DEN: Florida

As we return back to school our county mandates that we spend 8 days teaching the students how to be a scientist. The first two days I conducted my own experiments and the kids really enjoyed the activities.  On the following day, I decided to use the textbook and see how the students responded.  It turns out that the textbook actually put two kids to sleep!  Granted it was the end of the day and everyone was very tired but it was the first time I remember a student falling asleep on the book and the page sticking to his face! I knew an intervention was needed and I turned to Discovery Science for help.  The first thing I found were two songs about the Scientific Method.  The students thought the first song was hilarious and the second song had everyone dancing and moving.  One student even made a sign to go with the song “Science Rocks”.  We had such a great time and everyone started to understand the steps of the scientific method.  I highly recommend checking out the song library if you are stuck for a catchy way to teach students about the scientific method.  My two favorite songs are Teacher and the Rockbots: Scientific Method and Music Makes It Memorable: Scientific Method. DE Science also has great lessons and units that are engaging and full of experiments for teaching students the scientific method.  Enjoy and have a great week!

If you are like me, school has started this week and you are busy with meetings and getting our classroom ready for open house and the first day of school.  If you resemble this remark, you may have also signed up for some of the amazing summer school webinars only to discover that your school has scheduled a meeting or training at the same time.  I was very disappointed this week because I missed several webinars due to meetings.  The good news is that the webinars are being archieved and can be viewed on your own time!  If you want to check out any of the sessions you missed, visit http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/summer-school/ and click on the topic you would like to learn more about.  Not all the sessions are posted yet but they are coming soon.

If you scroll down the page, you will see a link to Hall’s presentations in pdf or ppt files.  These are excellent resources and I highly recommend downloading them and sharing them with others in your school or district.  Enjoy these resources and good luck with the first week of school.

If you live near the Orlando area and would like to attend the Orlando Science Center’s Open House, mark your calendar for Saturday, August 29.  You will need to RSVP either by email or phone.  The flyer below contains all the information about the event.  Let me know if you plan to attend and we can have a DEN social at the Science Center.  I look forward to seeing you at the event.  This will be a great way to incorporate Discovery Science and the Science Center into your curriculum this year.

Teachers, do you want to be appreciated?  Do you enjoy receiving goody bags full of teacher supplies?  If so, this Saturday, August 15, 2009 is your lucky day.  Staples and Office Depot are hosting their annual Teacher Appreciation Events at 9:00am.  Bring your id and sign up to join their teacher rewards program.  Staples offers a great deal for teacher too.  Teachers are able to purchase 25 of any item in the add, regardless of the limited quantity amount.  All you need to do is show your id and they are yours.  This offer even includes their $.01 items!   Staples is giving away free gift bags to the first 100 teachers on Saturday.  Office Depot is providing breakfast, 10% off purchases and a tote bag filled with gifts.  Mark your calendar and enjoy the events.

The University of Minnesota is doing a study on the impact of Twitter in the classroom.  Check out the video showing the students actively engaged in their English course using iMacs and Twitter.

The new school year is just around the corner and I would like to take a moment to welcome every back to school.  There are some new and exciting changes to DE Streaming this year that you will definitely enjoy.  How many of you are aware that you will be able to create a class for your students in DE Streaming?

To check out all the new changes to DE Streaming, just click here for seven pages of information. The Florida Blog will be updated weekly with great information to share.  If you are not already receiving email updates, you can sign up by entering your email in the upper left hand corner of this window.

 Good luck this year and I look forward to a great year with the Florida DEN!

Debbie Bohanan