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TEXAS DISCOVERY EDUCATOR NETWORK NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2011
by the Texas DEN Leadership Council
Volume 2, 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 texas-
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
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!
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-
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”
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.
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
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
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