California DEN

I want your input on something…  First of all, how many of you are familiar with the Discovery show, "Dirty Jobs"?  What do you think of the host, Mike Rowe?   If you are a fan (yep, me too!) you might find it interesting to know that Mike lives RIGHT HERE in Northern California!!!  Given that Mike and I both work for Discovery, and we both live here in NorCal, don’t you think he should be a pal and come to one of our rockin’ DEN events?  I’d think he would enjoy a little Caribbean cooking at our upcoming "Jamaic-an-Take at the Culinary Institute of Monterey" at the end of August.  Some spice, some steel drums, some spicy-steel-Mike-Rowe-muscles…  sounds like a party to me!  Maybe if enough of us post a comment here Discovery will work some of its Jamaican mojo and make it happen!

Oh well, if he can’t join us, then we’ll just have to join him for a week of fun on the Discovery Channel.  Mike is this year’s host of Discovery’s Shark Week. We don’t mess around when it comes to our Shark Week!  Check out these pictures of the Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.       

Grab your SCUBA gear, a bucket of popcorn, and hit the couch because Discovery Channel’s SHARK WEEK returns for its 19th year on Sunday, July 30th at 9 PM (ET/PT.) We won’t need to do any channel surfing this week!

Our 1st Beach Party was such a hit, we decided to schedule another one! 

What: DEN Beach Bon Fire

Where: Bolsa Chica Beach… Near Life Guard Stand 26

When: Friday, August 25th

  Time: 6:30 p.m.

Bring your family and friends for a DEN Beach Cookout and Bon Fire.  The Grunion are also expected to run on that night… so we may even have a few fishy friends! I’ll bring the hamburgers and hotdogs.. you bring a dish to share (fruit, chips, dessert, etc).

To RSVP for this event post a comment here…

by guest blogger Kim Randall

  What do podcasts, Java Works, filling out your star, America Revealed, chroma-key, an "Oprah’s Favorite Things" moment, Adobe Premiere, Atlas, Digital Storytelling, Audacity, limeade margaritas, G-Force, Inspiration, bowling, blogs, and more than 40 educators from across the U.S. have in common?  Why the Discovery Educator Network National Leadership Conference, of course!

Representing Northern California, Discovery Educator Ed Warkentin, field manager Susan Staat, and I ventured out to the Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland for a week of technology infused excitement, learning, sharing and fun! After a preview the week before at NECC in San Diego (DEN’s birthday bash at Dave & Buster’s) I knew I was in for a treat!

Where to begin? I guess from the beginning… Monday evening started us off with something educators do best: socializing, networking, and adult beverages! I was truly amazed to meet such a diverse group of people and start putting names and faces together.

Bright and early Tuesday morning, we headed eagerly to the Discovery Headquarters and entered the awe-inspiring building we called home for the week. Our first stop, breakfast and the main conference room with its ultra-modern and high tech blue hue lighting and four electronic floor to ceiling screens.  It was already setting the stage for an impressive week. Like any classroom on the "first day of school" we began with an icebreaker activity, but not just ANY activity.  This one cleverly integrated technology, using Photostory to introduce each other!

From then on, the day sped by quickly with speakers (Steve Dembo and podcasting), goals for the week, bonding with our groups, and great hands-on sessions in podcasting, integrating unitedstreaming clips with Inspiration, Timeliner, PowerPoint games and Photostory. And then the moment we were not expecting, a Discovery version of "Oprah’s Favorite Things."  We all had "lucky stars" on our chairs and were given a copy of Adobe’s Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements!  Wow, you should have seen the happy dances in the room!  It didn’t stop there! We were treated to a rooftop BBQ dinner on top of the Discovery building and a nighttime tour of Washington, D.C. followed!

Some teams began burning the midnight oil working on their projects for the week: "America Revealed", incorporating many of the tools and unitedstreaming content to create classroom resources to depict America with a focus on an event, person, geography or tradition.  But in typical laid back California mentality (i.e. we can work tomorrow) some of us CA DEN members decided to check out Silver Spring’s version of margaritas. Let’s just say that they don’t make’em like they do in Cali, but that didn’t seem to stop us from an entertaining evening!

Up and at ‘em and back to work at Headquarters on Wednesday morning!  The day’s spotlight: Digital Storytelling by none other than THE Hall Davidson and the international webisodes of Discovery Educator Abroad, THE Josh Wolff. Now of course Discovery wouldn’t surprise us with a piece of software without showing us how to use it! After Digital Storytelling, we jumped right into using our new Adobe Premiere Elements and the ever-clever tool, the chroma-key!  I can just picture our students scaling buildings, facing large animals or walking on water in their digital stories once they learn this tool!  Too cool!

Culminating the evening on a global note, after Josh’s presentation we were the proud, the few, and the only select group to preview the brand new series Atlas: China Revealed, in Discovery’s state of the art HD theater.  The new series will spotlight 4 countries this fall, culminating with 30 over the next five years.  Stay tuned on October 1st, this is one series you don’t want to miss! Phenomenal!

Our last speaker, Alan November started off the next morning sharing the current status of government funding for technology in education and the importance of preparing our students for a global economy.  Lots for us to digest and think about, really you could hear a pin drop in the room as he spoke!

Inspired by China Revealed, we continued day four with regrouping and focusing on our project "America Revealed."  Many groups took advantage of being in the Nation’s capitol and ventured off to create digital stories down on the mall.  However, my group was hard at work on our interactive project "America Revealed: Pop Culture through Digital Eyes of Today’s Teens." As with any project-based learning assignment, we decided to divi up the work and each of us worked on a different task. My job: podcasting! And we’re proud to report that we made our first enhanced (video) podcast!

Day four ended with an activity that required socks. What could possibly require socks in this heat, we asked? Why, a fun evening of bowling at Strike, Betsy Whalen tells us! Tech educators and bowling? Now this was one event not to be missed! A striking good time was had by all!

Presentation Day, day five!  This day was bittersweet.  We were excited to share all of our hard work and newly acquired tools, but sad to leave such an incredible week with incredible people.  Needless to say, all of the projects were over the top and fascinatingly unique.  All revealed something important about America while integrating the incredible resource that we are all grateful to have at our fingertips, unitedstreaming.  And without it and the DEN staff, none of us would have had the opportunity to attend the oustanding first annual DEN National Leadership Conference! Thank you discovery, DEN and unitedstreaming. Without a doubt we will continue to move forward leading, facilitating our classrooms, and changing the lives of our students before it’s too late.

Kim Randall

St. Andrew’s School

Saratoga, CA

Everyone, meet my favorite butterfly Joel Jacobson in his debut blog.  If you haven’t met this beautiful butterfly yet, you really ought to check him out!  Joel is helping schools from around the nation take flight with innovative fundraising through the program Learning Adds Up.  Through selling Discovery’s newest home media product, COSMEO, they will donate money back to your school for your PTA or school technology fund.  You really have to check this one out!  If you are interested in hosting a family media night at your school to help showcase COSMEO and Learning Adds Up please email me jannita_demian@discovery.com

Last week I had a chance to sit back and reflect on a whirlwind of year!  DEN turned 1 and we celebrate in amazing style at Dave and Buster’s in San Diego at NECC.  150 DEN members from 20 different states joined together for an evening of networking and fun.

No 1st Birthday Party would be complete without cone hats and we had 24 different types to choose from.  DEN member’s donned their favorite hat and joined others with the same for a scavenger hunt and game extravaganza!  Let’s just say there was lots of organized chaos going on!  Special thanks to all the Discovery Education Staff for their true SPIRIT in leading their teams in SkeeBall, Dance Revolution, Basketball, Motorcycle, Surfboard, Big Rig riding and more.

Coni Rechner, Vice President of Discovery Educator Network, ended the night with a DEN by the numbers.  Thought I would share some of those digits with you….

9….. DEN Members on June 27, 2005

2,600…. DEN Members on June 27, 2006

20… Field Managers

5,200…. Events held by Discovery Educators

118,000…. Teachers who have participated in DEN events

1,800…. Resources on our DEN website

Thank you for such an incredible year!  I appreciate all your support, encouragement, and enthusiasm in creating our "DEN" Family!

Your "DEN" Mom- Jannita

Are you a DEN member?  Have you completed your end-of-the-year DEN survey? 

We want to make sure next year provides you with all of the benefits and resources you need to make the 2006-2007 school year your best one yet! To do that, we need to hear from you!

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey that was e-mailed to you so that we can measure our progress and create a roadmap for serving you better.

By far this DEN event really tops my charts!  I must say relaxing on the beach with my incredible Southern California DEN was definitely the highlight of the last couple months. 

Just to take you back a bit… after our regional institute at Sea World, DEN members felt the need to have a re-union.  A month and a half later we found ourselves hanging out with family and friends at Bolsa Chica beach. 

Special thanks to Ray Waller and Karen Green for arriving early and setting up camp.  We were easy to find with the black pop up tent and of course our SHAMU kite that flew overhead declaring our arrival.

Everyone enjoyed a night of networking, games, food, and above all fun and a evening sing-a-long of the ohhh so popular Shamu Song!        

DEN the Dino also made his first beach trip.  He had lots of fun hanging out with DEN members, flipping burgers, and even enjoyed his first surf lesson with DEN member Ray Hernandez

Stay tuned for another beach bonfire in August!

What did you pack in your lunch today?  Vegemite and crackers? Chocolate Sandwiches?

Well the students of CA DEN member CarolAnne McGuire and PA DEN member Anne Reardon not only know what students in America pack for lunch, but also in Belgium, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Israel, Japan, China.

Rock Our World is a global collaborative project that connects students from 5 continents on a weekly basis through video conference. Together, they study a theme where they learn what makes their countries unique and similar. In addition to this, students create musical tracks using Garage Band.

The culminating event is centered around a family night where student’s did a taste test of dishes from around the world and met with their new friends thousands of a miles away once again.

. I had the pleasure of being live on their set as they filmed this incredible event. What impressed me most was that not only are the students involved but also their families… demonstrating the true power of bridging home and school.

These students are proving that is truly is a small world after all.

Stay tuned for their next project in collaboration with Discovery Education and NASA. For more information visit their website www.rockourworld.org.

  One of my most favorite parts of visting the set of the Myth Busters was walking around their warehouse and seeing signs of past myths.  Not only do you find them on the tables, but also sitting in corners on cabinets, in the planters outside and even hanging from the ceiling.  So, let’s make this post interactive… I’ll post the pictures… you see how many of the myths you can list and state whether it was "Confirmed" "Plausible" and "Busted"  I’ll wait 2 weeks to "publish" your comments so that way no one can cheat.  Then the winners will be entered to win a signed copy of their book.  So… Can you name these myths….

Okay… so some things in my job are still so surreal to me.  So when, Mari Belacazar  called me a few weeks ago and asked if I could take 1 lucky DEN member to the set of the Myth Buster’s to help create a Discovery Education film for the winners of our NSTA sweepstakes, it didn’t take long for me to start doing the happy dance. Two weeks later, Brian Talmadge and I boarded our planes and headed toward San Francisco.

When I arrived, I imagined seeing a set, lights, a costume crew… all those things one typically finds at a film location.  Instead, we pulled up to a warehouse.  Yep… a warehouse filled with lots of gadgets but not too many signs of what one think they would see at the set of one of Discovery Channel’s most popular shows. (Yes, Buster was there!)  What I can say is that Adam, Jamie, Grant, Kari, and Tory are absolutely wonderful people.  What you see is really what you get!  Some of the most down to earth “Talent” I have ever met!

  Today they would be re-visiting the myth about blowing up salami.  Apparently they were not too satisfied with their previous results.  For the rest of the afternoon they ran around preparing for the big explosions. BIG they were as we later found out when smoke came billowing out of the container.  Funny thing… Adam and Jamie still get soo excited, when things actually blow up … the louder the noise… the more cheers they let out! 

I seriously could write pages full of all of our adventures of the day, but my favorite moment was simply spent hanging out in their office talking about the show, past myths, future shows (shhhh), recent trips they had taken with their families.

So here’s my question…. If you could spend an afternoon hanging out with the crew of the Myth Buster’s what would you ask?  What would you want to see?

Post a comment here and I’ll enter you into a raffle to receive a signed copy of the Myth Buster’s book.