In a recent ASCD newsletter, there was an article entitled, “Why Educators Should Teach Students How to Fail.” The premise of the article was that “students should be allowed to experience failure and rejection, so they can learn resiliency and become more motivated to succeed.” Yes, we have to learn how to deal with a [...]
Discovery Education Helps Students Search for the “Big Ones” “Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. [...]
One of my favorite blogs is “Free Technology for Teachers” by Mark Byrne. Everyday he shares an interesting tool or classroom resource. He also explains how the tool may be useful in an educational setting. For example, today (9/21) there is a 5-minute video posted explaining the Aurora Borealis and vocabulary building resources and widgets. While perusing other [...]
The Discovery Education Summer School last week was a wonderful opportunity to get fired up for the new school year! A big “shout out” to all the people involved… “Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and time.” In Dedham, MA, we had a group of eight people participate for the four days. It was [...]
After the deluge of rain and tornadoes in the New England area this spring, on June 2, the Massachusetts DEN LC had a beautiful spring day for their visit to the South Shore Natural Science Center (SSNSC) in Norwell, MA. We had 20 educators, LC members and future STARS share a guided tour of the [...]
Join the DEN MA LC for a special free event… South Shore Natural Science Center 48 Jacobs Lane Norwell, MA Thursday, June 2, 2011 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm Come see what’s hot and new in natural science educational programs at the Science Center. • Experience a springtime tour of the facility with one of [...]
Edutopia, which is sponsored by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, has an engaging new teacher guide that can help teachers design and assess project-based learning. The Top 10 Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning is a colorful PDF you download at the site. The tips are organized to follow the progression of a project. First comes the planning, then the [...]
Scratch Educator Meetup Open to All Boston-Area Educators Saturday, April 16 10AM – 1PM MIT Media Lab Create and Share Your Own Interactive Stories, Games, Music and Art Come learn about Scratch, a free programming environment created by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. With Scratch, young people can create interactive stories, [...]
Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 Can Help You Visualize Mathematical Concepts Microsoft Math 4.0 is a free download and features a large collection of tools, tutorials, and instructions designed to help you tackle math and science problems quickly and easily. “With Microsoft Mathematics, students can learn to solve equations step-by-step while gaining a better understanding of fundamental [...]
… Cause this book is going to be a good book … The Ocoee Middle School really knows how to “rock with a book.” These students inspire literacy in a really big way. Enjoy and share their creativity.
Looking for a way to entice students into the field of engineering? Take a look at the “eGFI” website, “Engineering… Go for it!” The website, blog, and newsletters are created by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). After sending out the Discovery Education information about the STEM resources webinar to my district, I saw [...]
Have you always wanted history to come alive for your students? Try kicking off the French Revolution with a musical video parody of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” That is exactly what two teachers from Hawaii have been doing. Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona put history to music and then create a video to entice students [...]
Don’t all of you just love working with teachers who are always willing to try new ways to engage their students? One of those teachers from my District is Shannon Findley, grade 4 teacher at the Riverdale Elementary School in Dedham, MA. Her students reflect her enthusiasm and passion for learning and sharing. When [...]
In this age of information overload, I often bookmark articles I don’t have time to read. While doing a little computer housekeeping, I ran across a link to “A Dose of School Pride and Critical Thinking” from www.letsredu.com dated August 30, 2010. Having no recollection of why I bookmarked this site, I had to read [...]
A recent Boston Globe article in the “Surfing the Net with Kids” series included links to help teach the “how’s” and “why’s” of copyright law. ”Copyright, intellectual property, fair use, and public domain are not subjects reserved for lawyers and corporate publishers. Every student … needs to understand the basics of what can and cannot [...]
A New Way to Lecture: Using Web 2.0 to Create Interactive Lectures http://issuu.com/mzimmer557/docs/a_new_way_to_lecture …a great 12-page publication with ideas on the use of new and favorite Web 2.0 tools to support teaching and learning
The Dell S300WI, a new Dell projector that is a perfect solution for an interactive classroom environment. Watch this brief 2-3 minute video for a quick demonstration of its capabilities. The Dell S300wi Interactive Projector lets you project on any surface and turn that surface into an Interactive White Board. The Interactive Pen’s technology allows you [...]
There are many excellent resources for teaching about 9/11. Discovery Education Streaming: Search “September 11″ The top resource is a “Theme page” about September 11 “featuring resources selected and created by Discovery Education’s curriculum experts, this theme page offers teacher’s guides, video clips, and more.” “America Attacked: 9/11″ — Awesome Stories Background information, video, audio [...]
All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a Division of Discovery Communications LLC. Discovery Educator Network is a service of Discovery Education. Copyright © 2007 Discovery Education.