PATINS UDL Project

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is calling on educators and school-based service-learning coordinators to submit applications for their service grants. Grants of $25,000 to $100,000  are awarded to groups who develop service-learning projects that address one of the following areas: natural and societal disaster preparedness; driver safety; accessing higher education/closing the achievement gap; financial education; and environmental responsibility.

The number of grants to be awarded will depend on the number and quality of requests received. Grant amounts will vary according to the nature of the proposal and availability of funds. However, at least one service-learning project will be funded in each of the thirteen State Farm zones which include the three provinces in Canada.

Grant applications are due Friday, October 2, 2009.

Application information is at:  http://www.statefarmyab.com/apply.php

The Buddy Teaching & Learning Center currently has a grant opportunity that all pubic schools in Indiana can apply for to receive a Wii system, accessories, games, and professional development for integrating the system into physical education, music education, social skills development, and/or academic achievement.  We will be awarding several of these grants.
The original deadline for this grant was today, February 16, but due to the weather-caused closings and related issues from a few weeks ago, the grant deadline has been extended to February 28.
Complete information about this grant and an application is available at our website, www.btlc.org.
Even if you are not interested in the grant, we have Wii integration sessions that will begin in April.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Margaret Manuzzi

Margaret Manuzzi, Coordinator
Buddy Teaching & Learning Center
6920 Gatwick Drive, Suite 130
Indianapolis, IN  46241
P  (317) 856-2223
F  (317) 856-2224

The online version of Education Week has a posting of grant opportunities at http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/grants/index.html

There are several pages of grants listed with information about who is providing them, what the focus or program is, and when the deadline for applying is. If you are looking for money to support UDL, this is a great place to look for possible sources.

From Indiana’s et cetera (ETC: Education Technology) newletter, a recommendation to check the Grant Wrangler web site. It allows you to pick the date the grant proposal will be due or to search for topics by key words. You can subscribe to a free bi-weekly update on grant opportunities.

http://www.grantwrangler.com/

At the recent TRLD (Technology, Reading and Learning Diversity) Conference I attended a workshop by a grant-writing specialist, Sheryl Abshire, from Lake Charles, LA, about how to approach grantgivers, write grants, and get grant funding. All of you can probably use grant money, to cover the costs of attending conferences or training sessions or for additional technology to implement UDL in your classrooms and schools.

Sheryl listed several keys to successful grant writing, which included:

• do exactly what the RFP (request for proposal) guidelines say
• connect the grant request to something that is for ongoing improvement
• provide specifics on how you will use the grant money and how you will collect and evaluate the data
• be passionate, creative and innovative about your plans
• focus on areas of need in your school or district
• include what you/your school/your district will provide to help make the grant successful (e.g., partnerships with other community resources)
• if you write the grant for professional development, link it back to improving student achievement in an area of need

She provided several websites with grant information:

Her personal grant information website with resources listed alphabetically: http://www.cpsb.org/Scripts/abshire/grants.asp

The School Grants web site with grant information for PK-12 (note that it has sample grants and fund raising information on the sidebar to the left) http://www.schoolgrants.org/

The eSchool News website which provides grant and funding information for schools. You can sign up for a funding alert newsletter there also. http://www.eschoolnews.com/funding/

An information resource website, Thomson West, that has a Grants for K-12 Hotline that provides a bi-weekly newsletter that you can subscribe to for a yearly fee. http://west.thomson.com/store/product.aspx?r+139011&product_id=40560035