Virginia

Welcome back to a new school year.  I look forward to providing you with lots of great resources over the coming year. I know it is going to be a great year with the DEN. I wanted to let you know about some additions to the VA DEN Blog. We’ve added some new pages that will give you access to some additional resources.

VA DEN Calendar: Check here for workshops, webinars and professional development opportunities. If you have an event that is happening please feel free to add it to our calendar.

DEN Diigo Group: Diigo is the newest social bookmarking site. DEN has created a group so you can have access to resources from other STAR DEN members. This group is open to all so please sign up and start sharing.

Web 2.0 Wednesday: We all know the power or Web 2.0. Every Wednesday I will post a new Web 2.0 tool that you can use in your classroom.

I hope you’ll enjoy these new additions to the blog and if you have any suggestions please let us know.  Below is some new information that was recently posted to the National Blog.

Present Like a Rockstart: Upcoming conferences accepting proposals to present.

Upcoming Webinars: View full schedule here

September 5th, 1pm EST - Discovery Education Assessment - Predictive Benchmark

September 9th, 7pm EST - 50 Ways and Beyond

September 12th, 1pm EST - Discovery Education streaming, Plus, Media and Language Packs

September 16th, 7pm EST - DEN State of the Union Address with Lance Rougeux

September 17th, 7pm EST - EdTechConnect featuring Tim Magner, director of the office of educational technology for the US Department of Education.

Star Discovery Members celebrated on Tuesday, July 1st in San Antonio at Rio Rio Cantina. We all celebrated the DEN’s 3rd Birthday. STAR Educators came from all across the country. It was good to see some old friends and to make some new ones. Enjoy the photos and yes the cake tasted as good at is looked.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

If you haven’t heard, Virginia is in first place in the DEN Spring Training competition! We are well on our way to winning the State Challenge (the state with the most STAR Discovery Educators recruited during DEN Spring Training will receive a Day of Discovery featuring Hall “of Famer” Davidson and other major leaguers from the DEN team)…wouldn’t that be awesome!

Check out the standings here.

Also, don’t forget about our first DEN STAR Drive-In Monday evening. This is a great opportunity to do some recruiting! Ask a friend or two to join us for a fun webex where we’ll have our DEN STARs explain why they joined and discuss what they feel are the most important reasons for joining. We’ll also explore the DEN website, walk through the STAR application process, and, of course, give out prizes! Our very own Aron Sterling will be a featured STAR this Monday! If you haven’t registered, it’s not too late. Click here to register

Have a great week and keep on recruitin’  ; )

*Katie - VA DEN Leadership Council Chair

Those who know me know I love to shop. I wouldn’t call it an addiction, but obsession would be okay. Shopping got me into S.L. where I could buy clothes virtually. Now the DEN has opened an online store where I can get lots of items with the DEN logo that I don’t need, but have to have anyway.

From windshirts to waterbottles, you can get all your DEN goodies at the DEN store. Just about everything a proud DEN member could want in your choice of colors. All of the clothing meets the DEN’s strictest requirements for quality, and most logos are hand stitched on (by robots). You won’t find higher quality DEN clothing anywhere!

What more could a DEN member want? Visit the National Blog for more information. I’m going to go buy my new coffee mug.

VSTE board member and VA STAR DEN member Jill Baedke wanted to make sure all VA DEN members knew that VSTE board nominations are now open. You can nominate someone or you can even nominate yourself. The information below is was taken directly form the VSTE site.

You are invited to nominate yourself or a colleague to be considered for election to the VSTE Board of Directors, for the 2007-08 Board year. This is an opportunity to become involved in the key decision-making group for the Virginia Society for Technology in Education. The online election, which will be held in January 2007, is for seven seats on the Board of Directors.

ABOUT THE VSTE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

1. The Board’s term runs from July 1 - June 30. The Board’s term of office is two years, staggered, with no term limits. Thus, six of twelve Board member seats are up for election each year. For this election, six seats are open for a two year term and one seat is open to fill out the one year remaining in a current two year term. Of all the candidates running in the election, those six receiving the highest number of votes will win the two year terms. The seventh highest vote getter will win the one year term.

2. The Board has provisions for non-voting liaisons to participate in Board activities and decision-making. Currently the Virginia Department of Education provides a liaison to the VSTE Board of Directors. Liaisons are NOT counted in the 12 elected Board member positions.

3. At the last meeting of each year, the Board elects (with new incoming Board members participating) its Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer, for the coming year.

GENERAL EXPECTATIONS OF BOARD MEMBERS:

1. Board Meetings are held either in person or via conference call. The Executive Committee (Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer) will have meetings at times when the Board is not scheduled to meet. The general schedule is as follows:

August - Executive Committee (Call)
September - Board of Directors (Face to Face - TBD)
October
November - Executive Committee (Call)
December - Board of Directors (Face to Face - TBD)
January
February - Executive Committee (Call)
March - Board of Directors (Call)
April May - Executive Committee (Call)
June - Board of Directors Retreat (Face to Face - TBD)

2. Board Meetings (face to face) will generally be held on Saturdays. Conference Calls will be held in the evenings. Board members will collaboratively decide dates for meetings and calls.

3. Board members are expected to participate in Board activities. Such activities include meeting attendance and electronic discussions amongst the Board, via the Board electronic email list.

4. Travel expenses are not provided for Board members, but expenses during the meetings (meals and lodging (as appropriate)) are provided for.

5. This is considered a working board of directors. In that capacity, the Board, among other items, will set policy and direction for the organization; will carry the banner for the society; and will select, hire, and direct the Executive Director (who will be responsible for the day to day business of the organization).

You are invited to nominate a candidate (including yourself) for consideration in the 2007-09 VSTE Board of Directors election. If you are interested, please download and submit via email the “editable” PDF document to elections@vste.org. A nomination is considered “received” when the filled in form is received, in accordance with the following schedule:

Deadline for return of completed nomination forms (November 10, 2006 at 5 PM EST)
VSTE Board of Directors Online Election (January 15, 2007 - February 15, 2007)

Please let us know, via email to election@vste.org, if you have any questions or need further information. Thank you for your participation.

Laura Michaels
Chair
VSTE Elections Committee

The VA DEN would like the CA DEN Members to know that you are in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Please leave a message of support on the CA DEN blog or visit the National Blog to leave your message there. Below are some resources from the CA DEN if you are looking for ways to stay updated on what is happening in California.

From the CA DEN:

I also wanted share a couple ways to keep updated using Google Maps and Google Earth. The LA Times has a a Google map where you can click on the fire icons for more info.

A public radio station has also made one for SD County.

and the US Forest Service and NASA have built overlays for Google Earth where you can see the smoke:

The VA DEN Leadership Council

By this point I’m sure you’ve noticed all the changes that the DEN has made to their online community.  One of those changes is DEN’s new blog engine.  Now the state blogs and your personal DEN blogs have the power of Wordpress behind them. Please keep your eye open for webinars provided by our resident blog expert Steve Dembo.  He will be providing training to get you started with your own personal blog.

When I stop and think about how technology has truly changed our society I am in awe. Blogs were at the forefront of the Web 2.0 movement, but have taken a back seat to some newer Web 2.0 tools.  This post got me thinking about blogs and how they’ve changed how we view information.  You can find a blog on just about anything. Go to Google Blog Search and see what happens.  Last post 3 hours ago, 1 hour ago, 5 minutes ago. Information is essentially being generated 24 hours a day.

The point of my rambling is this, with so much content being generated how do you find the good stuff?  There’s never enough time to find it and evaluate it.  So I’m turning to you all.  Do you have a some great educational blogs that you just can’t live without?  Do you have examples of student generated blogs that we should see?  If so, please share them with us via the comments section.  I’ll get us started with a few of my favorites below and if you are like me and need all of your blogs in one spot, check out Bloglines.  Bloglines is a blog aggregator where you can read all of your blogs in one place.  It has definitely made my life easier.

Happy Blogging,
Heather

On Sept. 11, please join the DEN team and the Military Channel as we partner with America Supports You,
a Department of Defense program recognizing citizens’ support for our
military and communicating that support to members of our Armed Forces
and their families. America Supports You connects citizens and
corporations who are looking for ways to support the military with
homefront organizations that are devoted to helping the troops and
their families. The Military Channel is working with our partners to
spread the word about these significant events.

Please visit the National Blog to find out more information.

Heather

Not only has the warm weather arrived, but so has SOL time. I’ve received emails from teachers who are
looking for fun innovative ways to review for SOL’s. Luckily this was a topic on the ITRT
(Instructional Technology Resource Teacher) message board. Chris Wyatt, ITRT for Hampton City Schools in
Hampton,VA has created a wiki page in an effort to gather and share resources. Please visit the TiPS (Technology in Public
Schools) wiki and click on SOL Resources to view resources that other teachers
have used.

Another great place for SOL review is the Quia Website. Quia is pronounced key-ah,
and is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive. Quia provides a
wide variety of tools, including, templates for creating 16 different types of
online activities, including flash cards, word search, battleship, challenge
board, and cloze exercises. Quia activities are designed with different
learning styles in mind to suit the needs of all your students. If you wish to
create your own online activities, there is a subscription fee. The good news
is that Quia also has a shared activities
area which is a great starting point for new users and it doesn’t cost
anything. There are activities in more than 150 categories and all of the games
were created by instructors using Quia’s templates. Once you’ve accessed the shared activities
area, conduct a search using keywords such as: VA SOL, SOL Review, Jamestown
SOL etc…

I would be remiss as a DEN member if I didn’t give a “shout out” to our very
own Quiz Builder in unitedstreaming. This can be used to create your own review
quizzes for your students. If your
school doesn’t have a unitedstreaming
account you don’t have to worry. There
are two ways that you can get access to unitedstreaming.
The DEN is running a special for STAR Discovery Educators. They are offering you a free account to unitedstreaming
Plus for the entire 2007-2008 school year (including the remainder of the
2006-2007 school year). Click here to learn how to set up your new
account. Not a STAR Discovery Educator
but would still like access to unitedstreaming?
Click here and sign up for a free 30-day trial.

Of course these are not the only resources available for SOL review. If you have an activity, lesson or website
that you use, please post it in the comments section. This way we can all benefit from your
expertise.

The 28th annual National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) will be held in Atlanta, GA from June 24th through June 27th. What is the purpose of NECC?

Our purpose? To help shape the future of education. How? By
bringing together the best Ed Tech has to offer. NECC 2007 boasts more
than 700 presentations in a variety of program formats that

• highlight promising practices for leadership and school transformation
• showcase the impact of 21st-century learning environments and virtual schools
• demonstrate the impact of technology on student achievement and school improvement
• emphasize the ethics and equity issues involved in all these topics

Jannita is currently planning a great event for the DEN.  If you’ll be attending NECC this year please take the poll and let Jannita know what type of event you are willing to attend.  If you haven’t already registered for NECC and would like more information, please visit the NECC site.  There’s still plenty of time to register.