OCCUE Tech Festival

*Saturday, January 22, 2011
Time: 8:15am-3:30pm
Location: Mater Dei High School
1202 West Edinger Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92707

Keynote Speaker: Lynell Burmark

Register to Attend

Already have projectors in your classrooms?
Are you using them to develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and create transmedia activities where students interact with information rather than passively gazing at it?
Come get mind-bending ideas for learning that’s applied, not just regurgitated. Discover the coolest free tool ever! Find out how to get Interactive White Boards at half-price and enter a drawing for for a free copy of Lynell’s new book: They Snooze, You Lose! Go to amazon.com now to pre-order They Snooze, You Lose! and Lynell will sign it at Tech Fest.

About Lynell
Lynell Burmark began her teaching career at Stanford University where she received the Walter Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. Subsequent classroom experience spanned K-graduate school. Since 1995, Lynell has consulted to high-tech companies and school districts, and keynoted conferences and educational events throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her classic book, Visual Literacy, won the book of the year award for publisher ASCD. Her latest book – They Snooze, You Lose: An Educator’s Guide to Successful Presentations – takes visual literacy to the next level with new research and more practical applications. Visit www.educatebetter.org for more information and free resources including downloadable articles and banks of images suitable for educational use. Lynell is passionate about the use of images in presentations and feels the highest praise is when someone says: “You practice what you preach!”

More about Lynell from previous post. Scroll down to see post on Lynell Burmark

*pictures and info taken from CUE email

Speak Up! Survey

The Speak Up Survey is 100% confidential. That means your name is not attached to your information. However, the number of participants from a school is listed: the numbers of teachers who did the survey, the number of students, the number of parents and administrators. Why is this important? We are at Davis, that's why. : ) Please complete the survey for yourself and get your students to take it during lab time or at home. Send the link home to parents. K-2 teachers can do the group survey with their students. If anyone needs help just ask. We want our school to have 100% participation. They've extended the deadline to Jan. 17th.
Go Ducks!

Discovery Education: Contest

From now until December 17 STAR Discovery Educators and their students have the opportunity to earn holiday gifts for students in need by submitting entries to the The Hub Create a Story Contest.

I started to get all excited about this because the winning class gets prizes. The teacher gets a flip camera, storytelling software and a green screen. The students get to have fun creating stories and could win HUB Paks. But I realized maybe not everybody at Davis is a DEN STAR Educator. We are a school with a focus on being outstanding in the areas of Math, Science and Technology. So why aren't we all DEN STARS?

Right, we all can't be experts in everything. But we all can be DEN STAR Educators, it's not something that's hard to do. If you are a DEN STAR, and think you can squeeze this in next week, here's the link to the contest.) How many DEN STARS do we have at Davis?


Please become a DEN STAR. I hear ya. Not this minute ok. But within this school year. You can become a DEN STAR just by sharing ideas with others about using Discovery Education. (OK there's some paper work involved, too. But it's not hard.)

Getting SMART Notebook Software without the CD

The question was raised at the last in-service: "How do I get Notebook on my computer at home so I can work on my lessons there?"
The first step to getting the software download is to get a product key and for this you'll need the serial number of your board which is located under the pen tray and on the back.

Click on the picture to see the location of the serial numbers. Once you have the serial number you'll fill out a request for a product key and SMART will email you the product key number.
Once you have the product key you can download Mac versions or a Windows version of SMART Notebook. During the installation process you'll be asked to enter the product key. If you don't have one you'll only be able to use the software for 30 days. When you reinstall it the second time you'll need to uninstall the first installation. So get the product key the first time around to avoid more work for yourself. If you need any assistance, ask one of the Tech Team for some help. That's what we're here for :)

SMARTBoard Basics

From orientating your board to using the Lesson Activity Kit to creating your own lessons, this in-service should answer some if not all of your questions.
If you have questions after the in-service comment here and we'll get an answer back to you.

After Hours: If you couldn't attend the Basic in-service today you can open the link to the SMART notebook presentation file and see what we did. You can also use it to practice. We couldn't open it in the primary lab. My version was newer than the lab software but it should work in your room as it was created on version 10. It has videos and links to resources. Check it out.
SMART Basics Presentation

A Day of Discovery

It was great to see so many Newport-Mesa teachers show up at the Discovery Event. Dr. Rafferty and Mr. Eddy were sprucing up the campus early in the morning and Mrs. Brusic helped clean up the monitor screens in the lab. Even though there was some difficulties with the wireless system for non district employees, it turned out to be a great event with about 200 attendees. Everybody was inspired by Hall Davidson's keynote and ready to become a STAR teacher. Ms. Lopez braved a space trip and baby Finn modeled for the digital photography class. It was quite a day.
Become a DEN STAR teacher and then sign up for the DEN Summer Institute. It's not to late, the deadline is April 26th.

A Free Day of Discover coming to Davis April 17th

Join KOCE, Discovery Education, and Newport-Mesa Unified School District as they present a free Day of Discovery at Davis Magnet School in Costa Mesa on Saturday, April 17, 2010. This Day of Discovery will provide Orange County-area educators and welcomed guests with an exciting and enriching day of professional development focused on creative ways to engage your students using digital media from the Discovery Education streaming library.

Open to all, but sign up today - space is limited!

https://discoveryed.wufoo.com/forms/koce-day-of-discovery/

Here are the details:

When: Saturday, April 17, 2010

Where: Davis Magnet School
1050 Arlington Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (map)

Time: 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM (registration begins at 8:30 AM)

Cost: Free!

Contact Jamie Annunzio at jannunzio@koce.org or Lindsay Hopkins at Lindsay_Hopkins@Discovery.com for more details.

Help us get the word out and invite other educators! Download a printable flyer at koce_day-of-discovery-flyer.pdf