GENERATION YES

What's New at Generation YES
More California Schools Ensure Their 8th Graders are Technology Literate with TechYES
Twelve more California schools join schools throughout the nation ensuring their 8th grade students are technology literate by completing two TechYES projects that meet the ISTE NETS for 8th grade students. The following schools have recently accomplished TechYES Certification for students in either 7th or 8th grade (number in parentheses indicated number of students certificated).

Boron JHS, CA (46)

Student Showcase
Want to See a Frog Dissection?
This video by three seventh grade students in the GenYES program at Bloomington Junior High School in Bloomington, Illinois demonstrates how to dissect a frog and proper use of lab equipment. This is a great example of student-produced resources that can be used for years to come. bjhsnews.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_bjhsnews_archive.html#116361051789161654

Join Netday Speak Up 2006 -- Deadline Extended!!
Now in its 4th year, NetDay Speak Up's national online survey invites students, teachers, and parents from around the country to share their input in an online survey. The deadline has been extended with the survey remaining open until December 15, 2006 to allow maximum participation.

Speak Up Surveys as of 11/30/06 -- 139,150 Students -- 13,594 Teachers -- 9,703 Parents - Join The Crowd!!

This is an opportunity for students, teachers and parents to participate in the national dialog about science, math, technology, and 21st century workforce skills. Learn more about NetDay Speak Up and how schools and districts can register and participate at www.netday.org/speakup.

Kansas GenYES School Connects to the World
Long time GenYES and TechYES Longfellow Middle School in Hill City, Kansas have been using iEarn as a valuable source of projects. Check out how this Kansas school is connecting to the world. us.iearn.org/press_room/newsletters/index.php

News You Can Use
Have You Heard? Sharable Google Docs Are Here!
Google Docs is Google's latest online tool offer - a free, shareable word processor and spreadsheet AND space to keep your files. These free tools allow you to share documents and worksheets online so that several people can work on them at the same time - with edits showing up in real time. There is also a chat/instant message feature so you can have a side conversation while working on a document.

There is nothing to download because everything works through your browser. You can save the documents on your computer or use Google's free online storage. The document formats supported are the current MS Office formats (.doc .xls etc) and also the OpenDoc formats (.odt .ods etc). You can control public and private access, and who is allowed to make changes. A really nice feature is that you can save in PDF format as well as HTML web pages. The HTML option means you can create web pages via Google Docs to be viewed as standard web pages. Blogs are also supported with special features to let you post directly to your site.

This offers so many opportunities for educators and students, for in class, personal, and professional use. You could use it to house a class writing assignment, and then instantly make it a public web page when it's done. You could keep private notes, or include just a few colleagues, or create a budget spreadsheet that a virtual team can access from any computer, anywhere. Google also has a page devoted to Google Docs in education. www.google.com/educators/p_docs_spreadsheets.html

Get more information, take a tour, or sign up at: docs.google.com

Free Cyber Crime Resource
McGruff the Crime Dog is out to teach everyone how to identify, report and protect themselves against cyber crime. To combat the growing plague of computer viruses, worms, spam, spyware, phishing, identity theft and online predators, McGruff provides tips, tools and resources. www.bytecrime.org

Star Count
How many stars can you see on a clear night? It depends on where you live. Students can join NASA's Star Count project and see how the count differs throughout the world. www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/starcount/home/index.html

Classroom Grants for Digital Cameras
Olympus America and Tool Factory are sponsoring a classroom grants program designed to strengthen education through digital imaging and the power of visual learning. They are looking for applications that show a "high degree of student involvement" - could that be you? Ten grants will be awarded, five in January 2007, and five more in June. Winners will receive three Olympus 5.0 megapixel digital cameras, $500 cash, and other prizes. Deadlines: 1/5/2007 and 6/30/2007
www.toolfactory.com/olympus_contest/olympus_teacher.htm

That's All For This Issue of the Generation YES Express
We hope you've enjoyed this email newsletter. If you have stories to share or news clips about technology in education, student empowerment, or funding for technology, please send them our way and you might see them in the next issue! https://www.genyes.org/about/contact