THE Journal: Blended Classroom

Spotlight

Colorado Releases Roadmap to Boost Blended Learning
A Colorado state-funded program recently released a guide to help district leaders, educators, policymakers and other stakeholder implement blended learning in K–12 schools.
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50 Underserved U.S. Middle Schools Gain Coaches to Optimize Tech in Classroom
Google for Education is offering up $6.5 million through Google.org to support a pilot program called the Dynamic Learning Project led by Digital Promise. With help from EdTechTeam, participating middle schools will gain a classroom coach that’ll assist teachers and principals with integrating tech in teaching and learning.
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L.A. Teacher Creates Catchy Math Videos That Teach Complicated Concepts
Los Angeles math teacher and tutor Huzefa Kapadia has created eight catchy music videos that explain fundamental and sometimes complicated math concepts, such as permutations and combinations, slope intercepts and the quadratic formula.
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Legends of Learning Doles Out Free Games, Lessons for Aug. 21 Eclipse
Legends of Learning has released a slew of eclipse-related curricula games and resources for teachers and students ahead of the total solar eclipse happening on Aug. 21 across the United States
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Ed Tech News

Open Up Resources Designs OER Curricula for High School Math, Middle School ELA
The education nonprofit is piloting two new, openly-licensed curricula for mathematics and English language arts subjects.
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$10,000 Awarded to Advance VR at ‘Geographically Isolated’ Maine School
East Grand School in Danforth, ME has received a $10,000 grant to integrate virtual reality (VR) into history, biology and other curricula.
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Tynker and Parrot Bundle Coding Lessons with Drones
Tynker and Parrot are offering an all-in-one bundle designed to teach kids how to code through programming unmanned aerial vehicles.
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Canvas Adds Teacher App, Course Blueprints
A new feature dubbed "blueprint courses" offers templates for teachers to create courses and is designed to simplify management and deployment of centralized content for a consistent user experience among students across multiple courses.
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CASEL Selects Winners for Social-Emotional Assessment
CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) has revealed the winners of its inaugural Social-Emotional Assessment Design Challenge and introduced a new website dedicated to measuring social-emotional learning.
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College Board and Khan Academy Partner on AP Courses, Test Prep
The College Board, which administers the SAT and Advanced Placement tests and programs, has teamed up with nonprofit Khan Academy to create preparatory materials and exercises for AP courses, to be available for free on Khan Academy’s website.
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Colorado’s Online Professional Learning Platform Integrates Video Coaching
COpilot now offers video-powered PD through Edthena. Educators can use the platform to upload videos of their classroom instruction and then share those videos with coaches who can give timestamped comments categorized as questions, suggestions, strengths and notes.
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LightSail Version 4.3 Boosts Personalization Features in Reading App
LightSail Education has launched version 4.3 of its K–12 adaptive reading app with new features that open up more personalization options to teachers and students.
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Microsoft Offering Students Flexible Leasing for Surface Devices, Deals on Windows 10 PCs
Surface machines, which double as tablets or laptops, are available to students at a 10 percent discount through a new 24-month payment plan.
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Middle and High School Students Awarded for National STEM Video Game Challenge
The 2017 National STEM Video Game Challenge has selected 23 students to receive $1,000 each for their orginal video games and design concepts. Since 2010, the competition has worked to boost student interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through game design, while promoting collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving.
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Panopto Updates Video Platform with Canvas Gradebook Integration
The latest version of the Panopto video management platform now includes integration with Instructure Canvas Gradebook as well as customizable playlists.
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Grants & Upcoming Events (Week of Aug. 7, 2017)
Upcoming K–12 Grants
- E² Energy to Educate Program
  Sponsor: Constellation Energy
  Award: Two categories: $25,000 for grades 6–12, $50,000 for college and university
  Number of Awards: Not specified (historically 12 to 17 per year)
  Application Deadline: Oct. 1
- TAF Project-Based Learning Grants for Grades K–5
  Sponsor: Toshiba America Foundation
  Award: Two categories: $1,000
  Number of Awards: Not specified
  Application Deadline: Oct. 1
- TAF Project-Based Learning Grants for Grades 6–12
  Sponsor: Toshiba America Foundation
  Award: Two categories: Up to $5,000 and more than $5,000
  Number of Awards: Not specified
  Application Deadline: Up to $5,000 awarded on a rolling basis; Nov. 1 deadline for applications for more than $5,000
- SparkFun Community Partner Program
  Sponsor: SparkFun
  Award: STEM/STEAM-releated prize packages, event and team sponsorships and other types of support
  Number of Awards: Varies
  Application Deadline: Ongoin: third Thursday of each month; awards announced on the last business day of each month
- Adopt a Classroom
  Deadline: Ongoing
- Brinker International Grants
  Deadline: Ongoing
- Brown Rudnick Community Grants
  Deadline: Ongoing
- Corning Foundation Grants
  Deadline: Ongoing
- DonorsChoose.org
  Deadline: Ongoing
- Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Grants
  
  Deadline: Ongoing
  Award: No more than 10 percent of an organization's annual operating expenses or 25 percent of the total budget for the project being funded; awards have ranged from the hundreds to the millions of dollars.
  Number of Awards: Varies
  Qualification: Project should "directly serve or impact children living in urban poverty, particularly in the areas of education, family economic stability (including microfinance) and childhood health."
- Naiku Innovative Teacher Grant
  Deadline: Ongoing (approx. 10 awards per month)
- Sony Grants for Education
  Deadline: Ongoing (grants awarded on a rolling basis)
Call for Papers & Proposals
- Submit calls for papers/proposals to [email protected].
Upcoming Events
- VMWorld 2017
  Aug. 27–31
  Las Vegas
- National Indian Education Association's 47th Annual Convention & Trade Show
  Oct. 4–7
  Orlando, FL
- The Learning Counsel National Gathering
  Nov. 1–3
  Las Vegas
- Live 360
  Nov. 12–17
  Orlando, FL
- OLC Accelerate
  Nov. 15–17
  Orlando, FL
- SIIA Education Business Forum
  Dec. 5–6
  Washington, DC
- More events at thejournal.com
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Professional Resources

Blended learning is one of the most exciting developments in education in recent years, showing the promise to improve student learning through the combination of technology and face-to-face interaction with teachers. THE Blended Classroom, a new newsletter from the editors of THE Journal, is published twice monthly.

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Spotlight

Ed Tech News

Upcoming K–12 Grants

Call for Papers & Proposals

Upcoming Events

Professional Resources