Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Wayfair Professional Celebrates Local Teacher in Third Annual Dream Classroom Giveaway

BOSTON, Massachusetts – December 14, 2021 – Wayfair (NYSE:W), one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home, announced today the winner of the third annual Dream Classroom Giveaway, a contest awarding one U.S. teacher with a full classroom makeover. Conducted by the Education division of Wayfair Professional, Wayfair’s business-to-business program, nominations from the public were accepted through a contest website earlier this year. A winner is selected based on their significant impact on their students and community with an engaging and creative approach to teaching.

“Wayfair Professional is excited to announce this year’s Dream Classroom Giveaway winner, Ms. Julia Negele, a kindergarten and first grade teacher in the Boston Public School system,” said Margaret Lawrence, vice president of Wayfair Professional. “We’re proud to recognize an outstanding local teacher for the first time in the contest’s history and provide Ms. Negele with all the furniture and decor she needs to make her classroom work harder for her and her students.”

Since its 2019 launch, Wayfair Professional’s Dream Classroom Giveaway has received thousands of nominations from the public, and nine winners have been awarded brand-new classrooms. A panel of Wayfair Professional Education Specialists carefully selects each winner and works with them to redesign their classroom, including teacher and student desks and chairs, soft seating, rugs, bookcases, whiteboards and easels, a variety of storage, and other educational furniture and decor. …Read More

AVer Information Launches Dream Classroom Giveaway Contest

AVer Information Inc., the award-winning provider of video collaboration solutions and education technology solutions, announced today the launch of the AVer Dream Classroom Giveaway Contest where four classroom makeovers will be awarded. Participants simply need to follow AVer USA on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/averusa to be automatically entered into the contest.

The classroom makeover contest has been initiated in order to help schools effectively prepare their classrooms for in-class instruction, remote distance learning instruction, or a hybrid of both depending on the given climate at the time. Four prize groups will be awarded and each winner will receive some or all of the following AVer solutions as well as implementation support and training:

The contest will be open for entries between November 30 and December 31, 2020. Winners will be randomly selected on January 4, 2021 and notified by January 18, 2021.…Read More

2017 Possibility Grant Sweepstakes

Enter the Possibility Grant Sweepstakes DAILY for your chance to win $10,000 for STEM at your school! “Fab” your lab with the latest and greatest gadgets, or purchase top-tier technology and supplies for STEM students. One school will be selected as our Grand Prize Winner in May of 2017. The Grand Prize will consist of a $10,000 Siemens Possibility Grant, awarded in the form of a check made payable to the winning school and intended to be used by the school for a science lab makeover and/or STEM-related equipment, supplies, or technology.

How our elementary school got a tech makeover

Kids gravitate to technology in the classroom, so it makes sense for teachers to utilize digital projectors—that is, unless no one can see the lessons they display.

This was our situation a couple of years ago at Northwest Elementary School in Chatsworth, Ga., in the summer of 2014. We were having challenges with the technology in our learning environments: Our digital projectors were eight years old, so the projections weren’t very bright anymore, and it was difficult for our students to see the images on the screen. Worse still, sometimes the projectors wouldn’t boot up at all, or conked out midway through a class, which frustrated teachers who needed them for the day’s lesson.

We wanted to include funding for these upgrades in the budget, but after planning for essentials, there just wasn’t much money left over. We looked at replacing a few digital projectors at a time, but we have 29 classrooms–how would we prioritize which classrooms would get the new projectors first? What do you eliminate from the budget so the kids can have another computer? It was frustrating. We thought there was no way we were going to be able to get everything we needed.…Read More

7 signs your school needs a technology makeover

Every teacher has a technology wishlist, Edudemic reports. Whether you have one computer in your classroom or thirty iPads, there’s always a little something that we wish we had to make something a little more fun or a little easier. Sometimes, our really slow computers or lack of resources really make us wish for a technology makeover. This fun infographic from We Are Teachers showcases seven tongue-in-cheek signs that your school might need a technology makeover. They created this awhile back when they were running a contest for a technology makeover, but the humor in them still rings true today. For those of you dealing with eight year old computers and chalk boards that use real chalk in your classrooms, you’ll surely get a laugh…

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