Promote Academic Success of Boys of Color
The Promoting Academic Success (PAS) Initiative of the FPG Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will award five-year grants to school districts to promote the academic success of boys of color between the ages of 3 and 8. The initiative works to mobilize and support partnerships among Head Start, public schools, families and community agencies to focus on and improve the academic and social development of boys of color; and to identify, evaluate and disseminate the most promising multisystemic (family, school, community) interventions that increase learning and social adjustment of boys of color. All U.S. public school districts are eligible for the award. The amount of the grant varies. Send email to Crystal Smith at smith@mail.fpg.unc.edu to request an application.
Deadline: February 15, 2007
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Collaborate in Promoting the Arts
The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office (PPO), in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has announced “Picturing America,” a new grant opportunity for schools and school libraries. A pilot project of NEH’s We the People program, “Picturing America” has been created to promote the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture in K–12 schools through examples of the nation’s most significant works of art and architecture and to facilitate interdisciplinary partnerships between school library media specialists, art teachers, classroom instructors and other educators. “Picturing America” will provide 500 public and private schools with a collection of 20 posters depicting works of American art; related reading lists; and a 100-page resource booklet with information about the paintings, sculpture, architecture and crafts reproduced.
Deadline: March 19, 2007
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Join the growing list of teachers enjoying the eBookDestination Rewards Program. On the first day of each month, a digital coupon (representing 5 percent of your total purchases in the previous month) will be added to your shopping cart. You’ll then be notified via email of the presence (and amount) of this coupon.

There’s no application to complete, no points to collect, no cards to carry, no codes to enter and (most important) no fees to pay. Quite simply, you are repaid for your loyalty with a 5 percent credit toward future purchases. It’s as easy as that!

Browse the eBookstore now! You’ll receive an automatic discount on some 3,000 ebook titles, many of which are bundled with downloadable audio MP3 files, from major educational publishers. Plus, there’s always a selection of the most popular titles on sale!

Create a Peace Garden
The “Remember Me” Rose School Garden Award, sponsored by All-America Rose Selections, will help 20 schools establish rose gardens to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. Each program must also plan to use the garden as a catalyst for education in conflict resolution and mediation skills that prepare students to seek and achieve fair and peaceful solutions. Each winning school will receive 15 to 20 rose bushes and educational materials.
Deadline: February 28, 2007
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Reward Humanities Programs
Sponsored by the American Library Association Cultural Communities Fund and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award is given annually to a school library that has conducted an exemplary program or program series in the humanities during the prior school year. The award consists of $4,000 in cash, a plaque and the promotion of the winner as a model program at a training opportunity for other school libraries.
Deadline: February 28, 2007
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Raise Environmental Awareness
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, 2007
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Plus: Help raise environmental awareness with Action For Nature’s engaging cleanup and recycle games.
Click Here to Access Environmental Games

Support Healthy Lives
Allianz Corporation is offering $50,000 in classroom awards to teachers who best demonstrate innovation and effectiveness integrating at least two of the four Blue Zones programs into classroom instruction. Awards of $1,000 each will be given to classrooms that most effectively support the mission of living healthy lives through incorporation of the Blue Zones. Special consideration will be given to teachers who show extraordinary behavior changes in students. To take part, go to the Blue Zones Web site and register for the Blue Zones. Then check the box to indicate you would like to apply for the award. Participation in the Blue Zones is completely free.
Deadline: March 30, 2007
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Write to a (Fictional) Love Expert—Juliet!
The Juliet Club, the Verona-based organization that answers the thousands of letters addressed each year to Shakespeare’s most romantic heroine, awards the “Dear Juliet” prize on Valentine’s Day to the most compelling letters received during the previous year. The “Dear Juliet” prize recognizes the spontaneity of the writers who turn to Juliet to express their feelings, ask for advice or simply feel the need to talk about love. An email message can even be sent to Juliet at info@julietclub.com. Very few letters, oddly enough, are sent to Romeo.
Deadline: Ongoing
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Simulate a Presidential Cabinet Meeting
Advising the President: A Simulated Cabinet Meeting challenges students to take on the role of the head of a federal government agency. As agency chief, students identify a pressing current issue before their department or post and then prepare an options paper or presentation for the president.
Click Here to Access Free Webquest

Increase Hispanic Children’s Math and Science Achievement
Integrating Mathematics, Science and Language: An Instructional Program is a two-volume curriculum and resource guide developed by Paso Partners—a partnership of three public schools, an institution of higher education and specialists from the Southeast Education Development Laboratory (SEDL). The resource is designed to help elementary school teachers organize their classrooms and instructional activities in order to increase achievement of Hispanic primary-grade children whose first language is not English. The guide offers a curriculum plan, instructional strategies and activities, suggested teacher and student materials, and assessment procedures. Accompanying each complete unit in English is a Spanish version of background information for the teacher, as well as a Spanish version of the formal introductory portion of the lesson cycle.
Click Here to Download Free Curriculum Guide

Boost Family Literacy
The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) has partnered with the Points of Light Foundation’s “We Are Family” project in an all-star remake of the popular Sister Sledge hit. The CD includes nine other previously unreleased tracks, plus a behind-the-scenes DVD and poster for $20 that can be ordered at the project’s Web site. A significant portion of the proceeds will go toward NCFL’s efforts to boost literacy and strengthen families across the country, including those who were displaced by the hurricanes of 2005 in the Gulf Coast region.
Click Here to Order CD/DVD and Poster

Get free unlimited online access to all the print content in The Big Deal Book for Educators of Struggling Students, Middle School Through High School and The Big Deal Book of Technology for K–12 Educators. Explore the many opportunities to fund your special programs, access timely reports and articles, locate free and inexpensive resources and identify engaging interactive Web sites. Many of the offerings will help you meet the needs of students with disabilities and English language learners.

Kick Off Year-Round Job Shadowing
Beginning with a nationwide kickoff on February 2, 2007, and continuing throughout the school year, students across America will “shadow” workplace mentors as they go through a normal day on the job. The Job Shadowing 2007 program invites students to see firsthand how the skills learned in school relate to the workplace. Job Shadowing is led by the National Job Shadow Coalition and is supported through a national sponsorship by ING. Visit the program’s Web site to read the latest job shadow newsletter, containing the most up-to-date program information.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Join in the Great Backyard Bird Count
This February, the tenth annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, will give everyone a chance to discover the birds in their neighborhood and “Count for the Record.” During February 16–19, 2007, people of all ages, from beginners to experts, are invited to join this event, which spans all of the United States and Canada. Participants can take part wherever they are—at home, in schoolyards, at local parks or wildlife refuges. Observers simply count the highest number of each species they see during an outing or a sitting and enter their tally on the Great Backyard Bird Count Web site. Visitors to the site can compare their sightings with results from other participants. In addition, the GBBC site offers identification tips and access to photos, sounds, maps and natural history information on more than 500 bird species. Competitions add another element of fun, including a photo contest, rankings for most numerous birds and the “checklist champ” title for towns, states and provinces with the highest participation. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a free event. Visit the site to find out how you can promote the event in your town and download a free 2007 poster.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Participate in an International Science Project
Participants in the International Boiling Point Project are boiling water all over the world! The purpose of the project is to discover which factor in the investigation (room temperature, elevation, volume of water or heating device) has the greatest influence on the boiling point. Students in grades 6–12 are encouraged to participate in this year’s project, which begins on February 26, 2007. All they have to do is boil some water, record a bit of information and send it along to the project’s sponsor to include in a database of results. Students then analyze all of the data to reach an answer to the question, What causes a pot of water to boil? The project is developed and managed by The Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Learn more about this project and many other CIESE-sponsored Internet-based educational activities by visiting the CIESE Web site.
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Improving Opportunities for Hispanic Students
Latinos are a significant and growing proportion of the United States student population. The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) has released Hispanic Education in the United States, a statistical brief that provides a summary of the key data concerning Latinos in the educational pipeline.
Click Here to Access Free Report

Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners
An ongoing debate centers on what language of instruction is most effective for literacy learning of language-minority students. Is it better to immerse students in English language instruction, or are there benefits to teaching students in their first language? To address such questions, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Services selected a panel of experts to review the quantitative and qualitative research on development of literacy in language-minority students. The panel’s report, Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, was published in the fall of 2006.
Click Here to Download Free Executive Summary

Join an Online Classroom Community
The ePals Global Network is the world’s largest and fastest growing online classroom network, connecting more than 106,000 schools and classrooms, 6 million students and educators in 191 countries. The company’s network enables classroom-to-classroom project sharing, language practice and cross-cultural learning. The ePals Chinese–English Language and Learning Portal is the latest initiative to partner Chinese and native English-speaking classrooms worldwide for Chinese and English learning. Membership in the ePals Global Network is entirely free. Sign up online.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: Watch a free video on how ePals helps to connect Chinese and English-speaking students and teachers for language learning and classroom project sharing.

Teach About Race
The American Anthropological Association has created a new interactive educational program titled RACE: Are We So Different?^TM The Web site features the Game of Life Experience, in which students take a walk in someone else’s shoes, as well as quizzes, timelines and other activities to help students learn about the history of racial issues in America, human variation around the world and race as a “lived experience.”
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Help Youth Explore Serious Problems
UNICEF Voices of Youth focuses on the serious problems faced by youth in different parts of the world from the perspective of a young person. The site includes an interactive game that helps students to explore the problem of HIV/AIDS. The game called “What would you do?” takes players through various scenarios to explain the importance of prevention and testing. The United Nations estimates that around 80 percent of all young people do not know how to protect themselves from AIDS. Africa accounts for most of the 2.3 million children who are HIV-positive. The game is accessible in English and Swahili.
Click Here to Visit Web Site