Can't believe we have to go back to school tomorrow. What happened to the break? I want to say that I was very impressed with everyone's presentation at the last class. It was so interesting to see how every level and every content area found something so relevant. Sometimes we get so singular about our own small piece of the education puzzle that we fail to appreciate all the efforts everyone else puts into their pieces. Seeing the presentations surely focused me on the challenges and importance of other areas.

I hope you all had a great holiday season and that the rest of the year goes well. I look forward to seeing some of you in future classes.

Best wishes for a great 2009!

Kathy

Last Class!

Just want to thank everyone for being so patient with me during my presentation.  Yes, I’m the one with the performance issues.  The one, that when under pressure forgot her password.  The one, who delayed the entire class from getting home earlier during the snow storm.  I hope everyone got home safely that night.

Thank you, Deb and Chris for all the individual support.  It was a great class and I have all ready recommended it to many of my co-workers.  Happy New Year to all!   

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?