As I travel the beautiful state of Florida, I am so excited to meet DEN members and their teachers who are constantly learning and sharing new ways to integrate unitedstreaming in their classrooms. The last two weeks were coast to coast trainings that I would love to share with you.
I’ve started to put a little pushpins in this map in my office when I travel to a DEN school and have noticed that I actually travel in a circle. Every once in a while there’s a little stray pushpin, like Arcadia or Hialeah, but basically our schools are along the coasts. I am very grateful for the opportunity to see so many beautiful places and most importantly our amazing teachers in South Florida. Here are just a few that I’ve enjoyed in the last two weeks.
In Sarasota County, I met with teachers at Southside Elementary. This school was built about 80 years ago (that’s really old in Florida) and has one of the most architecturally beautiful campuses I’ve seen in my travels. Half the teachers were able to take unitedstreaming to the next level in the morning and the other half trained all afternoon. I can’t wait to hear how they are making a difference in their classrooms with digitall media. Welcome Maria Newell to the DEN!
In Manatee County, I finally go to meet Bob Gehle, STAR DEN member with whom I’ve been online with many times, but once you get to put a face with a name, I feel complete! I loved how Bob not only had his media specialists gather for a meeting and unitedstreaming training, but that he created beautiful placemats and snacks for them. Great job, Bob. Most guys don’t get it! Welcome Angie Sasse to the DEN!
In St. Lucie County, I entered Field Manager heaven. STAR DEN members Jeanne Moniz, Carole Gooden and Marj Armstrong had a Day of Discovery for their teachers that included Writing Prompt
Builder, Quiz Builder, Assignment Builder and even Movie Maker! It was amazing. You are SUPER STAR DEN members ladies. Keep it up!
In Osceola County, Debbie Bohanan and Wendy Norton had COSMEO nights for their parents. The kids played with Brain Game simulations and the COSMEO commerical drew parents’ attention over to the computer that was projected to the wall so that everyone could experience the amazing homework help
that can be found on COSMEO. Parents that sign up for COSMEO through Learning Adds Up also get fundraising money for their school!
In Palm Beach County, the elementary computer teachers were invited to the beautiful Jupiter Elementary School by STAR DEN member Lee Kolbert to continue their training in unitedstreaming through a Make ‘N
Take workshop. The teachers had fun and walked away with the beginnings of a unit plan that they can use in their labs.
Finally, yesterday I witnessed the most incredible training on how to use unitedstreaming if you don’t have a projector. STAR DEN member Diane Darling at Mill Creek Elementary School encouraged her teachers who don’t have a lot of technology stuff to be creative. She hooked up older Macs to projectors, older laptops to TVs and
demonstrated how to use unitedstreaming on desktops. What great solutions Diane. I even had to throw in the incredible capability of showing unitedstreaming movies through the video iPod.
Needless to say, there’s a lot of good news going on in South Florida. What are you doing at your school to help the teachers take unitedstreaming to the next level?
The pushpins are very cool, Karen!
Well it seems the unitedstreaming movement is going places. Sorry I never took any pics of our parent night cosmeo training I think we will do this when we have the Science Gross Out Night with Cosmeo highlighted. I too liked the pushpins you are so creative.
It’s amazing how large south Florida! Very intesting that there is nothing in the middle. It’s hard to believe there could be some undeveloped land left in parts of Florida.
Thanks for coming to Reedy Creek for our Cosmeo presentation. The students loved the demonstrations and really enjoyed the animal games. When the event was over, we had to turn off the computer to get the kids to go home. Thanks for all your wonderful support.
Did I submit my event to you already? If not, please let me know. Also, do I need to do anything to report it to Discovery for extra credit?
Thanks for the great information!
Could you plot your trek on Google Earth, too?
Karen…We felt very special to have you spend the better part of the day with us. The teachers really enjoyed our training session, even though it seemed to be so full for one day! Thanks for helping to make our inservice day worthwhile, even as we had such fun. You know that the welcome mat is always rolled out for you in St. Lucie County.
Congratulations on your Cosmeo night. I heard it was a big success. P.S. Thanks for signing me up : )
It was great having you with us in PB Co. The teachers always love hearing from you and I love how you always share the latest and greatest with whatever is happening with Discovery!
Thanks again for an awesome presentation.