Instill a Love of History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History awards the National History Teacher of the Year title each year in its effort to promote the study and love of American history. Any full-time K–12 educator who teaches American history (including state and local history) is eligible for the award. American history may be taught as an individual subject or through social studies, reading, language arts and other subjects. Elementary teachers (K–6) and middle and high school teachers (7–12) are honored in separate categories in alternate years. The 2012 award will honor middle and high school teachers (7–12). The 2013 award will honor elementary teachers (K-6). Teachers can be nominated for either award throughout the year. The national winner receives a $10,000 prize presented at an award ceremony. State winners receive a $1,000 prize and an archive of classroom resources.
Deadlines: February 1, 2012 for K-6 nominations; March 15, 2012 for supporting materials
Click Here for More Information

Engage Families in Education
The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is accepting applications for the 2012 Toyota Teacher of the Year. Criteria with an emphasis on parental engagement and doubled grant prize are both new this year. The winner will be chosen by a panel of NCFL family literacy specialists. The selected winner will receive $20,000 for his or her program as well as a free trip to the 2012 National Conference on Family Literacy, which will take place from March 25 through March 27, 2012, in San Diego. One runner-up will receive a $2,500 grant for his or her program and a scholarship to the conference. The nomination form must be completed online by the nominee’s principal/director/supervisor, and the nominee must answer the final question. Up to two educators from a program may be nominated.
Deadline: February 1, 2012 for nominations
Click Here for More Information
Click Here for Nomination Form

Share Practices of Effective Teaching
The Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice is awarded annually to a select group of public school teachers who demonstrate exceptionally effective teaching with students from high-poverty communities. No more than five teachers are awarded the prize each year. Each winner is recognized with a $25,000 award and the opportunity to collaborate with other winners during an at-home summer residency that culminates in the publication of a short paper on the practice of effective teaching. The paper allows Fishman Prize winners to share their expertise with educators across the country without taking time away from their classrooms. The Fishman Prize is sponsored by TNTP, a national nonprofit committed to ending the injustice of educational inequality.
Deadline: February 3, 2012
Click Here for More Information

Explore Opportunities for Positive Change
Now in its 16th year, the Christopher Columbus Awards is a free program that challenges middle school students to explore opportunities for positive change in their communities. Teams of up to four students and a coach identify a community issue and use the scientific process to solve it. Finalist teams win an all-expenses-paid trip to Walt Disney World where they attend the Christopher Columbus Academy and compete for gold medals and US Savings Bonds. To enter their team into the Christopher Columbus Awards competition, team members must complete the official entry form (online or downloadable PDF), print it and return it via postal mail with their entry.
Deadline: February 6, 2012
Click Here for More Information

Get Engaging Tech Tools
The Turning Foundation, in collaboration with Samsung Mobile, BrainPOP and Turning Technologies, has announced the Winter 2012 Classroom Improvement Technology Grant. The goal of this joint effort is to help educators develop 21st century classrooms and improve achievement by providing effective, engaging technology tools from multiple industry-leading companies. Grant applications will be accepted from K–5 teachers who are currently teaching in an accredited, nonprofit school building in the United States. Ten classroom awards estimated at $3,600 each will be distributed.
Deadline: February 15, 2012
Click Here for More Information

Create a Digital Classroom
Learn it in 5 is a library of how-to videos, produced by technology teachers, for the purpose of helping teachers and students create classroom strategies for today’s 21st century’s digital classroom. In five minutes or less, the step-by-step how-to videos walk teachers through Web 2.0 technology, demonstrating how to use Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, social networks, podcasts, interactive videos, wikis, slide sharing and much more.
Click Here to Access Free Videos

Reuse Misprinted Paper
At schools all over the country, network printers are surrounded by wasted misprinted papers. Rather than just throwing those papers into the recycling bin, you can use ReprintMe to turn them into calendars. ReprintMe offers free, downloadable PDF templates for weekly and monthly calendars. You can run that paper through the printer again, printing on the blank backside to create a calendar with a Reprint Me template. New calendar templates are released each quarter so that you can print a few months in advance. Right now you can get calendars for the first quarter of 2012. You can also click the forward arrow to download and try one of the free sketch templates for your iPhone, iPad or web browser.
Click Here to Download Free Calendar Templates

Push the Envelope
Stamps Teach is an innovative program developed by the New Initiatives Committee of the National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists. Launched on December 7, 2011, the program offers participating third- through fifth-grade teachers a variety of materials for their classrooms: free lesson plans, handouts, colorful postage stamps, a classroom calendar and a complete learning center called Stamp Ventures. The pilot program currently has 60 teachers who have agreed to use stamps in their classrooms to teach one or more subjects. The Stamps Teach pilot program is still open for additional teachers.
Click Here for More Information About Free Stamp Program

Capture the Campaign Process
Running for Office is an online exhibit of the political cartoons of Clifford Berryman. Berryman is probably best known for his cartoon featuring Theodore Roosevelt having compassion for a bear cub. That cartoon inspired the creation of the Teddy Bear. Berryman drew political cartoons for Washington newspapers for more than 50 years. The National Archives has put together the 52-page online exhibit of Berryman’s cartoons. The cartoons chronicle the process of choosing the President. The exhibit also includes cartoons about running for Congress. The meaning and historical context of the cartoons are explained as well. Almost all of the cartoons in the exhibit can be downloaded for free.
Click Here to Access Free Political Cartoons

Question the Author
Amazon recently announced a new feature for its Kindle reading platform that lets readers ask authors questions about their books as they’re reading. The new program, called @author, lets Kindle users highlight a passage and then ask the author a question about it via their Amazon author page or Twitter. Only questions as long as 100 characters can be asked from within the ebook itself, but more in-depth curiosities can be posted to the author’s official page on Amazon.
Click Here to Connect with an Author

Create a Personal Whiteboard
The free Educreations app turns an iPad into a recordable whiteboard. With voice recording, realistic digital ink, photo imports and simple sharing through email, Facebook or Twitter, you can broadcast your ideas from anywhere. Create an animated lesson simply by touching, tapping and talking. Use it to explain a math formula, add commentary to photos, diagram a sports play and more.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free App

Make Every Moment Count
Asking children to monitor the effective use of the abstract concept of time is tricky, to say the least. Time Timer is an iPad app that offers a visual explanation of what efficient use of time looks like. For example, students can observe a red shape slowly disappear as they monitor the progress of cleanup time. They can also evaluate what cleanup procedures are the most effective or check assumptions about how slow a snail truly is. The app has several different graphic representations of clocks and time increments from which to choose. The app is available for $6.99 in the iTunes App Store.
Click Here to Access App

Manipulate Mechanical Gadgets
TinkerBox HD is a free iPad app that gives students an opportunity to invent machines that capitalize basic engineering concepts. The goal is to manipulate the organization of a wide array of mechanical gadgets so that they solve a given problem. Using trial and error, students can arrange and rearrange elements until they design a successful solution. The Invent mode lets users create their own machines. Student can share their creations through TinkerBox News.
Click Here to Access Free App

Share Wildlife Encounters
Project Noah connects students to real-world learning while promoting environmental stewardship. With this free iPhone app, students can join the forces of other nature lovers around the world and collect photographs of local plants and animals. They can collect photographic evidence on their own or for organized projects, or “missions,” set up by scientists. Each time students take a photograph, they are documenting that particular species. They will need to be able to classify, describe and create search tags for every image they submit. Project Noah can automatically access a mobile device’s location and include that data with each sighting, or students can choose to enter the data manually.
Click Here to Access Free App

Gain Insight into Roman Civilization
The Virtual History Roma iPad app presents a fantastic voyage to Ancient Rome. This capital of the largest empire in the ancient world has been reconstructed in virtual form, which students can explore in a “full-immersion” panoramic experience. The Roma app provides students with insight into Roman civilization, using innovative functions and multimedia content, from the digital reconstruction of the city’s statues to aerial views of the metropolis as it stood 2,000 years ago. The reconstruction of their original appearance, as seen from various angles, is overlaid and compared with their appearance in today’s Rome. The app is available for $9.99 in the iTunes App Store.
Click Here to Access App

Celebrate Technology and Innovation
The second national gathering of the USA Science & Engineering Festival will take place next April in satellite events across the nation. The festival will culminate in a massive Expo on April 28–29, 2012, in Washington, D.C. The event will celebrate the wonders of technology and innovation through an array of interactive, hands-on exhibits, stage shows, book fairs and other activities—all featuring some of the top scientists, engineers, space explorers, serial entrepreneurs, authors and other “stars” in technology today.
Click Here to Visit Website

Inspire a New Generation of Problem Solvers
Developed by Connect a Million Minds (an initiative of Time Warner Cable), in partnership with the Coalition for Science After School, The Connectory is a database that’s home to thousands of hands-on, out-of-school STEM experiences. Search for activities and resources in your community that inspire young people to develop the important science, technology, engineering and math skills they need in order to become the problem solvers of tomorrow.
Click Here to Visit Website

Read the Tree Leaves
A period of sudden global warming 55 million years ago radically changed life on Earth. Animals and even plants went on the move in search of cooler places. A Smithsonian paleontologist named Scott Wing has found a way of telling the temperatures of this time. He examines fossils of tree leaves and uses his findings in a mathematical equation. In the interactive Prehistoric Climate Change, your students too can “read the tree leaves” and tell how high the temperatures rose. They’ll also meet Scott in a video.
Click Here to Visit Website

Visualize Geometry Concepts
Math Open Reference is a free online reference for geometry teachers and students that features animated and interactive drawings to demonstrate geometry terms and concepts. The table of contents on Math Open Reference is divided into four basic categories; plane geometry, coordinate geometry, solid geometry and function explorer tools. Click on any subject in the first three categories to find definitions, examples and interactive drawings. In the function explorer category, users can select linear functions, quadratic functions or cubic functions to explore how changes in variables affect the graphed output.
Click Here to Visit Website

Spend a Minute in the World of Science
Scientific American’s 60-Second Science podcasts are worth exploring, subscribing to and sharing with students. Titles such as “Microbes Make Some People Smell Delicious to Mosquitos” and “It’s Plain the Rain Ups Chili Peppers’ Pain” are not only highly informative, they’re great discussion starters too. Access the complete list of 60-Second Science podcasts on Scientific American’s website and check out all the other podcasts as well. The list includes Science Talk, 60-Second Mind, 60-Second Health, 60-Second Earth, 60-Second Tech and more.
Click Here to Access Free 60-Second Science Podcasts
Click Here to Access All 60-Second Podcasts

Bring Shadows to Life
The Kennedy Center’s ARTSEDGE website presents Playing with Shadows, an interactive that explores the ancient art of Shadow Puppetry. Students will learn how to make their own puppets, set up a screen and lights, and create their own shadow plays. They can also check out the interviews with real puppeteers and watch videos of shadow plays for inspiration. Using the Puppet Studio, students can create digital shadow plays.
Click Here to Visit Website

Celebrate the Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement
Songs were an integral part of the American civil rights movement. Singing inspired large groups of people at church meetings, street demonstrations and marches. Many of the songs were traditional hymns and spirituals with lyrics that had several layers of meaning and expressed a desire for freedom. Other hymns and spirituals were given new words to emphasize the struggle for more specific issues such as voting rights. The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s History Now website presents a jukebox with six songs that played an important role in the civil rights movement and reflect the defiant spirit of the time. Click on a song title for audio and printed lyrics.
Click Here to Visit Website

Enter the World Wild Web
itvWild is a website designed for elementary school–aged students to learn about the challenges facing wildlife around the world today. The site provides access to thousands of animal videoclips from one of the largest collections in the world. Students can also enjoy exclusive features from ITV’s wildlife programs. To search for clips, simply type what you’re looking for in the search bar. For example, you can try searching by animal name (e.g., “eagle”), habitat (e.g., “desert”), behavior (e.g., “fighting”), country or continent (e.g., “Africa”) or a word that sums up the clip (e.g., “beautiful’). itvWild also offers a game for students to test their knowledge of the wildlife and the habitats they learned about in the various videos and features they have watched.
Click Here to Visit Website

Tour Where Religion and Art Meet
The Vatican Museums’ website hosts a detailed virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel. The tour allows visitors to zoom in on small areas and details and turn 360 degrees to view the interior of the Sistine Chapel from various angles. In addition to the tour of the Sistine Chapel, the site hosts virtual tours of four other places and exhibits: Gregorian Egyptian Museum, Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Raphael’s Rooms and Pinacoteca.
Click Here to Visit Website

Sit in the Oval Office
The JFK Presidential Library and Museum website has interactive exhibits for learning about John F. Kennedy and his presidency. For example, We Choose the Moon is an interactive exploration of the Apollo 11 mission. The exhibit covers everything from Kennedy’s first proclamation that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s to the moon landing itself. The White House Diary is an interactive flipbook of Kennedy’s schedule while in office. Students can flip through it page by page to see what he did on each day or pick a specific date from the calendar. Many of the pages include video clips and/or images from that day. The JFK Timeline is an interactive timeline of Kennedy’s presidency. The timeline features cultural and world events as well as political events in the United States. Finally, in the Virtual JFK Museum Tour, students can view exhibits and artifacts in the museum. The tour is narrated, and in some cases students will hear Kennedy’s voice. The tour is divided into major themes and events of Kennedy’s presidency, including his campaign, the Peace Corps and the Space Race. The tour also includes some information about Bobby Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy.
Click Here to Visit Website

Discover the Roots of the Digital Future
The Museum of Obsolete Objects (MOOO) is a YouTube channel featuring videos about objects such as cassette tapes that at one point represented cutting-edge technology and are now obsolete. The MOOO isn’t limited to 20th century objects; the list includes such objects as quill pens and the telegraph.
Click Here to Visit Website

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 free enewsletter, K12 TeacherFile.

Get a free copy of The Big Deal eBook of Resources for 21st Century Teaching and Learning: From the 3Rs to the 4Cs. Explore this collection of resources to help students move beyond the 3Rs and embrace the 4Cs—Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity—the 21st century skills cited by industry as keys to innovation and invention in an increasingly challenging global economy.

Sign up at The Big Deal Book Web site for hELLo!, a free quarterly ELL e-newsletter that includes a wealth of information on interactive resources for students, teachers, librarians, principals and others involved in the education of English language learners.

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.

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.