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BizWiz is an interdisciplinary program from The BizWorld Foundation that teaches students critical thinking, collaboration and life skills -- all in alignment with Common Core State Standards. During the BizWiz program, teams of students: Apply for jobs (Traders, Analysts, Controller, or Managing Director) Set financial goals Understand risk vs. return Analyze various asset classes and risk tolerance Invest in stock, bonds, venture capital, collectibles, real estate, CDs and insurance Interpret economic forecasts Graph market trends Experience simulated market fluctuation Engage in sessions with other teams

The National Endowment for the Humanities supports tuition-freeprofessional development programs each summer for American schoolteachers.  Participants receive stipends to help cover travel and livingexpenses.

The federal education program appropriated funds "based on good test scores in math, science, and reading," she said, but it did not distribute money for history or civics. O¹Connor¹s new web site aims to right that wrong. Launched on May 24, iCivics.org is a rebranded, expanded version of an earlier site called OurCourts.org. "Barely one-third of Americans can even name the three branches of government, much less say what they do," O'Connor said. "… I'm worried." Games on iCivics include "Do I Have A Right," in which the player runs a virtual firm specializing in constitutional law; "Executive Command," which offers a chance to play president; "Supreme Decision," about the Supreme Court; "Branches of Power," which gives the player control of all three branches of government; and "LawCraft," in which the player is a member of Congress. The iCivics program is based at Georgetown University Law School. O'Connor is the project founder and leads the board of the nonprofit iCivics Inc., iCivics spokesman Jeffrey Curley said. The project began in 2007 and is in use at schools around the country.

an online science-based program designed to help educators teach an appreciation of outdoor landscapes. The digital curriculum is led by Lucky, a real-life rescue dog who encourages kids to protect the land around them. TurfMutt includes lesson plans for students in grades 3-5, engaging activities, videos, and more. In addition, the Landscapes Across America contest challenges classrooms to submit a digital photo slideshow of their ecosystem for a chance to win a $5,000 grant toward implementing eco-friendly programs.

Common Sense Media has launched a new version of its free digital citizenship curriculum, Digital Literacy and Citizenship in a Connected Culture. The new version adds student, teacher, and parent resources, including comprehensive lessons on cyber bullying, for fourth and fifth graders. The program, which empowers students to think critically and make informed choices about how they live and treat others in today's digital media world, covers topics from internet safety and security to privacy, with a deep focus on cyber bullying and responsible digital behavior. Recent stories of the tragic consequences of cyber bullying highlight the need to teach kids how to prevent and respond to digital harassment, beginning at a young age, Common Sense Media says. The curriculum, which is based on the digital ethics research of Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, uses content that ranges from print and video materials to interactive components and real-life student stories to inspire kids to be responsible digital citizens.

Tour TogetherCounts.com now and see why 70+ million consumers and more than 100,000 educators are already using the resources provided by Energy Balance 101 and the Together Counts program.  Download free lesson plans to bring Energy Balance to life in your classroom. Take advantage of the school-to-home activities and encourage your students to apply what they've learned to their lives at home. Explore our At Home resources and activities that provide today's busy families with exactly what they need to have fun as they stay energy-balanced. 

Shape Collage is a nifty free utility available for PCs, Macs, and Linux. There are limitations to the free version - most notably, you can't save save & reopen projects (click here for the list of features available in the $25 Pro flavor) - but it's super easy to use and the results are fantastic. Highly intuitive, the menus are simple to navigate, featuring clear options incorporated into a well laid-out workspace. It just feels natural, encouraging you to try different settings to see the result. This YouTube video does a terrific job explaining the program and its features. It's absolutely worth the download to explore for yourself.

an open source program that gives users the freedom to create their own online classroom. With Claroline teachers can produce assessment activities, post and collect assignments, build a wiki, monitor student activities, and create chat rooms or discussion forums. Claroline is available as a free download for Mac, Windows, and Linux systems. Claroline is not a hosted service so you do need to have someone host your installation of Claroline.

WeVideo is a free web-based video editing program that lets students and teachers upload video and photos to the WeVideo media library. This library can be shared or private, which is great for classroom projects. Users can add titles, effects, animation, music, narration and more to create their own video story. WeVideo makes it easy to share a video story or publish the finished video to a social-networking or video-sharing website. This looks to be a rather full-featured and well designed video editing option that is similar to Creaza or the recently departed JayCut, but with the collaborative media library as a big plus!

It is an advanced Open Source typing tutor and a free download. The 8MB archive is also portable and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Amphetype is described as being layout agnostic that means it does not come with a virtual keyboard, but gives you lessons you can use to practice any keyboard layout with it. The software supports the learner with speed and performance measuring features and detailed statistics. One of the important metrics is that Amphetype also measures viscosity i.e. it measures the "pauses' one takes in between words. More pauses means higher viscosity. A lower rate of viscosity translates into better typing performance. Features of Note:  You can generate text fragments to type from Project Gutenberg or any other plain text source to practice your typing. Review mistyped words and even generate custom lessons to practice difficult words or problem words. A performance tab gives a snapshot of WPM, accuracy, measures performance by session, and plots a graph to show progress. Another alternative Open Source keyboard and language independent typing tutor you can try out is Klavaro. It has ready to use keyboard layouts like Dvorak, QWERTZ, Colemak, AlphaGrip5, and more. There are many options to practice your touch typing. I have usually found that using software tools like the two mentioned above, and my personal favorite - TIPP10, and supplementing them with typing games to be the best way. You can always come back to these tools and bump up your WPM (Words per Minute) to an acceptable figure. Want more practice? Look into the following sites too 

Dreezle is an online drawing program that you can either print of screen shot the work of your students. Allows different tools for painting.

Storyjumper is simple to use with primary students.  The program comes loaded with backgrounds and images for many themes.  The only downfall is that there is no embed code available, but you can provide the link to share the stories.

Simple and inexpensive way to publish your own children's book.