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Celebrate Poetry with professional staff too!: Combining dry wit with artistic depth, Billy Collins shares a project in which several of his poems were turned into delightful animated films in a collaboration with Sundance Channel. Five of them are included in this wonderfully entertaining and moving talk -- and don't miss the hilarious final poem!

This information applies to 2012. I'm not sure if this will be an annual event. Connected Educator Month is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and several organizations are sponsoring programs and activities, including AASL and SETDA, the State Educational Technology Directors Association. So what is CEM, anyway? "Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing 'just in time' access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren't realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning. For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education's Connected Educators initiative has made August 2012 Connected Educator Month. Throughout the month, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one's personal learning network." As one ad for the program proclaims, it's "all of August, all for free, all online - shape the future of the profession." Explore activities in the starter kit at your own pace: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38904447/starter-kit-final.pdf

Freebie alert! Did you know that April 30-May 6 is Screen-Free Week? The challenge is to  turn off the screen media for a week and see if you and your imagination are changed. Free kit available.

The Giving Tree Narrated by Shel Silverstein

YALSA offers webinars on various topics for YA librarians a few times a year. From this site you can learn about upcoming sessions and access archived ones.

This is from the June 2011 ODE Social Sciences Newsletter: "Understanding how to manage money is a skill that is more important today than ever. You can look all around for examples of poor financial decisions. Let us turn that around for our next generation. Financial Beginnings and Operation HOPE offer free financial education programs for students in grades 4-12 as well as young adults. All programs are free and provide age-specific curriculum and activities and are designed to promote self-sufficiency, fiscal responsibility, and encourage active and educated participation in the banking system. The fun, engaging and relevant programs are taught by professionals from the community. Together, Financial Beginnings and Operation HOPE have served nearly 25,000 youth at more than 100 schools throughout the Pacific Northwest." Every year the Office of the State Treasurer sponsors the Reading is an Investment (RII) program between October and March. Anyone who wanted to schedule the elementary financial program, Banking on our Future, could try to time it so it happens when RII is active. http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=1707 http://www.ost.state.or.us/read