Effective and Easy-to-Use Tools for Today's Modern Classrooms

Keeping students on track can be challenging at times, but with NetSupport School it’s easier for teachers and students with real-time instruction, a student information bar, virtual whiteboard, and a teacher toolbar. Pair alongside with NetSupport DNA to include a complete safeguarding module to keep students protected.

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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. To enter, simply create a 90-second video highlighting your school or district’s cross-departmental collaboration project and upload the video to YouTube. Then complete the entry form and submit. Monthly contests are won by votes received through CDW•G’s Facebook page; three industry experts will determine the grand-prize winner.

Deadlines: Monthly through April 30, 2016

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Communicate Effects of the US Civil War

In honor of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, the Civil War Trust and History are sponsoring two contests for students in grades 4–12. In one contest, students submit illustrated postcards with a brief written note on the back. The illustration and note need to connect to the theme Post-1865: Effects of the War. The postcards will be judged for creativity, clarity, and strength of message. In the other contest, students submit essays that address the same theme, incorporating the idea that reunion and reconciliation were difficult and emotional processes that are still not complete. Students’ essays should also include the importance of preservation and the study of history. The essays will be judged for creativity, persuasive quality, clarity, and strength of message. Students submit their entries in either the Senior Division (grades 8–12) or the Junior Division (grades 4–7). In both divisions, the first-place winner will receive $1,000; second-place winner, $750; and third-place winner, $250. Interested applicants will find these contest opportunities on GetEdFunding, a free database sponsored by CDW•G of thousands of funding opportunities for educators.

Deadline: May 1, 2016, for entries (either contest)

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Create a Positive Social Impact in the Community

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation is dedicated to supporting positive programs and opportunities that make a difference in the lives of America’s youth between the ages of 7 and 18. Each year the foundation seeks to harness the collective power of the interactive entertainment industry to create positive social impact in its communities. Program goals must incorporate technology and/or computer and video games to educate American’s youth and young adults. First-time grantees may be funded up to $50,000; however, the amount requested should reflect the actual cost of the project.

Deadline: May 2, 2016, for applications

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Securing, Protecting, and Charging!

Working on a 1:1 device rollout? Don’t forgot about security, protection, and charging! Tripp Lite Charging Stations protect tablets and laptops at a fraction of the cost. Features include locking steel cabinets with flow-through ventilation, adjustable device dividers, and integrated cord management. Optional wheels and handle transform the unit into a mobile charging station, allowing devices to be moved easily from room to room. Charging Stations ship fully assembled for fast deployment.

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Settle the Conflicts Between Hamilton and Jefferson

In the formative years of the United States, two key figures helped shape a new government: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. However, their vision of what that government should be and do often conflicted. In this interactive from PBS LearningMedia’s A Biography of America, students read statements by Jefferson and Hamilton on the role of government, the virtue of people, the institution of slavery, and the role of cities. Then they decide who, in their opinion, had the more enduring vision for America. The website also provides background information and discussion questions to support teachers in using the interactive with their students.

Click Here to Access Free Interactive and Support Materials

Plus: A video segment adapted from PBS’s American Experience describes the early life of Alexander Hamilton. Born outside the 13 American colonies on a small tropical island, Hamilton struggles early when his father leaves and his mother dies of yellow fever. As a teenager, he learns about international finance by working for an export company, hones his writing skills, and witnesses the degradation of slavery. Accompanying the video are teacher support materials that include background information and discussion questions.

Click Here to Access Free Video Segment and Support Materials

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Bring “Hamilton” into the Classroom

The Broadway musical Hamilton—based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton—can be a classroom resource to boost understanding of American history. The Rockefeller Foundation and the producers of Hamilton are giving students and schools an opportunity to connect to the past in a contemporary context and to become engaged with the content they are studying in an exciting way. The musical has infused Chernow’s retelling of history with hip-hop, rap, and pop and has given life to a story that, for many, has been difficult to relate to in the modern era. The historically valid choice to emphasize Hamilton’s status as an immigrant wanting to make a name for himself in his adopted country has made the story even more relatable to students today. The nonprofit Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has put together a curriculum and created a website with copies of the primary documents that undergird the book and lyrics, along with videos, essays, and other teaching resources related to Alexander Hamilton and the Founding era. Students are invited to create and share their own artistic responses to Hamilton’s life.

Click Here to Access Free Teaching Resources

Click Here to Access Lyrics and Audio Clips of the 46-Song Soundtrack

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Engage in Visual Communication

From language arts to science to social studies, creating storyboards is a way to get students to express what they know in a format that is motivating and engaging. Students can work on narrative arcs, timelines, and themes with Storyboard That. The many graphic organizer templates, wide selection of scenes, and versatile characters make it easy for students to show what they know. Students can create two storyboards per week for free. (An upgrade with more advanced features is also available.) Freely accessible teacher guides include lesson plans and other resources for middle school and high school English language arts, elementary (K–5) school, US and world history, Spanish, and special education.

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Plus: Earth Day is celebrated around the world on April 22, 2016, and Storyboard That is offering several lesson ideas appropriate for elementary and middle school classrooms. Some of the featured plans include creating a storyboard with “Cool Earth Facts,” designing a comic strip that shows an interaction with the environment, and preparing public service announcements about pollution and pollution prevention.

Click Here to Access Free Earth Day Activities

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Blend Videos into the Curriculum

MindShift’s Teacher’s Guide to Using Videos presents an abundance of valuable resources, including links to videos in a range of subject areas: history, mathematics, science, language arts, and more. The guide also includes ideas on how to inspire students to use videos as a conduit to dig in, ask questions, and learn.

Click Here to Download Free Video Guide

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Celebrate Poetry in Its Different Forms

Merriam-Webster Dictionary invites teachers and students to celebrate National Poetry Month with an online guide to some of the most famous poetic forms. The guide, titled Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Poem, explains the characteristics of free verse, blank verse, ballade, ode, sestina, elegy, epic, rondeau, limerick, ottava rima, haiku, sonnet, and villanelle. The guide also provides examples of poems and poets—from Chaucer to Phillis Wheatley to Matsuo Basho—whose work exemplifies each form.

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Online Graduate Degrees and Certificates in Education

Penn State World Campus has more than 20 graduate education programs, recently ranked No. 6 in the country by U.S. News & World Report. These highly flexible online programs are designed so you can customize your education plan to meet your professional development goals. Whether you’re fulfilling professional development requirements, earning a certificate, or working toward a master’s degree, the programs allow you to study at times and locations that suit your busy schedule.

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Continue a Winning Grant-Writing Journey

From 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) on April 25, 2016, the GetEdFunding community on edWeb.net will host Part 2 of a free, three-part grant-writing webinar miniseries titled “You CAN Win Grants for Your School,” sponsored by CDW•G. In this free miniseries, the presenter reviews and dissects the eight typical sections of a proposal so participants will come away feeling equipped and confident to begin their own winning grant-writing journey. In Part 1 of the series, the presenter offered insider tips and techniques for writing the first three sections of a foundation grant proposal: Executive Summary; Description of the School; Need for the Project. In the second webinar of this miniseries, the presenter will give insider tips and techniques for writing the next two sections of a foundation grant proposal: Description of the Project; Project Management Plan and Timeline. This webinar will be helpful for both teachers and administrators. Participants’ questions will be answered during the live, interactive session, and the webinar will be recorded and archived for members of the GetEdFunding community to access after the event.

Click Here to Join GetEdFunding Community

Click Here to Register for Free Webinar

Click Here to Visit GetEdFunding Website

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Get Students Reimagining the World Around Them

How do educators prepare students for jobs that don’t even exist yet? Now more than ever, it is important that students engage in STEAM learning to be ready for what is around the corner. STEAM—adding Arts to STEM—provides a full 360-degree approach to 21st-century learning. On April 28, 2016, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. (ET), littleBits is sponsoring a free webinar titled “From STEM to STEAM & how to bring it to your school.” This webinar will give educators the inspiration to start their own STEAM learning initiative in their school or district, as well as the necessary tips and tools for implementing a successful program.

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Study and Cultivate Virtual Plants

The team at Arloon has produced Arloon Plants, an augmented reality (AR) app for iOS and Android devices that lets students explore interactive plants to learn about structure and parts. Using the Arloon trigger, students can watch a plant grow and move in an AR experience. A video on the Arloon website showcases some of the features that can help students wrap their heads around foundational science concepts when growing plants in the classroom isn’t an option. Cost: $2.99 for iPad and iPhone; $0.99 for Android

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Plus: Check out Arloon’s Anatomy, Chemistry, Geometry, Mental Math, and Solar System AR apps.

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Push Learning Beyond the Boundaries

Brainspace, an interactive print magazine for youth aged 8–14, comes to life with augmented reality. Offering fun ways to explore math, science, language, geography, history, music, and art beyond the curriculum, Brainspace engages youth through what they love—their mobile devices. Students can access interactive videos by hovering their smartphone or tablet over the print page of the magazine. An online video demonstrates how the magazine comes to life with augmented reality. Cost: Free, with in-app purchases ranging from $3.99 for single issues to $23.99 for annual subscription; teachers can download the 2015 Spring and Summer issues for free from the website.

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Click Here to Access Two Free Issues

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Connect the Digital World to the Real World

Computer Science for Fun, or CS4FN, is a UK-based magazine on computer science aimed at students. It is produced by the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London. The magazine’s focus is on how computer science involves solving puzzles, thinking creatively, changing the future, and most of all having fun. Articles in the most recent issue include “Geek Gurl Parties in the 1830s” (Becoming a Computer Scientist), “The Silver Lady” (Victorian Robots), “Dickens Knitting in Code” (Secret Messages, Life and Death), “Letters from the Victorian Smog” (Data Representation), “Victorian Volunteers Needed” (Crowdsourcing), among others.

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Launch a Learning Adventure

iD Tech has launched Tech Rocket, an online learning destination where thousands of children and teens are learning code, game design, and graphic design. Python, iOS, Java, Minecraft, 3D printing … it’s all here! Each course contains lessons, support materials, and interactive challenges. Students can gain points and badges along the way. The interactive courses were created specifically for youth aged 10 to 18.

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Let Science Spill Over Its Usual Borders

Nautilus is a different kind of science magazine. It delivers deep, undiluted, narrative storytelling to bring science into the largest and most important conversations today. It challenges the reader to consider the connecting tissue that runs through the sciences and connects them to philosophy, culture, and art. Each issue combines the sciences, culture, and philosophy into a single story told by the world’s leading thinkers and writers. Readers will find essays, investigative reports, and blogs, as well as fiction. They can explore games, videos, and graphic stories. Each month the editors of Nautilus choose a single theme and examine it from multiple perspectives. A new chapter in the theme comes out every Thursday. The Nautilus blog, “Facts So Romantic,” and news feed, “Three Sentence Science,” both publish daily. Seven feature articles are free to read each month.

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Facilitate Cross-Disciplinary Thinking

“Big History” examines the past, explains the present, and imagines the future. A professor of history and education at the University of Michigan is the faculty lead of the Big History Project (BHP), a joint effort between teachers, scholars, scientists, and their supporters. The Big History course is a multidisciplinary curriculum designed for high school students who are seeking answers to big questions about our universe, planet, life, and humanity. Students learn to apply a thoughtful, consistent, and rigorous approach to engaging with new ideas and information and using evidence to construct effective arguments. The Big History course, which is free, open, and online, can be delivered over a full year or just a semester, depending on a school’s needs. Materials are up to date, always available, and easy to download and print. Teachers can use lessons generated by other teachers or explore and create their own, using a comprehensive library of custom-designed content. The course was built from the ground up to align with the expectations of the Common Core State Standards, starting with the learning outcomes and including the assessment and lesson activities. The Big History Project emphasizes inquiry, analysis, and argument over content knowledge. Online instructional guides, detailed lesson plans, training sessions, and videos—are available anytime, anywhere. Plus, monthly online sessions go deeper into core topics.

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Give Students a Voice in the 2016 Election

Letters to the Next President 2.0 engages and connects youth aged 13–18, as they research, write, and make media to voice their opinions on issues that matter to them in the upcoming election. Throughout the spring, KQED Education will host a series of multimedia skill-building activities, called Media Makes, for teachers and students to practice digital media making that facilitates dialogue around critical issues in this election. Each Media Make includes an Invitation—a compelling case for each media format and its unique value for expressing civic arguments; a Prompt—a clear theme and call to action with specific parameters for student submissions; Submission Process—a unique hashtag for each Media Make and a Google form to collect URLs and emails for each submission; and Instructional Supports—a recorded webinar moderated by a wide range of partners to provide resources, host live conversations, and point to technology tools for educators. On the website, teachers will find updates about Media Makes launch dates, submission deadlines, and webinars.

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Experience the Best of Shakespeare

The Stratford Festival in Canada is commemorating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death by making his plays accessible to a generation raised on the Internet. The festival has unveiled an online teaching platform that will include each of Shakespeare’s scripts, a film clip of every scene, and notes to understand each piece of dialogue. King Lear is the first play to be offered using these tools. More titles will be added as part of the festivals to capture on film the complete works of Shakespeare over the next 10 years. Created by the Festival’s Education Department in collaboration with D2L Corporation, the free toolkit—called PerformancePlus—is targeted at students and teachers in grades 9–12 but is available to all.

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Plus: On April 22, 2016, at 9:30 a.m. (ET), Discovery Education will host a virtual field trip that guides K–12 students on a journey through Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, giving them the chance to take an exclusive tour around his birthplace. The program will visit Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall, where the young author was inspired to create some of the greatest works of English literature. During this visit, participating classrooms will witness a re-enacted Tudor lesson and be among the first to “step inside” the newly renovated 600-year-old school building. After visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, students will travel to London, where they will learn about Shakespeare’s life in the Tudor capital through a tour of some of the city’s hidden Shakespeare locations, ending at the famous Globe Theatre, where his plays were staged. Participating classrooms will see The Bard’s work brought to life as they watch local students perform scenes from Macbeth and hear how the themes of Shakespeare’s work are still relevant today. Classrooms across the country are invited to register for this virtual tour at no cost.

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Use the Web As a Tool for Learning

The Mozilla Foundation recently released an interactive framework for teaching web literacy and the 21st-century skills of problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Mozilla’s interactive web literacy map has three main components: Read, Write, and Participate. Each of these components is linked to competencies, such as Navigate, Contribute, Design, Compose, Synthesize, Evaluate. Clicking on any component or competency on the interactive web literacy map leads to a definition of that element. To support the framework, Mozilla’s Tools page provides free and open-source resources that can be used in a variety of ways to teach learners how to read, write, and participate on the web. And to get teachers started, Mozilla’s Teaching Activities page contains 18 sections offering dozens of lessons and activities on everything from basic web literacy, such as protecting privacy on the web, to advanced topics, such as writing Javascript. The framework also includes a section with lessons designed for teaching web literacy in classrooms in which not every student has access to a computer

Click Here to Access Web Literacy Map

Click Here to Access Free Activities

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