A colorful mind
Crayola offers free professional development resources available for download at www.crayola.com/ educators/naesp/index.cfm.
The Champion Creatively Alive Children series helps educators implement arts-infused education in schools and includes five videos and guides, a supplemental introductory leadership guide and additional resources to help educators facilitate workshops and arts-infused education advocacy meetings. The online kit includes everything from PowerPoint presentations to fliers, handouts and evaluation forms.
Paying it forward
United Federation of Teachers retiree Jerry Blumengarten has created a website cataloging free and/or inexpensive supplies for the classroom. His site, http://cybraryman.com/teachertools. html#FreeSupplies, also features links to information and helpful tools by subject area.
Edward Conti, a retiree from the Port Washington school district, has also started a free site for K-12 educators. TeachingWithContests.com assists educators in finding contests that can be used in the classroom to motivate students.
Shopping, searching for a cause
GoodShop.com is an online shopping mall which donates up to 30 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause, including schools.
The site works with more than 3,000 top online retailers; each time you shop at one of the registered stores via GoodShop.com, a percentage of what you spend goes back to your favorite charity or school. Also, with every search conducted on Yahoo!-powered GoodSearch.com, approximately one penny is donated to your favorite charity or school. To see if your school is registered, or to register your school for the service, visit http://www.goodshop.com/.
It's a groove thang
March is Music in Our Schools Month; celebrate by introducing your students to new, free music. Amazon.com offers free mp3 downloads, including an album by American composer Philip Glass. Visit http://www.amazon.com/ for more information.
A ride on the Dinosaur Train
PBS Teachers offers a Dinosaur Train Educator Toolkit and a Dinosaur Train Nature Tracker Poster for teachers to encourage scientific curiosity in young children. Lesson plans are also available. Visit www.pbs.org/teacher/dinosaurtrain for more information.
To order the poster, visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&pli=1&formkey=dHFSWll5cjBjMTZUQ2dYLW1UWGxQTEE6MQ#gid=0.