Turn the Page on Reading
The Pathways Within Roads to Reading Initiative donates books to literacy programs in small and rural low-income communities. All programs must have a strong focus on remedial reading programming or a tutoring component as part of the program. The award consists of 200 English-only books appropriate for readers aged 0 to young adult. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) organizations that run school, after-school, summer, community, day-care and library reading and literacy programs. They must have an annual operating budget of less than $95,000 (schools and libraries are exempt from this budget requirement) and be located in an underserved community with a population of less than 50,000.
Deadline: March 30, 2012
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Write a Poem from the Inside Out
The Sarah Mook Memorial Poetry Contest acknowledges, encourages and rewards the efforts of student poets. This year’s awards will be $100 First Prize, $50 Second Prize and $25 Third Prize in each of four categories: kindergarten through second grade, third through fifth grade, sixth through eighth grade and ninth through twelfth grade. Students may enter up to two poems of any length on any subject and in any style. Teachers are encouraged to submit entries from the class. Winning poets will be recognized with both their poems and the judge’s comments published on the Poetry WITS (Writing in the Schools) website.
Deadline: March 31, 2012
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Recognize Outstanding Math and Science Teaching
The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is among the nation’s highest honors for teachers of mathematics and science. The awards recognize highly qualified teachers for their contributions in the classroom and to their profession. Recipients of the award receive a certificate signed by the President of the United States; a paid trip for two to Washington, D.C., to attend a series of recognition events and professional development opportunities; and a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation. To be eligible, nominees must teach mathematics or science at the kindergarten through sixth-grade level in a public or private school. They must also have at least five years of full-time, K–12 mathematics or science teaching experience prior to the 2011–2012 academic school year and be United States citizens or permanent residents.
Deadlines: April 1, 2012 for nominations; May 1, 2012 for applications
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Introduce Students to the World of Invention
The InvenTeam initiative, sponsored by the Lemelson–MIT Program, offers high school students the opportunity to cultivate their creativity and experience invention. The InvenTeams (high school students, teachers and mentors) receive grants of up to $10,000 each to invent technological solutions to real-world problems. Each InvenTeam chooses its own problem to solve, and students rely on inquiry and hands-on problem solving as they apply lessons from science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to develop invention prototypes. Students learn to work in teams while collaborating with intended users of their inventions. They partner with professionals in their communities to enrich their experiences.
Deadline: April 6, 2012
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Nurture the Creative Ability of Low-Income Students
The McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation offers Academic Enrichment Grants designed to develop in-class and extracurricular programs that improve student learning. The foundation considers proposals that foster understanding, deepen students’ knowledge and provide opportunities to expand awareness of the world around them. The Academic Enrichment Grants provide funding for programs that nurture the intellectual, artistic and creative abilities of children from low-income households. The McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation awards grants to individuals in amounts of up to $10,000 per year for a maximum of three years, provided the eligibility requirements continue to be met. To be eligible, educators must be employed by schools or nonprofit organizations and have the background and experience to complete the project successfully. They must also have direct and regular contact with students in preK–grade 12 from low-income households.
Deadline: April 15, 2012
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Teach Students About Cybersafety
Developed as part of the Australian government’s cybersecurity initiative, Budd:e is a free website aimed at creating a safer, more secure online environment for all children. It takes students throughout the process of identifying risky sites, viruses and malware, and most of all teaches them about what information is deemed public and what should remain private. It also covers cyberbullying in great detail and helps students differentiate between reputable sources of information and content that is unreliable. The Budd:e Cyber security Education package consists of two activity-based learning modules, one for elementary school students, and one for secondary school students. Both modules contain engaging, media-rich activities and resources, developed in consultation with teachers and subject matter experts. Comprehensive Teacher Resources include background and contextual information, a video demonstration of the modules and lesson plans with learning outcomes for each activity.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free Teacher Resources

Help Build an Open Library
Part of the Internet Archive, the Open Library is a collection of more than 1 million free ebooks catalogued by a community of volunteer online librarians. The ebooks can be read online, downloaded to a computer, read on a Kindle or another ereader device and embedded into other sites. Some of the ebooks, such as Treasure Island, can also be listened to through the Open Library.
Click Here to Access Free eBooks

Find Historical Maps That Span the World
The OldMapsOnline Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historical maps across numerous, different collections via a geographical search. To search, type a place name or click in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.
Click Here to Locate Historical Maps

Add a New Dimension to Your Maps
Animaps is a service that allows users to create animated Google Maps. Using Animaps, you can create a tour of your placemarks that plays through according to the timing that you specify. You can also build in colored shapes to expand and contract to demonstrate patterns. And you can import images to your map from Flickr, Picassa and Facebook.
Click Here to Access Free Online Resource

Go Beyond Traditional Linear Presentations
Popplet is a one-stop shop featuring a combination of mind-mapping, online bulletin board and presentation tools. Double-click anywhere on your Popplet board to add a content bubble (called a popple). A popple can hold all sorts of media, including text, images, videos and even Google maps. Create mind maps by dragging connections between popples and arranging content on the board. Finally, use Popplet as a unique presentation tool. Choose the order of the content using the presentation menu; then the app will zoom in on each popple while you are presenting.
Click Here to Access Free Online Resource

Determine the Educational Value of Apps
With so many apps available, how do you determine which ones are good? This site presents free, downloadable suggestions for evaluating educational apps. You’ll find a rubric that emphasizes the extent to which the content or settings can be customized and the degree to which the app encourages the use of higher-order thinking skills. You’ll also find a checklist that addresses both instructional and technical aspects of an app, as well as a yes/no checklist that serves as a critical evaluation of an iPad/iPod app and has a place to write a summary of the app, and a yes/no mobile app review checklist that addresses curriculum compliance, operational and pedagogy categories.
Click Here to Access Free Rubric and Free Checklists

Control the Flow of Time
Your students can explore how the world is changing by controlling the flow of time with their fingers in Painting with Time, a free iPad app from Red Hill Studios. Painting with Time provides a range of time brushes and special time slicers that let students manipulate photographic sequences in strange and new ways. They can make leaves appear on trees and then paint on the colors of fall. They can reveal the colors of San Francisco over a day or mix and merge different time views of a beach to create intriguing time composites. Brought to you by the creators of the Exploring Time documentary series (www.exploringtime.org), and the Playing with Time traveling museum exhibition, this app is the first in a series of time-painting apps that lets students explore how the world around them changes over time.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free App

Create a Collective Story
StoryLines for Schools, a free app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, is a game of “telephone” with pictures. The game sparks students’ creativity as they learn new, grade-appropriate vocabulary and language concepts. Here’s how it works: Player 1 makes a sentence (using suggested vocabulary words or not). The device is passed to player 2, who reads the sentence and draws a picture of what he or she imagines. The device then goes to player 3, who can only see the picture drawn by player 2; he or she then writes a sentence looking at that image. Player 1 then draws the picture for that sentence, and it goes on and on (depending on how many turns are set) until everyone gets a big laugh at the end.
Click Here to Access Free App

Try Out Interactive Science Tutorials
In cooperation with Tekdata and Medianet, Benchmark is offering a free, one-year test trial of 118 science tutorials (53 Biology, 43 Physics, 22 Chemistry) for grades 9–12. (The tutorials, which use flash animation, play on all computers and any Android mobile device.) After the trial period, yearly renewals will be $99 per high school; discounts are available for multiple sites. Free Teacher’s Guides provide an overview of the tutorials; no ID is required. Biology, chemistry and physics teachers can also view two sample tutorials in each subject area with no ID required. To accept this free offer, or to find out more, contact Benchmark via email: [email protected]; phone: (914) 762-3838; or fax: (914) 762-3895.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free Teacher’s Guides
Click Here to Preview Free Samples

Become a Citizen Scientist
Project BudBurst is a network of people across the United States who monitor plants as the seasons change. It’s a national field campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of important ecological data based on the timing of leafing, flowering and fruiting of plants. The website includes a collection of resources designed for use by educators in informal and formal learning environments to implement Project BudBurst with their students. Among the resources are Teacher Registration Guides for elementary, middle and high school educators; Classroom Activity Descriptions for each grade level to effectively implement Project BudBurst in the K–12 classroom setting; free, downloadable Classroom Activities, aligned with national education standards, and accompanying teacher implementation guides; and a list of other educational resources and activities that might be of interest.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free Teacher Resources

Plus: The online BudBurst Buddies resource, for younger students (elementary grades), encourages simple observations of how plants change through the season. BudBurst Buddies follow characters Lily and Sage as they choose plants to watch and write down the changes they see through the seasons. They also get a little help from Sage’s grandfather. Students who participate receive a BudBurst Buddies certificate signed by Project BudBurst scientists.
Click Here to Access Online Resource

See Mathematics in Action
The Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) will open in New York City later this year. The museum’s exhibits and programs will aim to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity and reveal the wonders of mathematics. As part of its commitment to provide engaging, interactive mathematical experiences, MoMath has created a number of paper-based geometric activities that can be downloaded freely from the museum’s website. Students can create a tetrahedral chain that flexes in surprising ways. They can dive through four different MoMath logos. And they can fold their way to four matching patterns.
Click Here to Visit Website

Plus: MoMath has partnered with Make Magazine to produce Math Mondays, a weekly column on Make: Online, featuring fun, experiential, puzzling items that explore different aspects of mathematics.
Click Here to Access Free Math Activities

Take a Virtual Tour Around the World
AirPano offers dozens of spectacular 360-degree panoramas of famous landmarks and cities around the world. The panoramas can be set to auto-play with a music accompaniment, or you can navigate the panoramas manually. To find a panorama on AirPano, you can browse the listings, search by keyword or view a Google Map of all of the places AirPano has captured. AirPano panoramas can be viewed in high or low resolution according to the speed of your Internet connection. The panoramas can be viewed on an iPhone or iPad. You can also view the AirPano files in Google Earth.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Google Map
Click Here to Access Google Earth

See Major Historic Events Through the News
HistoryBuff is a nonprofit organization that provides free primary source material for students, teachers and history buffs. The site focuses primarily on how news of major, and not so major, events in American history was reported in newspapers of the time. In addition, there is information about the technology used to produce newspapers over the past 400 years. The latest addition is a set of 15 narrated panoramic tours of interesting and significant historic sites around America. Some of the panoramas you will find in the collection include Davy Crockett’s childhood home, Appomattox Courthouse, Thomas Edison’s birthplace and Valley Forge.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Panoramic Tours

Celebrate Women’s History Month
Setting the Precedent is a virtual tour introducing four exceptional American women who succeeded in business in the twentieth century. The website features biographical information, timelines, games and historical background for each of the women.
Click Here to Visit Website

Plus: The online exhibition Women of Our Time highlights famous and influential American women of the twentieth century. The iconic images include studio portraits, glamorous publicity shots, press photographs, fashion photographs, advertising images and amateur snapshots.
Click Here to View Online Exhibit

Stay on Top of Trends in YA Literature
Launched in March 2007 in celebration of Women’s National History Month, readergirlz (rgz) is a literacy and social media project founded by young adult (YA) authors Dia Calhoun (Avielle of Rhia), Janet Lee Carey (Dragons of Noor), Justina Chen (North of Beautiful) and Lorie Ann Grover (Hold Me Tight). rgz Operation Teen Book Drop has donated more than 30,000 new YA books to underserved teens.
Click Here to Visit Website

Help Students Make Informed Career decisions
On the Career Thoughts website, students will find career profiles that outline what a person in a particular career field actually does, the education requirements for that field, salary ranges and employment prospects. The Career Thoughts YouTube channel provides even more information through video profiles of careers. Students who are ready to start applying for jobs will find plenty of résumé-writing, job-hunting and interviewing tips on Career Thoughts too.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access YouTube Channel

Bring the News to Life
Would your students like to browse newspapers from around the world? Would they be interested in a kaleidoscopic reading of news reports? If you answered yes, then you should visit Today’s Front Pages, which is run by the Newseum in Washington, D.C. As the name implies, Today’s Front Pages provides daily access to newspapers all over the globe. There are three ways to read the front pages: with the use of the gallery, list or map. In any of these three possibilities, the front pages may be sorted by geographical region. The site provides access to more than 906 front pages from 94 countries, updated daily.
Click Here to Visit Website

Plus: Students can play the Newsmania game based on the day’s headlines. To test their knowledge of the day’s news, students choose a level: Intern (for the “newbie), Reporter (whose job is “getting it right”) or Editor (the master of all news). Topics include General Knowledge, Sport and Entertainment. A correct answer prompts a bonus question.
Click Here to Access Free Game

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