Big Deal Book

VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you can Build Media Literacy, Increase Civic Engagement, Share Opinions & More.

Here are just a few highlights from this edition. Click the link below to learn more about them and find lots more.  Check the deadlines for various contests and prepare for National Poetry Month with a new app.

See in New Ways

Destination Imagination invites elementary (K–5), middle (6–8), and secondary (9–12) students to participate in the Destination Imagination Video Contest. Their challenge is to create a 60-second video telling about a time when they were creative, curious, or courageous.

Support Digital Literacy in the Library

A report just released by the Aspen Institute’s Dialogue on Public Libraries asks us again to reconsider how the library can serve communities in the 21st century. “Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries” aims to capture the momentum and excitement of the innovations taking place in public libraries across the country, and the impact these are having on communities. The report asks: With all the new technologies and layered networks, what can be done beyond current advancements?

Shake a Poem on Your Phone

With the Poetry Foundation’s free POETRY mobile app for iOS and Android devices, users can take hundreds of poems by classic and contemporary poets with them wherever they go. From William Shakespeare to César Vallejo to Heather McHugh, the Poetry Foundation’s app turns a smartphone into a mobile poetry library.

Big Deal Book, March 1, 2016

Archives

VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you can Build a Growth Mindset, Cultivate Inquiry, Engineer Inventions & More.

Here are just a few highlights from this edition. Click the link below to learn more about them and find lots more. This edition includes some terrific opportunities to create, share and...maybe win some awards and prizes!

Inspire Change Through Music

To teach a new generation about music’s power to create change, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the GRAMMY Museum have launched Speak Up, Sing Out, a songwriting contest for students in grades 6–12. Open to any genre of music, the contest challenges students to write educational and inspirational songs about human rights issues, empowering them to use their creative talents to create change. Deadline February 21, 2016 SOON!

Highlight a Community Issue

PBS LearningMedia is inviting K–12 students to participate in its Meet Me in D.C. Contest by designing an election poster that highlights important community issues. Deadline: March 31, 2016

Share Exemplary EdTech Collaborations

Educators are invited to enter the Collaboration Nation video contest by telling CDW•G about their school or district’s exemplary educational technology collaboration and the measurable impact it has had on learning and teaching. By sharing their successes, schools or districts have the opportunity to win a $50,000 grand prize or one of three $15,000 monthly prizes from CDW•G. Monthly through April 30, 2016...so you have two more months to enter your video! 

Big Deal Book, February 15, 2016

Archives

VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you can Enhance Multiple Literacies, Experience Different Cultures & More.

Here are just a few highlights from this edition. Click the link below to learn more about them and find lots more:

Interact in Human Dramas

Developed at The University of Michigan – Flint and Ann Arbor, ImagineNation Matters “virtual tour” modules are like storybooks come to life, in which upper elementary students can experience, for example, the human drama of the Underground Railroad or life as a modern Arab American. Each of the modules is in the form of a story that involves protagonists of the approximate age of student participants

Use Technology Creatively

Now, more than ever, school librarians are leading creative technology use in K–12, from maker activities and robotics to mobile devices. Led by top practitioners in the field, School Library Journal’s free, one-hour webcasts provide practical takeaway information on hot topics in educational technology. On February 17, 2016, at 3 p.m. (ET), School Library Journal (SLJ), in partnership with ISTE, will present “Using Technology to Engage the Reluctant Reader.”

eCYBERMISSION is a free web-based STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) competition administered byNSTA. The competition challenges students in grades 6–9 to work in teams to identify a problem in their community and then propose a solution by using scientific practices or engineering design processes. The teams, composed of three to four students and one adult team advisor, all from the same grade and state, will compete against thousands of their peers to be named as a State First-Place Winning Team. Volunteers are also needed to be judges.

Archives

Big Deal Book, February 1, 2016

VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you can Listen to the Sounds of Nature, Tap into the Internet of Things & More.

Here are just a few highlights from this edition. Click the link below to learn more about them and find lots more:

Think Critically About Art

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles provides free lessons that integrate art into the curriculum. One of these lessons focuses on Understanding Formal Analysis. In the lesson, students explore the elements of art and principles of design used by artists

Evaluate EdTech Product Effectiveness

A new online tool can help school–district leaders compare the effectiveness of technology products before purchasing them. The tool, designed by the nonprofit Digital Promise and researchers from Johns Hopkins University, asks questions and provides scores on which products would best meet their needs.

Participate in a Global Game of Intrigue

Designed for the iPad and iPhone, Ingress is a free immersive Augmented Reality (AR) game produced by Niantic Labs, a division of Google. The story setup is that the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has discovered a new form of matter called Exotic Matter (XM, for short). XM, which has the power to control human thought, is constantly leaking into our world via various portals. The world is divided into two factions over who should control these XM portals, and it is up to the player to choose a side and help that side achieve victory. The game incorporates real-world locations and landmarks as portals usinggeo-location-based AR, in combination with an arsenal of tools to hack and take over portals, and a constant stream of social interaction. Cost: Free

Big Deal Book, January 18, 2016

Archives

VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you can Engage in Inquiry, Nurture Leadership, Partner with Parents & More.

Here are just a few highlights from this edition. Click the link below to learn more about them and find lots more:

Share Groundbreaking Educational Programs

Returning for a fifth year, the $200,000 Follett Challenge will highlight and reward the most innovative K–12 programs that teach21st-century skills to students. Schools or districts, public and private, in the United States and Canada are eligible to apply. Submissions are open to all K–12 educators and Parent Teacher Organizations. To participate in this year’s contest, entrants must complete an online application and upload a three- to five-minute video describing their program. Deadline January 29, 2016

Create with Code

Young children, aged 5–7, can use ScratchJr, an introductory programming language, to create their own interactive storiesand games. Children can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves—and then use the graphical programming blocks to make their characters come to life.

Ensure Success for All Students

On January 18, 2016, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (ET), Big Deal Media’s Amazing Resources for Educators community onedWeb.net will host an interactive, collaborative webinar, sponsored by Quill.com, titled “Ensuring Success for All: Strategies for Bringing Out the Best in Students in Poverty, and Students Who Struggle with Language and Learning.” In this webinar, the 2015 National Teacher of the Year will share her experiences in Title I middle and high schools, as well as her work with refugee students, English learners, and students in intervention classes.

Big Deal Book, January 4, 2016

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