Snow Day

I am hoping for a snow day because not only can I get caught up on my Christmas stuff I can look for more digital streaming components to add to my lesson plans. I would like to do this without a time pressure. I feel like I need time to do some exploring just for the fun of it. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Debra & Chris for opening up the new world of Digital Streaming. See you at Web Tools. Merry Christmas, Arkin

If it's snowing, it must be Tuesday.........

I was absolutely blown away with all the things that were presented in class yesterday. There was such a great diversity of ideas, and I was only sorry that everyone's allotted time to present was so brief - it would have been so interesting to hear more about all your ideas in depth.

I'm very glad to have had this opportunity to learn about the concept and availability of digital streaming - you just never know when a chance to use it might materialize. And my sincere thanks to Chris and Deb - you two were awesome! I really appreciated your help and guidance, and the relaxed manner in which class was conducted. Past Sally Ride computer classes in this district that I have taken nearly scared me off for good, so I am SO thankful I took this, and look forward to seeing you two again in Web 2.0 and Adv. Microsoft!

Keep that shovel out........and everyone, have a wonderful holiday season!

magnet board

What was the name of that site with the magnet board, i didn't write it down because I thought I would remember...Apparently i didn't!

Is anyone taking any of the upcoming courses?

It would be nice to know the people in the next class, so I was just wondering if anyone is taking any of the classes Chris & Deb are teaching next semester?
Judy

I'm done....

at least with the work in this class. I still have two more concerts tomorrow and then those are done for now. I can't wait until break, even though it's going to go by really fast.

I hope you all have a restful break and take time to enjoy your families.

Happy Holidays!
Judy

Lesson worked well

I team taught with my collegue using the dreidel game lesson plan. I copied the video segment that we used to show our 1st grade classes. The segment really brought together a whole 2-1/2 week unit together in an excellant way. The students were able to connect their experiences in our previous classes to wrap-up and bring the information all together. The students were engaged in the video and then when we broke up into groups to play the dreidel game they were so excited. My only regret is that I didn't have my camera to take pictures of their excitement to keep with my lesson.

The Final Day

This has been an interesting class. I feel that I've learned a great deal about some of the resources out there that will be an asset to my classroom.

I've been lucky enough to share a few of these videos with my TAG class and they love them . . . even the ones on adverbs and adjectives. They have even requested more.

I have also enjoyed creating lesson plans that not only incorporate videos, but fit with what I teach. Most of the lessons that I've developed are for my TAG group, but they can be motified or used with the other group as well.

I look forward to digging around more.

Sandy

So long, farewell

I am really glad that I had the opportunity to take this class. I found a lot of useful content I hope to use in my classroom. There is really still so much out there in terms of technology that I hope to learn. I'm hoping that I can take the Web 2.0 class next spring, but we'll see. Time is not on my side. I do know that when Deb presented a lot of these web ideas at our faculty meeting last year I had thought they were really cool. Well thanks again and everyone have a great holiday!

The end

I am really glad I took this class. It was interesting to me because it is technology based, something I am interested in and feel very comfortable in using. Thankfully it was not as painful, well not painful at all, as some classes I have taken before!

I look forward to continuing to use Discovery Education in my classroom for the remainder of the year. I will keep my fingers crossed that the district decides to purchase it for all schools, and if not maybe I can convince my principal.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Finished With All Three Assignments

I am done. I have finished all three of the lesson plan assignments for this class and am looking forward to presenting tonight. The first one is a lesson for lower elementary level students on sorting basic geometric shapes. The video does a nice job of showing children how basic sorting is done. The second lesson teaches upper elementary level children about the layout and organization of a library media center, and in particular, about the importance of and how to use the Dewey Decimal System. The video from DE streaming for this is excellent. It is narrated by an enthusiastic librarian who describes all of the main sections of the library, explains the Dewey System, and explains how to use the computer catalog. The third assignment, and the one I am presenting tonight, teaches upper elementary level children the basics of geography. The video is hosted by two adorable children that learn about the Earth, oceans, continents, land forms, etc. I am looking forward to hearing what others have found to use for their lessons. I have learned a great deal in a very short amount of time in this course. I have already been applying what I have learned in my teaching and plan to continue to do so. Discovery Education Digital Streaming is a phenomenal tool to use in the classroom. I truly hope that our district purchases this for all of the schools.

fin

All this snow and it's not even winter yet!

Are you sick of the snow - I am! I wish it'd all melt and we'd have 30 degree days from now until April. It's been more like January than December.



We are having a challenge at our farm. I thought you might like to see our newest chicken. Her name is Zsa Zsa and she is a frizzle. She came from the Dane Co. Humane Soc. as a stray - they can have backyard chickens in Madison. (We also got another chicken in April from DCHS that has only one functional leg named Helen and anither that was a chick from the Jefferson elementary school incubation project last May.) The never ending snow has not helped us in introducing Zsa Zsa to the flock.

This Is It

Well, I have three new lessons done, ones which I am really hoping to incorporate into my Health Classes and the Female Body Sculpting Class which I teach. I will be getting all new students as we begin the second semester so I am excited to try these lessons/assignments with them.

This class has been very helpful for me, although somewhat overwhelming at times because there is so much that Discovery Education has to offer. Also, it is a very busy time at school because we are finishing the first semester and our exams start tomorrow. I really want to make some time to continue exploring the discovery streaming and all it has to offer, but I don't want to wait too long because I don't want to forget how to access the information.

This class has also convinced me to get the internet at home (something we haven't really had a need to have because both my husband and I have access to it at our jobs). I feel I would have more time at home to explore what discovery streaming has to offer and really enhance both my Physical Education and Health curriculums.

Two lesson done one to go

I worked on another lesson today. I am going to use the video that I put into my assignment for my 1st grade classes tomorrow. I downloaded it onto a disk because as I have shared in class, our network doesn't have enough memory for streaming. I can't get any type of streaming pictures on my school computer. Fortunately, our school has 3 media carts that can be moved from room to room which has a laptop and projector on the cart. I will be able to show the video segement in the gym and then have the students participate in an activity related to the video. I would eventually like to set up my classes so that weekly I could blog about related topics that we are participating in and then I could include the video segements and websites that would provide more information for my students and families to participate in. I am excited because last week in our class I was trying to figure out how I could do this and as I started thinking last week I figured that I need to just take the risk and get started. So here goes....I'll see what tomorrow brings.

Help

I have multiple videos added in to my materials and I have separate instructions for each one however in the instruction area it appears as you can only type one set of instructions and the same thing gets copied above each segment. Is that right?

As suggested I tried to paste them into my directions on the first tab but that is not working for some reason. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Too much to do so little time

This class has been so wonderful for me but at the same time so overwhelming because there is so much out there for use on Discovery Education. I have felt like a child with ADHD these past few classes because I can't concentrate long enough to stick to one idea and create an assignment from it. I think that is a good thing! Anyway I am so excited to get the benefits as I signed up to be STAR educator. I have to get working on those lessons now, hopefully I will be able to concentrate a little more since they are due in less than two days. See you all Tuesday.

Oops. I forgot something. Murph and Liz, I had the same question about joining the DEN. Chris told me that you are already part of the DEN. There is nothing more to do. Yes, that is right. You are done. And if you are thinking a little further, yes, that is right. You could have done nothing and still have been done. Quit stressing. You are done. You are done DEN. :)

Well, you can see by the time that I have been working like a crazy person. I'm as tired as the two dogs in the picture. By the way, you have already met Georgie (black and white dog), but Pearl is her adopted sister. Pearl came from the Chicago English Bulldog Rescue. She was almost dead when Barbara got her. She was about 12 pounds underweight, had mange, skin infections pussing everywhere, ear infections, eye infections, paw sores, etc. As you can tell from the picture, Pearl is now very healthy (and beefy). But enough of that. (I do need some real grandchildren, don't I.)

I finished my last lesson. Yeah!!!!! I feel as though I put together some good stuff (probably not as good as Chris and Deb could have done, but good anyway). I'm excited to share on Tuesday. I spent a bulk of my time putting together guided reading questions to go along with five video segments. My remedial reading kids need listening skills as well as content information, so I created questions for them to answer as they watched the video clips. It may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but I am not kidding when I tell you that my students have serious listening problems. Many of them are ADD or ADHD, so having them listen to these clips and follow along will be a challenge. I tell them in the directions that they can go back and re-listen to the clip if they need to. The clips are all high-interest, so I think this will be successful. I will know more on Monday about all this because I am going to try a different lesson with my students then. I am going to be doing clips on date abuse (NOT abuse of fruit). I have the LCD projector already in my room, and I am going to stream the clip because it worked well on Friday after school when I ran a test on the whole procedure. Both of the two lessons that I have referred to come with teachers' guides through Discovery Education. I will be using some of the materials for the lesson on Monday. Like I said, all of this can look good to me, but the test will be whether or not the kids get into it. Stay tuned, and Tuesday I will tell you.

Enjoy tomorrow. Monday is coming way too soon.

Stressed Out!!

Liz and I just spent an hour trying to become a DEN member and we were unsuccessful. We watched a very short video, but there was no prompt to take a quiz. Could someone please advise us?

Wow...I did it!

I just got into my cuddly, cozy robe, am sipping a mug of hot tomato soup, and am waiting for the plows to come again just because they will since I'm in my robe already!! (Wasn't THAT a well-constructed sentence!?!)

I was excited today to get my second lesson into the computer - I was the one with the old computer at home that took 50 minutes to process page one of Assignment Builder - and it was still running! Luckily I was able to print all the stuff I had entered, so I could re-enter it tonight, and I was successful at getting in my images, video clip, and - ta da! - URLs!! (This is a big accomplishment for someone like me who borders on techno-idiocy!) And when I checked it, it actually all showed up, so I am happy (until the plows come).

Maybe someday I'll have the opportunity to fully utilize some of this great stuff, but as a building sub, I don't get that chance unless I'm long-terming for someone, which building subs are seldom allowed to do. I did, however, get to do just that first quarter, and had three awesome accelerated English 10 and two speech classes. The lesson I will present next week will incorporate some of the things I did with my sophomores, so who know? Maybe I'll have another chance to do it again someday.

See you all next week, and happy shoveling!

Additional Materials

Hello,

I have played with adding a few extras to my assignments. For example, I wanted my students to view the writing project attached to persuasive writing. I created a writing prompt and copied/pasted a word document into the information spot. Then I attached that writing prompt to my assignment. Of course, a hard copy would also be provided. For now, this is a view only piece of the assignment. But you certainly could have the students write a response from here.

Adding websites is also an easy job. Find the website that connects to your content. Copy/paste the address from the site to the “Add Materials” tab of your assignment. (It’s the box with the “http://” already in it.) Don't forget to click the "Add" box. (I forgot that twice, and wondered what was happening, but it was only stupidity--what a relief.)

It helps if you have a few windows or tabs open in Explorer; then you can flip back and forth between sites and your digital streaming assignment.

Good luck. I’m looking forward to seeing all the useful videos people found in our next class.

Day Three

Ugh! The frustration is mounting. It's been a frustrating evening as I worked to complete my final lesson plan only to discover that my video would not download and that the websites I wanted were moving to slow to add. Luckily I have internet at home and can complete the process at home.

The information about what is available to members of the DEN and STAR are intriguing. I am looking forward to an opportunity to dig a little deeper into all that there is to offer. I hope that the blogging opportunities pique my interest as I love to learn in this format. It allows me to capture an idea and run with it knowing that there is a support system if I need it.

I am anxious to hear everyone's lessons as we move into next week as there is so much out there it could take forever to explore it all.

Getting More Familiar

I spent a lot of time this past week working on the three lesson assignments. I can certainly see how I would now use this especially with my health classes. In addition to whole class time at our school, we also have something called permanent mods where I meet with all of my Health students on a weekly basis, but in smaller segments of the class (i.e. generally no more than 10 students at a time). Since Health is a one-semester course, and I will be getting all new students at the start of the second semester, I am excited about using these types of assignments like we are working for this class, during these permanent mods. It will give students the opportunity to work independently on what I would consider to be more meaningful assignments. Even if I just start out by giving them various streaming videos to watch on their own during this time along with building other activities around the videos, I feel I have really improved in offering some new course content.

Here It Goes, Second Assignment

I think this assignment should go a lot better than last time. The assignments and the students will be better prepared.

I wish we could get timeliner! It looks awesome and does exactly what I want to do, it even works with discovery site!

All these resources are great. Thank you for sharing all these resources.

Paul Welch (Lorraine Place)

Snowy, long day

Well we all survived the "storm of the century." Seriously though it is Wisconsin, it snows! A better use of the news broadcast would be the news versus talking every few minutes about the weather. But I guess weather, like technology, excites people.

It has been neat to locate different segments to use in the classroom. Many of my kids lack the background knowledge needed in reading to infer and synthesize. Some of the videos I found would help fill these gaps. I'm excited to use the lesson I made tonight after the holiday break when we start in ELA/SS the road to revolution.

The Discovery Education Network (DEN)

I was already impressed with Discovery Streaming, but to learn about the Discovery Education Network (DEN) tonight was especially exciting. I was glad to learn that as part of Discovery Streaming, I was already part of the DEN. As a DEN member I have access to blogs, lesson plans, PowerPoints, and all sorts of teacher-created materials that have been posted on the network. I am also interested in possibly becoming a Star Discovery Educator in the near future. As a Star Educator I would have access to even more resources including Discovery learning materials, special contests, invitations to local, regional, and national seminars and webinars on web 2.0 applications, and even access to expert field managers. So often as educators (especially as a special educator) we feel isolated in our buildings. As a member of the DEN those days can be over. I am looking forward to exploring these resources further.

Embedding Videos in Instructions

Hello,

Though adding videos in preferential order still seems to be a problem, I have discovered that you can embed the video clips within your directions.

Just copy the blue label from the list at the bottom of your “Add Materials” tab and flip back to the “General Information” tab. Then paste the clip into the directions box with your other information. (Perhaps tell the students to “click here or on the video title at the bottom of the assignment directions.” Either blue label will take them to the Student Center.)

Students were able to complete the persuasive writing activity that I sent them via e-mail. The links worked well. It proved to be good activity to provide a different learning method. And any student who was “plugged in” was definitely quietly working. Another plus for independent work was that a student could stop and start the video while they took notes or completed an activity.

My first assignment run, less than glamorous

I don't know what I did but this is my second time typing this blog so I will not be as long-winded. I tried my first assignment and we ran into a few issues. First, we didn't have enough headphones because a lot of my students forgot theirs. Also, our computer lab at Lincoln is a little dated so we ran into buffering issues. I will have to download everything first.

Question: Can I download the video on to the L drive without having to download everything onto each computer?


The feedback I received from the students was very positive! We are looking forward to trying round two!

Paul Welch

Dec. 9 Class is a Go!

We just got word that the district is not calling off the after school activities so we will be having class tonight. Drive carefully! We will have work time at the beginning of class so that everyone has a chance to get here before we start.

Questions Answered

Hi All!

I spoke with the support person at Discovery Streaming, asked my questions for our class and got the following answers.

1. Question:
We see approximately 200 or so lesson plans. Are there more?
Answer: Discovery has made the 200 or so. That is all they have made, but, there are many, many created by individual teachers that are available in the professional development section and in the blogs. (We'll talk about those in class.)

2. Question:
When you do find and want to keep some of those 200 lesson plans, can they be saved to "My Content"?
Answer: No, they can't be saved to "My Content". If you'd like them you can save them to your own computer, flash drive, etc. and/or print them out.

3. Question:
Can the "resources" that you add to an "assignment" be rearranged or moved on the assignment?
Answer: No, they are working on this, but at this time they can't. Theoretically, they should be listed in the order that you add them. I said that we tried that but it did not actually do that.

4. Question:
When you delete an assignment, why does it delete from the "Search Assignment Library" Box but remains in the "My Assignments" box?
Answer: This is part of a "global" problem (everyone is seeing it and they haven't resolved it yet). Basically, the problem is that if you delete one assignment, the system will delete EVERYTHING that you have in your "My Content". Rather than have that happen, it shows that it's deleted in your "Search My Assignments" box but will remain in the other. They are working on this problem.

Hope this helps. If you ever have a question, you can call on your own, also.
The phone number is:
800-323-9084. Just ask for "Technical Support".

Chris

Feeling a Bit Behind!

I have been enjoying the class, but feel behind due to getting a flu bug this week. I didn’t even start my first lesson. I took a sick day today and I’m hoping that I’ll have another day tomorrow to catch up due to the weather. I know, it probably won’t happen, but I can at least wish. I’m feeling slightly incompetent after reading the blogs with the pictures. Thanks for sharing the Dolly story, she does look more like a Georgie. Cute name, cute dog! I think I’ll call it a night in case I need to get an early start tomorrow. See you at class. Good night!

good stuff

I have been so impressed with discovery education and feel so overwhelemed because there is so much it's hard for me to decide what to make my lessons about. I think the assignment builder is going to be great. This will be so helpful in trying to created differentiated lessons for students.

I used a great bullying video on Friday to compliment a lesson I was doing. Again, it was fabulous because I just picked the segments that fit my lesson the best. In fact, I will probably be doing a follow up and the segments I didn't use will be great for that part.

I'm really impressed so far and really, really, hope that the district get a subscription for the whole district as this would be a valuable tool for all of our teacher's to have access to.

See you all tomorrow..maybe...if it's not a snow day!

Well, it's Sunday early afternoon. Took care of God, and now the Packers are taking care of my husband. I worked on two lessons yesterday, and I really feel good about them. I teach remedial reading, and I found great video clips on some of the themes in the novels I teach the students. For instance, I found an awful lot of video on abuse. There is one entire video about dating abuse that, I think, the kids can really relate to. The video seems to be quite up-to-date except for the fact that the boyfriend makes a "tape" of music for his girlfriend. Will my students even know what a tape is any more? The message, though, is great. The other disadvantage of the video is that the acting isn't that great. However, I'm not sure my students will realize that. The other video on abuse involves child abuse. This will augment my lessons for another book that I teach. This video is an Oprah Winfrey special, and it is quite gripping. I know the kids will enjoy watching it, and I know that many of my remedial students will relate. Many come from homes that have lots of these problems in them.

Well, I had best go. The Packer game only lasts so long, and then I need to get supper for my husband. Hope you are all having a great weekend. I'll see you in class Tuesday (unless we have a snow day?????).

Discovery Digital Streaming Teacher Tools

The teacher tools in Discovery Digital Streaming are very useful. I can see how the Assignment Builder, Quiz Builder, Lesson Plan Library, Writing Prompt Builder, Calendar, and Interactive Atlas are all excellent tools for teachers to use to create exciting and effective lessons for students. I think that students would greatly enjoy working with these tools and, because of the engaging and interactive nature of the digital medium, would learn a great deal. There is great potential here. One component I was a little disappointed with was the few lessons that were pre-made by Discovery Education (assuming I searched correctly...which may not be true due to my being a novice at this). Perhaps over time they will be adding more. Is there a way to save all assignments and lesson plans into "My Content"? All in all, I am very pleased with what I have discovered about Discovery Digital Streaming.

Dec. 2 class

I have been sorting videos and filing them into categories. I found information that I am able to use this week but I attempted to watch something before running it for the class and the computers in the building I work at do not allow me to play anything. The library/media specialist said that the network doesn't have enough memory. The technology committee has been discussing this because high school teacher want access to digital streamming. I am going to attempt to download info onto a disc because our computers have recently not been able to connect or read any flash drive. Sometimes it feels like we as teachers are told about technology and try to step into the current techno world and then take 2 steps back because of the time it takes to get our equipment to work properly.

Incorporating E-mail

Hello,

I am bravely going to attempt to send my students an e-mail with the URL they need to complete a digital streaming assignment. (I have already created distribution lists for each class.) I did have a student--a student from the Ukraine, no less--test a link sent via e-mail and it seemed to work.

I asked students to bring headphones, and, as you guessed, this seemed to pose no problem. I do not yet have an answer to my question of how to sort my list of attachments by priority, but we'll see how things go.

I found all the new information in last night's class interesting, but am somewhat disappointed that there doesn't appear to be much available in several of the areas of high school English that I was trying to work with, especially literature. Anyone else finding problems like that?

It is nice, though, to see all these different things, even if they don't directly apply to what I want. It's always good to learn about new resources, and I'm sure that as the streaming thing grows, a lot more info will be out there.

See you next week.

I am so very frustrated. For some reason, I received error messages that duplicated my assignment. However, the assignment was not correct, and I could not add to it or change it, and it did not show up in my assignments under the lefthand section of the assignment creator. However, it did show up in the righthand box under My Assignments. However, there it had numerous clones. In all, five of these were created -- quite a mess for a neat freak. Anyway, I need to get this cleaned up. I cannot go on because I hate messes. Help, please!!!

Now, for better news. I am sure that everyone (ha, ha) wonders why my name is georgethedog. That's because my daughter has two babies: two bulldogs. The first one she got was named Dolly, but no bulldog looks like a Dolly, so she renamed it Georgie (short for Georgette). Her picture is the one above.

Well, this is the second posting to my blog. I am frustrated because other than videos related to the subject of high school health, I haven't found many activities that I can incorporate into the assignment builder. I'm not sure if I'm not searching in the correct places. I am planning to continue throughout this week spending additional time to hopefully find other ideas.

Still slightly overwhelmed

I am not technologically saavy, so this class is a challenge for me. (And the time of year is working against me being a band director at 4 schools and my concerts starting this week. I have 9 between 12/4 - 12/16!)

Hopefully, I will get through all of this. I am really looking forward to 2:50 on 12/23!

Judy

Learning something new

It has been fun to learn so many new things, but also very overwhelming. I feel I know a lot about technology, but there is so much out there to keep up with! I hope to bring more technology into my classroom (or around on my blue cart:). It has been challenging with the intergration of reading, language arts, and social studies this year, but also very cool to see what we can do to keep our learners engaged. Streaming videos is definetely a way to maintain interest.

I hope to create a few cool lesson plans which I can integrate into my lessons. Tonight I played around with the different features and came up with one I think is pretty good. I look forward to working on some cool ones next week.

Writing the Lesson Plan

Again, another interesting class. I really enjoy the opportunity to "play" with what is out there to make my lessons more meaningful for my students. My frustration comes in trying to find things that will work with all of my students. (I have one class of 33, so finding ample computer space is a challenge and I have to share a projector with several other people.)

I've gotten one lesson plan done and am in the process of trying to find videos that will enhance my next topic of the 13 Colonies. It seems that my searches are either too broad or the information is for students much younger. I have lesson ideas in mind, the goal now is to find video that enhances and makes them more meaningful for my students.

On to week three.

Hope this works!!

I posted to the blog last week during class, but I guess it didn't work. So I hope this one does!
Judy

First Blog

Well, I'm finally able to write my first blog. I wasn't able to get on last week because of problems with logging in. So this is my first attempt at blogging ever. I was impressed with the amount of information available on Discovery Streaming and am looking forward to incorporating it into my Health and Physical Education curriculum. Of particular interest from last week is finding some material to update my First Aid Unit. I found some good video clips including the content that I currently cover.

First Blog

Student Passcodes FLW

Sharon Becker--C4E9-4A7F
Sandy Brick--401A-4275
Lauran Eastman--F3D1-4DB4
Judy Halat--F86F-45E0
Fran Kirsch--8524-4F7C
Sarah Myers--A7C1-4FA7
Mark Scheiber--3AD5-4E41
Kathleen Seiler-- F14F-44C9

These are the student passcodes for those of you registered for FLW.

I had a little time to look at some Math stuff on Wed. but with the holiday I've had no time to do too much exploring yet. At least I knew how to get into Discovery Streaming:)

Fran

Exciting Stuff!!

As I was working with a couple of my students yesterday, one of my second graders came in unexpectedly for math. Knowing that my second grade students have been working on skip counting, I searched over the weekend for a video, not thinking it would come in handy so quickly. Even though I was hesitant, not knowing the program well and unsure how much time it would take, I decided to give it a quick try. In a very short time, she was watching the video. After repeating the video a few times including some written and oral review, she was counting by 3's to 21 before she went back to class! How exciting is that? Of course, the other two students in the room were quite interested and I assured them that today we would watch one that would pertain to them, addition with regrouping.

Digital Streaming Class

On the Monday before the digital streaming class we had a faculty meeting and I found out that I need to create a PDP even though my liscense is renewed by taking 6 credits every 5 years. I was not real happy about the prospect of one more thing I have to do to keep my job. I recently finished my masters, I am working on units, I am taking more classes to get to my masters plus 30 and I was overwhelmed with the thought of producing a PDP. While I was in class I decided that digital streaming would be the perfect goal for my plan and this process could really enhance my teaching. With the standards & assessments included in the format of digital streaming I think this could all come together so I can produce a meaningful PDP. I came out of class with enthusiasm & excitement. Now I can't wait to put it all together and utilize the new information I will be learning.

You Tube Alternatives

This is a link to a wiki created to compile a list of online videos sites of interest to teachers:
http://freetech4teachers.pbwiki.com/Great+Alternatives+to+YouTube

I've only started exploring the list but I notice that previewing them is essential and we cannot just give students this list. The snagfilms documentary site has films which have mature content. The Free Educational films link doesn't give an "about us" statement on the site but in looking at it, I wonder if it is created by Mormon church members because of one of the films included. I am about half way through the list and some sites are very good!

Excitement

Hi everyone,

This class has brought so much new excitement to my life! I think I am a very technology savvy person. However, I have never blogged before and was not aware of Discovery Education, what an awesome resource!

Having a smartboard in my classroom I feel very lucky with what I have and look forward to the lessons I will create using the information I learn in this class. I love technology and get so passionate about it and what I could do with it in my classroom. I put could in italics because we have so many restrictions put upon us by the district. The video we saw at the beginning of class should be shared with more adminstrators and school board. There are so many districts around us that are light years ahead of us in using technology and blogs...why are we?

Hi all,
Maybe I'm not as computer illiterate as I think, since I got this far!!

I must admit that I am not a technological person, so I signed up for this class with some trepidation, but am happy that my good friend, Kathy, is right next to me so we can count on each other for help. It was cool to see all the stuff out there on the digital streaming site, and while I am confident that I can at least make headway into it, it makes me sad, too.....being a building sub, I don't get the options to use a lot of my ideas because I'm in a different classroom everyday. I wish I had known about digital streaming during first quarter, because I was in a long-term sub position at Hale and had the opportunity to be creative. It was exciting, though, on Tuesday, to find all kinds of things that would have been perfect fits into the curriculum we covered, so I will make it my quest to find things that just might fit into an English class that I may have down the road.

Well, back to putting up the Christmas tree! See you all Tuesday!

Sharon

Advanced Search

Hello,

When I was narrowing my search using the Curriculum Standards Search blanks on the home page, Discovery Education returned 1049 hits for the analyzing literature standard involving characters, plot, theme, etc. Being overwhelmed, Debbie advised I try the Advanced Search option at the top of the screen. This helped me narrow my topic since I could now select a specific genre of literature in the Keyword blank. For example, I typed in Greek myth. This brought the number down to 45. Thanks, Debbie!

And not that I can’t connect the standards without digital help, but does anyone know how to change to Wisconsin Standards when you click on a video not located using the Curriculum Standards Search blanks on the home page? The default seems to be Illinois. (Illinois standards are very similar to ours, so this may be an irrelevant question.) Maybe all videos aren’t linked to all standards?

Laura

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I had a hard time getting this to work, so I worked hard on turkey day. However, I believe I am now successful. I so enjoyed meeting everyone Tuesday evening. I feel that many of you are much more knowledgeable about streaming than I am. I have never even seen a demonstration. However, I am very eager to learn, and I can't think of a better group to learn with.

By the way, Deb and Chris, the reason I could not log into my TDS account is because of my Vista and Outlook that I use. I talked with TDS, and maybe they're full of it, but they said that unless I quit using Outlook from home, I wouldn't be able to get my email for off-site. Since I'm at home now, I can't check it out, but I did change my password and will be able to check it out when I get to school on Monday.

Thanks again for a great class. See you soon

Kathy

Digital Streaming Rocks!

I had a great time in my digital streaming class last night. I came in just knowing the very basics about Discovery digital streaming. I had only seen a couple of demonstrations in the past, but had not had the opportunity to get in there and "discover" things for myself. Wow! I was very impressed. In the short time we were in class, I found videos (some with lesson plans, ties to state standards, and handouts!) on teaching library lessons on the Dewey Decimal System, reading lessons on word decoding, and math lessons on area/perimeter and probability (what are the chances of that?). I am looking forward to discovering more.

Exciting class

I came home and logged on to see if I remembered how...because I wasn't able to do this while in class. I was thrilled to find info in digital streamming that pertains to physical education. I have already searched info about dance and basketball and saved it in specific files under my content. Who knew that the info would be there even though it wasn't found under the description of physical education. I realized that my searches needed to be more topic specific.

I am excited to continue searching for and downloading more info to use in my PE classes.

Pam

Digital Streaming Day One

Day one of Digital Streaming has come to an end. This class has been very informative. I am excited to explore the fun world of Digital Streaming. I have already found some awesome videos dealing with grammar. The students will love the change of pace, and it's pretty cool to see how they are related to the social studies content being taught.

As far as my social studies content, I am still in the process of digging through all of the content related to colonization. There is so much out there and so little time.

I am anxious to learn more in the upcoming weeks about other ways I can use this information to make my lessons more meaningful for my students.

Interesting information: "There are nearly 90,000,000 I-Pods out there." I'm anxious to share that on my Did You Know board . . .

This Is Great!

I have found this very useful! Discovery Streaming is an excellent resource! I have found many videos and other digital resources that will be very helpful. I will be using this a whole lot this year. I like the state standard linking, the other digital resources, and the content folders to organize it all.

I will be sharing this with other collegues. Thank you for this great opportunity!

Interesting

I really enjoyed the video we watched about incorporating technology into our curriculum. I had actually seen the video last spring and even after watching it again, it had the same impact. It was very powerful and made me want to incorporate technology more into my lessons. I already feel that I've learned a lot of useful information that I can bring into my classroom. The videos we looked at were awesome and I think the students would greatly benefit from them. Looking forward to next week:)

Welcome to Digital Streaming 2008

Share ideas, comments and questions through our class blog. We will leave the blog up so that you may refer back to it in the future for any tips and ideas you want to remember. Welcome to the community of Discovery Streaming users!