California DEN

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 . . .

Last Monday, my high school students couldn’t stop talking about the most recent Indiana Jones movie they had watched over the weekend. Normally, it would be one of those topics that I would have steer my students away from as we began our lesson, but this week I engaged it head on and integrated their opinions into my lesson. We discussed the shot styles and storyline of the film and a few students picked up ideas for their current assignment. What was I teaching, you ask? The Screen Education process from AFI, of course.

When I went through the AFI (American Film Institute) Screen Education course last year with several Star Discovery teachers, I knew it was something really cool, something I could use in a variety of ways and get kids excited about coming to school. This resource draws on the vast amounts of television and film that our students consume and allows teachers to apply knowledge drawn from media to core standard content. Over the last couple years, I’ve enjoyed using the AFI curriculum with my science students, who can’t seem to get enough of this stuff. They enjoy creating videos, even . . . (clear throat) educational ones. Currently, my classes are eagerly storyboarding a movie they’ll shoot next week - their own original episode of “Body Story” (a popular science series from BBC). Anyone else out there using Screen Ed to fight the end-of-the-year boredom?

This year, AFI added another component to the program; Screen Nation - where students and teachers can share their creations. Screen Nation is “a place where teen filmmakers can share their work, receive recognition and compete for prizes in ongoing challenges.” The Learn section features humorous tutorials from, Xander and Calvin, two young filmmakers who teach students the ins & outs of good filmmaking. Hopefully the recent episode I showed to my students on transitions will cut down the number of annoying zoom-outs and wipes in their current movie project.

Right now AFI has offered the first of many challenges. “Claim to Fame” gives students the opportunity to explore their hometown and see what makes it great. The challenge is to make a 5min. documentary video that includes interviews with at least 3 people. When you’re done, you upload it to ScreenNation. Deadline is June 30. Check out the pdf screen nation challenge1 as well as the video. What a great end-of-year project (not to mention principals love when students connection to community). And the winner will receive a Sony Handycam and tripod. Odds of winning right now are good - so what are you waiting for? What’s your town’s Claim to Fame?

Tis the Season to Cook and Exchange your favorite recipes!  YUMMY! So, let’s all share in the feasting by posting our recipes here… I am feeling a DEN cook off coming your way.

Thanks Jutti Marsh for the 1st recipe that I highly suggest you all check out… It would be a definite hit for students.

Here’s the site that explains more..

http://www.kidskuisine.com/?page_id=8

Stay tuned for an  award winning Pumpkin Upside Down Cake…

What’s in your “bag” of tricks?

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.

Discovery Educator Network Field Managers post information regularly on their regional blogs.  Would you like to know how educators are integrating technology and unitedstreaming^TM into their classrooms?  Do you want to find out about upcoming events and share your experiences at a DEN event?  Would you like to collaborate with other DEN members about ways to integrate technology?  You can by subscribing and commenting on the blog sites!!!