Sarah Thompson’s Blog

which is sad. I was really hoping to utilize my blog more this year, but it continues to be set aside for other things.
I was going to write about the DEN SCIcon that takes place this Sat. but am now going to be camping with Cub Scouts this weekend. hehe Thank goodness for archives! I’ll have to write a delayed response. I’m also humming and hawing over applying for this year’s DENSI. I don’t have too much longer to apply so my decision will be made soon. I was really happy to see Dean Shareski’s blog a few weeks ago. I envision the DEN growing exponentially in Canada and the more staff that can travel the country and share the amazingness of all things DEd. the better!!

My nominations for the 2011 Edublog Awards

I nominate the following:
Best Group Blog: Discovery Education http://denblogs.com/
I really enjoy being able to read the Discovery Education Glogbal blog, Canada blog, and Leadership Council blogs. They are insightful, give great ideas, and are a great means of sharing news, events, and successes internationally.

Best EdTech / Resource Sharing blog: Discovery Education http://denblogs.com
Through the Global, Canadian and Leadership Council blogs, I learn about some amazing resources! I really appreciate being able to read a great review of a product and then being able to access a link to the resource so that I can try it out for myself!

Best Open PD / Unconference / Webinar Series: Discovery Education http://www.discoveryeducation.com/Webinars/2.cfm
I love Discovery Education’s webinars! In my school, we’ve participated in over a dozen different webinars in the last couple of years. Some of these webinars include: Healthy Eating with Mark Sanchez, Climate Change, Polar Bears, learning with Phillipe Cousteau Jr., Spring Virtual Conferences (open PD), and Fall Virtual Conferences (open PD).

Best Educational use of a Social Network: Discovery Education http://community.discoveryeducation.com/
I’m a STAR member in the Discovery Education Network (DEN). I’m part of a global community of educators who are passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. The DEN connects teachers both on-line and in person. Through this network, I’m able to read blogs and discussion boards, have exclusive access to a wide range of resources and professional development, network, and attend exclusive Discovery Educator events. I love it!!

my blog. Since the Discovery Education Tech or Treat, I’ve been meaning to log in and post. Sometimes though, time just slips past so quickly! This has been one of those times. But, better late than never!

Discovery Education Tech or Treat: Our school hosted this event for our 2nd year. 15 staff were in attendance, arriving at the school for 7am, happy to be welcomed by Tim Horton’s coffee and muffins We had a great time learning about new resources from all of the presenters. We also enjoyed being able to sit and chat about the resources we’ve been using in our classrooms. I love sharing sessions! I always walk away with new ideas.

Non DE news: My Gr. 5/6 class just hosted a cultural sharing session with a school in Ontario on Nov. 17th. My colleague in Ontario, Leigh Cassell, has started a huge project called the “Digital Human Library”. It is going to be an AMAZING resource once it is up and running. Teachers will have a digital library of contacts that classes can connect with via Skype. Check out our presentation at: http://blog.amdsb.ca/2011/11/20/borrowing-from-the-digital-human-library/

I’m also really looking forward to my first gig as a SmartBoard trainer on Thurs. the 1st (which is also my birthday)!
It is a great opportunity to show how I use the SmartBoard in my classroom, but it’s also a great outlet for me to plug DE!! I use DE photos, sound, and video in quite a number of my lessons for the SmartBoard.

Wow! I can’t believe it’s that time of year again! I love the “Tech or Treat” that is put on by Discovery Education every year. This year, I’ve extended invitations to the surrounding schools in the city and rural areas to attend in person at my school. Our staff are really looking forward to the event. We even have our group costume figured out! I can’t wait!!

The Gr. 3-9′s all participated in the Live Interactive Wellness Webinar With New York Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez presented by the GENYOUth Foundation and Discovery Education on Sept. 27th. The students had a great time “warming up” with Mark and then listening to him talk about leading a healthy lifestyle. The class asked some amazing questions and most of them were answered during the presentation. Their favourite part was learning that they can easily start exercising with a friend by going up to them and saying, “Tag! You’re it!” Thanks for a fantastic webinar!

On Friday of last week (the 16th), 4 classes at our school participated in the Sharks: Myth vs. Reality webinar (Gr. 2-9). The students loved learning about sharks, following the live chat, and watching the video clips. Then afterwards, we found a Myth vs. Reality video in Discovery Streaming that we watched.

And now, wowzers!, I am preparing for a busy week! Monday and Tuesday will be spent attending a PD Conference in town. Here is where I’ll be passing out posters to all of the other schools in the city to invite them to my school to attend the Discovery Education Tech or Treat!!

Then on Thurs., I’ll be attending a principal’s meeting to showcase Mathletics at our school. I really hope that our District will embrace this amazing resource into all of our schools!

Fri. morning we will be Skyping with 2 classrooms. One to collaborate on the Global Read Aloud project that starts Monday, and the other is a partner class that we’ve connected with through Skype in the Classroom. In the afternoon is our Terry Fox Run. The kids always have a blast participating in this amazing event!

Ready, steady, go!

Wow! The first 3 days have come and gone. *smile* What a great start to a new year! I’ve set up my students with “Gamification” additions and they are loving it!! My “Flip-a-card” chart has turned into a +10 bonus xp board.
Homework and “I’m done, what’s next?” activities are awarded with xp, they have options to practice the objective learned, and the badges on Edmodo are a lot of fun to award and create. We had an excellent discussion about bullying, shared stories, and then watched some videos on DEd that talk about accepting differences. They really enjoyed watching them and it was a great addition to our discussion.

We’re also set up to join the Global Read Aloud project this term. We have our wiki, Twitter, and Skype set up to share and collaborate with others who are participating.

This term is going to be amazing!

Back to school in 10 days! I’m so excited to get back into the classroom and try out a few great ideas that I’ve learned about over the summer. I wish I could do them all! I’ve signed up for the Global Read Aloud project, which is a first for me and my students. I’m looking forward to collaborating and sharing via Edmodo, Skype, and Twitter. I’ve also connected with numerous teachers through Skype in the Classroom, so that we’ll have many classrooms to collaborate on different projects, or to be pen pals with. I’m also going to attempt some gamification strategies in my classroom. So much to look forward to!!

On Wed., Aug. 3, Cynthia Brown started our DEN Summer School with a look at Digital Storytelling. From her presentation I learned that you can make a story from a song, editable videos from DE, using sound effects, and by pooling images.

Next was Rita Mortensen. I learned from her presentation about all the neat things that Moviemaker, Photopeach, and Photostory3 can do! She also shared her Life Science Documentary project. I hope to be able to use the resources she shared with us in this upcoming year!

Then Mike Bryant did a presentation on Science and DE. He walked us through virtual labs, Science Sleuths, the Interactive Glossary, Science simulations and so much more! I will definitely be able to spruce up my science lessons with all of this!

On Thursday, Matt Monjan showcased a lot of resources that can be used for Digital Storytelling. My favourite to learn about was audiopal.com. Text is read aloud and can be embedded into assignments!

Then, Kathy Schrock did a presentation on Twitter. This for me was an entirely brand new subject. I never really was interested in Twitter until Kathy’s presentation. She explained the vocabulary, the pros to having an account, how one can grow their PLN (personal learning network), and then shared websites with resources about Twitter. After this presentation, I signed up for Twitter!

To end these 4 days of Summer School, Brad Fountain shared with us a presentation on “Effective Evaluation with DE”. It was great! The one thing I took away from his presentation that I hope to do a lot of this year is using exit slips.

It was an amazing, info-packed, collaborative-filled, and so very helpful webinar series! Thanks to the DEN and all of the presenters!

The DEN has done it again! I’m 3 weeks away from school starting, and I’m already thinking about all the new and wonderful tools that I have learned about and can use in school this year during the past 2 days attending the Summer School webinars…and there are still 2 more days!!!

On Monday, Lindsay Hopkins started things off with a presentation about Digital Storytelling. We learned about the amazing tools that are at a teacher’s disposal: MovieMaker, PhotoStory 3, LittleBirdTales, Storybird, Stykz, Voicethread, and so many more! I also learned from a teacher in the chat window that, “kids like to use the free program Pivot to create animations”. I’ll definitely be checking that out!

Our second presenter was Dean Mantz on LiveBinders. I’d heard about LiveBinders in other webinars, but never have I been given such an amazing walkthrough of the program! As Dean was talking I signed up for an account, created a binder, and was fooling around with adding pictures, websites, videos, and more. I LOVE it! I’m looking forward to creating and learning more about this tool.

Our last presenter on Monday was Patti Duncan and she talked about Science! What a plethora of resources she had! Scribd, LabOutLoud, Pete’s PowerPoint Station, BrainPOP, PhET, the list went on and on and on! I think that Yippy will have to be the one tool that I learned from Patti and will be using and teaching my students to use the most this year. What a great search engine!

The first presenter today was Porter Palmer. She too talked about Digital Storytelling, but again, there were additional resources that I’ve never heard of and weren’t touched upon yesterday! 50+ ways to tell a story, Voki, Posterous, StoryJumper, and then additional sites added by the teachers in chat: Professor Garfield (my addition), StoryRobe, and Tripline (to name a few).

Kyle Schutt presented second about Assessment tools – “Checking for Understanding in a Virtual World”. A lot of us in chat shared that we weren’t too keen on assessment, but Kyle provided us with many amazing tools that would assist us. Quizlet, Google Docs and Form creations, Widgit embedding into DE’s assignment builder, Wall Wisher, Edmodo, and more were discussed as to how they can be used to help teachers specifically with Formative assessments.
He shared a quote with us that gives a great analogy:
“Formative assessments are to summative assessments as physical exams are to autopsies.” – Doug Reeves

Our third presenter was Lance Rougeux – “Science, Literacy, and the Kitchen Sink”. I think the tool that I will have the most fun using this year is going to be Crappy Graphs. I have so many great ideas that I’d like to try and use this for. We also took a look at the new Student Center, Stem Connect, and all of the amazing resources available to teachers on DE without even logging in!

I’m really looking forward to the next 2 days to see what else I can learn from all of the amazing presenters!