SEE GRANT TIP OF THE MONTH

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1 In This Issue: Instructional Resources My First Garden p. 2 Graffiti Hurts p. 2 All levels Smithsonian Resources p. 2 Carnegie Hall - HONOR! p. 2 Word Central p. 2 Thinkfinity p. 3 Census 2010 p. 3 Microsoft Timelines p. 3 American Journeys p. 3 Atomic Learning ebook p. 3 NASA 50 th Anniversary p. 3 Google Lit Trips p. 3 National Parks p. 4 Way We Worked p. 4 SERVE.GOV p. 4 Service Learning Resource p. 4 Think Green p. 4 JA $ave, USA p. 4 Science High School NASA Research & Education Experience p. 5 Youth Garden Grants p. 5 Physical Education/Health Saucony Run for Good p.5 Music/Arts Fender Music p. 5 Interdisciplinary All levels Blockbuster p. 6 Special Education All levels Bookshare p. 6 Assistive Technology Fund p. 6 Professional Development Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy p. 6 Braitmayer Foundation p. 6 Classroom Earth p. 7 Travelocity p. 7 School Facility Home Depot Grant p. 7 Awards /Middle NAESP Sharing the Dream p. 7 NCTE Donald H. Graves Writing Award p.8 NCTE Media Literacy Award p. 8 Leavy Awards p. 8 Contests/Competitions Too Tall Alice p. 8 High School SCA Green Your School p. 8 College Board Siemens Competition p. 8 NASA Top Stars p. 9 Green Effect p. 9 Bright Green Dream p. 9 SEE GRANT TIP OF THE MONTH FOR IMPORTANT DATES TO KEEP IN MIND FOR ! GRANTS INFORMATION, RESEARCH & EVALUATION Contact: Theresa Valentino Ext: tvalenti@pasco.k12.fl.us May/June 2009 Volume 4, Issue 10 Welcome to the Research and Evaluation Department s final issue of the GRANT ALERT NEWSLETTER for the school year. This newsletter will inform of current Grant Opportunities with Deadlines now available, in addition to many other fundraising, donation, award an d reco gnit ion oppo rt unities. This info rmat ion is ma de a vailable via e- mail and may also be downloaded from the district Grant Information website at: The Grant Information website also provides a listing of many funding opportunities that are available on an ON-GOING basis for your review. In addition, the Grant Wrangler headline widget featured on the website is a resource to find funding for projects and updated every 2 weeks by Grant Wrangler. Please check the Grant Information website for additional web resources on how to develop and write successful grant proposals and other updated potential grant sources, as well! I valued the opportunity to work with Grant Liaisons, schools and departments on grant initiatives this past year! Please do not hesitate to contact my office if I may be of assistance with a grant project you will be working on during the summer in support of your school improvement and/or professional development goals; and for guidance in following District guidelines when submitting grant applications to funding organizations. GRANT TIP OF THE MONTH: DATES TO KEEP IN MIND FOR SCHOOL YEAR! GRANT LIAISON UPDATE TRAINING A half-day update training meeting for new and returning Grant Liaisons has been scheduled for the district Staff Development Day on Thursday, August 20, Grant Liaisons will be provided with updated grant information and procedural materials for the school year. Two sessions for the half-day training will be available and held in the Computer Lab of Building 3. Both sessions will be applicable to all school levels. Meeting Dates: Thursday, August 20, 2009 Meeting Times*: Session I: 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Session II: 1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. (*Grant Liaisons will only need to attend ONE session on the meeting date) GRANT ASSISTANCE CLINICS Monthly clinics scheduled to provide assistance to staff members that are in the process of completing a grant application. Attendees review sections of applications they have completed and receive guidance/suggestions on how to format and respond to questions on the applications they are working on. Grant Assistance Clinics have been tentatively planned for the following Wednesdays of the school year from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Computer Lab, Building 3. Staff may attend at any time during the open session time. TENTATIVE GRANT ASSISTANCE CLINIC DATES : September 23,2009; October 21, 2009; November 18, 2009; January 20, 2010; February 24, 2010; March 24, 2010; April 21, 2010; May 19, 2010 Fundraising/Donation Home Depot Matching Gift & Volunteer Grant Program p. 9

2 FREE INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES Make learning about gardens, flowers, vegetables and the principles of horticulture a really fun experience for yourself and for the children you teach. This website is meant for 4th grade students to learn about the beauty of gardens, and the care involved in planning, nurturing and enjoying the benefits of gardening in a variety of spaces and places. Building a garden teaches children about planning, responsibility, measurement and time. The Graffiti Hurts : Care for Your Community curriculum supplement contains seven interdisciplinary lesson plans to help teach students in grades 3-5 about why graffiti is harmful to them and their community. Through these lessons, children are given an opportunity to develop a sense of respect and responsibility for their surroundings and to resist peer pressure to do graffiti. RESOURCES FROM THE SMITHSONIAN Graffiti Hurts : Care for Your Community Program Explore the 1930s through paintings, historical documents, music and video in this virtual 3-D movie theater. The site is modeled on the Weinberg Center for the Arts, a former Art Deco movie palace, in Frederick, Maryland. Users explore this virtual space and find information about the 1930s through eight exhibitions: The Depression, The New Deal, The Country, Industry, Labor, The City, Leisure, and American People. Artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection are supplemented with other primary source materials such as photographs, newsreels, and artists memorabilia. Meet Me at Midnight is an interactive online adventure that takes place in an animated Smithsonian American Art Museum. Intended for children age 8 to 10 years (approximately third to fifth grades), the site presents a perplexing scenario. An artwork the dreaded Root Monster comes alive and wreaks havoc in the galleries overnight. Visitors choose a friend a character that has been separated from its artwork to help aright the mixed-up museum and find its way back home. Each avatar from the "treasure chest" takes visitors on a different adventure. Younger children with advanced reading skills might also benefit. For childrenwho cannot read by themselves, you can treat the site like an online comic book and read aloud. The Smithsonian observes the federally mandated Heritage Months by hosting performances, films, discussions, and many other events in Washington, D.C. In keeping with the spirit of Heritage Months, thematically arranged teaching resources from across the Smithsonian are offered. The resources have been selected for their relevance to classroom curriculum and national education standards. A timeline of African American history through music and the pioneers who helped define some of this country s most prominent artistic expressions. From the music of aspiration and tribulation created during the time of slavery to today s popular styles, the groundbreaking contributions of African Americans to our nation s soundtrack are vital and ongoing. Merriam-Webster's Word Central now reprogrammed for superior word power and language fun. Alpha-bot the word-spelling robot hosts word games and challenges spellers of all ages. 2

3 FREE lesson plans and educational resources Thinkfinity.org makes it easy for educators to enhance their classroom instruction with lesson plans, interactive activities and other online resources. Thinkfinity.org provides a wealth of educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after-school programs. All of Thinkfinity.org's 55,000 standards-based K-12 lesson plans, student materials, interactive tools and reference materials are reviewed by the nation's leading education organizations to ensure that content is accurate, up-to-date, unbiased and appropriate for students. Census in Schools The 2010 Census a count of everyone living in the United States is fast approaching! Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to every household in the United States in March The U.S. Census Bureau is working on lesson plans, maps, teaching guides, and other informational materials to help teachers and students learn about the importance of the Census. Website provides the latest information and materials available from Census in Schools and the 2010 Census. Create a timeline using Microsoft Office Excel Using a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet to create a timeline can save hours on student and teacher projects and also lets you easily and clearly organize a lot of information. A timeline can represent information from many different curriculum areas, such as science, social studies, mathematics, and language arts. Designate periods of time by utilizing fill colors to fill in groups of cells. Text can even be entered sideways to mark the events being represented. If students are feeling creative, they can enter text inside a drawing, such as a rectangle, or add pictures to enhance the timeline. Younger students might use pictures instead of words to represent events on their timelines. American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later. Read the words of explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders and settlers as they lived through the founding moments of American history. View, search, print, or download more than 150 rare books, original manuscripts, and classic travel narratives from the library and archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society. FREE ebook From Atomic Learning Seven Steps to Flatten Your Classroom is about introducing students to the world in safe, meaningful ways that will enrich and augment the things that are already working in schools. It is expanding the classroom to include global communities and forms of communication such as blogs and wikis to work with almost anyone, any place, and at any time. Flat Classrooms can be achieved anywhere and in just about any classroom environment. 50 th Anniversary of NASA Interactive tour of NASA s first five decades of exploration featuring virtual pavilions, clickable models and exhibits, video galleries, astronauts, presidents and a robot guide named Automa. This site is an experiment in teaching great literature in a very different way. Using Google Earth, K-12 students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place. 3

4 Whether teaching History, Science, Ecology, Language Arts, Art, or Math, national parks can help enliven your curriculum by providing opportunities for students to learn through structured place-based experiences that teach about the natural world and the people and events that shaped the nation and engage students in civic dialogue. Work and workplaces have gone through enormous transformations between the mid 19th and late 20th centuries and can be viewed through photographs held by the National Archives and Records Administration. These historical photographs document: clothing, locales, conditions, and conflict in our workplaces. The distinctiveness of America's workforce was shaped by many factors immigration and ethnicity, slavery and racial segregation, wage labor and technology, gender roles, class, as well as ideals of freedom and equality. Most importantly, these images honor those who built this country the working men and women of America. Serve.gov is a comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities. Americans who are interested in volunteering can use this tool to locate opportunities to serve across the country and around the world. To find an opportunity based on geography, the volunteer can enter his or her ZIP code. To find an opportunity based on interest area, the volunteer can enter a keyword such as "education" or "environment". All volunteer opportunities are listed by our partner organizations. Going forward, Serve.gov will include new technology and tools that will increase citizen participation, create networks of volunteers and highlight the work of volunteers have had the greatest impact in their communities. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) supports the service-learning community in higher education, kindergarten through grade twelve, community-based initiatives and tribal programs, as well as all others interested in strengthening schools and communities using service-learning techniques and methodologies and is America's Most Comprehensive Service-Learning Resource. The Clearinghouse maintains a website with timely information and relevant resources, podcasts and webinars to support service-learning programs, practitioners, and researchers. Classroom Resources Waste Management and Discovery Education have partnered to engage students in learning about the environment. Teachers will find standards-based lesson plans, tools and hands-on activities to enliven classroom learning and at-home extensions. Students will find video clips and step-by-step interactive activities to expand their knowledge of the planet we share. Junior Achievement $ave, USA JA Worldwide's Junior Achievement $ave, USA initiative provides curriculum designed specifically to help students develop higher levels of personal financial understanding. Through three, volunteer-delivered lessons, students in grades 5-12 are introduced to content focusing on saving and sharing money (grade 5); the importance of establishing a budget to help manage their money (grades 6-8); and learning about credit and examining credit choices (grades 9-12). 4

5 GRANTS SCIENCE High School UPCOMING DEADLINE! - Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research & Education Experience NASA will engage selected students in its mission through multiple experiences in hands-on activities and internships designed to maximize their involvement in STEM education. The Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience, or INSPIRE, is a multi-tiered year-round program designed for students in ninth- to 12th -grade who are interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, education and careers. The Online Learning Community, or OLC, is INSPIRE's centerpiece providing a place for INSPIRE students to interact with their peers, NASA experts and education specialists. Through grade-level-appropriate educational activities, chats and the discussion board, students and their families will be exposed to the many careers and opportunities at NASA. Members of the INSPIRE OLC have the opportunity to compete for a grade-appropriate summer STEM experiences that will be available in The summer STEM experience is designed to provide hands-on experiences to investigate education and careers in STEM at a NASA facility or university. All summer experiences, except the collegiate experience, will take place at the NASA facility within the student's service area. Application Deadline: June 30, Youth Garden Grants Program (PK,E,M,H) NGA awards Youth Garden Grants to schools and community organizations with child-centered garden programs. Applicants must plan to garden with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18 years. Priority will be given to programs that emphasize curriculum, nutrition, environment, entrepreneurship and/or social aspects of gardening. For the 2010 grant cycle, 100 grants are available. Application deadline (postmark date): November 2, PHYSICAL EDUCATION/HEALTH SAUCONY RUN FOR GOOD FOUNDATION - UPCOMING DEADLINE! The Saucony Run For Good grant program encourages active and healthy lifestyles in children 18 years or younger. Grants are open to non-profit organizations that initiate and support running and fitness programs for kids. Grant maximum - $10, Application Deadline Date Grants Awarded No. of Grants up to MUSIC/ARTS The Fender Music Foundation The Fender Music Foundation provides funding and resources for music programs and accepts electronic grant applications throughout the year. The foundation awards grants to in-school music classes for traditional instruments and the equipment necessary to play them. In specific instances, the foundation has also awarded microphones and PA systems. The Grant Committee reviews all applications three times yearly, and grant awards range from $500 to $5,000 in value. 5

6 INTERDISCIPLINARY BLOCKBUSTER Community Relations: Corporate Giving Guidelines Blockbuster has established formal giving guidelines. The company considers requests that meet one or more of the following requirements: Project has film/video industry focus; Project impacts children/families; Project supports a particular Blockbuster business objective, i.e., employment; Project has clearly defined and measurable goals. Requests are reviewed monthly. To request a charitible donation or sponsorship from Blockbuster, send request in writing to: Blockbuster, Inc; ATTN: Donations; 1201 Elm St ; Dallas, TX Blockbuster will contact your organization if they decide to move forward with your request. Please be sure to include contact information. SPECIAL EDUCATION GRANTS/RESOURCES Accessible Books and Periodicals for Readers with Print Disabilities Bookshare is an online library of digital books for people with print disabilities. It operates under an exception to U.S. copyright law that allows copyrighted digital books to be made available to people with qualifying disabilities. Through an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Bookshare offers free memberships to U.S. schools and qualifying U.S. students. Bookshare Members download books, textbooks and newspapers in a compressed, encrypted file. They then read the material using adaptive technology, typically software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen, or Braille access devices, such as refreshable Braille displays. The Association of Blind Citizens operates the Assistive Technology Fund. The Assistive Technology Fund (ATF) will provide funds to cover 50% of the retail price of adaptive devices or software. The products covered by this program must retail for a minimum of $200 with a maximum retail price of $6,000. Persons eligible to apply for assistance must have a family income of less than $50,000 and cash assets of less than $20,000. Applications must be submitted by June 30th and December 31st for each grant period (two per year). PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is a one-week all-expense-paid intensive professional development program for 100 third- through fifth-grade teachers. The five-day Academy takes place at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ and is designed to provide third- through fifth-grade teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to motivate students to pursue careers in science and math. Application deadline: October 31, 2009 for the summer 2010 academy that will be in late July. Notification of award will be by mid-march The Braitmayer Foundation Assistive Technology Fund The Foundation awards grants up to $35,000 in K-12 education with particular interest in curricular and school reform initiatives and preparation of and professional development opportunities for teachers, particularly those that encourage people of high ability and diverse background to enter and remain in K-12 teaching. Summer Grant Cycle Fall Grant Cycle Grant Application Due June 1st Grant Application Due Nov. 15th Notification to Applicants Sept. 1 st Notification to Applicants March 15th 6

7 2009 Classroom Earth Professional Development Grants - UPCOMING DEADLINE! Classroom Earth Professional Development grants are designed to support teachers new to the field of environmental education who want to increase the environmental literacy of their students. Twenty grant awardees will be chosen in June Each will receive $1,500 grants to take two graduate level courses online offered by University of Wisconsin Stevens Point s Environmental Education and Training Partnership. One course will be taken each semester of the school year. Submit an online application by 5 pm EST, June 12th, Travelocity's Travel for Good program offers the Change Ambassadors Grant to help support Americans who wish to travel to participate in volunteer opportunities (volunteer vacations). The program will help fund transportation and other costs of any trip organized by one of Travelocity's volunteer travel provider partners for individuals or groups chosen on the merit of their applications (including financial circumstances) and their ability to meet the grant requirements. Travelocity will award two grants of $5,000 per quarter. grants are awarded quarterly, so applications must be received by the last day of each quarter. Apply this quarter CAG Selection & notification by Plan travel for Q1: Jan - Mar May 1st Jun 15 - Nov 30 Q2: Apr - Jun Aug 1st Sep 15 - Feb 28 Q3: Jul - Sep Nov 1st Dec 15 - May 31 Q4: Oct - Dec Feb 1st Mar 15 - Aug 31 SCHOOL FACILITY Travelocity's Travel for Good - Change Ambassadors Grant Building Healthy Communities Grant Program Grants, up to $2,500, are available to public school improvement projects that include activities such as building, rebuilding, painting, refurbishing, increasing energy efficiency or sustainability, landscaping, planting of native trees, updating school facilities and the development and/or improvement of green spaces. Grants are made in the form of The Home Depot gift cards for the purchase or tools or materials. Only grants submitted through the online application process will be considered for funding. Grants are highly competitive and there are three grant cycles planned for 2009: Opens Closes Notifications Made First Cycle April 15, 2009 June 15, 2009 July 15, 2009 Second Cycle July 15, 2009 September 15, 2009 October 15, 2009 Third Cycle October 15, 2009 December 15, 2009 January 15, 2010 AWARDS /Middle School Sharing the Dream Sharing the Dream will enable principals to test ideas on how to involve and engage their communities to build greater ownership for the work of the school by sharing leadership and decision making, by keeping all stakeholder informed about all school news good and bad and by creating a school climate that fosters open communication, safety and security, respect for every individual, and the idea that the school is the center of the community and welcomes all of its members. In short, Sharing the Dream will give principals a small grant to implement a project designed to further engage their communities towards the goal of improving achievement for all students. A $3000 award and a toolkit of resources will be given to the principals in September Application Deadline: July 8,

8 /Middle School NCTE Donald H. Graves Writing Award - annually recognizes teachers in grades K-6 who demonstrate an understanding of student improvement in the teaching of writing through submission of a reflective essay and commentaries on Three portfolios of student writing. The award is presented at the Section Get-Together during the NCTE Annual Convention where the winner is briefly recognized and given a cash award of $2,000. Application deadline: June 15, Media Literacy Award - presented to an individual, team, or department that has implemented and refined exemplary media literacy practices in their school environment. The Award Selection Process will be based on a portfolio review by a panel from the Commission on Media. Application deadline: June 15, The Leavy Awards program recognizes educators at the elementary, junior high school, high school, and college levels for innovative and effective techniques in teaching entrepreneurship and the free enterprise education. Up to twenty cash awards are made annually valued at $7,500 each. One meritorious award of $15,000 may be made for an outstanding entry. The nominee's program, course or project must be operating or initiated during the previous academic year. ENTRY DEADLINE: November 30, Recipients will be notified by January. CONTEST/COMPETITIONS The STAND WITH TOO TALL ALICE contest is open to 4th graders who enter by writing down the three coolest things about being themselves and send them to Great Little Books LLC (GLB) - with permission from parents, teachers or school administrators! Seventy-five (75) entrants, selected at the discretion of the editors of (GLB), will receive a signed copy of TOO TALL ALICE, a bookmark and I m just right for me wristband. Contest deadline: August 31, High School NOTE UPCOMING DEADLINES! STAND TALL WITH TOO TALL ALICE The Leavey Awards - Honoring Excellence in Private Enterprise Education Green Your School SCA's Green Your School Contest is a national competition to stimulate and/or identify conservation service projects designed by high school students that improve or restore or beautify or conserve their high school environment. To be eligible, projects must have been started after August 1st, There will be one Grand Prize of $5,000 and two runnerup prizes of $2,500 each. Prizes will be awarded directly to high schools and not to individuals. Contest Deadline: October 9, Winners will be announced on or around November 15, The Siemens Competition seeks to promote excellence by encouraging High School students to undertake individual or team research projects. It fosters intensive research that improves students' understanding of the value of scientific study and informs their consideration of future careers in these disciplines. Scholarships for winning projects range from $1,000 to $100,000. Deadline for receipt of Research Report materials: Wednesday, October 1, p.m. EST 8

9 K-12 educators are invited to submit their best examples of using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope for science, technology, engineering or mathematics education. Those selected as Top Stars will receive national recognition and awards. From May 2009-January 2010, IGES will accept and review entries from U.S. educators of their best examples of using Hubble for STEM education. Entries can be revised and re-submitted up to January 2, Win $20,000 to Put Your Green Idea Into Action - Upcoming Deadline! SunChips and National Geographic have joined forces to create the Green Effect, an initiative to inspire individuals to spark a green movement in their communities. Submit a description of your Green Effect idea by June 8, Ten finalists will be announced July 7, Online viewers and a distinguished panel of judges will review these inspiring ideas. $20,000 will be awarded to five people or groups that have the best ideas for green change. The five winners will also be profiled in National Geographic, and the winners will travel to Washington, D.C., to share their projects with environmental leaders. Bright Green Dream School Sustainability Challenge The Bright Green Dream Challenge encourages K-12 teachers and their students to critically evaluate their classroom environment then propose creative solutions for increasing energy efficiency, enhancing the learning environment, and reducing their carbon footprint. The goal is to identify areas that can have the greatest effect on sustainability in the classroom. Submissions may focus on one area of inefficiency, such as lighting, or on multiple areas within the classroom. Projects should include a description of the issues in the room, a hypothesis describing the solution and its effect, and a description of the expected outcomes, should the solution be implemented. The winning entry in the Bright Green Dream School Sustainability Challenge will receive a $15,000 sustainable classroom upgrade. Submission Deadline: September 25, FUNDRAISING/DONATION OPPORTUNITY Matching Gift Program and Volunteer Grant Program The Charitable Matching Gift Program allows Home Depot associates and board members to use Foundation funds to increase their support of charities (including public schools) that reflect their personal interests and causes. The Home Depot Foundation will match individual associate gifts ranging from $25-$1000 per charity on a dollar for dollar basis for full-time and part-time associates. There is a $3,000 cap per associate per calendar year. The Home Depot Foundation will strengthen that gift by matching it dollar-for-dollar. Gifts will be matched on a quarterly basis with check distributions taking place in January, April, July and October. When Home Depot Associate-Volunteers offer their expertise and service to nonprofit organizations, The Home Depot Foundation provides Team Depot Dollars grants to nonprofits to recognize and reward their service. For every hour Home Depot associates volunteer at a company-sponsored volunteer project, The Home Depot Foundation will match with a $15 contribution to the nonprofit organization of their choice, up to $120. Gifts will be matched on a quarterly basis with check distributions taking place in January, April, July and October. 9