Louisiana DEN

Summer School with the DEN

The Problem: So, you’ve registered to attend one of the Back to School with DE webinars and now you are looking for great integration ideas for the enhanced DE media library.

The Solution: Join the DEN for summer school!

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). Community.DiscoveryEducation.com/Webinar

The DEN Summer School Webinar Series is packed with 16 webinars divided into four thematic strands: Digital Storytelling, School Leadership, Science, and Web 2.0.

Click on the link below to learn more about the webinar program.

de_den_summerwebinars.pdf

Back to School With Discovery Education

I know what you’re thinking . . . “we JUST finished the school year - I’m not ready to think about Back to School season!”

But, we have some really cool content and feature enhancements to Discovery Education that we want to share with our DEN community.  For those STARs who are conducting summer workshops and trainings, it’s a must to get a peak into the new interface and content types before the training.

We are inviting the DEN community to participate in a webinar to preview the new site enhancements and upgrades.

Click here to access the registration page for the Back to School webinar series.   (Note: These webinars are all the same; you only need to attend one to learn about the new launch.)

On May 30, 2009 we will host our first-ever DEN Geocaching Day!  Every STAR Discovery Educator is encouraged to venture out with some colleagues on May 30 and have some fun geocaching.  Do you want to join us.

So now that you have a resource to get you started, what exactly will the day look like?  Well, we have a group of DEN Guides (experienced geocachers) who have agreed to host events in their areas.

You can join one of the DEN Guides or if there isn’t an event in your area, we encourage you to form a group (and let us know) and give geocaching a try for the day.

The event in LA is being hosted by Louise Prejean in Lafayette.  If you are interested in joining Louise, please e-mail her at lprejean@louisiana.edu

No matter if you are going with a group or venturing out on your own, add your name to the list of DEN Geocachers at http://tinyurl.com/dl233t.  You might see someone in your area with whom you can connect.

On May 30, 2009 we will host our first-ever DEN Geocaching Day!  Every STAR Discovery Educator is encouraged to venture out with some colleagues on May 30 and have some fun geocaching.  Do you want to join us.

For muggles (non-geocachers) and pros alike, STAR Discovery Educators Bridget Belardi and Conni Mulligan will host a “Geocaching 101″ webinar to get us ready.  The webinar will answer the basic questions of “What is geoaching?” and “How do I get started?”  as well as emphasize the curricular connections of geocaching.

The webinar will be offered two more times:

• Wednesday, May 13, 2009 (7 PM EDT)
• Wednesday, May 27, 2009 (7 PM EDT)

Visit https://discoveryed.webex.com/ec0509l/eventcenter/event/eventAction.do?siteurl=discoveryed&theAction=listevents_date to register for one of the webinars.

So now that you have a resource to get you started, what exactly will the day look like?  Well, we have a group of DEN Guides (experienced geocachers) who have agreed to host events in their areas.

You can join one of the DEN Guides or if there isn’t an event in your area, we encourage you to form a group (and let us know) and give geocaching a try for the day.

The event in LA is being hosted by Louise Prejean in Lafayette.  If you are interested in joining Louise, please e-mail her at lprejean@louisiana.edu

No matter if you are going with a group or venturing out on your own, add your name to the list of DEN Geocachers at http://tinyurl.com/dl233t.  You might see someone in your area with whom you can connect.

As posted on the DEN Blog, we are gearing up for our Spring Virtual Conference.  Like last year, Louisiana is hosting a hybrid of the Virtual/Live Conference at certain locations.  If you are a DEN member and want to host a large or small event on Saturday, April 25, then join the webinar on Monday, March 30 to get further details.  If you have any questions, please contact your LC Chair, Susan Tompkins.  If you need incentive to join the VC, look at what we had to say about the last VC!

Spring Into Action at the DEN Virtual Conference
Spring Into Action with the DEN and join thousands of educators who are passionate about integrating media into their instruction and collaborating with each other to improve student achievement. During this unique (and free) professional development event you have the flexibility to attend online or in-person at one of many regional events hosted by the DEN Leadership Councils.

When?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
9 AM to 3 PM EDT
Where?
Wherever.
How much?
Free.

The day will feature a special presentation from Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in the School District of Philadelphia as well as a great lineup of sessions from STAR Discovery Educators and the DEN team.

Registration opens on Thursday, April 2.

On behalf of the Louisiana DEN and Leadership Council, we welcome our newest Discovery STAR Educators!  Let’s  “show and tell” others about how fantastic the DEN is.

• Stephanie Harper
• Robyn Foret
• Paige Falcon
• Charmaine Lewis
• Ellen Lyon

Leave a comment about what your favorite thing about the DEN happens to be…of course, you may not be able to choose just one!  Stay tuned to the National Blog as well as our LA Blog for information on upcoming webinars and the Spring Virtual Conference.  Details will be emailed and posted on the blogs!  Here’s to wishing everyone a fantastic ‘09!

If you haven’t already registered for LACUE, you still have time.  Registration is open onsite and your registration fee covers lots of extras:  Opening reception, some meals, and other things.  Join the LA STAR DEN members for a gathering on December 3 after the reception.  Details will be emailed to all LA STARs in the next week.  You may preview sessions by clicking on the LACUE Conference link.  Hope to see you there!

Hello Fellow Lousiana DEN Members!

Registration is now open for the Fall DEN Virtual Conference.  If you missed the VC last February, you really missed more than you probably think.  Where else can you get top-of-the line presentations from Discovery’s own team all in one day?  Even the Discovery National Institutes cannot give us that!  The best and brightest Discovery has to offer is available to every single one of us on October 25th.  Oh, and did I mention that the registration fee is complimentary, free, zip, zero, nada?  People pay big bucks to attend conferences that do not deliver half as much as the Virtual Conference!

You can view the session titles and times here to see what best fits your schedule.  We are expecting more attendees than last spring, so be prepared to have a great day teaming with other educators in our quest to be better informed of best practices and innovative processes!  Since it is a virtual conference, that means you can attend from any computer, anywhere.  Some sessions will be repeated in the afternoon, to take into account the time differences between the east and west coast so that means we actually have a choice of when we want to join in on most sessions.

Take a look at the conference offerings and plan to join in on a fantastic professional development day!  Come and go as you need, but do not miss this opportunity!

Check out this video on YouTube from Daniel Willingham. It has provoked serious thought in the education world. While we understand the point he is trying to make, it seems something is missing. Weigh in on your view and experience with Learning Styles. We would love to know what other DE’s think. Please leave your comments here.

Studeous is a beta platform for linking teachers to e-learning, similar to Blackboard and Moodle. It is free and seems to have the same features, from student level to administration level, as its counterparts. It may be worth checking out, since that it what I am planning to do. Please take some time to review it as well and let me know what you think. I will post my comments to this blog and ask that you do the same. Let’s see if we can get something going Louisiana!

From Studeous.com:

We believe every teacher in the world deserves an opportunity to use e-learning. By offering a system that is free, easier to use, and more useful than the highly priced existing enterprise solutions, we hope to commodify e-learning. This is a revolutionary idea in an industry that rarely sees such innovation, but it seems to be working well so far.

For all those who will be attending the DEN Regional Event at SMU August 1 and 2, the Texas DEN has started a wiki which includes a place to complete information if you are attending the regional conference. It is a good idea if educators from other states who will be attending the conference participate in the wiki, and if you want to find a roommate, you may find one there. The wiki is at http://texasden.wikispaces.com. Hope to see you there!