January 04, 2017
Funding & Recognition
Great Deals for Educators
It’s that time of the year again and Sprint has great deals for education employees:
- Great deals on devices, including Samsung and LG
- Deals on tablets, and other-on-the-spot rewards
Get an EVEN better deal not available in Sprint’s retail stores by calling 1.844.344.6552 and mentioning that you are an education employee. Mention code GDVRT_ZZZ.
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Video by FlocabularyYT
Funding & Recognition
Rap Writing Contest
The New York Times Learning Network is sponsoring
Flocabulary’s Year in Rap writing contest to ring in the new year. Students aged 13–19 are encouraged to write a rap that highlights the year’s biggest news stories.
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Funding & Recognition
Competition Imagining Future Technologies
The
Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition engages students in research and development with a strong emphasis on
science,
technology,
engineering, and
mathematics (STEM). Working in teams of two, three, or four members, students study a technology of interest and predict what that technology might be like in 20 years.
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Funding & Recognition
Mathematics Modeling Challenge
Moody’s Mega Math (M3)
Challengeis a
mathematical modeling contest for high school juniors and seniors. Through participation in the contest, students experience what it is like to work as a team to tackle a real-world problem under time and resource constraints akin to those faced by professional mathematicians working in industry.
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facinghistory.org
Digital Learning • Learning Support
Lessons on the Ideas of Democracy
Facing History and Ourselves has produced a series of
free videos and
accompanying lessons that introduce a rigorous study of the
Reconstruction era into American history classrooms. The video series presents interviews with scholars who offer insight into this complex history and address questions of freedom, justice, equality, and citizenship that are at the heart of the Reconstruction era.
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myshakespeare.com
Digital Learning • Learning Support
Multimedia Explorations of Shakespeare
MyShakespeare is a resource for teaching Shakespeare in the digital age. Currently three
plays are available:
Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, and
Macbeth (
Julius Caesar is coming soon)
. Read more
Digital Learning • Learning Support
Literacy Lessons Based on the News
The
Center for News Literacy in
Stony Brook University’s
School of Journalism has established the
Digital Resources Center, which features “
Ripped from the Headlines”—literacy lessons, based on the latest news, ready to use in class.
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Digital Learning • Learning Support
Lesson on the Influence of Fake News
C-SPAN Classroom has a new
lesson plan that is timely given the recent discussions about fake news stories created and shared through social media.
Media Literacy & Fake News is a
free lesson plan based on five C-SPAN videos featuring authors and other experts talking about the role of media in influencing how people think about political topics.
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Digital Learning • Learning Support
Next-Generation Science Courseware
Inspark is a global team of educators and experts creating and sharing next-generation courses to revolutionize science education by teaching the subject as an exploration of the unknown, not just a mastery of the known. Inspark’s smart courseware includes “BioBeyond” (introductory biology course), “Habworlds” (general education science course), and “Inhabiting Earth” (course teaching chemistry principles through the interplay of matter and energy).
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viflearn.com
Professional Growth
Project-based Learning Modules
VIF International, supporting more than 5,000 teachers in 100-plus global schools, builds education programs and resources that empower teachers and students to be active contributors to their communities and their world. The professional development program through
VIF Learning Center focuses on helping preservice and inservice teachers integrate
global learning across grades and subject areas.
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Professional Growth
Online Computer Science Courses
Oracle Academy’s
online program helps teachers earn the certification needed to teach high school
computer science courses. The academy offers four courses that introduce database programming and the Java programming language—Java Fundamentals, Java Programming, Database Design and Programming with SQL, and Programming with PL/SQL.
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Professional Growth
Media-Making Challenge
Do you want to learn how to take better photos? Take a few minutes each day to snap some pictures that will help you bring this production technique into your classroom in 2017. Grab your smartphone and follow the
daily challenges on
KQED Learning’s website to increase your media-making skills.
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novelengineering.org
STEM • STEAM • STREAM
Program Integrating Engineering and Literacy
Novel Engineering provides a unique way to get students excited about both
reading and
problem solving.
Through a program developed at
Tufts University, elementary and middle school students read a book, identify problems the characters face, and work in teams to design prototypes to solve the problems.
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familycodenight.org
STEM • STEAM • STREAM
Family Coding Event
Pioneered by the California nonprofit
MV GATE,
Family Code Night is a whole-school family event that ignites coding and computer science learning at any elementary school and in any family. The program engages K–5 children and their parents or guardians in the experience of doing their first hour of computer programming together in an early evening special school program.
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projectbloks.withgoogle.com
STEM • STEAM • STREAM
Coding Through Collaborative Play
Like
LEGO has done for aspiring architects,
Google’s
Project Bloks is intended to create budding programmers through collaborative play. This research project by
Google and an assistant professor at
Stanford University is the latest foray into the world of
tangible programming.
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doink.com
Mobile Learning
Green Screen Videos
Designed for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, the Do Ink Green Screen app by DK Pictures makes it easy for students and teachers to create green screen videos.
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Social Media
Collaborative Writing Platform
With a
free account on
Quillpad, students in grades 5–9 can collaborate with others to improve their writing.
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