Maximize the Potential of Your BYOD Initiatives
Collaborate and deliver lesson content to your touch-enabled Windows 10 devices with all new NetSupport School 12, offering genuine multi-platform support. Instructors can visually interact with, apply e-Safety controls, and deliver assessment to any student desktop and BYOD technology across Windows, Chrome, iOS, and Android platforms.
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Embody Learning, Foster Empathy, Wonder Aloud, Spur Imagination & More
November 2, 2015
In Partnership With: 
IN THIS ISSUE
Grants, Competitions, and Other "Winning" Opportunities
Resource Roundup
Professional Learning Plus
Mobile Learning Journey
STEM Gems
Worth-the-Surf Websites
Sponsored by:
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Grants, Competitions, and Other "Winning" Opportunities
Get Free Business-Grade Protection for PCs, Macs, and Servers
Manage and protect all your school devices, anywhere, anytime from the cloud. No restrictions. No catches. Avast for Business is the perfect solution for your network. There are no complex consoles to install or set up. The intuitive cloud-based controls let you manage the cutting-edge endpoint protection. As long as you have an Internet connection, you’re in control—and it all starts at a price your school can afford. Free. Easy. Cloud.
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Change the Future of High School
Funded by Laurene Powell Jobs through the Emerson Collective, the XQ: the Super School Project is an open call to reimagine and design the next American high school. In towns and cities far and wide, teams will unite and take on the important work of rethinking and building schools that deeply prepare students for the rigorous challenges of college, jobs, and life. The XQ Super School organization is in the process of accepting proposals. The organization will partner with winning teams and provide them expert support along with a fund of $50 million to help at least five schools over the next five years to turn their ideas into real “Super Schools.”
Deadlines: Concept to confirm eligibility due by November 15, 2015; discovery and design phases due February 2016
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Combat Distracted Driving
The Wireless Foundation has launched the second year of its Drive Smart: No Distractions, No Excuses Teen Digital Short Contest. The competition challenges students aged 13–18 to create a digital short to persuade their peers not to drive while distracted. The grand prize is a $5,000 scholarship, along with a teacher/mentor prize of $500. Two runners-up will each win a $1,000 scholarship; their teachers/mentors will each win $250. Three semifinalists will each win a $500 scholarship; their teachers/mentors will each win $100. State winners (up to two per state) will be awarded $100 each. The Wireless Foundation partnered with By Kids For Kids (BKFK) to create the Drive Smart campaign. The program’s website provides teachers, parents, students, and community leaders with free downloadable activities and information on the dangers of driving while distracted.
Deadline: December 15, 2015
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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
Resource Roundup
Learn on the Go
Student Group Tour magazine is the world’s largest travel resource for the youth travel industry. The magazine is packed with itineraries and articles, keeping readers up to date with what’s going on in the world of student travel—and what’s coming up. Forthcoming features will provide helpful tips from industry experts, as well as the latest on technology trends at student destinations. In addition to the print publication, studentgrouptour.com offers innovative ideas for planning educational travel, accessible anytime, anywhere. Subscribers have no obligation; the magazine is free for all educators and student-travel planners.
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Explore a Tale of Three Cities
Three huge cities, three major art museums, and three groups of young people collaborated to create a new, free online art course for teens. For the first time ever, Tate, the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Modern Art have worked on a single educational and social experience, bringing the best of each of these cities’ vibrant cultures together into one four-week online course that begins on November 4. During the course, students will visit international artists in their studios and learn about underground art spaces and emerging art scenes. They will investigate issues surrounding fashion, gender, artistic value, curating, aesthetics, inequality, art making, and more. They will explore the politics, communities, and everyday challenges that shape the contemporary art world today, and they will meet other young, creative people from around the globe. All registrants must be between 13 and 17 years of age. No prior art experience is necessary.
Click Here to Register for Free Online Course
Present the Words and Ideas of America’s Founders
The Bill of Rights Institute has developed Documents of Freedom, a free, comprehensive, interactive digital course covering all the history, government, and economics topics in traditional textbooks. Written for teachers by teachers, all materials highlight primary sources and meet state standards. Teachers can search for primary-source-focused resources that fit seamlessly into their teaching plans. They can access student readings along with corresponding teacher materials, including classroom activities, presentations, and assessments. Incorporated into the readings are engaging images and videos that provide a more interesting way for students to interact with historical content. The course material is available everywhere from a laptop to a cellphone, from the computer lab to students’ homes. Students can easily adjust the display of the text and choose the style and size that works best for their individual preferences and learning needs.
Click Here to Access Free Digital Course
Plus: Voices of History is the Bill of Rights Institute’s free digital storehouse featuring the best of the institute’s primary-source-based lesson plans. Written by teachers for teachers, the materials are aligned to content standards, and are searchable by topic and accessible anywhere on any device. One of the featured lessons (“What Are the Origins and Interpretations of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms?”) explores the origins of the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights, as it was included to reflect the concerns of many citizens in a number of states. Another featured lesson (“The Responsibilities of Frederick Douglass”) takes an in-depth look at responsibility— striving to know and do what is best rather what is most popular—through the life of Frederick Douglass.
Click Here to Access Free Lesson Plans
Professional Learning Plus
Begin a Conversation Reimagining Education
Most Likely To Succeed is a documentary film on the topic of school—both its past and its future. The film inspires audiences with a sense of purpose and possibility, and it is bringing school communities together in reimagining what students and teachers are capable of doing. The film immerses its audience in the lives of students and teachers at one school—and then says not to copy them. Instead, the filmmakers encourage each school to create its own learning environment, leveraging the passions, expertise, and aspirations of the school’s community. The film’s website has a trailer and a schedule of free public screenings around the nation; it also has an option to host a screening in your school, organization, or community. Educators inspired to move forward in reimagining education can start with the resources under Know Your Stuff on the film’s website. In addition, portals under the Moving Forward link has specific advice for parents, teachers, school leaders, students, and change agents.
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Discuss Issues in Racially Pluralistic Classrooms
Teachers not only need to understand how to choose the right issues and create an open and fair climate for discussion; they also need to learn about themselves and their identities when leading discussions in racially pluralistic classrooms. Knowing their own biases and ways they react to certain topics and remarks will help to modulate how they react to students’ remarks and turn their concerns into productive conversations. Educators interested in honing their intergroup dialogue facilitation skills can access a free comprehensive guide from the Public Conversation Project and a tip sheet (“Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom”) from the Harvard Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.
Click Here to Download Free Guide
Click Here to Access Free Tip Sheet
Explain the Refugee Crisis in the Mediterranean
The refugee crisis in the Mediterranean is one of the most significant humanitarian crises in a generation. What is causing the mass migration of hundreds of thousands of people in the region, and how is the international community responding? K–12 educators are invited to join Primary Source in a free webinar from 7:00 pm.–8:15 p.m. on November 12, in which Professor Noora Lori of Boston University, an expert on migration in the Middle East, and Barbara Petzen of Middle East Connections discuss the roots and significance of the crisis, as well as strategies for talking about it in your classrooms.
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Reduce Likelihood of Violence on Campus
Scenario Learning’s SafeSchools Training Active Shooter for Administrators course aims to equip school leaders with the information they need in order to keep their schools safe. This new online course provides an overview for administrators that focuses on techniques proven to reduce the likelihood of violence on campus or, in the event of a violent incident, increases the likelihood of safety for students and staff. For instance, the course covers research-based strategies, such as Enhanced School Lockdown, which school administrators can use in response to an active shooter on campus. This course is intended to be used in conjunction with a district’s Emergency Operations Plan or Crisis Response Plan.
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Mobile Learning Journey
Create Collisions of Tectonic Plates
Geomoto by Gamedesk is an embodied learning experience in which players use their iOS or Android device to create geographic features by pulling, smashing, and grinding tectonic plates together. Players navigate around a planet devoid of geographic features with the express purpose of populating the planet with features of their own creation. The initial challenges focus on exposure to the vocabulary surrounding plate tectonics, while later levels require specific observations about the results of different plate collisions. The game takes the player through a natural level progression that will motivate the player to learn more about geology. Cost: $0.99
Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store
Click Here to Visit Google Play Store
Dive into Your Device
Everything Machine, Tinybop’s first maker app, empowers children aged 9–11 to build anything they can imagine, using the hardware and sensors already on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. In this award-winning app, students use a simple visual programming language to combine the device’s camera, microphone, speakers, gyroscope, and screen to make a light, a stop-motion camera, a kaleidoscope, a voice disguiser, a cookie thief catcher, or anything else they can think of! Students can also connect devices to talk with friends in secret codes, add logic gates and routers to build more complex machines, and then save all their inventions. Cost: $2.99
Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store
STEM Gems
Accept the Challenge
Volunteers for eCYBERMISSION, a web-based STEM competition free to students, help build students’ interest in STEM and create experiences for sixth through ninth graders nationwide. Volunteers—whether a Virtual Judge, Ambassador, or CyberGuide—are vital to success of the eCYBERMISSION program; the competing teams depend on the valuable resources provided by volunteers to help in the STEM learning process. Teams compete for up to $9,000 in US savings bonds. If you are looking for a fun and meaningful way to give back to the STEM community, a project for your workplace to get behind, or a way to get introduced to the eCYBERMISSION competition, then check out the volunteer options.
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Scratch the Itch
For teachers looking to adopt an optimal resource to teach coding in the classroom, Ucodemy offers Itch, a hybrid version of Scratch, the popular visual programming language, in ready-to-go coding lessons. Powered by EDUonGo, Ucodemy uses EDUonGo’s LTI feature to combine Scratch with their learning management system. In addition to providing the same free activities found on Scratch.com, such as interactive stories, games, and animations, Itch integrates the lessons inside the Scratch user interface. Teachers also have the option of creating their own coding courses. Currently, Itch is offering a limited number of free teacher accounts.
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Mingle Visual Art with Science
Art & Science: A Curriculum for K–12 Teachers mines the treasures of The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to explore the many intersections of the visual arts with scientific disciplines. The curriculum was developed by Getty educators with museum conservators, curators, and scientists, as well as a teacher advisory group. Focusing on the science of art production and conservation, and the scientific skills of investigation and experimentation, the curriculum supports student proficiency in science and visual art by exploring the fascinating territory in which the arts and sciences mingle. The online presentation contains nine out of the 36 lessons that are included in the Art & Science print publication. The print publication contains lessons and discussion ideas related to works of art across the Getty Museum’s collection areas: antiquities, decorative arts, drawings, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Lessons are divided into beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels that act as scaffolds for step-by-step learning.
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Worth-the-Surf Websites
Bring Visibility to Media Literacy
The first week in November has been designated as Media Literacy Week by the National Association of Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). The week has been established to highlight the power of media literacy education and its important and relevant role in education today. In this inaugural year, NAMLE is celebrating those organizations and educators who are taking time to demonstrate the importance of media literacy in a world where media dominate. To plan your participation in Media Literacy Week, check out the calendar of events and the resources and ideas on the Media Literacy Week website.
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Create a Path into Programming
Facebook’s new TechPrep website is intended to empower more African American and Latino children to learn about computer programming and coding, and to encourage them to pursue careers in the tech field. Featuring resources in Spanish and English, the website assists students and their caregivers in the exploration of the IT field, describes types of IT professional activities, and details the competences of software developers. The TechPrep hub offers community events, books, and games to introduce parents and students to the IT world. Resources are available for every age group and skill level. To extend the program’s visibility into communities, Facebook has scheduled a roadshow in US cities that is due in the upcoming months.
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Explore the Art of the Game
It’s the end of the regular baseball season, but students can still make a hit by setting the perfect lineup of instruments using the Pitch Perfect interactive tool on The Kennedy Center’s ARTSEDGE website. With this web-based tool, students explore music history, as well as pitch and tone, through the metaphor of baseball. In addition, All Around the Baseball Field lets students construct a mock baseball field and explore the sport of baseball through art, movement, and sound. Accompanying lessons for different age groups encourage students to think creatively, make art, and develop arts literacies.
Click Here to Access Pitch Perfect Interactive
Click Here to Access Baseball Field Interactive
Build Empathy Through Virtual Reality
What if you could take your students to visit war-torn nations such as Syria? What would their reactions be? What would it mean for global understanding and cooperation? Global Nomads Group (GNG) fosters dialogue and understanding among the world’s youth. By leveraging technology, GNG enables conversations between middle school and high school students who otherwise would not meet. These exchanges promote empathy, encourage peace, and build 21st century workforce skills. In January 2016, Global Nomads Group is launching a Virtual Reality Lab to provide the education community with these types of experiences. Visit the website to embark on this new adventure.
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