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BDB's Biweekly E-letter
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February 18, 2008
Timely reminders, fabulous freebies, best sites & more "worth the surf"
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In Partnership With:
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Digital
Wish has developed free tools to enable businesses to
reach out to all the schools in their local regions and donate
technology without any administrative cost. Both donors and teachers
will find the enabling tools on the Digital Wish Web site. Like a
wedding registry, teachers create a “wish list” of needed
technology products for their classrooms. They also describe
how each resource will be utilized, write project plans and post
stories online. Using a simple Class Locator, interested
donors can find their local school, purchase items directly from any
teacher’s wish list or make cash donations to the schools.
Deadline: Ongoing
Click Here for More Information
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BP
America’s A+ for Energy program gives grants for
implementing creative and innovative educational programs to teach
students about energy use, alternative and sustainable energy types
and sources, and energy conservation. K–12 teachers in Alabama,
California, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina and
Texas are eligible for a $5,000 individual award or a $10,000
classroom award.
Deadline: March 7, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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The
Staples Foundation for Learning provides funding to programs
that support or provide job skills and/or education for
all people, with an emphasis on disadvantaged youth. Grant decisions
are made quarterly.
Deadline: March 14, 2008 for submission of proposals for May 2008 decision
Click Here for More Information
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EBOOK DESTINATION
NEW
Look! MORE Savings!
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!
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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
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The
Action for Nature International Young Eco-Hero Awards
recognize the individual accomplishments of young people whose
personal actions significantly improve the environment. Youth aged
8–16 are eligible for the $500 award.
Deadline: February 28, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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Plus:
Invite students to play Action for Nature’s two online games
that help to raise environmental awareness: the Cleanup Game
and the Recycle Game.
Click Here to Access Games
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Through
the 2008 Scholar Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year (SAMMY)
Scholarship Awards, 25 scholar-athletes will win a $7,500
scholarship and a spot in a special milk mustache ad to run in USA
TODAY. To apply, the student must be a legal resident of the 48
contiguous United States or the District of Columbia, who, as of
November 25, 2007, has been enrolled full time in a state-accredited
private or public high school, in good standing in grade 12, and who
has been participating in a high school sport or club sport during
the 2007–2008 school year.
Deadline: March 7, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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Entries
are being accepted for the first annual International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE) Special Interest Group’s
Media Specialist Technology Innovation Award, sponsored
by Linworth Publishing, Inc./Library Media Connection and
Follett Software Company. The award will be presented to two
teams, consisting of a school librarian and collaborating teacher,
who have conducted an exemplary technology program extending beyond
the library to meet the needs of classroom students and teachers. The
$1,000 award will be made to each team’s school media center.
Deadline: March 15, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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Sponsored
by Vernier Software & Technology, the National
Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) Ecology/Environmental
Teaching Award will be given to a secondary school teacher who
has successfully developed and demonstrated an innovative approach in
the teaching of ecology/environmental science and has carried his/her
commitment to the environment into the community. Vernier’s
sponsorship of this award includes $1,000 toward travel to the NABT
Professional Development Conference, and $500 worth of Vernier
equipment.
Deadline: March 15, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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The
Christopher Columbus Awards Program combines science and
technology with community problem solving. Students work in teams
with the help of an adult coach to identify an issue they care about
and, using science and technology, work with experts, conduct
research and put their ideas to the test to develop an innovative
solution. Four finalist teams and their coaches will receive an
all-expense-paid trip to Walt Disney World to attend National
Championship Week and compete for U.S. Savings Bonds plus a $200
development grant to further refine their idea.
One
Gold Medal–winning team will receive a $2,000 U.S. Savings Bond per
member.
Deadline: March 17, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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Atomic
Learning has announced a free workshop on blogging.
A blog is a Web site that functions as a journal, diary or place to
post your thoughts and opinions pertaining to a particular subject
matter. Blogs can be created for personal use, an organization or
even in the classroom. In addition to text entries, a blog may
contain pictures, video, and/or audio clips. The workshop explains
the difference between various kinds of blogs, introduces hosting
solutions and illustrates how to set up a blog using Blogger. Through
February, the workshop can be accessed free of charge
by visiting the Atomic Learning Web site.
Click Here to Access Free Workshop
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The
Moving Forward with Technology Webinar series offers
key information about implementing technology in education. Sessions
are presented live and online by national leaders in the field. This
free Webinar series is an outreach collaboration between Don
Johnston Incorporated
and the Center for Implementing Technology in Education
(CITEd). Upcoming sessions include “The Role of Technology in
Response to Intervention (RTI)”; “Finding the Technology to
Support Your Reading, Math and Writing Instruction”; “The
Assistive Technology Planner: A Guide to Implementing AT”; and
“Evaluating Your Technology Implementation Program.” Find the
schedule for these sessions online. Also find archives of previous
sessions and feedback from last year’s series.
Click Here for More Information
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The
Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) is
offering Tours for Teachers to help educators travel
internationally during the summer and earn graduate school and
professional development credit in the process. GEEO’s mission is
to help and encourage educators to bring their foreign experiences
back to the classroom and create a more outward-looking generation of
Americans. The hope is that by spending time overseas and forming
international relationships, teachers will gain fresh perspectives
that should deeply enrich their students’ learning and global
awareness. Two trips are planned for the summer of 2008—one
to Peru, and one to India. The tours are customized to
include activities of particular interest to educators.
Click Here for More Information
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State
Facts for Students is a kid-friendly site featuring information
on population, geography, business, history and more. One lesson,
“Picture Your State,” helps students discover fun, kid-related
facts about their state as they collect, organize, analyze, map and
graph a variety of information found at the Web site. Students have
the opportunity to examine data about kids their age, as well as a
variety of other facts selected to appeal to young students.
Click Here to Access Free Information and Lesson Plans
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Free-reading.net
is an open resource center and community, where primary
teachers can access and share curricula on research-based
instruction. The site features a complete set of activities for a
typical 40-week core program. Or you can just access specific
activities and downloads. Note in particular the Sound
Pronunciation Guides, audio for the most common sounds
(single letters and letter combinations), words separated into onset
and rime, and words separated into phonemes. Free-Reading.net is
continually updated by a large community of users and experts, which
means you can share too.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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The
Story of Science series by Joy Hakim tells the history of
science with wit, narrative depth and research, all vetted by
specialists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first
book is Aristotle Leads the Way, the second is Newton
at the Center and the third is Einstein
Adds a New Dimension. The series, which has drawn acclaim,
chronicles not only great discoveries but also the scientists who
made them.
These science texts, published by Smithsonian Books,
target middle school. Juliana Texley of the National Science
Teachers Association is writing support materials for
Hakim’s third book. Johns Hopkins University curriculum
specialists did so for the first two. Download a sample chapter
(“The Fission Vision”) from Einstein Adds a New Dimension.
Click Here for More Information and Sample Chapter
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Plus:
Hakim has also drawn attention for the lively U.S. history
textbooks she authored in a series used from elementary school
through college. Her history texts are published by Oxford
University Press, with teaching materials developed by
Johns Hopkins.
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The
Arts Education Partnership has released “Imagine Nation,”
a survey of 1,000 potential voters across the country, which found
that respondents believe it to be very important for schools to help
students develop their imaginations so they can be innovators in the
21st century.
Click Here to Access Free Report
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In
Quality Counts 2008, a state-by-state report card on
public education in the U.S., Education Week looks back
at the progress made since the early 1990s toward improving schools
and raising student achievement. Visit the site linked below for free
access to individualized state-by-state reports. Key findings are
assembled in an accessible format for examining a particular state’s
performance on this year’s indicators and its progress over time.
Click Here to Access Data for Your State
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Stimulate
the brain and find out how this complex organ is the body’s primary
control system. Feed the body different foods and find out how the
digestive system is the body’s fuel factory. Watch how aging and
stresses like cuts and sunlight can affect the body’s largest
organ—the skin. Explore these and other workings of the human body
on this National Geographic site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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In
“Growing Up Online,” PBS’s FRONTLINE peers
inside the world of this cyber-savvy generation through the eyes of
teens and their parents, who often find themselves on opposite sides
of a new digital divide. From cyberbullying to instant “Internet
fame” to the specter of online sexual predators, FRONTLINE
investigates the risks, realities and misconceptions of teenage
self-expression on the World Wide Web.
Click Here to View Full Program Online
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The
National Archives’ Interactive Signing of the Declaration
of Independence offers students the opportunity to add their
signature to this historic document alongside the original
signatures. After they choose a handwriting style, students type
their name, which will appear in the document in the handwriting
style they have chosen. Students can then print their signed document
in full color or black and white.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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Plus:
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
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With
the Interactive United States History Map, students can become
a geography whiz as they learn how the United States was settled.
Using the interactive map, students will discover how the continent
was changed by European colonization, what events caused the
displacement and decimation of the land’s original inhabitants and
how the 50 states came to be formed. At the end of their journey,
students answer questions to see how much they learned through the
interactive.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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Firsthand
Learning is designed to engage elementary and middle school
students in writing about natural phenomena and to observe and read
on their own. Teachers are encouraged to use the variety of free
mini-journals to encourage students to begin keeping a science
journal.
Students can use the
downloadable mini-journals to record their observations about
whatever interests them. They can go outside and investigate nature
firsthand, or if they prefer, they can get started by watching some
interesting animal behavior, using the video clips provided on
the site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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The
Journey North program engages students in a global study of
wildlife migration and seasonal change. Students share
their own 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 northern migration in the
spring and summer and on southern migration in the fall and winter.
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
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