Pennsylvania

In my current position, or should I say positions(I wear many hats) I get to see a lot of exciting activities.  In addition to being the Director of Technology Integration for Propel Schools, I am the science coordinator.  I am the SOS or Specialist on Site.  I believe that this was due to my knowledge and experiences that I had through my years of teaching elementary and middle school science in 2 previous jobs.

Our district implements ASSET Science which is an Inquiry-based, hands-on science curriculum.  Many of you may be familiar with the FOSS curriculum which is very similar to Asset. If you do, you know that it is hands-on and comes in a kit.  If you do teach either FOSS or Asset, here is a great resource for you to use. http://www.fossweb.com/ Another component of Asset is the use of Carolina resources in addition to the Foss kits.

While at Propel East, I stopped into a classroom teaching a Catastrophic Events unit. In this unit students investigate the causes and effects of thunderstorms, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. Global heating, the water cycle, plate motion, plate tectonics, magma, ash, and effects on the atmosphere are studied in depth.  On this day, there was no lab, no small groups, no experiments, but rather a very interesting, engaging, and intriguing guest speaker named Mara Falk.

At first glance, Mara seemed like just another guest speaker until she began to tell her stories of being a Storm Chaser with Discovery. She talked about how she had interviewed for a job that just turned out to be an extreme weather show on the Discovery Channel called, “Stormchasers.”  Her stories were captivating, telling how she was the driver of the scout(storm chasing vehicle) and how every second was of such importance.  Watching the student’s engagement while she talked what was interesting to me, as 100% of the children were engaged and posed such great questions for Mara. One story she mentioned was of an elderly man who wanted to wait out a particular storm.  On this particular day, it was not a great idea as the storm was very intense and had started to rip through his house.  Lucky for him, the force of the winds through his house took him to his bathroom where he was thrown into the bathtub with the door forcefully falling on top of the tub.  This miracle in disquise saved this elderly man’s life as his entire house crumbled on top of this bathtub. 

With this said, I cannot believe that our school was fortunate enough to have this guest speaker come to speak to our children. 

Now….here is the cool part.  Since you are reading this, you are probably a teacher who has access to Discovery Streaming.  If you do a keyword seach for Storm Chasers, you will see various videos from the Storm Chasers series as well as other teaching materials you will find useful.

Over the past few years, interactive whiteboards have become more and more popular in schools around the world.  Many teachers are finding out how to effectively use this awesome resource while others are using them for glorified projector screens.  Maybe we need to reiterate that these are INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS…meaning that they are for interacting.  I cannot say that one board is better than the other because I have only been exposed to using the SMART brand versus the others on the market.

As a 2nd grade teacher, I became very curious when I was introduced to Smartboards and really found that by having my students use this awesome piece of technology that I could engage them like never before.  From there, I became very curious, very focused, and very excited about what this was doing for me as a teacher.  My students were used to having a smartboard, used to managing their personal space around the projector, and used to being engaged.  I shared my passion with those around me and created a culture of learners in my building.

 During my blog posts, I will share resources that I use on a consistent basis and tell stories about how students and teachers are using technology.  One of the first piece of sharing is from a colleague of mine who is veteran teacher with a new passion for integrating technology with her students.  Here is what she said after getting a smarboard in her class:

Good evening,I just wanted to thank you all for the mounted smartboard and projector. The smartboard and the programs we use in school have changed the dynamics of learning in second grade. Mounting the projector and not having shadows on our smartboard or to align it 10 times a day truly allows uninterrupted learning. I am enjoying showing my students audio, visual and kinesthetic ways to learn especially when they don’t know they are learning. These pieces of equipment and the time I am given to learn new technology including the distance learning have allowed me to define my teaching skills and are allowing my students to experience success with technology that increases their self awareness and self esteem.  Thank you 

Wow.  This is what it is all about.  Teachers inspiring students. 

I leave you with one of my favorite sites to share.  The site is called Teachers Love Smartboards. This site has ideas for any interactive board. If you check out this resource, you will find informative websites, video tutorials, and online training opportunities.  Daily takeaway!   BE SMARTER THAN THE BOARD…DON’T BE INTIMIDATED!

If you have been bitten by the ibug, you are not alone. I finally needed a new phone and waited until the 3G was released in June to feed my gadget addiction. Yes it is true.  I could not believe how simple it was to order it online, and have it arrive on time, and ready to go. I made the switch from Verizon to AT&T and even that was simple. But enough on that, let’s get to the good stuff, the apps. On February 5, 2009, David Pogue of the NYTimes said there were about 15,000 apps available. On April 22, 2009 USAToday reported that the billionth app download would be any day. The popularity of the apps is staggering. Stanford and MIT are offering courses for students teaching them to design and market their own ideas for apps. It is a real world experience since the paid programs produce real cash. Some people have left lucrative jobs to pursue programming these little applications. The site http://www.apptism.com/ states that they are tracking over 61,000 apps as of today’s date (July 20,2009). Allof those apps will not fit on your iPhone/iTouch. You can have 9 pages of 16 apps plus 4 at the dock for a total of 148. I can’t imagine having that many apps that I would use frequently, but you never know.

In addition to the confusion about which app to add to your precious iPhone, Apple is considering a rating system for apps. According to a NYTimes article by Saul Hansel in May,  they are looking at four categories of rating apps. The 17+ category I assume would contain some of the more violent and racy applications. Read his article, to get some more insight on this idea of rating.

The number of apps is growing each day. There are so many to evaluate and determine their personal as well as educational value. Here are a few websites that are doing that very thing:

Leslie Fisher :iPhone Support Group Presentation

Apptism.com - new releases, evaluations

AppAdvice.com - daily rates the new releases

iSmash Phone-reviews, how to, tutorials

If you would like to contribute your opinion to a collection of good apps for education then visit this wiki: cfpmsiphone.wikispaces.com It is a collaborative effort to encourage teachers to consider using an iPhone/iTouch in the classroom. I would say one of the most popular FREE apps used at the DENLC Symposium was Bump. First you create a contact for yourself in your contact file, then download Bump. Open the preferences in Bump, fill in the information and find another person who has Bump on their iPhone/Touch. Simply Bump the two devices together and you will feel a shake. That is the magic of the information being transferred to the other device.

I don’t think we have room or time to review the 62,000 apps in the iTunes store, but respond to this post by naming your top 5 apps below in the comments. You never know what you can learn from each other.

More articles from Zemanta about the iPhone:

• Apple distributes 1.5B apps in App Store’s first year (tuaw.com)
• App Store rating system raises questions (macworld.com)
• Happy Birthday, App Store: Revolutionizing Mobile Computing Since 2008 [Anniversaries] (gizmodo.com)
• App Store Lessons: No promo codes for apps rated 17+ (tuaw.com)

Above image from: http://www.walyou.com/img/iphone-art-creations-applications-drink-coasters.jpg

Every so often you find the perfect post, the one you really wish you wrote that segues perfectly into a future initiative. Thanks to Angela Maiers’ twitt,

Perfect post to begin the conversation from @Langwitches The Need for Storytelling Skills

we have the perfect post to set up the first week of Discovery Education’s Back-to-School webinars, beginning August 3 with four days focusing on the art of digital storytelling. The Langwitches Blog has been a favorite of mine because it truly shows us “the magic of learning.” Their post on the need for digital storytelling speaks for itself:

Daniel Pink in “A Whole New Mind” describes how the need for storytelling skills in the information age has increased.

As information and

facts are  ubiquitous, nearly free and available at the speed of light […] What begins to matter more is the ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.

Jason Ohler, in his book “Digital Storytelling in the Classroom“, talks about how stories

help us remember important information that might be forgotten if it’s delivered to us in the form of reports, lectures, or isolated bits of information.

Ohler sees storytelling as an information organizer.

we desperately need tools to navigate and coordinate the immense amount of information available to us.

Pink and Ohler are not the only ones putting information abundance and storytelling together.

Digitales- The Art of Telling Digital Stories :

Artificial intelligence research is showing that the more people are buried in the mind-numbing avalanche of today’s information, the greater the importance of stories in making sense of the endless pieces of data. While storytelling does not replace analytical thinking, good stories do provide an essential process for conveying information in an easily absorbed form.
There is increasing urgency to develop communication skills that translate raw information into valuable knowledge for ourselves as well as others. Discovering the personal meanings of topics or events helps us create memory, meaning and understanding of the data and complexity in our lives.

Digital Storytelling – ISTE

The more people are buried in the mind-numbing avalanche of today’s information, the greater the importance of stories in making sense of the endless pieces of data. It is the act of telling our personal story – of creating an emotional connection to information and experiences – sharing in story form what we know and understand from an event or topic that provides a “sense-making” process enabling our brains to organize a myriad of factoids.

Image by Will Lion

If we look at the above image that visualizes a quote from Mitchell Kapor:

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

It is easy to understand that we need to find a tool that allows us to channel the water, a tool that prevents us to waste all that precious water that is being squandered and not to be blown away by the pressure.

What if the skill of storytelling  can be the tool that helps us organize, remember and connect facts from the ocean of information that is coming out of that fire hydrant?

1. There is more INFORMATION out there than ever before in human history. We (and our students) need to learn how to find, evaluate and make sense out of all this information that we are bombarded with through many types of different media.
2. WHAT HAPPENS when we have obtained this/these  information/facts? What do we do with it? How will we remember? How will we archive for future retrieval?
   It is precisely THAT ability (organize/connect/remix/create) that we need to foster in ourselves and our students . The ability to put these facts in context. The amount of facts alone (without context)  just overwhelms us.
3. Storytelling (putting information in a narrative context) might be the answer to our need to make sense of this vast information that is available to us anytime, anywhere and anyhow.

If you are excited about digital storytelling, why not join us for Summer School with the DEN. Where else can you find timely professional development that is fun, fast, and free. Remember: Digital Storytelling Week kicks off August 3, with tools and trade secrets to get you to think outside the slide with storytelling made easy with Discovery Education Content, Animoto, and PhotoStory. Director’s Cut using Discovery Education Media and MovieMaker followed by Discovery Education Media and iMovie round off Week 1 of Digital Storytelling.

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If you want to know why the DEN is so special, just ask Dorman. Before her move from PA DEN Blog Coordinator and then President of PA LC as well to a DEN Account Manager, she was the STAR’s STAR. Her presentation for the DEN Virtual Conference, What Is The Discovery Educator Network?, reminds us why we love the DEN so much! You can find it on Media Share.

Justin Karkow is facilitating Part 1 of Sowing Seeds of Success by taking a closer look at DEN STARS.
Traci Blazoski, Clarion PA, was honored by PAECT as Teacher of the Year. She is a first grade teacher, and she will move on to national level competition for National Teacher of the Year. We wish her success and hope she is honored yet again. She shared a GoogleEarth tour of a frog study that covered each continent. She incorporated Glogster (second time we heard about this Web 2.0 tool today). Each continent had a separate activity, including Venn Diagrams, webquests, green screen, Discoverystreaming, Discovery Builders, Voki, Animoto, Voicethread and related activities that allowed students to click on frogs for audio/video directions. What I loved (everything) was her mashup of two Voikis that talked to each other. How cool!

Traci then shared her Christmas Around the World GoogleEarth project, and again, it was a STAR presentation. You can find Traci’s resources for her projects here. Traci’s integration of Web 2.0 tools and Discovery resources is amazing, but even more remarkable when you realize she is teaching first graders.
Lea Anne Daughrity, Pasadena TX was our second STAR presenter, and again, her class is kindergarden students from Freeman Elementary School. Lea Anne embeds a way for students to hear words being read as they appear on screen and adds movies. She teaches the students that when they click on the fish eggs on the right side of the screen and move them to the fish tank, then they hear and see diretions. When they finish their PowerPoint from a template, they print their booklet that they take home to read to their family.

Must say I am blown away by what these two DEN STARS are teaching kindergarden and first grade students.

• Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet)

  Makes searching ever easier. Great cheatsheet.

  tags: teachers, education, google, search, reference, cheatsheet, howto, guide, web, tutorial

• Weblogg-ed » “The Less You Share, the Less Power You Have”

  Richardson explores the power of sharing, how collaboration helps not hinders education.

  tags: teachers, Richardson, readwriteweb, collaboration, sharing

• Weblogg-ed » Personalizing Education for Teachers, Too

  Will Richardson’s reflections on Sir Ken Robinson’s new book, The Element. Interesting read (both) about the necessary element of passion in education.

  tags: teachers, Richardson, Robinson, Sir, Ken, The Element

• Weblogg-ed » Writing to “Build the Larger Conversation”

  Will Richardson Will Richardson chats via Ustream with Kathleen Blake Yancey about writing in the digital age.

  tags: teachers, NCTE, digital literacy, Richardson, Yancey, ustream, writing

• U Tech Tips » Where can I find some good poetry sites?

  Valuable links inside this blog about April = Poetry Month.

  tags: teachers, poetry, poetrymonth, resources

• U Tech Tips » 10 Reasons to try Backchannel Chat

  Excellent blog re: uses/benefits of using backchannel chat. From UTechTips.

  tags: teachers, backchannel, chat, collaboration

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

This Earth Day, start talking trash in your classroom!

What happens to the waste we all produce? When does it make sense to recycle? Can trash become energy?

Get answers to these timely topics brought to life at www.ThinkGreen.com/classroom, a new K-12 resource from Waste Management and powered by Discovery Education.

Complete with standards-based lesson plans, compelling videos, interactives, and Think Green® resources to engage students and extend the learning to the home, www.ThinkGreen.com/classroom is a powerful new suite of tools for educators seeking new materials to enliven environmental lessons.

Think green in your classroom just in time for Earth Day and visit www.DiscoveryEducation.com/thinkgreen to get started. Plus, provide your feedback for a complimentary reusable tote bag (limited supplies - so provide feedback today).

[Note: The information from this post came from DiscoveryEducation.com newsletter. Do you want to receive this newsletter or other valuable educational news feeds from Discovery, visit http://www.discoveryeducation.com/, sign in with your DiscoveryEducation user name and password, click on My Preferences and set your e-mail subscriptions. Or, visit the Discovery Education subscription center.] The “Note” for this post was taken from Dorman’s Trouvailles.
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Now that I’m trolling the DEN blogs with more frequency, I found a gem that’s been out there for a while that I just discovered because of Mogulus. (Guess it’s true that film catches our eye faster than text). Anyone who knows me understands that I am truly math-and-science challenged, so my propensity is to avoid both disciplines. No longer! If I had Discovery Education’s Science Class back then (and that’s way back), I might have been a scientist (still a stretch, I suspect), or at least understood what I memorized (the entire textbook). Now, thanks to Brad Fountain, your classes can participate in real time virtually in Discovery’s science classes. Your teacher: Mr. Fountain, and the first class aired April 7.

In addition to class, Fountain provides an Integration Station with sample lessons, tips for the classroom manager and student assignments, PowerPoint, Assignment Builder, and Web 2.0 Tips and Tricks, and best of all, shared experiences from classroom teachers currently using Discovery Education Science. A Learning Lab provides training materials for those looking to help their peers learn how to use Discovery Education Science, sample projects that have been created, and step-by-step guides and handouts to share with your peers. Still not convinced that Discovery’s Science Class is the best science product out there (purely rhetorical). As with all Discovery products, you get ongoing support with Science Webinars. Check out this list:

April 22 is Earth Day.
Celebrate Earth Day with your students and talk about ways to appreciate nature and protect our Earth. What are some ways in which your students can help raise awareness on important issues like the environment?

Begun in 1970, Earth Day signifies the world’s attention to our environment and our need to address how we care for and protect our world. Engage students in conversations about how they practice taking care of the planet at home, school, and everywhere.

Videos
Part III: How We Celebrate Earth Day and Keep the Earth Healthy-Grade Band K-2; 3-5
Positive Effects from Earth Day-Grade Band K-2; 3-5
A Short History of Earth Day-Grade Band K-2; 3-5
Celebrate Earth Day Everyday-Grade Band K-2; 3-5
The World Conservation Guide-Grade Band 6-8
Emerging Careers: Environmental Occupations: Technical-Grade Band 9-12

Images
Eroded cliffs at river’s edge
Ozone research tent

April 30-El Dia de Los Ninos/El Dia de Los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day)
Twelve years ago, writer Pat Mora had a dream that she put into actuality: El Dia de Los Nino/El Dia de Los Libros. Since that time many libraries and schools have participated in and celebrated Children’s Day/Book Day. Mora wants libraries, schools, and parents to help all children around the country rediscover the joy of reading. Use a video chapter and/or image to spark interest in reading with your students.

Videos
All About Animals: Mammals (Revised)-Grade Band K-2
Is Your Mama a Llama? Spanish Version-Grade Band K-6 (I love the English version, but the Spanish plays just as well).
Rabbit Ears Children’s Literature Collection: The Emperor’s New Clothes-Grade Band K-6
Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?-Grade Band 3-5
Extra (French Series 1): Episode 2: Sam Fait du Shopping (Sam Goes Shopping)-Grade Band 9-12
Extra (German Series 1): Episode 1: Sams Ankunft (The Arrival of Sam)-Grade Band 9-12

Images
19th-Century Print of Bottom from Midsummer Night’s Dream
Dr. Seuss at his Office
Derek Walcott, Winner of Nobel Prize

National Poetry Month
This month is National Poetry Month. Engage students in discussions and projects that will allow them to celebrate and appreciate the art of poetry. Use some of the resources below to help you plan a unit and reinforce language and literacy skills.

Videos
Sounds of Poetry-Grade Band K-2
“Poetry: Ollie the Octopus” from Discovering Language Arts: Listening and Speaking-Grade Band K-2
“Poetry Matters” from Language Arts at Work-Grade Band 6-12
Just the Facts: Understanding Literature: The Elements of Poetry- Grade Band 7-12 (Discovery Education streaming Plus)
Great Books: Dante’s Inferno-Grade Band 9-12
“Themes in Early Poetry and Writing” and “Egyptian Literature and Poetry” from “The Poetry of Emily Dickinson and Alfred, Lord Tennyson” and “Bringing Attention to “John Keats: ‘The Nightingale’ ” and “Themes in Romantic Literature and Poetry” from History through Literature: Romanticism & Revolution-Grade Band 7-12 (Discovery Education streaming Plus)

Writing Prompts
Writing Poetry Grade Band 6-8
A Poet and a Songwriter
Self-Expression
Inspiration

Images
Marianne Moore First Lady of American Poetry
Poet Gary Sherman Snyder, member of Beat movement
Portrait of famous Tang poet Li Bo, (701-762)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Articles
Poetry
Pastoral Poetry
Pulitzer Prizes: Poetry
From the Science and Math Perspective:
Science
Spring is a time to study plants and a great time for microscope study.

Help elementary grade students learn the parts of a plant through the program: Plant Parts and Their Uses, which uses visual and audio tools to help children learn.

Students often have difficulty identifying what they are seeing under the microscope. The Incredible World of the Microscope provides information about microscope use and slides that you may wish to have students review. Students can enhance their hands-on experience with live pond specimens by viewing the parts of microorganisms that propel them or allow them to feed in the short segment, “Locomotion in Protists: Ciliates” from Biology: The Science of Life: The Microscopic World.

DE Science
Get students doing a virtual lab, “Keep it Cool” on green school buildings in Discovery Education Science for Middle School. Don’t have Discovery Education Science? Learn more today.

Mathematics
Learning about economics and how money is used has become a critical skill for students. Use Discovery Education video to help students make sense of some of the things they are hearing about in the news.

Elementary students can be introduced to the concept of money in the video program, Learning About Money.

Middle school students can learn about how money came to be and how mathematics helps us understand how money is lent and borrowed at different rates in the segment: “Interest Rates: Borrowing and Lending Money” from the program Behind the News: Money.

High school students can relate the mathematics they are learning in algebra to real finances using: Discovering Math: Concepts in Business Mathematics: Economics and Finance. This program contains information on different kinds of interest and on the history of money in the United States.

From the Social Studies Perspective
Ask your students where do they think we would be had activists, such as Paul Revere, not resisted and acted against the British? By many historians, America was and remains the “great social experiment.” Use chapters from the videos listed below to explore just how unique America was and is.

Videos
U.S. That’s Us!: Paul Revere-Grade Band K-6
Paul Revere: The Messenger of Liberty-Grade Band 6-8
Liberty’s Kids: The Midnight Ride-Grade Band 6-8 (Discovery Education streaming Plus)
American History: Foundations of American Government-Grade Band 6-12

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