News: NYC School News, Giveaways, Physics Computer Games, and More

To celebrate the official beginning of summer, this week we are doing a huge Summer Kick-off Giveaway with great prizes. Some of the prizes we'll be giving away are passes to NYC area amusement and water parks, and an amazing catered dinner for ten! What could be a better way to start your summer. The first giveaway will be posted later today and more giveaways will be posted through out the week, so check back in and don't miss out.

In other news,read on to hear about changes to the NYC public school schedule for next year, teachers who are paid to do nothing, a col new website from the parks department, more deals, a computer program that teaches physics in a fun way and a fun way to learn about New York's Dutch history. Enjoy.

NYC School News: An AP story floated around the web this week about NYC's "rubber rooms" where teachers who have been taken out of the classroom for any reason are paid to just show up an sit in a room, possibly for years until their case can be resolved. This situation is due to union rules which guarantee the teachers' jobs and costs NYC $65 million a year. [via Huffington Post]

Another negotiation between the DOE and the teachers' union has added one more day to summer vacation. NYC public schools will start on September 9th, 2009 and the school year will end on June 28th, a few days later than usual.

Cool Site: NYC Parks Department has a new ParKids NYC website where kids can learn about nature, become citizen scientists in the parks, and find upcoming events.

Deal: In deference to the current economy, the Queens Museum of Art is having a Non-Gala fundraiser this year in leu of their annual fundraising dinner. As part of the event, they are hosting a unique "auction" where you bid by sending them and email, tweet or otherwise contacting them on Tuesday, June 30th to win World's Fair Memorabilia and other swag. In other words, it sounds like a fun giveaway. Check it out here.

Off the Beaten Track: Learn about old Dutch Nieuw Amsterdam in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's Exploration of the Hudson River with a free downloadable audio walking tour of the Nieuw Amsterdam Trail.

Educational Fun: Kids can learn basic principles of physics playing Crayon Physics, a game where you draw shapes to make a ball move to hit a star. The game exists as an iPhone/iPod app also, but there's a similar game with a free version called Touch Physics. Another free physics computer game you can play online is Fantasic Contraption, where you build simple machines to try to move a pink wheel into a pink square.

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AP Photo/Courtesy Judith Cohen