3-6-07 DEN Workshop Mead School Dist.

I was invited to attend a Discovery Educator's Network workshop on Tuesday night. I got to meet lots of neat people from the Mead School district and also Discovery Education. We went through Google Earth, PhotoStory and podcasts. We talked about Discovery Science Connection which really looks great. I can't wait to use it with my students. Janitta told about a really neat project called Rock Our World. I am hoping to get involved in this project where classrooms from around the world collaborate and learn together. Fits right in with our grant. I learned some good tips about improving sound when making movies and podcasts. I got some great ideas for podcasting. Jennifer shared about a teacher who got a grant to target struggling reading students. This group recorded stories to be played on an iPod Shuffle. The teacher edited their recordings so that they could hear themselves reading fluenty. Then they took the iPod shuffles home and practiced reading their stories. The student in this program actually passed the other students in thier class. Many of the parents were ELL and they reported learning English by listening to these stories. Children who had not had someone to read with them at home, now could listen to themselves read. I can see a lot of neat connections for this type of activity.