The MOUSE Squad Wire

Greetings all 8th and 9th graders! For those of you who are new, welcome to the program and we hope you have a really great year. For those coming back to us, thanks for taking the time and interest to return to Mouse Squad and congratulations for coming this far!

We have a really fun opportunity for you. MOUSE is hosting a pizza party/research group for about 15 of you to come and hang out and talk about technology, school and well, life in general. In New York, the party will be on October 16th at 4pm at the Puck Building (295 Lafayette St), and in Chicago, we will be announcing the date and location shortly. Participants will receive pizza and refreshments and— best of all– a $50 gift certificate to Best Buy!

If interested, please email me, Nishanthi (nishanthi@mouse.org), with your name, age, grade, and school you attend.

Hope to see you there!

P.S. We even take care of your Metro card!

This September, MOUSE hosted its first grant writing workshop, led by Yalda Nikoomanesh, MOUSE Director of Development. The group used the The Best Buy te@ch program as a case study. This program seeks to: “recognize [the] creative uses of interactive technology in K-12 classrooms. Winning te@ch programs focus on kids using technology to learn standards-based curriculum, rather than on teaching students to use technology or educators using technology that children aren’t able to use hands-on. The purpose of te@ch is to reward schools for the successful interactive programs they have launched using available technology.” Though the grant application deadline has passed, we thought that these materials may be of interest to faculty advisors interested in applying for other grants. The .zip archive includes:

* A powerpoint presentation that includes the basics of responding to requests for proposals (rfps), effective proposal writing, and examples of winning proposals
* A checklist to keep tabs on everything you’ll need for a grant submission

Faculty advisors and principals may also find this glossary of terms related to funding helpful as they develop proposals.