Louisiana DEN

As in years past, CDW-G & Discovery Education are teaming up to give us the opportunity to win a 21st Century Classroom.   And Discovery announced a partnership with SIEMENS to support Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics with teacher resources, including webinars, and the STEM Academy.   See the website for information how to apply for the STEM Academy & Institute designed for full immersion into learning best practices.  See more information here or at the hyperlinks listed above:

CDW-G and Discovery Education Announce Win a Wireless Lab 2010 Sweepstakes
CDW Government LLC (CDW-G), a leading source of Information Technology (IT) solutions to educators and governments, and Discovery Education, the leader in digital video and multimedia-based learning, today announced the opening of the eighth annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes.  The program gives K-12 schools nationwide the opportunity to win one of three grand-prize 21st-century classrooms.  Each classroom includes tablet or notebook computers, notebook cart, interactive whiteboard, student response system, projector, printer and document camera.  CDW-G and Discovery Education also provide on-site training to all Win a Wireless Lab grand-prize winners.

Siemens STEM Academy is a premier online community designed exclusively to foster achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) through the collaboration of STEM educators, and sharing of “best practices.”

DEN announces the first class of DEN Gurus. Over the past few months the great folks at DEN have been reviewing the applications for the inaugural class of DEN Gurus. They had a vast talent pool from which to select,  but they were finally able to select the winners.

·  Traci Blazosky Creative Construction with Multimedia Clarion Area School District, PA

·  Tim Childers Project Based Learning Bradley County Schools, TN

·  Patricia Duncan Science Wallenpaupack School District, PA

·  Lee Kolbert Personal Learning Networks Palm Beach County, FL

·  Nancy Sharoff Visual Literacy Ellenville Central Schools, NY 

Congratulations DEN Gurus!

Martin Luther King Day is Monday, January 18^th. Since my students just returned to school from their Christmas holiday on Monday the 11^th, I didn’t get to do any lessons about this great leader. After meeting with the other 4^th grade teachers I work with, we decided to do a black history unit in February.

As part of the unit I will be using the Discovery Streaming video American Heroes: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I will also be using the blackline masters that accompany this video. I appreciated that there is a pretest and a posttest included along with some great writing prompts.

I chose to use a Web 2.0 tool I haven’t tried before as a way to integrate more technology into my lesson. I have seen examples of how other educators have used Wallwisher and decide to give it a try. I created a Wallwisher where my students can post things they learn about MLK or ask questions they might have about him. Feel free to check out our “wall” and leave a comment.

  This past Saturday, January 9, was a great learning and sharing experience. Thanks to Lance Rougeux, Brad Fountain, Patti Duncan, Mike Bryant, Steve Dembo, and Hall Davidson (and anyone else I might have forgotten) for putting together another top-notch professional development opportunity for us who attended and those who will be using the archived sessions. The keynote “Polar Bears in a Changing Climate” was delivered by Julene Reed, the Director of Academic Technology at St. George’s IndependentSchool in Collierville, TN.  Julene is a STAR Discovery Educator and Apple Distinguished Educator. Here is a great document that was started by Lance and contributed to by many as the virtual conference was being presented. It is a Google document that contains many links to websites you might want to check out. Although the focus of Saturday’s sessions were science, I think everyone will find some links on this document that can be helpful for integrating Web 2.0 tools in other subjects.I’m already looking forward to the next DEN virtual conference which will take place in April. Stay tuned for more info about lessons learned from SCICon 2010 and links to the archives.

I just show a tweet about another Top Ten List. I love these kind of lists so I opened the link and was taken to Times Online list of The 10 best educational websites. I scanned quickly down to see which websites made the list. Discovery got the nod at #4. Go Discovery. The competition is an awesome list of websites that every educator should have bookmarked. I feel very proud to be associated with the Discovery team.

Susan Tompkins, Louisiana LC Chair, did an awesome job of hosting the annual “Dining with the STARS” dinner. It was held at Shucks on Wednesday, December 2 at 7 pm. There were about 25 people in attendance and I got to meet the rest of the LALC face-to-face. Susan Tompkins, Susan Gauthier, and Cindy Wallace were very welcoming to me and it is great to be able to put faces and names together. Hopefully the guests liked what they saw and heard and will become STARS.     

Congratulations to Louisiana LC Events Coordinator Cindy Wallace for being name the Region VII LACUE Secondary Teacher nominee and to Louisiana LC Blog Coordinator Susan Gauthier for being named the Region II LACUE Special Person nominee.  Join us in celebrating their awards and to cheer them on in the State Competition at LACUE on December 3 in Baton Rouge.  We hope to see many new faces stop by the TLTC booth, attend our sessions, or attend the Dining With The STARS gathering on December 2.   Check your email for details.   Leave a comment to let Susan & Cindy know they have the support of all of our fantastic Louisiana Discovery Educators!

The Louisiana Leadership Council is STAR-Struck by the activities for our DEN members!. We recently hosted two face-to-face Virtual Conference sessions in North and South Louisiana, presented at Regional & State Conferences, and will be teaming up at LACUE (Dec. 2-4). We are planning more exciting activities, so for more STAR Scoop, keep checking our Louisiana Blog…who needs E! 

Meet Your LA LC CoSTARS~

Skype http://skype.com is a site I use to call other teachers around the country and around the world. Paula Naugle, a 4th grade teacher with a passion for technology. She has over thirty years of classroom experience and is involved with training other teachers how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into their lessons. She is a PBWorks certified teacher and a new member of the Louisiana Discovery Educator Network Blog team for the Louisiana Leadership Council.

Tag Galaxy http://taggalaxy.de/ is a site that I use to browse through Flickr photos in 3D. Susan Gauthier, Educational Technology Consultant, develops and supports several professional development programs (Regional TLTCs, LILI, EIT, ProEx, LaTEL, Essentials) at the Louisiana Department of Education. Susan has eighteen years in education, including ten years in Louisiana classrooms and eight years of coordinating educational technology programs for the Department of Education. She is a proud member of the Louisiana Discovery Educator Network as the Blog Coordinator.

Animoto  http://animoto.com is a site that I use to enhance and engage teaching and learning. Susan Tompkins, Technology Facilitator and Mathematics & Web Design Teacher, uses technology with her students daily.  She is an advocate for professional development and speaks at conferences about the impact of 21st Century Teachers.  Susan has eight years in education, is an Intel Master Instructor, and will graduate in May from Northwestern State University with a Master’s in Educational Technology.  She is an inaugural year member of the Discovery Educator Network and enthusiastically serves as the Louisiana Leadership Council Chair and was awarded a DENny Leadership Award in 2009.

Rowdii  http://rowdii.com is a site that I use to add comments to any website as well as link related sites together. Cindy Wallace won a classroom makeover from Promethean and uses technology with her students daily.  She is a Mathematics and ActivBoard Teacher, and serves as an Assistant Principal.  She is an inspired member of the Discovery Educator Network and actively serves as the Louisiana Leadership Council Events Coordinator.

Calling All STARS!  It is up to you to help spread the word…and find new recruits!  The Louisiana Leadership Council is heading to Baton Rouge December 2-4 for the state LACUE Conference.  If you have not registered for the conference yet, click here.  If you are planning on attending the conference, please join us for an Evening With The STARS on December 2.  If you would like to attend the dinner, all we ask is that you are a STAR member and that you bring a prospective DEN member.  If you are up for the challenge, please fill out this form to let us know you are coming.  Your LA LC has been travelling the state meeting new Discovery Educators and helping others become STAR Discovery Educators.   Just in case you have missed some of our past events, here are a few highlights from our 2 in person Virtual Conference events.

We are linking up with NASA today for a guest session for the in-person event at Evangel.  Evangel has been using the application, “Distance Learning…as only NASA can” at their school for a while and is gracious enough to share the connection with the rest of us!

NASA offers four different programs through the videoconferencing.  NASA believes in engaging the learner so the process is interactive. NASA believes, “Delivering interactive instruction in support of Long-term retention of knowledge. “   They are available before, during, and after school as well as Saturday.  The NASA program is willing to be flexible to help out educators with “one-stop shopping.”  You can reach it at http://dln.nasa.gov

NASA has on-demand programs as well and can schedule a program for your needs.  You can search by subject, keyword, etc.  One example is their program, “Can Shoeboxes Fly?”   Imagine the strength you can add to your lessons and learning with this resource!  They also offer professional development for educators!  Too cool to miss!