DEN Texas

Discovery Education, KLRN and TCEA Area 20 proudly present a Day of Discovery at Woodridge Elementary School in Alamo Heights ISD on December 5, 2009. This Day of Discovery will provide Texas educators and welcomed guests with an exciting and enriching day of professional development focused on creative ways to engage your students using digital media from the KLRN Connect/Discovery Education streaming library.
During the day, participants will learn how they can use images, audio clips and videos to create engaging multimedia presentations, digital stories, and virtual field trips! Lunch will be provided and the day will conclude with fun and prizes!

When:   Saturday, December 5, 2009
Where:  Woodridge Elementary, 100 Woodridge Dr, San Antonio
Time:     9:00am – 3:30pm (registration will begin at 8:30)
Cost:     Free! (CPE Credit Available)
Space is limited, so register today!
Visit http://links.discoveryeducation.com/SanAntonioDOD to register.
Contact Justin Karkow at Justin_Karkow@discovery.com for more details.

Join thousands of educators online and in-person as the DEN team goes house to house to explore the many digital treats available to educators today.  During this unique professional development event you have the flexibility to attend online or in-person at one of many regional events hosted by the DEN Leadership Councils.

The day will feature special presentations from Justin Karkow and Steve Dembo along with a host of other great sessions guaranteed to satisfy your digital sweet tooth.

Quickly, go to:  http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/virtcon09

Annual DEN streamathon

 September 23, 2009 is the annual DEN streamathon.  Twelve hours of back-to-back sessions about the latest and greatest with DE streaming.  Check out the schedule on the DEN blog and don’t forget to register today!  

The Photo Walk scheduled for Austin today is being postponed to a later date. After receiving about 4 inches of rain for the year, we have gladly accepted about 3 inches during the last hour in some parts of Austin and 6 inches in a couple of places in the county this morning. We have flood warnings across the county and travel will be very limited in some places.

We thought it best to postpone the Austin leg of the Texas DEN Photo Walk. The date will be announced soon. At this time, ONLY the Austin leg has been postponed. We look forward to seeing the wonder photos from the other Texas cities this weekend.

Hey Texas! It’s time for the First Texas DEN Photo Walk! We were so impressed with the international photo walk earlier in the year (http://worldwidephotowalk.com/), we decided to do our own with Texas educators.

This Saturday, September 12^th, four cities will be hosting a photo walk for DEN teachers. Our photo walk will start at 9am at one location in each city and the group will walk together taking photographs of anything and everything following a set route.  Upon the conclusion of the walk, teachers will meet together to share our favorite photos of the day and vote for our favorite 3 photos. Each city will award a Discovery Channel DVD to the three local winners. During the following two weeks, all Texas DEN Teachers will be able to vote on their favorite photo from all of the Saturday winners for one more round of Best Of Awards.

The photo walk is a chance to enjoy the outdoors and learn new and practice old creative photography skills. Bring your teacher friends and share this Discovery event and discuss how we can use photography in our daily curriculum.

Each Photo Walk begins at 9am and ends at 1pm. A small lunch will be provided at each location. Sign up today to reserve your place.

Austin Registration
We will be starting at Barton Springs Pool - Zilker Park at 9am and walk a 1.5 mile path to the river and back to the pool. We will meet near the statue of three men, Philosopher’s Rock, near the pool entrance.   After the walk, we will then drive to the Black Sheep Lodge (S Lamar/Oltorf) for wifi and photo sharing.

Dallas Registration
We will begin our day by meeting at 8:45 at the DART Mockingbird Station Light Rail Station (@75). Parking is free and each participant will buy a $3.00 all day pass.  We will explore along the way, Thanksgiving Square, the Magnolia Oil Building, Union Station, the Lone Star Gas Building, Old Red Courthouse, the West End and the old Dallas Post Office. We will conclude our event by returning to Mockingbird Station Café Express, where we will have lunch and free wi-fi.

Houston/Galveston Registration
We will meet at Saengerfest Park (23rd and Strand) at 9:30 am. It is a big courtyard next to Yaga’s and Fuddrucker’s. We will head to the Railroad Museum (25th and Strand) for a “Making Tracks to Recovery” train ride at 10 am. It will cost $5/person.We will tour the downtown Strand area and take pics as we ride to start us off. We will begin the walking part around 10:30 and head out from the museum.

We will plan to leave the Strand area around 11:45 to caravan to the Seawall and take pics on the way there.

Fort Worth Registration
Site start address: Corner Bakery between 8:30-9:00 615 Main Street Fort Worth, TX 76102-5407
Site ending point food vendor: Corner Bakery http://www.cornerbakerycafe.com/home.aspx615 Main Street, Fort Worth  TX

Welcome back to school everyone! This is starting to look like one of the more exciting years yet with the Texas DEN. Please keep coming back to the blog this year as we will be keeping it more current throughout the year with the help of several Leadership Council Bloggers. Stay with us as we share new resources, DEN news, and event announcements.

New STARS
Please welcome new Texas DEN STARS that have joined during this summer. Give a big TX DEN Howdy to: Senyda Elizondo (Pharr), Ana Centeno (Glenn Heights), Pam Donze (Flower Mound), Angela Conrad (Kingwood), Linda Cross (Tuscola), and Sylvia Basaldu (Corpus Christi).

New Event: Texas DEN Photo Walk 2009
The TX DEN Leadership Council is organizing a great opportunity for the amateur and dangerously talented teacher photographers in the state. On September 12th, several cities will have small groups of teachers enjoy a Photo Walk, where the group will travel together taking pictures that support the day’s theme. Each city will gather afterwards for lunch and select their three favorite photos of the morning with each winner getting a prize that day.  For more fun, each site will upload their top three photos for a state-wide contest with bigger prizes for the top three photos.

The event is free and open to all in the Texas DEN. Come back soon for more registration details, but keep the morning of the September 12th open!
Happy New (Academic) Year!
From all of us on the Texas Leadership Council, we hope you have a fantastic and successful year.

(Okay, start humming in the background now… “Take Me Out To The Ballpark..”)

Hey, it’s still summertime and Discovery Education is bringing more fun to Texas!  I’ve been a part of numerous Discovery Institutes and Days of Discovery and none of them failed to deliver on the promise of great professional development.  Account Manager Justin Karkow is providing another opportunity for learning about how to deliver creative ways to engage student with digital media.

It all happens on Saturday, July 25 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Participants will learn new tips and tricks for using some favorite technology tools in the classroom as well as see some of the new changes with Discovery Streaming.  There will be a lunch served and the day ends with fun and prizes!

I’ve yet to attend a Day of Discovery that didn’t fill up quickly, so register soon to get your place reserved!

When: Saturday, July 25, 2009
Where: Minute Maid Park, 501 Crawford St, Houston, Texas
Time: 8:30 – 3:30 (followed by an opportunity to attend batting practice)
Cost: FREE! (does not include parking or admission to the game afterward)

Join us at A Day At The Park With Discovery Education!
Registrations link: https://discoveryed.wufoo.com/forms/a-day-at-the-park-with-discovery-education/

(..you can continue humming as you fill out the registration form..

Day At The Park.pdf

As we all wrap up the end of the school year, isn’t it great that we don’t have to see the end of great DEN events? Some of you will be going to the DEN National Institute, others like myself, will be going to the DEN LC Symposium. Many lucky people will be going to the NECC pre-con and other fabulous regional events throughout the summer.

Give a shout out and tell us where you are going this summer, whether it be DEN related or not, and if you are interested in being a guest blogger this summer, send me an email at eplybon@gmail.com.

Remember the last few years when spring at the DEN means recruiting? Well, this year, spring at the DEN means sharing! The DEN is building a wonderful library of resources for teachers which cannot be done without the help of fabulous DEN members like you!

Between now and May 22, any STAR Discovery Educator who uploads at least two resources will receive a DEN Spring Training T-shirt featuring the logo in this article.

Since the DEN is all about collaboration, what are you waiting for? Dust off those lesson plans, videos, writing prompts, or whatever resource you’ve created that you think other teachers will benefit from, and get them uploaded. The entire community will be the better for it!

For more information on spring training, visit the DEN National Blog.

If you’ve been watching the announcements from the Discovery Education team about what is in store for 2009, you’ve been blown away by their commitment to making the DEN stronger than ever, with more resources, more educators, and more activities that will enhance student success in all of our classrooms. Continuing long-standing programs (national institute), changing existing programs (rolling educator resources into DE Media Share), introducing new programs (DEN Guru, LC Symposium and retreats), and making the products available to us even stronger than before (have you looked at DE Science lately?), the DE team has really set the standard for establishing a strong, useful community of educators all over the world.

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, Discovery Education announced on the National Blog that they are beginning a new program called Discovery Student Adventures. Discovery has a long history of focusing on educators, now they will begin a new life with students at the forefront. This program will officially launch in 2010, but here’s the really exciting news - Discovery will be sending 9 lucky STARs and 36 students on a trip in 2009 as a pilot for the program and it will be free!  Be sure to watch the National Blog for more details as they are made available.

Thank you, Discovery, for being an innovator in community building among educators!