Grants for After-School Music Programs
   The Mr. Holland's Opus Special Projects Program provides musical instruments and instrument repairs to existing K-12 school music programs that have no other source of financing to purchase additional musical instruments and materials. Eligibility: After-school music programs that are at least three years old or have a music-related umbrella organization that is at least three years. Maximum Award: $8,000. Deadline: August 1, 2008. After-School Music Programs.

Grants for Math and Science
   The Toshiba America Foundation makes grants for projects in math and science designed by classroom teachers to improve instruction for students in grades K-12. Maximum Award: $10,000. Eligibility: Grades K-12. Deadline: Decisions about grants under $5,000 (K-6: $1,000) are made on a rolling basis and applications are accepted throughout the year. Deadline for large grants grades 7-12: August 1, 2008. Math and Science.

Mini-grants for Public Schools and Public Libraries
   Ezra Jack Keats Mini-grant Program for Public Schools and Public Libraries supports educators, parents and children in their efforts to spread literacy and love of learning. Maximum Award: $500. Eligibility: public schools and libraries anywhere in the United States and its protectorates. Deadline: September 15, 2008. Ezra Jack Keats Mini-grant Program.

Early Learners Can Handle Big Words
   Researchers now believe that students in primary grades can acquire more advanced words earlier than previously thought, reports Laura Pappano in her article "Small Kids, Big Words: Research-Based Strategies for Building Vocabulary from Pre-K to Grade 3" in Harvard Education Letter. It is now felt that the mechanism for learning new vocabulary isn't the same as that for learning new math skills, where easier concepts are the building blocks for more complicated skills. "Words are not related hierarchically," said Isabel Beck of the University of Pittsburgh. "You can learn 'saturated' before you learn 'soak'." What's more, children seem to enjoy it. More advanced words also enrich conceptual understanding and enhance reading ability as a student progresses. It's especially important in closing the achievement gap for students who arrive to early grades with a limited vocabulary, and for English Language Learners. More details.

Gender Gap?
   The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has issued a report that corresponds to research by the American Council on Education and other groups detailing that while girls have been graduating from high school and college at higher rate than boys, there is no "boy's crisis," writes Tamar Lewin of the New York Times. The more significant disparities in educational achievement, the report says, are between different races, ethnicities, and income levels. The AAUW's report is a follow-up to their widely discussed 1992 report that described how boys in the classroom were educated at the expense of girls, and is also a response to the notion put out recently by conservative commentators that boys are in turn being shortchanged. "Many people remain uncomfortable with the educational and professional advances of girls and women, especially when they threaten to outdistance their male peers," the report states, but "The most compelling evidence against the existence of a boys' crisis is that men continue to outearn women in the workplace." Read more

FactHound Safari Contest
   Get involved in science and research. Each month three clues and a photograph with an amazing African animal will be posted on the contest web site. Students use clues to undertake research and fill in the missing information, and all those with correct answers are entered into a drawing to win books for their school. Safari.

Live Monarch Educator Outreach Program
   The Live Monarch Foundation Educator Outreach Program provides funding for teachers throughout the United States to enroll in the National Campaign to bring monarch butterflies into the classroom. This program provides education and materials to strengthen the monarch's 3,000-mile migratory route within North America by creating self-sustaining butterfly gardens and refuges. Materials will be provided for each participant to raise a virtual butterfly and start a real butterfly garden with professional instruction on each level for its maintenance and care. Maximum Award: n/a. Eligibility: teachers and classrooms in areas on the monarch migratory route. Deadline: rolling. Apply

Books Across America
   The National Education Association's Books Across America Library Books Awards Program enables public school libraries serving economically disadvantaged students to purchase books. Maximum Award: $1,000. Eligibility: Practicing pre-kindergarten through grade 12 school librarians, teachers, or education support professionals in a U.S. public school in which at least 70 percent of the students are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program. Deadline: November 7, 2008. Learn more.

Free Teaching Resource
   Recently the U.S. Department of Education launched a new and improved version of the much acclaimed web site, Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE). FREE provides educators with lesson plans, primary documents, science visualizations, math challenges, literary works, paintings, music manuscripts and many other vital classroom resources. The tool also combines important educational elements culled from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, National Science Foundation, NASA, National Archives, and other federal agencies. Free Teaching Resources