California DEN

Is that high of attending the Virtual Conference wearing off? Ready for more? Get ready for the CUE LA Tech Fair. From Voicethread to SMART Boards to Google, this program looks to be packed with sessions for everyone. Ted Lai is the keynote speaker. And of course, some of our very own STARS will be on hand to navigate you through the riches of Discovery Education Streaming.

Where:  Mullholand Middle School
When:  Saturday, November 14 8:30am-3:30pm
Cost: Just $35 for CUE members & $45 for non-members
Breakfast and lunch provided

Check out the CUE Hub for details & registration.

It’s back - one of the most popular DEN events ever and a California original. Join us for the Tech or Treat, a local event where you can participate in the DEN Virtual Conference and also learn from local DEN Stars. On Oct. 24th, the Discovery Educator Network Virtual Conference brings the best & brightest in Discovery Education right to your laptop. But attending with friends is even more fun. We’ll project the conference on the big screen, provide the treats (lunch included) and in between virtual sessions, you’ll get in-person breakout sessions from your CA DEN team. Did I mention there’s also prizes for dressing like your favorite Discovery celebrity? At this event, there’s no question: Tech or Treat? You get both!

Update: We now have two locations for this event - one in Northern CA and one in Southern CA. Check out the Events page for more. 

Flyer: Tech-or-treat

Register: http://LINKS.discoveryeducation.com/virtualcon

More details on the CA event:  Events page

As another great year comes to a close, we have to share a few highlights of the great things we’ve done this past school-year. We’ve had some fantastic events including the OC CUE Techfest, Virtual Conference, the California Poppy Festival, and KOCE Day of Discovery. Best of all, we won an DENny award for the Most Creative DEN Event for the Grunion Run.

Our first DENny!

Looking for fish at the Grunion Run.

Female grunion laying eggs in sand.

We’ve also had some changes in leadership. Genny Kahlweiss has taken the reigns as our fearless leader and we are excited to have Matt Monjan as our DEN manager. Congratulations to Matt on the birth of his new baby boy Benjamin last week! Word is that he’s cuter than Matt.

We also sent two of our teachers, Ken Shelton and Carolann McGuire along with Jannita D. to Australia on a Discovery Student Adventure and have another traveling to China in August. (yep, that’s me!)

If you haven’t checked out the new developments to Discovery Education Streaming, like the ability to use Flash and the upload resources, summer is the time to catch up. Check out what’s new at DE. Register for the Back to School Preview webinars happening in July.

Thanks to everyone who makes this the GREATEST region in DEN. Everyone do the happy dance . . .

Discovery Education videos are now available in Flash! Have your district DE admin call  1-800-323-9084 to get the Flash enabled for free!

Do you know what the best part of being in DEN is? OK yes, free stuff and parties are fun, but the greatest part in my opinion are the opportunities to network & learn with other STAR teachers. That’s why we’re inviting you to join the best & brightest to Orange County next weekend for the KOCE Day of Discovery. We’ve got a great lineup of sessions on everything from Digital Storytelling to creating a Global Collaborative Classroom. And I heard a secret that there are going to be some fantastic giveaways at this Day of Discovery - you’re really going to like these prizes!

More info? Click on the Events page or go straight to the RSVP now!

• How many times can the newspaper you read today be recycled?
• How much can one compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) save in electricity costs over its lifetime?
• What single innovation is causing more people to recycle more products than ever?
• Which clean alternative energy source is created by landfills?

How much energy can you save by recycling one aluminum can every day for a month?

Find answers to these questions and raise your students’ awareness of environmental issues with ready-to-use classroom materials, lesson plans, worksheets, puzzles, quizzes, and activities at ThinkGreen.
ThinkGreen is a site created by Waste Management and powered by Discovery Education.

Visit the Earth Day Network to learn how make every day an “Earth Day.”

Thanks to Jen Dorman for the blog idea and johnlauresa for use of the photo.

Just a quick reminder that coming up on Saturday, April 25th are two fantastic DEN events: the Spring Into Action Virtual Conference and the Grunion Run. Both events are detailed on our new Events but here’s another sneak peek. See you on the 25th!

The Virtual Conference is open to all educators and is a great way to share some of the valuable teaching tips with your colleagues. While there is an in-person event for teachers in the Orange County area, I know I’ll be attending from my living room. Last year’s presentations were excellent and this year’s lineup looks equally good.

The second event, the Grunion Run, was a DEN favorite last year and we are doing it again this year. Beach party, BBQ, private film screening, and of course, the fish that make like land animals when the moon comes out. This is a family friendly event so bring the kids - you’ll have a blast seeing one of the wildest events that goes on here in So Cal.

Also, check out the Events page to preview the upcoming KOCE Day of Discovery . . .

Since blog posts continually move down as new posts go up, I know how frustrating it can be to find info on upcoming events that you’ve read about. So we’ve created a new page to store our event info more permanently. It’s easy to go to, just click on the word EVENTS next to the HOME button in the upper-left corner of the bar. Your Leadership Council has planned some fantastic events for this coming year so check back often as we’ll post up new events. Of course, we’ll also put up posts on the main page here to keep you in the loop.

Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike by kalavinka

Join Discovery Educator Network members their families on Saturday April 25th for the 2009 Grunion Run!

This event will include a bonfire, private Grunion movie presentation at the Cabrillo Aquarium followed by time to explore the aquarium’s exhibits before heading back to the beach to watch the Grunions make their annual run to the beach!

See flyer for all the details Grunion Run Event flyer

To attend you MUST RSVP here

Hello all!

Since our pal Dave Kootman has gone over to the “dark-side!” (LOL) I’ve volunteered to take on the roll of Nor CA blogger for the DEN. I’m really excited…so here it goes.

I spent the first weekend in March attending the CUE  conference (Computer Using Educators) in Palm Springs! This was by far the BEST CUE of all. You see, this CUE was all about networking F2F with my DEN PLN… it was truly a  STAR-Studded  affair!

Below is a list of the resources that were shared during the Walk with the STARS session:

Genny Kahlweiss- Genny is CA DEN’s leader and had great resources to share!

• The Space Place-Visit this NASA site for everything space related!
• a.placebetween.us- finds places to meet your friends.
• Twitter – Follow Genny @ kahlweiss
• Go2Web20- A complete Web 2.0 directory

Dave Kootman’s site- Native Consulting  contains too many cool resources to list here! Select Handouts & Downloads tab. Scroll to Cool Ten (Latest) Websites. Check out the Woices website….really cool!

Dennis Grice- It was such a treat finally meeting Denise F2F. He’s one of the creators of the Dating Game Rock Video!  

• Stop Watch Tool This tool is really the “bomb!
• MultiColr Search Lab Searches Flickr photos by color!
• ·Picasa Web Albums Add captions and Google map location to your images. Saves as .kmz file too. Dennis’s directions

 Martha Snyder- a Nor Cal DEN LC member shared her use of NING to create staff networking sites.

Suzzane Wesp the creator of the famous Homophone video found exclusively on DE Streaming has now created a multiplication video called You can Multiply by 12…Look for it in DE Streaming!

Alice Mercer- Shared VoiceThread. Alice’s student’s create math tutoring videos and use VT so other students can leave comments or questions. Check out ed.Voicethread too.

Jannita Demian’s – Jannita shared a plethora of sites that you will want to check out.

• Glogster and Glogster for education allow users to create interactive posters
• Bio Cube from Think Read Write summarizes a person’s biography or autobiography on a multimedia cube.
•   Blabberize allows you to make any picture talk!
  

Christy G. Keeler, Ph.D - Visit a Virtual Museum and learn how to build a PowerPoint in perspective! Scroll to the bottom of Christy’s blog to find the templates to begin creating your own .ppt in perspective. This is a must visit site!

Ray Waller- Ray created quite a stir when he showed off his xtranormal movie creation featuring Matt and Jannita! Xtranormal allows users to create 3D movies in minutes that can be uploaded to YouTube.

Matt Monjan- Discovey’s Media Share – allows district users to upload, categorize and share videos. MS not only allows for searching media by state standard it even allows for embedding videos outside of streaming! Wait there’s more! MS can bulk upload your PowerPoint’s and will be ready for live viewing in less than fifteen minutes.

 Phew! So many great resources to check out and so little time!

Thanks DEN STARS!