Internationalizing Teacher Preparation

The Longview Foundation is offering two cycles of funding (Spring 2010 and Fall 2010) focusing on expanding programs to internationalize pre-service teacher education. The program to internationalize pre-service teacher education supports activities to ensure that PK-12 teachers in all subject areas begin their careers with:

• Knowledge of the international dimensions of their subject matter and a range of global issues;
• Pedagogical skills to teach their students to analyze primary sources from around the world, appreciate multiple points of view, and recognize stereotyping
• A commitment to assisting students to become responsible citizens of the world and their own communities.

Amount: $15,000 - $30,000

Date due: January 15, 2010 (for Spring 2010); July 16, 2010 (for Fall 2010)

Grants are made to encourage teacher preparation programs to adopt a range of strategies on the home campus to develop the global expertise of future teachers. These include:

• Expanding programs for prospective world language teachers.
• Providing professional development for faculty and advisors
• Supporting revisions to the general and professional education requirements and courses for teachers
• Creating opportunities for fieldwork in internationally themed classrooms or multicultural communities in the United States
• Using technology to bridge international geographic and cultural barriers

For more information, click here.

Milken-PennGSE Education Business Plan Competition

The First Annual Milken-PennGSE is a business plan competition sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and the Milken Family Foundation.

Amount: $25,000 (first prize); $15,000 (second prize)

Date due: February 2, 2010

Educational entrepreneurship business plans should outline the problem they address, offer a solution, and discuss scaling possibilities for bringing the proposed innovation to additional settings. Broadly construed, educational entrepreneurship initiatives can address a wide range of educational issues. This competition encourages applications in every conceivable educational setting – from early childhood through corporate/adult training, in settings and contexts anywhere in the world.

For more information, click here.

Undergraduate Foreign Language (Teacher Preparation)

The Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) program provides grants to strengthen and improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages. An invitational priority is for collaborative efforts between colleges of education and other colleges within the same institution to propose projects that will strengthen instruction in foreign languages and international studies in teacher education programs that provide pre-service training for K-12 teachers in foreign languages and international studies.

Amount: $100,000/year for 3 years

Date due: December 17, 2009

Competitive preference is given to institutions that require graduating students to have two years of postsecondary credit in a foreign language or who can demonstrate the equivalent.

For more information, click here.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Institutional Grants Program

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences funds the Institutional Grants Program to assist in fostering educational activities between the public and the film industry while encouraging the appreciation of motion pictures as both an art form and a vocation.

Amount: Varies

Date due: January 15, 2010

Eligible programs include but are not limited to craft workshops and conferences in which college students and/or adults are trained in one or more of the various craft fields of film production (directing, cinematography, screenwriting, editing, etc.); library and archival projects in which the papers of filmmakers are preserved and/or made available to the public; screening programs, especially those in which filmmakers interact with audiences; seminar programs, in which film professionals discuss their work and/or particular aspects of the creation and distribution of films; teacher training programs, in which production techniques and/or film appreciation information is presented for teachers to take back to their classrooms; and visiting artist programs, especially those in which a filmmaker spends several days in residence at a college, university or media center.

For more information, click here.

Environmental Education Grants

The EPA solicits grants to support environmental education projects that promote environmental stewardship and help develop knowledgeable and responsible students, teachers, and citizens. This grant program provides financial support for innovative projects that design, demonstrate, or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques as described in this notice.

Amount: $15,000 - $25,000

Date due: December 15, 2009

For more information, click here.

Big Read Program Offers Grants

The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations to conduct month-long community-wide reads between September 2010 and June 2011. The Big Read is a national program designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture.

Amount: $2,500 to $20,000

Date due: February 2, 2010

Organizations selected to participate in the program will receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 each, access to online training resources, educational and promotional materials, inclusion of the organization and activities on the Big Read Web site, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national program. Approximately seventy-five organizations from across the United States will be selected to participate.

Grants must be matched at least one-to-one with non-federal funds. Grant funds may be used for expenses such as book purchases, speaker fees and travel, salaries, advertising, and venue rental. Applicants can select one of the thirty-one available reading choices.

For more information, click here.

R & D to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect

The Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood is requesting proposals for research and demonstration projects to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Amount: $1,240,000 for a 40-month

Date due: January 19, 2010

The QIC-EC will support 3-5 research and demonstration (R&D) projects that show promise of generating robust evidence and new knowledge related to the following overarching research question: How and to what extent do collaborations that increase protective factors and decrease risk factors in core areas of the social ecology result in optimal child development, increased family strengths, and decreased likelihood of child maltreatment, within families of young children at high-risk for child maltreatment?

In their approach to this question, R&D projects must target high-risk families who have an infant between the ages of birth to 24 months at the inception of the project, and for whom there has been no substantiated Child Protective Services report in the 24 months preceding acceptance into the project.

For more information, click here.