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June 16, 2008
Timely reminders, fabulous freebies, best sites & more "worth the surf"
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In Partnership With:
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To
honor the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February
12, 2009, the Motorola Foundation has announced the Motorola
Abraham Lincoln Grants program in partnership with the Chicago
History Museum. The $750,000 grant program focuses on three
themes: Bringing History into the Future; Engaging in Currents
Events; Leadership Skills. Applicants may request up to $25,000 to
fund curriculum design, speech competitions and debates, and
community programming developed by educators.
Deadline: July 30, 2008 for fall awards
Click Here for More Information
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Mr.
Holland’s Opus Melody Program provides musical instruments
and instrument repairs to existing K–12 school music
programs that have no other source of financing additional musical
instruments and materials. Schools must have an established
instrumental music program (concert band, marching band, jazz band
and/or orchestra) that is at least three years old. Music programs
that take place during the regular school day are eligible. Grants
typically range from $500 to $8,000 worth of instruments.
Deadline: August 1, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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The
Toshiba America Foundation makes grants for programs that
promote quality mathematics and science education in
K–12 schools. The foundation focuses its grant making on
inquiry-based projects designed by individual teachers, and small
teams of teachers, for use in their own classrooms.
Deadlines:
Decisions about grants under $5,000 (kindergarten–grade 6) are made
on a rolling basis, and applications are accepted throughout the
year. Deadline for large grants (grades 7–12) is August 1, 2008.
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 thousands of 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
By Kids For Kids youth empowerment company and DoSomething.org
have announced the Advertise Your Cause Media Challenge, which
encourages young people to discover what cause matters most to them
and then to “Do Something” to propel their cause into the public
eye. The competition will reward the cleverest and most powerful new
Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign idea that will also have
the broadest impact. U.S. residents, aged 5 to 19, who have not
graduated from high school at the time of the competition, are
eligible for the $10,000 award.
Deadline: August 31, 2008
Click Here for More Information
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Microsoft’s
Imagine Cup encourages young people to apply their
imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology
innovations that can make a difference in the world. Open to students
around the world, the Imagine competition spans a year, beginning
with local, regional and online contests whose winners go on to
attend the global finals held in a different location every year.
Students compete in nine categories, known as invitationals, which
include Software Design, Embedded Development, Game
Development, Short Film, Photography, Interface
Design, Information Technology (IT), Algorithm and
Project Hoshimi Programming Battle. Special award challenges
were also offered in 2008, which enable students to focus on
developing skills in a specific technology: The Software Design
Windows Live Award, the Software Design Interoperability Award and
the Interface Design Accessible Technology Award.
Deadline: Sign up online to get information on the upcoming 2009 competition.
Click Here for More Information
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Girlstart
is a nonprofit organization founded in Austin, Texas in 1997 to
empower girls in math, science, engineering and
technology. Girlstart provides hands-on learning in math,
science, technology and engineering concepts to a diverse group of
girls and their parents. Girlstart has served more than 10,000 girls
and families with after-school clubs, free Saturday camps, science
nights, family math nights, summer camps and more. Check out this
year’s week-long summer day camps in math, science and
technology just for girls in grades 4–9.
Click Here for More Information
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More
than 1,000 students have attended classes in game and
simulation design sponsored by the Institute of Urban Game
Design (IUGD), which is currently accepting applications for its
Summer 2008 “Be the Game” sessions at multiple
locations. Game design offers many challenges, and students will gain
a foundation in all of the major aspects essential to designing the
latest games, such as 3-D modeling and animation as well as computer
programming. They will also learn about game history, careers,
colleges and universities, and the many opportunities that are
available to young game designers.
Click Here for More Information
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Advanced
Micro Devices (AMD) has announced a project designed to teach
youth how to build video games that promote social causes, such as
fighting poverty or protecting the environment. Called “Changing
the Game,” the project will fund nonprofit organizations that
inspire kids with video games, and it will develop curriculum for
youth to build their own software for games. “Changing the Game”
is the first initiative funded by the chipmaker’s newly formed AMD
Foundation, a grant-making organization.
AMD is also working with PETLab, a joint project of
Games for Change and Parsons The News School, to
create a social-issues game-development curriculum for
youth. The curriculum is expected to be piloted in the fall of 2008.
Click Here for More Information
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To
help educators enhance their knowledge and instructional skills in
reading, PBS TeacherLine® offers more than 35 online
courses in reading and language arts. PBS Teacherline also offers
free online teaching resources, such as “Developing Active
Reading with Effective Questions,” “Tips to Evaluate Internet
Resources” and other practical, research-based instructional
strategies and best practices.
Click Here to Download Free Resources
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Adobe
Systems Inc. has launched a new version of its document-sharing
software Acrobat, and this time it can package videos. Acrobat 9
comes with Adobe’s video-enabling software Flash. Users can include
Flash-based videos when they create and share documents with
the portable document format (PDF). With a professional version of
Acrobat 9, for example, users could package a Power Point
presentation not just with images, but also with an audio of the
presenter’s voice.
Click Here to Download Trial Version
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Plus:
Adobe has also launched Acrobat.com, which will host Web-based
software services to support document creation and
sharing. The free Acrobat.com
beta includes the Buzzword word processor. Its ConnectNow
Web conferencing and desktop sharing tool enables
chatting via text, video and voice. The hosted services invite file
storage and sharing with the capability to convert up to five
documents to PDF.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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Students
can save the planet Helios from ecological disaster and SmogGobs in
PowerUp, a free online game that draws an
emotional connection to ecological awareness. The three-dimensional
game, from IBM’s TryScience initiative, is designed
to engage students in learning about engineering and energy while
trying to supply solar, wind and water power before an ecological
disaster hits. PowerUp offers classroom lesson plans
that cover energy transformation, as well as an interactive module
so students learn about the technologies required to build virtual
worlds.
Click Here to Download Free Game
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eScience
Labs offers a series of lab kits that contain virtually
everything needed to complete an entire set of experiments—with the
exception of an egg or a piece of fruit! The experiments are designed
specifically for use by distance learners, but they’re great for
use in class as well. The biology kit, for example, includes
high-definition images instead of expensive slides and a
microscope, and offers hands-on exercises. Registered students
get the benefit of video introductions, interactive animations and
supplementary course material. New lab kits are continually in
development.
Click Here to Access Sample Lab
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Share
learning activities and resources with families, tutors, summer
school teachers and other literacy volunteers to help keep kids
learning all summer long. ReadWriteThink’s Learning
Beyond the Classroom section provides summer activities
that educators can complete with their own children or share with
families looking for ways to support summer learning. Check out the
site’s new features, including new podcasts and videos.
Click Here to Access Free Summer Resources
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Animation-ish
is a new drawing and animation software title from
FableVision that encourages students and teachers to create
and animate their own drawings for class projects. It’s for grades
K–12 and is hosted by artist and children’s book
author/illustrator Peter Reynolds. Three levels (Wiggledood-ish,
Flipbook-ish and Advanced-ish) take the user from simple to advanced,
with inspiration along the way. Curriculum activities, aligned
to standards, are built into the Classroom Edition.
Click Here to Preview Program
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RedZeeTM
is a free kid-friendly Web browser intended to assure
parents of early readers that their little one’s search for, say, a
unicorn image brings up only G-rated sites. Results are presented
like a fan with images of each screen, so children can scroll through
and click on the site that offers the closest match.
Click Here to Access Free RedZee Browser
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Plus:
Another new kid-friendly technology is the ZAC browser. ZAC
(Zone for Autistic Children) is developed
specifically for children with autism and autism-spectrum
disorders. It allows the child to interact with and play the
many games and activities, as well as experience independence using
it. ZAC also offers a forum for teachers, parents and
caretakers to share resources.
Click Here to Access Free ZAC Browser
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FAUXTOGRAM
is an online interactive inspired by the photogram
process—a form of cameraless photography. A photogram is an
image made on photographic paper without the aid of a camera. To make
photograms, artists place a wide range of objects directly onto
photographic paper and expose it to light. FAUXTOGRAM allows
you to make your own virtual photograms. Experiment by selecting,
arranging, layering and exposing objects to light to make shadowy,
mysterious images.
Click Here to Launch Free Activity
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THE
BIG DEAL BOOK TECH CENTER
Interactive
Experiences for the 21st Century Classroom
Check
out the new look of The Big Deal Book
Web site. And be sure to explore the Tech Center,
which offers resources and activities for integrating technology into
your classroom. In the Tech Center is a feature that
changes mid-week, every week, appropriately called Web
Wednesday! Here you’ll find new interactive
experiences and resources that incorporate 21st century
themes and skills into the study of core subjects.
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Google
Maps has launched a new feature that shows photos, videos
and maps that people have created about different locations
around the world. After typing in a city or address, you’ll find a
new “Explore this area” link near the top left. Clicking
on that link brings up thumbnails of photos and videos with links to
more of each, as well as custom maps for that location.
Click Here for More Information
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NASA’s
Phoenix Mars Lander has been sent to Mars in order to
investigate the geological history and biological potential of the
Martian arctic. Phoenix will be returning essential data from
the surface of Mars, as it digs deep into the subsurface ice to
determine whether life ever arose on Mars. NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is providing all the excitement of
the Phoenix mission to Second Life users in their Phoenix
Lander area of NASA’s Explorer Island. MyCyberTwin is
collaborating with JPL on providing the Phoenix Lander
with the capability to respond to questions from those interested in
its mission progress. You can view the Phoenix Lander
CyberTwin in world at any time or check out the video and photos of
the Phoenix CyberTwin in action.
Click
Here to Visit CyberTwin Web Site
Click Here to View CyberTwin Video and Photos
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Exploring
the Real Thing Web site supports the National Park Service’s
strategic plan by providing teachers with information on
curriculum-based programs and materials offered by national parks in
Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West
Virginia. The Find a Program function of the Web site includes
a description of each park, as well as detailed information about
specific education programs offered by each park. The Resources
section of the site allows you to search for curriculum-based
programs related to a specific park. You can also search for
resources related to a particular subject area (History/Social
Science; English Language Arts; Math; Creative and Visual Arts;
Science/Technology) or of a particular type (Books; Web
Sites; Magazines; Journals; Photos).
Click Here to Visit Web Site
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