Washington Receives $75,000 Grant to Provide
Training on Free Educational Materials
Resources available from Verizon Thinkfinity for Parents and Students

OLYMPIA, March 3, 2010 — The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction announced today that it has received a $75,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to raise teachers’ awareness of the free educational resources available on Verizon Thinkfinity and to train teachers to use those resources.

The announcement was made today at the Teacher Librarian Summit of the Northwest Council for Computers in Education Conference at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. NCCE hosts the largest educational technology conference in the Pacific Northwest.

Verizon Thinkfinity (www.thinkfinity.org) contains thousands of free, engaging educational resources, including K-12 lesson plans, in-class activities and videos that can be found quickly and searched by grade level, keyword or subject. These resources are aligned to state and national standards and offer K-12 resources across eight academic disciplines, from science to English to mathematics.

“These funds will go a long way toward helping Washington teachers find quality content and make learning fun,” according to Anne Anderson, Ed Tech Development Center Director. “Washington’s Educational Technology Support Centers are now geared up to make that happen.”

The grant announced today will be used to:

• Provide professional development opportunities to district trainers and classroom teachers through on-site and online training.
• Provide www.Thinkfinity.org resources aligned to state standards to educators and students through the Washington’s Thinkfinity Web site.
• Raise awareness of Thinkfinity resources and professional development opportunities to educators statewide.

“The resources offered by Thinkfinity will help teachers around the state, whether they’re in urban or rural areas,” said Randy Dorn, state superintendent of public instruction. “The interactive games and activities make education fun and will spark kids’ interest.”

Content for Verizon Thinkfinity is provided through a partnership between the Verizon Foundation and 11 of the nation’s leading organizations in the fields of education and literacy: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Council for Economic Education, International Reading Association, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Center for Family Literacy, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Council of Teachers of English, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Geographic Society, ProLiteracy and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, supports the advancement of literacy and K-12 education through its free educational Web site, Thinkfinity.org, and fosters awareness and prevention of domestic violence. In 2009, the Verizon Foundation awarded more than $67.5 million in grants to nonprofit agencies in the U.S. and abroad. It also matched the charitable donations of Verizon employees and retirees, resulting in an additional $24.4 million in combined contributions to nonprofits. Through Verizon Volunteers, one of the nation’s largest employee volunteer programs, Verizon employees and retirees have volunteered more than 5 million hours of community service since 2000. For more information on the foundation, visit www.verizonfoundation.org.