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Matt’s Media Tips 11-26 Curators and Collections Oh My! Have you seen them? There are 183 of them across all grade levels and offer tons of great curated content for you. What am I talking about? Why one of the newest additions to Discovery Education the Content Collection. Each collection offers teacher’s guides, images, encyclopedia articles and more. And all of it can be assigned to a single student, entire class, and everything in between. The collection covers content related Science, Social Studies, Math, History, Language Arts and the list goes on. Dive in deeper to find full units on things like the holidays, biomes and habitats, motion, force and gravity, ancient civilizations and a whole lot more. You can sort this colossal collection by grade and filter by subject area and/or keyword. The easiest way to find the collection, after logging in, is to choose Discovery Education Streaming or Steaming Plus in the My DE Services drop down box. Then click on the green Content Collection icon in the lower right-hand corner. So go ahead and check out this awesome tool! I’ll wait for you on the next page.
1 How am I doing? I would love to know your thoughts. Use this link to tell me!
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Awesome right? I’m glad you’re back. I told you that you would find some great stuff! There are, of course, other fantastic collections available for you to use within Discovery Education and you can find them in the Teacher Center. Click on the Teacher Center button to reveal a fantastic library of interactive collections already sorted for you. A few weeks ago I explored the Discovery Education Calendar and shared how educators across the U.S. and Canada are using that tool. I have also covered the interactive Discovery Education Atlas (see page two), STEM Connect (also page two) - this is the 45th edition after all and we’ve reviewed a lot together! The ReadyZone: Continuity of Learning was first created when the H1N1 virus was affecting thousands of kids. Since these students were missing school over extended periods of time we wanted to find a way to ensure continuity of learning. This resource has now been used around the country as part of Sub plans and even by parents who want to continue learning over school breaks!
How am I doing? I would love to know your thoughts. Use this link to tell me!
The Thematic Focus is yet another way to find great teaching topics with lots of themed content. Each focus area includes resources like discussion guides and lesson plans by grade level. Each focus area also includes links to media, activities and calendar events and articles. My favorite Foci? Well thanks for asking. I like the ones on African-American History and Authors and Great Books II. Feel like going behind the scenes and meeting up with our very own Storm Chaser, Reed Timmer or Adam and Jaime from the Mythbusters? You can when you click on the Meet the Faces of Discovery Education link. As you know Discovery Education is part of the Discovery Channel. And since we are part of the Discovery Family, our network brothers and sisters are easily accessible to you...right inside the Teacher Center! We’ve selected some of their great work on camera and tied it to encyclopedia articles, images and teacher guides for you Finally the Lesson Plan Library is a great collection of 200 lesson plans that cover all subject areas. There is even a set of lesson plans created around ISTE’s standards. Each lesson plan provides links to media within Discovery Education. They are an awesome tool to use with educators new to the site and/or those who are just starting to include more media in their classroom lessons. They can also be used to spur your imagination or incorporated into Sub plans. There are many content collections awaiting your exploration. I am exited to learn how you use them in your classroom. Drop me a line so that I can brag about you in the future!
Discovery Education Webinar Schedule
Since this week’s edition is all about content curation I thought I would highlight a free mobile app that helps you do just that.
Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) By Idea Shower
Pocket (formerly ReadItLater) is a free mobile app that works on all platforms. And when I say all - I’m not just talking about things that start with a lowercase i. This app works on your computer’s browsers, your iThings, your Android devices and your Kindles. What’s more it seamlessly integrates into 300+ Apps including Twitter. And you can email items into your Pocket Queue. Sounds cool right? What does it do exactly? From their site: Use Pocket when you discover an interesting article, video or web page, but don’t have time to go through it. Once it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet, or computer. You can read an article during a flight, see a web page while you wait in line, or watch a video while relaxing at home.
Dates
Time (EST)
11/26
7pm 8pm
Discovery Education Builders 101. This webinar provides an introduction to our unique services for building assignments, writing prompts, quizzes, and science assessments. Put the power of Discovery Education to work for you to create engaging, relevant, and rigorous experiences.
11/26
7pm 8pm
The Common Core Connection.... Resources from the DE Science Techbook that Build Common Core Skills In this session we will highlight resources that address the key tenants of the Common Core Standards for ELA and Math. Discovery Education Science Techbook is full of opportunities to address these skills AND learn science at the same time.
11/27
7pm 8pm
Techbook Admin Webinar: Learn to use the tools and features of My Admin to support successful integration of Discovery Education Science Techbook. This training will cover: Navigation of the My Admin Site, Managing User Accounts (students and teachers), Managing Student Access, Running Usage Reports
11/28
7pm 8pm
NSTA Science Techbook Webinar: Join the Discovery Education Science Techbook team as we build a mediainfused science lesson presentation that you can use in your classroom. Each month we will demonstrate how to create a truly engaging lesson presentation using digital resources and PowerPoint/ Keynote
11/28
7pm 8pm
Hi I am David and I love Apps for Education: Curious about what is on an app lovers iPad? Join us as we burn through some apps and show how they can ignite new strategies for teaching and differentiating your literacy instruction. Countdown to Download: T minus 5, 4, 3...
Questions/Comments? I’d love to hear from you email me at matt_monjan@discovery.com or Tweet me at @monjan
WHAT YOU CAN POCKET: Articles, videos, or pretty much anything you find online. VIEW EVERYWHERE: If it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet, and computer. EASY ON THE EYES: See your articles, videos, and everything else in a beautiful, easy-to-view layout Here is a link to their download page.
What is a DEN Star Member? The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!
Link
Miss a week? Catch back up here! 2012-2013 School Year Archives 11/19/2012 ‘Tis The Season to Share and be 10/8/2012 The Digital Decoder. Part one of a two part series that explores how Thankful. This week I review the new to use digital resources to assist features and functionalities of the My struggling readers. We’ll also Content and QuickList tools. I also explore Audioboo, a free mobile explore slingNote, a mobile app that app that turns your mobile device greatly enhances your mobile browsing into a roaming podcasting machine experience. 11/13/2012 Making Math Magic Happen: This week’s edition is dedicated to making math a not-so-scary subject, engaging and meaningful. We explore songs, interactive media and a very cool Mathmateer Free mobile app.
10/1/2012 Getting Quizzy With It. Everything you ever wanted to know about creating a Discovery Education Quiz and more - including an easy step-by-step guide for embedding Web 2.0 content into a Quiz! We’ll explore a unique mobile app called Stack the States as well.
11/5/2012 It’s a Date! Five Unique Ways to Use the Calendar: This edition explores how the Discovery Education Interactive 9/24/2012 Calendar is being used in new and unique ways. We'll also examine Capzels - a free interactive timeline tool and mobile app and list a whole host of upcoming webinars 10/29/2012 A Hauntingly Good Edition. I highlight some of the not-so-scary things that I 9/17/2012 learned at the recent Discovery Educator Network Fall Virtual Conference. We'll also check out a host of great webinars and a very cool iPrompter app. 10/22/2012 Get Your Game On! Explore how to use the Discovery Education games to engage students. Robert Nay a 10th grade game designer will share his story and his insights into the game design 9/10/2012 process. Finally, we'll check out Aurasma, a free augmented reality app that works on both Droid and IOS devices.
Five free tools from DE plus one that’s too cool for school. We’ll also explore links to even more free resources and then play with a free mobile app, Sketch Nation Studio, that provides a simple game design/creation platform. Downloading Closed Captions Explore how to download closed captioned files and manipulate their text on both a PC and Mac. We'll also examine the TechChef4U app that links to many education apps! Finally, in this edition, I provide links to the Best of Matt's Tips and Tricks webinar resources. In-the-know about Infographics. This edition highlights the new 2012 election material within DE. It also dives into different ways that you and your students can evaluate and explain data by examining three different sites that create infographics. Sock Puppets, an iPad app that is animated by your voice, is also explored.
10/15/2012 The Digital Decoder Part two of two explores how to use Discovery Education and six other digital resources to help students predict, restate, and make connections to the text that they are reading. We'll also explore Opening up Closed Captions. a free mobile app called Fotobabble 9/4/2012 Check out all of the new and that lets add narration to your pictures. enhanced ways to stream
captioned content. We’ll also continue to explore the back-toschool webinars and play with EasyBib, an Android and iPad app that makes citing reference material a breeze. 8/27/2012
Back to School Review. Check out some of the major enhancements made to Discovery Education over the summer. We'll give you a chance to weigh in, showcase a new back to school webinar series and highlight Nearpod, a very cool classroom mobile app.
Miss a week? Catch back up here! 2011-2012 Archives 7/19/2012
Sneak peek at the back to school enhancements. Roadshow app.
6/11/2012
Fun things to do over the summer with technology and media. Mustacheme app is featured.
5/21/2012
The ins and outs of Digital Storytelling. Digital Storytelling Web 2.0 presentation and apps
5/14/2012
Who Knew We Had News? Find an additional set of free Discovery News videos, the Video Yearbook, video almanac, and great webinar information. Roadshow App for playing back videos on-demand is reviewed.
5/7/2012
4/30/2012
4/23/2012
My Five Favorite Summer Resources. We explore five free interactive sites that parents, students, and teachers can use over the summer. We’ll also explore a free translation app for mobile devices. Getting Your Game On. Finding great games, simulations and more within Discovery Education. Back-toSchool Sneak Peek Webinars announced. Futaba Classroom Games for Kids iPad app explored. Getting the Point with PowerPoint and Keynote. Learn how to trim audio & video in PPT and save both PPT & Keynote presentations as images to embed in Web 2.0 sites. 2 Screens and Joinme mobile presentation apps explored.
4/16/2012
It’s all about the Theme. We’ll explore several different ways to find unique thematic content. Three most voted upon stories revealed. Studyblue mobile flashcard app highlighted
4/9/2012
Scratch and Pop. Six-Word Story finalists revealed. Links between Discovery Education and
4/2/2012
3/26/2012
3/19/2012
3/12/2012
2/27/2012
Scratch.mit.edu, Popplet.com and EduTechr mobile app explored.
1/18/2012
Mi Content es Su Content. Bookmarking and sharing your Discovery Education content across your school and district, two great contests, and two text-to-sign mobile apps
In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App.
1/9/2012
Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students
12/19/2011
Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App
12/12/2011
50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter - Flash for iPads
11/28/2011
What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps
11/14/2011
Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool tips you can do with Google. TED and Animoto apps
11/7/2011
First Six Weeks Aggregated
11/4/2011
Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge
10/24/2011
Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps
10/17/2011
Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps
10/3/2011
Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives
9/26/2011
Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!
9/13/2011
Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE
Can You Picture it? Learn how to create a six-word story using iPiccy.com and Discovery Education. Digital Story Challenge! MeeGenius Audiobook app for mobile devices. Audio Book ‘em Dano. Eight simple steps for creating an audiobook using iTunes and any computer (Mac/PC). Molecules mobile apps. It’s All About The Sharing. Uploading, sharing and accessing your own content within Discovery Discovery Education. Cel.Ly app polling device via any device. Teacher Center Treasure Trove of Resources. Interactive Calendar Atlas, STEM Connect explored. Socrative App (student response).
2/13/2012
Special Valentines Issue - Things I love about Discovery Education. Five Minute Preps, Images,Coaches Eye App
2/6/2012
What did you say? Closed Captioning on an iPad? Getting Closed Captions to play on your iPad, GreenScreens on iPhone/iPad with GreenScreen FX app
1/30/2012
1/23/2012
Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations whiteboard apps Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app