Northwest

I have just come back from the Discovery Educator’s National conference in Washington, D.C. Holy Cow! I was absolutely amazed at the knowledge and web 2.0 ideas that were shared.

Here is the post from the conference. Hope you enjoy. I know I sure did!

Greetings from the DEN National Conference in Washington, D.C. (Well, actually Silver Spring, MD). My name is Debbie Wrobel and I’m from Woodside Elementary School in Everett, WA.
I’m a new DEN STAR member, and was utterly surprised when I found out I was selected to go to the national conference. I excitedly booked my ticket from Seattle. Coming from the west coast, I found out that I was the only person representing Washington (let’s get some more STARS), and I took the red-eye. With my suitcase loaded with every tech product I own, I am afraid that I will never pass through security. WAYYY too excited to sleep, I step off my flight, take the Metro and arrived at the Discovery headquarters loopy, and ready for some fun learning…not to mention hoping to get to stand in the same place that Mike Rowe stands…sigh! The Discovery Headquarters are impressive and I walk in to meet over 70 other teachers, technology directors, and regional presenters….etc. So is everyone as “geeked-out” as moi? Most definitely. The DEN has members here from over 26 states, with California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania bringing the largest amount of reps. From the very beginning, the DEN leaders ha ve us sharing with others. We take the Boom-de-ah-da song (from the Discovery ads) and add a twist to it. Needless to say, 70 teachers working in 4 groups come up with some creative and funny products. After the first evening, I realize that keeping up with all of the information will require intravenous caffeine. The theme of the conference appears to be file sharing, web 2.0 resources, and connecting teachers to their most valuable resource….each other. What in the heck are Plurck, Twitter, Skype, Second Life, Voicethread, Mogulus, Jott, Ning…etc? I’m in for a whole bunch of learning, and realize that getting 75 teachers together is one of the best learning experiences EVER!!!! The DEN leadership provides some great breakout sessions that take us into the vast depths of AFI film making, Google Earth, Second Life, Adobe Premier Elements, Multimedia presentations, and digital storytelling…all including the immense resources of Unitedstreaming. For those who have seen “The Waterboy” I’m now Kathy Bates crying “Brain Pain!!!” But….it’s a good pain.
The DEN leadership has a fantastic evening that is a carnival theme. We played all sorts of carnival games that let you earn tickets for a raffle that has FANTASTIC prizes. From the In-Focus to the Meerkat soap and Discovery T-shirts, I was hoping to win something with my tickets. So sad I didn’t win the Meerkat soap, but we all won a Discovery “Planet Earth” set (which was fantastic).
For those wondering if you should apply for STAR membership…YES!!! We were not only given hoards of resources, quality integration lessons, and incredible food. But, on Wednesday were treated to a tour of the D.C. monuments. This was something that can not be stated in words! …. Even though our tour ended with a trip to the George Washington Hospital for one of our STAR members who fell down some stairs.

WOW! It’s all I can say about this entire conference. Everyone had tremendous resources, the leadership had every minute well planned, and I really felt that being a S TAR Discovery Educator is something special!!!
There are so many ways to share your knowledge and use of Unitedstreaming, so why not become a STAR educator?????