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Teach the Future, Encourage Curiosity, Deepen Understanding & More
August 3, 2015
In Partnership With: 
IN THIS ISSUE
Grants, Competitions, and Other "Winning" Opportunities
Resource Roundup
Professional Development Plus
Mobile Learning Journey
STEM Gems
Worth-the-Surf Websites
Grants, Competitions, and Other "Winning" Opportunities
Get Your 1:1 Computing Program Off the Ground
The nonprofit Digital Wish is offering technical support grants to school administrators who need assistance with planning one-to-one computing programs for their elementary or middle schools. The grant, which is open to public, charter, and nonprofit independent schools, includes more than $4,500 in support resources. Schools interested in starting a pilot 1:1 program are encouraged to apply.
Deadline: Applications accepted through August 31, 2015
Click Here for More Information
Imagine Solutions for Making Change
Can we solve global problems by imagining a better future? The advocacy group Sapiens Plurum has joined forces with Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI), Ocean Conservancy, and the Talk Like a Pirate folks to test this idea with a short fiction “write-away” contest, which challenges young people and their teachers around the globe to dream of heroes who could combat the dilemma of ocean trash that pervades every major sea on Earth. The Ocean Trash Write-Away Contest seeks entries between 1,500 and 3,000 words, in English, from writers aged 25 and under. First prize will be a four-day trip to CSI, on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, Arizona. The winner and his or her guest will meet with CSI researchers and leadership, visit labs and other environments at Arizona State University aligned with their intellectual and professional interests, and consult with top scholars and researchers. Other prizes include $500 in cash, T-shirts, and certificates.
Deadline: Contest begins August 24 and ends September 19, 2015, which happens to be both International Coastal Cleanup Day and Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Click Here for More Information
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
Click Here for More Information
Supplement Your Stretched Budget
GetEdFunding is a free website sponsored by CDW•G to help educators and institutions find the funds they need in order to supplement their already stretched budgets. GetEdFunding hosts a collection of thousands of grants and other funding opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and available to public and private, preK–12 educators, schools and districts, higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations that work with them. GetEdFunding offers customized searches by six criteria, including 43 areas of focus, eight content areas and any of the 21st century themes and skills that support your curriculum. After registering on the site, you can save the grant opportunities of greatest interest and then return to them at any time. This rich resource of funding opportunities is expanded, updated and monitored daily.
Click Here to Visit Website
Resource Roundup
Encourage Curiosity While Building Literacy
Developed by the editors of TIME and TIME For Kids, TIME Edge is a digital tool for bringing current events and credible primary sources to middle school classrooms. The content is specifically tied to seventh- and eighth-grade English language arts standards, and the platform includes Common Core–aligned quizzes on each featured article, tools for students to explore the texts more deeply, and a wealth of resources for teachers. TIME Edge can be used in any middle school classroom, on any device, with articles on a variety of topics, including science, social studies, and more. In addition to engaging, authentic nonfiction texts, TIME Edge offers access to the TIME Vault, with nearly 90 years of TIME content to use in the classroom.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Trial
Combine Historical Narratives and Literary Fiction
The Memory Palace podcasts examine lesser-known historical stories or those that have been treated as subplots within a larger narrative. What’s unique is the literary approach taken by the show’s host. The stories are crafted in a manner that is lyrical and gripping. As such, students who listen to the podcasts will be drawn into the stories much like they would a piece of literary fiction, with the key exception being that these stories are true. The result is a work that moves students into the emotional perspectives of the protagonists’ firsthand experiences. Just like fiction, The Memory Palace is a tool for building empathy and expanding students’ viewpoints. And since the stories are relatively short, ranging from three to fifteen minutes in length, the podcasts are quick to consume.
Click Here to Access Free Podcast
Deepen the Reading of a Novel
Facing History’s Teaching Mockingbird study guide brings a fresh eye to the characters, setting, and themes that make this novel so enduring. The study guide asks students to analyze the moral growth of the novel’s main characters and then to reflect on the moral growth that has occurred in their own lives. Throughout the guide, students return to a central question: What kinds of experiences help us learn how to judge right from wrong? Students’ thinking about this question is deepened by the primary source documents and media-rich scholarship and analysis included in the study guide. The central goal of Facing History’s Teaching Mockingbird resource is to deepen the reading of the novel by integrating historical context, documents, and sources that reflect the African American voices that are missing in Scout’s narration. Go Set a Watchman, too, is an opportunity to complicate the reader’s thinking about Mockingbird. Over the next weeks, Facing History will be developing approaches that will help educators bring this new work and its historical context into the classroom in time for the new school year.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Study Guide
Sponsored By:
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Professional Development Plus
Prove Your Ed-Tech Mettle with CoSN's CETL Program
Are you ready to take the next step in your career? Earning CETL™ certification will demonstrate to your staff, superintendent, and other stakeholders that you have mastered the knowledge and skills needed to define the vision for and successfully build 21st century learning environments in your school district. It starts with the Framework of Essential Skills, a template for all the skills ed-tech leaders need in order to succeed. Join a study group or bone up on your own. Then take the CETL exam to test your competency in these areas.
Click Here for More Information
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. They will hear directly from authors about their current and forthcoming titles in an engaging conversational format, including live Q&A with the audience. Discussion panels will focus on important teen issues and trends, such as selecting quality nonfiction and navigating romance genre mashups. New this year will be sessions dedicated entirely to teen services and programming. Participants will learn from innovative librarians about gaming in the library, setting up teen volunteer groups, and launching a “Con” in the library. They’ll also be able to explore the virtual exhibit hall, hear directly from publishers about their newest books, and enjoy live chats with featured authors.
Click Here to Register for Free Virtual Conference
Practice Principles of Design Thinking
Stanford University’s Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking engages participants in The Gift-Giving Project, a free fast-paced online course in which partners interview each other, identify real needs, and develop a solution to redesign the gift-giving experience. Through the 90-minute project, participants travel through a full design cycle, enabling them to develop and practice basic principles of design thinking transferable to personal and professional routines. The project is divided into three sections starting with how to gather materials and prepare, followed by an 80-minute video with wrap-up questions, and finishing with challenges that help participants put design thinking to work.
Click Here to Access Free Course
Guide Learning Experiences Implementing the Common Core
Professional Development Kits for Teacher Training assist educators in building their skills and abilities in implementing the Common Core State Standards. The free kits are organized by grade range and focus on the subjects of mathematics and English language arts. Each kit can be used to deliver formal or informal learning experiences to other teachers. The kits were developed by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to support educators in reaching their vision of a college- and career-ready education for all students. Also available from NYSED are Professional Development Kits for Principal Training, which school/building leaders can use to guide their own development of Common Core State Standards implementation or to deliver formal or informal learning experiences for teachers.
Click Here to Access Free Teacher Kits
Click Here to Access Free Principal Kits
Plus: The Video Professional Development Series developed by NYSED features multiple sessions, each including a set of two free videos designed to provide teachers and professional development organizers with the tools needed to enhance teaching practice and reflection. Suited for individuals and small groups, the videos serve as opportunities for professional development for districts. The video grade-level focus is upper elementary and upper high school, but teachers of all grades can gain knowledge from the material provided in the series.
Click Here to Access Free Video Series
Mobile Learning Journey
Investigate the World’s Endangered Animals
WWF Together, a free app from the World Wildlife Fund, features interactive stories about endangered animals around the world, including giant pandas, tigers, elephants, marine turtles, and polar bears. The app contains origami of each animal that folds up, creating an animated video students can share with their friends and family through Facebook, email, and/or Twitter—plus, students will find downloadable instructions for making their own origami. Students can try out “tiger vision,” stay as still as the polar bear during a hunt, and chop the panda’s bamboo. On the 3D interactive globe, students can discover how far away they are from 60 different animals around the world. High-definition, full-screen videos and image galleries feature photos by a renowned environmental photographer. The animals currently featured are pandas, marine turtles, elephants, tigers, polar bears, bison, whales and snow leopards. New species stories—which students can fold and share—are added regularly.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free iPad App
Click Here to Access Free Android App
Click Here to Access Free Kindle Fire App
Fly Where Your Fancy Takes You
Google Cardboard brings immersive experiences to students in a simple and affordable way. Whether they fold their own viewer or buy a “Works with Google Cardboard” certified viewer, students are just one step away from experiencing virtual reality on their Android smartphones. Once they have a viewer, students can explore a variety of apps that unfold all around them. Cardboard has hundreds of immersive experiences from which to choose. The official Cardboard app is students’ first stop for virtual reality on their Android phones. Students can try a variety of immersive demos, including Windy Day, an interactive animated short from Spotlight Stories. Or with Proton Pulse, they can use their paddle to direct the Proton, an energy ball with awesome power and the only thing that can destroy the MOAI core. In the Brush Gallery, students can view creations made with Tilt Brush, a painting application made for virtual reality. They can load premade sketches and watch them being drawn as they were originally created. The Google Play app store provides other apps and experiences that work with Google Cardboard; most of the apps are free.
Click Here to Visit Website
Plus: Google’s Expeditions, a new educational tool coming this fall, lets teachers take their classes on field trips to anywhere. From the Expeditions app on their Android tablets, teachers can send synchronized three-dimensional 360° panoramas to each student’s Cardboard viewer, pointing out areas of interest in real time and instantly pausing the trip when needed. Used in conjunction with existing lessons and curriculum, Expeditions immerses students in experiences that bring abstract concepts to life and provide a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Visit Google Play Store
STEM Gems
Meet the Demands of a New Tomorrow
Qeyno Labs, a project of Empowerment WORKS, aims to transform children’s lives and give them the power to transform their world through social innovation, education, and technology. In 2014 Qeyno launched the nonprofit Hackathon Academy, a new type of schooling to meet the demands of a new tomorrow. Hackathon Academy prepares high-potential youth in low-opportunity settings to become next-generation developers, designers, and innovators in STE(A)M (science, technology, engineering, art design, and mathematics). Check the website for the Academy’s 2015 national schedule. Contact Qeyno Labs if you would like to bring a Hackathon Academy to your area.
Click Here to Visit Website
Frame STEM Instruction Around “Big Questions”
IT’S ABOUT TIME is a global leader in research-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula for K–12 and college students. Modeled on the way practicing scientists, engineers, and mathematicians work, the organization’s project-based STEM solutions give educators tools to create a learning environment that deepens student engagement and problem-solving skills. Using IT’S ABOUT TIME’s Project-Based Inquiry Science, students take part in science learning experiences framed around answering Big Questions or addressing Big Challenges that guide instruction and serve to organize their learning progressions. As students pursue answers, they conduct investigations, make models, collect and analyze data, weigh evidence, write explanations, and discuss and present findings. For instance, one physics project poses the question, Why should I wear a helmet when I ride my bike?—an inquiry that connects directly to children’s everyday lives. To answer the question, students work on a series of activities leading them to explore related questions that build their knowledge of the principles of force, motion, acceleration, and gravity so they can grasp how a helmet would protect their heads from the impact of a potential collision. Project-Based Inquiry Science reflects the full scope of science content standards for middle school—those identified as the Disciplinary Core Ideas in A Framework for K–12 Science Education and those of individual states and districts. Teachers can sign up for a sample on the website.
Click Here to Visit Website
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 accompanying personal videos, one for each scientist featured, illustrates their journeys to becoming a scientist. Some of these videos highlight challenges that have been overcome, such as dealing with learning disabilities and having to learn English in order to understand science class. These videos are intended to help motivate students to learn chemistry, inspire them to tackle important scientific problems in their future careers, and expose them to the many faces of chemistry. The videos can be viewed online or downloaded for use in the classroom. Each science video is under three minutes in length, and the personal videos are three to five minutes long.
Click Here to Access Free Videos
Worth-the-Surf Websites
Get to Know Mark Twain Through His Writings
Mark Twain Project Online (MPTO) applies innovative technology to more than four decades of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project at University of California, Berkeley. MPTO offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents. Its ultimate purpose is to produce a digital critical edition, fully annotated, of everything Mark Twain wrote. Recently, scholars at the university pieced together a collection of dispatches written by Twain when he was a young newsman in San Francisco. Many of the letters were in back issues lost in fires, but Twain scholars picked through archives of other Western US newspapers for copies. They found about 110 columns written in 1865 and 1866. MTPO is produced by the Mark Twain Papers and Project of The Bancroft Library in collaboration with the University of California Press.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to View Excerpts from Twain’s Autobiography
Plus: Learn more about MTPO’s searching, browsing, and viewing options, as well as ways to gather and store digital citations, with the free online User Guide. Also view a video overview of MTPO and the archived content that underlies it.
Click Here to Access Free Users Guide
Inspire Fresh Thinking About the Past
A project of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, Picturing America is an interactive gallery of artwork related to events, people, and themes in American history. Students can browse the gallery chronologically or by theme. They can click on any image in the gallery to learn about the artist and the artwork itself. Along with background information for each image, Picturing America provides links to additional resources for learning about the artwork and artists. The site’s Educators Resource page contains a resource book that includes printable background sheets about each piece of art in the Picturing America gallery. The resource book also includes questions and activity suggestions for using each piece of art in elementary school, middle school, and high school classrooms. The resource book is available as a free download in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Teachers can download the resource as one file or in individual chapters.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Download Free Resource Book
Visualize Metaphorical Connections Through History
The University of Glasgow’s School of Critical Studies has conducted a three-year project mapping 13 centuries of metaphors in the English language. Based on 4 million lexical data points, the Mapping Metaphor data visualization charts 14,000 connections, showing how metaphor is not just a literary device but something intrinsic to human psychology and communication. The source data was the Historical Thesaurus of English, also created at the Scottish university, which from 1965 to 2008 compiled around 800,000 words going back to Old English. With this resource, researchers delved into the history of how the English language changed over time from the seventh century onward, and how people used it to understand their worlds. For example, sleep and death go way back to Old English, while comparing bodily weight to a pig only goes back to the sixteenth century. The Mapping Metaphor blog has posts exploring the peacock as a metaphor for pride, the sun as a metaphor for good, and texture (coarse, stiff, smooth) as a metaphor for writing style.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Blog
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