Meg’s Musings

Interesting article shared by Jen Dorman this morning from NYT .  I know, as an elementary , (primary and intermediate) vocabulary is a strong indicator of reading strength. The Report of the National Reading Panel  (2000), for example, concluded ” the importance of vocabulary knowledge in the development of reading skills. As early as 1924, researchers noted that growth in reading power relies on continuous growth in word knowledge.The more words a child knows (uses & recognizes) the better they read.” (pp. 4-15).  Through wide independent reading, students come in contact with more literary vocabulary than they ever could or would through spoken conversations. Unfortunately this becomes a vicious cycle affecting the weaker students. The more the students read, the more vocabulary they learn, the less a student reads, the farther behind she falls. My questions are this:

Do children who are computer literate but no so literate in the world of text acquire as much new vocabulary as the textually literate? Does it matter?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

We had a great sneak peek today of a new Discovery show, The Comet’s Tale.  Producer John  Grassie, who incidentally was just nominated for an Emmy for Human Body,

introduced us to this cool new show. Good luck John! The videos and graphics were incredible! We had a chance to share our perspectives, as educators, for “backing students into” more difficult content.  How cool is that?!! Someone asked and listened to educator’s opinions. I just love Discovery….Boom de yada!

I would spend it on all the cool tools and sites shared so far at DEN National Institute. The networking has been incredible (not to mention a lot of laughs and songs  “Silver Bells, Silver Bells…”.) We had a great tour of Washington DC and the monuments tonight. The night was lovely before the rain came strong and hard! One minor mishap but we believe all will be okay.  We all returned safely to the hotel but couldn’t pull ourselves away from some more networking over beverages and ice cream. Question of the chat: How does YOUR district handle Internet safety and appropriate use? When do they start? What do they cover? Share your thoughts.

Patty  Duncan and I are sitting next to each other as Steve Dembo wraps up his DEN blog presentation. we just figured out how to upload a picture in an appropriate size (see last post). We also learned how to add new widgets. In our celebration we tried to high five each other and realized that we are no longer functioning in the real world and need the html code for high fiving!

     The fun not only continued on day two but it ramped way up. I feel like I need to delete something from my brain to make room for all the new stuff I am learning! Today I went to super-cool sessions on Google Earth (Thanks Hall for the floating head!),  multimedia presentations (Who knew that learning homophones could be so much fun?!), and one of my favs so far….geocaching. Geocaching is a cool new sport – technology integration of modern day treasure hunting. It’s a great way to integrate fun, adventure, exercise, outdoors, technology…you name it. Thanks Bridget Belardi  (PA DEN) for introducing us to this!!  Stay tuned for Carnivale news…Which favorite DEN leader leads a second life as Zoldar? Who is the DEN leader with the best buns? These and other questions will be answered next blog. 

       Day one of Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute….Wow! That’s a mouthful and every syllable is well deserved. A leisurely lunch was followed with renewing acquaintances and meeting new colleagues. Pennsylvania DEN, all 12 of us, toured One Discovery with our own Geeky Bird, Matt Monjan.  During our tour we snapped lots of pictures to create our own DEN Boom de Yada.  After a few extensions, thanks Lance, we settled in for the showing. What an amazing display of collaboration and digital media….not to mention  FUN!! Dinner and bed? Oh no!! Dinner was followed by dessert sessions. Yes, Lance, the key lime pie was awesome! But even better were the moviemaker shout out, animoto, closed captioning, and GIMP sessions. Cool new tools…and there are four more days!!