Preserve and Protect the Environment
2008 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/Fujifilm Environmental Excellence Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of students and teachers who work at the grassroots level to protect and preserve the environment. Eight projects will be selected, and each winning group will receive $10,000 to benefit the award-winning project; an all-expenses-paid trip for three students and one adult leader to an Anheuser-Busch theme park for a special awards event; a Fujifilm digital camera for use by the award-winning group—and more.
Deadline: November 30, 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!

Find Solutions for Helping English Language Learners
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

Continue Your Professional Development
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) awards associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, educational specialist, doctoral and first-professional degrees in a wide range of fields. The institution enjoys an excellent reputation for its programs offered through the Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies and University School, including innovative parenting, preschool, primary and secondary education programs. NSU offers several of its degree programs through distance education delivery systems.
Click Here to Learn More About NSU

Encourage Physical Activity!
Can your students create a computer game that encourages children to get more active? If so, they could win more than $75,000 in prizes. Ruckus Nation is looking for ideas that can actually be developed in the near future. The contest is sponsored by HopeLab, a nonprofit organization working to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illnesses. To submit an entry, just describe the idea in writing, in English, and in two pages or less. You may also submit an illustration or video to show how cool the product idea is.
Deadline: November 20, 2007
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Win with Words
High school students who have a way with words can compete for the title of National Vocabulary Champion and receive $40,000 toward college tuition. Fifty students will be chosen to participate in the second annual National Vocabulary Championship in March 2008. The contest aims to highlight the importance of language arts and promote development of a strong vocabulary as a means of achieving academic and career success, according to The Network for Games (GSN) and The Princeton Review, the two chief sponsors of the competition. As part of the program, free Princeton Review study materials are offered to help students improve their vocabulary skills for the contest as well as for the SATs or other college entrance exams. Students can access the study modules and qualify to participate in the contest by taking an online exam anytime throughout the month of November.
Deadline: November 30, 2007 for online exam
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Evaluate Online Information
World Book, Inc. has announced the World Book Fact or Fiction? Student Video Contest, inviting students to create an original video on what makes an online site a good information source. The contest encourages students to be discerning about the trustworthiness of the information they are finding online when they conduct research on topics for school or their personal interest. The contest is open to students in elementary, high school and college. Students get to vote for their favorite video from December 1, 2007 through January 7, 2008. The creator of the top vote-getting video will win a MacBook, and his or her school will receive a digital video camera.
Deadline: November 30, 2007
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Plus: To help students along, Rhett and Link, frequent YouTube contributors and now co-hosts of the television program Online Nation, offer insight on how to use the contest topic to create a clever yet interesting video entry. Rhett and Link’s Hot Tips also provide practical information for novice filmmakers on the do’s and don’ts of video creation.

Raise Reading Scores
Knowledge Adventure, a developer and publisher of educational software for the home and classroom, has launched its Schools in Need Competition, which will provide 10 awards of $12,000 each to 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 in kindergarten through grade 8.
Deadline: December 15, 2007 for nominations
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Learn at the Campus That Never Sleeps
iTunes U, the education portal within Apple’s iTunes, has expanded its content to include educational materials from sources beyond colleges and universities, including Smithsonian Global Sound, KQED, Little Kids Rock and the Museum of Modern Art. The most recent addition to the expanded content area, known as Beyond Campus, is American Public Media (APM), which is making its radio programming available free for educational purposes. The programming includes selections from APM’s programs American RadioWorks, Composer’s Datebook, Marketplace, Speaking of Faith, Word for Word and The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. The content includes downloadable audio, printable transcripts and suggestions for discussion points to support classroom use of the programs.
Click Here for Free Educational Media

Raise a Reader
Thousands of community events will be held on November 1, to mark National Family Literacy Day, and Raising a Reader will be unveiled by the National Center for Family Literacy. This free magazine provides activities for parents to support their children’s literacy, language and reading skills. It should prove especially helpful to low-income families whose children hear 30 million fewer words by age 3 than their counterparts who live in households led by professionals.
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Develop Resiliency Skills
Success Highways is a dropout prevention program for grades 7–9. If you are teaching in those grades or are working at a school district, you can receive a free poster to hang in your classroom or wherever students need support. The poster is one of seven that comes as part of the Success Highways curriculum, a program that focuses on the six resiliency skills students need in order to succeed in school. These skills are (1) goal setting, (2) confidence, (3) motivation, (4) connections to teachers and peers, (5) improved sense of well-being and (6) ability to manage stress.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Poster

Keep Kids Safe Online
Time Warner Cable and the Guardian Angels are joining forces on a guide aimed at keeping kids safe online. The cyber-safety guide features an instructional DVD and booklet with tips on how to navigate social-networking sites and how to look out for risky Internet behavior.
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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.

Follow School Elections
The Third Monday in October, a timely documentary, will have students on the edge of their seats, sweating over . . . a middle school election! Shot in 2004 as the U.S. presidential election was taking shape, Third Monday in October follows the class-presidency elections at four schools—in San Francisco, nearby Marin County, Austin and Atlanta. The candidates are all engaging, from SAM (Student Action Man) to Beau (a dashing villain with tousled blond hair and a black popped collar) to Kayla, Noelle and Teekia (three best-friend cheerleaders in Atlanta). Third Monday is filled with the thrills and chills of any election: There is a disqualification based on semantics, a campaign victory built on promises and negativity—and even a recount of the ballots. Learn more about the film and view a trailer online.
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Bring a Math Adventure to Students
CYBERCHASE, a mystery-adventure cartoon produced by Thirteen/WNET, is a vehicle for teaching children ages 8–12 mathematics and problem solving, with action centering around three youngsters and their avian cyberpal, Digit. Season 5 My Big Idea—Inventions will air Friday, November 24, on PBS KIDS GO! Beyond the TV episodes, learning continues through Web games and print activities that help youngsters explore their world—and have a blast with math in their homes and neighborhoods. Plus, grown-ups can bring the fun and adventure of CYBERCHASE to classrooms and after-school programs with lesson plans and activity kits.
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Reducing the Likelihood of School Violence
AnComm’s free white paper titled “A Strategy for Safer Schools” reveals that officials may be overlooking the most important and effective aspect in reducing the likelihood of school violence—communication. The white paper offers insight into five key strategies for maintaining safe schools: (1) using anonymous communications to foster a positive, comfortable learning environment and school culture; (2) breaking the “code of silence”—a pervasive sense among students that telling an adult that they or another student are in pain violates an unwritten, but powerful principle; (3) creating an “early warning system” to identify “at-risk” children; (4) giving students an “icebreaker” to facilitate communication between students and faculty; and (5) using technology to reach today’s i-Generation.
Click Here for Free White Paper

Developing 21st Century Skills
Results of a poll commissioned by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills shows the vast majority of U.S. voters believe students are ill-equipped to compete in the global learning environment and that schools must incorporate 21st century skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication and self-direction, and computer and technology skills into the curriculum.
Click Here for Survey Findings

Plus: The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has developed Route 21, an online, one-stop shop for 21st century skills–related resources. Route 21 demonstrates how 21st century skills can be supported through standards, professional development, assessments, and teaching and learning. Route 21 will launch on November 7. Be sure to check the site then to learn more about this online educator resource.
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Teaching Tolerance
According to a 2006 survey conducted by Teaching Tolerance, the National Education Association and the Civil Rights Project, most teachers claim their schools are free of ethnic or racial bias, yet federal studies reveal that one in four students are victims of racial or ethnic incidents during the course of the school year. Recently the U.S. House Judiciary Committee began its investigation of the incidents at Jena High School. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Law Poverty Center, who testified at the hearings, referred educators to his organization’s Teaching Tolerance Web site, specifically to “Six Lessons From Jena.” As a path to early intervention, the lessons include ways to examine a school’s climate, including how to identify and respond to bias incidents and address offensive slang. The latter includes 10 lesson plans that follow content standards for high school students, but can be adopted for any grade level.
Click Here for Free Lessons

Visit a Corner of the World
MEET ME AT THE CORNER, Virtual Field Trips for Kids, is an interactive site that encourages individual expression and participation through video submissions from children worldwide, featuring their special corner of the world. The first video podcasts focus on the people, events and history of New York City. Each program highlights the talents, diversity and accomplishments of the people of New York through explorations of the city, block by block. As the site grows through children’s submissions, the people and events of other towns, cities and nations will be highlighted.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Travel the Seven Continents
TeachersFirst’s Globetracker’s Mission is an engaging way for students in grades 2–6 to learn geography, map skills and world cultures through an episodic story. Each week, a new episode, in the format of a blog post, appears on the Globetracker’s Mission site. The “blog” is written by fictional teenagers Geo and Meri as they travel the seven continents of the world on a secret “mission” for an unnamed government agency. They seek clues and travel under the supervision of their Uncle Globetracker, writing the “blog” as part of their requirements for missing high school work. Classes who follow the mission learn standards-based terms and concepts of world geography as they respond to Geo and Meri’s think-aloud questions, using maps, images and links that Geo and Meri provide. Concepts include landforms, map skills, cultures, major landmarks, continents, oceans, rivers—and more.
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Improve Knowledge of Geography
Do your students know all the countries in Europe? I Like to Learn is open for learning. Developed by a teacher, this interactive site can help improve students’ geographical knowledge. Try the “easy” quiz to name the European nations. Also find quizzes for the longest river, highest mountain, U.S. state capitals, lakes in Africa—and more.
Click Here to Visit Web Site