Promote Awareness of Climate Change
Youth Service America (YSA) and the Civil Society Institute are awarding Red, White, and Green Climate Change Grants to design a service learning project that promotes awareness about climate change and possible solutions. Projects should be youth-led, and the service must take place between May 1 and October 31, 2007. Youth between the ages of 15 and 25, or organizations that engage youth aged 15–25, are eligible for an award of $500.
Deadline: March 9, 2007
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Honor The Cat in the Hat
In honor of the 50th anniversary of The Cat in the Hat, Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises have launched a national literacy initiative, Project 236, which aims to raise support for First Book, a nonprofit program that provides disadvantaged children with new books. To celebrate the event, youngsters can send a birthday card to The Cat in the Hat. For each card received by May 1, 2007, Random House will donate a book to First Book. For every Dr. Seuss book bought at participating retailers by May 1, 2007, Random House will also donate a book.
Deadline: May 1, 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!

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

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.

Encourage High School and College Graduation
Youth Venture, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MTV Tr3s Voces will select teams of two or more youth every week through June 29, who submit great ideas for encouraging their peers to graduate from high school and college. Tu Voz My Venture winners will receive grants to create their ventures—an organization, business or club to help young Latinos stay in school and prepare for college and careers. The contest is open to youth who are 13 years of age or older at time of entry; however, the team leader must be between 13 and 20 years of age.
Deadline: Ongoing through June 29, 2007
Click Here for More Information

Prepare for the Future
In partnership with the World Future Society, CyberFair 2007 encourages youth to prepare for the future—by thinking about the possible future, the probable future, the preferable future and the preventable future. The theme for 2007 is “Empower and Unite!” Projects that best illustrate “future thinking” will be invited to the World Future Society international conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 2007.
Deadline: March 11, 2007 for registration; see Web site for subsequent deadlines
Click Here for More Information

Recognize Excellence in Teaching
The Beveridge Family Teaching Prize recognizes excellence and innovation in elementary, middle school and secondary history teaching, including career contributions and specific initiatives. The prize is awarded on a two-year cycle rotation: in even-numbered years, to an individual; in odd-numbered years, to a group. In 2007 the prize will be awarded to a group either for excellence in teaching or for an innovative initiative applicable to an entire field. The prize carries a $1,500 cash award.
Deadline: March 15, 2007 for nominations
Click Here for More Information

Spark Their Imagination
The By Kids For Kids (BKFK) Invent-a-Toy World Games aims to spark the creative and imaginative spirit of America’s youth, aged 5–19, and to discover the blockbuster toys and games of tomorrow. A panel of industry and academic experts in patenting, marketing, licensing and merchandising will evaluate the submissions, judged according to the following criteria: Marketability & Market Potential—90% and Originality & Inventiveness—10%. Winners will be awarded a licensing contract from BKFK, legal support to patent the invention in the winner’s name (if patentable), professional expertise to bring the product to market and a $5,000 U.S. savings bond. In addition, each winner will have the opportunity to identify an inspirational or supportive teacher, who will receive a $1,000 U.S. savings bond.
Deadline: April 6, 2007 for submissions
Click Here for More Information

Plus: Download the free 2006/2007 BKFK Inventive Thinking Toolkit, created to assist future science and tech wizards in grades 3–12.
Click Here to Access Toolkit

Nurture Beginning Readers
Forty free interactive reading lessons, geared to beginning readers, are now available online, thanks to Montessori Home, Inc. The lessons, which feature the first 55 words a child will learn to read, are currently available in English, with URLs in Chinese, Spanish, French and other languages introducing the learn-to-read-English course. View a lesson demo and then sign up for the free online lessons.
Click Here to View Demo and Sign Up for Free Lessons

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

Serve Up a Free “CoffeeCup”
With more than 10 years developing Web Design software, CoffeeCup Software knows that every child must learn HTML and Web site creation to succeed in the future. CoffeeCup Software’s K–12 Donation Program allows educators to request the company’s Educational Software Package (ESP) for free classroom use in elementary and secondary public schools and public libraries. Simply complete the application form on the company’s Web site. Once your request is approved, you will receive an acceptance email, and a master CD with the software will be sent to your school.
Click Here to Request Free Software

Develop Media Literacy
Media Construction of the Middle East, a digital media-literacy curriculum, builds awareness about our media-saturated world, with a focus on the embattled Middle East. The e-kit, from Ithaca College’s Project Look Smart, sifts through social studies content with maps, songs, cartoons, periodicals and films. A videoclip of Disney’s Aladdin, for example, livens up a discussion of the region’s stereotypes, while comparisons of Israeli and Palestinian texts and American encyclopedias train minds to identify bias and propaganda. The lessons are intended to open young minds to a new way of absorbing media.
Click Here to Access Free Curriculum

Become a Savvy Stock Trader
StockItToYa!^TM combines the fun of traditional board games with lean, mean investment skills. Players choose from six fictional companies, such as Crimson Chemical and Aegean Aerospace, and practice navigating the ins and outs of stock trading through collecting penny stocks, acquiring and selling stock certificates, claiming shareholders’ majority bonuses, landing windfall funds and more.
Click Here for More Information

Find Safe, Age-Appropriate Content
AOL@SCHOOL and Intellext have announced the availability of the AOL@SCHOOL Desktop Sidebar. Created using Intellext’s Watson contextual search technology in conjunction with AOL@SCHOOL’s search engine, the sidebar interprets the topic a student is working on and automatically finds safe, age-appropriate and relevant search results from AOL@SCHOOL’s collection of K–12 content on the Web. The AOL@SCHOOL Desktop Sidebar can be installed on school or home computers at no cost.
Click Here for More Information

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.

Strengthening NCLB
On January 24, 2007, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the launch of Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act, designed to provide additional tools to schools and educators to help America’s students read and do math at grade level by 2014. The blueprint is intended to strengthen efforts to close the achievement gap by giving states more flexibility to measure and increase student progress; encourage rigorous coursework, particularly in math and science, in the nation’s high schools; and provide new options and choices for families whose children remain in underperforming schools.
Click Here for Full Report

Plus: A fact sheet related to Building on Results is also available.
Click Here for Fact Sheet

Funding Education in 2008
On February 5, 2007, President Bush released his $2.9 trillion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2008. Read the summary of the federal government’s spending plan for education.
Click Here for Summary of Education Budget

Embracing Personalized Learning
Personalized education is the focus of the winter 2007 issue of Threshold: Exploring the Future of Education, from Cable in the Classroom and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). The articles feature personalization strategies and tools for teachers; a discussion with education experts on personalization, technology and their hopes for the future; personal computing for students; use of assessment tools to personalize instruction; and best practices from a professional development model program in New Mexico.
Click Here for Free Articles

Using Computers to Differentiate Instruction
A free report titled Top 59 Tips to Differentiate Reading and Writing Instruction is available from Merit Software. Based on feedback from educators, Merit developed these useful tips to help you differentiate instruction for your students.
Click Here for Free Tips

Talk About the Issue of Bullying
The PBS series In the Mix is looking for students to help with an upcoming episode about “Bullies.” Do you know students who have bullied or harassed someone, even when they were younger? Do they regret their behavior? If so, the producers of In the Mix want to hear about their experiences, and especially what they have learned from them. In the New York–New Jersey–Connecticut area, the producers are also looking for people to interview on camera. For more information, write to mail@inthemix.org or visit the program’s Web site and click the tab “Be in the Mix.”
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

Get Instant Access to Images from the News
Getty Images Live displays a scrolling feed of the latest-breaking news, sports and entertainment images—hot from the field and straight to your desktop.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Make Stargazing Easy
Telescopes in Education (TIE) provides K–12 students and educators with remote access to a 24-inch telescope at southern California’s Mount Wilson Observatory. After reserving observation time during an evening of the week, students use a modem and remote astronomy software to peek into space and download images of the universe to their classroom computer. Participating classrooms pay for the software, but access to the telescope is free, assisting students with conducting research and publishing papers.
Click Here to Visit Web Site