Strengthen Education Through Podcast Technology
Tool Factory, in partnership with Olympus America, Inc., is sponsoring a podcasting grant designed to strengthen education through the use of podcasting technology. The grant includes a free site license to Tool Factory Podcasting, plus all the digital media accessories you would need to start a podcasting program in your school. To apply, simply develop a lesson plan demonstrating how you would use podcasting in your curriculum. Ten grants will be awarded each year, and you have three chances to win. However, you must resubmit after each deadline to reapply.
Deadline: June 30, 2007 (3 winners); December 30, 2007 (4 winners); April 30, 2008 (3 winners)
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Enhance School Libraries and Literacy Programs
Dollar General’s Back-to-School Grants provide funding to assist schools in meeting some of the financial challenges they face in implementing new programs or purchasing new equipment, materials or software for their school library or literacy programs. Public and private schools within Dollar General’s 35-state market area, as well as public school libraries recovering from major disasters, are eligible to apply. The amount of the award varies.
Deadline: August 10, 2007
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Show How Well You Know the World
Are you world geography savvy? Budget Rent-a-Car and My Wonderful World (a National Geographic-led campaign) have teamed up to promote the value of learning world geography. Take the online quiz with your students. You might win a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond!
Deadline: Ongoing
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Plus: Sign up for the My Wonderful World e-newsletter (for parents, educators, and children and teens) and give youth the power of global knowledge. Or bring the world into your classroom with a free poster-sized map; just print and assemble.
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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!

Share Children’s Creative Works
Skipping Stones’ Youth Honor Awards recognize creative and artistic works by young people that promote multicultural and nature awareness. Youth aged 7 to 17 may submit their original writing (essays, interviews, poems, plays, short stories, etc.) and art (photos, paintings, cartoons, etc.) to this award-winning multicultural magazine. Non-English and bilingual writings are welcome. Ten winners will be published in the September–October 2007 issue. Winners will also receive an Honor Award Certificate, a subscription to Skipping Stones and five nature and/or multicultural books.
Deadline: June 25, 2007
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Connect Education and Careers
The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is accepting photo submissions for its 2008 Career and Technical Education (CTE) Weekly Planner. The theme “Connecting Education and Careers” will highlight how students and teachers are experiencing CTE in the classroom or workplace. ACTE members and students taking CTE courses in secondary and postsecondary schools are eligible to enter the photo competition.
Deadline: June 29, 2007
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Connect Financial Education and Literacy
To support its commitment to financial education and reading, ING DIRECT has created the Adventures in Saving story-writing contest to allow people of all ages to try their skill at writing a fictional children’s story that teaches a basic financial lesson. One grand-prize winner in each category (children/teen/adult) will win $1,000 and get his or her story illustrated and published.
Deadline: June 30, 2007
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Address Global Climate Change
In the Global Challenge, teams of U.S. high school students collaborate with their international counterparts to address global climate change. By participating in the challenge, students strengthen their skills in math, science, engineering and critical thinking, while learning about global business practices. Students should be between the ages of 14 and 17 when applying. Activities run from September to May of each year. Students can participate for several years and work to build a scholarship fund for college.
Deadline: Preregistration for Fall 2007 is now open
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Use Technology to Raise Reading Scores
On July 1, 2007, Knowledge Adventure®, developer and publisher of educational software for the home and school, will launch its Schools in Need Competition, which will provide 10 awards, each valued at $12,000, to 10 schools in need of reading assistance for their students. The competition is open to schools that need to raise reading scores by at least 30 percent among a population of students between kindergarten and grade 8. Schools must also show a need to have supplemental reading materials that address specific reading deficiencies and to use the technological investments the school has made for reading instruction. Winning schools will receive the new Knowledge Adventure Academy® line of products for early literacy, reading comprehension and vocabulary, along with training and support.
Deadline: Submit applications between July 1 and December 15, 2007
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Continue Learning Beyond the Classroom
The International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), with support from the Verizon Foundation, recently launched Learning Beyond the Classroom, offering activities to help children and teens explore reading and writing all summer long. The resources on the site are brought to you by the literacy experts at ReadWriteThink.org. Also available are printable tip sheets for using some of ReadWriteThink.org’s many online interactive tools.
Click Here for Free Summer Activities

Access Resources Correlated to State Standards
Smithsonian Education aligns more than 1,200 free educational resources to standards of learning in every state. By entering the name of your state into the site’s search engine, you can find lesson plans, virtual exhibitions, photographs and artwork, and databases of research information that apply to your curriculum in all subjects—from language arts and social studies to mathematics and technology.
Click Here to Access Free Resources

Boost Students’ Knowledge of Academic Words
Knowledge of the high-incidence academic words in English can significantly boost a student’s comprehension level of school-based reading material. The Academic Word List consists of 10 sets of 570 word families that are most frequently found in all types of school textbooks. A word like analyze, for example, falls into Sublist 1, which contains the most frequent words, while the word adjacent falls into Sublist 10, which includes the least frequent (among this list of high-incidence words).
Click Here to Download Free Academic Word List

Develop Listening Skills
Learning Through Listening provides K–12 educators with quick access to lessons and information that focuses on developing listening skills and meeting the needs of diverse learners. The content has either been written by educators or been reviewed by educators for its practicality and applicability. The free teaching tools include lesson plans using poetry, music and stories, strategies (such as POWER listening) and case stories of teachers meeting the diverse needs of their students.
Click Here to Access Free Listening Tools

Improve Reading Fluency
MaestroReading.com is officially launching its literacy solutions in September 2007, and until that time the company is offering its products for free. This Web resource is designed for mixed-ability classrooms, English language learners and special education students (specifically children with dyslexia). It offers educators, students and parents a variety of free educational solutions, such as a prereading diagnostic tool, information on the reading process as well as links to many other literacy resources. The two main offerings include an interactive and adaptive nonfiction storybook about Leonardo da Vinci as well as several interactive learning games that focus on discrete elements of the reading process. Both applications are aimed at improving fluency and are highly configurable, offering user-adjustable text speed, an optional all-caps display and optional highlight and narration features.
Click Here to Access Free Fluency Tools

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, The Big Deal Book for Teachers of English Language Learners 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.

Celebrate Juneteenth
Juneteenth is the name for a holiday celebrating June 19, 1865, the day when Union soldiers arrived in Texas and spread the word that President Lincoln had delivered his Emancipation Proclamation. On June 3, 1979, Texas became the first state to proclaim Emancipation Day (Juneteenth) an official state holiday. This site includes poetry to celebrate the holiday, an online pictorial version of the “The Middle Passage” and much more.
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Painting a Portrait of U.S. Education
High school students in the United States are taking more courses in mathematics and science, as well as social studies, the arts and foreign languages, according to The Condition of Education 2007, a report by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The general increases in credits earned since the early 1980s are, in large part, a product of more graduates taking more advanced courses. The 48 indicators included in the report cover all aspects of education, from student achievement to school environment and from early childhood through postsecondary education.
Click Here to Access Free Report

Improving Math and Reading Test Results
The report Answering the Question That Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased Since No Child Left Behind?, released on June 5 by the Center for Education Policy (CEP), says that most states have seen dramatic improvements in math and reading test results since NCLB was implemented, but that it’s too early to tell whether the gains can be tied directly to the law.
Click Here to Access State Profiles

Explore Antarctica
Antarctica is a frozen, windswept continent, so hostile and remote that it has no permanent inhabitants. Scientists working there have made many discoveries from studying Antarctica’s land and atmosphere, and from clues buried beneath the ice. These discoveries also reveal signs of changes in the future that could affect us all. Take a journey through this site to discover Antarctica for yourself. Each section features activities, images, video clips and fact sheets to help you learn about this distant, frozen wilderness.
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Listen to, Explore and Create Music
SoundJunction is an award-winning site for listening to, exploring, discovering and creating music. Browse freely around the site or use the Journey mode to explore particular subjects and issues. For example, listen to and explore rock, classical, jazz, African, drum ‘n’ bass, pop, fusion and many other music forms. Discover how music works by taking it apart and making it yourself. Investigate how composers and remix artists make their music or create and compose your own music online with free software. In addition, find music teaching resources, materials for exams in music—and much more!
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Deepen Understanding of an Ingenious Scientist
Universal Leonardo is aimed at deepening understanding of Leonardo da Vinci through Web-based resources. For example, under the Explore link, find out what links the movement of water and the curling of hair. Under the Play link, learn what aerial perspective is and how Leonardo used his “blues.” And under the Discover link, investigate the secrets of the Madonna of the Yarnwinder as revealed by ingenious scientific techniques.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Guide Students Toward Their Dream Job
At Dream !t Do !t students can check out the types of jobs that are right for their skills, their attitude and their passions by using the Career Calculator, taking an online Career Quiz and viewing Video Profiles of different jobs. Then students can see what jobs and resources are out there to make it happen for them.
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Plus: The MakerManiac game offers students their first job—helping the local music factory complete production of a new saxophone, which is sitting around the factory in pieces.
Click Here to Access Free Game