New Jersey

eInstruction is excited to announce that their third annual Classroom Makeover Video Contest is in full effect and will run until November 10, 2009.

This year, the contest is limited to U.S. K-12 educators only.
Prizes worth more than $30,000 will be awarded in three categories: Grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
To enter, educators must submit a 2.5-minute music video showing the benefits of a technology-driven classroom. You can create a parody of an existing song or come up with something all your own. A panel of judges will select a winning video in each category and announce the winners in December.  For an entry form and the complete rules, and to view the video entries, go to www.eimakeover.com.

BrainyFlix.com is running VOCAB CONTESTS GALORE in conjunction with MIT.

What this means for your students is the opportunity to learn SAT & ACT vocabulary AND to compete to win prizes- i.e. cash, iTunes, and maybe more.

First up- the Brainypics Flashcard Contest! 

Brainypics submitted between NOW and DECEMBER 7, 2009 will compete for a $200 Grand Prize with half of the money going to the Brainypic creator and the other half to his or her school. The winner will be announced on Dec. 10, 2009.

* How will the winner be chosen? Every week, 5 favorite Brainypics will be chosen, and those 5 will qualify for the final round of judging. The contest lasts 10 weeks, so the winner will be choosen out of 50 total Brainypics. (By the way, they are looking for guest judges. Please be in touch if you are interested in judging!)
* Uhhh, what is a Brainypic? You can see it here: Brainyflix.com.
* Who can participate? ANYONE!
* How many times can you submit a Brainypic? As many times as you want! You could possibly have more than 1 Brainypic in the final round of judging if you are rocking it every week. And on top of that, you’ll receive 1 free 99 cent iTunes song for every 5 Brainypics you submit.
* Will there be runner-up prizes? YES. BrainyFlix really likes giving stuff away! They will pick 10 runner ups. Last year the runners-up got iTunes gift cards.

For full details, go to http://www.brainyflix.com/main/contest_rules.

Have Fun, Good Luck & Happy Learning

Well, it’s official- our adventure in China is right around the corner. How do I know? Last night I had my first official China “panic” dream. What’s a “panic” dream? I’m sure you’ve had them before- you probably just call them something else. You know, the dreams you start having a few weeks before school starts, where you:

• forget about your class schedule and students are sitting in your room waiting for you all day…
• not realize you were signed up for a course, then have to take the final exam without ever having been in the class…
• are not able to remember ANY of your students’ names…

I think you get the picture now =:0

Everyone has their passports & visas, so now we are just waiting to have our next teacher conference call on July 23rd. I’m really excited to compare checklists with Brett Harvey & Rita Mortensen (the other 2 DEN teachers coming on the trip) and talk about essential questions & “lesson plans” for our students to focus on during our trip.

You can follow all of our adventures at:

http://dsachina.blogspot.com 

If you use the “join this site” widget on the right-hand sidebar, you can get updates whenever new info is posted.  Also, I really encourage you to become followers of the student blogs.  They are linked on the right sidebar as well.  Discovery is running a contest for the students to encourage blog use.  The student who ends up with the most followers to their blog by trip time (August 1st) will win a 16G iTouch!

Anyone have any funny “panic” dreams to share? If you can identify and have any stressful dreams of your own, please share!

P.S. Special thanks to DEN Star Heather Hurley (H270) for the link to the flickr tool I used@ the start of this post.  Check it out!  It’s super-easy & fun Spell With Flickr

I really hope that you can take advantage of the AMAZING opportunity!

from the DEN National Blog:

A virtual drum roll please… We are thrilled to officially open the application process for the Discovery Student Adventures Pilot Program.

Join us as we discover more of our incredible planet earth together with adventure trips to Australia, South Africa, and China. In order to participate in this pilot trip, you must be a STAR Discovery Educator. Not only are you able to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity, each STAR selected will be able to choose four of their students to join them on the adventure!  This is at no cost to you or your students!

So with no further ado… here’s the official wording and post importantly the link to apply.

In 2010, Discovery Education will launch Discovery Student Adventures, education-based international trips to eight destinations including: Arctic, Australia, China, Cost Rica, Ecuador/Galapagos Islands, Italy/Greece, New Zealand/Fiji Islands, and South Africa.

To effectively integrate educator feedback into these inaugural trips, a select group of educators will have the opportunity to travel with Discovery in the summer of 2009 as part of a one-time special opportunity to pilot a Discovery Student Adventure trip.

Educators will serve as chaperones to a group of students, and once selected for a trip, will also be an integral part of selecting the students for these pilot trips. Travel program will be at no cost to the selected educators and students. We are looking for educators that teach 5th through 12th grade.

We invite you to fill out an application for the opportunity to travel with us, giving us your thoughts and opinions along the way to help make Discovery Student Adventures a unique, premiere student travel program that brings the world to life for students and the teachers who lead the trips.

Australia
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 – Thursday, June 11, 2009
Description: Melbourne, Ayers Rock, Townsville, Great Barrier Reef

South Africa
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Description: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kruger National Park

China
Tuesday August 4, 2008 – Tuesday, August 18, 2008
Description: Beijing, Chengde, Luoyang

Travel Dates are estimates only and subject to change.

To apply please visit https://discoverystudentadventures.wufoo.com/forms/pilot-program-application/

The application will be closed on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 5 pm PST. All applicants will be informed of their status by April 1, 2009.

Know a NJ Teacher Who Rocks?  

Garden State Teacher Awards Program

Who is eligible?

Nominated teachers must be full-time classroom teachers  at a public or non-public school in New Jersey. For the 2008-2009 school year, teachers must spend the majority of their assignment time teaching students in grades Pre-K to 3^rd grade, 4^th to 8^th grade, or 9^th through 12^th grade. Nominate a teacher

Teachers may be nominated between November 10, 2008 and February 20, 2009. Anyone may nominate a teacher but teachers may not nominate himself or herself. The Greater media New Jersey “Teachers Committee” will select 72 teachers from the final nominations. Nomination forms are available online at Greater Media radio stations: WDHA [http://www.wdhafm.com/]; WMTR [http://www.wmtram.com/]; WMGQ [http://www.magic983.com/]; WRAT [http://www.wrat.com/]; WJRZ [http://www.wjrz.com/].

Winners will be honored at an awards banquet, receive special gifts, and will become lifetime members of the program.

I just can’t say it enough, so I’ll say it again now- EVERYONE learns through stories. That’s why digital storytelling is such a powerful learning/teaching tool! With that in mind, I found out today about an exciting new way that digital storytelling is being used in education.

I received a message this morning from a classroom 2.0 colleague:

I was wondering if you, your educator contacts or students would be interested in participating in a nationwide Vocab Video Contest @ MIT university. We’d really like to get more students involved from NJ! You can view contest details at BrainyFlix.com. Thanks!

So I checked out the contest details & it looks like a really fun and DO-ABLE digital storytelling project.  Here are the basic contest rules:

• Make a video about any SAT/ACT vocabulary word of your choosing from this list. On that list, they show you how many videos have been submitted for each word. You are encouraged to choose one without any videos submissions.

• 1 video for 1 word, but you can make as many videos as you want.

• Anyone can enter the competition! Just remember that part of the prize money has to go to a U.S. high school or middle school of your choosing.

• All voting will happen at BrainyFlix.com, so make sure your video includes the following text: “Vote for this video at www.BrainyFlix.com/xxxxx”. And substitute the “xxxxx” with your vocab word.

• Important contest dates:
  • Video submission opens: 1/1/2009
  • Video submission ends: 3/16/2009
  • Voting opens: 3/23/2009
  • Voting ends: 4/5/2009
  • Winners announced: 4/13/2009

The Word List is rich and organized alphabetically ( I had a hard time remembering what some of the words mean :))  Here’s an example video that the contest coordinators, a group of MIT alumni, created:

If SAT vocabulary prep is part of your curriculum, I strongly encourage you to give thsi contest a shot eith your students.  Let’s do our part to get NJ well-represented!  Good Luck & remember to share your videos with us

EduBlog Awards: Vote Now!
The EduBlog awards are open for voting now and the DEN STARs are shining bright as always!  Please take some time to vote for your fellow STARs.

Best Educational Use of a Virtual World: DEN in Second Life
Best Classroom Blog: Dave Kootman’s Class
Best Teacher Blog: Vicki Davis (CoolCatTeacher)
Best Individual Blog: Jen Dorman and Steve Dembo
Best EdTech Support Blog: Steve Dembo

To vote, go to http://edublogawards.com.

Together We Have Earth-Saving Powers is a contest that Liberty Science Center and ParentGuide have created to make every child an eco superhero! Children ages 12 and under can submit drawings, paintings or photographs showing their “Earth-Saving Powers” such as recycling, taking mass transit and reminding friends and family to use canvas shopping bags. First prize is a class field trip to Liberty Science Center for up to 40 people. Second prize is a Super-Powers party at the Center. Every child receives a prize for entering – a free visit to Liberty Science Center! Entries must be received by December 19, 2008.

Find out about more details and entry rules

(NEW YORK- July 28th) – The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Communications and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have joined together to inspire student achievement in sustainability through a comprehensive education initiative, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. Announced today, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is an unprecedented partnership between three industry leading organizations that are committed to educating, empowering and engaging students, teachers and communities in environmental sustainability.

Kicking off the 2008 school year in September, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge
is the first and only national K12 sustainability education initiative aligned to state education
standards and uniquely tailored to match students’ growing comprehension abilities throughout their
school aged years. By partnering with Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, which provides scientifically proven, standards based digital media tools and resources to classrooms nationwide, and the NSTA, the largest science teacher organization in the world dedicated to improving science education and increasing student learning by engaging all teachers of science, the Siemens Foundation will serve as a pioneer in recognizing sustainability efforts within the K12 education system.

“As a leader in environmentally relevant businesses, Siemens knows the answers to tomorrow’s
critical environmental questions are in the minds of today’s students,” said James Whaley,
President, Siemens Foundation. “Uniting with Discovery Education and NSTA complements
Siemens’ commitment to the future and to those who are going to create it. We look forward to
unleashing this tremendous reservoir of potential through the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.”

“Education and the environment have always been part of Discovery’s core mission and we are
proud to be a partner in encouraging students to learn about and create sustainable solutions through the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO, Discovery Communications.

“The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will engage science teachers and allow
students the opportunity to think like scientists, learn more about key environmental issues, and to develop critical thinking skills that will help them to make informed decisions regarding stewardship of the planet,” said Dr. Gerry Wheeler, Executive Director, NSTA.

Designed to equip students in every grade level with the tools and inspiration to develop innovative green solutions for schools, homes and communities, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will transform participants into active citizens for a greener tomorrow. The program begins by helping young students understand the basic concepts of sustainability and why it’s important to protect the environment. At each subsequent stage, the concepts expand to engage students beyond their classrooms, into their communities and to the global world.

·K-2:

• My Classroom: Introduce students to the importance of “being green” and provide opportunities for active learning and engagement.

· 3-5:

• My School: Inspire students to think beyond their classroom — using science and math skills to take their school “green.”

· 6-8:

• My Community: Empower students with tools to apply the Scientific Method to real world “green issues” in their local communities.

· 9-12:

• My World: Connect students with real world scientists as they tackle today’s “green challenges” — moving from insight to global action.

In September, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge launches with a national middle
school competition where teams of students will identify an environmental problem in their
community and will research and recommend a reproducible environmental improvement program. Teams will then provide an explanation about how other communities across the country can launch similar environmental improvement programs.

The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will expand to kindergarten and elementary
school students in 2009 and to high school students in 2010, complete with standards based
lesson plans and teacher materials, student projects and prizing to foster learning, team work and problem solving around sustainability.

For more information about the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, visit
http://www.wecanchangetheworldchallenge.com.

About the Siemens Foundation:
The Siemens Foundation provides over $4.5 million towards science, technology, and engineering and math initiatives annually. Its signature programs, the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology and
the Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement, reward exceptional achievement in science, math and technology. By supporting outstanding students today, and recognizing the teachers and schools that inspire their excellence, the Foundation helps nurture tomorrow’s scientists and engineers. The Foundation’s mission is based on the culture of innovation, research and educational support that is the hallmark of Siemens’ U.S. operating companies and its parent company, Siemens AG. For more information, visit www.siemensfoundation.org.