Geekybird

Ok so the GEEKYBIRD was searching the net the other day in search of interactive, neat, easy, and free templates that you could use in your classroom.

Here is a five of the coolest ones that he found:

EclipseCrossword.com
With over 2,000,000 downloads it goes without saying…this tool is pretty cool. EclipseCrossword is a fast, easy, free way to create crossword puzzles in minutes.  As the site says,  you can use crosswords to review vocabulary and lessons for all subjects.  And these crosswords can be printed or uploaded to your teacher website and/or blog.

Powerpoint Templates Galore
I found this site and fell in love with their templates.  They’ve got templates from Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader to Wheel of Fortune, to Jeopardy and more!

Dr. Jeff Etzberger’s Microsoft Office game templates
Here you’ll find links to games built in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.  He’s even got a few countdown timers that you can download and use.

Quizlet.com
This site is super cool and super free.  It lets you create flash cards that you can download or embed in your blog or website It also has thousands of flashcards already created for you!  Check out this game I created with Quizlet: Drag corresponding items on top of other to make them disappear.  What was your best time?

Wordle.net
This free site lets you create word clouds that you can download or embed in your blog or website.  Here is a quick example

The Discovery Education product development team is constantly looking for ways to make Discovery Education streaming better and better.

And you guys play an important role in the direction of our site!  Along that vein our Product Development team is hosting a Focus Group Webinar tomorrow evening at 5pm EST.  It will be open to teachers from around the country.  During the webinar they’ll be seeking feedback on a redesign of the My DE page.

So if you would like to provide feedback to the team and leave your stamp on the new page, please sign up for the webinar and give us your two cents!

To keep it manageable we’re going to tap the roster at 20.

To sign up all you have to do is click here and follow the registration steps.  As always - thank you so much for your support!

Each Thanksgiving my family goes around the dinner table and lists one thing that they are thankful for.  Usually, I’m just thankful that we’re finally allowed to eat!  And can you blame me?  I am not allowed to eat until everyone has been served their mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, turkey, beans, and…well the list goes on.  But the really hard part is fitting all that food on my plate.

And like that table o’plenty, DE streaming offers thousands of images, videos, sounds, and more to satisfy our appetite for knowledge.   For that I am truly thankful.

But I’m also thankful for the Assignment, Quiz and Writing Prompt Builders which are three ways that you can put all of your digital stuff on one virtual plate.   You can find the “Builders” by logging into www.discoveryeducation.com, clicking on DE streaming, and then the Teacher Center.”

The Writing Prompt Builder gives you the ability to find images, videos (full and segmented), and clip art from the site and create a writing assignment for your students.  Your students can then access and respond to your prompt from any computer that has access to the internet  like a learning center, your library, a lab, or even at home.

The Quiz Builder, like the Writing Prompt Builder, gives you access to images, videos (full and segmented),  and clip art.  But it also lets you tie in speeches and sound files to multiple choice, true/false and essay questions that you design.  You can even choose to have video play before a question appears or, if you would like, appear if the student gets the question wrong!  Your students can then access and quiz from any computer that has access to the internet  like a learning center, your library, a lab, or even at home.

Finally, if the Writing Prompt and Quiz builders were the stuffing, the Assignment Builder would be the grand turkey - because you can stuff anything into this builder!  You can create assignments that include quizzes, writing prompts, images, video, calendar events, articles and more.  Basically if you can find it inside DE streaming you can put it into an Assignment!  You can even include links to other websites and create your own webquest.  Of course, your students can then access and respond to your prompt from any computer that has access to the internet  like a learning center, your library, a lab, or even at home.

If you’re feeling stuffed or slightly overwhelmed, don’t worry!  Here is a link to a PowerPoint that will show you, screen shot by screen shot, how to create each of the Builders described above.

It seems that as soon as the last Harry Potter, Dora the Explorer and, if you’re my 11 year-old neighbor, Artemis, left my door and, the last bits of candy in my trick or treat bowl were barely empty, that the Christmas advertisements were already rolling on my TV.

By the way, if you’re asking yourself who the heck is Artimis?  So was I.   Apparently she was the twin sister of Apollo, (told to me with a heavy sigh and eyes rolling back - seriously how was I supposed to guess that one?)

So, having said that, let’s talk about all of the good stuff that is going on this month!

I’m really excited to go to Howard County on November 11, 2008 to deliver a professional development session on our brand new Discovery Education Science product.

That Saturday, I’m hanging out with my friends over in Prince George’s County on November 15, 2008 for their 12th Annual Powering Up With Technology Conference at Dr. Henry A . Wise Jr. High School.

I’m delivering three sessions there:

• Here, There, and Everywhere - From Your Chair: Technology for Administrators
• Bend it, Break it, Bust it Loose - 10 Ways DE streaming Can Change the “Established” Model 
• Building a Bigger Builder - Your Guide to The DE streaming Tools

If you are interested in learning more about these sessions or would like me to deliver them at your next inservice -just let me know!

On November 17th I’m back in Howard County and Montgomery County to deliver professional development sessions on Discovery Education streaming.

That pretty much takes us up to the Thanksgiving week and then, before you know it, we’re into December.  Probably about the same time my little next door neighbor comes back dressed as Saint Knut or some other obscure holiday reference singing carols and expecting a tasty treat in return.

But that, my friends,  is for another post.

We just found out we have 50 free tickets to the Green Festival in DC this weekend!

If you would like to attend please let me know how many tickets you need and where to send them.  You can e-mail me by clicking on this link.

Here’s the thing - the event is this Saturday - so if you would like to go please let me know by 3pm on Thursday, November 6, 2008 so that we can mail you your tickets.

More Details:
Green Festival Washington DC
http://www.greenfestivals.org/

Saturday, Nov. 8th (10-7pm)
Sunday, Nov. 9th (11-6pm)

Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place - NW
Washington, DC 20001

Discovery Education is happy to host you at this event; however, please consult your ethics official to ensure that no state laws, local laws, or school district rules your acceptance of costs or promotional materials associated with this event.

Discovery Connect is proud to provide you and your students the opportunity to learn from a true American hero, U.S. Air Force Major Paul Moga of the Air Combat Command’s 1st Fighter Wing. Paul “Max” Moga is the host of Showdown: Air Combat, a Military Channel series which offers amazing insight into the aircraft’s,the weaponry and ground-breaking tactics employed in some of the most compelling historical dogfights. During this one hour webinar, he will be sharing his knowledge and expertise of all forms of aircraft from throughout history all the way up to today’s cutting-edge F-22 Raptor. Max has logged over 250 combat flying hours and currently serves as an operational F-22a instructor pilot and the air Combat Command F-22a demonstration pilot assigned to the 1st Operations Group, 1st Fighter Wing out of Langley Air Force Base.

During this webinar, students will have the opportunity to hear directly from Max live and in real time. They’ll be able to ask him questions about his experiences and learn what it’s really like to be both a U.S. Air Force Major as well as host of a TV series.

The only hardware required to participate is a computer and speakers. Or connect a projector and sound system, and share it with other classes in the school auditorium! Previous Discovery Connect webinars have been attended by thousands of students form around the world.

To attend this webinar, with or without your students, simply follow this link and register!

Well guys this is kinda super cool - and it is only going to get cooler.  We’ve upgraded the reporting functionality within DE streaming so that you can really zoom in and see usage like you’ve never seen it before.

Within the new reports you now have the ability to see who is creating and accessing Writing Prompts, Quizzes, and Assignments, sound files, and images- all at the user, school and district levels!  In addition you can run a report to see what the top non-video assets are being accessed by the school and district level.

And if that isn’t the cat’s meow, you can also see the top video and video segments streamed and/or downloaded accessed at the school and district level.

As an Administrator - how cool are these reports?  How easy will it be to walk the halls and know that in classroom 2A they are probably working on a writing prompt or watching a video on xyz?

By the way, for those keeping score at home, within DE streaming we have one full video, one video segment, one article and three images related to the keyword search “xyz.”  And you wonder why I have the name Geekybird?

All of these reports can be generated to in web-based, pdf, xls, csv and rtf formats.

Of course I’ve created a ppt for you to that will walk you through the “how to’s” of  creating and running these reports.  I’ve posted it within the Bird House but also made it available to you right here :->Running Reports Within Admin - New and Improved!

Enjoy and happy reporting!

 

Calling all sea-faring Stars.  We’re back at it again - this time catching stars for some really cool prizes.  As you may have read on super cool blog sites like the PA DEN Blog, the DEN fleet has left the harbor and is looking for a bountiful fall harvest of STARs from all around the country. It’s a short season and the six DEN captains, well really just ONE MID-ATLANTIC captain needs your help catching new STARs.

 

If you recruit a new STAR by December 1, 2008 and report your catch, you can pick from the following:

 

• Deadliest Catch Season 4 DVD set
• Planet Earth: The Filmmaker’s Story
• Mythbusters Season 4 DVD set

In addition the crew that recruits the most STARs will walk away with bragging rights and a very special DENliest Catch chicklet to post on their blogs, websites and email signatures.

Meet your captains:

Kim Randall guides the Wild and Wacky Western
AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR and WA

Justin Karkow commands the Center of Attention
AZ, KS, MO, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, UT and WY

Mike Bryant skippers the Dawn Treader
IA, IL, IN, MI, MN and WI

Dennis Swain leads the Northeastern
CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI and VT

Matt Monjan navigates the high seas with MPEG: Queen of the Mid-Atlantic
DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA and VA

Brad Fountain captains the Southern STARs
AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN and WV

So who is with me maties? Who is ready to take home the big prize this fall?

Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge Empowers Students to Create “Green Solution”

Middle School Launch Marks the First Phase of Nationwide K-12 Sustainability Initiative

Prizes include Regional and National Recognition, Cash and an Appearance on Discovery’s Planet Green Television Network–

(NEW YORK) – Starting today, middle school students across the United States are being encouraged to “go green” and team up for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, the first and only national

K-12 sustainability education initiative aligned to education standards and uniquely tailored to match students’ growing comprehension abilities throughout their school-aged years.

The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have partnered on this unprecedented initiative to educate, empower and engage students, teachers and communities to become “Agents of Change” in improving their community. Student teams from sixth through eighth grade, under the mentorship of a teacher or adult supervisor, can register for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge at www.wecanchange.com.

Teams of two to three students will identify an environmental issue in their community, research the issue using scientific investigation, and create a replicable green solution using web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education. The mentors of the first 100 teams to register and complete a project for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will receive an award-winning Planet Earth series DVD set.  Submissions from middle school students will be accepted through March 15, 2009. The initiative expands to elementary schools in 2009 and to high schools in 2010.

“The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will inspire students across the nation to clearly see the impact science can make in their very own schools and communities,” said James Whaley, President, Siemens Foundation. “It will support the next generation of scientists and engineers and encourage students to use their natural curiosity to produce results that have a real impact in the world. We are proud to partner with Discovery Communications and NSTA on this unprecedented initiative.”

A total of 51 teams representing each state and the District of Columbia will be selected as state finalists and an additional 50 teams will be eligible for honorable mention awards.  Three of the state finalist teams will be selected as national finalists, and one of those will be named the grand prize-winner. State finalist and national finalist teams will be announced in Spring 2009.

All student teams entering the Middle School Challenge will receive prizes for their participation; top-performing teams, as judged by a panel of environmental experts and science educators, will earn cash, teacher education materials and unique “Discovery Experience” trips. The grand prize winning team will receive a comprehensive prize package, which includes an appearance on Planet Green, Discovery’s 24-hour eco-lifestyle network and a once-in-a-lifetime Discovery Adventure Trip, accompanied by a Discovery TV personality.

Hosted on a solar-powered server, the web-based Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will serve as an essential resource for both students and team advisors. Teams can take part in virtual interactive labs, share ideas through an online journal, watch Discovery Education video clips, take an environmental IQ quiz, and much more! Rich environmental lesson plans are also available for teachers to use in their classrooms. More information, including entry details, registration and Frequently Asked Questions, can be found at www.wecanchange.com.

Just a quick post to let you know that I’ve added a couple of new presentations for you.

Many teachers and students are already in or are returning back to school.

To help introduce your new DE streaming users (or serve as a refresher) to the site,  I have created two presentations and saved them to the Bird House.

The first presentation - Getting The Ball Rolling - takes you through the steps of creating a username/password, provides a definition of a passcode, and more.

The second presentation -DE streaming Scavenger Hunt - takes you on a treasure hunt through DE streaming,  helps you create a PowerPoint presentation, and outlines the steps to becoming a DEN Star!  By completing this scavenger hunt you will be able to successfully navigate the site - I promise!

I hope that you find these two presentations helpful.

Welcome back and I wish you much success in your new school year!