Education Newswatch November/December 2004

In Brief
The National Arbor Day Foundation Poster Contest
The National Arbor Day Foundation is inviting fifth grade students across the country to showcase their artistic talent – while learning about trees – with its annual Arbor Day National Poster Contest. With the theme, "Trees are Terrific…and Energy Wise!," the contest is co-sponsored by Toyota and encourages students to design a poster to reflect this year's theme.

Educators and homeschoolers who are interested in signing up can write to: The National Arbor Day Foundation, P.O. Box 85784, Lincoln, NE 68501-5784 or send an e-mail to education@arbor day.org You'll receive a free activity guide on the importance of trees in producing and conserving energy, in-depth lesson plans, activities and detailed contest information.

The winner of the 2005 National Poster Contest will be announced on National Arbor Day, April 29, 2005. The first place winner and his or her parents and teacher will receive an expense-paid trip to Nebraska City, NE, birthplace of Arbor Day, a $1,000 savings bond and a lifetime membership in The National Arbor Day Foundation. The winning student's teacher will receive $200 for classroom materials. Deadlines for the contest vary by state and can be found at www.arborday.org

www.classroomclassifieds.com
This new website sets up and hosts a classified ad website just for your school system or district. It has special features that allow your families to sell something they no longer need and donate any percentage of the sale to your school's needs. Classroom Classifieds gives your school a simple way to raise money without asking for it. The site has listed pianos, rental properties, rugs, furniture and even cars. The basic site fee is $20 a month and your site can feature up to 100 ads at any time. Be sure to check out their website at www.classroomclassifieds.com

Free book from Five Star Publications
Five Star Publications would like to offer teachers a free copy of one of the books featured in their Sixty Minute Shakespeare series. The Sixty Minute Shakespeare plays currently available for classroom adaptation or performance are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night. If you're interested in this offer, please e-mail your name, address, the name of school, subject and grade level you teach to Shakespeare@FiveStarPublications.com and include which title from the series you'd like to receive. You can also mail your request to: Five Star Publications, Inc., Attn: Shakespeare offer, 4696 West Tyson St., Chandler, AZ 85226-6903 or fax to 480-940-8787.

For more information, be sure to visit www.60MinuteShakespeare.com

New National Award Honors K-12 Education Innovation
To honor innovative individuals who've made major contributions to transform K-12 learning in and out of the classroom, the cable industry's education foundation is launching a new national educational awards program called Cable's Leaders in Learning Awards. Honorees will include policy makers, classroom educators, administrators and community leaders who have had a significant impact on educating children.

The competition is open to any individual working in U.S. communities or schools, who can demonstrate innovative practices or policies that have had a significant impact on K-12 education. Candidates for the award will be able to apply or be nominated by someone else from October 1, 2004 until the January 31, 2005 deadline. The teaching and learning can take place in school or in the community and may be focused on any subject area, including media literacy and technology. Twelve winners will be selected and notified on March 15, 2005. Each awardee will receive $3,000 and a trip to Washington, D.C. for three days of celebration and networking. Please be sure to visit www.leadersinlearningawards.org for the award application and other nomination criteria.

Olive Garden's Ninth Annual Pasta Tales Writing Contest
With the 2004 presidential election taking place this month, Olive Garden has chosen a timely question for its ninth annual Pasta Tales national writing contest for kids: "What do you like most about living in the United States and why?" Olive Garden will accept essays of 50-250 words that answer that question from young writers in first through twelfth grade.

Essays will be accepted up to December 3, 2004 and should include the writer's name, full address, area code and phone number, grade, date of birth including the year and a statement that the work is their own.

The grand prize is a trip to New York City, dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square and a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond. A winner will also be chosen in each grade category and will receive a $500 U.S. Savings Bond and dinner with their family at their local Olive Garden restaurant. Pasta Tales entry forms and complete rules will be available at local Olive Garden restaurants or by logging on to www.olivegarden.com/ourcommunity/pastatales Entries must be either submitted online or postmarked by December 3, 2004 and sent to Pasta Tales, PMB 2000, 6278 North Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308-1916. Submissions are judged by the Quill and Scroll Society of the University of Iowa based on creativity, adherence to theme, organization, grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Destination ImagiNation®
Destination ImagiNation is a one of the world's largest creativity and problem solving programs open to students from kindergarten through college. DI is not just a wonderful extracurricular activity, it's an extension of the Destination ImagiNation brand of curriculum which draws on creative problem solving strategies and the multiple intelligences of students to use what they've learned in the classroom in new and creative ways. The program helps kids build important, lifelong skills such as problem solving, teamwork and divergent thinking.

Teams of five to seven children take one of the five or six yearly challenges offered by Destination ImagiNation and spend up to six or seven months in meetings and practices to offer up their solution to the challenges. The teams' efforts are aimed at Tournament Day, at which time teams from all over the region gather to perform an eight-minute skit that demonstrates their particular problem and solution.

To learn more about how to introduce the Destination ImagiNation program to your school, please visit www.destinationimagination.org