Access Files, Applications, and Reports from Any Device

Stoneware’s webNetwork delivers a unified workspace where teachers and students access everything they need from wherever they are located. Users have freedom and flexibility to access resources from any device, extending education beyond classroom walls. webNetwork enables key initiatives such as personalized learning, 1:1/BYOD, and Common Core assessment delivery.

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Respond and Win!

As a recipient of Big Deal Media’s K–12 technology enewsletter, you are invited to tell Big Deal Media how you use this publication and how you participate in the purchase of technology products and services. (The survey will take about five minutes to complete.) Surveys submitted IN FULL by September 15, 2015, will be entered in a random drawing to win a $50 American Express gift card. Big Deal Media is giving away one $50 card for every 100 completed surveys.

Deadline: September 15, 2015, for completed surveys

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Pursue Public Service

The United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) is a unique opportunity for motivated student leaders to have direct contact with the highest-level elected and appointed officials in the nation who will meet with them during a weeklong intensive educational program in Washington, DC. The 54th annual program will be held in Washington, March 5–12, 2016. Students will meet with the president, a justice of the Supreme Court, US senators, cabinet secretaries, and many other leaders. They will visit historic sites, museums, and memorials as they learn about the inner workings of the nation’s capital. USSYP provides for all expenses, including travel and accommodations, as well as a $5,000 undergraduate college scholarship for each student. Two students from each state, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense Education Activity will be selected. Principals, teachers, and guidance counselors are encouraged to nominate high school juniors and seniors serving in an elected or appointed position in the 2015–2016 academic year with a strong interest in government and history. State selection contacts, deadlines, and comprehensive information can be found on the program’s website. State Departments of Education nationwide will select the students.

Deadlines: Applications generally accepted between September and October but vary by state

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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). They can share their resolution by simply writing it, uploading a photo, or sharing a link to a video. Those who share their resolutions will be entered to win a $250 gift card to Amazon.com for back-to-school supplies. To access the official rules (in English and Spanish) and prize descriptions, and to enter the giveaway, visit the Parent Toolkit website. Also join the conversation with the hashtag #SchoolYrResolution.

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Click Here for More Information About School Year’s Resolution

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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 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 Search for Funding Opportunities

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Diagram Narrative Structures

From first grade to twelfth grade, Storyboard That provides opportunities for engaging literary activities for the classroom. Storyboard That lets students diagram narrative structures, study literary elements, visualize symbolism, and more. Teachers can assess and reinforce student comprehension of literature with storyboards. In addition, Storyboard That is continuously developing new teacher guides. For example, The Hunger Games Teacher Guide presents lessons for teaching point of view, cause and effect, and character analysis. The lessons call for students to create storyboards to illustrate their understanding of the characters, themes, and plot of The Hunger Games. To make students think deeply about the storyline, one activity has students choose three events in the book and show how each event relates to an event in history. Like all Storyboard That teacher guides, the lessons in The Hunger Games Teacher Guide are aligned to Common Core English Language Arts Standards.

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Click Here to Access The Hunger Games Teacher Guide

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Focus on Science Misconceptions

Developed by EDC’s Center for Children & Technology, the Possible Worlds digital games are designed to help improve student understanding of phenomena that are often the subject of scientific misconceptions. The games are the centerpieces of modules that address four topics: photosynthesis, heredity, electricity, and heat transfer. Each game includes classroom activities for teachers that have been developed to leverage students’ experiences within the games.

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Plus: The classroom game No Way! is a central feature of the Possible Worlds modules. The game offers an engaging way for students to develop the critical thinking and science literacy skills emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards—skills students will need in order to become critical consumers of scientific information and reporting. Moving away from the fantasy worlds of the video games in the other modules, No Way! draws students into a compelling real-life scenario in which they are editorial interns at a science-themed website—NoWay!com. The site publishes amazing-but-true stories about incredible natural phenomena, weird inventions, and sensational events. As part of the editorial team, students must investigate claims in articles being considered for publication on the website. The articles connect to the module’s content and focus on the misconceptions addressed in the video games. Playing No Way! gives students a chance to practice crucial argumentation skills while also deepening their understanding of each module’s topic.

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Join a Musical Mission

PBS LearningMedia offers 17 free videos in which students can explore the inspiring musical mission of DJs Pierce Freelon and Stephan Levitin, and their globe-trotting Beat Making Lab. Produced by PBS Digital Studios, the Beat Making Lab travels all around the world sharing their love of electronic music with aspiring artists from developing countries, using this emerging new genre to communicate ideas of culture, health, and artistic expression. As they view the Beat Making Lab’s videos, students will learn about the process of digital music creation, the technology that makes beat-making possible, and the amazing artists who are pioneering the electronic music revolution.

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Protect Students' Privacy with CoSN

Educators and policymakers are increasingly realizing the potential in using student data to make informed decisions. But even with all that potential, balancing technology advances with the need to protect student privacy and data is a major challenge. CoSN’s Protecting Privacy in Connected Learning initiative aims to help inform your efforts. Visit CoSN’s website to download the free Protecting Privacy toolkit and new information about the 10 principles to guide the use of student data.

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Take Mobile Learning to the Next Level

Are you ready to learn how to integrate mobile learning into your school or district? Sign up for the free Verizon Mobile Learning Academy to get comprehensive training and continuing education units for your whole team. Designed for teams of administrators, technology coaches, and teachers, this 10-week course will help participants create lessons and activities for mobile learning, put mobile devices and apps to the best and most appropriate use for students, encourage creativity while guiding students toward safe use, and develop a collaborative schoolwide or districtwide mobile learning implementation plan. In addition, participants can earn 2.5 continuing education units (CEUs) from Johns Hopkins University. The Verizon Mobile Learning Academy is accepting applications for sessions starting October 5, 2015.

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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. They can also look at images of cells dividing under a microscope and see the actual structures they have been studying. The app includes an interactive exploration of mitosis, photographs of cells from light microscopes, video content (while connected to the Internet), “read and listen” text and audio that explains mitosis, an interactive quiz for students to test their knowledge of mitosis, a comprehensive glossary of relevant terms, and access to additional resources for understanding mitosis. The app is compatible with the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

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Become Worldly Wise

News-O-Matic is a daily news source from Press4Kids for children using iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire mobile devices. With more than a million comments, votes, and drawings from its young readers, the app gets youth involved with stories from around the globe. Videos, photographs, audio support, and interactive maps contribute to students’ understanding of world events. Lexile measures help to bring this interactive experience to readers with a range of abilities so all children can become empowered global citizens. News-O-Matic uses the Lexile Analyzer tool to evaluate the complexity of the texts, which cover breaking world news, science, sports, the arts, and more. The Lexile Analyzer determines the difficulty level by breaking down each passage and studying the syntactic and semantic challenges that the text presents to a reader. The outcome is the text complexity, expressed as a Lexile measure. Most News-O-Matic articles receive a variety of Lexile measures between 400L to 1000L. With the tap of a button, native Spanish speakers can access Spanish language audio. The app is free; in-app purchases range from $0.99 to $10.99.

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Visualize Coding Concepts

Through drag-and-drop programming and diverse puzzles, Blockly, a free iPad and Android app from Wonder Workshop, brings coding to life during STEM instruction. Students use the app to program Dash and Dot robots to sense and react to the world around them. Blockly’s scaffolding of coding concepts ensures that students in various grade levels remain engaged and in control. Younger students who are still learning to read can use the app’s visual interface to navigate challenges with introductory programming concepts, such as command sequences and algorithm design. The app helps older students visualize advanced concepts such as variables and comparatives. Blockly’s puzzles were carefully developed in collaboration with experienced computer science teachers to maximize ease of use and meaningful instruction. New lesson plans will be available for download regularly, ensuring fresh learning experiences for students.

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Expand EdTech Vocabulary

The field of education technology, also known as “edtech,” has been around as long as technology has been used in schools. However, computers, the Internet, and mobile devices have given rise to a new revolution of edtech. Along with this revolution is a whole new vocabulary and a new audience using these technologies—not just formal educators at learning institutions, but also parents, tutors, virtual coaches, and others. The Education Technology Dictionary is a glossary of these new terms. The dictionary is intended for individuals with little or no background in education or technology.

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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. This development is aimed particularly at students, but anyone interested in the field can take advantage of it.

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Explore the Fun Side of Computer Science

Computer Science for Fun, or CS4FN, is a UK-based magazine on computer science aimed at students. This online magazine is produced by the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London. The magazine encourages students to explore where the digital world meets the real world. For example, issue 19, titled “Touch it, feel it, hear it!” is devoted to multimodal design, showcasing technology designed to help people experience the world using computers, but through more than one sense at one time. Students will discover that multimodal design is also a way to support people with limited senses who can’t hear, see, smell, taste, or touch. For example, with the HapticWave, they can hear and feel a sound wave; and with the oPhone (Open Mobile System), they can smell coffee and see coffee even when no coffee is nearby.

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Click Here to Access Issue 19

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Journey Toward Wisdom

PBS LearningMedia’s Roadtrip Nation personalizes the career exploration process for young people by focusing on their interests and the questions they may have about how to build a life around what they love. Roadtrip Nation blends conversations on topics such as family pressure and the true meaning of success with practical career and education advice. Based on Roadtrip Nation’s archive of interviews with inspiring professionals from all walks of life, the Roadtrip Nation collection includes engaging video interviews and interactive online tools to expose students to greater career possibilities. By focusing on the “why” of career exploration, students become more engaged and excited about discovering personally relevant career and academic opportunities. Educators can choose from a variety of resources and lesson plans to find the right tool based on time, materials, and students’ interests.

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Implement Redesigned AP Courses

To continually enhance alignment with current best practices in college-level learning and help students develop the knowledge and skills essential for college majors and subsequent careers, the College Board is making a number of key changes to its Advanced Placement (AP) courses, including the redesign of several courses in each discipline and the introduction of new courses over the next few years. The Advances in AP website is designed to support AP teachers and other K–12 educators as they learn about and implement these changes.

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Connect with Comic Book Professionals

The Comics Connector, an online resource from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), connects teachers and librarians with comics professionals who are able to visit them in classrooms throughout the United States. CBLDF’s tools and resources include discussion guides, case studies, and an online column titled “Using Graphic Novels in Education.” This ongoing feature is designed to allay confusion around the content of graphic novels and help parents and teachers raise readers. The column examines graphic novels, including those that have been targeted by censors, and provides teaching and discussion suggestions for the use of such books in classrooms. The Comics Connector includes a growing list of comics professionals state by state, as well as in Canada. Artists, editors, writers, and others in the industry are featured in the database.

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Click Here to Access “Using Graphic Novels in Education”

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BOOKMARK THESE!

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