Another school year is almost here, and the MOUSE Squad calendar is already filling up with exciting events for all you NYC MOUSE Squad Members and Coordinators! A sneak preview of what’s to come includes:

• September 25: Get this school year off to a great start with the UnPlugged Kickoff Event: Maker Faire! Join MOUSE Squads from throughout the city for a day of DIY (that's Do-It-Yourself) technology, science, and crafts--check out inventions, experiments, and more on everything from sustainable living to robots. Stay tuned for updates and registration coming soon on the Wire.

• October 22: Get ready, coordinators: it’s Coordinator-Con! Join MOUSE Squad Coordinators from across NYC for a half-day of training and planning, tutorials on the 2010 MOUSE Squad updates, and brainstorming of best practices and implementation for the new school year. This event will feature sample lessons, games, and walk-throughs of web tools. Don’t miss out--stay tuned for registration announcements on the Wire!

• October 27: If you missed out on Coordinator-Con, you’ll still have the chance to get some great training in early in the school year with the Coordinator Orientation Webinar. Keep an eye out for details on the Wire about how to call in.

• November 6 (with overflow registration meeting Nov. 13): Team Training is back! Team Training is a fun, full day of techie games, team-building activities, and pizza with your team, designed to get you ready to tackle Certification and get your student help desk up to speed. You’ll also get a sneak peek at what’s in store for MOUSE Squad this year, from new features on the website to upcoming events! Pre-registration will be required, stay tuned on the Wire for more details.

Keep an eye out for site updates, too: You may have also noticed some changes around here. With the new student profiles, you can upload a picture of yourself and write an “About Me,” and you can also keep track of all the work you’ve done on mousesquad.org on your Activity Wall. And if that wasn’t enough, now you can also rack up Wins! by writing blog posts, completing quizzes and Blog-Its! in the Certification Curriculum, closing cases in CaseTracker, and more!

Here’s hoping you all had a great summer--and are ready for another fantastic year of MOUSE Squad!

If you are a MOUSE Squad Coordinator and you haven’t yet renewed your squad’s membership from last year, email join@mouse.org or go to www.mousesquad.org/join to renew your membership. Deadline to renew is September 30.