New Jersey

…K-E-Y…Why?  Because we like you!  OK, I’m done with the shameless song cliche

We hope you are going to be able to attend NECC 2007 in Atlanta this June- It’s sure to be filled with AMAZING opportunities for learning & getting to know your fellow DEN members better.

Please visit the DEN National Home Blog to answer a super-quick survey regarding your possible plans for attending NECC (It will literally take you about 3 seconds, tops!).  The more DEN members that respond, the better our fearless leaders will be able to plan the best events possible for us all to attend pre & post-conference.

Hope to see you there!

Please visit the Virginia DEN site today to share your thoughts & prayers for the Virginia Tech Community.  Together, we can make a difference.

Discovery Educator Network
has decided to join other Virginia Tech families across the country who
have
united to declare this Friday, April 20th, an “ Orange and Maroon
Effect” day
to honor those killed in the tragic events on campus Monday, and to
show support
for Virginia Tech students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and
friends.  To support those effected, the color scheme of all DEN blogs
will be changed to orange and maroon from Friday-Monday.  We encourage
you to leave comments, messages of support or any general thoughts.

Yours in Sympathy-

The NJ DEN Leadership Council

If you haven’t tried out Twitter yet, they’ve added a few new cool tools, like a personalized Twitter Badge you can embed in your own blog-

Check it out- Have Fun- Then think about how you could possibly use it with your students…

Here’s my badge:

Thought I’d share Steve Dembo’s most recent post (the video below) from his DEN blog, Digital Passports- If you haven’t been there yet, you really should go get your passport stamped…

Thanks for the inspiration/motivation, Steve!

Here’s my comment to his post (visit Steve’s DEN blog to read others- great energy there!)

"Just the VOLUME of comments so soon on this post should tell us all
point blank how effective MEDIA RICH learning really is!!! No offense
Steve, because your text-based posts are always awesome:), but how many
of us felt COMPELLED to respond to this post much quicker than usual?
Asks yourselves- Why? Because of the Mode of Transmission of the
Content! With great deference to Hall’s blog… MEDIA MATTERS!! As
teachers, we all need to get out of Our comfort zone & try our
Student’s world on for size:)- We might actually find out that we like
it (AND we might actually engage more of our students-WOW)!"

Tomorrow is the last day to apply for the Summer 2007 DEN National Intitutes.
The application process is SO SIMPLE- I’d hate for you to miss a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY because you didn’t think you’d have enough time to apply.  Just click here to apply (it’ll take less time then watching what happened to Sanjaya on American Idol last night!)

Good Luck &  Hope to See You There!!

Photo courtesy:Dreamstime.com

Make the world a little smaller by joining your DEN colleagues in a new & exciting place this summer.  The
DEN National Institutes are unique opportunities for STAR Discovery
Educators to get together for intensive professional development
opportunities in fun, collaborative environments.

Discovery Headquarters, Silver Spring, MD
June 18-22

Bahamas Cruise, leaving from Port Canaveral, FL
July 14-19

University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
August 6-10

The deadline for applications is April 13.  Check the blog for all the details.Don’t Miss This Opportunity!!

Photo courtesy: Flickr.com

Have you reported in for Spring Training yet?  Log your event and help drive up the score!  STARs who report at least three events by June 1 will get an officially licensed DEN baseball cap.  Click here to learn more.  I know we are all super-crazy-busy these days, but your DEN leaders have made it EASIER than EVER to report your events.  Make sure you reward yourself for all the hard work you do!

If you weren’t able to attend (tear), Wednesday night was the latest installment of EdTechConnect.  Hall Davidson presented more AMAZING features of the latest version of GoogleEarth.  This thing just keeps getting better & better!

Check out Hall’s post at Media Matters for details & to download the ppt presentation (definately check out the info on GoogleLitTrips- a wonderful example of what creative DEN teachers can do when they work together. Always remember-two DEN minds are better than one, & all DEN minds together- now that’s a scary creative proposition:)

Don’t forget to register for upcoming EdTechConnect Webinars.  They are a great way to stay connected to your inspirational colleagues!

Upcoming Webinars

April 11: unitedstreaming 24/7 with Lance Rougeux
Seven creative, yet simple ways to take unitedstreaming to the next level. You’ll learn an integration idea for each day of the week and have a lot to share with your colleagues.

April 18: Widgetizing the Builders with Steve Dembo
April 25: Do you Have the Audacity to Podcast? with Jannita Demian

Register here for EdTechConnect.

Welcome Back!

(Feel free to start humming the theme to Welcome Back, Kotter now, but don’t be mad at me when you’ve still got it in your head 5 hours from now!)

After much anticipation, the NJ DEN is back, & will be better than ever- but only with your help!  We’ve got a Leadership Council (see the powerpoint presentation below), but that’s just the beginning.  We are here to answer questions & offer direction, but ultimately our goal is to help all of you- our fellow NJ DEN members- to keep the connections going  with the rest of the DEN Community and to keep the creative juices flowing.  With great deference to Jerry McGuire- "Help us, help you!" 

Stay tuned for email updates & blog postings from your LC about upcoming events, but PLEASE keep us informed as well, about what you’ve got going on, what you know is going on elsewhere, & what you would like to see going on.  Also, we welcome all of you to participate in this (our state’s) blog as guest authors.  Just email Heather Sullivan whenever you’re interested in posting something yourself, or when you’ve got an idea for a post you’d like to pass along!

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for the DEN- Oh, the places we will go!!!

Yours in Discovery-

Beverly Plein, Chair

Heather Sullivan, Blog Coordinator

Tonya Wilson, Events Coordinator

Click here to download the ppt