
	December 2009 \| Verizon Thinkfinity Newsletter

The Verizon Foundation and its Thinkfinity Partners would like to wish all of our valued users and education enthusiasts a wonderful, safe and happy holiday season!

For some fun holiday ideas for your classroom, check out our Spotlight on the Holidays section featuring snow day activities, tips for smart shoppers and resources to enhance cultural understanding of the holidays.

	NEW RESOURCES

	*Practice your fractions with Dig It* and Drop Zone! from Illuminations' Calculation Nation^TM Dig It challenges players to create and locate fractions along a number line. By locating the correct number on the line, players collect shovels of dirt with hidden gems. In Drop Zone, players load their launcher with a variety of bars as they attempt to reach a sum of 1. Be careful! Your opponent may use their bars to block your efforts. New Science and Health Curriculum on the Effects of Alcohol AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and Science NetLinks** are developing a new The Science Inside series on how alcohol affects the human body. The Science Inside Alcohol Project is a science and health curriculum for middle school students and their families, including a booklet for parents. Check out the resources here! TIMELY TOPICS Can You Haiku? December 21 is National Haiku Poetry Day! Verizon Thinkfinity has dozens of great resources for Haiku poetry. Have your kids write a winter Haiku today! Emanuel Leutze’s Symbolic Scene of Washington Crossing the Delaware from EDSITEment Brrrrr!!! What a way to spend the holidays! On Christmas night 1776, George Washington led Continental army soldiers across the Delaware River to attack Britain’s Hessian army at Trenton, New Jersey. Read about Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware and listen to a NEW podcast on this painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then test yourself with a specially created interactive. Holiday Safety Tips from Verizon Thinkfinity Literacy Network For adult learners with limited reading or English-speaking skills, these resources help show how to keep families safe during the holiday season. The materials were created by the Home Safety Council using guidelines developed with Thinkfinity Partner ProLiteracy. It includes a short NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) video showing how fast a Christmas tree can burn. VERIZON FOUNDATION HOLIDAY NEWS Season’s Readings Verizon Foundation invites everyone to give the gift of reading through its annual Season’s Readings campaign. Now through December 31, log on to make a donation to First Book, a nonprofit organization that provides new books to children in need by distributing them through local schools, libraries and other nonprofit children’s organizations. For every donation to First Book through the Web site, Random House Children’s Books will make a matching donation of new, free books to First Book (up to 300,000). Season’s Readings began in 2001 as a Verizon employee campaign to advance the cause of children’s literacy. Since then, more than 2 million children’s books have been donated to children across the country.

	PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEWS

	New Webinars for the Holidays! New Webinar for Administrators! The Verizon Thinkfinity Professional Development team has launched a new Webinar aimed at providing school, campus and district leaders with information about Thinkfinity resources, how they can help enhance teaching and learning in the 21st century classroom, and opportunities for teachers to receive training. Register for School Administrators: Leading with Verizon Thinkfinity today! New On-Demand Webinars for Educators The Professional Development team has also just launched pre-recorded versions of its free Webinars that can be viewed any time. Currently, the following sessions are offered: Strategies for Sharing Verizon Thinkfinity Think Possibilities-Verizon Thinkfinity's FREE Online Tools! Reaching 21st Century Students with Verizon Thinkfinity See the full list of Webinars offered through Verizon Thinkfinity.

	VERIZON THINKFINITY PARTNER NEWS

	Verizon Foundation Sponsors 2010 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Verizon Foundation is proud to be a Premier Sponsor of the 2010 Celebration of Teaching and Learning, March 5-6 in New York City. Stay tuned for more information about all of Verizon Thinkfinity's conference activities. Partner Web Site Redesigns are Coming! ReadWriteThink, EDSITEment and Xpeditions will unveil their new, redesigned Web sites in the new year! Be sure to check them out and read more about them in the January Thinkfinity Newsletter.

	VERIZON FOUNDATION NEWS

	Verizon Receives BBB International Torch Award! Each year the Council of Better Business Bureaus recognizes companies that mirror its values through its International Torch Awards. This year, Verizon is a recipient of the Torch Award in the category of marketplace excellence. Read more on Verizon's Responsibility Blog.

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