Here are several highlights of CFF activities from this week:

• The High Tech Academic Achievement Scholars were selected on Thursday by several CFF Board members and AVID staff. 19 AVID students will share in the $32,000.00 generously provided by our scholarship sponsors; including: Jack-in-the-Box ($16,500), Biogen Idec ($5,000), Cymer ($4,000), Dave Kapelanski ($2,000) and the remainder from the CFF scholarship fund.
  

• The MOU between the Santee School District, SDCOE and CFF was approved by the Santee Board of Education this week.  The funding from Sempra ($15,000) will allow this program, Project-based Learning an Professional Development, to move forward in the next couple of weeks.
  

• The latest issue of Synergies is attached for your review and highlights our title sponsors: Cox and the Cox Kids Foundation, the Innovation in education Award recipients and honorable mentions, as well as the twenty other event corporate sponsors.
  

• Your assistance is requested to secure table sponsors ($1,500). Although the number of sponsors is comparable to last year our revenue is down some. If each Board member identified or secured one table sponsor we could make our goal of $200,000. Please contact me if you have names of some potential table sponsors and I'd be glad to follow-up with them.
  

• Be sure and be on the look out for the U-T ad announcing the CFF 2009 Innovation in Education event, "Commanding Innovative Excellence" in the Sunday paper April 26th.  Also, the ITV PSA announcing the event was completed and distributed to local cable companies and placed on the CFF website.
  

• A special thanks to the USS Midway for donating a guest pass to the museum to every attendee of the event on May 14th.
  

*Past CFF Activities Updates are available for your review at the CFF
Communities blog.  http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/blogs/

Regards,
Bruce


Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3685

Here are several highlights of CFF activities from this week:

• Great News:  The 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program U-T ad is scheduled to appear on Sunday, April 26th and Tuesday, April 28th to promote the event on the USS Midway.  See the attached image of the ad for your information.
  

• CFF will receive a $15,000 grant from Sempra to support the Project-based Learning and Professional Development program in partnership with the Santee School District.  The MOU between CFF, SDCOE and Santee School District is scheduled to be approved by the School Board on April 21st.
  

• Tom Dillon, Rick Beach and I met with Ernie Anastos, Superintendent, Lemon Grove School District and Mary Krauss, Program Manages for LGSD to discuss the status of the one-to-one program and opportunities to support the district efforts to enhance teacher collaboration and instructional strategies.
  

• Your assistance is requested to secure table sponsors ($1,500). Although the number of sponsors is comparable to last year our revenue is down some. If each Board member identified or secured one table sponsor we could make our goal of $200,000. Please contact me if you have names of some potential table sponsors and I'd be glad to follow-up with them.
  

• More than 3,000 invitations to the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program were distributed to schools, businesses and community leaders. The sponsorship confirmation letters were also sent out this week.
  

Past CFF Activities Updates are available for your review at the CFF Communities blog. http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/blogs/

Regards,
Bruce


Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3685

Here are several highlights of CFF activities from this week:

• Great News:  Cox Communications and the Cox KIDS Foundation has teamed up to be the title sponsor for the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards Program on May 14, 2009 on the USS Midway.  Their support will greatly assist us in insuring a successfully event.

• Additional sponsors were confirmed for the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program including:  AT&T (Graduate Level), Cubic (Scholar Level) and Biogen Idec is sponsoring High Tech Scholarships ($5K).

• Your assistance is requested to secure table sponsors ($1,500). Although the number of sponsors is comparable to last year our revenue is down some. If each Board member identified or secured one table sponsor we could make our goal of $200,000. Please contact me if you have names of some potential table sponsors and I'd be glad to follow-up with them.
  

• CFF, SDCOE and the Santee School District will enter into an MOU regarding the support for the Project-based Learning program.  You may recall Liz Johnston's, Santee Superintendent, presentation on this program at our February Board meeting.  This partnership will provide the momentum to realize this innovation in the Santee School District and will benefit teachers and students.
  

• Past CFF Activities Updates are available for your review at the CFF Communities blog. http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/blogs/

Regards,
Bruce


Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3685

 Here are several highlights of CFF activities from this week:

• The Innovation in Education Awards review panel met on Monday and scored the nominations and selected the award recipients for the May 14th event, including:  Fallbrook (Impact); Solana Beach (Inspire); Encinitas (Innovate); and Lakeside (Achieve).  In addition, four honorable mentions were selected from Poway (2); Cajon Valley (1); and Lakeside (1).

• CFF will be represented at the Science Festival Expo on Saturday by Dave Kapalenski and three teachers from Pershing Middle School to demonstrate some of the activities from the CFF Data Intensive Science project.

• Chris Brawner, SDCOE, Nancy Taylor,SDCOE, Rick Beach and I met with representatives from Calit2 to view their HD video wall to demonstrate its visualization capability and discuss developing similar technologies for the JRRTC with a network connection to Calit2 and their data files.  A follow-up session is being planned with the TIME2INNOVATE teachers to discuss potential instructional applications.

• I participated on a "Strategies for Success" panel session at the Leadership 3.0 Seminar:  Elements of 21st Century Leadership.  Jeff Felix, Superintendent, Coronado Unified School District and CFF Board member also participated on the panel.

• Three additional sponsors were confirmed for the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program including:  Intel (Scholar Level), Promethean (Scholar Level) and Best, Best and Krieger (Scholar Level).  Your assistance is still requested for contact for other potential sponsors for the event. Please contact me if you have some thoughts in this regard.

• Past CFF Activities Updates are available for your review at the CFF Communities blog.  http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/blogs/

Regards,
Bruce


Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3685

Here are several highlights of CFF activities from this week:

• The TIME2INNOVATE teachers met on Tuesday and observed and interacted with 11 teachers from three school districts (Santee, Cajon Valley and Lemon Grove) to discuss innovation they have created in their classrooms and the role technology in their classrooms.  A blog on CFF Communities has additional details. http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/forums/p/101/165.aspx#165

• The deadline for the 2009 Innovation in Education nominations was March 23rd and 30 nominations were received from 18 school districts.  The Jury Panel will be meeting on Monday, March 30th to review the nominations and select the award recipients.

• Rick and I participated in a "Broadband Stimulus" webinar that highlights the elements of the Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (BTOP) and the priorities for the $7.2 billion that will be distributed to expand access to broadband services throughout the nation.  The major focus is on underserved and rural communities and creating jobs as part of the Stimulus Package.

• Harry Bloom and I met with representative from PolyVision which has an interactive whiteboard with educational application integrated into the software.  PolyVision is considering donating the product for use in the JRRTC.

• Two additional sponsors were confirmed for the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program including:  Clearwire (Scholar Level) and HMC Architects (Scholar Level).  Your assistance is still requested for contact for other potential sponsors for the event.  Please contact me if you have some thoughts in this regard.

• Past CFF Activities Updates are available for your review at the CFF Communities blog.  http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/blogs/

Regards,
Bruce


Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3685

Here are some CFF activities highlightsfor this week:

• I met with Achieve3000 representatives to discuss their latest update to the web-based Literacy programs for grades 2-12 and their differentiated Instruction Solutions.  We also discuss the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program and the benefits of the various levels of sponsorship.

• Rick and I are completing a grant request to Sempra Energy Foundation to support the teacher collaboration initiative with the Santee School District.  The request is for resources ($10K-$15K) to provide the professional development of teachers to integrate "projec-based learning" strategies into classroom lessons.  As many of you will recall the CFF Board of Directors at its February meeting agreed to partner with Santee School Distrcit and pursue funding to support the project-based learning comjmunities for teachers.

• Tom, Todd and I met with CFF newest Board member, Blake Miller, Cymer, to review the Board Resource Guide and options for committee assignments.  Blake will be joining the CFF Program Committee and looks forward to visiting several of CFF partner school districts.  Cymer will also contribute $4K for two High Tech Academic Achievement Scholarships that will be presented at the 2009 Innovation in Edudation Award program.

• Additional annual event sponsor commitments for the May 14th awards program:  Time-Warner Cable (Visionary level); National University (Visionary level); two tables ($3K) will be reserved by Calypso Audio Systems. We have about one-half of the sponsors we need to make our fundraising goals, please contact me if you have some contacts for potential sponsors for me to follow-up with.  Your assistance in this request is appreciated.

Here are a few highlights of CFF activities for the week:

• Rick and I met with representatives for Promethean and Logical Choice to discuss the specifics of the "model classrooms" demonstrations scheduled during the 2009 Innovation in Education Awards program on the USS Midway. The demonstrations will be conducted by the Midway U educators to illustrate the lessons (using innovative technologies) that will be used with students when the classroom re-models are completed this summer.
  

• I met with the California Emerging Technology Fund's School2Home Design Team to discuss potential funding sources that would support a pilot project with 20 middle schools throughout the state.  The program would include hardware, software, applications, professional development and broadband connectivity.  The five year goals is to expand the program to 529 middle schools in "program improvement."
  

• I attended the San Diego Science Alliance Tech Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and met with several CFF Board members, Advisory Board members and potential sponsors of the CFF annual event.
  

• There were several sponsorship confirmation this week for the annual event including:  Sempra (Visionary); Gutschow Family Foundation (Visionary); MFCU (Graduate)  Sea World (Scholar) and Burhman Foundation (Scholar).  We have a long way to go to reach our goal and if any CFF Board members have some leads I'd be happy to follow-up with the contacts.
  

CFF Communities now includes a blog for CFF Activities Update, so be sure to join and authenticate yourself this week. Next week we will post the update on this site and we'll provide a link for your to review the posting.

Please read the instructions posted on the Innovation Wizard blog.

These instructions will guide you on how you can join CFF Communities and authenticate yourself to view the protected CFF Board
Discussions.  Once authenticated, all of the board committee and working group discussions will be visible as a quick way for you to
review the work of CFF.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information on these activities.

Regards,
Bruce

Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3686

Here are a few CFF activities for your review:

• Steve Clemons, Greg Ottinger and I met with Justin Cunningham Superintendent,  Bonsall School District to discuss a partnership to provide educational technology services from SDCOE to Bonsall schools.  CFF would assist in identifying several of the key requirements by facilitating the input of teachers via the Innovation Office.

• Tom Dillon, Ritz Sherman and I had a follow up up conference call with Liz Johnson, Superintendent Santee to discuss the next steps in the development of a MOU between the school district and CFF to support the Project Based Learning Program and the Professional Development Learning Communities.  The goal is to have the Santee Board approve a MOU at the April or May meeting this Spring.  (The Santee School District Board has also appointed Dr. Patrick Shaw as the new Superintendent who will begin his term on July 1, 2209.  Dr. Schaw was a former principal;, teacher and assistant Superintendent in the Santee School District.

• I attended an online Learning Forum convened by SDCOE with a group of school districts to discuss several models of online learning currently being utilized by Ramona Unified Poway Unified, Lakeside Elementary District and Lakeside in partnership with National University.  It seems that the interest in online learning is growing in many districts despite the fiscal challenged facing these districts

• Some important meetings for next week are March 10th CFF will convene the Time to Innovate Teachers meet with Amy Fry of Logical Choice and participate in the California Emerging Technology Fund's School 2 Home Design Team.

We NEED your participation to meet our annual board giving program goal of 100% if you have not sent in your pledge form and or check please consider doing so today (See Attached)
 

CFF Communities now includes a blog for CFF Activities Update, so be sure to join and authenticate yourself this week. Next week we will post the update on this site and we'll provide a link for your to review the posting.

Please read the instructions posted on the Innovation Wizard.

These instructions will guide you on how you can join CFF Communities and authenticate yourself to view the protected CFF Board Discussions.  Once authenticated, all of the board committee and working group discussions will be visible as a quick way for you to review the work of CFF.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information on these activities

Regards,
Bruce

Bruce Braciszewski, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Classroom of the Future Foundation
6401 Linda Vista Road, Room 205
San Diego, CA 92111
858.292.3686

 Here are a few CFF activities for your review:

• Rick Beach, Steve Clemons and Greg Ottinger met with Justin Cunningham, Superintendent, Bonsall School District to discuss a partnership to provide educational technology service to the school district teachers, students and parents. A visitation to Bonsall is planned for March 4th to continue the planning and determining a potential scope of services.

• This week (February 23rd-26th) I was attending the National Educational Broadband Services Association meeting and the Clearwire Educational Broadband Services Advisory Board on behalf of SDCOE.  Several of the item discussed at these meeting have implications for CFF program priorities, including:
• Mobile broadband has great potential for expanding resources for K-16 education and sessions topics covered FCC regulations regarding broadband deployment; mobile broadband educational applications; and emerging technologies.
• There was a major session on the broadband components of the economic stimulus package that includes $7.2 billion for the implementation and deployment of these services.  It was also pointed out that the Secretary of Education's Innovation Fund includes an additional $16 billion for programs that address improving student academic achievement in unique and innovative
  ways.
  

CFF Communities now includes a blog for CFF Activities Update, so be sure to join and authenticate yourself this week.

Please read the instructions posted on the Innovation Wizard.

These instructions will guide you on how you can join CFF Communities and authenticate yourself to view the protected CFF Board Discussions.  Once authenticated, all of the board committee and working group discussions will be visible as a quick way for you to review the work of CFF.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information on these activities

Regards,
Bruce

Here are a few CFF activities for your review:

• Rick and I assisted Amy Fryer, Logical Choice and Tom Kelly, Promethean to set-up a demonstration Promethean Interactive Board in the USS Midway model classroom.  The Board will be available for several months for the use by the Midway U educators in preparation for new classrooms currently under construction.

• I had a conference call with the U-T representatives for their cause marketing program with non-profits.  Colleen and I discussed this opportunity and I will be exploring next steps needed to participate in this marketing opportunity.  The CFF Marketing/Communications Committee will be involved in shaping this effort to enhance and expand the branding of CFF.

• I participated with the California Emerging Technology Fund's School2Home Sustainability Design Team conference call to explore a variety of funding sources to provide broadband connections for middle schools throughout California.  A series of recommendations will be developed to include in an implementation plan to connect schools and homes in these pilot middle schools.

• Ritz Sherman and I met to discuss the CFF Program Priorities and the next steps necessary to define school districts' needs as they relate to "Teacher Collaboration" and "One-to-One"  priorities.  Meetings will be organized with the CFF Program Committee and the school districts (Santee, Lemon Grove, Cajon Valley) to partner in developing this definition/description.

• Next week I will be attending the National Educational Broadband Services Association (NEBSA) session on the opportunities for educational applications via mobile broadband networks.

CFF Communities now includes a blog for CFF Activities Update, so be sure to join and authenticate yourself this week.

Please read the instructions posted on the Innovation Wizard.

These instructions will guide you on how you can join CFF Communities and authenticate yourself to view the protected CFF Board Discussions.  Once authenticated, all of the board committee and working group discussions will be visible as a quick way for you to review the work of CFF.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information on these activities

Regards,
Bruce

Here are a few highlights of CFF Activities for this week:

• The CFF Board has officially appointed Blake Miller, Cymer to the Board of Directors and we'll look forward to having him on the CFF Team. In 2008 Cymer provided $4,000.00 for two High Tech Academic Achievement Scholarship.

• ITV staff visited the Midway to plan for the May 14th CFF Event and to discuss the logistics and staging of the Innovation in Education Awards program with the Midway event representatives.

• The CFF Annual Event Working Group met on the Midway to finalize the program agenda and a downsized meal function while maintaining the high quality awards program enjoyed at previous CFF events.  The Working Group also suggested that we invite Kevin Johnson, Sacramento's first Black Mayor and former NBA star, as a speaker for the awards program.  Randy Ward will be asked to send the invitational letter to Mr. Johnson.

• I was appointed to the California Emerging Technology Fund's School2Home Sustainability Design Team to create recommendations on resources for broadband connection between schools and homes.  Other team members include: Devin Whitney, AeA; Joe Camicia, Chief of Staff, Office of State CIO; Rick Miller, Deputy Superintendent, Policy Development and External Affairs, CA Dept. of Education; Peter Birdsall Executive Director, Advocacy and Association Services; and Paul Lamb, Consultant, The Children's Partnership.

• Heather Lade, General Atomics, visited the JRRTC and toured the technology center and ITV in preparation for a grant proposal to be submitted to NASA to support a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiative with teachers, students, and the community.  CFF would be one of the project partners in the proposal and would facilitate the engagement of the TIME2INNOVATE teachers.

At the board meeting, Rick introduced the CFF Communities that we intend to use for board committees.  Please read the instructions posted on the Innovation Wizard.

These instructions will guide you on how you can join CFF Communities and authenticate yourself to view the protected CFF Board Discussions.  Once authenticated, all of the board committee and working group discussions will be visible as a quick way for you to review the work of CFF.

In the future the CFF Activities Updates will be located on the CFF Committees  for your review so be sure to join and authenticate yourself this week.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information on these activities.

Regards,
Bruce

Below are a few highlights from CFF activities this week.

• Rick Beach and I met with Heather Lade, GA Energy, Nancy Taylor, SDCOE Science Coordinator and Sara Hanscom, USS Midway Education Director to discuss the possibility of collaborating on a STEM type proposal to NASA for funding.  The NASA grant would assist in building the understanding and capacity of teachers and students in STEM programs.  This project would support CFF's data intensive science education program priority.

• Several CFF Board members (Tom, Colleen, Jeff, Rosanne, Rick, Debra and myself) visited Prospect Elementary School in Santee prior to the Board meeting on Feb. 5th to observe classroom demonstrations on project-based learning. This visitation was extremely helpful in understanding the value of project-based learning and its positive impact on students.  We were all impressed with the high level engagement of students in the learning process.

• The February 5th CFF Board of Directors meeting went well and the in-depth presentation on the Santee School District's vision for technology programs and project-based learning by Dr. Lis Johnson was very informative. The Board agreed to continue its support of these programs and especially the professional development plans.  On the topic of the CFF annual event it was agreed that a scaled down version of the program would be explored given the economic realities of sponsorships this year,

• Tom and I met with Frank Gomez, Superintendent, San Pasqual and Mark Burroughs, 5th grade teacher and Professional Development Coach at San Pasqual School.  The visitation included visiting several classrooms and observe the utilization of innovative teaching and learning. The school (K-8) has a 2:1 student/computer ratio and is utilizing the LemonLink online resources in all classrooms and the staff seems to have embraced this learning environment.  Jeff Felix was responsible for getting this ball rolling and it appears to really have taken hold.

• At the board meeting, Rick introduced the CFF Communities that we intend to use for board committees.  Please read the instructions posted on the Innovation Wizard blog at http://cs.classroomofthefuture.org/blogs/wizard/default.aspx  These instructions will guide you on how you can join CFF Communities and authenticate yourself to view the protected CFF Board Discussions.  Once authenticated, all of the board committee and working group discussions will be visible as a quick way for you to review the work of CFF.
  

Regards,
Bruce

 Below are a few highlights of CFF activities for your review:

• Tom Dillon and I met with Lori Finch and Terry Loftus of The San Diego Foundation to discuss the Organizational Success Program and CFF's accomplishments with the governance and development activities with our consultant Kerry Zurier.  We have submitted an implementation proposal to TSDF to continue the work on the plan.

• Steve Clemons, Rick Beach and I met with Tom Greaves, The Greaves Group to explore opportunities to create broadband connections for School to Home and mobile learning.

• Tom Dillon and I met with Lis Johnson, Superintendent, Santee School District and two Santee Board members to discuss CFF partnership with the district and to outline the Santee presentation for our Board meeting on February 5th.

• Blake Miller, Vice President, Cymer visited the Joe Rindone Regional Technology and toured the site to observe the capacity of SDCOE to deliver professional development and teacher training programs.  Blake is considering the opportunity to join the CFF Board.

Regards,
Bruce

Below are a few of the highlights of the CFF activities this week:

• The CFF Finance Committee met on Tuesday, January 20th at MFCU for a breakfast meeting (thanks to Debra Schwartz for hosting).  The Committee reviewed and modified its charter and will present it at the Board meeting next month.  Thanks also to the other committee members, Lora Duzyk, Tom Dillon and chair Laura Metzger.

• The CFF Executive Committee met on Thursday, January 22nd to discuss the agenda for the February 5th Board meeting; and committee update reports from Program, Finance, Nominations and the annual event.  There was also an important conversation regarding the fundraising challenges for the annual event given the current economic crisis.  It was noted that the Board would need to make a concerted effort to identify and recruit additional event sponsors this year in order to meet the fundraising goal.

• Todd and I met with Blake Miller, vice president, Marketing, Cymer to explore his interest in becoming a CFF Board member.  He agreed to visit the JRRTC for a tour and seriously consider participating with CFF as a board member.

• Next week schedule will include:  meeting with The San Diego Foundation (1.26); visitation to Lemon Grove and Cajon Valley School Districts with Qualcomm representatives (1.27); and lunch with the Santee Superintendent and the Santee Board president (1.30)

Regards,
Bruce

 Here are few highlight of CFF activities from this past week:

• The CFF Program Committee met on Wednesday, Jan. 14th to discuss the program priority descriptions and align them with the development plan. Goals, resources and timelines were discussed in general terms and the results have been posted as a online forum on the CFF Communities web site. Board members are encourage to review these materials and make suggestions as appropriate.

• CFF Event Host Committee has been finalized with the addition of Malin Burnham, Linden Blue and Mark Leslie.  They join Bill Geppart, Linda Lang, Ron Martin, Bob Barlow, Ed Wallace and Randy Ward to round out the group. Their names will be use on the event invitations and other promotional materials.

• Steve Clemons and I were guests on the SignOn Radio Community Spotlight program hosted by Drew Schlosberg.  We discussed the SDCOE technology efforts, educational technology issues and promoted the 2009 Innovation in Education - Commanding Innovative Excellence Award program scheduled for May 14, 2009 on the US Midway.

• Rick has posted the 2009 Innovation in Education awards nomination application on the CFF web site along with a FAQ information page.  The deadline for the nominations is March 16th.  The judging panel will meet and select the award recipients for the inspire, innovate. achieve and impact awards.

• Meeting schedule include:  CFF Finance Committee (Jan. 20th) and the CFF Executive Committee (Jan. 22nd).

Regards,
Bruce