Disney Friends for Change & Youth Services Grants

Disney’s Friends for Change Grant encourages students, ages 5-12, to work toward making environmentally friendly changes in their communities.  Participation can by individual students, schools or organizations. Projects may take place anytime during 2010 and should include a special event or service on Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25. The deadline for Disney Friends for Change Grants is January 29,^, 2010. To check on other student service grants, you can sign up to receive information about Youth Service America  Mini Grant Programs.

New York State Envirothon Competition

The New York State Soil and Water Conservation District offers a yearly competition to test student knowledge of natural resources in the State and to encourage student interest in natural resources and environmental issues. In the competition, teams of five students in local schools compete for county and then State titles. Winners represent the State in the Canon National Envirothon.  The State competition will be held at Keuka College, Keuka Park New York, June 2 & 3, 2010. If you are interested in having your students compete, contact your local Soil Water Conservation District. The District should have the forms you need.

Note: If you are not located in New York State, check with your local Soil Conservation District office for information.

21st Century Libraries

eSchool News’ Maya T. Prabhu tells us that Digital Book Search Isn’t Limited to Google. She explains that there are other book search sites besides Google and Amazon that you may want to check. These include: WorldCat, Hathi Trust, Open Library, Internet Archive, as well as commercial for-pay sites. While Google has scanned more than 10 millions books, there are many more books available. The problem is finding them because they are “available digitally in many locations and formats, but with limited overlap...” Greg R Notess, Montana State University Library, suggests that when looking for books, especially older ones, you have to think creatively to find what you want.

Do Students Really Have Different Learning Styles?

A good teacher matches teaching techniques to fit students’ different learning styles, right? Maybe so; maybe not, says the study in Psychological Science in the Public Interest journal. The problem is that in the few studies targeting testing use of differing learning theories, the results have not been positive.  In other words, matching teaching style to student learning style showed no evidence of being effective. However, the authors of the study remind us that because so few studies have tackled learning style, they aren’t saying that learning-style theory will never work. They also warn that what we may consider learning style may instead be learning preference, which wouldn’t necessarily mean that a student would learn more just because that student liked a learning method better.  In conclusion, the study as reported in Education Week’s blog, suggests “widespread use of learning-style measures in educational settings is unwise and a wasteful use of limited resources." What do you think?

Beyond PowerPoint with Classroom Projectors

 Tech & Learning offers 10 Ways to Get Beyond PowerPoint with Classroom Computers and it’s all about going beyond projecting using the boring slide by slide method. How about, for example, thinking game shows like Jeopardy or You Don’t Know Jack, live streaming, use of doc cameras, or getting into improv theater? Author Ron S, Doyle also recommends using of software like Gliffy, Bubbl, and Slideshare. Topics covered in Doyle’s suggestions include: Reading/Writing; Mathematics; Science; Social Studies; Timing, Stopwatch, Countdown; Games and Quizzes; Board Work; Graphic Organizers; Guest/Substitute Lectures; and Drama/Theater.

What’s Your Toughest Challenge in Education?

The folks at FableVision like to take on tough challenges, and they are ready to help you with yours. You probably know of some of the company’s award-winning software, games, media, books, and animations like Stationery Studio, Animation-ish, Live Wire Schools Starter Kit, Brain Clogs, The Dot, North Star, and so many more. They invite you to send them your school’s toughest challenges and they say they’ll “noodle through some ways” to work with you on them.  While you are thinking about sending FableVision your challenges, why not take a look at FableVision Place with all its creative and free resources, visit The North Star and Super Thinkers sites, and sign up for FableVision’s mailing list to learn about their products, services, and freebies?

Speak Up & Win

Project Tomorrow: Speak Up asks teachers, students and parents to share their ideas about educational issues. All schools and school districts listed in the NCES database may participate, but one adult has to activate the account for your school or district. Once the account has been activated, surveys can be completed, and you can access the aggregated results for your school or district in February 2010.  In celebration of the number Pi (3.1451), the school that submits the 31,415^th survey will win a copy of SMART Notebook Math Tools and a Classroom Set of Notebook Student Edition USB Bracelets.

Grants List Maintained by Vernier

On the Vernier site, there’s a nice up-to-date list of grant opportunities, which cover grants available for submission starting in December 2009 and going into 2010. Some of the grants listed include: Disney’s Planet Challenge, EPA Environmental Education Grant, AT&T Foundation, ACS High School Chemistry Grant, and the NABT Environmental Science Teaching Award. If you are interested in grants involving science studies, you may want to bookmark this page to keep up with the latest in grant opportunities.

Making All Children Feel Important

Giving that little bit extra, that lagniappe, as those from New Orleans would say, means so much when it comes to motivating children. Sometimes a compliment, or a happy note or email can make a great deal of difference in how children feel about themselves. There’s always something wonderful educators can say about every student.  An elementary teacher asked her students to send her digital drawings of themselves smiling and having fun—“pictures that will make me giggle and smile.” She told them, “When I see your picture, I’ll look at it every day and your smile will make me feel so good.” It’s not just elementary level children who need that something extra; middle and high school students can get down on themselves when things aren’t going well with school and/or friends. Teachers and administrators can’t solve all of the problems young people face, but they can do so much like that pat on the back, that encouraging smile, that time for extra help, that attention everyone needs and wants….

New Directions in Teacher Evaluation

If you are a school administrator or supervisor and have had to evaluate teachers, you know it’s not an easy job and there’s just about no scientific way to do it.  We can test to tell if teachers have competence in basic skills such as reading and writing and adequate knowledge of their subject area(s). We can tell if teachers can handle a class and hand in the proper paperwork. —But instructional performance is difficult to assess. What works for one teacher may not work for another, and we all know that not all classes are the same.  Activities that work with one group of students may not work with another.  In an article in Ed Week, Allan R. Odden, University of Wisconsin-Madison says “putting evaluation at the center of teacher–quality efforts is likely to take time.” He estimates at least five years. A number of projects involving work with improving teacher evaluation are going on throughout the nation and some such as Chicago’s pilot evaluation system seem to be laying the foundation for “identifying high-quality teaching.”