Discovery Education Virtual Conference

Discovery Education is presenting the Discovery Educator Network Fall Virtual Conference on Saturday, October 23rd at 9am. FREE!

The virtual conference is a great way to get some free professional development, learn about new things, and make new connections with other educators. You can attend online, at home, or there are even some in-person regional events hosted by DEN Leadership Councils.

There will be presenters from around the DEN (Discovery Educator Network) and some special guests.

I have attended these in the past and they are very good! I highly recommend them.

10 Great Free Resources from Discovery Education

Discovery Education is an excellent resource for teachers. Many teachers know about Discovery Streaming, the Discovery Channel, or even Discovery Middle School Science. All of these are fee based services, but Discovery Education also has some great free resources for any teacher. Here are my top 10 (out of the 25 or so they have that are free).

1. Web 20.10 - http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/ - Access great content on Internet Safety, Media Literacy and links to Web 2.0 Tool. The site is rich with little flash videos detailing the explanation and use of Web 2.0 Tools in the classroom. This is a great resource for new teachers and veterans to learn about Web 2.0 tools.

2. New Teacher Survival Central - http://discoveryeducation.com/survival/ - Includes Tech Tools for teachers and students, New teacher blogs, classroom tools, and curriculum resources, Tips/tricks on: Classroom Environment, Classroom Management, Parent Communication, Cool tips on Green Screens and more!

3. Science Fair Central - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/?campaign=SFC - Great ideas how to create, launch and facilitate a Science Fair, including tips and ideas for student projects.

4. Discovery Education Lesson Plans - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/ - lesson plans for all different subjects, sorted by K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

5. Siemens STEM Academy - http://stem.discoveryeducation.com/ - Premier online community designed to foster student achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math through the collaboration of STEM educators and sharing of best practices. Great resources, ideas, and more.

6. Kathy Schrock's guide for Educators - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/ - Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning.

7. Science of Everyday Life - http://scienceofeverydaylife.discoveryeducation.com/ - Everywhere you look, there are wonders both big and small just waiting to be explored. Your school, your home, and your community are all boundless laboratories full of mystery, excitement and surprise. Join us as we uncover the magic all around us and tap the innovator within us…in the Science of Everyday Life. What a great way to connect science to students' lives and experiences by connecting science to everyday things.

8. Worksheets to Go - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/teachingtools/worksheetgenerator/wtg/index.html - great worksheets and activities for teachers to use. Sorted by subject and topic.

9. Puzzlemaker - http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ - create your own puzzles. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more—using your own word lists.

10. NASA at 50 - http://discoveryeducation.com/NASAat50/ - NASA at 50 highlights key innovations and milestones in chemistry, physics, engineering, and space exploration from NASA's fifty-year history. Each clip serves as a gateway for further learning in science and history and promotes critical thinking and inquiry as essential components of scientific literacy.

Students can enjoy NASA at 50 in video or audio formats that are compatible with common portable media players. In addition, teacher's guides are provided for each clip to facilitate integration of this exciting and engaging content into lesson plans.

Training resources for using Discovery Education resources:

Discovery Education Training Resources on Educational Technology Guy.

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2010/03/list-of-discovery-education-training.html

Discovery Educator Network Blog - http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/

Lots of resources, articles, how-to’s, links, and more.

Discovery Education Streamathon

The 5th annual Discovery Education Streamathon is September 14, 2010. We’ve got a full day of information-packed sessions on how to integrate DE streaming and the newest online technologies used by today’s media-savvy students into classroom instruction.


Discovery Education has some great resources for teachers to use in their classrooms and many of these resources are free. The Streamathon is well worth your time.


For more information on the DE Streamathon and to register, please go here:
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/connecticut/2010/09/07/streamathon-2010/


For more information on the Discovery Educator Network, please go here:
http://community.discoveryeducation.com/


Related Posts:


Discovery Education Resources
Discovery Education Training Resources for Educators
Discovery Education Web 2.0 - Conquering Technophobia
Discovery Education New Teacher Survival Central

My Personal Learning Network

Graphic from http://blog.misterhamada.com/category/k12-learning-2-0/.

In an earlier post, I talked about Personal Learning Networks. Here is a list of resources and people in my PLN.

My wife, Cori, is also in my PLN. She is currently finishing her degree in Biology/Education and will be a high school biology teacher. We constantly talk about education and she has given me some great ideas and tips. It's great having a spouse in the same career! (We also met because of our part time careers - EMS!).

Follow on Twitter: (I follow over 70 Tweeters right now, and I will be expanding - these are my main influences)

Edutopia

TechLearning

Discovery Education (DEN)

rmbyrne

web20classroom

rstoup

TeachPaperless

Darcy1968

DoremiGirl

smeech

robchulcas

Twitter Resource: http://twitter4teachers.pbworks.com/

Communities:

Discovery Educator Network

Classroom 2.0

Google for Educators

National Science Teachers Association

Some of the Blogs I follow:

Free Technology for Teachers

TeachPaperless

Technology Tidbits

Tech&Learning TL Advisor Blogs (I also write for it).

The Innovative Educator

Dangerously Irrelevant

Smeech.net

EdTechJen

Instructify

Once you start following some blogs and people on Twitter, you will start to find more blogs and people to add to your own Personal Learning Network. I find my PLN to be invaluable to me as an educator and I look forward to seeing what they have to offer each day.

Discovery Education

Discovery Education is a great resource for teachers. There are free, and fee-based resources available.

Free:

Discovery Educator Network (DEN) - the DEN is a community of educators who use Discovery Education resources in their classrooms. Members share lesson plans, tips, ideas, and more. I recommend that all teachers join. It's free. You can even become a STAR Discovery Educator.

Discovery School - in this section, you can find lesson plans, curriculum ideas, puzzles, worksheets, a guide to internet resources, lesson planner, science fair tips, and the New Teacher Survival Central, among other resources.

There is also a section with homework help available.

Discovery Partnered with CDW-G to create a whole section on Web 2.0 resources for educators and how to use them in your classroom. I highly recommend this section.

There are also resources for professional development.

Fee Based:

Discovery Streaming (once know as United Streaming) - schools or districts can subscribe to Discovery Streaming and gain access to tens of thousands of videos, video clips, graphics and lesson resources. Videos can be streamed over the internet, or downloaded for later viewing. Videos come from Discovery's excellent series as well as many other publishers.

Discovery Science - a great resource for elementary and middle school science teachers and students

Discovery Health - health topics and resources

Discovery Education has a huge amount of resources. I've only covered some of the resources. Head to the links and explore it for yourself. You'll be amazed at the resources available to you.

From my experience, all of them are worthwhile and relevant and very helpful.

Discovery Education

Discovery Education is a great resource for teachers. I recommend it to my colleagues often and suggest that they create a free account on the Discovery Educator's Network (DEN). DEN has a lot of great free resources available, including uploaded resources from other educators. You can also apply to become a STAR Discovery Educator and become elligible for more resources. 

They have videos, lesson plans, games, and more.

This is the same company that brings you Discovery Channel, Discovery Streaming (formerly United Streaming), TLC, and more. 

If you already have a Discovery Streaming account, you can use that to sign in to DEN.

Go to the site and explore a bit. It is well worth the time.