Arizona

Just wanted to give a shout out to two amazing DEN members from N. Arizona. April Weston is the Navajo County TIS and Deena Jorgenson is a Title I Math Teacher for Blue Ridge. Together, they coordinated the DEN Virtual Event on Saturday at Blue Ridge HS Library. A sucessful event with satisfied participants was  due to the cooperation of these two DEN members. Many thanks from the rest of the AZ DEN and teachers new to Discovery Education - you two rock! Vicki

You are invited:  DEN Virtual Conference

Saturday, October 24, 2009

6:00AM – 6:00PM (anytime in between)

10 hours PD credit is available (free) 

A local group of educators is meeting face-to-face for collaboration and to enjoy food provided by Discovery Education, but you may also work at home online with your personal internet connection. 

Meet the group: Blue Ridge High School Library   

Register for this face-to-face connection:   IDEAL link   (under construction - look at IDEAL PD page, please)

Please honor your commitment to attend if you register – food is ordered based on the registration count, thank you.  

Another link for the f2f meeting is  https://lrougeux.wufoo.com/forms/den-fall-virtual-conference-pinetop-az/ 

Stay tuned for more information about earning 10 PD hours for the completion of a lesson plan specific to this conference.I will be out of the office Oct 12 - 19, but another active DEN member, April Weston can give you more information. April.Weston@navajocountyaz.gov

You may also register to particpate in this event in your home with your personal internet connection.

Whew, the Day of Discovery for Administrators at SkySong was a success in every measure of the word. Over 100 eager participants joined us for a day of presentations by Philippe Cousteau, Hall Davidson, Brad Hagaman, Justin Karkow, Rosie Escandon and Sarah Crawford. Welcomes and introductions came from Margaret Dugan and Cathy Poplin from ADE, and Mark Nichols from ASU Alt^i/IDEAL. An audience of 35 in Tucson was able to join us for many of the presentations via communications equipment generously provided by PolyCom.  

Break out sessions provided specific focus on techniques and tools available to educators; all of them designed to engage students, use standards based resources, and employ multiple learning modalities. The audience was actively involved in each workshop and there was never a shortage of volunteers for answers and examples. That enthusiasm carried through the beginning of this week with a flurry of e-mails asking for presentation copies, administrative rights for DE Streaming, student access, tutorials for IDEAL resources, and requests for more workshops.

Members of the DEN Leadership Council and Arizona’s Technology Integration Specialists were on hand to assist with directions and connections.

Students at Mesa Academy for Advanced Studies and Yavapai Elementary School were treated to an assembly featuring Philippe Cousteau on Thursday. On Thursday evening, Discovery also hosted a VIP reception at Eddie V’s.

AZ DEN LC would like to thank the Discovery team, IDEAL, ADE and PolyCom for providing our administrators with the opportunity to share the resources their teachers have been raving about!

Photos included in the Flickr photostream reflect all of these events.

Were you there? Can you find your picture? Click HERE to view the photos.

Big thanks to IDEAL & Dept of Ed, Discovery, CCS Presentation Systems, Polycom,  Lindsay Hopkins (Discovery Rep), and all the many who helped coordinate and get this event happening.

The Tucson event was hosted by the generous people of CCS Presentation Systems, who not only had a LifeSize screen to show the morning speakers, but allowed us to use four SMARTBoards for our afternoon digital storytelling project.  We had 35 administrators and lead teachers attend the event and leave very excited about getting their staff to maximize all the Discovery and IDEAL resources.  Their enthusiasm has the phone ringing off the hook and email inboxes chiming in AZ technology integration specialist offices.

For the morning, we used donated PolyCom equipment to stream Margaret Dugan and Cathy Poplin of the Department of Education; Mark Nichols of IDEAL/ASU, Phillipe Cousteau and Hall Davidson.  After a grand assortment of Tucson Tamales, we enjoyed “Beyond the Stream” done Lindsay Hopkins-style.  What an outstanding presenter!  We had so much fun and loved to see the participants taking breaks to play and explore the DEN and the rest of Discovery.  After the “Stream” administrators finally got their turn to do some of the Digital Storytelling we are always talking about.  Lindsay facilitated their PhotoStory “advertisements” and “virtual visit” creations using images from the day.  What fun!

We do regret we did not getting to rub shoulders with the “Talent” of Discovery en vivo, but  having such a spectacular facility (especially for gadget-lovers) and a more intimate situation, made for great Discovery experience.

Thanks again to everyone.  Excellent job!

 Greetings,

It was exciting to meet so many of you at the Day of Discovery event at Cartwright last February. The feedback we received was phenomenal and it was a truly engaging event made even better by a group of enthusiastic educators.

A similar event, but this time geared for administrators, is happening on Friday, Aug 28^th at ASU’s SkySong and we are writing to ask for your help in getting the word out.  You are the “face” of DE in Arizona and perhaps you told your administrator about the value of your experience at Day of Discovery.  

Please personally invite your school administrator to the Day of Discovery for Administrators presentation, “Discover the Undiscovered:  Administrator’s Pathways.”

On August 28th, from 9:00am - 3:30pm, members of the DEN LC and the DE Team including Phillipe Cousteau and Hall Davidson will be revealing the new DEstreaming and administrator resources to your superintendents, principals and curriculum directors.  They will be introduced to the new face and functionality of the Discovery environment (that you have learned about in the DEN Back to School webinars).

You may print out the attached flier for your administrative team. A personal invitation or conversation is even better.  Please note that the registration link is at the bottom of the attached flier. Admin_flier

Tim Johnson was part of the AZ crew in San Francisco this summer and captured our imagination with his camera and photography skills. He’s sent us a time-lapse video link to his posting on YouTube. Many of his scenic shots echoed the themes on the DEN Flickr page (but with his camera’s exquisite quality and Tim’s practiced eye), so I’m taking the liberty of posting my favorites below -

This raccoon was missing his tail - perhaps left behind in a dumpster or slammed in one of the doors he frequently entered. Boldly appearing in the kitchen of the Sunset building, he could not easily be coaxed to leave. The next morning, he coyly posed in one of the beautiful meadows between the beach and the lagoon. (Could have been a “she”) Tim also knew the secrets of the tides and sent these shots of the underwater creatures that few others were able to see. Many thanks, Tim!

More than seventy DEN Star educators were excited to meet at the Headlands Institute in San Francsico for a week of collaboration using Web 2.0 tools. We bunked in single bed dorms (60 beds), ate exquisite food and plumped up our complexions in the foggy air. We were able to integrate the best of the best from Discovery in poster sessions, workshops, AmeriDEN Idol presentations and just some plain old f2f networking at meals, beachwalks, and cell signal searches! Arizona was fortunate to have four educators chosen to attend: Alexa Flores-Hull, Tim Johnson, Judy King, and me; Vicki Schmitt. I’ve asked them all to contribute photos and reflections here. My favorite sites were GoogleEarth, Glogster and WikiSpaces, but I’m exploring Prezi  and Xtranormal (please remember to look for the educator versions). For shared photos, links, wikis - search your favorite 2.0 tools using “DENNI” (for DEN National Institute - but I’ve discovered someone has a cute new baby named “Denni” so you may need to add “09″ “2009″ or “SF” (San Francisco) For some unknown reason, you’ll find 100+ shots of the Golden Gate Bridge as seen from our Tuesday trolley tour. Personally, I like the Flickr photos of the sourdough bread shapes from Boudin’s, group photos of us in matching shirts and hats (I kept thinking of the “Madeline” stories). Alexa (Lexi) contributed the photos below and I hope we hear from Tim & Judy soon.

We are back from NECC and the DEN Leadership Council Symposium inspired and ready to Share! (Mouse over text to link to references)

The DEN brings together so many distinguished educators to meet and mind-mash with; those who have done great things like taken students on Discovery Student Adventures to Australia, South Africa, and China (see highlights); Discovery leaders who are ready to share and willing to travel to us in order to facilitate our events and lend their expertise for the cause of  inspiring teachers and administrators to capitalize on the benefits of using technology and Discovery resources in classrooms; teachers who have used technology to turn around approaches to learning for the great benefit of their students.  (Check out Carol Ann McGuire, Outstanding ISTE teacher for 2008 and her Rock Our World project). It is easy to see how the power of the DEN benefits all of us.

At the symposium, we realized how lucky we are in Arizona to have the state treating us to the Discovery subscription.  We are one of the rare states that provides this resource, while teachers elsewhere are bound by their district or site’s willingness to subscribe.  I encourage everyone to show the state how valuable it is to our students’ learning, make the most of all the resources, and encourage that in your colleagues.  Matt Monjan has a great presentation on the administrative analytic feature of Discovery that allows school leaders to see how and how often teachers are using the various resources in Discovery.   You will love his Geekybird site. This is a great tool for approaching administrators about encouraging more use of Discovery and evaluating what tools teachers are using to deepen student learning.  Be sure to get your school leaders to the Administrative Event:  Discover the Undiscovered, Administrative Pathways at Skysong on August 28th.  Rumor has it there will be “Camera Talent” (that means TV stars) and Hall Davidson will be the Keynote and breakout session leader.  We are hoping to do a simulcast from a Tucson location for those of you closer to the Old Pueblo.
A reminder to keep checking on the upcoming Webinars and share them with everyone you know.  There will be a preview to the new site on July 14 & 28th and Justin Karkow’s outstanding presentation on “Thinking Outside the Slide” is on August 3rd, 8-9.

I’ve been trying to participate in the LC Symposiums via googledocs and Mogulus feed. Not quite the same as being there (lucky Rosy, Lillian & Emily), but I learn something anyway. Look for future DEN events to be linked here via google calendar (one of the new tips).  Looks like Tim, Judy, Alexa and I will represent Arizona in the upcoming DEN Institute in San Fran Headlands during the second week of July. Watch for our postings here, too.

Do you communicate with your administrators about your  of DE in the classroom? We’d like to have more active admin use the resources and tools and to that end, we have a special session setup for admin in DE on the tentative date of August 28. Please talk it up to your principal, tech director, curriculum director, librarian, etc., whoever it is that will “manage” your site’s DE settings. Those settings include the “sharing” option which has become very popular. You’ll soon see a registration link for this event in IDEAL Announcements.

Another very popular event has been the webinar previews of the new face of DE. Wow! So many new features - much like the best shopping sites (with personal preferences) that are available online. Did you schedule yourself for a preview? The new “face” is expected to be revealed July 2.  Try this link to register.

As the National Geocaching event approaches, I post this video of the fun had in

Tucson during our DEN day of educational geocaching so as to share the fun.  Join us!

Two notes:

1.  I love the Media Share capabilities in the DEN. I love that it has so much storage. I love that so many people are using it and populating it with great resources. I love that it enables me to easily create a link. I love that it gives embed coded that we can paste into Google Earth or our blogs and get a video linked. Good stuff!  –I just wish I could figure out why embedding code makes the page all crazy re-formatted???

2.  If anyone would like cute flyers to advertise a Geocaching event you are doing, please send me a note and if I get a chance I will post it to the blog beforehand.