Help Protect the Environment
Disney’s Friends for Change Grants encourage children everywhere to work with their friends to help the planet. The Friends for Change Grants will fund projects that help the environment and engage children and youth aged 5–18 as leaders in their communities. To be eligible, projects will need to be done any time during 2010 and should include one service or celebratory component on Global Youth Service Day, April 23–25, 2010. Disney, working with Youth Service America (YSA), will award 150 grants of $500 each throughout 2010.
Deadline: January 29, 2010
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Motivate Struggling Readers
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Innovative Reading Grant supports the planning and implementation of programs for children that motivate and encourage reading, especially with struggling readers. Selection criteria include the potential to measure and evaluate a literacy project that promotes the importance of reading and facilitates the learners’ literacy development by supporting current reading research, practice and policy. To be eligible for the $2,500 grant, reading programs must be specifically designed for K–9 students in the school library setting.
Deadline: February 1, 2010
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Sprout the Seeds of Learning
The Welch/Scholastic Harvest Grants help schools across the United States create fruit and vegetable gardens. All K–8 teachers are eligible to win indoor or outdoor garden packages valued from $250 to $1,000 each.
Deadline: February 6, 2010
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Join an Environmental Expedition
Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Earthwatch Educator Program, an environmental education program for middle school math and science teachers, is now accepting applications. Twenty-two educators will be selected from communities in which the company operates to participate in an Earthwatch expedition focused on climate change or ocean preservation. These educators will join leading scientists in conducting environmental research. This experience is intended to be transferred to the classroom and shared with students year after year. Teachers can choose between two missions: one in the Bahamas, the other in the Arctic. The Bahamas project will focus on examining the effects of growing coastal development on the plants and animals living in the Bahamian archipelago. The Arctic project will take teachers to the edge of the Arctic tundra in Churchill, Canada to monitor ecosystem response to global warming.
Deadline: February 8, 2010 for applications
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Join the growing list of teachers enjoying the eBookDestination Rewards Program. On the first day of each month, a digital coupon (representing 5 percent of your total purchases in the previous month) will be added to your shopping cart. You’ll then be notified via email of the presence (and amount) of this coupon.

There’s no application to complete, no points to collect, no cards to carry, no codes to enter and (most important) no fees to pay. Quite simply, you are repaid for your loyalty with a 5 percent credit toward future purchases. It’s as easy as that!

Browse the eBookstore now! You’ll receive an automatic discount on thousands of ebook titles, many of which are bundled with downloadable audio MP3 files, from major educational publishers. Plus, there’s always a selection of the most popular titles on sale!

Find Solutions for Helping English Language Learners
Sign up at The Big Deal Book Web site for hELLo!, a free monthly ELL e-newsletter that includes information about new grants, upcoming contests, the latest educational research and a wealth of information on interactive print and online resources for students, teachers, librarians, principals and others involved in the education of English language learners.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Newsletter

Win a 21st Century Classroom
CDW Government LLC (CDW-G) and Discovery Education have announced the eighth annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes. The program gives K–12 schools nationwide the opportunity to win one of three grand-prize 21st century classrooms valued at approximately $40,000. CDW-G and Discovery Education also provide on-site training to all Win a Wireless Lab grand-prize winners. In addition to the hardware technology included in the 21st century classroom, Discovery Education will award a $5,000 digital media grant to the three grand-prize winning schools to enable a more engaging learning environment. The 2010 program gives eligible entrants additional opportunities to increase their chances of winning via Twitter. Entrants who post about the program on their Twitter accounts can receive an additional two entries per day, for a total of three entries per day. In addition, educators can participate in the Win a Wireless Lab community online at http://twitter.com/WinWirelessLab and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Win-a-Wireless-Lab/188603259245.
Deadline: Entries accepted daily until May 3, 2010
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Green Your School
Increase Your Green is a national campaign launched by HP and DoSomething.org, inviting educators to come up with a plan to green their school and put their idea into action. The 2010 campaign will take place from February 15 to April 22, 2010. Submit your plan for a chance to win an HP Artist Edition Notebook.
Deadline: February 1, 2010 for submissions
Click Here for More Information

Plus: Sign up by February 15 to get rocking starter kits that include stickers, recycled pens and action guides!

Showcase Exemplary Science Teaching
The Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence recognizes extraordinary contributions by educators across the United States who are elevating the level of science literacy through creativity in the classroom and motivation of students. Applicants must be full-time, K–12 classroom teachers whose major responsibilities include teaching science, and who work in California, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island or Washington state. Thirty-four science teachers will each receive an unrestricted cash award of $5,000, and the recipient’s school will receive a restricted grant of $5,000 to be used for the expansion or enhancement of a school science program, science resources or professional development of the school’s science teachers.
February 2, 2010

Help Immigrants Succeed Through Education
The Western Union Foundation’s Family Scholarship Program is an educational initiative for migrants, immigrants and their families in the United States that aims to help two members of the same family move up the economic ladder through education. Scholarships may be used for tuition for college/university education, language acquisition classes, technical/skill training and/or financial literacy. Recipients are eligible to receive scholarships in amounts of $1,000 to $5,000 per family. (For example, one scholarship recipient may receive $1,500 for an ESL course and the other recipient $3,500 for tuition at a university.)
Deadline: February 5, 2010
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Get free unlimited online access to all the print content in 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.

Register online to download the Fall 2009 Big Deal eBook for Educators of English Language Learners. Inside this free eBook, you’ll find links to resources, strategies, best practices and interactive Web sites to engage your English language learners. You’ll also find a rich variety of funding sources to bring sustenance to your programs.

Celebrate the Life and Dream of MLK
Each year on the third Monday of January, schools, federal offices, post offices and banks across America close to celebrate the birth, the life and the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. If you’ve been searching for an authoritative collection of links to online classroom resources about Dr. King, check out the Martin Luther King Jr Web page from 42Explore.
Click Here to Access Free Resources

Plus: “The Life of Martin Luther King Jr,” written in comic-book form, is sure to appeal to students in elementary grades and up.
Click Here to Access Free Resource

Focus on Inclusiveness
The National Education Association’s NEA Academy has partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to offer the NEA’s 3.2 million members access to ADL’s online professional development tool Making Diversity Count. The course is designed for middle and high school educators who are seeking to create and sustain a classroom environment that promotes respect, fairness and equity. The course also aims to enhance educators’ cultural competency when working with students of diverse backgrounds.
Click Here for More Information

Pan Around the World
Completely Web-based and powered by the Google Earth^TM API, Nystrom’s StrataLogica^TM is a social studies product designed for computers, projectors and interactive whiteboards. The program includes NYSTROM Herff Jones Education Division’s complete line of age-appropriate maps and globes, in addition to e-atlases and charts. The product’s features allow you to compare selected views, side by side, using the dual-map viewer; zoom in and out and pan across continents; use tools and symbol banks to customize views; save customized views, notes and lessons; and use thematic overlays to compare and contrast content.
Click Here to Learn More and Sign Up for Free Trial

Plus: Enter the StrataLogica In the Classroom Video Challenge for an opportunity to win an interactive whiteboard, laptops or StrataLogica licenses for your school.
Deadline: February 15, 2010
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Illustrate Geographic Dimensions of History
Historic Maps in K–12 Classrooms offers lesson plans built around historically important maps on 18 topics: Columbus’s world (1482); an Indian map of the Southeast (1721); Captain Cook and Hawaii (1778); “Nouvelle Orleans” and nearby French settlements (1723); the road from Missouri to Oregon (1843); turnpikes, canals and railroads (1835); the transcontinental rail network (1878); a British plan of Boston (1775); World War II (1944); a farm in Illinois (1874); Los Angeles (1979) and more. The lesson plans were developed by the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library.
Click Here to Access Free Resources

Enhance Learning with Technology
Activate is a free online “Journal of Technology-Rich Learning” that includes Web-based resources for librarians, technology coordinators, students, parents, teachers and administrators. The latest articles and conference presentations include “Divergent Convergence: Learning in a Multi-platform World”; “The Quest for Content in a World of Google, Gadgets and Graphics”; “Starters, Scaffolds and Sharing: Technology Across the Curriculum”; “Graphic Novels, Photo Essays & Illuminated Term Papers: Communicating Deep Understanding”; and “Digital Comics, Graphic Novels, Sequential Art, and Technology Enhanced Learning.”
Click Here to Access Free Articles

Launch into Science Learning
NASA TV is the television network of the United States space agency, NASA. The NASA Public channel provides 24-hour broadcasting of live and recorded events and documentaries aimed toward the general public. The NASA Education channel provides space and science programming for schools, museums and other educational institutions. Programs include NASA Gallery, which features photographs and video from NASA’s history; Education File, which provides special programming for schools; NASA Edge and NASA 360, hosted programs that focus on different aspects of NASA; and This Week @ NASA, which shows news from NASA centers around the country. Live ISS coverage and related commentary are aired daily at 11 a.m. EST and repeat throughout the day. On the NASA TV Web site, you’ll find a growing collection of 3-D models, textures and images from inside NASA. All of the resources are free to download and use.
Click Here to Visit Web Site
Click Here to Visit Web Galleries

Plus: World Book Encyclopedia and NASA are working together to provide World Book content to NASA Internet visitors. Students in grades 4–8 can use World Book @ NASA for Students as a resource for help with homework and reports.
Click Here to Access Free Resources

Listen Deeply, Tell Stories
The Center for Digital Storytelling assists youth and adults around the world in using media tools to share, record and value stories from their lives in ways that promote artistic expression, health and wellbeing, and justice. The Center teaches Open Workshops in locations across the U.S. and Canada, and in various cities in Europe. These sessions allow participants to explore the creative process of producing their own stories. Visit the site for an introduction to Digital Storytelling, samples of Digital Stories and a Cookbook (guide) that contains “Recipes,” “Elements,” “Gettin’ Started,” “Storyboarding,” “Digitizing Memories” and “Premiere.”
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: Check out The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling developed at The University of Houston. A great way to begin learning about Digital Storytelling is by watching the video introduction on this Web site.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Integrate Mathematical Thinking into Other Contexts
Based at the University of Cambridge in the UK, the NRICH Project offers thousands of free mathematics enrichment materials (problems, articles and games) for students (aged 5 to 19) and teachers. All the resources are designed to develop subject knowledge, problem solving and mathematical thinking skills. The Web site is updated with new material on the first day of every month.
Click Here to Visit NRICH Web Site

Plus: Launched in January, the stemNRICH section of the site embeds mathematical problem solving into science, technology and engineering contexts. The Teachers’ Notes accompanying each problem offer guidance to teachers on how the activities can be used in classrooms to lead to rich mathematical activity and discussion.
Click Here to Visit stemNRICH Web Page

Connect with Colleagues
Join The Big Deal Book of Technology’s “Amazing Resources for Educators” community on the edWeb. The edWeb gives you the networking tools to connect you with colleagues, groups you’re associated with and the entire education community. You can collaborate with colleagues outside the boundaries of classroom walls and school buildings to share lesson plans and compare notes on resources and products. You can also discuss topics of mutual interest, write a blog, share files, images and videos—and much more—all for free. Now you can join The Big Deal Book of Technology’s community 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!
Click Here to Join the Amazing Resources for Educators Community
Click Here to Take a Tour of the edWeb

See America on the Move
From the National Museum of American History, America on the Move helps students build chronology skills, develop a better understanding of change over time and discover how transportation has impacted the growth of American commerce, communities, landscape and people. In “Where’s Everyone Going?” students match a variety of vehicles with their destinations and time periods to learn how much transportation in America has changed over time. As they “Drive Through Time,” students decide how to get from here to there, while assembling they own photo album. And in “Be a Movie Director,” they find the right vehicles for a new movie from the America on the Move collection and then watch the movie they’ve created on the big screen.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Zoom in on a Spherical Panorama
Exploring a new city is always fun, but if you can’t get there, a gorgeous, zoomable 360-degree view photo can be an acceptable substitute. 360 Cities, a Dutch company, has created a stunning panoramic photo of Prague in the Czech Republic. What makes this panoramic photo interesting is that you can zoom in and out, move up or down or change your view—much like with Google Street View maps. If you zoom in enough, you can even see laundry hanging out to dry in some of the buildings. As of December 2009, the image was the largest spherical panorama in the world.
Click Here to View Panoramic Photo

Find Favorite Authors and Playwrights
Looking for a good book for your students? Want to know more about your favorite author? At America Writes for Kids!, you can search for information about authors and their books alphabetically or by state. Just go to the AUTHORS page and click on the map or an alphabet letter to get started. The site is a project of Drury University’s School of Education and Child Development.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: If you’re interested in playwrights and plays for young audiences, you’ll find them at USA PLAYS FOR KIDS! Included are plays already available from publishers and others so new they’re available only from the playwright. All are intended for young audiences, K–12; appropriate age levels are suggested for each script. You can search for information about playwrights and their plays alphabetically or by state.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Check out the new look of The Big Deal Book Web site. And be sure to explore the Web Wednesday feature, which offers resources and activities for integrating technology into your classroom. Here you’ll find new interactive experiences and resources that incorporate 21st century themes and skills into the study of core subjects.

Also explore the EarTHursday feature, which offers intelligent approaches to “going green” in your classroom. You’ll find interactive ideas that will help you encourage your students to weigh in and take action on some of the biggest environmental issues in our world today.

Appropriately named, these features change mid-week, every week!