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 Deepen Thinking, Engage in Debate, Experience Augmented Reality & More.

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

Connect and Debate Around the World

The Virtual Debate project began as a way to infuse technology into an authentic argumentative writing experience by giving students an audience. To get started with the Virtual Debate, students in two classes agree to engage with one another and select a topic based on their interests and passions. Past topics have included police presence in schools, competitive sports, and digital detox, to name a few.

Grow Students’ Thinking

To help teachers ask questions that encourage student reflection and higher-order thinking, TeachThought has created a list ofquestion stems appropriate for each of the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. The question stems can be used for any content area or discipline.

Make Thinking Visible

To help preschoolers develop a flexible understanding of number, researchers at Stanford University’s AAALab createdCritter Corral, a freely available iPad app. The child’s goal is to help return a Wild West town to its former glory by helping the town’s businesses.

Big Deal Book, September 15, 2015

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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 Bring History Alive, Celebrate Literacy, Collaborate Globally & More.

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

Tackle Environmental Issues

The Lexus Eco Challenge is an opportunity for middle school and high school students across the United States to help clean the air, water, and land in their neighborhoods and beyond. Lexus and Scholastic have joined together to create this STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) educational program. Teams of students can enter both of the first two challenges, which are focused on Land & Water and Air & Climate.

Deadlines: The Land & Water Challenge is now open and will close on October 16, 2015; the Air & Climate Challenge will open on October 17 and close on December 11, 2015.

Engage Students with the Art of Poetry

The Academy of American Poets hopes to give teachers in all content areas multiple opportunities to integrate poetry into their instruction with Teach This Poem, a new, free weekly email that features a poem along with instructional resources and ideas for activities related to the selection. The new initiative, which begins September 2, expands on the Academy’s existing Poem-a-Day, an online syndicated series featuring previously unpublished poems, which has been running since 2006. The Academy created the new resource to build upon the lesson plans already available on its website and to give teachers a version of Poem-a-Day for students.

Share the Wisdom of Generations

Since 2003, StoryCorps has given more than 100,000 Americans a quiet booth and a facilitator to record meaningful conversations with one another about who they are, what they’ve learned in life, and how they want to be remembered. Recently, this nonprofit oral history organization announced The Great Thanksgiving Listen. StoryCorps is working with high school teachers across the country to ask students to interview a grandparent or another elder over Thanksgiving 2015, using the free StoryCorps mobile app.

Big Deal Book, September 1, 2015

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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 Practice Argumentation, Diagram Narratives, Explore Beat Making & More.

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

Usher Cells Through Mitosis

How do cells divide to grow new hair, repair skin, or strengthen bones? The Mitosis app, from Inkling Systems, walks students through the process of cell division and explains everything that happens along the way. Students can usher cells through mitosis with their fingers to learn about what happens in each phase of the process.

Develop Computer Literacy

To get more people into computer science and also increase the diversity of those going into the field, Google has rolled out an online destination where anyone can go to find computer science learning opportunities. The new portal on the Google for Education website aims to increase exposure to all kinds of opportunities for one to gain computer science skills—whether through online games, grants, or summer camps—by collecting them in one place and allowing anyone to sort them by age and region for the highest relevance to one’s needs.

Make a School Year's Resolution

Produced by NBC News Education Nation and sponsored by Pearson, the Parent Toolkit is intended to empower parents with practical advice to support their child’s overall development. Pearson and NBC News Education Nation are asking parents, grandparents, other family members, and teachers to relate ways they can support students by sharing their School Year’s Resolution with the Parent Toolkit community, starting on August 3, 12 p.m. (ET), and ending on September 8, 12 p.m.(ET).

Big Deal Book, August 17, 2015, Edition

We're archiving the newsletters here.

VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you canTeach the Future, Encourage Curiosity, Deepen Understanding & More.

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

Illuminate the Why and Who of Chemistry

Behind the Scenes at MIT is a collection of free videos that feature MIT researchers explaining how a textbook chemistry topic is essential to their research and to an inspiring real-world application. Currently, 12 science videos can be searched by chemistry topic (for example, atomic theory, bonding, acid-base equilibrium) or by research application. A set of accompanyingpersonal videos, one for each scientist featured, illustrates their journeys to becoming a scientist.

Fund Your Innovative Projects

Kids In Need Foundation provides grants to help teachers purchase classroom materials for innovative projects. The foundation has two programs. One program supports teachers’ projects in any subject area, and these projects are judged on creativity and educational merit. Teachers can also select a project from a list of more than 1,200 ideas and apply for funding through the other program. Grants range from $100 to $500.

Deadline: Applications accepted through September 30, 2015

Get Expert Advice on Building Successful Teen Programs

School Library Journal is hosting the SummerTeen 2015 online conference (#SLJteenLive) on August 13, 2015, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (ET). SummerTeen is a free, completely virtual conference for teen and young adult services librarians and educators from public and school library settings, as well as teen advisory groups, book clubs, and anyone who loves Young Adult (YA)/teen literature. Participants will enjoy a full day of free online programming tackling important issues impacting teen collection and programming.

And don't miss the survey in this newsletter...you could win a $50 gift certificate for participating!

Big Deal Book, August 3, 2015, Edition

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 Make It Multicultural, Slow the Summer Slide, Unleash Creativity & More.

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

Personalize SAT Practice Online

Official SAT® Practice for the redesigned SAT has gone live on KhanAcademy.org, making free, personalized online practice available for all students. Unlike traditional high-priced test prep that focuses on strategies for taking the test and quick cramming, Official SAT Practice supports and reinforces what students are learning in classrooms by helping them focus on the knowledge and skills essential for college readiness.

Incorporate Mapping Activities into the Curriculum

Hosted by the Science Education Research Center (SERC) at Carlton College, the Teaching with Maps website providesK–12 cross-curricular lessons and activities on integrating visual learning, spatial thinking, and quantitative skills. Educators can browse or search activities by category (K–8, 9–12, AP/IB/Honors) and refine results by resource type, subject, and grade level. Links provide collections of lessons in climate and energy, earth science, geoscience data, Mars, microbes, and more. A section for professional development includes teaching strategies.

Inspire Students to Think Critically and Creatively

The Denver Art Museum’s Creativity Resource for Teachers offers fresh ideas—written by visual arts, language arts, and social studies teachers—to inspire students to think critically and creatively. Among the featured activities are “Capturing Images Through Words,” in which students closely examine an image of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Petunia and Glass Bottle and then use words to capture what they see. The teacher then uses those words to write a poem about the painting.

You can browse the June 15, 2015, edition of the newsletter and access the archives here.