California DEN

This week CA DEN Stars got to hang with a couple big stars as they attended a sneak preview of Discovery’s upcoming series “When We Left Earth“. We got to see a special screening of the new high-def series that chronicles 50 years of space exploration and includes space footage never seen before. Episode 2 told the stories of the Gemini missions that NASA used as preparation for the eventual Apollo missions to the moon. The mishaps and challenges that astronauts and crew faced gave even more relevance to the heroism of those involved. I couldn’t believe that one pair of astronauts sat in one of those tiny capsules for 14 days while orbiting the earth. Footage of their return showed them stumbling and walking around the aircraft carrier. These are some great stories.
As if the backdrop of the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills and the screening of the new show in the high-definition theater weren’t enough, Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye were in the crowd. After the show Buzz did a Q&A (with a little more time spent on the A) for the crowd. His knowledge of space history and the current NASA direction was impressive. Finally we ascended to the roof to gaze up at the stars and the same moon Buzz Aldrin had walked on nearly 40 years ago.

The series premiers on June 8th and will be available on DiscoveryStreaming! There’s some great connections to history and science.

DEN Celebration at Palm Springs CUE Conference! Come join your fellow DEN members and their guests on Friday March 7 from 7:00pm to 9:30pm for an evening at Boomer’s. There will be free race car driving, rock wall climbing, mini-golf, bumper boats and free food. This event promises to be a lot of fun, but you must register ASAP. Go here to sign up.

“The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind – computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”

~Daniel Pink

Daniel Pink, bestselling author of A WHOLE NEW MIND, will describe how three powerful economic forces are putting a premium on right-brain abilities in the workforce. He’ll describe the six artistic, empathic abilities that now matter most — and discuss how educators are beginning to surface and sharpen those abilities in students.

Daniel is a contributing editor at Wired, where he has written about topics ranging from grassroots solar power to the rise of Wikipedia to the economics of creativity. His articles on business, technology, and economic transformation have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other publications.

A popular speaker, Dan lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world. He’s provided analysis on dozens of television and radio broadcasts -including CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” ABC’s “World News Tonight,” NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and American Public Media’s “Marketplace.” And as an independent business consultant, he’s advised start-up ventures and Fortune 100 companies on recruiting, business trends, and work practices.

RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/2y6f9c

I’m sure you’ve heard, but we are lucky to once again be hosting a fantastic training event. It’s the “Day of Discovery” hosted by KLCS in downtown LA on Saturday Dec. 8. All the great Discovery celebs will be there, including Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo and . . .you!

There’s already been a big response so make sure you RSVP soon - check out the flyer below for details. This is a great chance for DEN educators to get involved in training, networking, and sharing of ideas.

KLCS Flyer

Welcome to guest blogger, Herman Bautista, a DEN member from Santa Ana, California. Herman writes us his account of a recent DEN event:

I was lucky enough to win a spot in one of AFI’s Screen Education classes. As a sort of “thank you” for allowing me to attend, I’ve agreed to provide a guest blog regarding my experiences with the program. It’s my hope that you’ll be inspired by my ramblings or at the very least, be more willing to be creative with the inner-director in you.

AFI Screen Ed. is a program geared toward 9th through 12th graders and K-12 teachers. It’s intent is to demystify the video production process. In essence, it crams the very basics of film school into one or two days.

I was confident that my skills as a cameraman/director were good if not better than average. Since falling in love with iMovie a few years ago, I have dabbled in making videos for family and school purposes. In June of this year, I won an award in the teacher created video category of the 41st annual Student Media Festival for a video entitled “The Star View Experience“ . As an “award winning director,” what more could I learn?

In a couple of words, a lot…

Our AFI Screen Ed. instructor, Frank Guttler, is a master of his craft and took great pains to teach us the technical aspects of camera work and editing. He put us through the same lessons that I will be teaching my students in an afternoon GATE enrichment class. This includes a lesson where students take a camera and, with very little instruction, shoot a film sequence about a person opening a door while hearing a frightful noise. This of course is followed by a critique of the sequence and a discussion of what could be done better.

I was taken aback from how much I did not know about making movies. My sequence seemed to have a lot of comments from Frank about how things SHOULDN’T be done. I heard for the first time terms such as “garden hosing” and “lack of use of a dolly shot.” (Not good things in film speak.) In retrospect, the fact that so many of my fellow classmates looked like REAL film students with $2000 video cameras should have given me a clue that I wasn’t in a classroom full of novices. So much for an award winning director.

The most important thing I learned was something that was conveyed in class but never directly said: a videographer uses the camera to make videos; a film maker uses the camera TO TELL A STORY.

That being said, I took in all I could from the remaining four lessons of the class and will implement them and others with my GATE students.

It is my hope that I will report many good things to you in the future.

Herman

It’s almost November and the whales are calling. The California League of High/Middle Schools Tech Conference is taking place in Monterey November 29-December 2. This is a great conference and holds a special memory for me as it’s the place where I met Hall D. and joined DEN. This year they’re adding a new strand for elementary teachers. Kim R. our new regional coordinator, has confirmed that a DEN get-together is for sure. Not to mention, our very own Star Educator Carol Anne McGuire is one of the keynote speakers!

So who’s in? Get your conference requests in now. If you have EETT funds or some of that Microsoft dough, they’re usable for this. Check it out at: http://www.clhs.net Let us know if you’re attending - leave a comment. See you in Monterey.

If you aren’t yet aware, September 11 will be remembered with a Freedom Walk at many locations across the US.  This event will show support for  victims of the Sept 11 attacks, as well as all military personal and their families.  Personally, I work on Camp Pendleton (the largest Marine Corps Base in the world) and we will be walking to both educate and support our families in the military.  If you need more motivation, you can count it as part of your 100 minutes per week of PE!
    For more information on this event or to set up a walk in your area, please see the DEN National Blog here. 

It’s time to celebrate new beginnings! 

Join us for our final Beach Bonfire of the summer as we kick off the 07/08 school year and welcome Kim Randall and Mike Botte to the DEN team!

Bring your family and a even future DEN members as we head down to the beach once again.

When: Saturday, September 8th

Time: Dinner is at 5 pm… but feel free to come earlier

Where: Bolsa Chica State Beach Near Life Guard Stand 26

What do you bring: A side dish to share and your own beverages

What we’ll bring: hamburgers, hotdogs, and all their fixins… and of course the famous DEN Smores

RSVP ASAP: Marie Belt ( beltmv@fusd.net ) or Bev Matheson ( mathba@fusd.net )

Post a comment and let us know you’ll be there! Looking forward to seeing you soon!!!

(Invite Attached) Download bonfire_party.pdf Download bonfire_party.jpg

Many thanks to Katie Warren for setting up our next local DEN event. We hope everyone can join us .  Hey, it may not be light out, but it’s still the beach!  See the PowerPoint below for more details.

If you cannot view this post please see the comments section for more info.

Katie Warren at kwarren@gusd.net
RSVP-Contact

In preparation for this summer’s NECC in Georgia, please visit this link to the national DEN blog and let us know your thoughts.  If you’ve never been to NECC, I can tell you that it blows Palm Springs CUE away!  There are so many sessions and interesting things to learn that everyone can take away something useful.   
D Kootman