Day of Discovery Is A Resounding Success!
Today was our first Day of Discovery for Tennessee, and if the responses to our survey are any indication, it was a huge success. We had nearly 30 teachers from varied backgrounds. Elementary, middle, and high schools were present. Mac and PC users were on hand. unitedstreaming veterans and novices made their presence known. The only problem? Where were the guys? I was the only male in a sea of women!
I’m not complaining, I’m just curious. Next time, let’s get some male bonding going on!
Sally Walters started our day with an overview of unitedstreaming and the 3 builders. Like so many people I talked with at the Discovery booth at NECC, the Teacher Center and Professional Development links are so often overlooked. Many of our attendees did know now about these tools or had not spent much time there at all.
I did a whirlwind session on digital storytelling. Several teachers were excited about the possibility of using this great tool to refocus their students’ energies and get them involved in higher level learning.
Teryl Magee and Karla Halcomb teamed up to present the many uses of Google Earth. I learned a lot at that sessions myself. However, we are loading Google Earth on all our lab computers this year, so I’ll get a workout down the road!
Teryl and Karla even put together a post-event survey in the Quiz Builder so all the teachers could get a chance to see what it would look like when they made assignments for this kids. Way to go!
The biggest drawback came from not having computers available during the training sessions. Due to room constraints, we had to wait until the afternoon to actually let our teachers get on the Macs and PCs. However, it was a minor glitch to an otherwise stellar day!
I encourage all our attendees to post a comment to this blog and tell us about your day. And watch the blog over the next few weeks as we plan for our next event in late August or early September.

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While in the booth, we got to meet many of the 100 STAR DEN members wearing light blue shirts. We also found out that nearly everyone we talked to subscribed to unitedstreaming at their schools, but many had never head of the DEN! So we spent a great deal of time telling them about online collaboration, blogs, shared resources, training sessions, and life-long friendships that are formed within the DEN. With eyes bright and their hands filled with DEN materials, these NECC-weary warriors marched off to fill out applications and join us! What a great time!
We were able to steal a minute and grab a quick group picture to show off our lovely blue shirts. Teryl and I were stopped several times by vendors and attendees alike to ask us about the Discovery Network. These shirts were a great marketing tool that generated some buzz on the exhibit floor.
After dinner was over, Scott premiered the green screen effects we had completed at Stone Mountain. Then, we all entered into a scavenger hunt to find someone from each of the 50 states plus one international DEN member. That entered everyone into a drawing for a new In-Focus projector! Way cool! Unfortunately, neither Teryl nor I won.







