Dorman’s Trouvailles

As the new school year approaches, make sure your STAR status is intact.  All you have to do is report at least two events from this school year. 

When you log into the DEN website (http://dencommunity.com) you’ll see “Report Event” in your profile.  Let us know how you’ve shared the power of Discovery with your colleagues and you’re all set.

We are thrilled to be one of the sponsors for AETC 2010! We’d love to visit with Alabama educators in our booth (#502) and during our conference breakout sessions.

Discovery Education – Where Learning Comes Alive

Created by the Discovery Channel, and the energy that revolutionized media over twenty-five years ago, Discovery Education empowers educators to engage students and transform classrooms by providing dynamic curricular resources, comprehensive assessment services, and customized professional development plans with ongoing support that improve student achievement.

Discovery Education is the #1 provider of digital services to U.S. schools reaching 1 million educators, 35,000,000 students, and is in 60,000 schools

Wednesday

A Day in the Life of Discovery Education: 11 am – 12 pm, East Hall / Ballroom A

Beyond the Stream – Integration Strategies for Discovery Education streaming: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm, East Hall / Ballroom A

Oh, the Humanities!: 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm, East Hall / Ballroom A

See what they know. Teach what they need. Transforming Learning with Discovery Education: 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm, East Hall / Ballroom A

Thursday

Driving Instruction with K-12 Formative Assessment: 10:30 am – 11:30 am, North Hall / Room E

Click here for the take-away resources from all the Discovery Education presentations.

In addition to our presentations, we are excited for Danny Forster‘s visit to the Discovery Education booth on Wednesday. Danny, the host of the Science Channel series, Build It Bigger, will be signing autographs and speaking with educators from 2 pm – 3 pm in Discovery Education’s booth (#502). The first 100 visitors will also receive an autographed copy of a Build It Bigger DVD.

Are you planning to attend ISTE 2010 in Denver this summer? If so, Discovery Education would like to invite you to a special reception for Alabama educators.

Alabama ISTE Invite

Spotlight on the Gulf Spill,
How it Affects Us Now and in the Future.
Questions, Answers and More Uncertainty.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
1:00PM ET

Join Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the legendary Jacques Cousteau and Discovery Education Chief Spokesperson for Environmental Education, as he takes you and your students to the Gulf through pictures and stories from his recent trip to evaluate the effects of the Gulf Oil Spill.

He will discuss the effects on regional wildlife and ecosystems as well as focus on how the oil spill will affect us now and into the future.

Register now!

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Are you coming to ISTE 2010 in Denver? Do you love using your Discovery Education content on your SMARTBoard? Would you like to help create MORE for yourself and for others?

Attend the SMART/Discovery Education Content Creation Seminar!!

Discover how to create professional, interactive and sharable SMART Notebook™ software lesson activities built from the award winning Discovery Education service on Sunday June 27 from 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM in beautiful Denver, Colorado.

SMART and Discovery is offering this seminar to SMART Exemplary Educators and to Discovery Education Network educators who are enthusiastic about designing lesson activities to increase student engagement and participation. You’ll have the opportunity to enhance your ability to use both Discovery’s and SMART products in your classroom and create content that you can share with other educators around the country.

You’ll learn tips and tricks for using SMART Notebook software’s interactive design and delivery tools and the Lesson Activity Toolkit. Experts from SMART and Discovery will be on hand throughout the seminar to guide and assist you in your lesson creation.

There is NO FEE to attend, but you must RSVP by June 20 to secure your spot. No more than 100 total participants will be accepted. If you are currently a user of both technologies, or if you only use one but wanted to learn more about the other, this opportunity is for you.

When: Sunday, June 27
Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Light Breakfast and lunch will be provided
Location: Room 607 (Street Level), Colorado Convention Center

RSVP here.

If you participated in our Spring Virtual Conference or our Teacher Appreciation Week, then you already know that change was in the air.  Well, today we go live!  The next generation of the DEN community website is up and we couldn’t be more thrilled.  It features an all new look and feel, designed to keep you abreast of what’s going on around the DEN.  From webinar archives, a brand new hotbox, STARs in the news and the DEN on Twitter, it’s your one stop shop for what’s going on around the DEN.

We also have a brand new forum system that we think you’re going to love.  Stop by and say hello and let us know what you think of the new site!

Are you a Discovery Educator Network STAR? If so, you NEED to check out the DEN blog every day this week for some exciting announcements, give-aways, and exclusive opportunities for DEN STARs.

Need more convincing? How about a FREE Prezi Pro account? Our friends at Prezi have very generously agreed to provide all STAR Discovery Educators with a free Educator Pro account for a year (normally $59).

And, that is just the beginning. Visit the DEN blog every day for new opportunities.

Earth Day turns 40 on April 22, 2010.

Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future.

Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day.

Here are some great resources to use with students to engage them in hands-on activities and critical discussions about their world.

The first is a ShareTabs page with links out to 13 environmental calculators to track energy and resource consumption.

Discovery Education and its partners collaborated to put together a great environmental resource, Think Green Classroom. The Earth Day resources and activities feature contains terrific tools for elementary, middle, and high school students.

Discovery Education and the Siemens STEM Academy partnered to bring a special webinar to students and teachers. If you missed the STEM Connect Webinar featuring Philippe Cousteau, Earth Day: Celebrating our Past and Future Efforts to Conserve our Oceans, you can catch the archive and classroom activity on the STEM Connect webinar page. Don’t forget to check out the student challenges and activities sponsored by Philippe’s EarthEcho International.

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Discovery Education has been honored with three 2010 BESSIE Awards  from the ComputED Learning Center for Discovery Education Digital Science Solutions, Discovery Education streaming  Plus and Ready Classroom.

Discovery Education Science  won a BESSIE for Best Science Website.  The first digital core instructional material to be approved for statewide adoption in Oregon, Discovery Education Science is designed for elementary and middle school science classrooms.  Correlated to the state science curriculum standards and organized around an inquiry-based framework, these digital solutions cover the physical, earth and space, and life sciences, and encourage student exploration, stimulate critical thinking and deepen students’ understanding of science.  Discovery Education Science also includes a formative assessment tool that provides information on which skills and concepts have been mastered, while directing individual students to remedial activities that address areas in need of improvement.

In addition, Discovery Education streaming  Plus , the digital media-based learning service scientifically shown to increase academic achievement, won a BESSIE for Best Digital Library Website.  Discovery Education streaming  Plus has more than 150,000 digital learning objects, including videos, interactives, images, articles, and more, that integrate seamlessly into any curriculum.  Aligned to state standards and assessments, and searchable by keyword, content area and grade level, the rich video content and other digital assets from Discovery Education engage today’s media-savvy students in learning.

Ready Classroom , an online resource center designed in partnership by Discovery Education, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Ready  Campaign and the Ad Council, also won a 2010 BESSIE for Best Disaster Preparedness Website.  The website provides elementary and middle school educators with natural disaster preparedness resources and tips on how to integrate this critical information into their curriculum.

“We are honored to join Discovery Education and the Ad Council in accepting the 2010 BESSIE Award for the Ready Classroom,” said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.  “By providing teachers with resources and information to share with their classes on preparedness, we hope Ready Classroom will encourage students and their parents to take steps to ensure their family is prepared for natural disasters and other emergencies.”

“We are very appreciative of this recognition by the ComputED Learning Center,” said Kelli Campbell, Senior Vice President of Content and Product Development for Discovery Education.  “We strive to develop outstanding instructional resources such as Discovery Education streaming Plus and Discovery Education Science, while also offering resources and guidelines that help educators, administrators and parents address the needs of the whole child, such as the Ready Classroom website.”

This is the 16th year of the Annual Best Educational Software Awards (BESSIES).  The ComputED Gazette and Computer Learning Lab, San Diego’s leading computer education resource, sponsor the award program.  Targeting innovative and content-rich programs and websites that provide parents and teachers with the technology to foster educational excellence, the program selects winners from titles submitted by digital resource publishers from around the world.

I’m honored to work for such an awesome and inspiring organization!

Since we are still finalizing the attendance list for the DEN LC Symposium, we have extended the application deadline for the DEN Summer Institute to April 26.

The DEN Summer Institute for 2010 will take place from July 18-23, 2010 at Bentley University in Waltham, MA just twenty minutes west of Boston.  Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with fellow STAR Discovery Educators from all over during an exclusive, intensive, week-long networking and professional development event.  Apply today!

March 12
DEN Summer Institute Announced – Application Open

April 26
Deadline for applications (5 PM ET)

April 30
Applicants notified

May 5
Deadline for accepted applicants to RSVP

May 7
Wait-listed applicants notified

May 12
Deadline for wait-listed applicants to RSVP

Interested?  Read the FAQ document and then click here to apply.

More about the DEN Summer Institute

Curious about this whole DEN Summer Institute thing and want to know more?  Check out the links below.

Brief video about the DEN and our institute

Resources and materials from last year’s institute in San Francisco

Live coverage of the 2009 institute

More highlights of the 2009 institute

Okay, that should be plenty.  If you haven’t started your application yet, what are you waiting for?

Read the FAQ document and then click here to apply.

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Cover via Amazon

Dr. Temple Grandin will be doing Discovery Education’s April 13 EdTechConnect webinar (7pm EDT).

Dr. Grandin is an award winning animal scientist. The main focus of her career has been on the design of humane livestock facilities. Her designs enable workers to move animals without frightening them. Dr. Grandin spearheaded reform of the quality of life for the world’s agricultural animals, and is one of the most well-known animal advocates on the planet. I just finished reading one of her latest books, Animals Make Us Human and learned much about my pets and animal behavior in general.

Oh, and she has autism. She is inarguably the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. She has been featured on radio, major television programs, and has been written about in many national publications. in addition to her publications on animal behavior, she is also the author of several books on autism including Thinking in Pictures, The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Aspergers, and Emergence: Labeled Autistic.

Check out this short video for more info. Then rush on over to register for the webinar at http://links.discoveryeducation.com/templegrandin

April 13 7pm EDT See you there!

If you want a taste of what Dr. Grandin presents, check out her TED Talks speech from February 2010.