Alabama

I copied this in case you don’t always check the national blog. Try to catch one of these seminars. Personally, I can’t wait to see the changes to the Student Center.

STAR Streaming Update Webinar 

Discovery Education is excited to announce many new GREAT additions coming your way to streaming! This includes the long awaited and asked for Student Center where your students will have ability to log on and download media, better correlation with your state standards, more refined search, an update builders and my content, not to mention that the base package has increased to 5,000 titles!

To learn more about the these updates, please join us for a STAR Streaming Update overview by logging on to one of the webinars on Thursday, June 26th listed below.

For additional questions please contact Jannita at Jannita_Demian@discovery.com

Hope to see you there!

STAR Streaming Update
11:30 am, PDT or 2:30 EDT
Click here to join. No registration or password required: https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed/onstage/g.php?d=556861250&t=a

STAR Streaming Update
12:30 pm, PDT or 3:30 EDT
Click here to join. No registration or password required: https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed/onstage/g.php?d=556636663&t=a

STAR Streaming Update
3:30 pm, PDT or 6:30 EDT
Click here to join. No registration or password required: https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed/onstage/g.php?d=556875536&t=a

Discovery Education’s Scott Kinney was the keynote speaker at Shelby County’s Tech Fest ‘08. What an excellant speaker! If you ever get the chance to hear him, do it. He kept things lively by including the audience with the help of personal response devices. As he was showing some video clips from Discovery’s collection, he would pause, ask a quick question, and give the audience a few seconds to respond. It was so funny to see adults scrambling to try and make sure they were giving a correct answer. The audience loved it. You could hear laughter mixed with groans as the correct answer was revealed.

Scott was so lively and entertaining. Mix that with the wonderful videos available from United Streaming and you know what a good time the Shelby County’s teachers were having. (Remember Alabama teachers, APT Plus provides you with United Streaming. Just go to APT Plus and login to begin using all of their vast library and tools. They have videos, clips, images, songs, articles, sound effects, speeches, quizzes, writing prompts, lesson plans, clip art, and more. Check them out. You will be amazed!)

I wish I was the quality writer that could portray in writing just how really good Scott was. Can you tell I am just one of the many fans Scott now has here in Alabama?

Scott come back anytime. We would love it.

Have you seen Discovery Education’s Atlas? It is an interactive map based on the Discovery Channel’s landmark Atlas series. It has exclusive clips from that series and thousands of videos about countries ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Go to United Steaming. (Remember here in Alabama,  go through APT Plus. They are paying for United Streaming for all the educators in our state. Thank you APT Plus!) Click on Discovery Atlas Interactive Map on the right hand side of the page. Then, click Launch Atlas. Choose any country from the drop down list and then click any of the four topics to see your available clips on that topic. Be careful! This can be addictive. I found myself looking at countries all over the world. Very interesting.

We know there are some wonderful teachers in Alabama and we want you to join with us. Just go to http://community.discoveryeducation.com/about/become_discovery_educator and watch the short video about the benefits of joining and complete the registration. You might then want to consider becoming a STAR Discovery Educator. We look forward to you joining our DEN!

WHEN?  Tuesday, January 15th at 4 p.m. SLT (that would be 6 p.m. CST )

‘Get a Life, a Second Life That Is!’ is a webinar aimed at educators who would like to learn more about Second Life and how this virtual world can contribute to your PLN (Personal/Professional Learning Network).  Brand new to Second Life?  Join us!!!  Thinking about entering Second Life?  Join us!!!  Never heard of Second Life?  Join us!!!  Although ‘veteran’ SLers are welcome, the webinar will be covering the basics of Second Life (how to create an account, etc.) and opportunities that abound for educators in-world.

We hope to see many of you in-world after the webinar and as such I would STRONGLY suggest that IF you THINK you MIGHT want to see what Second Life is all about, please download the client (FREE) and sign up (also FREE) PRIOR to January 15th.  You’ll find all the information for this in the Google Groups in the ^Files^ section.  The document is called ‘Creating an Account in SL’.  And of course, if you have ANY questions about downloading the client and signing up, please let us know and we’ll guide you along.

You can register for the WebEx HERE.

Sign up for this wonderful connection with Daniel Pink. If you don’t know Daniel’s work, be sure to check out the excerpts from his new book, A Whole New Mind. You will want the book for yourself and the young people you know. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Daniel Pink, bestselling author of A WHOLE NEW MIND, will describe how three powerful economic forces are putting a premium on right-brain abilities in the workforce. He’ll describe the six artistic, empathic abilities that now matter most — and discuss how educators are beginning to surface and sharpen those abilities in students.

Daniel is a contributing editor at Wired, where he has written about topics ranging from grassroots solar power to the rise of Wikipedia to the economics of creativity. His articles on business, technology, and economic transformation have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other publications.

A popular speaker, Dan lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world. He’s provided analysis on dozens of television and radio broadcasts -including CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” ABC’s “World News Tonight,” NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and American Public Media’s “Marketplace.” And as an independent business consultant, he’s advised start-up ventures and Fortune 100 companies on recruiting, business trends, and work practices.

RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/2y6f9c

Welcome to Alabama’s DEN blog. We are so happy about having this exciting way to share resources, ideas, and learning opportunities. We the help of Discovery Educators Network, we have a way to provide statewide professional development activities, regular updates, and a way to network using our blog.

The Alabama Leadership Council currently has five members and we are looking for others to expand our team.  Team members include:

• Faith Pack, Leadership Chair
• Lee Hall, Blog Coordinator
• Joan Greene, Events Coordinator
• Leslie Cash, Events Team
• Sharon Sizemore, Events Team

 We would welcome your participation! If you are interested in joining our team, please leave a comment on this blog.

Please consider subscribing to our blog by RSS or by email. You can see the subscription links in the upper right side of your screen.

 We put together a short presentation using Slideshare to introduce ourselves. We hope you enjoy it.

If you have any dificulties seeing the full picture, click on the word View below the picture and it will open in another window.