We’re sure you want to know what impact LearnDoEarn is having on your students, and so do we.

To find out more, contact Sue Herring at 609-989-7888, extension 144 or sue.herring@njchamber.com.

We hope to hear from you!

Schools have been using the Technology Challenge for years to assess the computer proficiency of students in grades 7-12, providing an accurate gauge of how well they will use the software applications that are ubiquitous in college and in the business community. With the introduction of Microsoft Office 2007 and the substantial changes to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, a small number of the hundreds of questions in Tech Challenge exercises became confusing.

We’re pleased to announce that all 30 Technology Challenges have been analyzed and adjusted for compatibility with Office 2007. In many cases, entirely new Challenges were created, resulting in twice as many exercises for students to use. The original versions of the Challenges are still available for schools that have not upgraded their software from Office 98 through 2003.

All Challenge questions are still in the “performance-based” format that teachers and students have come to expect. For example, one question on the Challenge asks participants to find the number of words in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The answer may seem trivial, but students will have to apply the knowledge gained in class to find a copy of the Gettysburg Address on the Internet, upload the document to a word processing application, and perform a word count. Thus, an innocuous question tests several discrete skills.

If you haven’t looked at the Technology Challenge lately, it’s not too late to assess your students before the end of the year. It’s also a great program for summer course work. The Technology Challenge is flexible enough to use with small groups of students or with an entire student population. Contact us to find out how the Technology Challenge can be adapted for your use. For a free sample Challenge, contact Donna Custard at donna.custard@njchamber.com or 609-989-7888 extension 120.

Do you work with special needs students? If you do, join us for the Disabilities At Work Internet Radio Show. It airs every Wednesday at Noon EST on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel. Disabilities At Work (DAW) Radio focuses on broad areas of interest to people with disabilities, their advocates, and their employers.

The Disabilities At Work Internet Radio Show can bring you a glimpse of the world that lies beyond your classroom – a world that many of your students will need to face. And students with disabilities have a far more challenging road ahead of them than non-disabled students.

DAW Radio spotlights businesses that support people with disabilities through philanthropy, or that go ‘beyond compliance’ in finding and hiring qualified people with disabilities. The show features corporate VIPs, successful service providers, educators, people with disabilities who have compelling stories, authors, researchers, government officials, elected representatives, and celebrities who have reasons to be involved.

“We are pleased and excited to be able to raise awareness for the issues facing people with disabilities,” said Dana Egreczky, president of Disabilities At Work. “Producing the Internet Radio Show brings this important project to the next level.”

DAW Radio is an extension of the Disabilities At Work program, which is a two-pronged national initiative: 1. DAW provides opportunities for businesses to acquire and display a visible symbol of their support for people with disabilities, and 2. Back The Plaque provides opportunities for advocates to reward and patronize businesses that display the DAW logo on their facilities, websites, and/or products.

Consumers are encouraged to patronize companies that have been endorsed as Disabilities At Work businesses through the Back The Plaque website (www.BackThePlaque.org). With free materials available on the website, consumers can make their voices heard at businesses -- thanking them for their support of individuals with disabilities or encouraging them to do so. And by displaying the Disabilities At Work logo, businesses seize opportunities to display a visible symbol of their support for people with disabilities, and as a result, the potential for increased customer patronage.

The largest minority group in the country, people with disabilities, their family members, service providers and other supporters, control more than $200 billion in discretionary income – an amount that exceeds that of the highly coveted teen market. Disabilities At Work helps to convert this latent consumer power into a focused ongoing campaign that rewards businesses that support people with disabilities.

Anyone working with the disabled, or interested in getting involved, can visit Back The Plaque to help raise awareness as well as tune into the radio program to hear how people are making a difference every day. Even people in our own backyard can be a catalyst. An educator from Mainland Regional High School was recently featured on the program to talk about his partnership with a local business to provide opportunities for his students.

Any person or organization wishing to be included on our weekly mailing list can send a request to info@DisabilitiesAtWork.org.

Friend us on Facebook at Disabilities At Work

Join our Tweem at disabilitiesat

To learn more about the program and to listen to past shows, go to www.DisabilitiesAtWork.org. Previous episodes of the radio show are also available as free downloads on iTunes.

Educators in Atlantic and Cape May Counties had the opportunity to attend one of two LearnDoEarn professional development workshops offered by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation, in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Education Office of Leadership Development and the Atlantic Cape Community College. Sessions were held at the college’s Institute for Service Excellence in April.

Workshop attendees learned how they could help develop college and work ready students by using the LearnDoEarn Student Achievement System. The honest messages contained in LearnDoEarn classroom lessons connect what students are doing in school to what will be required of them in college and work. LearnDoEarn uses the credibility of the business community to reinforce what teachers are telling students every day. As a teacher in south Jersey commented, “Students get the message from the "real world"; it wasn't something their teacher simply made up.”

Thanks to our sponsors, TD Bank and the Atlantic Cape May Workforce Investment Board, all participating schools received a free LearnDoEarn Materials Kit (a $400 value)!

PSEG is pleased to announce its 2010-2011 Environmental Education Grant Program. It was developed in 1991 as a partnership with the New Jersey Business/Industry/Science Education Consortium (NJ BISEC), and designed in cooperation with the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE).

Now in its 20th year, the program helps to inspire K-9 teachers to implement an interdisciplinary approach to teaching about the environment, and fosters new ideas. Since 1991 over $335,000 has been awarded to 143 project grantees. Grants of up to $3,500 per project are available again this year.

Hurry, the deadline is June 30, 2010. All questions should be directed to Shauwea Hamilton at shauwea.hamilton@pseg.com.

Learn more at this link:
http://www.pseg.com/community/grants.jsp