Dairy Dispatch

Celebrate Soup!

Whether it’s cream of potato, chicken noodle, minestrone, or gumbo, everyone has a favorite soup. So, what better way to celebrate National Soup Month, or National Homemade Soup Day, than with a “soup swap”? That’s when friends, families, neighbors, or organizations get together and share a meal of homemade soup. Typically, each person brings a pot of soup, and after the meal, party guests exchange bags or containers of their brothy brew. The idea is to help everyone fill their freezer with a variety of soups to get them through the chilly winter months, a gesture we hardy Wisconsinites can certainly appreciate!

All hail the National Soup Swap!
Source: http://soupswap.com

The Origins of Soup

• Soup can be dated back to about 6,000 B.C. and was first made of hippopotamus.
• Boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers (which most likely came in the form of pouches made of clay or animal skin) about 9,000 years ago.
• Soup was first known as “sop,” which was a piece of bread served with some type of broth. People used to pour sop over the bread, allowing it to soak up the broth before eating. As time went by, sop was placed in deeper bowls and the liquid became the focal point instead of the bread. “Sop” soon became “soup” and bread was dipped in soup or thick stew.

Source: http://Gone-ta-pott.com

Campbell’s Labels for Education®

For more than 37 years, Labels for Education has been awarding free educational equipment to schools in exchange for proofs of purchase from the Campbell’s family of brands. It’s a fun, easy program in which students, families and members of the community work together for a common goal.

Today, more than 60,000 schools and organizations are registered with Labels for Education, benefiting more than 42 million students. Over the years, Campbell’s has been able to provide more than $110 million in merchandise to America’s schools.

To learn how you can help your school get involved, or for tips and tools on managing and promoting your school’s program, visit www.labelsforeducation.com.

Visibility Matters

Stay current with the latest education trends and learn how to boost your awareness in the industry on CB&A’s blog, Visibility Matters.

A Soupçon of News to Tickle Your Palate

Funds For Learning has launched the education industry’s first E-rate app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The E-rate Manager app provides a mobile means for current E-rate Manager users to access funding requests and commitment amounts, the names of service providers, and remaining funding balances from their compatible Apple device. The app can be downloaded for free from iTunes. Read more…

Capstone Digital announced the launch of myON reader, the first-of-its-kind personalized literacy environment. myON reader provides access to the largest integrated library of digital books with multimedia supports, customized to a student’s interest and reading abilities. The literacy program enables students to take ownership of their reading growth by searching the digital library to build their own book lists, add ratings, and share reviews with classmates, as well as track their reading development. Read more…

The second annual PBS Teachers Innovation Awards recognizes preK-12 educators who have engaged students and improved learning through new teaching methods. Twelve grand-prize winners will be selected and awarded a unique, weeklong collaborative "Innovation Immersion Experience" at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich. The most innovative teachers also receive free enrollment in a PBS Teacherline online professional development course of their choice. Entries are accepted until March 31.

STI has added INFOCUS to its Web-based student information system, InformationNOW, to provide an ad-hoc reporting tool that allows for greater customization in data mining and analysis. The new tool enables district leaders to make more informed decisions regarding school operations, instruction and more by connecting and transforming data into meaningful and actionable information. INFOCUS will save teachers and administrators time spent sifting through data irrelevant to their query, or waiting for custom reports from a data analyst. For more information, visit www.sti-k12.com.

The Florida State Instructional Materials Committee approved the Discovery Education Science Elementary Techbook for classroom use. Florida joins Indiana, Louisiana and Oregon in adopting Discovery Education’s digital science service as the core instructional resource for elementary science instruction. The announcement comes in the wake of President Obama’s State of the Union address, in which he advocated for the inclusion of digital textbooks in classroom instruction. The Discovery Education Science Techbook is a comprehensive learning system that integrates science and inquiry into every phase of learning. Read more…

In an effort to improve college readiness, Shmoop offers online test prep for SAT and PSAT, and introduced ACT test prep at FETC 2011. Recently, the School District of Philadelphia teamed up with Shmoop to provide students with free access to Shmoop Test Prep at school, home, or anywhere they have Web access. Each test prep course includes deep content reviews, hundreds of drill questions, and 2-3 full-length interactive Practice Exams. Shmoop uses classic video games like Oregon Trail, Tetris and Mario Brothers as metaphors for the challenges, pitfalls and question types that students will face in the exams. Read more…

Providing free, secure social networking tools for teachers, students and administrators, Edmodo has now extended its social learning network to parents through its new Parent Accounts. With Parent Accounts, teachers can maintain communication with parents, provide direct access to students’ grades and assignments, and send notifications about upcoming due dates and missed assignments, as well as alerts about school events and activities. In addition, a FETC Community will be hosted on Edmodo for attendees to download and share session materials, participate in backchannel conversations, and meet other Edmodo educators. More information is available at blog.edmodo.com.

Califone International, Inc., will be showcasing its Desktop Computer Speakers, Titanium Series line of washable headphones and headsets, and the Infrared Classroom Audio System during TCEA 2011. Designed specifically for classroom use, these products provide educators with the technology necessary to foster an enhanced learning environment. Califone also will be demonstrating the washability of its Titanium Series line of headphones and headsets, emphasizing the product’s strength and durability. In addition, visitors to the Califone booth (516) can catch a sneak peek of the company’s new Wireless Tablet Interface. For more information, visit www.califone.com.

Helping to improve collaboration between all parties involved in the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process, VizZle will introduce the VizZleGram during TCEA 2011. VizZleGram is a service that allows teachers, speech therapists and occupational therapists to share interactive lessons with parents, after-school program instructors and tutors to help build activities for students with autism spectrum disorders. In addition, VizZle has launched the Autism & Visual Learning Community, hosted by edWeb.net, for educators interested in sharing best practices for using visual learning supports for students with autism and other special learning needs. For more information, visit www.monarchteachtech.com.

To reinforce important lessons about copyright for middle- and high school-aged students, the Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) will unveil a new education version of the "Don’t Copy That 2" video and accompanying classroom materials for educators during TCEA 2011. In addition, during SIIA’s Member Breakfast, Karen Billings, vice president for the Education Division, will address how education companies can leverage the association’s Vision K-20 initiative with the launch of the 2011 survey, as well as other vital initiatives affecting the ed tech industry nationally and globally. For more information, visit www.siia.net.

Mark Your Calendar

Texas Computer Education Assocation Conference (TCEA)
Feb. 7-12, 2011, Austin, TX. Register at tcea2011.org.

CoSN Annual Conference
March 14-16, 2011, New Orleans. Register at
cosn.org/events/CoSNConference2011/tabid/7025/Default.aspx.

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