Boost Students’ Math Achievement
Advancing Student Achievement is a grant program that brings together actuaries and educators in local classroom environments to boost students’ interest and achievement in mathematics. The Actuarial Foundation can provide a local network of actuaries ready to participate as well as offer suggestions on how to integrate math concepts from the workplace into the classroom. Groups applying for grants will be given wide latitude in designing programs that enhance learning by interacting with real-world mentors.
Deadline: Ongoing
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Fund Your Art and Music Programs
Airborne® Teacher Trust Fund^TM invites elementary and middle school teachers from public and private schools throughout the country to submit proposals for art and music programs that their schools are unable to fund. A panel of judges will then review and select proposals quarterly, and awards will be announced monthly. Teachers and their schools will receive grants from $200 to $10,000 to be used to implement their programs. Teachers can submit applications year-round. At the end of each quarter, the judges will select recipients from the applicant pool. Recipients will be announced each month of the following quarter. The number of recipients and the recipients’ projects will determine how many announcements are made each month.
Deadline: Ongoing; next round February 1 through April 30, 2009
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Participate in a Rebate Program
The Troxell Communications’ Education Scholarship/Grant Rebate Program makes funding available to any qualifying educational institution that purchases products made eligible for rebate by participating vendor partners. An administrator, assigned by the school or district, must register on the Troxell Communications Web site prior to the purchase of products. Troxell administers the program by displaying an accounting of earned funds, in real time, on each participating customer’s password-protected Web page. There is no limit on the number of rebates an institution can receive. Find enrollment information on the company’s Web site.
Deadline: Ongoing
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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

Celebrate Cultural and Environmental Richness
Skipping Stones, an award-winning nonprofit multicultural magazine, invites youth aged 7–17 to submit writing and art on multicultural and nature themes for the 2009 Youth Honor Awards. Check online for samples from recent issues.
Deadline: June 25, 2009
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Use Technology to Solve a Community Problem
The Christopher Columbus Awards is a national, community-based science and technology program for middle school students. The program challenges students to work in teams of three to four, with an adult coach, to identify a problem in their community and apply the scientific method to create an innovative solution to that problem. Eight finalist teams and their coaches will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Walt Disney World to attend National Championship Week and compete for valuable U.S. Savings Bonds and the $25,000 Columbus Foundation Community Grant, plus a $200 development grant to further refine their idea.
Deadline: February 9, 2009
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Take Action to Protect the Environment
Action For Nature will award cash prizes of up to $500 to young Eco-Heroes from around the world for their outstanding accomplishments in environmental advocacy, environmental health, research or protection of the natural world. Their individual initiatives will inspire others to preserve and protect our fragile environment.
Deadline: February 28, 2009
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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.

Compare Presidential Addresses to the Nation
An extensive (though not complete) archive of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” to the nation, between 1933 and 1945, can be streamed and downloaded from the Internet Archive. These are especially intriguing in light of President-elect Obama’s now giving weekly addresses to the nation via YouTube, as he faces international and financial challenges that invite comparison to those during FDR’s tenure.
Click Here to Access "Fireside Chats"

Study Significant Children’s Literature
The Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota is one of the world’s great children’s literature research collections. The materials in the collection are studied by teachers, librarians, students, authors, illustrators, translators and critics who come from Minnesota and other states as well as from many foreign countries. The Kerlan Collection presently contains more than 100,000 children’s books as well as original manuscripts, artwork, galleys and color proofs for more than 12,000 children’s books. One-eighth of the books are inscribed by the author or illustrator. The collection includes books that are significant in the history of children’s literature, award books, classics and representative books from Great Britain, Australia, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and others. Many of the books are available for online viewing.
Click Here to Explore Children's Literature Collection

Plus: Be sure to explore the university’s Oz Collection, Paul Bunyan Collection and Treasure Island Collection.

Imagine the Life of a Civil War Soldier
If your students cannot get to the battlefield, the Gettysburg National Military Park offers its Civil War Traveling Trunk. Through various clothing items, military accoutrements, pastime activities, photographs, literature and music, students will be able to appreciate what the daily life of a Civil War soldier was actually like. The curriculum and clothing in the trunk are targeted for the fifth-grade student, but can be made adaptable for students in grades 4–8. You may set up the six learning stations in your classroom or use a common room so that the whole school can become involved. The trunk is available for a two-week timeframe throughout the school year for a requested donation to cover the cost of shipping and handling. If you are interested in receiving a trunk, fill out the Traveling Trunk Reservation Request form and submit it to the Education Coordinator, Gettysburg National Military Park, 1195 Baltimore Pike, Suite 100, Gettysburg, PA 17325.
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Explore Documents That Changed the Course of History
Our Documents features 100 milestone documents in U.S. history. Each week, the Web site highlights three documents. Speeches, treaties, Supreme Court cases, patent designs and Constitutional amendments are among the 100 documents that changed the course of history and helped shape our national character. Images of documents are accompanied by transcriptions and historical interpretations. A key resource for working with the 100 milestone documents in the classroom, the Teacher Sourcebook includes an annotated timeline, key themes, guidelines to primary sources and detailed lesson plans.
Click Here to Access Free Documents

Browse a Child-Friendly Online Dictionary
Little Explorers, from Enchanted Learning, is an online picture dictionary with links. It includes close to 2,500 entries, with each word used in a meaningful example sentence. Most entries have links to carefully chosen, child-friendly Web sites from around the world. There are seven different versions of the dictionary, including a version organized by the initial sound of the words in English.
Click Here to Access Free Picture Dictionary

Plus: Information scavenger hunts, for use with the Little Explorers Picture Dictionary, include free Find It! Quizzes for Beginning Readers, Find It! Quizzes for Grades 2 and 3 (or ESL) and Look It Up! Quizzes for Grades 2 and 3 (or ESL).
Click Here to Access Free Quizzes

Share Experiences and Ideas at NECC
For almost three decades, the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) has been the premier forum in which to learn, exchange and survey the field of educational technology. This annual conference—presented by ISTE and keyed to the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)—features hands-on workshops, lecture-format and interactive concurrent sessions, discussions with key industry leaders and the largest educational technology exhibit in the nation. Download the NECC 2009 PowerPoint and the NECC 2009 Flyer for sharing information about the NECC experience with your colleagues, peers and administrators. Then register online for the 2009 conference to take place in Washington, D.C. from June 28 to July 1. The conference program will be available in mid-February.
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Cultivate Curiosity in Math and Science
Explanatoids^TM is a multimedia project of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership (GMSP). All of the GMSP projects are created to help individuals in the community think differently about what science is and who can do it. Focusing on middle school girls, the GMSP projects hope to counter the negative stereotypes associated with women in math, science and technology as well as stress the importance of these disciplines to the region’s future. Explanatoids aims to cultivate young women’s curiosity by helping them explore math and science by discovering their questions and interest in the world around them. At the Explanatoids Web site, girls (and boys) can choose an everyday activity, conduct research on the science that explains how it works and then create a sign or Web site that will explain it.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Inspire the Next Generation of Innovators
The Motorola Innovation Generation Grants support programs designed to inspire and cultivate the next generation of inventors and innovators by making science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) accessible and relatable to students at any age. In 2009, the Motorola Foundation will provide $5 million in Innovation Generation Grants to organizations that engage U.S. preK–12 students, especially girls and underrepresented minorities, and teachers in STEM programming.
Deadline: February 15, 2009
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Experience the Power of Passionate Speech
Martin Luther King Jr. received a “C” in his public speaking class. Yet with his passion and ability to overcome adversity, he delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time. On this Google Video page, you can view the full, unedited version of Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “I have a dream” speech. Notice, in particular, when King abandons his prepared speech and extemporaneously delivers his inspiring words.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Take Action in Support of Public Education
The Forum for Education and Democracy has launched a national Web-based campaign that challenges all Americans to transform the optimism of the election season into the promise of collective action to improve public education. A short Web film, an homage to the “Yes We Can” campaign film, sets in motion a national petition drive in which all signers commit to work with President Obama to honor four promises: (1) Every child deserves a 21st century education; (2) Every community deserves an equal chance; (3) Every child deserves a well-supported teacher; and (4) Every child deserves high-quality health care. To encourage action on the local level, the Forum provides a list of easy steps people can undertake individually and at the community level in support of each promise.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Link with Educators Worldwide
Since 1986 thousands of educators from around the world have enjoyed stays with fellow educators. The Educators’ Bed & Breakfast Travel Network is a travel club designed specifically for educators, started by teachers and still run by teachers. Teachers can join the network for a small fee. Membership entitles them to stay in homes around the world for a flat rate of $40 per night per room. A member plans a trip using the network’s online directory, which allows the member to find teachers with similar interests. Presently the network has more than 6,000 members in over 50 countries.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Browse Magazines from Across the Decades
To help bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, Google is partnering with publishers to begin digitizing millions of articles from titles as diverse as New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics and Ebony. Are you a baseball history fanatic? Try a search for Hank Aaron pursuing Babe Ruth’s record on Google Book Search. You’ll find a link to a 1973 Ebony article about Hank Aaron, written as he closed in on Babe Ruth’s original record for career home runs. You can read the article in full color and in its original context, just as you would in the printed magazine. Scroll back a few pages, for example, and you’ll find a two-page spread on 1973’s fall fashions. If you’d like to read further, you can click on “Browse all issues” to view issues from across the decades.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Connect Journalism and Technology
The newest feature of PBS’s online news program the.News is called the.Gov. It covers issues and topics of government as they relate to domestic and international issues. This feature is targeted for students, with support material for teachers. Each video includes lesson plans (found on the “For Educators” page at the top right of the navigation bar), along with an annotated transcript. Videos are open-captioned for hearing-impaired and ESL learners. In addition, for educators who don’t have time to download a lesson plan, there are three “thought starter” questions for each video.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: Students can submit their own electronic news stories to the student video competition, YOU.report, to win prizes and a chance to have their work included on the.News Web site.
Deadline: March 31, 2009
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Check out the new look of The Big Deal Book Web site. And be sure to explore the Tech Center, which offers resources and activities for integrating technology into your classroom. In the Tech Center is a feature that changes mid-week, every week, appropriately called Web Wednesday! Here you’ll find new interactive experiences and resources that incorporate 21st century themes and skills into the study of core subjects.