Technology Grants for Teachers – As a teacher, having a good environment in your classroom is important, and one of the best ways to do it is to have positive activities and projects designed for your students. However, it is almost impossible to cover all of the expenses from your own pocket. Therefore, many teachers feel that they have limited options because they have limited fund.
One of the most challenging tasks is to update your classroom technology and gadgets. Since funding the technology updates for your classroom requires a lot of money, having a technology grant could be the best solution.
Opportunities of Technology Grants for Teachers
This post focuses on providing information about available technology grant opportunities for teachers. Note that not all of the sources listed below are your direct grant providers. Some offers indirect help by allowing you to meet with generous donors who are willing to provide financial assistance for your technology-related projects or classroom.
If you are looking for computers for your class, you can try:
Computers Recycling Center (CRC)
(http://www.crc.org/)
This organization provides refurbished used computers for classroom. In our opinion, this is the best source for free computer for school, because it recycles the computer for a better and meaningful purpose. The CRC distributes the second hand computers to the city’s Computers and Education program. You can send emails or visit their website to ask whether you are eligible or not. The link and email address are available on the reference section.
The NEA Foundation Educator Grants
The available fund: $5,000
This foundation is quite active to support the inclusion of educator voice, especially in the leadership practice and policy. They celebrate public school educators with many grant programs. Some grants may offer fund for teachers to get professional development experiences such as taking summer institutes or participating in action research. Other than that, the qualified teaches can take mentoring experiences, experiential learning, lesson study, and equity-driven initiatives.
Professional development will improve curriculum, practice, and achievement for the students in class. Recipient must have professional leadership into practice, so they must share what they have learned with the colleagues. However, they cannot use the grants for achieving a degree.
Computers For Learning
This program is quite similar to the CRC, but in general they provide newer computers from government agencies, and distribute them as classroom computers. You can request the application through the official site, and make sure you represent your school instead of your class. The school must be a k-12 public, private, or parochial school. Homeschooling may also apply for the program.
If you are looking for fresh money for technology-related projects, you can try:
Digital Wish Grants
The Digital Wish Grants provides technology grants for teachers, which is used for their classroom. The teacher must submit a technology-related lesson plan, and will compete with other applicants to win up to 50 technology grants. You can give it a try from the official site available in the reference section.
Technology Donors Program
http://www.donorschoose.org/
Although this program is not exactly falls into technology grants for teachers’ category, this is one of the best sources to find financial assistance for your classroom. The website allows the teachers and the donors to interact. Here’s how the system works:
First, the teacher makes a classroom profile, which should be filled with classroom experiences stories along with the technology devices wish list. This profile will be placed on the digitalwish site. The donors can browse through profiles, and pick the one they want to assist. There are two possibilities. First, the donors can purchase the item from the wish list for the classroom. Second, the donors can send financial aid directly to the teacher.
McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation
This foundation offers grants for the individual teachers or even small teams teaching in K-12 education. The purpose of this program is to improve insightful and also innovative training and development for professionals.
The grant offers awardees to implement their new teaching strategies or methods in their class. Projects are free, in various forms, but each one must have a significant design and continuous impact in the class.
Awardees work together with the foundation to apply their ideas and get an award for about $10,000 annually for the beginning of two years of the implementation.
Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program
The available funding: $8,200 for living stipend per month, and education allowance for about $1,000.
This is a unique grant for professional development opportunity. It is for K-12 teachers with at least five years of teaching experience in STEM subjects.
The STEM teachers will take on a position within 11 months within a U.S. Congressional office or federal agency. The teachers will have the opportunity to give a direct impact on the education policy, program, and reform solutions.
After this program, the teacher will go back to the school with a better understanding of STEM education. This output will support the instruction and give more benefits to the students.
Fund for Teachers Grants
Available fund: $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for teams
This is a unique award grant that is available for professional development. This program exist because the belief that educators are the most important judges for the educational needs and development.
The goal of this grant is to support teachers, so they have professional development opportunities based on their belief. Thus, they can bring positive contribution on their teaching experience.
Fund for Teacher Grants is also available to encourage teachers for having great objectives, higher motivations, and impact their teaching plans. So, this can be beneficial for the students.
Other Sources
There are several other notable sources related to technology grants for teachers. The Corning Incorporated Foundation has an education grants that also cover technology grant for school, and the Donors Choose and Funding Factory provides the same mechanism as the Technology Donors Program.
Whichever you choose, I hope you can make the best use of the grants for teachers for technology. That is all about the available technology grants for teachers. In the end of the day, these programs are available to support of the development of teaching based technology.
References :
- Donate Computer : crc.org/
- Computers for Learning : computersforlearning.gov/
- Apply for Grants : digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/grants
- Teachers Get Started : digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/teachers
- Information for Grant Seekers : corningincfoundation.org/guidelines/
- See what great teachers need for their students : Donorschoose.org
- Funding factory : fundingfactory.com/
- Images: iq-technologies.com
