The Nutshell

For all of you who we had the pleasure of meeting today, thank you very much for joining us for the NECC Pre-Con.  Click here for the Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere presentation that I shared with you.  Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have questions.  Also, please leave me a comment with the wonderful things that you are doing with Discovery Education media and Google Earth.  Happy exploring!

Who ever said summer school isn’t fun?  Get ready for your school year with an amazing series of complimentary professional development sessions from the Discovery Educator Network (DEN). The series will run from August 3 through August 27 and will feature sessions on Digital Storytelling, School Leadership, Science and Web 2.0.  All of the sessions for the DEN Summer School Webinar Series begin at 11 AM ET.

 Register today at: Community.DiscoveryEducation.com/Webinar.

We’ve got some wonderful enhancements coming your way this fall!  Discover the undiscovered and learn about new content and functionality for the 2009-2010 school year.

Register today for a Discovery Education Back-to-School Preview webinar to learn all about the new enhancements to Discovery Education streaming that will be coming your way this summer.  We will be holding overviews every Tuesday and Thursday through the end of June at 1:00 and 7:00 eastern, and on Tuesdays in July at 1:00 eastern.  Hope to see you there

Ft Worth TX was the place to be on Friday as the Region 11 team hosted its annual Summer Media Adventure.  Molly and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with everybody and seeing all of the great ways that teachers are using digital media in the classroom.  For those of you who attended the 50 Ways to Integrate DE streaming session, you can click here for a copy of my presentation.  Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or if you have an idea that you would like us to share in future presentations!!!

Thanks to Kayla Steiner and the Region 11 crew for being such wonderful hosts (as usual)!!

Hello South Carolina!  I have attached the PowerPoint from our “Discovery Exciting Internet Tools” workshop below.  Be sure to let us know if you find any more sites that we can share with others!  Enjoy, and remember…there is so much more than the play button.  Happy exploring!!

Discover Exciting Internet Tools

If you ever want to visit a town that oozes with character, be sure to visit Manhattan Kansas, home of the K-State Wildcats! In addition to being the “Little Apple,” the streets are filled with purple passers by and some of the nicest students you will ever meet. Our time in Manhattan was filled with great opportunities to meet some wonderful educators, starting with a full room at the KS Day of Discovery on Wednesday and concluding with the MACE conference on Thursday and Friday. Thanks to Tanya Gray, Dean Mantz, Mary Frazier, Dan Brown and Jim Clark for being such wonderful hosts! For those of you who would like copies of the presentations that were shared, I have posted them for you below. Enjoy!

Discovery Education + Google Earth

95 educators traveled from as far as Flagstaff to spend their Saturday in beautiful Phoenix AZ for a Day of Discovery at Castro Middle School. The day started off with an inspiring message from Cathy Poplin followed by a journey into the digital media frontier. The day was fast and furious, but everybody went home with their first taste of the DEN and the support that it can bring to their classroom. On behalf of the Discovery Education team, I would like to thank Rosy Escandon and Vicki Schmidt, Ann Lumm and Alison Oswald-Keene for helping to make today such a wonderful day for all of us!!

The Texas Spirit Theater at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum lived up to its name as 172 educators representing 41 Independent School Districts, education service centers and independent schools assembled to learn how to use Discovery Education streaming to bring the world to their students.  The motto of the day, “satisfy your curiosity,” echoed throughout the museum as teachers, administrators and many others learned new ways to integrate digital media into their day.  Attendees learned strategies to make their multimedia presentations come alive, create engaging digital masterpieces with editable videos, pictures and audio, and integrate Discovery Education streaming into their classrooms.  Thanks to all who came from near and far to make this one of the biggest DEN events in Texas!

Austin Day of Discovery, Dec 6, 2008

Saturday was a day filled with new ideas and new connections…the perfect combination! Thanks to our presenters Diane Sidoroff, Arturo Guajardo and Howard Martin, we covered a LOT of material. 59 teachers walked away with strategies for digital storytelling, adding new life to PowerPoints and taking advantage of all of the opportunities that lay beyond the play button. Thanks again to our hosts in Austin ISD and Gus Garcia Middle School! Don’t forget: the STAR challenge is on the table and December 31st is sneaking up on us!

As promised, here are the materials from Saturday:

Beyond the Stream

Digital Storytelling (PC)

Digital Storytelling (Mac)

We had the perfect recipe for fun on Saturday for the Region 1 Day of Discovery including a full room, paper cow patties, ideas…ideas…and more ideas, playdough, and a crew keeping an eye on the TX/KS game for us! Seriously, it doesn’t get much better than this. On behalf of Linda, Brad and myself, we wanted to thank you for joining us! Your ideas, comments, and energy made for a wonderful Saturday. Thanks again to Maria Elena Ovalle and team for all that you did to make our time together a success. I’ve attached the files for you to download below. I will be adding Brad and Linda’s presentations shortly. Happy streaming!!

The Builders, Brick by Brick

Becoming a STAR Discovery Educator

Movie Maker Instructions

Photo Story 3 Instructions

Don’t forget…there are many more resources in professional development and in the Discovery Educator Network!