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Texas Computer Education Association Receives $70,500 From Verizon to Expand Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers Using Thinkfinity.org

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 February 2009, 08:00 CST

Verizon's Thinkfinity.org Also Offers Free Educational Resources for Parents, Students and After-School Programs

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) has received a $70,500 grant from the Verizon Foundation to continue to raise teachers' awareness of the free educational resources available on Thinkfinity.org and to train teachers to use those resources.

With the grant, the Verizon Foundation has now invested $134,150 with the TCEA to provide innovative online resources and professional development for teachers throughout the state.

Thinkfinity.org is the Verizon Foundation's free, comprehensive Web site containing more than 55,000 educational resources, including standards-based, grade-specific, K-12 lesson plans, online educational games, videos and other materials provided in partnership with many of the nation's leading educational organizations.

Verizon's Thinkfinity.org offers elementary through high school teachers resources across eight academic disciplines, from science to English to mathematics, to improve student achievement. Thinkfinity.org is designed to help teachers gain access quickly to high-quality online resources.

"The partnership between TCEA and Verizon's Thinkfinity.org is an invaluable tool for educators in the state of Texas," said Joan Gore, interim executive director, TCEA. "TCEA is honored to be the recipient of this grant and will continue to provide Thinkfinity training throughout the state in the coming year. The opportunity to offer such excellent resources to improve educational achievement at no cost to educators is a gift to the students of Texas."

In addition to providing standards-based resources from the nation's leading educational organizations, Thinkfinity.org also offers a free, robust professional-development program for teachers and trainers.

Verizon's grant will be used to continue to:

• Provide professional development opportunities to classroom teachers, pre-service teachers and college of education faculty statewide through on-site training.
• Provide access to Thinkfinity.org resources aligned to state standards to educators and students through the TCEA's Web site at http://www.tcea.org/Training/TrainingPartners/Thinkfinity/Pages/default.aspx.
• Raise awareness of Thinkfinity.org resources and professional development opportunities to educators statewide.

"Our world is continually changing, and with the continuous updates and expansion of Thinkfinity.org, teachers throughout Texas have quick access to a constant flow of new educational materials," said Carl E. Erhart, Verizon president-public policy and external affairs, Southwest and Great Lakes region. "We are proud to partner with the Texas Computer Education Association to bring these resources to the teachers and students of Texas for free."

Content for 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, the International Reading Association, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Center for Family Literacy, National Council on Economic Education, 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 Texas Computer Education Association is one of the largest state organizations devoted to the use of technology in education. Founded in 1980, the organization has grown to more than 9,000 members and has been a leader in supporting instructional technology throughout Texas and the nation. TCEA's primary focus is integrating technology into the PreK-12 environment and providing its members with state-of-the-art information. For information about TCEA, visit www.tcea.org.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 80 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 224,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

SOURCE Verizon

Source: PR Newswire

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