Get Help in Surviving This Testing Season

You’d be forgiven for thinking this time of year was more about testing your patience than testing your students. Apperson, an industry leader in educational assessment and reporting solutions, can help. Apperson’s 60-day free scanner trial is just what you need to streamline workflow while providing the analytics and reporting needed to gain insight into student performance. This no-obligation offer is designed to show you the ease and cost effectiveness of Apperson’s testing solution and the positive impact it can have on your classroom or school. One of Apperson’s knowledgeable assessment specialists can help you select the option that’s perfect for your school. This offer expires on June 30, 2016.

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Connect Human Activity with Environmental Stewardship

Middle school and high school students are invited to enter the 2016 Ocean Awareness Student Contest. The theme, Making Meaning Out of Ocean Pollution, challenges students to research, explore, interpret, and say something meaningful about the connections between human activities and the health of our oceans. This year students should focus on one type of ocean pollution and “make meaning” of it through art, poetry, prose, or film. They should connect the theme with their life, their local community, or something else that is personally meaningful to them, but most important they should choose a topic that inspires and motivates them. Science, history, and personal experience should inform students’ entries. Cash prizes will be awarded in each of the four categories—art, poetry, prose, and film—at both middle school and high school levels. Over the course of the contest, other prizes may become available—for example, random drawings for scholarships and displays of pieces in public spaces, such as museums or aquariums.

Deadline: June 13, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. (ET), for entries

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Make Your Dream STEM Lab a Reality

Northrop Grumman Foundation aims to get students excited about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by making five grants of up to $100,000 each available to public middle schools for a fabulous school lab makeover. To enter the Fab School Labs Contest, applicants should create a video or submit photos, along with a written essay describing their current classroom and their vision for a school lab makeover. The foundation will choose up to 25 finalists and make their videos and photos available for viewing on Facebook. Five winners will be selected based on a public vote. Interested participants will find this opportunity on GetEdFunding, a free database sponsored by CDW•G of thousands of funding opportunities for educators.

Deadline: June 17, 2016, at 12:00 p.m. (PT), for entries

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Empower Young People Through Music

Classics for Kids Foundation supports school and community youth music programs in need by providing matching grants for new, high-quality stringed instruments, such as violins, violas, and cellos. Schools and nonprofit organizations must raise at least half of the funds to purchase the requested number of instruments, using a provider authorized by the foundation. Programs that serve K–12 students are eligible for grants. The website offers guidance for starting a stringed instrumental program, including a proposed startup budget.

Deadline: June 30, 2016, for applications

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Secure, Protect, and Charge!

Working on a 1:1 device rollout? Don’t forgot about security, protection, and charging! Tripp Lite Charging Stations protect tablets and laptops at a fraction of the cost of other stations. Features include locking steel cabinets with flow-through ventilation, adjustable device dividers, and integrated cord management. Optional wheels and handle transform the unit into a mobile charging station, allowing devices to be moved easily from room to room. Charging Stations ship fully assembled for fast deployment.

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Rethink Photographs

Recent technological advances have enhanced the accessibility of rephotography, a visual research method and project-based approach for engaging students in historical inquiry and place-based exploration. Rephotography projects capture photos from the vantage point of an old image to explore change over time. In the field, recreating the same angle and zoom as the original image is not an easy task. Given changes in communities over time, many of the old vantage points no longer exist and are now blocked by new structures. Nonetheless, using JuxtaposJS, a free and simple open-source tool, students can create a digital cross-fade between original photographs and their rephotographs, resulting in a remarkable artifact of before-and-after images. The software helps produce a digital overlay that allows the viewer to toggle between past and present images.

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Plus: Examples of rephotography are readily available online to inspire students, as well as to serve as exemplars of how technology today may inform inquiry and analysis when comparing places. The award-winning photographer Seth Taras created a series of photographs for a worldwide marketing campaign for The History Channel with the message “Know Where You Stand.” The photographer captured shots at locations around the world where major historical events happened and then blended old photos showing those events from the same perspective. Among his compelling works are a then-and-now image of Adolf Hitler standing in front of the Eiffel Tower during his 1940 tour of Paris and a field in Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937.

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Plus: Popular culture provides a segue to overcome the disjuncture between curricular content and students’ interests, and PopSpots is an exemplary rephotography project that seamlessly blends historical inquiry with music and the arts. The photographer for PopSpots seeks out locations in New York City that were the sites of iconic music album covers. He then superimposes the classic image onto a photo of the same present-day view, creating a then-and-now photomontage. He details his meticulous process of locating the original sites and demonstrates how careful analysis of a few geographic clues led to discoveries based on traces of evidence left behind in the images.

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Celebrate Visual Storytelling

A new quarterly print magazine for creative youth and their grownups, ILLUSTORIA celebrates visual storytelling, makers, and DYI culture. With backgrounds in design, comics, illustration, writing, and publishing, the magazine’s contributors share a belief in the power of stories, art, and creative expression. In the first issue, all about beginnings, readers will learn from Cece Bell about the making of her graphic novel El Deafo. They will also discover how Andrew Bird prototyped a makeshift violin at age 4 and glimpse into Aaron Becker’s process illustrating Journey. The magazine has original contributions from dozens of new and familiar artists and writers in the form of illustrated stories, comics, DIY activities, and more.

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Bridge the Fine Arts and Technology

The Arts & Digital Literacy Initiative, which bridges fine arts education and technology, is a program of the Texas Cultural Trust in collaboration with The University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts. The initiative is a set of project-based, fine arts curricula for high school students that establish the connection between traditional fine arts education—art, music, theatre, and dance—and digital media. The courses create learning experiences that develop students’ capacities for critical thinking, creativity, imagination, and innovation. Based on a combined set of fine arts and technology standards, the arts instruction is designed specifically to develop students’ media literacy, providing integrated, relevant skills that will prepare students for the 21st century workplace. Free downloadable guides are handbooks to help in the implementation of the courses at the school level. The guides give an overview of the initiative, the philosophy and structure of the courses, and practical suggestions for implementing the courses. The intended audience of the handbooks includes principals, teachers, and instructional technology (IT) staff.

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Engage in Cross-Fertilization Among Disciplines

Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST) is recognized as a global leader in the interdisciplinary world of art/science/technology. For more than 40 years, Leonardo has promoted and publicized the work of creative individuals who look beyond the barriers that separate the arts and sciences, focusing instead on the strengths that emerge from cross-fertilization among disciplines. Leonardo’s programs and activities reflect the exploding interest in this evolving field. Current explorations include projects in interactive and emerging media, encompassing both open participation and peer-review practices. Leonardo has long served as a critical resource for classroom curricula and student research through the Leonardo Educators and Students Program, which focuses on such activities and initiatives as the Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS), student internships, publication discounts for students and educators, and student art/science contests. Leonardo’s working group, Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF), organizes panel discussions and other activities of interest to the education and academic communities at conferences and symposia.

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Converse and Collaborate in an Unconference

Unhangout is an open-source platform for running large-scale online unconferences. The project uses Google Hangouts to create as many small sessions as needed and help users find others with shared interests. Think of it as a classroom with an infinite number of breakout sessions. Each event has a landing page, called the lobby. When they arrive in the lobby, participants can see who else is there and chat with one another. The hosts can do a video welcome and introduction that gets streamed into the lobby. Participants then break out into smaller sessions (up to 10 people per session) for in-depth conversations, peer-to-peer learning, and collaboration on projects. Unhangout is an MIT Media Lab project, in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation.

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Take the Tech Plunge

Whether you’ve just dipped your toes into tech or you’re already riding the latest wave, this summer you can Plunge into Tech and discover new and innovative ways to use technology purposefully to enhance learning. Join some of the most brilliant thinkers in educational technology to discuss hot topics such as blended learning, personalized learning, open educational resources (OERs), and much more. Topics in this free summer webinar series, sponsored by Corwin, include “Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality” (June 7); “Courageous Edventures” (June 14); “Redesigning Learning Spaces” (June 21); “Understanding Open Educational Resources” (July 5); “Blended Learning in Action” (July 12); “Teaching the Last Backpack Generation” (July 19); “Going Google” (July 26); and “Make Learning Personal” (August 2).

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Enhance Technology in the Classroom

To provide educators with additional content that engages students with classroom curricula, PBS LearningMedia has launched a series of free interactive iBooks, geared toward K–8 educators and covering topics in mathematics, English language arts, social studies, and Spanish language and culture. Four iBooks were released in April 2016. Each iBook averages 200 pages and contains contextualized lesson plans, professional development resources, and links to curriculum-targeted videos and games, which teachers can use to enrich classroom instruction. The first four iBooks focus on measurement, holidays, Spanish, and grammar and are available through iTunes.

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Get Serious About Being Curious

Practically a unicorn in the podcasting world, Brains On! is a science podcast for children with the motto “we’re serious about being curious.” Each Brains On! episode seeks to answer a question posed at the start—How do you catch a cold? Why does tickling make you laugh? What makes paint stick?—through a series of interviews. The questions come from intrepid young reporters; a different child cohosts the show each week. The answers come from adult experts in different fields: snake handlers, food scientists, astronauts, and others. Since early 2015, Brains On! has consistently claimed one of the top spots in the Kids & Family section of iTunes.

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Participate in Productive Backchannel Discussions

Educators at Purdue University have used a web-based social media tool called Hotseat to allow students to engage in virtual fields trips called zipTrips. With Hotseat, students can use their laptops or mobile devices to submit and vote on questions they want experts to answer. Then their school can use the free zipTrips to connect, via web streaming and videoconferencing, and interact with scientists at Purdue in real time. The program engages students and gives them a new way to take control of their learning by connecting and collaborating with experts and one another. It gives participating teachers practice with managing the use of social and collaborative online tools with students. The Hotseat tool is freely downloadable for iOS, Android, and the web.

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Fill Math with Music

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz has developed MathScienceMusic.org, a website that offers teachers resources and apps to use music as a vehicle to teach other academic lessons. One app, Groove Pizza, allows users to draw lines and shapes onto a circle. The circle then rotates, and each shape and line generates its own distinct sound. It’s a discreet way for children to learn about rhythm and proportions. With enough shapes and lines, children can create elaborate beats on the app, all in the context of a “pizza”—another way to make learning math and music palatable to children. Another app—Scratch Jazz—allows children to use the basic coding platform Scratch to create their own music.

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Connect with the World of Science

The Royal Institution (Ri) in London connects people with the world of science. On Ri’s website, students can engage in a range of educational games and quizzes to learn more about science, engineering, and the natural world. For example, in “Fight the Bite,” students find out how plants fight back against insect attacks. In “DNA Detectives,” students become forensic scientists and learn how DNA is used to solve crimes. And in “Shifty the Robot,” students create a lifting machine using human arms as a guide.

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Encourage Student Makers

TurtleArt lets students make images with their computer. The turtle follows a sequence of commands. Students specify the sequence by snapping together puzzle-like blocks. The blocks tell the turtle to draw lines and arcs, draw in different colors, go to a specific place on the screen, and so forth. Some blocks let students repeat or name sequences; other blocks perform logical operations. The sequence of blocks is a program that describes an image. This kind of programming is inspired by the LOGO programming language. It was designed to be easy enough for children and yet powerful enough for people of all ages. TurtleArt focuses on making images while allowing students to explore geometry and programming.

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Bring 3D Printing into the Classroom

Educators can empower their students to design, collaborate, and create amazing things never thought possible with MakerBot in the Classroom: An Introduction to 3D Printing and Design. Packed with resources, this free ebook provides the basics of 3D printing and design, as well as ideas, projects, and activities for integrating 3D printers into the curriculum. To get started with 3D printing in the classroom, simply fill out the short online form and download the complete book.

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Explore “Curly” Ethical Questions

The Australian Broadcast Corporation has launched a podcast series for 7- to 12-year-olds and adults called Short & Curly. The 15- to 20-minute episodes explore ethical questions that are difficult to answer, such as Can you trust a robot? Is stealing music or jokes really stealing? Should chimps have the same rights as kids? Is it ever okay to fight back against a bully? Can competitive sport be truly fair? Listeners can repost an episode, add it to a playlist, or share it on social media.

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Weigh Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues

The nonprofit ProCon organization promotes critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, and primarily pro/con format. The subject groups include politics, science and technology, elections and presidents, world/international issues, health and medicine, entertainment and sports, and much more. The Teachers’ Corner provides free lesson plans, a section on how teachers can meet Common Core and NCSS standards as they use ProCon materials, and a section on teaching controversial issues and critical thinking. The topics range from “Minimum Wage” to “Illegal Immigration”; from “Tablets vs Textbooks” to “Video Games and Violence.”

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Engage Students in the Voting Experience

Newsela is working in partnership with the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) and other educational associations, think tanks, civic groups, and news media partners to implement a program that helps teachers and parents engage their students in the 2016 presidential election. Students Vote 2016 will culminate in the fall of this year in the largest national mock student election ever held, in partnership with the nonprofit group Rock the Vote, for students in grades 2–12. Educators can begin their exploration of this project with a free toolkit, which reviews frequently asked questions and offers classroom election activities to engage students in this experience.

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Explore Worlds of Art

#MetKids is made for, with, and by youth and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The website encourages children across the globe to explore The Met using an interactive map; watch behind-the-scenes videos that feature young people just like them; travel through more than 5,000 years of art in the time machine; discover fun facts about works of art—from dragons to dancers, mummies to masks, and more; try out creative projects at home or in the classroom; and stay up to date with the #MetKids blog. #MetKids has been inspired, tested, and approved by real kids, aged 7–12.

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