Bing Supports Schools: "Our School Needs"

I am a busy volunteer parent with the Our Savior Lutheran School of St Petersburg Parent-Teacher Organization. This challenging economy continues to challenge both public and private schools in providing excellence in education with more limited resources. Bing is helping with their "Our School Needs" Project. Every school has an ever-growing "wish list"... Our school needs a new roof, funding for instructors in enrichment programs, and textbook revisions.

In a bid to win $100,000 for their school, parents, students, and teachers around the country have been telling Bing what their school needs through essays, photos and videos. You can read some of their amazing stories here. Soon a panel of judges, including critically acclaimed, Academy Award-winning director and producer, Davis Guggenheim, of Waiting for Superman and An Inconvenient Truth fame, and DonorsChoose.org founder, Charles Best, will narrow down the entries to 15 finalists.

Starting October 27th, it's up to the public to determine the winner. And, the first 30,000 people who vote each day also will receive a free $3 DonorsChoose.org giving code to support the classroom project of their choice. This is a great opportunity to help other schools in need. If 50 people to vote each day from October 27 to November 5 and redeem their $3 codes on DonorsChoose.org., collectively that's $3,000 -- imagine how our community could help benefit local schools by participating!

Here are the contest details:

Visit this special link to learn more and vote ASAP:

www.bing.com/ourschoolneeds
Bing is awarding a quarter-million dollars in prize money divided among four schools in need, and your vote can make all the difference.
The entry with the most votes wins $100k, and 3 others will each win $50k.
Bing is giving away up to $900,000 to schools in need through DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit website where public school teachers can post classroom projects that need funding. Be one of the first 30,000 to vote for your favorite finalists each day and receive a $3 donation code to redeem for the classroom project of your choice!
The voting phase starts Friday, October 29 and runs through Sunday, November 7. America will be asked to vote on the 15 Our School Needs finalists as determined by the panel of judges. The winners will be announced Tuesday, November 9.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Bing and received a gift card and DonorsChoose.org giving code to thank me for taking the time to participate.

SMART Boards In Our Classrooms For Techie Kidz!

Our Savior Lutheran School in St. Petersburg FL installed amazing new interactive whiteboards into many of the classrooms this school year. We held special fundraising activities throughout the year to assist with funding for these amazing tools for our children. Everyone was very excited to add this resource to the classrooms, especially the kids!

My daughter will begin 6th grade this fall, and will have the good fortune of experiencing the SMART Board throughout the next three years in their middle school program. I asked the students at the end of the school year summer picnic about their reaction to the Boards this year. Each mentioned their wonderful interactive nature and how they felt like their were getting more out of the topics covered while using the Boards. One 7th grader noted that he was definitely more connected in the classroom, and that the SMART Board seemed liked a next step for all the kids since they are all so "wired" these days...I started to feel like a dinosaur!

All the teachers at Our Savior are totally "a buzz" about the Boards, too! Now all the faculty of this private, Christian school have asked to receive the new classroom resource to elevate their lessons to a new dimension.

SMART Technologies is the world's largest provider of interactive whiteboards - a "touch screen" board that functions like a blackboard does, but with the technical capabilities of a computer screen. Truly amazing and like nothing we've seen before!

The company has just launched the "SMART Love of Learning" campaign. It acknowledges and celebrates all of the teachers who have impacted individuals around the world. There is a great facebook page that has been developed for this campaign and an opportunity for contest winners to win a SMART Interactive White Board for their own child's school or the school of their choice!

You can check out their website - www.SMARTloveoflearning.com to learn more.

Some additional links to learn more and explore their YouTube and Facebook applications are:

The link for the Smart Love of learning website is: http://tiny.cc/8lrjf
The link for the Youtube videos is: http://tiny.cc/xpz26
The link for the Facebook page is: http://tiny.cc/0tje2

Be sure to enter to win a SMART Board for your school of choice...I entered today! My favorite teacher was Mrs. Edelman from 7th grade. She was absolutely fearsome, but the lessons she provided me in the classroom were invaluable to my communication skills EVERY DAY! TEACHERS TOTALLY RULE!

Happy Summer Vacation Everyone!