Speak Up News November 2013

Happy November to all of our followers and supporters! Thank you to all the participants that have already taken part in the Speak Up surveys! Since the launch of the survey over 70,000 Students, Educators, Parents and Community Members have shared their ideas about the use of technology in education. There is still plenty of time to get involved, surveys are open through December 20th, 2013! In this e-newsletter, find out how you can get more involved with Speak Up this year: New to Speak Up? Attend the upcoming Speak Up Webinar: Planning for Speak Up 2013 Are you an organization serving students, parents, educators? You too can be part of the Speak Up Momentum Calling all Members of the Education Community! Participate in Speak Up through our new Community Member and Business Leader Survey --open to anyone interested in sharing their thoughts on critical 21st century education and technology issues Take the Survey. Learn more about how we use the Speak Up national data throughout the year and why your participation is important Already taken the survey? Start spreading the word about the survey to your network of friends and family! Happy Reading! Feel free to share your thoughts with us by commenting below or on Facebook and Twitter. --The Project Tomorrow team Click here to read online. Webinar: Planning for Speak Up 2013 Powered by Blackboard Collaborate Friday, November 15, 2013 8:00AM PT / 11:00 AM ET Click here to register Interested in participating in this year's Speak Up surveys but want to learn more about it? Now's your chance! Join Julie Evans CEO, Project Tomorrow for a 45 minute webinar next Friday to learn about key Speak Up findings from last year – and how your school or district can participate in Speak Up this year. Topics to be covered include: What are some realities about ed tech in our schools today – from the perspective of students, parents, teachers & administrators? Do we have a shared vision for digital learning? Background Information on Speak Up and benefits of participation How can your district participate in Speak Up 2013 Sound interesting? Register to attend this special webinar here or contact Jenny Hostert at jhostert@tomorrow.org or (949) 609-4660 ext. 17. Are you part of a community group, after school program, non-profit or association working with children, parents, educators or members of the community? Interested in their use of technology? Get involved with Speak Up! Schools and districts are not the only participants collecting data from this valuable survey. Many organizations are using Speak Up data to help with their own planning. If you are interested in getting your organization involved, please contact Jenny Hostert on the Speak Up Team at jhostert@tomorrow.org. District leaders: Expand the scope of your Speak Up outreach and bring in the voices of your community members You don’t have to be an educator or student to take the survey. The voices of your community members are important too! This year, for the first time we are providing a special online survey for community members. Local employers, after school providers, school board members and homeowners without children in the local schools can now provide their views on the role of technology in preparing students for the jobs and careers of the 21st century. This new set of data will provide valuable insights for schools and districts as well as state and federal policymakers on the importance of digital tools and resources for college and career readiness. Additionally, both parents and community members will also be asked about their awareness of the new Common Core State Standards, and the sources, both digital and non-digital, of their information about the new standards. Now's your chance to get these important stakeholders involved! Be a part of the conversation and share your ideas about how to leverage technology in schools to promote better learning. Community members: Take the survey todaywww.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013. Share your thoughts and views on the importance of education within your community and specifically, the role of technology in preparing today’s youth with the skills they need to be successful in the future. All community members will access the survey through a school in their local community. Look up a school via zip or state and school name. Your Participation in Speak Up is Important! Together, let's work towards leveraging technology to promote enhanced learning in our K-12 schools. Speak Up 2012 had an amazing turn out last year with over 466,000 total surveys submitted from over 2,400 districts nationwide! In addition to all the great success stories we’ve heard from schools and districts utilizing their local participant data for their planning, Project Tomorrow has also been very busy sharing the national data results at the local, state and national level. Over the past year our CEO Julie Evans has presented the Speak Up findings in over 60 conference and webinar presentations and has released 6 written reports (2 at Congressional Briefings held in Washington DC) all of which are available for download on our website. Geared with Speak Up data, Julie also just recently met with the FCC to discuss their changes to the Erate rules, read more about this here. As you can see, you and your K-12 community's participation are truly making a difference! Let’s do it again this year, and aim for over 500,000 surveys!!! It’s quick and easy to get involved in Speak Up, to take the survey follow these 5 simple steps: Go to this link: www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013 Click on the appropriate survey button Follow the given instructions to access the survey. Begin by entering in your zip code or clicking on the drop down button and select your state, then go to the next line and type in your school name (community members select a school within your local community) Students will be required to enter in a survey password "secret word". Educators, parents and community members are not required to enter in a survey password. Primary contacts will assign an organization specific password for their students during the primary contact registration process. Click here to register as the primary contact. Complete the survey by December 20th, 2013 Not sure which survey to take? Visit our Tips on Deciding which Survey to Take, to help you select the survey that best meets your needs.http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013/TipsDeciding.aspx Promote the survey to your network of friends and family Start spreading the word about Speak Up to your network of friends and family. Have a friend that is an educator? A parent? A current K-12 student? Member of the community interested in schools? Send them the link to the survey. Word of mouth is always the best promotion, help us expand our reach! Sample Tweets: Participate in Speak Up and share your ideas about how to leverage technology in schools to promote better learning: bit.ly/SU13survey >>> Tweet this! Members of the K-12 Community share your opinions about the role of technology in education http://ow.ly/i/3DtvA >>> Tweet This! Start spreading the word about Speak Up to your community! Share this speak up flyer http://ow.ly/pKgPM>>> Tweet this! Ensure that the voices of your stakeholders are being heard in Washington DC and your state capitol. Be part of a solution! @speakuped >>> Tweet This! Join @SpeakUpEd and 3 million students, parents, teachers, and admins who have participated since 2003 register now, bit.ly/SU13survey >>> Tweet This! Share your opinions about the role of technology in education, open 10/2-12/20, 2013 at http://bit.ly/SU13survey @speakuped >>> Tweet This! Get the pulse of what’s happening in your school (or district) & benchmark it with national results http://bit.ly/SU13survey @speakuped >>> Tweet This! There’s still time to experience the value of #SpeakUp by collecting &using the data to garner support for your key technology initiatives! >>> Tweet This! Sample Emails General Join the conversation about the use of technology for learning through Speak Up, a National Research Project. Since 2003, over 3 million K-12 education stakeholders have participated in the annual online surveys. Data findings are shared each year with federal, state and local policymakers to inform education programs, policies and funding. Take the survey today at www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013 to share your thoughts and views on the importance of education within your community and specifically, the role of technology in preparing today’s youth with the skills they need to be successful in the future. Surveys are open to students, educators, parents, educators and members of the community. All community members will access the survey through a school in their local community. You can look up a school via zip or state and school name. Project Tomorrow is a national education nonprofit organization dedicated to improving science, math and technology education in our schools. For more information on the Speak Up National Research project please visit Project Tomorrow’s website at www.tomorrow.org/speakup. Teachers: Educators participate in Speak Up, a National Research Project, and share your ideas about how to leverage technology in schools to promote better learning. Since 2003, over 3 million students, educators and parents have participated in Speak Up! Now’s your chance to join in on the conversation— the online surveys are open through Dec. 20th. It’s quick and easy to get involved! To take the survey, visithttp://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013 Parents: Parents Speak Up – Your ideas are important to us! Open through December 20, 2013 athttp://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013/ Be a part of the conversation! Speak Up is the first survey designed to help parents share their ideas directly with schools and national policymakers. As key stakeholders, Speak Up provides parents with a mechanism for expressing their views to the administrators at their child(ren)’s school and district about key issues impacting their child(ren)'s education. Since 2003, Speak Up has collected and shared the views of over 3 million students, teachers, and parents from all 50 states, as well as internationally. By participating in Speak Up, parents are expressing their views to a wider audience of local, state, and national policy makers as well as the business community—and contributing to the national dialog about science, technology, and preparing students for the 21st century workforce. The online survey is open to students, educators, parents and members of the community; it’s quick and easy to get involved. To take the survey visit:http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2013/ and click the yellow parents enter here button! Also encourage your local schools and district to get involved. Every participating school and district receives free online access to their own participant data in February 2014. Speak Up provides your schools and districts with state and national data for benchmarking that can be used to for grant writing, ed tech plans, budgets, professional development and community engagement. Please share this sample intro email/flyer with your local school & district administrators. For additional promotional material to spread awareness, please visit our promotional material page at: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/promo.html Thank you for your interest and continued support in Speak Up! We look forward to your participation in Speak Up 2013! Be sure to stay updated on all things Speak Up by following us on Facebook, Twitter and our Blog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at jhostert@tomorrow.org or via phone at 949/609-4660 ext. 17. Jenny Hostert Speak Up Operations Manager Project Tomorrow