Brighten Your Students’ Future
Clorox’s Power a Bright Future grants are intended to provide necessary resources to help support school programs that enrich students’ lives. Anyone at least 18 years old at time of entry can nominate an accredited K–12 public or private school program by relating how the $50,000 would benefit the students in that school. Visit the site to see how the program works and to view the most recent nominees.
Deadlines: September 27, 2011 for nominations; voting begins on October 24, 2011, and the five winners will be announced in January 2012
Click Here for More Information

Improve Students’ Math and Science Learning
Do you have an idea for improving math or science instruction in your classroom? What do you need to make learning math and science fun for your students? What instructional items or project materials are on your wish list? Elementary school teachers are invited to apply for a Toshiba America Foundation grant by describing a set of math or science lessons or a hands-on project they would like to introduce in their own classrooms. Any K–5 teacher in a public or private (not-for-profit) school is eligible for a grant up to $1,000 for project materials only. Visit the site to see examples of successful projects.
Deadline: October 1, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Support Children with Learning Challenges
Monarch Teaching Technologies (MTT) is accepting proposals for their Second Annual Visual Learning 2011 TechGrant program. Eight school districts will be granted access for up to 25 teachers to VizZle, MTT’s Web-based authoring tool that offers interactive, visually supported curriculum for children with autism and other learning challenges. Each TechGrant includes customized professional development resources and ongoing technical support. The total retail value of the TechGrant awards is more than $160,000.
Deadline: Applications must be emailed to [email protected] by October 5, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Close Achievement Gaps
The NEA Foundation’s Student Achievement Grants provide $5,000 to improve the academic achievement of students by engaging them in critical thinking and problem solving activities that deepen knowledge of standards-based subject matter. The work should also improve students’ “habits of inquiry, self-directed learning and critical reflection.”
Deadline: October 15, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Plus: The foundation’s Learning & Leadership Grants provide opportunities for teachers, education support professionals and higher education faculty and staff to engage in high-quality professional development and lead their colleagues in professional growth. The grant amount is $2,000 for individuals and $5,000 for groups engaged in collegial study.
Deadline: October 15, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Picture an Ever-Changing Environment
The American Geological Institute (AGI) is sponsoring a photography contest to celebrate Earth Science Week (October 9–15, 2011). The photography theme for this year is A World of Change in My Community. Entries must be composed of original, authentic, unpublished material and must be the sole property of the entrant, not previously submitted to any other contest. The photography contest is open to interested persons of any age, who are residents of the United States or members of an AGI International Affiliate. The winner will receive a prize of $300 USD, a copy of AGI's Faces of Earth DVD, and his or her photograph will be used on the Earth Science Week Web site.
Deadline: October 14, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Plus: AGI is sponsoring a visual arts contest to celebrate Earth Science Week 2011. The visual arts theme for this year is Picturing Our Ever-Changing Earth. What Earth changes do your students know about? What do they think causes those changes? Invite them to use artwork to show ways in which Earth’s air, water, land and living things change over time. The visual arts contest is open to any interested person in grades K–5, who is a resident of the United States. The projects will be judged by a panel of geoscientists on creativity and relevance to and incorporation of the topic. The selected entry will win $300 and a copy of AGI’s Faces of Earth DVD. The winner’s and finalists’ names and entries will be posted to the Earth Science Week Web site.
Deadline: October 14, 2011
Click Here for More Information

Help Students Get Financial Support for College
iPivoted.org is a new Web site (similar to DonorsChoose.org) that helps low-income students find donations to cover college expenses. Students using the site post a short profile and specify a budget for their education expenses, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Potential contributors browse students’ listings, choose a student and donate. The profiles stay up for as long as six months. When students reach their financial goal, they get the funding minus 15 percent to offset iPivoted’s administrative costs. If pledges fall short of the goal, donors get their money back.
Deadline: N/A
Click Here for More Information

Become More Search Savvy
In this blog post, Google’s “search anthropologist,” Daniel Russell, offers 12 tips for teaching students how to use Google efficiently to conduct research and judge the quality of the information they find. Among his suggestions, Russell encourages students to keep queries simple and use search terms and phrases they think an author might use. He also suggests students verify sources and use multiple sources to help confirm the veracity of content.
Click Here to Read Search Tips

Capture the History of Mount Rushmore
The National Park Service’s (NPS) Mount Rushmore National Memorial is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation and unification of the United States with colossal statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The NPS provides a free, downloadable Mount Rushmore student guide that includes information about the idea for the sculpture, the people involved, the presidents, an informative timeline, animals and plants, and park facts.
Click Here to View or Download Free Guide

Encourage Boys to Read
Me Read? No Way! is a practical guide to improving boys’ literacy skills. This free, downloadable guide was prepared by the Ontario Ministry of Education in Canada as part of an initiative to support student success in literacy; in particular, it focuses on boys’ literacy. The guide is intended to stimulate discussion of this important issue among educators and to provide practical and effective strategies that teachers can put to use in the classroom, both immediately and over the longer term. The guide presents information, tips and ideas organized into distinct categories as well as a wide variety of sources that you can refer to for more in-depth exploration of particular concepts or topics.
Click Here to Download Free Literacy Guide

Explore Choices in Sustaining a Safe School Environment
Bullying: A Case Study in Ostracism explores issues of bullying and ostracism by looking at a particular incident that occurred at a middle school, primarily involving a group of girls. What started as a small event quickly turned into a serious situation. Explore the Case Study online with your students by reading a description of the incident; reading/listening to the voices of the girls and one of their teachers; participating in online discussions about the incident and viewing video clips of experts discussing the issues. The Case Study is a project of Facing History and Ourselves, a nonprofit organization that helps classrooms and communities worldwide link the past to moral choices today.
Click Here to Access Free Case Study

Enhance Your Teaching of Classic and Contemporary Literature
For 40 years, PBS MASTERPIECE has been known for high-quality adaptations of classics, mysteries and contemporary literature. More than 30 Teacher’s Guides can help you enhance the use of MASTERPIECE films in your classroom. Two guides are presently featured on the Web site: Film in the Classroom offers ideas and activities for teaching film in today’s digital environment. Drawing on a treasure trove of 25 outstanding MASTERPIECE films, the guide will help you use film not just as an adjunct to literature, but also as a tool that can improve students’ understanding of media literacy as well as literary elements. A Tale of Two Cities, one of the most frequently taught Dickens novels, explores issues also associated with other works of Charles Dickens: poverty, oppression, cruelty, social disruption, justice, personal redemption and class struggle. The site also includes general Learning Links to support teaching MASTERPIECE films in the classroom, and Book & Film Club Guides, with discussion questions, activities and resources, plus general tips on creating and running a MASTERPIECE Book & Film Club.
Click Here to Access Free Teacher’s Guides

Spark the Spirit of Innovation
The Henry Ford Museum showcases the people and ideas that have fired our imaginations and changed our lives. The museum’s Web site features a number of digital resources: DigiKits, seven unit plans using digitized artifacts from the museum’s online collections; ExhibitBuilder, a place where students and teachers can create online exhibits using the museum’s digitized collections; and Innovation 101, a curriculum encouraging innovation through interview clips with today’s hottest innovators.
Click Here to Access Free DigiKits
Click Here to Create Online Exhibit
Click Here to Access Free Curriculum

Celebrate Constitution Day
The National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution lets students search the U.S. Constitution for relevant passages and explanations that relate to more than 300 topics, from civil rights to school prayer, including Supreme Court decisions. Students can also download a print version of the U.S. Constitution.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: C-SPAN’s Constitutional Clips section combines the text of the U.S. Constitution with C-SPAN video to provide a learning experience for both teachers and students. You must become a member of C-SPAN Classroom to access this online resource.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Join a Virtual Read-Out
Since the inception of Banned Books Week (BBW) in 1982, libraries and bookstores throughout the country have staged local read-outs as part of their activities. This year, for the first time, readers from around the world will be able to participate virtually in Banned Books Week, September 24–October 1. During this year’s celebration, readers will be able to proclaim the virtues of their favorite banned books by posting videos of themselves reading excerpts to a dedicated YouTube channel. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the American Library Association (ALA) are among the official sponsors of Banned Books Week.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Click Here to Access BBW YouTube Channel

Bring Your Lessons to the iPad
TechSmith has released a free iPad app called ScreenChomp that lets you create screencasts with audio narration on the go. You draw freehand on the iPad’s touch screen—the app offers 12 colored pens to choose from—and as you doodle, your voice gets recorded in sync with the drawing. The recorded video can be downloaded as an MPEG-4 file from the screencast.com Web site, which you can then upload to YouTube or any other video sharing Web site.
Click Here to Access Free ScreenChomp App

Plus: ShowMeApp is another free whiteboard app for the iPad that offers similar recording functionality, but you cannot download the recorded screencasts.
Click Here to Access Free ShowMeApp

Pin Your History to the World
The HistoryPin Web site had its official launch earlier this summer, but August brought about the release of its free app for iPhone and Android. The site and app let you view the history of a particular location by taking historical photos and pinning them to Google Maps. You can also contribute your own photos—both present-day and family heritage photos—to the site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Click Here to Access Free App

Teach Online Safety
Sign up for a free Learning.com account and get a complete Online Safety curriculum for your whole class. With your free account, you’ll gain access to standards-aligned, peer-reviewed content—one place for teacher resources from industry-leading publishers (such as LEGO Education and NASA), open education resources (such as Curriki and PhET) and materials from teachers for teachers. Sign up for your free account before September 30, 2011 and receive EasyTech Online Safety for free.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Curriculum

Spark Students’ Curiosity
Discovery Education and Intel Corporation have launched CURIOSITY in the Classroom, an interactive, science-based educational curriculum that brings science concepts to life by examining such topics as artificial intelligence, communications, computers, nanotechnology and robotics. The site provides in-class and at-home resources to encourage conversation among educators, students and families. The resources include free lesson plans and videos aligned to national education standards for students in grades 6–12; career videos and quizzes to spark students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math; a webinar series exploring some of life’s most captivating questions; and family discussion guides that correspond to the questions examined in the CURIOSITY series.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: Check out “Catch Me Being Curious,” a national sweepstakes that will award one family a vacation of exploration and discovery. One grand-prize winner will receive a family vacation to experience Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, or sightsee in Washington, D.C., the Grand Canyon National Park or Yellowstone National Park. Twenty second-place winners will receive a Discovery Education prize pack.
Deadline: Enter daily through November 15, 2011
Click Her to Enter Sweepstakes

Investigate the Impact of Weather on the World
NOAA Research is the research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA scientists study weather and air quality, climate, and ocean and coastal resources. This site is a joint effort of NOAA Research and the College of Education at the University of South Alabama (USA). The goal of the site is to provide middle school science students and teachers with research and investigation experiences using online resources. The site is organized around six research topics: In the El Niño section, students find out how El Niño forms and what its effects on the weather of the world are. In Storms, students investigate hurricanes, tornadoes and lightning by tracking their courses and measuring their strength. The Atmosphere section involves students in investigating the origins and effects of global warming and the effects solar events have on Earth. In the Fisheries section, students manage various fish species after learning about the impact of overfishing and the environment on commercial fishing. The Great Lakes section involves students in interpreting maps of winds, waves and temperature. In the Oceans section, students take real measurements, such as temperature and wave height, and graph the changes. They also find out about ocean currents. A Teacher section (indicated by an apple icon) provides free, downloadable resources for each topic. The resources include lesson objectives, interdisciplinary uses, NSTA and AAS standards and teacher preparation materials.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Stimulate Students’ Creativity
Design is everywhere. We are surrounded by it but often don’t think about why things are the way they are. Discover Design is an interactive Web site sponsored by the Design Museum in London. The site is intended to help teachers stimulate critical and creative thinking related to design. Students can start discovering design by clicking on the icons What Do You See? What Is It Made Of? What Does It Do? and What Is Its Impact?
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: Discover the A–Z of design words in this online Design Dictionary.
Click Here to Access Online Design Dictionary

Examine a Lesson of History
One of the most recognized dates in modern U.S. history is December 7, 1941: the attack on Pearl Harbor. A far lesser known date is February 14, 1942, which, for some, had equally big consequences. On that day, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. That order led to the detention of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps around the country, for years. One of those camps was in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. At that time, it was surrounded by barbed wire. Today it’s a new museum that tells the story of the thousands of Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II. Visitors to the Heart Mount Museum’s Web Site will find information about the events surrounding this period in our nation’s history. The sections include Coming to America, Before the War, Forced Removal and Life in the Camp. The site also includes a reading list and list of documentaries (under the Education tab).
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Explore Moments in the History of Public Education
School: The Story of American Public Education chronicles the development of our nation’s public education system from the late 1770s to the 21st century. On this PBS site, you can delve into the public school of yesterday, meet some of the women and men who have shaped our experience of school, explore the evolving classroom—from bells and blackboards to technology and testing—and explore moments in education history through a collection of images and essays that portray the common school, vast changes in student population, women as teachers, immigration, discrimination, desegregation, teaching life skills, bilingual education and more.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Browse K12TeacherStore.com for a wide variety of products published by leading K–12 education companies, all of them delivered digitally. Many of the ebooks can be used on interactive whiteboards and various mobile reading devices. All of the books whose covers you see displayed are on sale at a 15% discount. To stay informed about what’s going on with ebooks in K–12 schools, sign up for the enewsletter, K12 TeacherFile.

Download a free eBook of the popular print edition of The Big Deal Book of Technology for K–12 Educators. Explore the many opportunities to fund your special programs, access timely reports and articles, locate free and inexpensive resources and identify engaging interactive Web sites.

Get a free copy of The Big Deal eBook of Resources for 21st Century Teaching & Learning:Information, Media and Digital Literacies. Explore this collection of resources to help students locate, evaluate, use and mange information efficiently; interpret and communicate messages effectively; and master the digital tools to become informed citizens and productive 21st century workers.

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Register online to download the Big Deal eBook for Educators of English Language Learners. Inside this free eBook, you’ll find links to resources and a range of ideas to engage your English language learners.

Join The Big Deal Book of Technology’s “Amazing Resources for Educators” community on the edWeb to get more frequent updates on grant deadlines, free resources and hot new sites for 21st century learning. And, of course, you can share any great new resources that you’ve unearthed!

Browse the new Big Deal eBookstore, in partnership with K12TeacherStore.com! Find thousands of titles from your favorite educational publishers.

Explore the Web Wednesday feature on www.bigdealbook.com. Here you’ll find new interactive experiences and resources that incorporate 21st century themes and skills into the study of core subjects.