EDUTOPIA MAGAZINE
I have a free subscription to Edutopia Magazine. This is one of several educational magazines that I read on a regular basis. One of the others is the ISTE magazine.
One of the articles I read talked about Heifer International, a not for profit that provides various animals to poor families worldwide based on financial donations. Here's a link to them: www.edutopia.org/global-village-video. This is not a direct one but will get you an idea. I have personally used this not for profit several times giving gifts to those in need and as a gift to someone you know or care about (You send the gift in their name and they get a card saying that an animal was donated).
The other article in Edutopia that got my attention was one called "English-Language Lagging." The article talks about helping English-language learners catch up for standardized testing. The article writer talks about the vocabulary of early English learners being about 3000-5000 words and how they need to increase that. The writer says..."Students who started school as non-English speakers probably lag behind their peers on core vocabulary by at least 5,000 words by fifth grade." Made me think about using GollyGee Blocks to help in this type of situation since a lot of children are visual learners. The 3D lettering in Blocks allows the user to put up words in a scene which could really help. The scene I've put together is a season appropriate example.
I'm trying to do this blog more often. It is often said by writers that just sitting down and doing some stream of consciousness is the best way to write. I don't know - I think the idea part is the hardest.