Since 2003, over 3.7 million K-12 students, parents, educators and community members have participated in the annual online surveys - with over 300,000 surveys from this year alone! Now it's your time - in honor of the superb survey period this year, today Project Tomorrow kicks off “Speak Up America 2014” a weeklong event to celebrate Speak Up participants, past, present and new! Have a voice in the future of digital learning in our nation's schools by participating in this year's special Speak Up America campaign.
This year's Speak Up America campaign runs from today, Monday December 8th, through Friday December 12th. We are excited to announce this year's events! Keep reading to learn how you can win free conference registrations, a one-year BrainPOP classroom subscription, and more.
Be sure to take the survey before December 19th! Click here to take the survey and pass it on.
Happy reading! Feel free to share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our Blog.
-The Project Tomorrow team
National Speak Up Day
Donate 15 minutes of your time today for the future of education. Have a voice, participate in National Speak Up Day on Wednesday, December 10, 2014!
The highlight of the Speak Up America 2014 Campaign will take place this Wednesday, December 10, 2014 with National Speak Up Day! National Speak Up Day is the day to encourage your community to participate. We would like everyone to have a voice in the future of how technology is used in our nation’s schools; please share this link: www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2014 with your students, teachers, parents, administrators, community organizations, members, affiliates or anyone who has a passion for improving education and ask them to take the Speak Up survey.
The more surveys you get in the more opportunities you have to win a free ISTE conference registration! Every survey submitted on this date will be entered into a special drawing for not only a free ISTE conference registration for your district, but once in Philadelphia, dinner is on us. Here’s your chance to pick our CEO Julie Evans’ brain on all things digital learning by joining Julie for dinner.
Twitter Chat
Data Surprises! Amazing New Data Findings from the Speak Up 2014 Student Surveys
Wednesday, December 10
4:30 pm ET, 3:30 pm CT, 2:30 pm MT, 1:30 pm PT
Hashtag: #SUchat
In this special Twitter chat on Speak Up America Day, Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, will share 5 preliminary data findings from the Speak Up 2014 K-12 surveys that really surprised her this year – and she would like to get your feedback on those same data findings. Do they surprise you, do they shock you? Are these findings in alignment with what you are hearing from students today? What impact will these new revelations have on your school or classroom plans for 2015? Come to learn and share your ideas!
Photo and Video Challenge
Educators, win up to $500 in classroom or school grants just by having your students participate in Speak Up!
Planning to have your class or school participate in Speak Up this week? Already had your class or school participate? Need a little incentive to get your class or school to participate? Join in on the fun and take part in our Speak Up for America Photo and Video Challenge.
Photo Challenge
Hashtag: #SpeakUpSnapshot
To celebrate technology and all our wonderful Speak Up participants, we will be offering a $250 grant to one lucky Speak Up participating classroom or school during the week of December 8th. All you need to do is take a picture with the Speak Up for America 2014 Badge (above) highlighting your Speak Up experience and upload to one of our social media sites or the photo challenge page. Contest is open now, so get your cameras out and shoot a photo showing you and your students Speaking Up!
For contest rules, please visit our photo challenge page here.
Video Challenge
Hashtag: #VoicesofSpeakUp
Last year, we heard you loud and clear with over 85,000 participants during Speak Up America week and multiple #speakupsnapshots submitted to the 1st annual Speak Up America photo challenge. Now in our second year of Speak Up America, we want to see you and your class “Speak Up” in action! In this new social media video challenge, Project Tomorrow wants to know:
“Why is using digital tools for learning important for your (students’) future?”
All you need to do is create a short 15-30 second video answering the question above. Use this opportunity to get your class involved by making this into a class project. Submissions can come in the form of videos, animations (PowToon), slideshows, voice snippets and more. The more creative the better!
In this challenge, there will be three grant opportunities with a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize.
▪ 1st: $500 classroom or school grant ▪ 2nd: $350 classroom or school grant ▪ 3rd: $150 classroom or school grant
Never has your chance of earning a $500 grant for your classroom been easier. Enter your #VoicesofSpeakUp video into the Speak Up America video challenge today!
Learn more about the video challenge contest rules here.
Free Conference Registrations
Free National Conference Registrations
International Society for Technology in Education 2015 Conference and Expo
Thanks to our good friends at ISTE, we have received two 2015 ISTE conference registrations (a $392 value) to gift to two of our Speak Up districts! The great thing is every district has an opportunity to win - all you need to do is encourage your K-12 community to participate in the survey during the Speak Up America 2014 campaign. This is a great way to reach out to different audiences that may have a lower participation number than you would like - for example, a target of your K-12 parents, teachers or local community members. The more surveys you get in, the more opportunities you have to win! Your district will have two chances to snag a free registration:
1. Get in any last minute surveys. Any survey that comes in during the Speak Up America 2014 campaign will be entered to win. We will be pulling a randomly selected survey during this timeframe and will award the free ISTE conference registration to the district the survey belongs to. 2. Encourage participation in National Speak Up Day (12-10-14)! Every survey submitted on this date will be entered into a separate drawing for a free ISTE conference registration for your district.
In addition to your free ISTE conference registration, the selected recipient attending the conference will also have the opportunity to join our CEO Julie Evans for dinner in downtown Philadelphia. Here’s your chance to pick our CEO Julie Evans’ brain on all things digital learning!
Free Regional Conference Registrations
Are you a California, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas or Northwest (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, or Washington) district? You're in luck! The awesome folks at CUE, NCCE, NETA, and TCEA are also offering free conference registrations! Winning is as easy as speaking up. All you need to do is encourage your staff, students, their parents and the local community to participate in Speak Up. Every participant from your district will enter you in to the drawing to win, the more surveys you have in the more chances you have to win! We will randomly select a survey from your state and announce the winners on Friday, December 12th at 5PM PT/7PM CT/8PM ET.
Click here to learn more about our free regional conference registration opportunities.
Free one-year BrainPOP classroom certificate
Have you always wanted a subscription to BrainPOP? Interested in trying it out? Well here’s your chance! Our good friends and wonderful sponsors of Speak Up, BrainPOP have graciously offered a free BrainPOP classroom certificate good for one year of BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., BrainPOP ESL and BrainPOP Español ($540 value) to gift to the top participating Speak Up school during Speak Up America Week. Not only will your school be recognized as a Speak Up Superstar school but you will also be giving one lucky teacher access to BrainPOP’s award-winning online educational resources which include BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, BrainPOP Español, and, for English language learners, BrainPOP ESL. All you need to do to win is encourage your school community to participate in Speak Up during the week of December 8th - it is as easy as that! The winning school will then have the opportunity to gift the certificate to a teacher of their choice.
Daily Speak Up 2014 Preliminary data snapshots
In celebration of our Speak Up America campaign, we have pulled a special snapshot of preliminary data for students, parents, teachers, administrators and community members. Each day we will release a special video infographic on NEW Speak Up findings. Check out when we'll release each snapshot:
▪ Monday, December 8, 2014 — Teachers ▪ Tuesday, December 9, 2014 — Parents ▪ Wednesday, December 10, 2014 — Students ▪ Thursday, December 11, 2014 — Librarians ▪ Friday, December 12, 2014 — Principals
Click here to view the snapshots throughout the week.
The Speak Up America campaign takes place from Monday, December 8th to Friday, December 12th. The photo and video challenge is open for submission until 5PM PT/8PM ET on December 12th, and the winners will be announced at 11AM PT/2PM ET on Monday December 15th. Get your submissions in soon to increase your changes of winning!
If you have any questions please feel free to contact our Speak Up Operations Manager, Jenny Hostert, at jhostert@tomorrow.org or via phone at 949/609-4660 ext. 17.
Many thanks to our sponsors and partners for the support of Speak Up 2014: Blackboard Inc., BrainPOP, K12, DreamBox Learning, Schoolwires, SMART Technologies, Rosetta Stone, American Association of School Administrators, Consortium for School Networking, Digital Learning Day, Digital Promise, edWeb, International Association for K-12 Online Learning, International Society for Technology in Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National School Boards Association, Secondary Education Teachers’ Association, and the Southern Regional Education Board.
