Free resource from Discovery Education about Manufacturing

Discovery Education has a new free resource: Manufacture Your Future, which has free STEM lessons and resources for grades 6-12 related to manufacturing.

This is an excellent resource. Manufacturing is a great career and there are a lot of openings in the field.

Manufacture Your Future: New Online Portal Offers Free, Dynamic STEM Lessons and Resources Discovery Education and Alcoa Foundation are excited to introduce Manufacture Your Future, a new, online destination designed to inspire students in grades 6-12 to explore modern manufacturing careers through STEM-based exploration. Manufacture Your Future's standards-based, cross-curricular resources include: FOR TEACHERS: Comprehensive lesson plans including "Manufacturing in the 21st Century" and "Design a Robot" FOR COUNSELORS: Career guide with job assessment tools FOR FAMILIES: Discussion starters to extend the conversation beyond the classroom COMING THIS FALL: A live virtual field trip from an Alcoa facility will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the manufacturing design process. Sign up for e-mail updates to hear when registration opens.       Related: Next Generation Manufacturing Center - this is a cooperative group of manufacturers, CBIA and CT's Community Colleges. They work to get more students interested in engineering and manufacturing. There are some great videos on the site, too. They have a lot of great programs, including the Engineering Challenge. They also sponsor summer externships for teachers. These externships pay teachers to spend the summer at a local manufacturing company learning about their industry and coming up with ways to get more students involved in engineering and manufacturing. I was able to participate about 5 years ago and found it to be a great experience. Great Free Resources from Discovery Education STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Resources

It's Open House at the Discovery Educator Network This Week!

The Discovery Educator Network is an awesome, free, resource for educators, filled with other educators. The DEN is a great place to connect with other educators and share resources, ideas, lesson plans, and much more. It's not just about Discovery Education resources either. I've met some great people in the DEN and learned so much. It's a great Personal Learning Network for any and all educators.

This week, September 10 - 14, 2012, the DEN is having and open house to share resources and how the DEN can benefit educators. There will be webinars, blog posts from educators, and much more, all for free. Come and join us!

Check out the details below for details and more information. And don't forget to check out the Discovery Educator Network blogs, with lots of great information and resources from other educators.

Help us kick off the school year with DEN Back-to-School Week. September 10-14, we’ve got a great schedule of activities to help you share the DEN and even learn more yourself about the community. In addition to daily blog posts about a variety of topics, we have a few special webinars and Google Hangouts scheduled. This is a great chance for you to grab a colleague and introduce them to the DEN.

Monday, September 10

Best of Matt’s Media Tips for Back to School at 3:30 and 7 PM ET
Registration for 3:30 session
Registration for 7:00 session

Tuesday, September 11

We’ve gathered a bunch of DEN Gurus for a Hangout (8pm ET, join athttp://gplus.to/discoveryed)
Jen Wagner
Karen Ogen
Traci Blazosky
Conni Mulligan
Rita Mortenson
Tim Childers
Kathy Schrock
David Fisher


Techbook 2.0 Preview at 6 PM ET
Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook

Using Notebooks and Journals with the Discovery Education Science Techbook at 7 PM ET
Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook

Wednesday, September 12

Celebrate International Dot Day with our Livestream for classrooms with Peter H. Reynolds, author of The Dot at 1 PM ET
http://denblogs.com/live

Techbook 2.0 Preview at 5 PM ET
Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook

Exciting Enhancements to Discovery Education at 7 PM ET
Register here.

Thursday, September 13

Exciting Enhancements to Discovery Education at 4 PM ET
Register here.

The Common Core Connection…. Resources from the DE Science Techbook that Build Common Core Skills at 6 PM ET
Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook

Meet these members of the DEN Leadership Council at a DEN Open House via Google Hangout at 7 PM ET (Register here.)

Linda Rush
Linda has many years of teaching experience working with students with disabilities in public, private, hospital and university settings. For the last twelve years, Linda has been at the Notre Dame Special School of Dallas teaching technology and computer skills to children with cognitive disabilities. Integrating web 2.0 ideas, movie making and digital storytelling has been her passion. She is a SMART exemplary educator/certified trainer and a DEN Guru. For the past six years Linda has been on the Texas Leadership Council.

Heather Hurley
Heather Hurley has been in education for 21 years. She is an instructional Technology Coordinator in Arlington, VA. She supports and trains teachers at two elementary schools, Arlington Traditional School and Glebe Elementary School. In her free time she loves taking pictures and attending wine festivals.

Mary Carole Strother
Mary Carole is a Library Media Specialist at Finch Elementary in McKinney, TX. She been a member of the DEN for 6 years, serving on the Texas Leadership Council and has been an active member of the Events team. This year Mary Carole wanted to be a Rising STAR mentor to share all the things she loves about being a part of the DEN.

Friday, September 14

Live Podcast with Steve and Dean (Time TBD, Join at http://gplus.to/discoveryed)
Prize opportunities in the DEN Weekly Update


This is a great opportunity to learn more about Discovery Education and the Discovery Educator Network.

Adobe Foundation and Discovery Education partner for Digital Media Curriculum

      

The Adobe Foundation and Discovery Education have partnered together to provide free curriculum and resources to help educators use digital media to improve teaching and learning in the classroom. The curriculum will be provided through the Discovery Educator Network and includes access to professional development resources, webinars, video tutorials, community forums, classroom materials activities and online resources. The curriculum offers material in print and web design, photography, motion graphics and video editing.

It is part of the Adobe Youth Voice program which promotes technology based creative skills.

Check out some more information about it: http://youthvoices.adobe.com/essentials/

Discovery Educator Network Open House Sept 10-14. Great free resources!

The Discovery Educator Network is an awesome, free, resource for educators, filled with other educators. The DEN is a great place to connect with other educators and share resources, ideas, lesson plans, and much more. It's not just about Discovery Education resources either. I've met some great people in the DEN and learned so much. It's a great Personal Learning Network for any and all educators.

September 10 - 14, 2012 the DEN is having and open house to share resources and how the DEN can benefit educators. There will be webinars, blog posts from educators, and much more, all for free. Come and join us!

Check out the details below for details and more information.

It’s the beginning of school, time for Open House. Well, the DEN is hosting our own Open House this month!  September 10-14, help us kick off the school year with DEN Open House Week.  We’ve got a great schedule of activities to help you share the DEN and even learn more yourself about the community.  In addition to daily blog posts about a variety of topics, we have a few special webinars and Google Hangouts scheduled.  Take a look at the information below and join us as much as possible!  This is a great chance for you to grab a colleague and introduce them to the DEN.

Monday, September 10

• Best of Matt’s Media Tips for Back to School at 3:30 and 7 PM ET
•  Registration for 3:30 session
•  Registration for 7:00 session

Tuesday, September 11

• DEN Guru Hangout (8pm ET, join at http://gplus.to/discoveryed)
• Techbook 2.0 Preview at 6 PM ET
• Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook
• Using Notebooks and Journals with the Discovery Education Science Techbook at 7 PM ET
• Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook

Wednesday, September 12

• Celebrate International Dot Day with our Livestream for classrooms with Peter H. Reynolds, author of The Dot at 1 PM ET
• http://denblogs.com/live
• Techbook 2.0 Preview at 5 PM ET
• Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook
• Exciting Enhancements to Discovery Education at 7 PM ET
• Register here.

Thursday, September 13

• Exciting Enhancements to Discovery Education at 4 PM ET
• Register here.
• The Common Core Connection…. Resources from the DE Science Techbook that Build Common Core Skills at 6 PM ET
• Register at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook
• DEN Open House via Google Hangout at 7 PM ET (Register here.)

Friday, September 14

• Week End Wrapup!  Live Podcast with Steve and Dean (Time TBD, Join at http://gplus.to/discoveryed)

DEN Virtual Conference Live is Oct 20th - free!

Discovery Education is once again hosting a fall, online, free virtual conference for educators. These are great events and a great way to get some free PD and resources.

 

October 20th, 2012.  9am-4pm ET

Register now!

I’m sure at this point you’re wondering what the BIG changes are.  Let me break it down for you.

• More LIVE: Every session will be live-streamed.  This means that you’ll see full video feeds of every presenter throughout the day!
• More keynotes: We’ve added one more keynote to the agenda.  Keynotes will be at 9am, 12pm and 3pm ET.
• More sessions: Each concurrent slot (10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm ET) will have up to 5 sessions being broadcast for you to pick and choose between.
• More Face 2 Face events: As of today, we already have 14 F2F events to choose from, with more coming!  Even better, we’ve made it easier than ever for ANYBODY to host their own F2F event.  You put it together, large or small, and DiscoveryEd will provide lunch for your attendees!
• More presenters: We want YOU to present at the Fall VirtCon LIVE!  The Call for Proposals is open now,visit the conference page to learn how to submit.
• More ways to get involved: Attend online, attend F2F, present a session, host an event, share the event with colleagues…  Whatever your comfort level, there are a slew of ways for you to join in the fun!

Fourteen Face 2 Face events already, up to 23 sessions to attend, and every single session LIVE streamed out…  This is looking to be the best Virtual Conference yet!!

And what’s the cost for this incredible day??  FREE.  And as I mentioned, if you choose to host a F2F event, we’ll even spring for lunch!

As always, while costumes aren’t required, they are certainly encouraged.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we even had some giveaways in the ol’ prize closet for the best costumes of the day!  Bonus points for incorporating a Discovery theme 

So what are you waiting for?  Visit http://lanyrd.com/2012/denvirtcon/ to register! 

 And while you’re there, check out where the F2F events will be, considering hosting your own or submitting a presentation proposal, and SHARE it out with your colleagues!

Discovery Education's YouTube Channel - great stuff here for free

Discovery Education, best known for it's Streaming video service and Science TechBooks, also has a great YouTube Channel. Discovery Education's YouTube channel has great resources, including webinars for teachers, and many other videos. They have playlists and tags so that you can better find what you are looking for.

The webinars are excellent, with many of them from Steve Dembo, on all kinds of topics including Web 2.0, Social Media, how to use Discovery Education products and resources, and much more.

Check it out!



Related:

Great Resources from Discovery Education

Discovery Educator Network - great resources and great addition to any PLN

Discovery Education announces updates to it's Science Techbooks

Discovery Education has a lot of great resources for educators, many free (over 30). They also have fee-based services such as DE Streaming with thousands of videos, audio files, images, lesson plans, and much more.

The Discovery Education Science Techbook is more than a digital textbook. "It’s a different way of thinking. Thinking outside the box, perhaps. Or more appropriately, thinking outside the book." "The Techbook not only provides awesome content aligned to each state’s standards (there are currently Science Techbooks available for most grades K-8 in 30 states across the U.S.), but includes a model lesson for teachers to use with every concept, assessment questions for each standard, a teacher’s guide, and DVDs for when the Internet is not available. Resources such as the virtual labs, reading passages, video segments, science sleuths, explorations, and interactive glossary, etc., are packaged together to follow the five E model of instruction. Teachers have found an easier and creative way to build lessons using technology resources and content, as well as differentiating their classroom."

They have just announced Techbook 2.0 is available. This is an update to the Techbook based on feedback and suggestions from educators, including a group of well known and well respected educators who reviewed Techbook at a summit Discovery Education hosted. You can Register to attend a webinar to learn about the new layout, features, and enhancements.

links.discoveryeducation.com/sciencetechbook



Related:

25 Free Resources from Discovery Education

Discovery Education’s Science Techbook: Scientific Explanations in Action

What I Want from a Digital Textbook

TechBook Extravaganza

Apple Announces iBooks2 E-Textbooks - my initial thoughts

What I use with Physics classes instead of textbook

Resources to Replace Textbooks

Free Textbooks - online, download, iPad, Kindle

Some more great, free, things from Discovery Education

I am a STAR Discovery Educator and a member of the CT Leadership Council (group of educators who work with Discovery Education to provide support to teachers) and love their resources.

They have a lot of great, free resources available for any educator to use and provide a lot of free online and in-person professional development for teachers.


Here are a couple of new things Discovery has:

Summer Tips and Tricks for Parents and Teachers - great presentation with some great resources and apps for parents and teachers to use themselves, and their children/students this summer.

 

Discovery Education Support is Now on Twitter - get help, answers, and tips on using Discovery Education resources on Twitter. 

Related:

Lots of Great, Free Resources from Discovery Education

Discovery Educator Network - great resources and great addition to any PLN

DEN Blog Network - great resource for all educators

Discovery Education Science Techbook debuting for High School!

Discovery Education Science Techbook is an incredible resource for educators. It's more than a digital textbook. "It’s a different way of thinking. Thinking outside the box, perhaps. Or more appropriately, thinking outside the book." "The Techbook not only provides awesome content aligned to each state’s standards (there are currently Science Techbooks available for most grades K-8 in 30 states across the U.S.), but includes a model lesson for teachers to use with every concept, assessment questions for each standard, a teacher’s guide, and DVDs for when the Internet is not available. Resources such as the virtual labs, reading passages, video segments, science sleuths, explorations, and interactive glossary, etc., are packaged together to follow the five E model of instruction. Teachers have found an easier and creative way to build lessons using technology resources and content, as well as differentiating their classroom."

It is not just a PDF or other media file with links. It is an entire ecosystem of lesson resources for educators to use in their classroom. It's not free, but neither are print textbooks or iBooks, and the DE Science TechBooks are ready, aligned to standards, and in use in thousands of classrooms around the country.

It has been available for Middle School for quite some time and is now debuting for High School. There is a webinar on May 29th that will debut the high school version. Check out the details below.

Discovery Education is ready to go to High School with the introduction of the Discovery Education Science Techbook for Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Earth & Space Sciences. Join us to learn more about each course as we take a quick dive in to the resources and instructional strategies used to develop this amazing textbook replacement.

Ready for High School?.... We Are!
Join us for the debut of Discovery Education Science Techbook for High School Educators Webinar
May 29th, 2012
6:00PM EDT
To Register or join the webinar please visit:
https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=630360655

 

DENny Award Winners 2012 - Discovery Educator Network Awards

Last night was the DENny Awards 2012, the annual awards where the Discovery Educator Network and Discovery Education honor DEN members for their efforts throughout the years. It's the Oscars for us. In fact, the Discovery Education employees that ran the event were wearing tuxedo t-shirts!

You can view the entire thing, which was live streamed from Discovery Education HQ last night, below:





You can also check out some of the tweets from last night #DENnyawards.



I was honored to have won a DENny for "PL DEN", a play on PLN (personal learning network), for my work sharing and connecting with other educators about Discovery Education resources on social media and the DEN blog for the CT Leadership Council. I according to DEN, I've tweeted over 132 times sharing Discovery Ed resources and posted over 100 blog posts on the DEN Blog.
(I was also honored last year with a DENny for my contributions to the DEN blog. I'm truly humbled by the awards).

Connecticut had a good showing last night, with Howard Gunther winning a DENny for Best DEN Event for the SCICon Event held at the Mark Twain house and Joe Fromme, the CT Leadership Council's fearless leader, winning a DENny for Leadership. Lynn Reedy and I were also finalists to be DEN Guru's this year and, while we weren't selected, were both honored to be part of such a distinguished group of educators that were the 12 finalists.

It was a fun event and I love the people in the DEN and from Discovery Education that I get to work with.

Discovery Education and the Discovery Educator Network do so much for educators and education. They are a dedicated group of educators and professionals that work to support educators in their job of educating our youth.




Why don't you join the Discovery Educator Network and become a STAR Educator!

More about the Discovery Educator Network: http://community.discoveryeducation.com/about.cfm

ISTE Newbie Project - help send a deserving teacher to ISTE conference

ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) puts on a great, huge, educational conference each year. I was lucky enough to attend ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia last year (thanks to winning a Discovery Education contest that paid for it for me) and had a great time, learning, sharing, and connecting with educators from around the world. Philadelphia is also a great town!

Attending ISTE is a great experience for any educator, but can be a tad expensive. Travel costs, meals and expenses, hotel, conference fee, etc. I was lucky enough to get my paid for by Discovery Education. Beth Still (@bethstill), a great educator that's part of my PLN thought every teacher should have a chance to attend the ISTE Conference. Back in 2008, when it was the NECC conference, she decided to see if she could use Twitter to help raise $1500 to send a teacher to the conference. It worked! And she's doing it again.

This year's ISTE Newbie is Jerry Blumengarten, better known on Twitter as @cybraryman1, who has an incredible website (http://cybraryman.com/) with thousands of great resources for educators (500 pages and 30,000 links). He's very active on Twitter, helping with various educational chats and also helping teachers out with resources and ideas. He's also a nice guy. His generosity to other educators is incredible.

So, let's help send Jerry to ISTE 2012 in San Diego this summer. You can go to the ISTE12 Newbie Site to donate. As of 9am today, over $700 had already been raised towards the $2000 goal! I donated because I think its a great idea and cause, and I think that Jerry truly deserves it.

https://sites.google.com/site/istenewbieproject/





Related:

ISTE 2011 A great experience!

ISTE Session Review - Extreme Web 2.0 Makeover by Steve Dembo

Nature Works Everywhere - free resources for learning about nature's factory

Nature Works Everywhere is a great, free site from The Nature Conservancy and Discovery Education. The site has resources to help learn about how nature works and the fact that nature is a factory, making many of the things we need.

There is an interactive online game that helps students discover the connections between everyday items and nature's resources, interactive lesson plans about topics like pollinators, forestry, coastal erosion and more, videos about how nature works to benefit us and how we can preserve nature, and a section about scientists working to preserve nature and keep it productive. There are even some virtual field trips.

Check it out and share it with your colleagues: http://www.natureworkseverywhere.org/

Related:

Tons of Great Resources from Discovery Education

Great Resources from Discovery Education 

Turfmutt - environmental lessons and resources

Science of Everyday Life

Explore the Blue - lessons about water for all subjects

Social Learning Summit - archives from a great event available

The Social Learning Summit was a great, free, online educational conference hosted by Classroom 2.0 and Discovery Educator Network last Saturday. There were over 70 great sessions, led by some great educators and now the archives are available for those who missed it or who want to review things.

RJ Stangherlin, a DEN blogger, live blogged many presentations and you can find her posts here.

Every session was recorded and you can find them all here.

This was a great resource for all educators and now anyone can view the presentations.



Related:

Discovery Educator Network - great resource for all educators

Free Resources from Discovery Education 

Discovery Education - Sneak Peek of Back to School Updates

Discovery Education and the Discovery Educator Network are great resources for educators and students. They have over 30 free resources for educators, Discovery Streaming Plus, Discovery Assessment, Discovery Education Science TechBook (really awesome) and much more.

They are hosting a sneak peek webinar series of some of the changes coming to Discovery Education this summer. You can find out about product updates, mobile and social products and updates and all the newest, latest, greatest features and resources available.

The webinars are scheduled for Tuesday, May 8th at 7pm ET, Tuesday, May 15th at 3:30pm ET and Tuesday, May 22nd at 7pm ET. You can register to attend these free webinars here: Register: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/sneakpeek2012

Related:

Discovery Educator Network - great resource for all educators

Discovery Products, News, Lesson Ideas, Resources and more

25 Free Resources from Discovery Education
Discovery Education Science TechBooks - great resource - more than an e-text

DENny Awards 2012 - nominations open now! Discovery Educator Network Awards

The DENny Awards are awards given to Discovery Educator Network members that go above and beyond for the community during the school year. I was honored to win a DENny last year for blogging on the DEN Blogs. 

Nominations are now open: We have many different categories, but the one that is coveted by STARs all over the globe is the Community Choice DENny. We encourage all STARs to take some time and nominate a fellow Discovery Educator for a Community Choice DENny by completing this form. The deadline for nominations is May 15 (5 PM DEN Time).

Join us on Thursday, May 17th at 7 PM ET for the 2012 DENny Awards.

This year, we’re thrilled to announce that the DENny Awards will be broadcast live from the HD Theater at the world headquarters of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, MD. If you are nearby, we invite you to join us in-person. Sign up to join us in-person at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD or join us online at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/live

Related:

Discovery Educator Network - great resources and great addition to any PLN

25+ Free Resources for Educators from Discovery Education