommendation. The seven
recommendations have been synthesized to result in the four
recommended practices on this Web site. This practice guide is
the foundation for all the Doing What Works content on how to
organize your teaching.
Click Here to Access Practice Guide
The award-winning documentary Split: A divided
America is available free to teachers for fall
classroom use. The film’s six independent chapters explore U.S.
politics and “blue/red division” through a nonpartisan lens.
This teaching tool is intended to help educators explore and
facilitate dialogue regarding the 2008 campaigns. The
accompanying Web site hosts an interactive forum for
online debate. You can also download the Teacher’s Guide
Introduction.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
NSF and the Birth of the Internet is a multimedia story
of the creation of the Internet. Learn about the individuals who
began connecting computers in the 1960s. Listen to Vint Cerf,
often referred to as “the father of the Internet,” describe
their work. Find out about TCP/IP, packet switching, CSNET and
other technologies and initiatives. Trace developments back to
the first Internet message (October 29, 1969) and the first Web
page (August 6, 1991). And see predictions about what’s next.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Discovery Education has joined forces with Walden
University, mimio, Adobe Systems, Inc., Elmer's Products, Inc.
and CDW-G to launch New Teacher Survival Central,
featuring an array of classroom tools designed to welcome and
support educators new to the teaching profession. In the
Technology 101 area of the site, educators can access
concise, practical information on how educational technologies
promote student engagement in learning and what tools are
available for use in the classroom. Free K–12 student
resources are highlighted for teachers in the Tech Tools for
Students section of the site. With a variety of interactive
games, virtual labs and lessons, new educators have access to a
broad collection of quality tools that can help engage students
across the curriculum. Another section of the site, Homeroom
Headquarters, allows educators to access information on the
art of classroom management. Featuring actionable advice on
creating a positive classroom environment, communicating with
parents and managing students, this area provides educators with
tips and guidelines to help them run a classroom smoothly and
efficiently. New educators also will find videos covering
a broad array of topics, such as lesson planning, community and
parental involvement and effective use of technology. In
Survival Tool Kit: Best of the Web, useful Web sites for
teachers are collected in one place.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Plus:
New Teacher Survival Central is offering $50,000 in
weekly prizes until January 31, 2009. New educators
are encouraged to enter every week to improve their chance of
winning.
Click Here for More Information
Arithmetickles, a show performed in school auditoriums
and produced by a New Jersey nonprofit, aims to get young
students excited about math by using music and student
participation to get the message across. By exploring the most
imaginative and entertaining aspects of learning,
Arithemetickles combines comedy, pantomime and sound effects to
demonstrate how learning math can be exciting, challenging and
fun! Students become “stars of the show” as they apply their
understanding of basic math to answer grade-appropriate
questions, resulting in positive confidence building. Watch a
preview online.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The Verizon Foundation is accepting proposals from
eligible institutions for Literacy Grants. All 501(c)3
organizations, including elementary and secondary schools
(public and private), registered with the National Center for
Education Statistics (NCES) are eligible for grants of up to
$10,000.
Deadline: November 1, 2008
Click Here for More Information
Colonial Williamsburg’s 2008–2009 Electronic Field
Trip series launches October 16 with “The Will of
the People,” a timely premiere for this year’s election
season. The presidential election of 1800, one of the most
bitter in U.S. history, is part of a surprising lesson for a
21st century student. Thomas Jefferson explains how negative
campaigning, partisan politics and contested elections have been
part of our political system since the early days of the
republic. “The Will of the People” is the first of seven
Electronic Field Trips broadcast one Thursday each month from
October through April at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Eastern time on
participating PBS stations and cable channels across the
country. Targeted to grades 4–8, the distance learning
programs span a broad range of historical subjects about
people, issues and events from colonial times to the present
day. Each Electronic Field Trip is supported with lesson
plans, interactive student resources and other
materials to help make history exciting and relevant for
students. All materials have been developed by teachers,
historians and museum educators and meet state standards for
history, technology and literacy. Selected programs also
correlate to state science and arts education standards.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The U.S. Department of Education recently launched a Web
site, College.gov, aimed at motivating students to go to
college. The site, which features video testimonials from
students, includes links to statistics about how much more money
college graduates earn, pointers on how to find academic and
financial support, and a customizable checklist of steps for
students to take.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Teach
the Vote
Great election teaching
tools for you!
ELECTION 2008 CLASSROOM KIT
The presidential election is an exciting time that brings
American history to life for students. Get everyone involved
with these engaging activities across the curriculum.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750128
National
Character Counts!
WeekConnect with classrooms around the globe from October
19–25 in the world’s biggest celebration of character. The
Character Counts! website has all the free resources you need to
make your event a huge success. Register online for downloadable
lesson plans, community outreach suggestions, and more. Last
year, more than 5 million kids in 51 countries joined to
celebrate character.
Saluting Our Vets
The History Channel wants your K–12 students to take a veteran
to school. This nationwide initiative strengthens community ties
and brings history to life. At the History Channel website, you
can find curriculum resources and all the information you need
to organize your own
Take a Veteran to School Day .
Go Wacky for Wikis
Does it feel like every one is talking about wikis, except you?
These simple, easy-to-edit group websites are a great teaching
resource that lets a class connect any time and anywhere the
Internet reaches.
Wikispaces is giving away 1000,000 wikis to K–12 teachers.
The sites have no advertising, come with unlimited usage, and
are completely free. Get a wiki of your own, and see what the
buzz is all about.
Comics
for Economic Literacy
The economy is on everyone’s mind today, so why not give your
students a primer on economics? The Federal Reserve offers
twelve different free
comics that teach children about the history of money,
foreign trade, the importance of saving, and more.
Students in grades 3–5 can let their teachers know how special
they are by choosing them for a chance to go to a cool math and
science camp next summer. The Mickelson ExxonMobil 2009
Teachers Academy offers a five-day program, with camps in
New Jersey, Texas and Louisiana, designed to provide teachers of
grades 3–5 with the knowledge and skills necessary to motivate
students to pursue careers in science and math. The award
includes an all-expenses-paid, five-day program in July 2009.
Deadline: October 31, 2008
Click Here for More Information
Hold on to your hat! It's a new school year and NEA's Read
Across America promises to keep you rich in reading resources
all year long! Here's how to start:
Order the 2008-09 Resource Calendar (also available as a
download) at
www.nea.org/readacross
Go to www.kidthing.com/nea
each month for free teacher downloads that augment the calendar
and keep it up to date.
Sign up for the monthly newsletter featuring grant information,
literacy news, and more. Send a blank email to
join-nea-raa-enewsletter@list.nea.org .
Mark your calendar for March 2, 2009 and join the biggest
reading celebration in the nation, NEA's Read Across America
Day.
Check out NEA's Read Across America website-you'll find new
booklists, reading tips, activity ideas, planning info, media
articles and more! Go to
www.nea.org/readacross
.
With Census in Schools, Students Can Ask: How Many Toy
Stores Are in My State?
Created by the US Census Bureau, Census in Schools is a program
that incorporates census data such as housing, economic and
geographic information into free lesson plans and classroom
activities. The lesson plans range from teaching students
in grades K-2 how to read a map key, to teaching vocabulary such
as reapportionment and gerrymandering to 11th and 12th graders.
The program's website features a colorful map for elementary
students that links to state information including the capital,
population data and even the number of toy stores. For
more information, visit
www.census.gov/dmd/www/teachers.html
Famed Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos is the focus of this
year's NYSUT Hispanic Heritage Month poster. For a free
poster featuring back to back English and Spanish text, email
orders@nysutmail.org .
Shipping and handling charges apply. Printable posters are
also available at www.nysut.org
.
The producers of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer are
preparing the.Vote and the.Gov—a
series of eleven 4- to 5-minute reports on the 2008 campaign
leading to the inauguration of the next president. After
Election Day, the series will evolve from the.Vote to
the.Gov and look at the process of forming a new government,
identifying key issues for the new administration and new
Congress. The video segments, hosted by the.News
journalists, will be provided free to middle school and
high school teachers and their students throughout the fall
campaign. Each segment of the.Vote and the.Gov is
accompanied by online, standards-based activities
that will give students the opportunity to create multimedia
works: you.Edit allows students to rework and
re-edit video material provided by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions,
and you.Report serves as a home for student-generated
content (students’ perspectives on policy issues and the
election process). All segments will be closed captioned. An
initial the.Vote report has been posted online, allowing
educators to become familiar with the.Vote and the
educational opportunities it provides. Regular production will
begin in September and run up to the inauguration in January
2009.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Including Everyone: Small Changes to Create a Welcoming
Classroom is the newest offering from RaceBridges For
Schools, which provides tools for teachers and students to
help build stronger and more inclusive communities. The
practical advice included in this free, downloadable
guide focuses on small, everyday changes teachers can make in
their classrooms to help students be more open to difference, to
be less judgmental and to be more likely to counter prejudice in
themselves and others.
Click Here to Download Free Guide
|
The New Americans Web site offers an
educational adventure for students in grades 7–12. The
site supplements the PBS documentary series,
which explores the immigrant experience through personal
stories. Interactive sections of the site allow students
to explore the immigration experience through a
timeline, maps and activities in
tracking family history and examining the effect of
immigration on the nation. Eleven lesson plans
involve students in activities such as analyzing factual
data or conducting oral histories of first- or
second-generation immigrants. For workplaces, schools
and community organizations that would like to use
shorter stories from The New Americans to
increase understanding of recent immigrants, Active
Voice and Kartemquin Films offer three brief,
themed Video/DVD Modules and Discussion Guides
for a nominal fee.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Click Here to Order Video/DVD Modules and Discussion
Guides |
|
Plus:
See how much you know about immigrants and immigration
in America. Try this Immigration Myths and Reality
Quiz.
Click Here to Take the Quiz |
The U.S. Department of Education’s Teaching Literacy
in English to K–5 English Learners provides videos,
slideshows and tools for teaching reading to K–5
English learners. The site’s resources are based on five
research-based recommendations: screen and monitor students’
progress; provide small-group reading interventions; provide
vocabulary instruction throughout the day; develop academic
English competence beginning in primary grades; and schedule
regular peer-assisted learning opportunities, including
structured language practice.
Click Here to Access Free Resources
Presented by National Geographic for Kids, DogEared
is a blog about books—good books, funny books, adventure books;
books about animals, friendship, pirates, faraway places . . .
every kind of book that kids enjoy. Why is the site called “DogEared”?
You know when you read a book and you turn the top edge of a
page over to mark your place? That’s called a “dog-ear”!
Students mark (“dog-ear”) the Web page so they can return to it
often in order to read real kids’ reviews and recommendations.
They also share their own opinions and create their own reading
wish list—as if it were their own online book club.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Have your students ever wondered why a camel has a hump? Of if
they can really tell the weather by listening to the chirp of a
cricket? Or why their joints make popping sounds? These
questions deal with everyday phenomena that are often taken for
granted, but each can be explained scientifically. Everyday
Mysteries helps students get the answers to these and many
other of life’s most interesting questions through scientific
inquiry.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
|
Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline
is an online experience highlighting some of the key
dates and events that mark more than 200 years of our
constitutional history. The timeline entries, taken as a
whole, tell the evolving story of the U.S. Constitution
and the continuing role that it plays in our lives.
Visitors can browse through a collection of stories
and headlines—annotated by images,
audio and video clips and interactive
content—to explore some of the people, events and
issues that have shaped the Constitution and the history
of our nation.
Click Here to Visit Web Site |
|
On the American Bar Association’s Web site,
students can show their support for the U.S.
Constitution by adding their signature to those of
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison.
Click Here to Visit Web Site |
The National Football League and the National Dairy
Council (NDC) have partnered in a campaign encouraging
students to eat well and exercise. As part of the marketing
deal, NFL players will visit schools and tout exercise, while
the NDC will give grants to participating schools. The groups
will also create a “playbook” that outlines activity ideas,
such as flag football. This school year, the program will be
launched in about 50 schools in seven test markets. It will
expand to about 40,000 schools in the next few years.
Click Here for More Information About the Campaign
Click Here for Nutrition Tips and Recipes
NetSmartz® Workshop, an Internet safety program of
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC),
has launched a back-to-school campaign to raise awareness of the
importance of Internet and real-world safety. The new NetSmartz
campaign directs families and educators to the NetSmartz
Back-2-School Kit, a free resource designed to help
instill everyday safety values in children between the ages of 5
and 12. The content includes the high-definition animated
videos Way 2 Go!, Beat the Tricks!, and The Boy
Who Loved IM, which are each accompanied by resources for
educators, parents and guardians, including supplemental
lesson plans, the new NetSmartz Activity Book and
Teachable Recipes.
Click Here to Download Free Resources
Many people are talking about the Democratic and Republican
national convention speeches. The American Rhetoric Web
site provides a way to connect today’s enthusiasm to America’s
speeches of the past. The Web site hosts “The Top 100
Speeches,” which includes the most significant speeches in
American history as decided by leading scholars and compiled by
two prominent researchers in the field. Users can view speeches
by rank or decade, as well as by category, such as speeches by
women. A full-text transcript is available for each
speech and an MP3 audio file is available for most,
providing a fascinating multimedia experience. Which speech, do
you think, is ranked first in importance?
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Encouraging students, teachers and communities to incorporate
sustainability education into the classroom and beyond, the
Siemens Foundation, Discovery Communications and the
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have
partnered to conduct a comprehensive education initiative. In
September 2008, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge
will launch with a national middle school competition in which
teams of students will identify an environmental problem in
their community and will research and recommend a reproducible
environmental improvement program. The challenge will expand to
kindergarten and elementary school students in 2009 and to high
school students in 2010, complete with standards-based lesson
plans and teacher materials, student projects
and prizes to foster learning, teamwork and
problem-solving around sustainability.
Deadline: Ongoing; visit the site to sign up
for notification of when the entry period begins.
Click Here for More Information
|
More than 1,000 schools in the United States have
participated in Kids to Kids International (KTKI),
a nonprofit program that fosters communication among
children around the globe. This year, schools are
sending student-created picture books and supplies to
children in Afghanistan and China. The organization’s
Web site includes a world map so children can see
where their books will be sent. Since its founding KTKI
has successfully delivered books to children in mainland
China, war-torn Bosnia, Kosovo, military camps in Russia
and other closed societies. One goal of the program is
to create pathways of understanding in the Middle East.
For more information or to learn how to participate in
Kids to Kids International, visit the organization’s Web
site.
Click Here for More Information
Click Here to Access Interactive World
Map |
|
Plus:
Find a free, downloadable Teacher’s
Manual online. The manual takes you step by step
through the Kids to Kids International Program and
offers many suggestions about how to incorporate KTKI
into your student group.
Click Here to Download Free KTKI Manual |
|
Nortel LearniT offers free, downloadable
lesson plans (with rubrics and teacher
prep time included) that use technology, from creating
an academic digital portfolio to holding a virtual
science fair. For example, your students can make a
Claymation video. The lesson plans include links for
getting started, a detailed student assignment and a
grading guide to assess and evaluate the final product.
The site breaks down lesson plans by technology. For
instance, the Claymation project is part of the section
on video productions. The site also lists the subject
and grade level for each lesson plan.
Click Here for Free Lesson Plans
Click Here for Free Claymation Plan
|
|
This fall, Learning.com is launching a new
technology literacy assessment that will align to
the “refreshed” 2007 ISTE NETS-S standards and will add
portfolio assessment capability. The new technology
literacy assessment will contain the same testing
features as the current versions (including versions for
both elementary and middle schools): a blend of
multiple-choice questions and interactive,
performance-based items, and automatic production of
reports at the district, school, class and student
levels. In addition, the product will report student
proficiency in technology literacy in a standard
state-level report that aggregates assessment data for
students in every district that administers the test.
Click Here to Access Sample Tests and
Reports
The U.S. Department of Education has developed a
publication, Empowering Parents School Box: A Tool
to Equip Parents for the School Year, which it
is distributing to parents free of charge. The
school box contains three booklets (“What Parents
Need to Know,” “Taking a Closer Look” and “Learning
Checklists”); a brochure (Examples of Resources);
a poster (Empowered Parents Stay Involved With
School); a bookmark; and a door hanger.
The school box provides tips on working with children
from birth to high school; guidelines for taking
advantage of free tutoring opportunities; steps for
selecting a high-quality school; ways to get involved in
children’s schools; information about financial aid and
scholarships; and resources for improving learning. It
also includes success stories of schools where parent
involvement made a difference.
Click Here to Download Free Parent
Resources
The IRIS Center and the PACER Center have
created an interactive, online module to
support educators in diversifying and improving the
participation of families of special needs students
in school. In the module, a principal and staff
demonstrate how they gain information that helps them
best engage all family members in the education of their
special needs children.
Click Here to Access Free Module
In this Web quest, students discover the Olympic
games for themselves. They go back in time to the
first Olympiad in the year 776 BCE. Their task is to
discover as much as they can about the Olympic games in
ancient Greece. They try to find as many new and unique
facts as possible and then create an Olympic game of
their own.
Click Here to Access Free Web Quest
|
The State Educational Technology Directors
Association (SETDA), representing all 50
states and the District of Columbia, recently
released High-Speed Broadband Access for
All Kids: Breaking through the Barriers.
According to the report, ensuring high-speed
broadband access for all students has become a
critical national issue, especially when
considering the necessity for use of technology
in assessment, accountability, engagement and
preparing students for work and life in the 21st
century. The report identifies the key issues
facing the educational community related to
robust connectivity and recommends how states
and districts can successfully implement
high-speed broadband in their schools. The
report also provides stakeholders and
policymakers with strategies and models for
bringing this critical issue to the national and
state policy level.
Click Here to View Free Report |
|
Plus:
SETDA is making available a wealth of free
content for K–12 educators on Apple’s
iTunes U. Arizona, Florida, Maine, Michigan,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Utah, along with
school districts, museums and other educational
institutions, are now sharing resources not only
for K–12 educators in their own states, but also
for teachers around the world.
Click Here to Visit iTunes U |
NGAkids’ BRUSHster is an interactive
painting machine that creates abstract art. Students
can express themselves by painting colorful
abstractions, or they can use the program to design
their own note cards, wrapping paper or screensaver art.
The program has 40 brushes and 24 special effects, plus
there’s an AUTO button that makes BRUSHster fun for all
ages.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
20Q.net is as an online game where users
log onto the Web site and play against an artificial
intelligence (AI) foe. Players think of an animal,
vegetable, mineral or other object, and 20Q guesses what
the player is thinking in 20 questions or fewer. The
more people play, the more the game “learns.”
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Teen Ink is a national teen magazine, book
series and Web site devoted to teenage writing and art.
Written by teens for teens, Teen Ink has
published the work of more than 25,000 teens since 1989.
Students can enter the Teen Ink Interview
Contest and win an opportunity to interview a
celebrity. Contest winners are selected throughout the
year. Previous celebrity interviews include Pedro
Martinez, Colin Powell, Maya Angelou, R. L. Stine,
George Lucas, Whoopi Goldberg, John Glenn, Andrew Shue,
Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson. Upcoming celebrity
interviews include Alicia Keys, Martin Sheen and others.
Interviews are featured monthly in Teen Ink
magazine and online, where students can view previous
celebrity interviews.
Deadline: Ongoing; entries are accepted
and published throughout the year
Click Here for More Information
The World of Escher Tessellation Contest gives
students an audience for their tessellation drawing
talents. Pictures must model the symmetry artworks of M.
C. Escher and can make use of watercolor, colored
pencils, pen and ink, marker or computer-generated
mediums. Submissions must be in .jpg format. The top 50
winners will be posted in the Hall of Fame on the Escher
Web site. The top winner in each contest will receive a
prize from the online store.
Deadline: Ongoing; see Web site for
current contest
http://www.worldofescher.com/contest/
Nortel LearniT offers free,
educator-created and classroom-tested technology
tutorials for teachers and students. These short
videos (about four minutes each) are a quick way to
get up to speed in specific technology concepts. The
videos provide the basic “getting started” steps and
concrete examples, and are ideal for individual learning
or use in a classroom setting. Topics include Creating
Objects in Flash; Digital Audio; Digital Ethics;
Discovering the Internet; Imaging; Networks to Knowledge
(N2K); Online Safety; PowerPoint Presentations; Video
Production; and Web Content Creation.
Click Here to Access Free Tutorials
|
Tabula Digita has released a new version
of the educational video game Math Evolver:
Virus Origin, which teaches
pre-algebra skills. This engaging math
program has an ESRB Rating of E10+ (Everyone
10+) for mild fantasy violence and is suitable
for children in grades 6–9. The game captivates
students with exciting visuals and first-person
action adventures while incorporating key
algebraic concepts. The contemporary simulation
format features high-end 3-D graphics, sound,
animation and storylines comparable to those
found in most popular video games. But the math
game offers far more than action-packed
entertainment: the five missions embed
lessons aligned with the standards of the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
and adhere to learning research in the areas of
math and gaming.
Click Here for More Information |
|
Beginning this fall, Operation: Resilient
Planet, the new ecology curriculum unit
from The JASON Project, will transport
students to Earth’s critical ecosystems to
investigate nature’s strategies for
regeneration, learn ecosystem management and
understand their responsibility for protecting
our ecological future. Available in print and
free online editions, this curriculum unit
is designed to fit within the core curricula for
grades 5–10 and can be adapted for use at higher
or lower levels. Each unit is aligned to state
and national science standards and provides at
least five to nine weeks of classroom material
with suggested lesson plans, extensions,
interdisciplinary connections and teacher
resources for alignment, assessment and
classroom management.
Click Here to Join Free
Expedition |
|
The National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH) has announced that a second round of
applications for Picturing America will
be accepted online through October 31, 2008.
Picturing America is a free educational
resource that helps teach American history and
culture by bringing some of our nation’s
greatest works of art directly to classrooms and
libraries. At no cost, recipients will
receive a set of large, high-quality
reproductions of 40 pieces of great American art
as well as an illustrated teachers
resource book with information about the
artists and artwork and lesson ideas for all
grade levels to facilitate the use of the
reproductions in core subject areas. Delivery of
these materials is scheduled for spring 2009.
Additional educational resources are also
available through the Picturing America Web
site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site |
|
In an effort to support the work that states are
doing to help local education agencies increase
the participation and completion of students in
nontraditional CTE programs, the National
Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE)
Education Foundation, in partnership with
Career Communications, Inc., has
developed a Parent Edition of the
American Careers magazine that is
focused on nontraditional careers. The magazine
profiles nontraditional role models and includes
information about nontraditional careers,
wage-earning potential and economic
self-sufficiency. A section on getting started,
exploring careers and planning for the future is
organized around 16 career clusters and
pathways. The publication includes a 9th- to
16th-grade career planner applicable to high
school and community college populations.
Click Here for More Information |
|
The ToolKit for Hispanic Families,
provided free of charge by the U.S.
Department of Education, helps the parents
of Hispanic American children navigate the
education system. The toolkit, written in
Spanish, was developed with guidance from
more than 1,800 Hispanic parents at Parent
Information and Resource Centers across the
country. The toolkit contains brochures titled
“You and Your Elementary School-Aged Child”; “A
Challenging High School Education for All”; “You
and Your Preschool Child”; “Tips for Helping
Children Learn to Read”; “School Success for
Your Child”; “No Child Left Behind: Help for
Students and Their Families.”
Click Here to Download Free
ToolKit |
On the first or second day of school, give your students
this First-Day Quiz. The activity shows that we
all need to be aware of directions—no matter how old we
are!
Click Here to Access Quiz
|
The Journey North program engages
students in a global study of wildlife
migration and seasonal change.
Students share field observations with
classmates across North America. They track the
coming of spring through the migration patterns
of monarch butterflies, bald eagles, robins,
hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales and
other birds and mammals. Students also monitor
the budding of plants, changing sunlight and
other natural events. Since the program is based
on seasonal changes, the standards-based
lessons focus on southern migration in the
fall and winter and northern migration in the
spring and summer. For almost all the lessons,
there is a reading–writing connection.
Teachers must register to take part in the
program, but registration is free.
Click Here to Visit Web Site |
|
Lockheed Martin, the Space Foundation
and SpaceClass have launched a strategic
online education collaboration called Orion’s
Path. The interactive virtual classroom
project will form a link between teachers,
students and NASA’s human space exploration
program known as Constellation. Orion’s
Path is an interactive lesson on SpaceClass, a
Web-based education program using videos and
virtual science labs to engage students in
research being conducted for space exploration.
Lesson content meets national learning standards
for middle school grades, and use of the site is
free to teachers.
Click Here to Visit Web Site |
|
A new, cost-free Web-based
role-playing game aims to help students and
adults learn more about the culture and
languages of China. Called Zon/New Chengo,
the multiplayer game was created by Yong Zhao,
Michigan State University distinguished
professor of educational psychology and
technology. A native of a poor, remote area of
the Sichuan Province, he has become a highly
influential researcher in Chinese education. The
goal for the player is to fare well and advance
socially and economically, with players moving
from “tourists” to “residents” and finally to
“citizens” of modern China. At the different
stages, players encounter quests, have access to
learning materials—including live Chinese
tutors—and are able to organize and participate
in social activities.
Click Here to Visit Web Site |
|
As more Americans turn their attention to the
race for the White House, an online learning
game lets players call the political shots in
presidential campaigning. The 2008
eLECTIONS: Your Adventure in Politics game
was recently released by Cable in the
Classroom (CIC). This free 3-D,
high-speed broadband adventure uses interactive
tools, allowing children and adults to
experience a self-directed run for the U.S.
Presidency. The game is designed to educate
people about the political process and the power
of one vote.
Click Here to Start Your Campaign
Journey |
|
Information currently being processed in our
minds is temporarily stored in what cognitive
psychologists refer to as short-term memory. It
is theorized that on average humans can store up
to seven items in their short-term memory. But
by grouping pieces of information together, we
can greatly increase our memory’s capacity. Play
this game from National Geographic
to test the capacity of your memory.
Click Here to Play Game |
|
Famous
People, Fabulous Teachers Posters celebrating the
campaign "Behind every famous person is a fabulous teacher" are
available free, while supplies last. Celebrities featured
in the campaign include rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, actress
America Ferrara and actor Tony Shalhoub. To view celebs
with their reachers, log on to
www.teacherscount.org/campaign . To receive a poster
free while supplies last, send an email to
info@teacherscount.org
.
Can you Access me Now? Verizon Foundation has updagted
and redesigned
www.thinkfinity.org. Through this website teachers
receive quick, easy access to more than 55,000 free educational
resources all aligned to national standards and created by
educational leaders such as the Smithsonian. The
redesigned website includes meeting individual state standards,
including New York.
Scholastic
Printables™ offers all of your favorite teaching resources
in one place! With more than 10,000 reproducibles, clip art
images, and Leveled Learning Packs to choose from, you are well
on your way to enhancing your classroom instruction activities
and reaching every student. Visit
Scholastic Printables™ to learn more.
Students can save the planet Helios from ecological disaster and
SmogGobs in
PowerUp, a free
online game that draws an
emotional connection to ecological awareness. The
three-dimensional game, from IBM’s
TryScience initiative, is
designed to engage students in learning about engineering and
energy while trying to supply solar, wind and water power before
an ecological disaster hits.
PowerUp offers classroom
lesson plans that cover energy transformation, as well as
an interactive module so
students learn about the technologies required to build virtual
worlds.
Click Here to Download Free Game
RedZeeTM is a free kid-friendly Web
browser intended to assure parents of early readers that
their little one’s search for, say, a unicorn image brings up
only G-rated sites. Results are presented like a fan with images
of each screen, so children can scroll through and click on the
site that offers the closest match.
Click Here to Access Free RedZee Browser
Plus: Another new kid-friendly technology is the
ZAC browser. ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children)
is developed specifically for children with autism and
autism-spectrum disorders. It allows the child to interact
with and play the many games and activities, as well as
experience independence using it. ZAC also offers a forum
for teachers, parents and caretakers to share resources.
Click Here to Access Free ZAC Browser
Google Maps has launched
a new feature that shows photos,
videos and
maps that people have
created about different locations around the world. After typing
in a city or address, you’ll find a new “Explore
this area” link near the top left. Clicking on that link
brings up thumbnails of photos and videos with links to more of
each, as well as custom maps for that location.
Click Here for More Information
Exploring the Real Thing Web site supports the
National Park Service’s strategic plan by providing teachers
with information on curriculum-based programs and materials
offered by national parks in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
The Find a Program function of the Web site includes a
description of each park, as well as detailed information about
specific education programs offered by each park. The
Resources section of the site allows you to search for
curriculum-based programs related to a specific park. You
can also search for resources related to a particular subject
area (History/Social Science; English Language Arts; Math;
Creative and Visual Arts; Science/Technology) or of a
particular type (Books; Web Sites; Magazines; Journals;
Photos).
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Plus: Tap into the environmental resources in
this educational reading list compiled by the National
Park Service.
Click Here to Access Free Reading List
Grant-Writing Tips and
Resources
The U.S. Department of Education’s Forecast of Funding
lists virtually
all programs and competitions
under which the Department of Education
has invited or expects to invite applications for new awards for
fiscal year
2008 and provides actual or estimated deadline dates for the
transmittal
of applications under these programs. The lists are in the form
of charts
organized according to the department’s principal program
offices. Also
included are previously announced programs and competitions as
well as
those planned for announcement at a later date.
Web:
http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html
Plus: Join the EDInfo mailing list
and receive one to two emails a week
describing news and funding opportunities as well as teaching
and learning
resources from the federal government.
Web:
http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/edinfo/index.html
Microsoft’s
Imagine Cup encourages
young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their
creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference
in the world. Open to students around the world, the Imagine
competition spans a year, beginning with local, regional and
online contests whose winners go on to attend the global finals
held in a different location every year. Students compete in
nine categories, known as invitationals, which include
Software Design,
Embedded Development,
Game Development,
Short Film,
Photography,
Interface Design,
Information Technology
(IT), Algorithm and
Project Hoshimi Programming
Battle. Special award challenges were also offered in
2008, which enable students to focus on developing skills in a
specific technology: The Software Design Windows Live Award, the
Software Design Interoperability Award and the Interface Design
Accessible Technology Award.
Deadline: Sign up online to get information on
the upcoming 2009 competition.
Click Here for More Information
Great Ideas for Better Book Reports
from EducationWorld.com
Tired of the same
old, same old formats for book reports? Here are twenty
great ideas to help add spice to the book-report life!
http://www.nea.org/lessons/2003/tt030707.html
This new site from Consumers Union evaluates approximately 3,000
hospitals nationwide. View graphs that rate the intensity of care
provided by the facilities from the most conservative treatment to the
most aggressive treatment, including time spent in the hospital, number
of physician visits and average out-of-pocket costs for nine serious
medical conditions, including cancer and heart failure, treated during
the last two years of life.
www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-and-hospitals/hospital-home.htm
Take advantage of “gardening
moments” with your kids every week in your own backyard
and front yard and in the garage and at the windowsill and in
the basement ... Through the seasons, there are big
projects and little
opportunities for gardening
with kids that can fit seamlessly into your life. The
National Gardening Association’s
free downloadable primer
will help you learn to recognize those opportunities and turn
your kids’ questions into fun discoveries.
Click Here to Access Free Gardening Resource
If you think your brain and memory are dulling down,
head to SharpBrain’s
teasers and
challenge yourself. This
free site offers
50 fun ways to give your brain an entertaining workout.
And as a bonus, you can read all about what actually
makes your brain work.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
|
Exploratorium Online
features dozens of
online learning activities and
exhibits. Make a
mold terrarium, pinhole projector, telescope or hair
hygrometer. Explore the brain, biodiversity, Antarctica,
DNA, frogs, structures or illusions. Learn about
magnetism, electricity, motors, eyeballs, perception,
Mars, chocolate, seasonings or the science of cooking,
sports and music. Search more than 3,000
photos and
movies and watch
Webcasts of
science demonstrations
by teachers.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
|
MakeBeliefsComix
is an online educational
comic generator for all ages. You can use it to
help children and adults share their ideas or as a
therapy tool to help the deaf and the autistic
communicate. You can also use it as a resource to
encourage writing skills and to practice vocabulary or
storytelling skills. The comic strip comes together at
this site, where children choose a human or animal
character, pick a mood and then fill in a talk or
thought balloon (in
English or
Spanish).
Click Here to Visit Web Site
|
A new Web site, The
Dr. Seuss Story
Maker, leads students through several steps
to create a dialogue between two Dr. Seuss
characters. This particular aspect of the site could
be helpful for English language learners in
practicing English. In addition, the site includes a
host of other fun activities.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
How does a comic strip upgrade to Web 2.0? Scott
Adams and United Media are now inviting fans to the
Dilbert site for a series of new interactive
features. The three-pronged approach, called “mashups,”
gives readers the ability to
create their own
versions of Dilbert
strips. The first, known as “punch line,”
allows readers to write their own ending to an
original Dilbert
comic, adding new words to the drawing for the last
frame of the strip. A second feature, coming in May,
will allow readers to add their own words to an
entire strip. And a third feature, also coming in
May, will allow fans to write the dialogue for a
single panel of a
Dilbert strip and then share it with others,
who will then write for the remaining panels. (Adams
himself is expected to randomly write dialogue for
strips.) The site will also offer access to
animated versions
of existing Dilbert
strips, as well as
free access to the
Dilbert
archives (for
now just back to 2001, and later, to the cartoon’s
entire history).
Click Here to Visit Web Site
The new
Newseum, which opened in Washington,
D.C., in April, traces the development of
news over time and shows how technological
advances—from line art in newspapers to TV
helicopters to the Internet—have changed the
way news is delivered and presented.
Visitors to the Newseum’s Web site can take
a cool 3-D
tour of the new museum, view more
than 500 front pages of
newspapers
from around the world and play the
online
trivia game NewsMania.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
|
|
Recently the
Library
of Congress opened a new exhibit,
called the
Library
of Congress Experience, at its
historic Thomas Jefferson Building in
Washington, D.C.—and online at a new Web
site,
MyLOC.gov. Visitors to the
exhibit are able to “flip” through books
from Thomas Jefferson’s vast library,
learn about the ornate artwork that
adorns the Library’s Great Hall and view
how founding documents, such as the
Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution, morphed from draft to
draft.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
|
|
Updated May 2008
The Most Terrifying Video You'll
Ever See
Oregon science teacher Greg Craven
became an Internet sensation when his YouTube video on climate
change—"The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See"—went viral last
summer.
Millions viewed it and thousands
left comments, prompting Craven to spend his entire summer on part
two. The result, "How It All Ends," was what Craven calls his
"Magnum Opus and midlife crisis and nervous breakdown."
"Global climate change is one of the
driving forces of my teaching career," says Craven. And now, with a
global classroom, he's sounding the alarm to millions of people
around the world.
"It's amazing how one schmo can post
a video, and days later five million people can watch it—it starts
with a few, and grows exponentially in a nonlinear way," Craven
says. "Climate change shares that characteristic. When you cross a
tipping point, it causes extreme agitation."
Ready for a good scare?
www.nea.org/neatoday/0805/terrifyingvideo.html
Abe's Big
Makeover
The redesigned
$5 is the latest addition to the public education program offered
online through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Federal
Reserve Board. Go to
www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney for free educational materials for
parents, teachers and students. Materials, which have been
designed to educate audiences about the bills, include interactive
animations of each bill and its security features as well as
educational posters on the new color of money.
The Subject
was Bullies
The National
Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center has complied several
online resources to help parents become strong partners in the fight
against school bullying. Included on the site is information
on bullying warning signs, facts about the scope of the problem,
specific tips for parents whose children are either being bullied or
are bullying others. The information is available at
www.safeyouth.org. Select "Bullying" from the list of
topics.
Students can
sharpen their reading skills over the summer-while helping less
fortunate children do the same-by participating in Scholastic's
Summer Reading Buzz. At the site,
www.scholastic.com/buzz
, students can sign up and start a reading log. For every 4
books a child reads and logs online, Scholastic will donate a book
to Room to Read, a growing nonprofit organization that establishes
libraries and schools in underprivileged communities in the
developing world. Other activities include summer reading
motivation, author Q&A, e-cards and "Buzz Boards" where kids can
connect and talk about the books they are reading.
Updated April 2008
Council brings speakers to school
The New York Council for
the Humanities Speakers in the Schools program offers free lectures
by leading scholars on a wide variety of humanities subjects for
high school students across New York State. The council covers
the speaker's honorarium and travel expenses. Visit
www.nyhumanities.org
for more info.
Sign up at The
Big Deal Book Web site for
hELLo!, a
free
monthly ELL e-newsletter that
includes information about new grants, upcoming contests, the latest
educational research and a wealth of information on interactive
print and online resources for students, teachers, librarians,
principals and others involved in the education of English language
learners.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Newsletter
Rand McNally Classroom
contains more than 1,800 reference, special topic and history maps
that can be printed, viewed and saved. The site’s new
interactive history maps and
its numerous interactive games
and activities will engage
your students, while the lesson
plans and assessments
will help you implement all the site has to offer. A
correlation search tool shows
you how the site’s content aligns with your state standards and how
to integrate the site’s features across the curriculum in reading,
math, science and social studies. Special features include weekly
current events articles and discussion questions, as well as daily
“Where in the World?” photo features.
In addition, “Traveling Teddies”
photos and postcards
describe places in the world where a traveling bear has visited, and
“Ask the Geography Sleuths”
gives students the opportunity to submit their geography questions
to Rand McNally’s resident experts. Rand McNally Classroom is a 2008
CODIE Award finalist.
Click Here for More Information and Free Trial
A set of illustrated stories from
MyYoungChild.org attempts to address issues (sharing, dealing
with bullies, respecting others and taking responsibility for
actions) that children face every day. The
free
online stories are intended
to be an enjoyable and playful tool that can be used to teach social
values. Accompanying each story are
discussion questions and
activities as well as parent tips designed to complement the
story’s message and reinforce the impact. The nine stories include
“Rosa the Rabbit Learns to Be Fair,” “Ramon Sticks Up for Himself”
and “Gilbert the Goat Learns Respect.”
Click Here to Access Free Online Stories
Updated March 2008
Can-Do Children
CVS Caremark and Scholastic
have partnered to launch the All Kids Can Learn Program, a $25
million commitment to support children with disabilities. The
centerpiece of the program is the All Kids Can Learn Teacher's
Guide. There are also companion take home activities.
Teachers can request a copy of the curriculum by sending an email to
communitymailbox@cvs.com
.
NEXT STOP:
DECISION 2008 Middle
and high school teachers and their
students can get a unique view of the
upcoming political season by hopping
aboard C-SPAN's Campaign 2008 Road to
the White House tour bus.
This
state-of-the-art TV production facility
gives students and teachers in grades
6-12 a firsthand look at how political
programming is produced for the 2008
elections. The bus also reaches out to
first-time voters and university
students nationwide as part of C-SPAN's
ongoing efforts to boost interest and
involvement in the political process.
Additionally, the rolling studio serves
as a mobile classroom for educator
seminars at schools and at social
studies conferences. Visit
www.Campaign2008Bus.org to request a
visit or to check out the bus schedule.
Other
C-SPAN resources also are just a click
away.
Visit
www.C-SpanClassroom.org for an
expanded lineup of discussion questions,
downloadable video clips and other
materials to help make civics lessons
sparkle during the 2008 presidential
campaign. Materials are updated each
week with new downloadable video clips
of candidate speeches, political rallies
and other events.
Staying Safe in Cyberspace
"PointSmart. ClickSafe." is a new
multimedia initiative coordinated by the
National Cable Telecommunications
Association (NCTA) and Cable in the
Classroom (CIC) to help families and
children make appropriate choices and
stay safe while using the Internet. The
cornerstone of the effort,
www.PointSmartClickSafe.org,
provides a variety of
materials—including an online
"guidebook" and video vignettes—offering
simple instructions, tips, and scenarios
that can help parents and caregivers
teach children to make good choices
about Internet use. Educators may also
find much of the site's information
helpful.
Calling all space cadets
Never got to go to space camp? You could
be one of the 200 educators from around
the world who participate in the
Honeywell Education at Space Academy
programs. Applicants must submit a
500-word essay describing the tools and
techniques they use to motivate students
to study science-related fields and
purse technology-related careers.
During a free, five-day trip to the U.S.
Space and Rocket Center at Huntsville,
Ala., scholarship winners undergo
astronaut-training exercises, including
a high-performance jet simulation,
scenario-based space missions, and land
and water survival training. To
apply, log on to
www.honeywell.com/hhs .
Becoming Water-wise
Engaging children at an early
age is the key to developing a foundation of water-wise habits.
The free Explorations Into Water curriculum lets students in grades
3-6 explore the critical role water plays by linking abstract ideas
and scientific concepts through hands on outdoor activities and
classroom demonstrations. The curriculum can be downloaded at
www.rainbird.com/iuow/education.htm .
Websites for Kids, Teens and Adults-Learning about Money
www.choosetosave.org/resources click on "Kids-Learning about
money for links to activities for kids 2 and up, including AG
Edwards' "Big Money Adventure" (featuring counting games and a story
for youngsters), and "Savings Quest"(kids build a character, pick a
job, and save toward a purchase). Other sires let kids explore
imaginary towns and planets, learning about money as they go.
Visit www.orangekids.com ,
www.moneyopolis.org ,
www.frbsf.org/education/fedville .
For teens, the
National Endowment for Financial Education's High School Financial
Planning site,
http://hsfpp.nefe.org , offers a mix of serious learning units
student articles, and interactive games. It's Teen Resource
Bureau, www.ntrbonline.org ,
grabs teens with a music loaded home page and features including
"Ask Madam Moolah" and "Financial Fun".
For Parents and
Young Adults,
www.bankrate.com financial literacy series (Under
spotlight) offers information for everything from budgeting to
taxes, plus real-people money makeovers, and celebrity Q&As.
www.mymoney.gov is a wealth of
information and resources . Take the "Money 20 Interactive
Quiz" (under features). Click on financial planning to link to
"Building Wealth", a tutorial on handling money like an adult.
AS UP THEY GREW
The AFT has offered any number of
giveaways over the years, but you'd be hard-pressed to name one more popular
than the "Grow Smart from the Start!" wall chart.
The
fun, colorful chart is perfect for any
early childhood classroom—or even a
family room or bedroom. Printed in
English on one side and Spanish on the
reverse, the chart features letters of
the alphabet and common words associated
with each letter. There's even a handy
ruled border that children can be
measured against to see how much they've
grown. The chart also offers several
excellent resources for education
providers to help guide alphabet fun and
practice. To order, e-mail Teresa
Valcarce at
tvalcarc@aft.org and provide your
name, address and local union. Supplies
are limited.
POVERTY ABCs
The ABCs of Domestic Poverty is a free
school curriculum for grades 3 and
higher that helps teachers tackle the
topic in history, math, economics,
language and creative arts classrooms.
Developed through the Southern Poverty
Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance"
program, the new lesson plans are
available at
www.tolerance.org. At a time when
one in five students lives in poverty,
the materials aim to treat the subject
in both a meaningful and sensitive way
that shuns stereotypes.
GOTTA HAVE HEART
February is American Heart Month, and
the American Heart Association offers a
variety of information online for
parents and kids to help promote heart
health. Visit
www.americanheart.org for tips on
how to curb behaviors associated with
heart disease, advice on nutrition
(including strategies for dealing with
picky eaters) and much more. Be sure to
check out HeartPower! Online, the AHA's
free, curriculum-based program, which is
filled with downloadable information for
teaching about the heart and how to keep
it healthy for a lifetime.
Updated January 2008
ORDER IN THE CLASSROOM
Let's be honest. Maintaining discipline is one of the biggest
challenges educators face. But the good news is, we can help. Check
out these NEA resources full of practical tips and tools to get your
classroom in order.
24/7 Let's Go! for Healthy Students
Thousands of children around the
state are marching toward good health through NYSUT's 24/7 Let's Go!
healthy lifestyles program. The kit gives teachers ideas in
designing lessons in healthy eating and exercise. It was
developed by NYSUT's Health Care Professional Council. For
details, see www.nysut.org .
Kits are free to members and can be ordered by specifying the
quantity of kits that you require-each student gets a kit!
Send an email to
orders@nysutmail.org to request your kits, or call (800)342-9810
ext 6260.
Grant Information:
www.neafoundation.org/grants.htm NEA annually awards about $2.3
million in grants. Get deadlines and samples grant packages
here.
http://e-grants.ed.gov/eghome.asp The fed's site requires
registration, but it's free and simple, and it includes a helpful,
personalized system for tracking your application package.
www.fundsnetservices.com/searchresult.php?sbcat_id=6 a vast
collection of links to public and corporate grants for education
programs.
www.k12grants.org/newsletter.htm A helpful resource for grant
novices. The bimonthly e-newsletter is free.
www.learningis4everyone.org/content/category/1/47/2/ A roundup
of grants from such groups as Nickelodeon television netwoek, Best
Buy and the US Senate.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/business/grants.html A
listing of sites to help you find grants for everything from math
and science to reading and libraries.
www.teachers.net/archive/grants.html A no frills site, but it
clearly lays out the basics for writing each portion of a grant.
Extra goodies include a sample cover letter and an exhaustive list
of resources.
Check out
www.kidshealth.org for a
health related website designed specifically for educators of grades
PreK-12. It includes more than 100 teachers guides,
activities, reproducible handouts and quizzes, all aligned to the
national health education standards.
Student Homework
Responsibility
From S. Schiffelbein, a fourth grade teacher at Alta Brown
Elementary School in Garden City, Kansas:
"To help students be responsible for their homework, I devised a
letter to the parents on which the students must fill in the blanks.
The first paragraph starts, ‘I am writing this letter to you because
I chose not to do my homework. I was supposed to turn in my
assignment on…’ The second paragraph starts, ’I chose not to do it
because...’ The last paragraph states, ‘I need to bring my completed
homework tomorrow and this note that has been signed by you. I also
have to miss one recess per day that I don’t return the homework and
this signed letter.’ The student, teacher and parent signs and dates
the letter, and I make a copy. I put the copy in the student’s file
as documentation. If the letter does not get returned, the parents
are called." (neatoday)
MY DEBT, MY LIFE
A new NEA Today story shows how educators are struggling with
student loan debt of unprecedented proportions -- and why it
matters, even if your college days (and bills) are a thing of the
past. Share your own student loan story, give feedback on our
report, or respond to what readers are saying about it in our
NEA forum.
DROPOUT
PREVENTION: KEEPING IT REAL
From Massachusetts to Hawaii, schools are developing programs that
emphasize real-world skills in order to reach students who might
otherwise fall through the cracks.
TEACHING
STUDY SKILLS: IDEAS THAT WORK
Faced with poor student performance, teachers often recognize that
the root of the problem lies not in the material or in how it is
taught, but in how students choose to study it. Discover how
teachers in the trenches are introducing students to better ways of
studying effectively.
MLK DAY RESOURCES
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is less than two weeks away. Our
collection of curriculum resources will help students put in
perspective Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life, his impact on the Civil
Rights Movement, and his significance to American culture and
history.
Participate in an Internet-based Fundraising Program
Knowledge Adventure has announced the Easy School
Fundraising Program, which allows schools to earn cash, while
benefiting parents and friends who may want to purchase at-home
learning tools for their children. When schools register for
Knowledge Adventure’s Internet-based fundraising program, they will
receive a customizable letter to send home with their students,
announcing the school’s participation. Then any parent, relative,
family friend or community member can go to the Knowledge Adventure
Web site, select the school and purchase award-winning software
titles. For any order of $25 or more, 25 percent of the purchase
price will automatically be sent to the school, and the software
will be delivered straight to the purchaser’s doorstep. Plus, for
every $1,000 a school earns through the fundraising program,
Knowledge Adventure will donate $500 in educational software for use
in the classroom. There are no time limits or caps on what a school
may earn. For complete details, email
fundraising@adventure.com
or call (800) 871-2969 ext. 9.
Deadline: Ongoing
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Design Your
Own Flag
You’re one in 7 billion. Create a flag that conveys your uniqueness.
Using the digital art on this site, you can make your own
flag. First let your mouse wander over the flags that others have
created on this site. Read about the dreams reflected in their flag
designs. Then design your own flag by combining elements of the flag
from your home country, the flag from another country that has
affected you and the flag of a country to which you’ve dreamed of
going. Be sure to check out the meaning of colors and shapes in
different countries before you create your flag.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Explore the World of Science
San Francisco’s Exploratorium was one of the first science
museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. The site features
dozens of online learning activities and exhibits.
Students can make a mold terrarium, pinhole projector, telescope or
hair hygrometer. They can explore the brain, biodiversity,
Antarctica, DNA, frogs, structures or illusions. They can learn
about magnetism, electricity, motors, eyeballs, perception, Mars,
chocolate, seasonings or the science of cooking, sports and music.
And they can search more than 3,000 photos and movies and
watch Webcasts of science demonstrations by teachers.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Find Out
About the Mathematics Behind Polls
In Cast Your Vote!, students follow a year in a fictitious
election campaign for an inside look at the mathematics behind
the polls and the news they hear everyday.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Updated December 2007
Create Online Quizzes
ProProfs.com has launched ProProfs Quiz School, a
free learning tool that enables educators to utilize the power
of the Internet to create online quizzes and practice
tests for their students. The site also provides a sizable
free quiz library, where teachers can browse through the
categories or simply search to find quizzes of interest. Teachers
can also share quizzes with their colleagues or post quizzes on
their class Web page.
Click Here for Free Quiz Tool
Honor Everyday Heroes
The National World War II Museum
honors the many heroes of World War II by celebrating their deeds
and the values that they carried with them into the struggle. But we
don’t need to have a war to have heroes. To encourage students to
seek positive role models in their own community and show
appreciation to those people who make a difference in their lives,
the museum invites youth, aged 18 or younger, to honor their
Everyday Hero by submitting his or her name to the museum’s
Everyday Heroes Certificate Program.
After students fill out an online form, the museum will mail their
Everyday Hero a personalized certificate along with a letter
explaining the program.
Deadline: Ongoing
Click Here for More Information and Online Form
Increase Sensitivity to and Understanding of Islam
Do your students have questions about Islam? Here’s a place to go
for answers. The Islam Project is a multimedia education and
community engagement effort rooted in two widely praised PBS
documentaries, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet and
Muslims. The project’s goal is to encourage informed discussion
of Islam and its role in the world of the 21st century. Central to
the project is an educators’ Web site. Created by teachers for
teachers, the site offers a spectrum of materials, including
original lesson plans and maps, essays, annotated scripts of the PBS
films, biographies, First Amendment guidelines for presenting
religion in the classroom and tools that will help teachers create
their own lesson plans on Islam or evaluate the lesson plans of
others.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Find Federal Funds
The U.S. Department of Education’s Forecast of Funding
lists virtually all programs and competitions under which the
department has invited or expects to invite applications for new
awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 and provides actual or estimated
deadline dates for the transmittal of applications under these
programs. The lists are in the form of charts, organized according
to the department’s principal program offices. The charts include
previously announced programs and competitions as well as those
planned for announcement at a later date.
Click Here for More Information
Find Fun Facts About the U.S. Presidents
Your students probably know some basic trivia about our U.S.
presidents, but do they know which president was drafted by the
Green Bay Packers? Which president had a cow that was kept on the
White House lawn? Challenge students’ knowledge of these fun facts
and more with the U.S. Presidents’ Day Quiz on Answers.com.
Click Here to Access Quiz
Bring History Alive
History buffs! Listen to American History recordings of P. T.
Barnum in his first recorded commercial; Teddy Roosevelt during his
1912 presidential campaign; the news of the explosion of the
Hindenburg; a montage of World War II radio clips; JFK’s
Inaugural Address; Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech—and
much more.
Click Here to Listen to Recordings
Plus:
Try the free interactive history trivia games with your
students. There are four levels, ranging from upper elementary to high
school. Students must first register to participate.
Click Here to Access Games
Join the Geography Challenge
The global classroom comes to life at this interactive site, where
more than a million students have participated in the world’s
largest online geography contest in which classroom
groups compete with other school teams worldwide. To join the
Geography Challenge, students simply select which country they
will be representing and take the quiz, which consists of trying to
locate ten randomly selected countries on a map of the world. The
quiz is different every time it’s accessed.
Deadline: Ongoing
Click Here for More Information
Plus:
To extend students’ experience, you can purchase the Global
Puzzle, a challenging 600-piece mindbender in which each piece
is shaped like a country.
FEDERAL PROGRAMS-Loan Forgiveness Programs
The U.S. Department of Education has a variety of federal
loan forgiveness programs:
-
Stafford loan
recipients who received the loan after October 1, 1998, and have
taught for five years in a low-income school may be eligible to
have up to $5,000 of their loan cancelled.
-
Stafford or PLUS
loan recipients may have their loans deferred if they are
teaching full-time in a federally designated teacher shortage
area for a minimum of three years.
-
Recipients of
Perkins loans prior to June 23, 1992, may receive partial
cancellation of their loan for service as a full-time teacher at
a low-income school or in certain subject areas, on or after
October 7, 1998.
-
Recipients of Paul
Douglas Teacher Scholarships (formerly the Congressional Teacher
Scholarship Program), in or before 1995-96 may be eligible for
reduced service obligations if you are teaching in a federally
approved teacher shortage area.
Celebrate the
New Year in Different Languages
From Bengali to Zulu . . . say “Happy New Year” in 26 different
languages and start 2008 off with an International New Year
Celebration in your classroom.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Immerse Kids in
the News
Check out the KidsPost section of The Washington Post
Web site, offering articles, games and surveys, all designed
especially for young readers. Sections include When I Grow Up, I
Want to . . . (profiles of people with interesting jobs), My Name Is
. . . (children and families from all over the world), History of
Washington (illustrated story of the Washington area from 1600 until
now) and Web Resources (cool sites and games).
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Inspire Future Scientists
A bone detective, space geologist and robot designer, among others,
inspire future scientists at I WAS Wondering . . . a curious look
at Women’s Adventures in Science. Created by the National
Academy of Sciences, the Web site encourages young people,
especially girls, to pursue an interest in science. Lia, the teenage
cartoon character who hosts the site, guides visitors through
interactive resources and activities designed for middle school
students. The site also includes science labs, games and a
parent–teacher guide. It is the companion Web site to the
Women’s Adventures in Science book series. The Web site and
book series showcase the accomplishments of contemporary women in
science and highlight the careers of some of today’s most prominent
scientists.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Design a Planet
Astro-Venture is an educational, interactive, multimedia Web
environment highlighting NASA careers and astrobiology research in
the areas of Astronomy, Geology, Biology and Atmospheric Science.
Students in grades 5–8 are transported to the future where they
role-play NASA occupations and use scientific inquiry as they search
for and build a planet with the necessary characteristics for human
habitation. Supporting activities include chats with real NASA
scientists, online collaborations, classroom lessons, student
publishing area, and occupation fact sheets and trading cards.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Connect with the Troops
In July 2006, Connect And Join, a family support and
education-service publishing company, held a nationwide scrapbook
initiative to have schoolchildren create the World’s Largest,
and Greatest, Scrapbook in support of the troops. Connect
And Join has received thousands of scrapbook pages from schools
across the country to date and is extending the project to attempt a
goal of 120,000 pages! The Connect with the Troops portal
offers free tools that allow teachers, classrooms or students
to communicate with and express support for U.S. troops or
individual soldiers, while tying patriotism into the curriculum. The
tools include scrapbooking instructions as well as lesson
plans and suggestions on how teachers can make an archival
activity into a standards-aligned learning experience for students.
Lesson plans include a virtual visit to the Library of Congress, A
Road Trip visiting our nation’s monuments, the United States Flag, a
Hometown Brochure activity and more.
Click Here to Access Free Tools
Motivate Children to
Explore the World
World Book Kids,
an online environment for young students, infuses creativity and
wonder in learning. The site includes content from the
World Book
Student Discovery Encyclopedia, as well as dozens of
learning activities and
games. Subscribers to
World Book Kids receive, at
no extra charge, the
World Book Online Reference Center,
which includes all of the articles from the
World Book
Encyclopedia, plus thousands more, as well as tens of
thousands of pictures, maps, videos and animations, and sounds; the
World Book Atlas,
which contains approximately 750 maps; and the
World Book
Dictionary, which contains approximately 250,000 entries.
Click below to take a complimentary tour of
World Book Kids.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Find Opportunities for
Making a Difference
If you’d like to make a difference,
Idealist.org will help you find the best option for you. The
site lists more than 10,000
volunteer opportunities, which you can search by location,
dates you would like to serve, skills and type of service (arts,
children, disaster relief, race, wildlife and so on). Sign up for
My Idealist, and you’ll be
able to get email updates about nonprofit opportunities, join
discussion groups and create a profile so that organizations can
find you. Idealist.org has a wealth of other information on
internships, careers, job fairs and events, and fundraising, plus
resources and tips for volunteers.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Plus: Check out the
section for kids and teens
who are curious, optimistic, seeking help or looking to help others.
Under For Teachers, you’ll find
free
online resources created to
help you introduce issues such as environmental conservation, human
rights and artistic expression to your students.
Click Here to Visit Web Section
Updated October 06
Experience the Meaning of the Pledge of
Allegiance
Listen to the words spoken by
the late Red Skelton on his television program as he
relates the story of his teacher, Mr. Laswell, who felt that his
students had come to think of the Pledge of Allegiance as merely
something to recite in class each day. Now, more than ever,
consider the meaning of these words.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Don’t wait for Black History
Month in February to order Freedom’s
Song, a free documentary movie on
African American history from sponsor
Farmers Insurance. The award-winning film
features eyewitness accounts
of ten stories not well covered in American history textbooks.
In addition
to the DVD, teachers receive free lesson plans and a
guide. Plus, a newly
enhanced companion Web site boasts timelines, multimedia clips,
audio
recordings and much more.
Web:
http://www.freedomssong.net/
At MyPyramid.gov, find free
posters, a free coloring-book page
and a
free food-choice worksheet for K–6
students. These are just a few of the
materials available to teachers and parents that explain the new
food guidelines
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Web:
http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/index.html
Updated Sept 06
COOL CITE Dealing with online sources in research papers
can be tricky, but
answers.com has developed a number of tools and
resources to help students tackle the chore. The site offers a
downloadable pdf poster explaining the basics of online citations,
along with lesson plan tools. And information found through
answers.com can include a fully formatted citation in
MLA, Chicago or APA styles.
DEPRESSION INFO The Consumer Reports Medical Guide, is
providing free information on its home page on depression in
children. Nonsubscribers can access reports on risk factors and
prevalence in different age, gender and cultural groups. Also
available is an easy-to-read chart differentiating depression in
children from other mental health conditions with similar symptoms.
The Web site is located at
www.consumerreportsmedicalguide.org.
HUMANITARIAN VOICE The
Harry Chapin Foundation offers school grants of up to $10,000 for
education programs promoting better understanding of the problems of
disadvantaged people. Grants focus on projects that foster community
outreach, arts in education, agricultural programs and environmental
initiatives. For details visit
http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/harrychapin.
Looking for ways to help the ELL's
in your class? Check out
www.colorincolorado.org
for resources and lesson ideas.
Also included are tips for parents.
This is a free resource to help
PreK-3 educators of English language
learners, created by the American
Federation of Teachers and the
Reading Rockets project of public
broadcasting station WETA.
Getting
fit can be a three-ring circus
The
Greatest Show on Earth wants to turn
getting fit into a three-ring circus. In
September, Ringling Bros. and Barnum &
Bailey unveiled CircusFit, a program
designed to fight childhood obesity with
what it calls the “FUNdamentals of
fitness.”
The
program provides teachers and students
with creative ways for integrating
physical fitness and daily activity into
the classroom. It includes a curriculum
designed for kids in grades 2- 5 that
features 21 interactive lesson plans.
“The inspiring Ringling Bros. performers
are in peak physical condition and
perfect role models to encourage and
teach America’s youth fun-filled ways to
stay fit and active,” says Kenneth Feld,
chairman of Ringling Bros. and Barnum &
Bailey.
Ringling Bros. has joined forces with
the President’s Council on Physical
Fitness and Sports to promote CircusFit
and physical activity nationwide.
Schools can participate in
CircusFit as part of their involvement
in the annual President’s Challenge. For
lesson plans, visit
www.CircusFit.com.
The National Hurricane Center
offers a variety of online resources to help students understand the
science at work behind hurricanes. Many of these materials are
complied in the Hurricane's Preparedness Week section of the
center's website. Concepts such as storm surges, the hurricane
scale and naming conventions for hurricanes are included.
Check it out at
www.nhc.noaa.gov .
Look it Up!
www.thefreedictionary.com is a free website that combines a
dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus into one simple search.
Students can find definitions and information about subjects they
research for school or are interested in learning about. This site
offers standard definitions in addition to pictures, synonyms,
antonyms, explanations and related words.
CNN Offers Student News
CNN Student News, the cable
network's daily news program for middle and high school students,
includes a section for educators. There is also a section,
available Monday through Thursday, which offers recall and critical
thinking questions associated with the day's top news stories.
On Fridays, it offers a news quiz that will require quick recall
from a week's worth of news. Check it out at
www.cnn.com/education .
DAYS OF INFAMY
More
than 60 years ago, the American Folklife
Center mounted an effort to document the
pulse of the nation in the days
following the 1941 attack on Pearl
Harbor. That project has been duplicated
in “The September 11, 2001, Documentary
Project,” an attempt to capture the
eyewitness accounts, reactions and
opinions of Americans and others in the
months after the terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Center, Pentagon and
United Airlines Flight 93. The day after
the attacks, the center called upon the
nation’s folklorists and ethnographers
to collect, record and document
America’s reaction. A sample of the
resulting material is featured in the
American Memory section of the Library
of Congress,
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/911_archive/911about.html
Money Activities
Download free money activities
from the US Mint for grades K-12. Activities include the
Westward Journey Nickel Series and the 50 State Quarters Program.
Visit them at www.usmint.gov/kids
Adopt a Pilot Program
Southwest Airlines will team your
grade 5-7 class with a pilot and lets them track his/her journey.
You will receive free curriculum materials for the 4 week program
which teaches about math, science, geography, history, aviation and
more. Registration begins in September. An online
program also allows students to communicate with a pilot via email.
For more info visit
http://www.southwest.com/programs_services/adopt/
or email adoptapilot@wnco.com .
The
Teaching Opportunity Scholarship:
This program is supported by the City University of New York (CUNY)
and the New York City Department of Education. It provides incentive
scholarships and special training to highly qualified college
graduates pursuing a career in teaching. The program provides a
fully paid master's degree to individuals with a major or an
equivalent level of coursework in Spanish, mathematics or science,
including biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, or related
analytical fields (e.g., engineering). In addition, candidates who
already hold a teaching certificate and are interested in pursuing a
career as a literacy teacher may apply. Source: http://www.top.cuny.edu/
Websites for animal lovers:
Wildlife facts &
photos from the National Wildlife Federation at
http://www.nwf.org/
Learning about
responsible pet ownership is easy with book recommendations, games
and activities at http://www.aspca.org/
Take a bite out of bullies-or at least bullying! The National
Crime Prevention Council offers free materials to reduce bullying
and teasing in schools. The site has lesson plans for grades
1-2, materials in Spanish, comic books and more. Visit
www.mcgruff.org for more info.
Also included is info on being home alone, neighborhood safety, guns
and more. Clink on the parent section of the website.
Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge for 2006-07 invites
students in grades 4-8 to compete for college scholarships ranging
from $10,000-$25,000. The fifty dollar registration fee covers
your whole school. You'll get vocabulary questions and answers
at 4 levels. Students get a good workout as they give
definitions, provide antonyms, use words in a sentence and more.
For more information, visit
www.rd.com/nwpc/register.jhtml
Another site to visit for a wealth
of info about our nation's history is
www.loc.gov , the Library of Congress. This website offers
several home-page gateways to digital items in more than 125
thematic collections that include papers of US presidents and papers
documenting the women's suffrage movement and civil rights
movements; Civil War photos; early films of Thomas Edison; the first
baseball cards and more.
Free Anti-Tobacco
Posters
www.quittobacco.com/posters/poster.htm
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