Michigan Discovery Educator Network Geocaching Day

 

 

The Michigan DEN had two teams: one in Commerce and the other in Battle Creek/Kalamazoo.  The Commerce team had a blast!  We found 5 caches and hiked some beautiful trails in Proud Lake Recreation Area.  We saw snakes, spiders, frogs, herons, and of course lots of mosquitos.  We nearly lost a couple of teachers who wandered off on a wild GPS chase, but found them before too long.  Several of the team were newbies, and now I think they are hooked.  It was a fun day of networking, learning together, with great exercise for all.  Our travel bug has been planted and we hope it travels very  soon!  Thanks you DEN!  Learn more about geocaching at http://www.geocaching.com.

MACUL Grant Opportunity

Michigan educators:  Do you have a  great idea for a cool project involving technology in your classroom? Apply for a 2009-2010 MACUL Grant!  Grants are awarded for up to $1500 towards a project that will help benefit the students in your classroom/school.  The deadline is June 27th, 2009, so do it NOW!

All of the details are on this page of the MACUL website.  Links to the scoring rubric, the official time line, and the application form can be found there. You must be a MACUL member in order to apply for this opportunity; thankfully, you can renew your membership, or join for the first time right here!

Technology Classes or Technology in Math, Science, SS, and English LA Classes?

I was at a meeting on Friday with other technology leaders from several other school districts.  We were sharing summaries of how each of our districts integrate technology into the curriculum.  The majority teach computer skills in computer classes.  The integrated approach was only being done by a few districts.

My district did away with computer classes this past school year, with the exception of a few advanced classes at the high school level (programming, network management, etc).   Our philosophy is that computer skills should be taught at the same time as subject matter content.  All teachers have responsibilities to incorporate technology into the teaching and learning process.  We were not able to change to this delivery system overnight; it required lots of advanced planning.  Technology had to be readily available (and be in good working order), and both administrative and instructional support had to be in place.  Our Superintendent has always understandood the importance of technology, and this is evident in the decisions he makes.  We have a full time computer resource teacher and a full time media specialist at all of our middle and high schools.  Each elementary school has a teacher that fulfills the role of both computer resource teacher and media specialist.  Therefore, building level technology support is in place.  Laptop computers are abundant in all of our schools, some of which are student-owned (for our middle school 1:1 program) and some are on rolling carts that teachers share.  We have a local technology conference at the start of each school year, and most presenters are our own teachers sharing how they use technology as a teaching and learning tool.  I cannot say that our delivery system is perfect or that it is easy.  However, I firmly believe that teaching computer skills in the context of learning is the way to go. 

You cannot learn to golf by only practicing on the driving range.  You can work on your swing, but you can't work on a strategy for hitting the ball from behind a tree, or from the sand trap.  If you want to learn to play golf, you must play golf, and you must play it on a regular basis.  It can be frustrating when you whack the ball into the trees, or when you miss a putt because the slope of the green causes it to roll farther away than when you started; but you must keep playing.

Am I saying that I am against computer classes?  No.  However, I am against them if the teachers feel they don't need to offer students in their classroom opportunities to learn new content with technology because the computer teachers do that.

Geocaching Anyone?

On May 30, 2009 the DEN will host the first-ever DEN Geocaching Day!  Question for Michigan teachers... If I volunteer to be the guide for an event in SE Michigan, would you be interested in participating?  If so, leave me a comment on the MI DEN blog.  If we get a small group of people who want to get together, we could meet in Proud Lake State Park or Highland Recreation Area. It would be fun!

For muggles (non-geocachers) and pros alike, STAR Discovery Educators Bridget Belardi and Conni Mulligan will host a “Geocaching 101″ webinar to get us ready.  The webinar will answer the basic questions of “What is geoaching?” and “How do I get started?”  as well as emphasize the curricular connections of geocaching.

The webinar will be offered three times:

• Wednesday, May 6, 7pm
• Wednesday, May 13, 7pm
• Wednesday, May 27, 7pm
  

Register for one of the sessions today.

The Benjamin Button Effect

The DEN Virtual Conference was kicked off with a keynote address by Lance Rougeux.  I haven't seen the movie Benjamin Button, so I did not know what to expect.  Lance explained that the Benjamin Button effect allows us to age in reverse. What would you have done different in your classroom if you could do it over again?  He gave many examples:

• Photos of field trip shared by passing them around the classroom.... to saving same pictures in a Google Earth tour
• Written essay to a P-essay (Photostory), post on web for others to see
• Posterboard poster... to Glogster, with links to videos and websites
• Survey students by asking them to raise hands.... to Pollster or use of clickers
• Brainstorm most significant concepts learned from the week on the board..... to doing the same using Worlde to create a word cloud
• Writing for teacher.... to writing to the world on a blog
• Connecting with others in ftf meetings to using Twitter or Plurk to connect with others all over the world
  

There are so many new tools available for teachers to use that were not available 5-10 years ago.  It's fun to look back and reflect about what could be done now as a result of new tools that could not have been possible before. Question....Think of yourself as a child in your own classroom.  Would you be interested and engaged?

All sessions will be archived (I'll post the link when available).

Geocaching with Rattlesnake

It was a sunny, beautiful Michigan day on Saturday, so I set off with my daughter for a morning of geocaching.  I had picked up a Travelbug when geocaching in North Carolina, so I needed to keep it moving and it had been a few weeks since I had it.  I talked my daughter into going with me (it's much more fun to go with others), and we set off to the Proud Lake Recreation Area.

The first geocache we searched for, we never found... and we set off for another, not too far down the trail.  We arrived at the general area and started to look in likely spots.  Soon, my daughter shrieked and screamed, "There's a snake over here!"  I went over to see it; I am not afraid of snakes (I used to have several of them as pets).  The snake looked to me like a python, although pythons do not live in Michigan.  It wasn't moving, either; so we thought it might be dead.  We left it be and continued our search.  After about 15 minutes of searching, I found myself curious to see if the darn snake had moved.  It was still in the same exact spot.  So, what does the science teacher (who knows better) do?  She pokes it with a stick.  IT'S ALIVE.  Although it didn't move much, it moved.  I took a picture and we moved on to for our third attempt.  This time, we scored, so we left the travelbug, signed the log, and headed home.

Later that evening, I began to research strategies to identify snakes, and didn't have much luck in figuring out what kind of snake it was.  I posted my photo to Plurk and asked my PLN if anyone could help identify it. It wasn't but a few minutes, when Ginger had it figured out.  It was a Eastern Massasuaga Rattlesnake, the only poisonous snake in Michigan.  "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently evaluating the Great Lakes population to determine whether it should be listed as a threatened species. In Michigan, it remains an important part of our natural history."  There is a reporting form on the state of Michigan's website, so I filled it out.

I'm fairly new to geocaching, but am really enjoying it.  It has gotten me out to experience beautiful nature that I didn't even know existed... and finding a rattlesnake was pretty cool.

Discovery Educator Network Virtual Conference

The Spring DEN Virtual Conference is coming up soon! 

When?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
9 AM to 3 PM EDT

Where?
Online

How much?
Free.

The day will feature a special presentation from Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in the School District of Philadelphia as well as a great lineup of sessions from STAR Discovery Educators and the DEN team.

Registration is open now so check the blog for all the updates.  The schedule of presentations is available and they sound fantastic!

Register to attend here.  You can attend for one hour or all day!