The LCs around the country just received an email from Lance Rougeux explaining the prizes available to STAR Discovery Educators and State Leadership Councils.
The Siemens’ “We Can Change The World” Challenge is open to K-8 teachers this year. (Don’t worry, it will be K-12 next year). Since this is a program that the vast majority of the DEN community can participate in, Discovery has pulled out all the stops to get as many of us enrolled as possible. How about these prizes?
- Any STAR Discovery Educator who enters the challenge by January 31, 2010 will have his/her name put into a drawing to win a trip to the NSTA National Conference in Philadelphia, PA (March 18-21, 2010). Airfare, hotel, and conference registration will be covered by the DEN! You must be a STAR Discovery Educator, and you must let the DEN know that you and your students have entered the “We Can Change The World” Challenge by filling out this form.
AND
- The state (where there is a DEN Leadership Council) with the highest number of entries to the “We Can Change The World” Challenge will earn a Day of Discovery in conjunction with the DEN’s Spring Virtual Conference! The entire day will be planned, managed, and executed by the DEN team giving the state LC a break. Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo, and other members of the DEN team will be there in person to conduct workshops!!!
I’m putting in my application this weekend. We want someone from TN to go to the NSTA Convention. We also want to be the state that hosts this great Day of Discovery!
What are you waiting for? Sign up today!
Eight technology educators from Memphis City Schools won first place at the Rich Media Impact Awards in Scholastic Achievement. The awards ceremony was held in Wisconsin. This year’s awards were sponsored by Sonic Foundry.
Sonic Foundry Announces Winners for Fourth Annual Rich Media Impact Awards at User Conference via kwout
You can check out some of their personal blogs about their achievement at these sites: Scott Holcomb, Jeff Baxter, and Felicia Fowler.
You can see more of what the Memphis City Schools tech gurus do with video here.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is sponsoring a program called Picturing America. Schools accepted into the program will receive reproductions of 40 famous paintings by American artists that cover a broad spectrum of history and culture for our country. In addition, lesson plans are provided to use the artwork as a launching point for student reflection. I strongly urge all TN DEN members to apply! Just click the link above.
But what about those of us that don’t get accepted? Is there a way for us to participate in a similar program? Of course there is! In fact, I can think of 2 immediately.
First, there are images of famous works of art in the Discovery streaming image catalog. Using the Writing Prompt Builder, teachers can use these images to create a student dialog of reflection.
Second, teachers can upload images of artwork to VoiceThread and have students make written or verbal comments there as well. A nice touch to VoiceThread is the ability to “draw” on the image you comment on. If there is a specific part of the picture students are drawn to, they can demonstrate that by circling it as they comment.
What about you? What ideas do you have for using famous art in the classroom?
Samsung began a contest in April that offers a grand prize of $200,000 in merchandise. Half of that is in Samsung hardware. The other half is in Microsoft software. There are also six First Place winners that will receive $30,000 in Samsung and Microsoft merchandise. The contest ends July 22nd.
What do you have to do? Write a 100 word essay that addresses the question, "What is the single most significant benefit that technology can provide in the classroom?" You can submit your entry online here.
This contest is open to students (under 13 must provide a parent’s email), teachers, administrators…basically anyone with an email address. You can enter one time for every email address you have. Between my wife and me, we have eight. (Of course, I can create up to 100 on my website, but who can write that many essays?).
I have emailed all teachers and administrators at my school to encourage them to enter. While I would love for our school to wind up with any prize from this contest, I would also like to see a DEN member write the winning essay. Why? You get a new laptop, dude!
Take a few minutes and read the rules (the criteria for judging are very clear), and then fill out the form. Good luck!
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