Supplement Your Stretched Budget
GetEdFunding is CDW-G’s new website to help educators and institutions find the funds they need to supplement already stretched budgets. GetEdFunding is a free and fresh resource, which hosts a collection of more than 1,000 grants and other funding opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and available to public and private, preK–12 educators, schools and districts, higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations that work with them. The site offers customized searches by six criteria, including 41 areas of focus, eight content areas and any of the 21st century themes and skills that support your curriculum. Once you are registered on the site, you can save the grants of greatest interest and then return to read about them at any time.
Click Here to Visit Website

Celebrate the Contributions of Young Immigrants
The American Immigration Council is accepting nominations for its 2013 Immigrant Youth Achievement Award, celebrating high-achieving young immigrants, whose personal accomplishments and contributions demonstrate the important impact young immigrants are having on our nation every day. The honoree must be an immigrant to the United States, including those who have become naturalized citizens, and between the ages of 14 and 25 as of April 11, 2013. The accomplishments of the honoree must reflect more than personal success and should demonstrate a commitment to making a positive impact in their community or the world around them. The honoree will receive a $1,000 award and a trip to the Council’s Annual Benefit Dinner, in Washington, D.C., on April 11, 2013. The Council will cover the costs of travel and accommodations for the honoree and a parent or guardian if the honoree is a minor. Past nominees have emigrated from countries such as Ireland, India, Mexico, Cambodia, China and Cuba and have made contributions in literature, journalism, music and politics.
Deadline: February 1, 2013 for applications
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Encourage Community-wide Reading
The Big Read is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations to develop community-wide reading programs between September 2013 and June 2014. The Big Read is a national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The program is designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. Activities focus on one book or poet from The Big Read Library. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read will receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 as well as educational and promotional materials and access to online training resources and opportunities. Approximately 75 organizations from across the country will be selected.
Deadline: February 5, 2013, 4:00 p.m. (CST), for applications
Click Here for More Information
Click Here to Visit The Big Read Library

Use Math to Drive Curiosity
Raytheon Company is calling for submissions to its 2012–2013 MathMovesU Middle School Grant and Scholarship Program. To participate, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students nationwide are invited to illustrate the importance of math in the mission to Mars and in space exploration in general. Student submissions will be evaluated on creativity, originality, time commitment and the use of math equations to demonstrate an enthusiasm for math and space exploration. Up to 150 students will be awarded $1,000 scholarships to be used for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) camp programs or college. In addition, the students’ schools will receive matching grants of $1,000 to be used for math-related programs.
Deadline: February 8, 2013 for applications
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Make a Positive Impact
Disney Friends for Change grants offer young people across the United States the chance to make lasting, positive change in the world. The $1,000 grants, sponsored by Youth Service America, are awarded for youth-led service projects that demonstrate youth leadership, creativity and a commitment to making a positive impact on the community. Youth aged 5–18 located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are eligible to apply for the grant.
Deadline: February 10, 2013 for applications
Click Here for More Information

Hear Words, See Images
“I Do Solemnly Swear ...”: Presidential Inaugurations is a collection of approximately 400 items or 2,000 digital files related to inaugurations from George Washington’s in 1789 to Barack Obama’s inauguration of 2009. The presentation, which was compiled by the Library of Congress, includes diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs and sheet music. The collection is organized chronologically by presidential inauguration.
Click Here to Access Presidential Collection

Inspire and Be Inspired
Share My Lesson is a place where educators can come together to create and share their very best teaching resources. Developed by teachers for teachers, this free platform gives access to high-quality teaching resources and provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire one another. Share My Lesson has a significant resource bank for Common Core State Standards (CCSS), covering all aspects of the standards, from advice and guides to help with dedicated resources that support the standards. The site was developed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and TES Connect, the largest network of teachers in the world.
Click Here for More Information
Click Here to Share and Access Free Resources

Enhance Learning with Technology
The Arizona K12 Center at Northern Arizona University has developed a Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) designed to help K–12 teachers understand whether they are “doing it right” when it comes to integrating technology in the classroom. The matrix aligns five levels of technology integration—entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion and transformation—with five characteristics of meaningful learning—active, collaborative, constructive, authentic and goal directed. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells.
Click Here to Access Free Matrix

Improve Accessibility and Efficiency of Online Assessments
On December 28, 2012, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), one of two consortia designing curricula and assessments for Common Core State Standards, released its “minimum specifications” and “recommended technology” guidelines for testing under the Common Core. The guidelines address such areas as acceptable screen sizes and devices permissible for the testing, plus the types of security needed regarding Internet access, cameras and other device features. Earlier in December, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium released its own list of technology requirements and recommendations.
Click Here to Download PARCC Guidelines
Click Here to Download Smarter Balanced Requirements

Explore American Culture
The US State Department has jumped into the ed-tech world with Trace Effects, an online game intended to help teach “American English” to youth between the ages of 12 and 16 in more than 30 countries. Trace Effects tells the story of Trace, an androgynous male character who returns from the future to visit the United States charged with changing the world for the better. If he’s unsuccessful, he won’t be able to return to his own time. Throughout the course of the game, Trace travels the United States to such sites as New Orleans and the Grand Canyon, learning about the unique cultures, interacting with local people and completing missions. The missions are related to key themes woven throughout the game that include entrepreneurship, community activism, empowerment of women, science and innovation, environmental conservation and conflict resolution. Students can choose different ways to solve missions and help Trace return home.
Click Here to Access Free Game

Prepare for the Presidential Inauguration
The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies is launching its 2013 Online Conference Series, which is open to students, teachers and the public and is free to participate. The first in the series—“Teaching the 57th US Presidential Inauguration”—will provide information on the historical and contemporary significance of the upcoming and previous inauguration ceremonies. The conference will feature a Q&A with experts from the Smithsonian. A special teacher preview session will be held January 7, 2013, to help teachers incorporate the museum and other resources on the topic into their lessons and prepare students for participation in the main online conference to be held on January 10, 2013.
Click Here for More Information

Search for Understanding
The San Francisco Exploratorium’s Institute for Inquiry (IFI) is a professional development program that addresses the theory and practice of inquiry-based science education. This approach to learning gives students the opportunity to explore the natural or material world in a way that leads to asking questions, making discoveries and testing those discoveries in search for new understanding. IFI workshops and seminars are tailored to a variety of participants: professional developers, administrators, lead teachers, national education reform leaders, out-of-school educators and the university community. Since its inception in 1995, educators from 600 school districts in 46 states have attended IFI programs, as have participants from 10 countries.
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Plus: IFI has published a series of facilitator’s guides online for professional developers working with classroom teachers. These guides enable professional developers to lead their own workshops about the fundamentals of inquiry and the role of formative assessment in inquiry-based teaching and learning.
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Expand Nondiscriminatory Access to Libraries
A new website offers librarians a self-paced online curriculum of videos, games and assessments to help them better meet the needs of students with disabilities. Project ENABLE (Expanding Nondiscriminatory Access by Librarians Everywhere) was developed by Ruth V. Small of Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies after she conducted a survey of school librarians and found that they gave themselves low scores in the area of disability services. The Project ENABLE training modules were launched nationally in the fall of 2012. The site contains five self-paced independent learning modules. Each module includes content, activities and assessments that parallel, extend and enrich the project’s summer face-to-face workshops.
Click Here for More Information

Connect History, Art and Social Change
Registration is open for the Oh Freedom! online conference, taking place on February 6, 2013. Presented by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and featuring the Oh Freedom! website, the conference will explore Civil Rights and Smithsonian collections with curators, experts and educators in live presentations, demonstrations and moderated forums. This online conference is free and open to the public, including teachers and students, but registration is required to participate.
Click Here for More Information About Conference
Click Here to Visit “Oh Freedom!” Website

Fight Off the Pathogens
Germ Blaster is a free iPad and iPhone game, developed by Rice University’s Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning, in which students learn about six types of pathogens and the “weapons” used to fight them. Before starting the game, students review each pathogen and its characteristics. Then they review the methods used to fight those pathogens. In the game, students fight off the pathogens by selecting the appropriate weapon to kill the approaching pathogens. If they get stuck and can’t remember which weapons fight which pathogens, students can pause the game to look up information about the pathogens.
Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store

Put an Artistic Spin on the Periodic Table
The Periodic Table Project is a free app for the iPad and iPhone developed by the University of Waterloo and 3M. Over the course of development, the researchers gathered drawings representing the elements from students around the world. Each element is represented by a student’s drawing. Users simply click on a drawing to learn about that element. All of the standard information about an element found on a standard periodic table is included. The Periodic Table Project app also includes the two newly named elements. Flerovium (114) and Livermorium (116).
Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store

Get the Bard’s Tales at Your Fingertips
Today’s students can read Shakespeare’s works on their iPads through Shakespeare by Readdle, which puts Shakespeare’s famous and lesser-known works on their mobile devices for free. Shakespeare by Readdle includes all of Shakespeare’s published works. The app includes a search function to find specific phrases written by Shakespeare. Users can customize the app to adjust the color scheme, font style and font size. The app also includes a scene breakdown or summary for each of the plays. The pro version of Shakespeare by Readdle ($9.99) includes an integrated glossary, a random Shakespeare quote generator, a Shakespeare facts database and Shakespeare portraits.
Click Here to Access Free Basic App
Click Here to Access Pro Version

Integrate Algebra and Game Play
DragonBox is a multiplatform game that uses drag-and-drop mechanics to teach the basics of algebra. The app is available for $5.99 in Android, iOS, Windows and Mac editions—and soon a web version will be available. In the game, everything begins as a picture. There are fireflies, aliens, monsters, dice and more. As students level up, each one of these little icons slowly becomes a mathematical variable—letters and numbers. Without relying on text, the game teaches the rules of algebra step by step.
Click Here to Visit Website

Bring the Universe to Your Classroom
Mars 3D is a NASA website from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology, featuring a gallery with dozens of images of Mars that students can view with 3D glasses. If students don’t have 3D glasses, NASA has provided directions for making their own 3D glasses at home or at school. The site includes a PDF to print as the template for the glasses, and the rest of the materials are easily found in stores.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Directions for Making 3D Glasses

Tell a Story in Graphs
Graphing Stories is a new website featuring 24 short videos that tell a mathematical story. Students then retell the story by graphing it. All of the graphing stories videos can be downloaded for use in the classroom. Graphing Stories even provides graph templates (downloadable PDF file) for students to use in graphing their stories. The project is a collaboration between Dan Meyer, who taught high school mathematics for six years and studies at Stanford University, and BuzzMath, an interactive math website that focuses on learning and practicing middle school mathematics skills.
Click Here to Visit Website

Plus: In this blog post, Dan Meyer gives a sense of how Graphing Stories works and where the idea came from.
Click Here to Access Blog Post

Explore Historical Events and People
Visualizing Cultures is an innovative project created and developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The program consists of 13 visual narratives accompanied by essays. Topical units to date focus on Japan in the modern world and early modern China. The thrust of these explorations extends beyond Asia per se, however, to address “culture” in much broader ways—cultures of modernization, war and peace, consumerism, images of “self” and “others” and more. The units are generally comprised of four sections: Essays, Visual Narratives, Image Database (Gallery and VCID) and Video and Animation (VCTV). The Visualizing Cultures Curriculum offers a full complement of standards-compliant lessons, providing a pathway for teachers and students to become active historians and knowledgeable readers of images.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Free Curriculum

Discuss Real-World Issues
PenPal News creates electronic PenPal relationships by connecting classrooms across the United States and the world. However, rather than just facilitating connections between classes, PenPal News connects classes to discuss current events. Over the course of their six-week exchange, students will learn about five real-world issues and produce a final project to be shared with their penpals. Each week, students will watch a short, animated explanatory video about a real-world issue (for example, immigration); select and read an article about that issue; respond to prompts about the article and comment on what their penpal has written. PenPal News is designed as a once-a-week, 45-minute activity to be completed inside or outside the classroom. PenPal News currently offers the choice of two six-week curriculum modules: Option 1: Economy, Health Care, Energy, Immigration, Role of Government; Option 2: Poverty, Education, Technology, War + Conflict, Environment.
Click Here to Visit Website

Think Fast About the Past
Mission US is an interactive adventure game produced by WNET Thirteen to improve the understanding of American history by students in grades 5–8. Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” explores the reasons for the Revolution through the eyes of Loyalists and Patriots in 1770 Boston. Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom” explores resistance to slavery along the Kentucky–Ohio border in the years preceding the Civil War. Additional missions are planned for release in 2013 and 2014.
Click Here to Visit Website

Plus: An Educator Guide accompanies each mission. The Overview section of each guide contains in-depth information about gameplay, classroom implementation, essential questions and goals, and alignment with learning standards. The Background section presents information about the characters, situations, events and historical period in the game. The Activities section includes classroom activities for use with students before, during and after the game. And the Resources section provides additional information to enhance and extend students’ learning about the time period. In addition, classroom videos demonstrate the games in action.
Click Here to Access Teacher Resources

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