Increase Access to Quality Early Education
The Obama administration has a new $500 million RTTT Early Learning Challenge open to all interested states. States applying for challenge grants will be encouraged to increase access to quality early learning programs for low-income children, align their early child care and education programs, bolster training and support for the early learning workforce, create robust evaluation systems to document and share effective practices and programs, and help parents make informed decisions about care for their children.
Deadline: Grant criteria and guidance will be available in late summer; check Web site for details
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Provide Disadvantaged Children with Access to Books
The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation provides grants to libraries or other organizations that serve economically or socially at-risk children, have limited book budgets and demonstrate real need. Grants for 2011 will range from $500 to $3,000 and are specifically for book purchases and cannot be used for administrative or operational uses. Grant applications for audio books will be considered only in the cases of children with special needs, where audio books would be particularly appropriate in addressing those needs.
Deadline: June 15, 2011
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Empower Youth to Address Environmental Challenges
The Captain Planet Foundation funds hands-on environmental projects that encourage innovative programs that empower children and youth around the world to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and communities. The amount of the grant is $2,500.
Deadline: June 30, 2011
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Outdo the Wimpy Kid in Creativity
Youth aged 6–16 are invited to enter The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Comics Contest, sponsored by Amulet Books in coordination with the School Library Journal. To enter the contest, students simply create an original comic on one side of an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of white paper. The comic must be created by a single student; collaborative works are not eligible. One grand-prize winner will receive $500 for him- or herself, $1,000 for the library of his or her choosing and a signed copy of The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book by Jeff Kinney. Twenty runners-up will also receive a signed copy of the book.
Deadline: June 10, 2011
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Explore America As a Nation of Immigrants
The American Immigration Council is sponsoring the 14th annual Celebrate America Creative Writing Contest. The contest is intended to inspire educators to bring U.S. immigration history and lessons into their classrooms and give fifth graders the opportunity to explore America as a nation of immigrants. Past winners have documented the experience of immigrants who have left their homelands in search of a more promising future in America, spoken of their immigration experiences or reflected on their ancestors or parents. Students enter their work in local contests sponsored by chapters of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Each chapter forwards the local winning entry to the National Competition.
Deadline: Planning begins in August of each year; check Web site for details
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Consider Issues Related to Implementing CCSS
Achieve’s On the Road to Implementation: Achieving the Promise of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) identifies key areas that state policymakers will need to consider in order to implement the new standards with fidelity. The online guide is organized by topic with short chapters, which are freely downloadable as PDF files. The guide is not meant to be an exhaustive review or a checklist of all the issues that states and districts will need to consider as they move from adoption of the CCSS to implementation. Rather, it is intended to be the starting point from which state and district leaders and their allies can organize and begin the necessary discussions around key topics to successfully implement the standards. Achieve will continue to add materials to the guide to reflect new information and lessons learned from policy leaders.
Click Here to Access Free Guide

Make Complex International Issues Accessible to Students
Teaching with the News is the first in a series of lessons on the recent events in Egypt from The Choices Program: Current Events in the Classroom. The latest, Protests, Revolutions, and Democratic Change, helps students consider the potential effects of the protests on democracy and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. The second, After Mubarak, helps students consider the implications of a leadership change in Egypt on the protests for democracy throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Developed at Brown University, The Choices Program addresses the 21st century themes and skills of Critical Thinking, Creativity and Innovation, Collaboration, Media and Technology Literacy, Global Awareness and Civic Literacy, by using a problem-based approach to make complex international issues accessible and meaningful for students of diverse abilities and learning styles.
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Plus: The Choices Program includes other free lessons, including Protest, Revolution & Change, which helps students analyze the potential effects of the protests on democracy and stability in the Middle East and North Africa, and The Lessons of Iraq.
Click Here to Access Additional Free Lessons

Create and Share Academic Content
Schoology is a learning management system (LMS) and social network that makes it easy to create and share academic content. Visually similar to Facebook, Schoology is different in that teachers can monitor every post a student makes—even ones that have been deleted—to follow the work being done. Watch the demo and then sign up for free access to all the basic features of Schoology: Courses & Lessons; Online Tests & Quizzes; Gradebook & Attendance; Online Discussions & Groups; Blogs & Messaging—and more.
Click Here to Access LMS

Plus: Students can stay connected to their academic life with the free Schoology for iPhone app.
Click Here to Access Free App

Develop Financial Literacy
Budgetball is a physical outdoor, sports-like game designed to increase awareness of the national debt and promote fiscal responsibility by rewarding strategic thinking and problem solving through a unique game design and rule set. The game is played year-round by students; the winning team of each season gets to play a championship match with local policymakers in the heart of Washington, D.C. The resources located on the Let’s Get Fiscal section of the Budgetball Web site will help you wrap Budgetball with information related to our fiscal health and wellness. You can also download and print out The Basics of Budgetball [PDF], Power Ups & Sacrifices Menu [PDF]; Quick Budget Sheet [PDF]; and Quick Budget Sheet Instructions [PDF, DOC].
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Click Here to Access Free Resources

Engage in Real-World Change
InterroBang is an online, league-based game for middle and high school students. Players are encouraged to complete a series of “missions,” such as exploring their local environment, helping out in their community or creating and sharing works of art. Accompanying the game are free, downloadable guides for teachers, parents and youth workers, along with free rubrics. You can also create your own service project toolkit.
Click Here to Access Free Game
Click Here to Download Free Resources

Demonstrate Impact of Today on Tomorrow
Precipice is a 3-D simulation that illustrates some of the future global warming scenarios developed by a student team at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, British Columbia, in collaboration with Global EESE. The experience takes place in an immersive environment where the player is presented with a familiar scene set in the present day and a future scene set in 2032. It demonstrates the dramatic effect that actions taken in the present can have on the future. Within the 3-D environment are a series of characters with whom the player can interact. Through these conversations, players learn of the characters situations and perspectives on the environment. As the conversations progress, players make certain decisions, influencing the characters to be more aware of the environment and potential risks. If players successfully convince the characters to be more aware, they create a positive change in the future. Players can move between the future and the present as they complete puzzles and conversations to see the effects of their choices. When the game is completed, a montage depicting the future sums up the consequences of players’ choices.
Click Here to Download Free Simulation

Get a Guide to Digital “Gadgets”
There are many handheld devices and digital “gadgets” available to support all types of new teaching and learning initiatives. The pages on Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators provide links to some of the resource pages specifically designed to enhance the use of these devices (iPads, podcasts, digital cameras and camcorders, GPS handhelds and more) in the K–12 classroom.
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Develop Spatial Thinking with Geospatial Technology
This collection of STEM lessons, from the College of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University, is designed to introduce and use GIS as a tool for middle school science and mathematics. The classroom-tested activities combine fundamental content with cutting-edge technology and help students see the power of spatial thinking in analysis and decision making.
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Envision the Future of Books
Dr. Scott McLeod, associate professor in the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University, blogs regularly about technology leadership issues on his Dangerously Irrelevant page at BigThink.com. In this entry, he writes about 21 ebooks for children. Among the titles are The Penelope Rose, a 3-D story for the iPad and iPhone; Grimm’s Rapunzel, a 3-D interactive pop-up book; Alice for the iPad; PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit; Aesop’s Wheel of Fables for the iPad; and Toy Story. Dr. McLeod also shares his thoughts on the future of children’s publishing and invites discussion about ebooks for youth.
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Use Computers to Advance Scientific Study
Computer advances now let researchers quickly search through DNA sequences to find gene variations that could lead to disease, simulate how flu might spread through your school and design three-dimensional animations of molecules that rival any video game. Computing Life, a free, downloadable booklet from the National Institutes of Health, introduces students to some of the ways that physicists, biologists and even artists are harnessing the power of computers to advance our understanding of biology and human health. Each section focuses on a different research problem, offers examples of current scientific projects and acquaints students with the people conducting the work.
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Experiment with Science
Science Fair Adventure lists science fair projects across several categories, including chemistry, physics, biology, environmental science and computer science. Each project is designed for the novice, with complete listing of required materials and project background as well as step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the project. The projects are intended to educate and enhance the learning experience for students and science fanatics while providing casual readers with useful and fun information.
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Turn Science into a Learning Adventure
Inspired by sci-fi posters of the 1950s and 1960s and created as part of the Kensington (UK) Science Museum’s Climate Changing series of projects, Rizk is an original strategy game set on an alien world where players must find resources to nurture and protect their plant while defending it from threats. Every action players take affects the level of risk to their plant. The game is a metaphor to explain risk and its relation to our climate.
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Bring a STEM Camp to Your School
Invent Now Kids presents the wonder and excitement of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programming disguised as hands-on fun to promote critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork essential to success in the 21st century. Camp Invention, a week of daytime summer fun, and Club Invention, a series of half-day summer fun, are hosted in local schools and organizations. Both programs are designed for children entering grades 1–6. The site provides information on activities in a typical day as well as program materials and participant forms.
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Keep Children Learning Throughout Summer
PBS KIDS and PBS Parents have developed a myriad of online resources to keep children learning all summer. The relaunched PBSKIDS.org/read site includes interactive games that children can play to build literacy skills, including PBS KIDS Island, an amusement park–themed game experience for preschoolers, and the Great Word Quest, an online scavenger hunt–style activity for children aged 6 to 9. PBS Parents has an array of content available for parents, including free, downloadable printables featuring PBS KIDS characters, as well as tips and activity ideas for families to do together. Parents can also download free episodes of select PBS KIDS series via PBSParents.org. Each week a new episode will be available, starting now and running through August. Families can also visit PBSKIDS.org/mobile and download a variety of PBS KIDS educational apps, including the new free PBS KIDS Video for iPad app, which features more than 1,000 videos from the PBS KIDS series.
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Plus: The iVillage PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge, which runs from June 6 to July 15, features free literacy-building resources for parents and children designed by the experts at PBS Parents and PBS KIDS. A Challenge Coach will provide daily reading-activity assignments, answer parent questions and offer advice throughout the online event. Guest coaches, such as cast members, characters, authors and series creators from PBS KIDS, will also provide activities and ideas each week. iVillage, an online community for women, and PBS KIDS will also host reading parties with parent bloggers and within the iVillage community, reaching more than 1,500 children across the country. Soar with Reading, a joint project of PBS KIDS and JetBlue, will kick off in June and will encourage children’s imaginations to take flight through reading. More information on the initiative will be available in early June.
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Share Global News with Young People
GoGoNews has launched an interactive Web site featuring daily news for schoolchildren aged 7 to 13. The site features popular headlines from mainstream media with filtered content, informing children of global events while simultaneously protecting them from images and story details appropriate for more mature audiences. In addition to breaking news, GoGoNews covers Science, Art, Government, Politics and Geography, offering fun facts and stories that capture children’s attention and encourage exploration of new subjects. The site is organized by Headlines, covering breaking news; Cool & Fun, containing brain teasers, puzzles and jokes; Planet, featuring interesting facts about space and the environment; Talk, providing a forum for kids and parents to post feedback, comments and ideas; and Teach, guiding parents and educators with suggestions for how to approach difficult news topics and innovative ways to introduce new lessons. GoGoNews is currently being syndicated to elementary schools throughout the United States and Canada via the newsletter GoGo On The Go.
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Have Fun with Safe Surfing
Do your students think surfing can be dangerous? Do they know what the dangers are and how to avoid them? What about Instant Messaging? WiredKids is designed to teach youngsters how to surf safely and have fun doing it. The site has a report line so that students can report bad sites or get advice if they’ve found something online they don’t know how to deal with.
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