Tools & Resources for Educators

FinalSite
www.finalsite.com
A parent frantically searches a school Web site for a child ’ urgent homework assignment. A principal wants to use the school Web site to explain to parents the new district discipline policy. A private school admissions officer wants to use the Web to promote the schools’ record of academic excellence and recruit new students. Thanks to finalsite®, it’s now possible for schools to benefit more from their Web sites and spend less money. finalsite software, from Active Internet Technologies of East Hartford, CT, enables even non-technical school staff members to create, edit, maintain, manage and publish pages in real time. If they can use Microsoft® Word®, they can post content to the school Web site.

FL2010
(Financial Literacy 2010)
www.fl2010.org
FL2010 is a joint project of the nonprofit Investor Protection Trust, the North American Securities Administrators Association and CT state securities agency, and the National Association of Securities Dealers Office of Individual Investor Services. The project tackles the financial illiteracy in our schools by providing teachers with the tools, training and support they need to do something about this major national problem. Produced in conjunction with the National Institute for Consumer Education at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, the core product of FL2010 is the "Basics of Savings", a multi-module teaching guide that is available both in print and online.

The Future of Children
www.futureofchildren.org
The primary purpose of The Future of Children is to disseminate timely information on major issues related to children's well-being, with special emphasis on providing objective analysis and evaluation, translating existing knowledge into effective programs and policies, and promoting constructive institutional change.

Gradeworks.com
www.gradeworks.com
FREE web-based tool for teachers that promotes communication between parents, teachers and students by giving the families easy access to grades, assignments, schedules and class activities in a secure environment that’s available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Global Response
www.globalresponse.org/teachers.html
Global Response, a non-profit environmental organization, offers a great resource for bringing environmental education to students. Teachers can sign up to receive the YEA (Young Environmentalist's Action) or ECA (Eco-Club Action) Bulletins. The organization can also give presentations. Action Bulletins and presentations provide students with current, accurate information about critical environmental issues and the people, animals, and plants that need protection. The Bulletins also provide students with information about how they can help.

Healthy Eating Active Living Resource Toolkit
www.cthaned.org/HEALRT/highlights.htm
Putting together a Wellness Committee in your school?  Check out the Healthy Eating Active Living Resource Toolkit. The Purpose of the Toolkit is to encourage the building of partnerships and opportunities for collaboration across a large, diverse group of community members. The toolkit can help promote understanding and identification of policies, practices, and environmental factors that affect nutrition and physical activity choices in a community.  The toolkit includes a list of practical tools to facilitate and support community efforts for improving nutrition and physical activity. The Toolkit provides guidance for establishing your team and planning for change, working effectively with the media and initiating activities and interventions.

iCONN
The Connecticut Digital Library
Click here for more information

K2College.com
www.k2college.com
K2College is a unique destination that provides quality materials in math and English language arts from kindergarten through college. It also provides specialized studies in Information Technology and CAD/CAM at the college level. K2College offers a broad selection of well-designed electronic books (ebooks), instructional lessons, activities, and games.

K12Nation.net
The mission of K12Nation is to enhance the educational experience of K-12 teacher, students and their parents with free online communications tools.
http://k12nation.net

National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse
www.recruitingteachers.org
The new National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse site was launched to help schools meet the demand for educators, fueled by record school attendance levels.

NetDayCompass
www.netdaycompass.org

NCES Classroom
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids
Features include in-depth college search, educational games, activities, and statistics about America’s schools

ParenTech
www.parentech.org
Site is helpful to educators who want to incorporate technology into their classrooms. Resource kits, guides, tips, case studies, success stories, lesson plans, and links to other resources. Resource kits are free, thanks to a grant from Ameritech. Geared mainly towards middle-school educators.

REDI Emergency Planning Software For Schools
www.mil.state.ct.us/OEM.HTM
The Connecticut State Office of Emergency Management purchased special software to be used for emergency planning by all Connecticut Public Schools. The software known as "REDI" was introduced to School Districts in special training sessions held at the 6 Regional Educational Training Centers located throughout the State during September 2002, and an additional training session that was held in December 2002. The REDI software provides a unique management system that gives school personnel the same framework to address emergencies as first responders. As the trainers from the Office of Emergency Management stated it, "our administrators and teachers are first responders to any emergency until fire or police appear". Therefore, school administrators and teachers would benefit by having a similar management system and the terminology would also give them the ability to communicate more effectively with first responders when they appear.

reQuest - the Statewide Library Catalog of Connecticut
ReQuest is the Statewide Library Catalog of Connecticut
Click here for more information

SafetyEd International
SafetyEd works in many areas of Internet Safety
Click here for more information

SchoolCenter
www.k12schoolwebpages.com
The School Center program allows for the development and maintenance of a fully functioning website for your school. Administrators, teachers and students can have unlimited web pages, which would include calendars, scrapbooks and much much more.

SharkFriends
www.sharkfriends.com
This site is dedicated to educating visitors about sharks! The site attempts to dispel the myths and highlight the truths about these wonderful and intriguing animals that swim our oceans! This site focuses on sharks, but also shares information about other sea animals too. Great site for students and teachers!

StudyWeb
Click here for more information

TeachersDesktop.com
www.teachersdesktop.com
TeachersDesktop.com is a user-friendly dynamic internet portal that provides products and services to meet the needs of its users. The website is free and provides educators and visitors access to essential teacher resources. TeachersDesktop.com offers efficient and comprehensive tools to meet all educational needs via an internet website community. This innovative education portal facilitates communication and creates new electronic marketplace opportunities. Finding the right assembly, class trip, teacher tools, specialty service provider, or relevant education resource should not be difficult and time consuming.

Teachers Discuss
http://oeri3.ed.gov:8000/Teachers
Experimental site launched by the Dept. of Education where teachers can share ideas on 10 topics ranging from class size to special education.

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Cultural Arts Programs

EnrichmentLink
www.enrichmentlink.com
EnrichmentLink, known to many as the former EventsLink, was created in the early '00s by a small group of cultural arts/PTA moms determined to find a more efficient way to discover performers and programs for their schools. Through years of hard work and lots of fun along the way, they not only found a better way, they created it. EnrichmentLink was developed to make the lives of all cultural arts volunteers (and parents in general) somewhat easier.

Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau
www.waldenplay.com
"Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau" is an educational performance play about the final two days Henry David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond.

This two act, one set, four character play is designed for use by high schools and colleges. The play script (available in English and Spanish) plus a customized lesson plan are being made available FREE OF CHARGE to 10,000 schools in the USA, Canada and around the world for performance as an Earth Day 2007 event.

Thoreau is America's original "tree hugger" and forefather of our environmental movement. He was a gentle naturalist, earth lover, author, pencil maker - and is the most quoted American writer in history. Yet, when he passed, he was more well known for having helped market the pencil than for a single word he wrote with it. Aside from the massive educational nature of this project (consider the Earth Day event, American literature, environmental and science tie-in plus conservation) Thoreau certainly matches the imagery of what Earth Day means across the country and worldwide.

Beginning October 15, 2006, educators can go to the website with a provided password to access the teachers page. There you will be able to download the play as a 55 page PDF, posters, theater programs, handbills and the lesson plan.

The project is underwritten and endorsed by the national Earth Day Network (Washington, DC) American Forests (Washington DC) and the Dixon-Ticonderoga pencil company (FLORIDA.)

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Grants Programs

$500 Dollar Grants Available to School Music Programs
www.hornsforkids.org
Grants of up-to $500 dollars are available now to Connecticut school music programs. Horns For Kids, a non-profit subsidiary of The Great CT Jazz Festival, is offering the grants to support music education in Connecticut schools. The grant application is available now on-line at the Horns For Kids website: www.hornsforkids.org. Applications must be received by Friday, April 16.  Co-directors of Horns For Kids, Fred Rossomando and Lee Walkup, were successful music educators for 32 years in Wallingford and Shelton, respectively, and have operated Grace Recording Studio in Hamden since 1974. Rossomando and Walkup hope that Horns For Kids will help schools create opportunities for young people to develop a passion for music.  Horns For Kids also accepts donations of new or used instruments, and distributes them to schools. For information on Grants or instrument donations, visit their website or call (203) 288-9771.

Grantionary
www.eduplace.com/grants/help/grantionary.html
The Grantionary is a list of grant-related terms and their definitions.

GRANTS.GOV
http://www.grants.gov
This site allows organizations to electronically find and apply for competitive grant opportunities from all Federal grant-making agencies. Navigation of the site is simple. The site includes customer support resources that will help you find answers to your questions.

GrantsAlert
www.grantsalert.com
GrantsAlert is a website that helps nonprofits, especially those involved in education, secure the funds they need to continue their important work.

Grant Writing Tips
www.schoolgrants.org/grant_tips.htm
SchoolGrants has compiled an excellent set of grant writing tips for those that need help in developing grant proposals.

FastWEB
www.fastweb.com
FastWEB is the largest online scholarship search available, with 600,000 scholarships representing over one billion in scholarship dollars. It provides students with accurate, regularly updated information on scholarships, grants, and fellowships suited to their goals and qualifications, all at no cost to the student. Students should be advised that FastWEB collects and sells student information (such as name, address, e-mail address, date of birth, gender, and country of citizenship) collected through their site.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)
www.ed.gov/free
More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE website.

Fundsnet Online Services
www.fundsnetservices.com
A comprehensive website dedicated to providing nonprofit organizations, colleges, and Universities with information on financial resources available on the Internet.

Department of Education Forecast of Funding
www.ed.gov/offices/OCFO/grants/forecast.html
This document lists virtually all programs and competitions under which the Department of Education has invited or expects to invite applications for new awards for FY 2003 and provides actual or estimated deadline dates for the transmittal of applications under these programs. The lists are in the form of charts - organized according to the Department's principal program offices - and include programs and competitions the Department has previously announced, as well as those it plans to announce at a later date. Note: This document is advisory only and is not an official application notice of the Department of Education.

eSchool News School Funding Center
www.eschoolnews.com/resources/funding
Information on up-to-the-minute grant programs, funding sources, and technology funding.

Philanthropy News Digest-K-12 Funding Opportunities
http://fdncenter.org/funders
K-12 Funding opportunities with links to grant-seeking for teachers, learning technology, and more.

School Funding Services Grant of the Week"
www.schoolfundingservices.org
Each week, School Funding Services, a division of New American Schools, features a new grant on their website. This week they highlight the Gannett Foundation, Inc. Grant. This grant program supports qualified nonprofit organizations to improve the education, health, and advancement of the people in those communities in which Gannett Co., Inc. has a local daily newspaper or television station. The Foundation values projects which take a creative approach to such fundamental issues as education and neighborhood improvement, economic development, youth development, community problem-solving, assistance to disadvantaged people, environmental conservation and cultural enrichment.

Schools Breakfast Program Participation Grants
March 4, 2009 – Increasing the number of children eating breakfast at school to start their day right is the goal of a new grant program. Action for Healthy Kids, with generous support from Kellogg’s Corporate Citizenship Fund, is offering grants to schools that currently participate in the School Breakfast Program with greater than 50 percent eligibility for free and reduced-price meals. The goal is to increase their average daily student participation by 25 percent.

School buildings in every state meeting minimum grant requirements are eligible; however, priority will be given to schools in states with the lowest average daily student participation in school breakfast as a percentage of school lunch participation. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) 2007-2008 School Breakfast Scorecard, these states are South Dakota, Minnesota, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, Alaska, Nebraska, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Connecticut.

School breakfast plays a critical role in addressing the epidemic of overweight and undernourished children. Research shows both educational and nutritional benefits to children who have school breakfast.

“We believe that schools are an incredible equalizer in ensuring that all kids have daily access to healthy foods,” said Rob Bisceglie, executive director of Action for Healthy Kids. “These grants will help schools expand participation through creative programs and marketing practices so students are fit, healthy and ready to learn.”

The grants are intended to fund implementation of alternative breakfast programs, innovative marketing and promotions, and/or enhancement of the school breakfast experience through educational enrichment activities. Awards will range between $500 and $2,000.

According to FRAC, 8.5 million low-income children participated in the national School Breakfast Program last school year. While that’s an increase of four percent over the previous school year, the program still misses more than half of America’s eligible low-income children. And, with the worst economy in decades, it’s likely that substantial numbers of new children will become eligible for the school breakfast program as families lose jobs or have their incomes cut.

Click here to view the School Breakfast RFP and you can also find it on our website.

More information can be found at www.actionforhealthykids.org or by contacting Sarah Titzer, director of team programs at (317) 884-0321 or Sarah@ActionForHealthyKids.org.

School Grants
www.schoolgrants.org
A collection of resources and tips to help K-12 educators apply for and obtain special grants for a variety of projects.

Team Nutrition Grant
The Connecticut State Department of Education was selected to receive funding for a USDA Team Nutrition Grant for the period of September 30, 2004 through September 30, 2006 CLICK HERE

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