December 2010 Volume 1, Issue 1
Texas Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council
About the Texas DEN Leadership Council The Texas Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council is a group of volunteers who disseminate information to DEN STARs, plan events designed to inform and provide networking opportunities, and share! If you have questions about the Leadership Council or anything regarding your STAR status, please email texasdenlc@gmail.com.
Texas DEN Leadership Council Chair, Elaine Plybon Events Coordinator, Linda Rush Blog Coordinator, Howard Martin For a complete list of council members, visit the Texas DEN Leadership Council website at https:// sites.google.com/site/texasdenlc/
Volume 1, Issue 1
Newsletter Date 11-20-10
Texas DEN Leadership Council
Volume 1, Issue 1 New STARs shine in Texas! Since this is our inaugural issue, it would take a lot of space to list all the awesome Texas STARs in the Discovery Educator Network. In future issues, we will list those that are new since the last publication. Until then, we want to say a great big Texas WELCOME to all of the STARs that make the sky so bright in Texas education!
Inside this issue: Upcoming Texas DEN Events
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Texas DEN Contest
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National DEN News
We want to know! •
Have you won an award?
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Will you be presenting at a conference?
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Do you have a technology tip you’d like to share? Would you like to create a page to be included in a newsletter?
Write to us at texasdenlc@gmail.com
The Corner Chair … Welcome to the first issue of the monthly newsletter from the Texas Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council. Our mission in creating this newsletter is to connect all of the nearly 300 Texas STARs together—informing them of upcoming events and other activities in and around our great state. This first issue is light because of its newness. What will make it great in future months is help from YOU! In the spirit of the DEN, we want this publication to be a product of collaboration and sharing among educators. All of us at the Texas DEN LC would like to wish you all a happy holiday season and we hope you’ll stay tuned for the next issue! - Elaine Plybon, Chair
Volume 1, Issue 1
Help us name this newsletter! Since we are just starting this newsletter, we have not yet come up with a good name. We’d like for you to help! Come up with a catchy name for our monthly publication and you could win a Starbucks gift card! Contest is open until December 31, with voting by all Texas STARs through January. Simply tweet your idea with the hashtag #TXDENLCcontest. If you do not have a Twitter account, you can email your idea to texasdenlc@gmail.com.
What’s happening? “The one-day conference is designed to use archived virtual conference presentations … as starting points for conversations among educators”
The one-day conference is designed to use archived virtual conference presentations from prior DEN virtual conferences and streamathons, the K12 Online Conference, and others On January 22, in conjunction with as starting points for conversathe national DEN SciCon, there will tions among educators. be a conference in Irving called Throughout the day there will be “Talking Points: A Collaborative facilitated breakout sessions or Conversation”. you can explore on your own and Because of the holidays, Texas DEN events are slowing down, but you can mark your calendars now for a very important event in January!
Do you know? We can also include non-DEN events that you know of that might be of interest to Texas educators. If you know of any, please email
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use the electronic backchannel to participate in the conversation. Additionally, there will be a dedicated room streaming the SciCon. Mark your calendars now for January 22 from 9:00 to 1:00 (or whenever we stop talking) at the Jack E. Singley Academy in Irving, Texas. Registration will be open in December.
Volume 1, Issue 1
From the National DEN . . . SchoolTown has a great gift exclusively for DEN STARs! Log in to your DE account to claim your gift. Read the blog entry for details.
Discovery’s HUB for Teachers is hosting a digital storytelling contest through the middle of December. Visit their website for details.
Schedule of Events Keep up-to-date with the latest news from the global DEN community by visiting http://blog.discoveryeducation.com Watch the Texas-specific blog at http://blog.discoveryeducatio.com/texas FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @TXDENLC
12-1-10—Dining with the STARs (Baton Rouge, LA) 12-04-10—Classroom videos made easy (Kansas City, MO) 12-11-10—DEN Photo Walk (Venice, CA) 01-22-10—DEN SciCon 2011 (Global) 01-22-10—Talking Points (Irving, TX)
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