California DEN

Congratulations to CarolAnne McGuire for being the 1st CA DEN member to participate in the Discovery Educator Abroad video conference with Josh Wolf.

Here’s what she had to say…

Hi Jannita and DEN members!
  This week we had the wonderful opportunity to video chat with Josh Wolff.  He was in Melbourne, Australia at the time and was talking to us from a little cafe in town. 
  We learned all about the history of Melbourne and the haunted prison!  Oooohhhhh! 
  In our international project, we are studying what kids eat for lunch around the world.  One of my kids asked about some of the foods that Josh has eaten since in Australia.  Kangaroo meat is sold in their grocery stores!  Josh also ate worms on an island north of Australia. 
  But he said that wasn’t the worst meal he had… (ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  What could be worse?!)  Apparently LIVE snails are a delacacy.  And you can’t really say, "Little snail… come on out of your shell so I can eat you!"  You have to crack open the shell and dig it out!!!  GROSS!  (Even Josh didn’t eat this meal!)
  Being a DEN Educator Abroad sounded like a really great idea… until he got to the worms and snails!  Video chats… it’s a GOOD thing!
  One of my students DID ask him to video tape water going down in the toilet… how else can we find out if it really does go the opposite way in Australia?!  We DID tell him, however, to make sure that there was nothing in the water!
  It was a great conversation!  Josh was really sweet and answered all our crazy questions!  He even gave great descriptions for my blind students!
  Once again, Discovery ROCKS!
  Carol Anne

Thanks CarolAnne for representing our DEN!

If you would like to participate in one of these video conference chats, contact Jaana Narsipur at Jaana_Narsipur@discovery.com

Here’s the schedule of upcoming webchats.

To learn more about Discovery Educator Abroad please go to http://discoveryeducatorabroad.com/  here you will find Josh’s Travel Blog, Discussion Boards, Webisodes, and find more information on Travel Channel’s 5 Takes program.

San Diego… and NECC? Free?  It doesn’t get any better than that!

Between April 19 and May 19,^th 2006, Discovery Educator Network members may earn rewards by uploading resources to the Discovery Educator Network website resource library*.

What could you win?  The Discovery Educators who upload and receive approval for the most resources to the resource library during the term of the contest will win an Educational scholarship* to attend the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Diego, July 5 - 7, 2006.

 Ten (10) Grand Prizes will be awarded!!! 

But wait, there’s more! Participation Reward: Discovery Educator Network members who upload at least two (2) approved resources to the Discovery Educator Network, between April 19 and May 19, 2006 will receive a USB hub!

*For directions on how to upload projects to the DEN Educator Resource library, please contact your DEN manager.

You can’t have a contest without all of the official rules!  Click below to upload 3 pages of exciting legalese!

UPLOADCONTESTRULES.doc

The LARGEST educational technology conference NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) will be held in San Diego this year!  ASK YOUR ADMINISTRATORS NOW TO SIGN YOU UP!!! Hotels book very quickly.

If you would like a FREE trip to NECC which includes airfare, hotel, and the conference fees start uploading your resources to our DEN site, because the top 10 uploaders will be heading to San Diego courtesy of Discovery Education.

Here’s how the contest will work…

Between April 19 and May 19th 2006, the Discovery Educator Network members may earn rewards by uploading resources to the Discovery Educator Network website. (www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com) resource library*.

Grand Prize:
The Discovery Educators who upload and receive approval for the most resources to the resource library during the term of the contest will win an Educational scholarship* to attend the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Diego July 5-7, 2006. Ten (10) Grand Prizes will be awarded.

In addition to the summer trainings other DEN members and I will be holding, Discovery Education is proud to present to you "Digital Connections 2006"

What is Digital Connections?

Customized 1/2 day hands on webinar based interactive workshops.

What topics will they cover?

You name it! Assignment Builder, Creating Interactive Games, The Inspired Classroom, Digital Stories

How do you get started?

1. identify 10 or more unitedstreaming users that would like to participate

2. Select 3 potential dates and times and confirm the date my calling Discovery Education at 800.323.9084

3. Reserve a training space with a computer, internet connection, speaker phone, LCD projector or a TV that is connected to the computer.

4. Attend a scheduled “Train the Trainer” Webinar to get more details

Do you have more questions?

Contact Jaana Narsipur at Jaana_Narsipur@discovery.com or call 800.323.9084

Download digital_connections_2006_awareness_flyer.pdf

Okay… give me this moment to be so proud… DEN member Ray and I have been trying out podcasting and he just sent me a link to his first Podcasts done by his students!  I really enjoyed listening to what his kids had to share… one student has over 800 people in her family… another shared his perspective on immigration laws… and another gave a wrap up of their recent field trip! 

He is using a free online program called Podomatic.  I took a look tonight and it seems pretty straight forward… check it out for yourself at www.podomatic.com let me know what you think!

So who else out there has their own podcasts going?!?  Post your links in the comment section so we can check it out. 

To listen to Ray’s podcasts go to http://cr13.podomatic.com

Just like many of you I am subscribed to a few blogs myself and this morning I read a GREAT article about the San Fran Earthquake in the Georgia Blog!  There are all kinds of tips and tricks on how to teach about earthquakes.  This is a blog every Californian should visit!  Check it out!!!! Thanks Jeff Giddens and Katherine for that dynamic post!

http://blog.discoveryeducation.comgeorgia/

Okay… I will confess that some days are more fun than others!  After Saturday night, the long hours paid off when we got to hang out with 2 of the most incredibly talented and crazy guys Discovery has… yep… Adam and Jamie of the Myth Busters.  After working BUSTIN our tails off in the booth, we were treated to a special meet and greet session with Adam and Jamie at the Marriott hotel. I was so impressed with their “guy next door” demeanors.  No arrogant movie star attitude in that room… in fact I found it completely humbling that they were actually thanking us for all the work we were doing with teachers.

Later that evening we had dinner at the NSTA Presidential Banquet and Adam and Jaimie spoke for about 45 minutes about teaching, science, their jobs, how they got started.  The audience’s favorite part was when we opened the mics to their questions.  The 1^st person to the mic wanted to know how teachers could find out ahead of time what episodes would be airing so they could be prepared to field all the questions by students the next morning, like how to capture farts!  I almost feel over laughing.  I also enjoyed listening and watching Adam poke fun of Jamie.  The last question of the night was by CA DEN member Carol Anne’s daughter Macy who explained that her mother teaches students with visual impairments and wondered if they have ever considered busting the myth that “Blind people of super sonic powers.”  The audience cheered loudly as the Adam and Jamie said they will definitely start thinking of ways to BUST that MYTH!

What Myth would you like to see Adam and Jamie bust?!?

I think that this conference was by far the best one I have seen yet.  In fact, I really encourage all teachers to attend the NSTA.  You better bring some money, because if you are anything like me, Hall Davidson, or Katherine Aiken you will want to buy everything you see!  (Yikes… hope my husband doesn’t read this post or my bank statement this month!)  Where else can you buy everything from some crazy powder that turns into fluffy snow, magic sand, human body models, lizards, magnetic balls that sing, and our favorite… massagers!  (I bought everything but the lizards and human body models) 

Hats off to Laurie and Mari for an incredible marketing campaign.  It was definitely all about the Myth Busters.  We had these terrific sandwich boards that we walked around with.  Teachers loved them so much they were willing to pay to actually have the opportunity to wear it.  We also passed out some fantastic Discovery Education lab coats during our theater presentations which were packed every time. Our booth was definitely the best there!  So many people were just amazed at our new look! And believe it or not we working hard… even though you can see that we clearly had fun through the pictures! 

So… those of you who know me will totally appreciate my recent CLM (Career Limiting Move). My colleagues have threatened to blog this, so I figured I would beat them to the punch. So here’s my humbling story….

Discovery Education sponsored an incredible VIP cocktail reception at NSTA, so I invited a few of our DEN members who were attending the conference.  I was hanging out with Katherine Aiken, DEN Regional manager, when Sandra my DEN member informed me that her co-worker had gone to get her camera after she had seen Bill Nye.  In total Jannita fashion I counter, “Bill Nye’s not here is he?”  They responded look down.  Literally 2 feet from where I was standing Bill Nye, yes… that would be Bill Nye the Science Guy…. was sitting down at a table. UGHH… I wanted to crawl in a hole!  Here’s hoping he didn’t hear!  Needless to say, I was thrilled that our team was able to grab a photo with him.  I can’t wait to show my old students.  Have you ever wondered how he got his start?!?  He was actually an engineer at Boeing. Now you are probably asking, what type of transition do you have from engineer at Boeing to Wacky Scientist.  Well, he did a radio comedy show for a while.   What other fascinating facts do you know about Bill Nye? Do you know that we have several Bill Nye science videos on unitedstreaming?!?  Do a key word search by his name!