Promote Understanding of Conservation
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation gives grants to organizations to start or expand Nature of Learning programs in their communities. Nature of Learning is the National Wildlife Refuge System’s community-based environmental education initiative that seeks to use National Wildlife Refuges as outdoor classrooms to promote greater understanding of local conservation issues; encourage interdisciplinary approaches to learning that enhance student academic achievement; use field experiences and student-led stewardship projects to connect classroom lessons to real-world issues; and partner local schools, community groups, natural resource professionals and local businesses. Programs involving a partnership among a local school, community group and National Wildlife Refuge are eligible. The amount of the grant varies.
Deadline: June 15, 2007
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Help to Maintain Children’s Dental Health
The American Dental Association’s Samuel Harris Fund For Children’s Dental Health will award grants of up to $5,000 to improve and maintain children’s oral health through community education programs.
Deadline: July 17, 2007
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Help Immigrants Learn English
The Ray Solem Foundation is offering one-time grants of up to $10,000 to nonprofit organizations that have found creative ways to help immigrants in the United States further their verbal English language skills—listening comprehension and oral communications.
Deadline: July 31, 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!

Celebrate the Wonder of Nature
To honor the late preservationist and ecologist Rachel Carson, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Generations United, and the Rachel Carson Council, Inc., have announced a photo, essay and poetry contest that “best expresses the sense of wonder that you feel for the sea, the night sky, forests, birds, wildlife and all that is beautiful to your eyes.” In her book, The Sense of Wonder (written in the 1950s and published in a magazine in 1956), Carson uses lyrical passages about the beauty of nature and the joy of helping children develop a sense of wonder and love of nature. Entries must be joint projects that involve a person under age 18 and a person aged 50 or older.
Deadline: June 15, 2007
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Implement Exemplary Media Literacy Practices
The NCTE Commission on Media will award its second annual Media Literacy Award during the Assembly of Media Arts Sharing Session at the upcoming NCTE Annual Convention in New York City. The Media Literacy Award will be presented to an individual, team or department that has implemented and refined exemplary media literacy practices in the school environment.
Deadline: June 15, 2007
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Design a Magazine Cover
DISCOVER magazine is holding a nationwide contest among students in grades 3–8 to design the cover of its October 2007 issue, which will focus on the state of science in America. The winning entry will be the design that best captures the wonderment and possibilities of science. In addition to the winning entrant, six finalists will be profiled in the October issue of the magazine and on the magazine’s home page.
Deadline: June 20, 2007
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Help Latino Students Graduate from High School
Youth Venture and MTV Tr3s Voces Tu Voz My Venture will support the creation of 50 teams of young people who create Ventures that help Latino students graduate from high school and prepare for college or work. The top five teams of youth aged 13–20 will also be awarded a $5,000 team scholarship, and one team will be featured in a news segment on MTV Tr3s.
Deadline: June 29, 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. Students strengthen 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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Nominate a Cool Math Teacher
Math educators for grades 5–9 in the continental United States are eligible to apply for the Mr. Tu’s Next Excellent Adventure Talent Search. In BestQuest’s Math’scool DVD program, Mr. Tu is a friendly, educated robot who informs and motivates students to learn mathematics. As part of this program, he highlights real-world examples of math being used in careers. Now BestQuest is searching for the next “Excellent Example” for Mr. Tu to be included in their award-winning products. Teachers, administrators and students are invited to nominate their favorite math teacher.
Deadline: Submit applications between June 1 and October 15, 2007
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Make Computer Programming Accessible to Children
The Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT Media Labs has introduced a new, free program that attempts to turn a daunting subject, usually taught in college, into an integral part of education for the grade-school set. A number of schools across the country have been beta-testing Scratch, a new programming language that teaches the basics of computer science in a way that is accessible to young people—even kindergartners. Scratch simplifies the programming process by offering users jigsaw-shaped programming pieces, which they can click and drag in order to create sequences of code. The Media Lab has also created a social networking site for users of the program, a unique feature that researchers hope will not only appeal to the younger generation that uses such sites on a daily basis, but foster collaboration and cooperative problem solving.
Click Here to Download Free Program

Create Online Learning Programs
Educators and education stakeholders interested in online learning have a new resource at their disposal. The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) has released a free, comprehensive guide to online learning intended to help school leaders implement virtual education programs of their own and to help parents understand how online instruction works. A National Primer on K–12 Online Learning gives answers to common questions and provides facts about online learning.
Click Here to Download Free Guide

Launch a Space Seeds Experiment
Epsori Space Systems (ESS) has launched its free Space Seeds experiment for students in grades 3–5. The payload was flown aboard the Up Aerospace Spaceloft XL rocket that launched on April 28, 2007 at the New Mexico Space Port. ESS will distribute the experiment to 2,500 classrooms in the fall of 2007. The payload contained 22 ounces of mixed vegetable seeds. Teachers in grades 3–5 will be offered a free experiment along with approved curriculum, student workbooks and packages of seeds that have flown into space. The experiment allows students to compare the growth of seeds in a control group, to the growth of the space seeds. Students are taught classic techniques of scientific observation and record keeping during the experiment’s two-week execution. Educators are invited to sign up online to receive the free Space Seeds experiment this fall. Visit the ESS site for videos of the event and interviews of key participants, along with a list of future missions.
Click Here for Free Experiment Materials

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.

Share Ideas on the Integration of Technology in Education
The U.S. Department of Education is trying to develop a new perspective on the role of technology in education reform. The department is inviting comments, on its Web site, from the public on four specific questions related to integration of technology in education: (1) In what ways has technology improved the effectiveness of your classroom, school or district? (2) Based on your role (administrator, parent, teacher, student, entrepreneur, business leader), how have you used educational data to make better decisions or be more successful? (3) In what ways can technology help us prepare our children for global competition and reach our goals of eliminating achievement gaps and having all students read and do math on grade level by 2014? (4) What should be the federal government’s role in supporting the use of technology in our educational system?
Click Here to Add Your Comments

Learn About the ATTAIN Act
On May 23, 2007, the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act was introduced to Congress, supported by a coalition of organizations, including Consortium for School Networking, International Society for Technology in Education, Software & Information Industry Association and the State Educational Technology Directors Association. The legislation aims to make significant improvements to the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program, as part of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, by better focusing funds on “professional development and systemic reform that leverage 21st century technologies, prioritize funding to schools in need of improvement, and require states to assess whether students have attained technological literacy by the eighth grade.”
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Helping Students with Disabilities Succeed in School
The National High School Center has released an issue brief, “Dropout Prevention for Students with Disabilities: A Critical Issue for State Education Agencies,” providing guidance to states as they respond to requirements presented in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) in the area of dropout prevention for students with disabilities. The brief urges that to effectively assess outcomes for all students with disabilities and to ensure that every student is being given the opportunity to succeed, each state’s districts will need to adopt uniform data collection procedures and calculation methodology around dropout and graduation rates for students with disabilities. The brief outlines the requirements of IDEA and highlights the role of State Performance Plans as starting points for states to develop data collection and monitoring procedures.
Click Here to Access Free Issue Brief

Reshaping the No Child Left Behind Act
The sweeping federal No Child Left Behind Act has brought more accountability to American Schools, but is it improving education? How can it go from a C to an A? Find out in “How to Fix NCLB,” a special education report in the June 4 issue of TIME magazine.
Click Here to Read Article

Discover Earth’s Living Species
Many of the world’s leading scientific institutions have launched the Encyclopedia of Life, a massive, free Web site that compiles data on Earth’s 1.8 million known species of animals, plants and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students and citizens have access—anywhere, anytime—to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The multimedia site includes descriptions, pictures, maps, videos and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Expand the Walls of Your Classroom
ImagiNations is an international collaborative learning program for primary elementary school students. Sponsored by the SMARTer Kids Foundation, the program promotes cross-cultural experiences through the travels of a toy ambassador who collects information and memorabilia to share with students at each stop of his journey. By involving students around the world in ImagiNations, the program opens doors for learners to actively engage with their peers, examine similarities and differences, and become more knowledgeable, empathetic and respectful of others. Check out the latest adventures of the 2006–2007 toy ambassador and apply online to participate in the 2007–2008 ImagiNations program.
Deadline: August 13, 2007 for applications
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Get Environmental Information
Envirofacts is a single point of access for selecting data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Web site provides access to several EPA databases with information about environmental activities that may affect air, water and land anywhere in the United States. With Envirofacts, you can learn more about these environmental activities in your area, or you can generate maps of environmental information. Information in Envirofacts is accessible in a variety of ways. The Quick Start feature allows you to retrieve a sampling of information pertaining to your area by entering a specific ZIP Code, City and State, or County and State. If you want more in-depth information about a particular subject area, you can select from a list of available Topics, which includes Waste, Water, Toxics, Air, Radiation, Land, Other and Maps. The Advanced Capabilities option allows you to go directly to the Queries, Maps or Reports feature that interests you.
Click Here to Visit Web Site