Tennessee DEN

I just received John Norton’s "Of Particular Interest" email newsletter for middle school teachers.  His review of The Story of Movies website caught my attention, so I took a brief trip over there.

The Story of Movies currently offers 3 DVD curriculum choices: The Day the Earth Stood Still, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and To Kill a Mockingbird.  Here is what is included:

• A DVD of the selected film for in-depth study. The Film Foundation recommends that all classes view the entire film prior to beginning the teaching unit.
• A Teacher’s Guide, featuring lessons with teaching objectives, detailed, step-by-step instructions for presenting each activity, and answer keys. Appendices include chapter tests with answer keys, performance-based assessment activities, and National Film Study Standards. A glossary provides definitions of key terms relative to the study of film. In addition, transparencies for projecting graphic organizers are included.   
• A Student Activities Booklet, which includes graphic organizers, Screening Sheets to be used while viewing the film clips, and reading, writing, visual-thinking, and group activities sheets.
• A DVD that includes selected film clips or segments, most of which have a running time of 3 minutes or less. Also included on the DVD are movie stills and photographs.

Best of all, all the materials are free!  I signed up to receive the materials for To Kill a Mockingbird (although my favorite movie on the list is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington!).

The Story of Movies is a co-production of the Film Institute, IBM, and Turner Classic Movies.

One thing to note: currently materials are out of print, so it will be next year before I am able to use them.  Keep your eyes out for a review of how it goes!

The Tennessee DEN Leadership Council is looking for input from our members!  We would like to hear from you regarding blog topics, event suggestions, training schedules, technology integration, and more!

Here are three ways you can get to us:

First, you can email the Leadership Council at TN.DEN.Leaders@gmail.com.  This email is checked regularly by our Commander-In-Chief, Teryl Magee.

Second, you can always respond to a post in this blog.  Your comments help create a dialogue that makes our state DEN stronger.

Third, start a discussion thread, or reply to one already in place, on the DEN website.  Tennessee has its own thread under "Leadership Councils."  That’s a terrific place to ask questions of TN DEN members, post trainings you will be conducting, or share ideas you have for our state.

Your Leadership Council is waiting to hear from you!

Recently, Steve Dembo, that great Discovery-Educator-of-Everything-Web, wrote about Zamar on his Digital PassPorts blog.  Zamzar is a terrific site for uploading videos and converting them to other file types.  Best of all, it is free!

Because of Steve’s blog, I traveled over to Zamzar to have a look for myself.  I was already impressed by his brief review, but I wasn’t quite prepared for what all I found!

The first thing I noticed is that there is no registration required.  You simply browse your computer for the video you want, upload it, choose a file type you want for conversion, type in your email address, and everything starts happening right before your very eyes!

Then I went over to a video of their own that details some of the improvements they have made to the site.  I highly recommend you check it out!

Here is a brief synopsis of what else Zamzar has cooking:

First, you can convert a lot of other files besides videos.  I went back to Steve’s blog and realized he had included them, but in my haste I had overlooked them.  So, if you find a PDF file you would like to use, but need to edit it, simply convert it to an Office doc or some other suitable file.

Second, you can now convert videos and other files directly from a URL.  Yep, just type in the URL and follow the same steps as before.

Third, you can embed Zamzar into your browser.  That means the webpages you view will be "tagged" where convertable documents or videos are found.  Anything Zamzar can convert will be pointed out to you on the page.  Simply click the "tag" and it will take you directly to the Zamzar site with the URL filled in.  Click and convert.  Pretty easy, huh?

Fourth, and one of my favorites, Zamzar is now directly linked to a 12 of the most popular video sites like YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, MetaCafe, IFILM, and more.  I have found videos on these sites that I would like to use in some of my lessons at school, but can’t link to them because all the sites are blocked.  Now, I should be able to convert them and then download them to my hard drive for viewing in the classroom.

This is one terrific site.  Let me know how you fare!

Tim

This is the first official blog of the Tennessee DEN!  Welcome to our virtual world.  We want this to be a place for sharing ideas and insights, especially as it relates to the integration of technology into our classrooms or everyday lives.

The TN DEN Leadership Council is chaired by Teryl Magee (is there anyone with more energy than this lady?).  Through her leadership, and the plans of the Events Team headed by Scott Holcomb, we want to create events for sharing with each other on a more personal level as well.

Tennessee is a very wide state, so we actually have two councils working under the direction of our co-chairs, Teryl and Cindy.  West Tennessee is based in Memphis (where else, right?).  East Tennessee ranges from Knoxville to Cleveland .  Over time, we hope to have live events in both places with an occasional event in Nashville that we can all attend together.  This blog will serve as an announcement page for those events as well.

Here are the leadership council members:

• Teryl Magee, POC and Co-Chair
• Cindy Putnam, Co-Chair
• Tim Childers, POC and Blog Coordinator
• Jason Parrish, Blog Team
• Scott Holcomb, POC and Events Coordinator
• Lance McConkey, Events Team
• Karla Halcomb, Events Team
• Jeff Baxter, Events Team
• Sally Walter, Events Team

If you haven’t done so yet, I recommend you go to Bloglines and sign up for a free account to track the various blogs you may be reading.  With the click of a button, you can see snippets of all the DEN blogs.  Don’t forget to register this one!

And now, without further ado, I give you the slideshare introductions to the TN Leadership Council.  You can find a larger version of this slide share at my website.