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TEXAS DISCOVERY EDUCATOR NETWORK NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2011 by the Texas DEN Leadership Council Volume 2, Issue 1

Texas DEN Newsletter

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January 2011 Issue of the Texas Discovery Educator Network newsletter.

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Page 1: Texas DEN Newsletter

TEXAS DISCOVERY EDUCATOR NETWORK NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2011

by the Texas DEN Leadership Council

Volume 2, Issue 1

Page 2: Texas DEN Newsletter

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 texas-

[email protected].

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/

Texas DEN Leadership Council

Page 3: Texas DEN Newsletter

We want to welcome these new STARs!

Shannon McDonald, Region 10

Shelley Hodges, Region 10

Becky Maher, Region 10

Cheryl Read, Region 10

Jennifer Turney, Region 4

Aaron Adams, Region 4

Texas DEN Leadership Council

January, 2011 Volume 2, Issue 1

We want to know!

• Have you won an award?

• Will you be presenting at a conference?

• 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 [email protected]

Inside this issue:

Upcoming Texas DEN Events

2

Texas DEN Contest 2

National DEN News 3

Meet Your Leadership Council

4

A Flair for Learning 5

The Corner Chair … The holidays bring with them an-ticipation, stress, cheer, family, food, parties, and too many other things to list. Teachers either use the winter break to plan, to regroup, or to re-lax. Whatever your plans are for the holiday season, we hope that you and yours have a wonderful holi-day filled with everything you hope for. As the new year begins, we hope that it is a stellar year for all of you, both professionally and personally. DEN it up!

- Elaine Plybon, Chair

New STARs shine in Texas!

Page 4: Texas DEN Newsletter

There is still time for you to get your entry in!

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 texas-

[email protected].

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

information to [email protected].

Help us name this newsletter!

Do you know?

What’s happening?

for conversations among educa-

tors.

Throughout the day there will be

facilitated breakout sessions or

you can explore on your own and

use the electronic backchannel to

participate in the conversation.

Additionally, there will be a dedi-

cated room streaming the Sci-

Con.

The conference is free, and

lunch is included!

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. Click here to reg-

ister.

On January 22, in conjunction with

the national DEN SciCon, there will

be a conference in Irving called

“Talking Points: A Collaborative

Conversation”.

The one-day conference is de-

signed to use archived virtual con-

ference presentations from prior

DEN virtual conferences and strea-

mathons, the K12 Online Confer-

ence, and others as starting points

Page 2

“The one-day

conference is designed

to use archived virtual

conference

presentations … as

starting points for

conversations among

educators”

Page 5: Texas DEN Newsletter

Schedule of Events

• 01-22-10—DEN SciCon 2011

(Global)

• 01-22-10—Talking Points

(Irving, TX)

• 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.

From the National DEN . . .

Page 3

Volume 2, Issue 1

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

• Discovery’s HUB for

Teachers is hosting a

digital storytelling con-

test through the middle

of December. Visit their

website for details.

• The Siemens “We Can

Change the World”

challenge is now open

to teams of students

from K-12. Students

have a chance to win

scholarships and other

prizes while making a

difference! Visit the

website for details and

to register a team.

Page 6: Texas DEN Newsletter

Hello all,

My name is Annette Campos.

I am a teacher in El Paso,

Texas. I have been teaching

for nine years. I have taught

third grade, second grade,

and currently I am the Sci-

ence lab teacher and work

with students who have Dys-

lexia. I am also my school’s

webmaster. Over the years I

have presented at different

local technology conferences

such as YISD’s TNT confer-

ence (http://ww2.yisd.net/it)

and EPISD’s Technology

teacher conference. On De-

cember 4th I presented a

session on using Discovery

with Glogster at the TNT con-

ference in El Paso. I am the

chair of the website commit-

tee. You can find our website

at http://sites.google.com/site/

texasdenlc. If you have any

suggestions for our website,

please email us at texas-

[email protected]. Thanks!

- Annette Campos

Meet your leadership council: Annette Campos

Meet your leadership council: Elaine Plybon sonal Fitness course, which

was very challenging.

My participation in the DEN

began in 2005. I have been a

STAR member since the day

they started the program, and

have been a member of the

Texas Leadership Council

since it was formed. Originally, I

was the Blog Coordinator, and

am currently serving my second

year as the chair. Last year,

Discovery honored me with a

DENny

award (Leader of the Year). I

have attended three National

Institutes.

I have presented at several

local, regional, and national

conferences, and enjoy

spreading my passion for

technology integration.

At home I have 5 children

who keep me busy, a wonder-

ful husband who keeps me

sane, and a beautiful cocker

spaniel named Rufus!

I am an Instructional Technol-

ogy Specialist at the Jack E.

Singley Academy in Irving,

Texas. Irving is a 1:1 district

and is considered to be a

national leader in technology

integration in the classroom. I

am also the lead teacher for

the Chemistry curriculum-

writing team for the district.

My favorite “extra” job for the

district is writing online

courses. Last year, I wrote an

online Foundations of Per-

Page 4

Page 7: Texas DEN Newsletter

A FFFlllaaaiiirrr for Learning 

As McKinney ISD began this school year, leaders throughout the school district started to discuss “What exactly are 21st century skills?” While there are many definitions of 21st century skills, one that stood out was from P21.org that defines it as the three R’s, Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic and the 4 C’s which are Critical thinking and problem solving, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication. If the children of today are to compete globally in tomorrow’s world, they must learn to constantly adapt and change with their changing environment.

As administrators, how do the 3 R’s and 4C’s fit into an already written curriculum and how do we change and mold the curriculum as we expect our society will change and mold? The old approach would be to have a couple of leaders become experts on “it” and then do their best to convey their expertise in the trickledown effect. While this was a very effective plan for many generations, it does not represent the 21st century skills that we are expecting our students to walk away with at graduation. So the question for approach the world? In one word, flair!

While several MISD employees attended Discovery’s Summer Institute this past summer, the inspiration for an amazing project started to emerge. This project, now known as MISD Tech Stars, over time evolved into a 21st century learning project for teachers within the district. It’s a simple project of self learning for the teachers and then reproduction for classroom use and sharing with the other district employees.

So what does it look like?

It started as a wiki project. Leaders from elementary schools around the district started to build this wikispace. The goal is to provide teachers with guidance to learn 21st century tools that they can then share with their students during project based learning. The wikispace provides the teachers with a one page summary of many of today’s popular web 2.0 websites and district tools. This one page summary is a simple, printable flyer that explains how to sign up, where to go for tutorials on the site, some extras they might need to know about the site and how they can use it in their classroom.

Once the individual school decides they are going to participate in this project, they set up their own wikispace, creating their own rules about how this program is going to work for their school. Each school has a point system that lets the teachers know the different levels of earning for learning and what they will receive if they learn a

Page 8: Texas DEN Newsletter

specific amount. While each school has its own rules, all schools give “flair for learning.”

Each teacher, at the beginning of the project, is given a poster to place outside of their door. This poster then becomes the display case for the flair that each of the teachers earns, thus inciting a friendly competition. Teachers can earn a beginner flair for getting started and learning a product. They can then earn an intermediate flair for using that product in their classroom during a lesson. Finally, teachers can earn an advanced flair for having their students create and use the tool during project based learning. After earning a set number of flair, the school may then provide them with a small token of appreciation. The best part is that they can then share their projects with the entire district and world through our wikispace.

So, not only does the individual school create a wikispace to share the project with their teachers, but they also create a second one to feature teachers who exemplify the project. This second wikispace is called Tech Stars Spotlight. Here, each school chooses one teacher a month to showcase and to share what they have been working on with others.

The response to this project in MISD has been viral. As one school takes it on, another one gets wind of their success and excitement and feels the need to take it on as well. Since its inception in October, more than half of all MISD elementary schools have accepted the challenge and started to become entire schools engaged in 21st century learning. Several more are slated to begin the project in the New Year and are excited about the transformation. What better way to learn than in the manner in which your students want to learn.

If you are interested in learning more about the MISD Tech Stars program, take a few minutes to check out the ever-evolving wikispace at: http://misdtechstars.wikispaces.com/. The website and its products are protected by the Creative Commons Attribution License. Please feel free to learn more about this license and how you can use our website for your benefit at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

- Lea Anne Daughrity Texas DEN Leadership Council