“I Learn, You Learn, We Learn” Blog

…………..just ask Anthony Cimino a 4th grade teachers at  Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Schenectady. Congratulations to Anthony for winning a DEN duffel bag just for commenting on the DEN Stream-a-thon blog post!

 Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

This past weekend was an exhausting, fantastic, fun, informative , jam packed, 2 days for everyone who made their way to the NY/Northeast DEN Regional Conference.  Educators from MA, CT, NJ and NY attended the event hosted at Hudson Valley Community College.

On Saturday, participants were treated to a presentation by Discovery’s Lance Rouguex who helped us understand the need for us not only to learn a second language, but that language being the one our student’s  currently speak.  Each participant become experts in understanding DEstreaming and had the chance to meet and network with educators from other New England states.

On Sunday, technology expert, Sal DeAngelo talked about not just ”Teaching Our Students to Whistle”  but teaching our students so they actually learn what we’re teaching.  Teams continued to work on , and then present,  projects ranging from “The Properties of Metals” from our SHS Science Department to “Simple Machines” from our elementary teachers.

On Sunday we had a special guest, Regent Bowman, from the NYS Board of Regents drop in to see why the teachers were so excited about DEstreaming and the DEN.

Here’s a shout out to all who attended from Schenectady City Schools. They, as well as the educators from CT, NJ and MA,  are to be commended for their commitment to learning new ways to integrate technology during their time away from school.

 Sal DeAngelo - Keynote

William Mau - SHS Social Studies - who, in the photo above, is proudly dancing for the DEN (and a Discovery prize)

Kevin Dorsey - MPMS Technology

Suzanne Bernadt - Elementary Library Media Specialist

Meredith Bernadt - Howe Elementary

Laura Canders -SHS Science

Katie Raymer - SHS Science

Nicola Dutre - Oneida Health

Rick DeCarr - FDR Elementary

Christine Bernard - King Elementary

Tomorrow begins a two day workshop of learning and fun at The Seik Conference Center at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. One of the tri cities of the capital district area of NY, Troy will prove to be a place where the DEN Regional Conference will make a name for it’s first annual.

Dennis Swain, our regional rep, has been working hard to make this a truly memorable event. He has organized a fantastic line up of speakers and presenters from both Discovery and surrounding states.

I am hoping my colleagues from Schenectady City Schools will get to experience the excitement and fun I’ve had during the past few years as a STAR Discovery Educator.

Check out the agenda of events. I’ll keep you posted!

Once again, Steve Dembo made our heads spin with his expertise of Web 2.0 tools in last night’s webinar 50 Ways to Spin a Digital Story.

Before we began the formal webinar, Steve provided us the opportunity for us to see him facilitate this webinar by streaming a video of him through his cell phone through Qik.com. This added another dimension to the webinar for us visual learners. The space invaders on his “studio” ceiling added a special touch.

Steve provided an explanation of the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0. It was great he reminded those of us who use Web 2.0 we may take for granted that others will know what it is all about. Not true; there are still many educators who don’t know what Web 2.0 is, let alone the power of some of those sites.  In a nutshell, the difference between the 2 is, Web 1.0  are those web sties that just provide information. You go to it, read it and take away what you want. On the other hand  the Web 2.0  sites are those sites on the internet that provide a level of interactivity, are free and allow some sort of participatory environment such as blogs, wikis, photo sharing and networking sties. Thanks for the clarification Steve.

On to the 50 ways……….

First , Steve took us to a site called CogDogRoo  developed by Alan Levine. It is a wiki which focuses on 50 of the best Web 2.0 sites. People can go in and add examples of how they use some of the sites. It’s a great resource.  Steve’s idea of 5O Ways to Spin a Digital Story came from this site.

Although an hour is just not enough time to get through all fifty ways, Steve did show us a few very cool tools you can use to enhance your digital stories or create them. Are you ready? Here are a few he mentioned:

1. Create biographies using DEstreaming images and Blabberize
2. Develop a family history using Toon Doo
3. Make a timeline using Our Story
4. Share PowerPoint presentations at MY Plick
5. Students can use VoiceThread to expand on a book read in class

Hopefully the webinar will be archived or posted soon so you can view the presentation at your leisure.

And speaking of webinars…… what a line up Discovery has for the upcoming school year! Check out my next post for an overview of what webinars are on their way.

Oh my!  I’ve been experimenting with a new blog theme with the help of Steve Dembo. I’m not all that familiar with HTML, but know enough to tweak here and there.  I still had to bug Steve a few times during the day though for some help and suggestions.

A new theme is a nice visual change, this new iPhone theme is cool. I don’t have an iPhone, but I’ll settle with the theme for my blog for awhile. Each STAR  who uses his/her blog will soon be able to  choose other themes as well.  I can’t wait to see some of the changes in themes that each of you decide to use.

 A HUGE thanks to Steve for being patient with me through this change.

Over on my wiki I’ve posted a very brief summary of the week’s events and the LC Institute.  Just in case you would like to have the opportunity to be involved in an amazing week of professional development, hard work, fantastic networking and FUN - make it your goal to reach STAR status soon. It’s easy and the benefits are incredible!

Visit my I Learn, You Learn, We Learn  wiki

Become a DEN STAR

Today is day one of the Leadership Council Institute at One Discovery Place in Silver Spring, MD.  It is great to see so many familiar faces, both from last year’s institute and from photos of others on blogs and webpages.

We were given our first task today - to create a 60 second video about how awesome the DEN is.  During this time we connected with other leadership council members from each region, took a tour of One Place with our most excellent tour guide: Dennis, and made an hour fly by by creating some fun! I’m sure the videos will be posted soon so everyone can take a look at them. 

The networking, new faces, old acquaintances, food and entertainment made for a fantastic first day.

Tomorrow approximately 60 DEN STAR Educators will converge on Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD.  If the week turns about to be anything like last year, it is going to be fantastic! What’s different this year is this particular week’s participants are associated with each state’s DEN Leadership Council. I imagine the week’s festivities will focus on how we can play more of a leader role within our schools, district’s and state by focusing on technology integration and 21st century skills in our schools.

I have always been interested in the qualities of being a good leader. I’ve poked around reading various books and articles on the subject though what I’ve learned from it all is not really rocket science. I have and continue to believe communication, caring relationships, hard work, integrity and trust are key to being a good leader.  Knowing this, I continue to soak up the expert’s wisdom about the subject if only to experience increased motivation from the monotony and difficulty we sometimes experience in our workplace. Sometimes it’s refreshing to hear a great speaker who can really get your juices going or read an author who seems to really care about what it takes to be a leader.

With that in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the Leadership Blogs I follow and some of the authors and speakers I enjoy.

Blogs I follow:

• LeaderTalk
• Leading Together @ TIE
• Non-Profit Leadership Innovation and Change
• The Practice of Leadership
• Dangerously Irrelevant

Authors of Interest: ( You can check out some of their books on my GoodReads Book Shelf in the left hand column of my blog)

• Mark Sanborn
• Pat Lencioni
• John Maxwell
• Jim Collins
• Cal Ripkin
• John Wooden

Last but not least, I keep coming back to a simple book I read a few years ago by Mark Sanborn called  You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader.  When I think about the DEN STARs, I think about this book. As many of us who are in education experience often, it is hard to be “considered” a leader without the title of principal or another type of administrator. Mark provides many ways of how non-titled people can make a difference; just as we are in the DEN.

Have a great week. I can’t wait to report back on what Discovery has in store for us.

Seems like everyone is having fun with WORDLE these days. Here’s one for the DEN! (Sorry if I forgot anyone)

Creating a WORDLE about personal characteristics would be a great activity for students and would make terrific bulletin board.

Enjoy WORDLE at http://wordle.net/

What do you get when you add 20,000 DEstreaming images ,Gimp and Dennis Swain? 

You get a fantastic DEN webinar (hosted by none other than the northeast’s own Dennis Swain)full of practical, easy and fun tips for using images from DEstreaming.

Dennis showed the webinar participants how to search for, choose the correct size for your project and how to edit the photo chose with Gimp. Gimp is a photo editing software you can download for FREE. You can find it at http://www.gimp.org/. 

Gimp can be used to easily crop this photo of the Roosevelt Bridge. 

Dennis didn’t forget the Writing Prompt Builder in DEstreaming either. He showed us step by step how to incorporate one of those 20,000 images into a writing prompt: a simple way to incorporate technology media into your classroom.

Thanks for your expertise, Dennis!

Whats Coming Down the Stream?  Where do I start? Lance and Steve provided an extensive overview of future learning experiences for Stars and future Stars. From regional events to hundreds of webinars…. there is something for everyone in 2008-2009!
Here’s a sneak peak at what the DEN is planning:

• Regional events in every corner of the country  http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2008/05/16/den-regional-conference-schedule-announced/
• New blog themes  http://www.teach42.com/2008/05/20/top-20-wordpress-themes-for-education/
• More blog information from regional managers (Go Dennis!)  http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/dennisswain
• Fall Virtual Conference in October
• Stream -a-thon in September
• Webinars galore!  https://discoveryed.webex.com/mw0305l/mywebex/default.do?siteurl=discoveryed&service=6

Come on……….. what are you waiting for?  Visit the DEN at http://community.discoveryeducation.com/

 As STAR DE’s I think most of us know at least some of the uses for an iPod. Brad Fountain just posted a tutorial for Audacity on his blog . Personally I would like to see more about podcasting and uses of ipods on the DEN blog.

The article below is from The Clutter Diet and is written by Lori Morreco from LifeHack.com.  

What do you use your iPod for?  Submit a comment below to share your ideas and tips for using an iPod.

The iPod is an incredible organizing device! It takes many shelves worth of CDs and condenses them into one tiny gadget, thereby reducing clutter. The iPod (and iTunes) also took away the classic dilemma highlighted in the movie High Fidelity: Should you organize your music collection alphabetically by artist? Or by genre first? Now you can organize it any way you want with a couple of clicks.

Looking at the iPod from an organizer’s point of view, there are some great ways it can help you be more productive too. Here are a few:

• Drown out distractions.If you need shelter from the cacophony of the cubicle farm, many already know that headphones are a great way to escape. But even if you work alone as a telecommuter or solopreneur, your iPod can keep you from hearing the dog, the sirens outside, or even the neighbor’s television, allowing more concentration on your work.
• Time yourself.A little-known feature of the iPod is the “Sleep Timer,” located in the menu under Extras>Clock>Sleep Timer. This feature sets the iPod to turn itself off after 15, 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes of play time. Obviously, going to sleep with your iPod on is one way to utilize this, but I like using this feature to create breaks and ending times for my projects.
• Pace and focus yourself.Among the fantastic organizing capacities of iTunes is the ability to create Playlists… the modern day mix tape. Create and save a mix of music in exactly the order you want, from a variety of different artists if you like, and make it music that energizes you and allows your brain to focus best. For some people this is classical music, and for others this may be heavy metal. I like making up memorable names for my playlists—I have a techno mix that is for intense writing times on deadline, and I call it “TechnoFocus.”
• Hands-free reading.I do the majority of my “reading” with audiobooks, listening in the car, while exercising, or while doing mundane chores around the house. Before the iPod, this was cumbersome as a typical book can take as much as 7 CDs. I often am so caught up in listening to the book that I am surprised how much I have accomplished—wow, who cleaned out the refrigerator? Oh, it was me…

The most common question we get about iPods from our clients is, “Should I still keep my CDs now that they are on my hard drive?” It’s relatively easy to sell used CDs, so we think not, but you definitely need to have an excellent backup system to safeguard your collection should your hard drive fail. Some people do have a hard time parting with their beloved liner notes and the physicality of holding their favorite album, and if you do want to keep them, a great space-saving method is to use CD wallets instead of jewel cases.

Here’s a little bonus tip: I love using the Belkin “TuneTie” accessory to take up the extra cord of your headphones. It makes the excess cord much easier to deal with in a handbag or backpack. Go forth and be productive with your new iPod ideas!

 Am I glad Riptide’s April Fools day music post was a joke! I’ve been counting on Fred’s creations to help me create a library of music for my colleagues to use in projects and in upcoming Podcast workshops this summer.

Why don’t YOU join the fun?   Riptide needs names for his music files. Anyone can play. If you are reading this blog, take a gander on over to his at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/fred_delventhal1/category/366-days-of-music/, select the music clips that don’t yet have names, give a listen and leave a name for the music clip by leaving a comment.  Get your students involved too.  This would be a great start to creative art and music classes!

Crossposted from DEN National Blog. Thanks, Steve.

What’s better than giving away a free wireless lab? Doing it again and again and again and again and again! This is the sixth year that CDWG and Discovery Education have partnered up to give away to schools free wireless labs, with all the bells and whistles of course. This year, they will be giving away FIVE labs, each of which will include:

• 20 notebook or tablet computers from HP, Lenovo or Toshiba
• 3 wireless access points from D-Link, Linksys or NETGEAR
• 1 Bretford mobile cart
• 1 Promethean interactive whiteboard
• 20 Promethean Activote integrated personal response system
• 1 video projector from Epson or NEC Solutions
• 1 document camera from AVerMedia
• 1 laserjet printer from Epson or HP

There are also plenty of other prizes to be given away as well.

Drooling yet? Of course you are. And I know what you’re thinking right now. “How can I get my name in the drawing?” It couldn’t be easier. Just go to the Discovery Education /CDWG partner site and enter there. Don’t forget, you can vote the ‘Chicago way’… early and often! You can vote once per day, and you’ll automatically be entered into the monthly drawings as well as the grand prize drawing.

If you want to see the full list of prizes and all the other details, you can read through the entire press release here. Good luck!

 Wow!  The Discovery Educator Network is hosting so many webinars in April I can’t possibly list them all here. Click on this link to see a calendar of all the webinars offered in April.

However, just to wet your whistle , I ‘ll just mention a few:

April 1st - Teaching the 21st Century Student with Brad Fountain - Listen to Brad’s ideas on incorporating skills in our classrooms that students are going to be expected to know as they move into the working world.  

April 23 - David Jakes - An expert in the field of instructional technology, you can learn more about David at his blog, The Strenght of Week Ties, and at JakesOnine.org.

 Register for any of the April webinars at : https://discoveryed.webex.com/mw0304l/mywebex/default.do?siteurl=discoveryed&service=6