Required info includes:

• Session title
• Session type
• Clear and catchy description (PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR CONTACT INFO)
• URL: This can be the Presenter’s name(s) & email – [This is in the Extended Field section]

Are you interested in presenting at the PreCon Day of Discovery at PETE&C or participating in the Educator Showcase Poster session? *We are now accepting ideas and proposals. Just go to: links.discoveryeducation.com/petec12submit and follow the simple instructions below.

*Submissions deadline for Educator Showcase extended through Monday, February 6th, 2012. 

Do you live within a few hours of New York City?  Are you looking for a great reason to head to the Big Apple?  Discovery Education is hosting an event in New York City on Saturday, November 19.  As part of our Discovery Education Wilkes University Instructional Media Program we are hosting several events around the country to raise awareness and answer questions about the program for prospective students.

The event in NYC is very special and features our own Steve Dembo.  So, if you are interested or have colleagues who would like to attend, learn more about the DE Wilkes Masters Program and have a lot of fun on a Saturday morning, please take a look at the info below.  It’s totally FREE!  I hope to see you there.

Discover Your Future then Explore the Past

Join Discovery Education and Wilkes University for the Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times exhibition

Register for this free day at Discovery Times Square at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1895773309

Saturday, November 19, 2011
10:00am – 12:00pm
(registration begins at 9:30am)
Breakfast provided by Cake Boss Cafe

All attendees will receive one complimentary pass to Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times (valid only November 19, 2011).

Keynote Speaker - Steve Dembo

The Perpetual Learning Machine: Professional Development Through Community

Discovery Times Square
226 W 44th Street
(Between Broadway & 8th Avenues)
New York, NY 10036

Register today at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1895773309

DEN STARS should register for the pre-conference here: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/petec2012

The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is pleased to present a special full-day pre-conference event. The day will provide educators with an exciting and enriching day of professional development focused on creative and effective ways to use digital media in the classroom.
This year’s thematic sessions will help you answer the following questions:

• How do I engage my students with content and resources that interest them while maintaining a focus on my instructional goals and standards?
• How can I transform my instructional practices to take my students beyond the classroom walls?
• How do I help my students achieve in the context of 21st century student outcomes? And, how do I measure their success?

Why should you attend?

• Customize your own schedule as you select three breakout sessions out of nearly a dozen choices that match your specific interests and needs.
• Mix and match your session choices or focus on a particular topic including Digital Storytelling, Instructional Leadership, and STEM.
• Learn from Discovery Education’s experts including our DEN Gurus.
• See over 25 examples of what other educators are doing in their classrooms during our interactive lunch and learn session.
• Meet this year’s PETE&C keynote speaker, Reed Timmer, TVN lead storm chaser and meteorologist from Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers.

Participants will have multiple sessions to choose from including the following featured sessions:

iThink iNeed iPads in the Classroom
with Steve Dembo
Sure they’re bright and shiny, but are they really learning devices? We’ll take a close look at how exactly these technologies are being leveraged in the classroom and what the best Apps are for educational purposes. We’ll also explore some creative ways that you can fund your own i-initiative!

Taking Leadership in the Digital Age: Linking Engagement, Assessment & Achievement
with Hall Davidson
The benefits of the digital world have arrived. State legislatures recognized dynamic teaching and assessment environments match 21st Century learning styles. As a result, laws changed in states across the country, enabling digital supplementary materials to replace traditional texts. Suddenly, differentiated instruction became more effective, along with accountability and sharing. Leaders can now build an education that lifts their students into the world where they succeed.

The Collective Brain (AKA Things I’ve Learned from 5,000 Teachers)
with Lance Rougeux
Leverage the power of community and learn effective ways to engage and inspire your students. During this session we will explore the ten latest, greatest and most effective resources and strategies shared by teachers of the Discovery Educator Network. You’ll leave the session with a ton of new ideas, tools and resources to start using tomorrow in your classroom.

Creating an Integrated STEM Curriculum
with Patti Duncan
Historically, the STEM concepts of science, technology, engineering and math have been taught independently of each other. Students travel from class to class with little understanding of the connection between each and struggle with making the connections. Being able to solve real world problems is a skill that requires the ability to see how these concepts work together. By creating lessons that integrate the concepts together we expose students to situations that help them develop problem-solving skills. During this session we will explore examples of integrated lessons as well as investigate how to turn traditional lessons into ones that help build our critical thinkers of tomorrow.

Lunch will be provided. Registration for this full-day pre-conference event is limited so save your spot now:

http://links.discoveryeducation.com/petec2012

Note: This event is free for STAR Discovery Educators.
STAR Discovery Educators should contact Max_Brooks@Discovery.com for more details.

Fall Virtual Conference: “Jersey STARS” are inviting you to join us for a day of professional development and networking as we “Tech or Treat” with the Discovery Educator Network.

Participants Will Leave With:

-Deep exploration of the rich variety of digital content available within Discovery Education.

-Integration strategies and exemplar learning experiences to bring digital content alive in your classroom and engage students across the curriculum.

-Thorough exposure to a wealth of professional development resources including continuous support through the Discovery Educator Network.

Breakfast treats will be provided.

Saturday, Oct 22, 2011 8:30am to 1pm

Location: Jerothia Riggs Center, Training Room 1656 Kaighns Ave. Camden, NJ

(One block from the famous PUB restaurant on the Airport Circle.)

Laptops will be provided , so you can just bring yourself in casual mode .

Contact Person: Lynnette Criner(NJ LC Events Coordinator) – lcriner@camden.k12.nj.us

Register Today: https://lrougeux.wufoo.com/forms/fall-virtcon-2011-tech-or-treat-in-so-jersey/ 

More Information: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2011/10/03/fall-virtcon-2011-tech-or-treat/ 

In the final stretch of the DEN Membership Season, who will take home the coveted DEN MVP jerseys?  For most places, the game is down to the wire, but in some states and provinces, the field is wide open!  I don’t want to totally give it away, so if you happen live in a place that RHYMES with one below, report your points and you might win the jersey for your state or province!

Get started today!  To report your events, score points, and claim your spot in the Discovery Educator Network Hall of Fame,  visit

http://links.discoveryeducation.com/DENbts2011

http://stacykasse.posterous.com/

Walking the Walk…Talking the Talk

 

 

 

Whenever parents ask me what they can do to find out what is going on in their child’s life, I always suggest they go for a walk. Just the two of them. Not a drive, too many distractions, not a shopping trip, but a walk..just around the block.

 
This year I decided to “walk the walk” and do what I had always suggested. Each day I have a Student of the Day. That student does almost all the jobs in our classroom from passing out papers to answering the phone to running errands, but this year I added something more. At the end of lunch, the student of the day comes to the staff room to get me and the two of us go off for a short walk around our school’s parking lot.I could have done this in the classroom, but that’s still “my” turf. I wanted a neutral ground, and I also wanted to stress a bit of exercise as talked.

 
To say this has been successful is an understatement. From the minute a little hand grabs mine (the girls always do this), the talking begins. My first question of “what did you do this summer” segues  to “what is your favorite subject? what do you want to work on this year” and “how is it going? Is anyone bothering you? Any problems you want to tell me?”
The walk is over before I even know it, and my little munchkin goes running to the recess field where the questions come flying, “What did you talk about?” Even if they don’t share it with the other students, they have shared with me, and as I walk another lap around the parking lot, I reflect on what was said.

 
When the weather turns cold, I may have to change my plans, but for now, this “walking the walk, and talking the talk” is one of the best ideas I’ve come up with this year.

What are your thoughts?

The Classroom Is Obsolete: It’s Time for Something New

Published Online: July 29, 2011
By Prakash Nair

The overwhelming majority of the nearly 76 million students in America’s schools and colleges spend most of the academic day in classrooms. That’s a problem because the classroom has been obsolete for several decades. That’s not just my opinion. It’s established science.

The debate over education reform has been going on for longer than anyone can remember. Relegated previously to arguments between policy wonks, questions about how we should reform our nation’s schools have now entered the public consciousness in a very real way. The global financial crisis and our economic woes have collided with increased mainstream coverage of our failing educational system. The Obama administration has joined the chorus of critics and rolled out numerous reform measures.

Lost in all this hand-wringing is the most visible symbol of a failed system: the classroom. Almost without exception, the reform efforts under way will preserve the classroom as our children’s primary place of learning deep into the 21st century. This is profoundly disturbing because staying with classroom-based schools could permanently sink our chances of rebuilding our economy and restoring our shrinking middle class to its glory days.

The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills. Classroom-based education lags far behind when measured against its ability to deliver the creative and agile workforce that the 21st century demands. This is already evidenced by our nation’s shortage of high-tech and other skilled workers—a trend that is projected to grow in coming years.

The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills.

As the primary place for student learning, the classroom does not withstand the scrutiny of scientific research. Each student “constructs” knowledge based on his or her own past experiences. Because of this, the research demands a personalized education model to maximize individual student achievement. Classrooms, on the other hand, are based on the erroneous assumption that efficient delivery of content is the same as effective learning.

Environmental scientists have published dozens of studies that show a close correlation between human productivity and space design. This research clearly demonstrates that students and teachers do better when they have variety, flexibility, and comfort in their environment—the very qualities that classrooms lack.

At this point in the lecture, someone always raises his or her hand and declares: “But the open classroom experiment of the ’70s was a dismal failure!” Let me reassure you that I’m not talking about simply substituting open areas for classrooms. I’m talking about a way to design schools that closely follows instructional needs. This new model does not dispense with direct or large-group instruction. Instead, it provides opportunities for traditional teaching to seamlessly connect with many other modes of learning. Simply put, it is form following function, not function (unsuccessfully) following form.

Let’s look at how the development of a new or renovated school project might evolve if we did it right. We would open discussions with our education stakeholders, who include students, teachers, parents, administrators, community residents, business leaders, higher education partners, and elected officials. From these discussions, we would develop a set of key principles for design.

The following is a fairly universal list of education design principles for tomorrow’s schools, though it would be tailored to the needs of particular communities: (1) personalized; (2) safe and secure; (3) inquiry-based; (4) student-directed; (5) collaborative; (6) interdisciplinary; (7) rigorous and hands-on; (8) embodying a culture of excellence and high expectations; (9) environmentally conscious; (10) offering strong connections to the local community and business; (11) globally networked; and (12) setting the stage for lifelong learning.

In designing a school for tomorrow, such underlying principles should drive the discussion. They would allow us to address questions around how students should learn, where they should learn, and with whom should they learn. We may discover that we need teachers to work in teams, that parents and community volunteers are available to help, that businesses will offer off-site training, that community organizations will permit the use of their recreational, cultural, and sporting facilities. We may conclude that it makes no sense to break down the school day into fixed “periods,” and that state standards can be better met via interdisciplinary and real-world projects.

Environmental scientists have published dozens of studies that show a close correlation between human productivity and space design.

Yes, we will need enclosed spaces for direct instruction, but perhaps these could be adjacent to a visible and supervisable common space for teamwork, independent study, and Internet-based research. Arts, science and technology, and performance could be integrated in ways that would be impossible in a traditional, classroom-dominated school layout. Before we know it, we would have created a true 21st-century school.

But the process described above is not how we design our schools today, because we still think that yesterday’s classroom equals tomorrow’s school. Perhaps some would define “success” as students’ ability to perform well on a standardized test, rather than their developing skills to navigate a fast-changing world. Under that limited definition, classrooms tend to do fairly well, but classroom-based schools would do poorly in comparison with educationally driven designs for true 21st-century learning. Does this mean that effective education is impossible in schools with classrooms? Of course not. Good teachers work hard to overcome the limitations of classroom-based schools, and many succeed in spite of the odds.

So where does this leave us? What happens to the hundreds of billions of dollars of capital investment locked up in what can best be described as “dysfunctional” educational infrastructure? This is where the good news comes in. There is evidence that even the most rigidly “old paradigm” school facilities can be converted with modest investments of funds into effective places for teaching and learning.

These initiatives would not necessarily get rid of classrooms, but instead redesign and refurbish them to operate as “learning studios” and “learning suites” alongside common areas reclaimed from hallways that vastly expand available space and allow better teaching and learning. In many parts of the country, limited classroom space can be significantly expanded by utilizing adjacent open areas while simultaneously improving daylight, access to fresh air, and connections to nature.

Those who are intrigued or skeptical about the notion of education beyond classrooms may want to start their own research with some of the thought leaders in this arena. The School of Environmental Science in Apple Valley, Minn.; the Minnesota New Country School in Henderson, Minn.; the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, Minn.; Forest Park Elementary School in Middletown, R.I.; Duke School in Durham, N.C.; Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, Fla.; Hellerup School in Copenhagen, Denmark; Wooranna Park Primary School in Victoria, Australia; Australian Science and Mathematics School in Adelaide, Australia; and Discovery 1 School in Christchurch, New Zealand, are just a few great non-classroom-based examples of schools. (In the interests of full disclosure, I need to note that my firm—and I personally—worked on several of these school-design projects.)

Let’s hope that scientific evidence, along with the economic imperative for change, will set us on a new path—one in which we break down the metaphorical and real walls that keep our children trapped in boxes. To get there, we first need to free ourselves from the mental box that limits our thinking about the real meaning and purpose of education.

Prakash Nair is a futurist and architect. He is the president of Fielding Nair International, a Minneapolis-based school planning and design firm with consultations in 36 countries. Nair can be reached at Prakash@fieldingnair.com.