“The test of a good teacher is not how many questions
he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily,
but how many questions he inspires them to ask him
which he finds it hard to answer.”
–Alice Wellington Rollins
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(Cross-posted from TN DEN LC Blog)
The Tennessee Discovery Education Network Leadership Council (TN DEN LC) is hosting 3 live events for the DEN SciCon Virtual Conference happening January 22nd! So, no matter where you live in TN, you can attend a live event with relative ease and be part of one of the most fantastic groups of educators anywhere on the planet…the DEN!
So why go to a live event? First, you will get to spend quality time with educators who share the same passions for Discovery and science that you have. Second, there will be live workshops at the events that will not be available to you online. Third (as if you need another reason), the food is on us! And fourth, we will be skyping all three groups together so we can all meet one another across the state!
Join us for all of the event or just part of it. Breakfast and lunch will be provided to registered participants (and this event is FREE)!
Here are the locations and links to register:
Cleveland, TN
Register at: http://tinyurl.com/38bue6n
Knoxville, TN
Register at: http://tinyurl.com/2b4vuvz
Memphis, TN
St. George’s Independent Schools, Germantown Campus
Register at: http://tinyurl.com/29v9qzw
On site registration begins at 7:30 AM. The first session kicks off promptly at 8:00 AM.
You must pre-register online to attend the live events of the conference. This will help us coordinate room space and food expenses. If you register, but later decide you cannot attend, please contact the coordinator for your event at least 48 hours prior to let him or her know you cannot attend.
This year’s SCIcon will have a special presentation from Reed Timmer, Extreme Meteorologist and TVN team leader, for Discovery Channel’s hit series Stormchasers.
Join thousands of educators from around the world for an amazing day of professional development sessions, networking and sharing.
Agenda (all times CT)
8:00 AM
Opening Keynote
The Five E’s of Inquiry-Based Instruction
Patti Duncan, DEN Guru
9:00 AM
The Student Experience: Engaging and Assessing Young Scientists
Mike Bryant
10:00 AM
Spotlight Session
Real Students, Real Teachers, Real Results: Implementing Discovery Education Science
Cindy Moss, Director of Science and Math, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
11:00 PM
Top Ten Free Science Resources from Discovery Education
Porter Palmer
12:00 PM
Hands-On Digital
Brad Fountain and Lance Rougeux
1:00 PM
Closing Keynote
Into the Storm: Following the Love of Science
Reed Timmer, Extreme Meteorologist
More Professors Give Out Hand-Held Devices to Monitor Students and Engage Them – The New York Times
Simple Technology, Profound Results – Cyberpop!
Using Clickers in the Classroom — Writing Effective Questions – Connexions
Designing Clicker Questions that Promote Classroom Discussion – Northern Arizona University e-Learning Center
Image Source: Dallas News.com
One of the professional development workshops I’m facilitating this week is titled Making the Curriculum Pop. We’ll be focusing on the use of digital media and alternative text selections to engage students’ interest in “pop” culture. I would appreciate any ideas for connecting music, TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc. with the curriculum, as well as links to images, audio, video, resources, etc. that you can share. I’ll certainly credit you for your suggestions, too.
I’d like to thank those that nominated my various web resources for the 2009 Edublog Awards. These and other kinds of demonstrations of support are encouraging and appreciated. It’s overwhelming to be listed among these outstanding educators from around the world.
With great appreciation,
Clif
(Repost from Tennessee DEN)
When
Saturday, September 26, 2009
8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Where
St. George’s Independent School
1880 Wolf River Blvd.
Collierville, TN 38017
Cost
FREE!
A continental breakfast will be provided starting at 8:15 am. Lunch will also be provided. Door prizes will be awarded in the closing session.
Participants should bring their laptops.
There are still spaces available! You can register here.
You can see the agenda for the workshop here as well.
This is going to be an exciting day of workshops and networking! Don’t miss it!!
The following is the text of Bill Gates’ remarks at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Microsoft co-founder shares his ideas about “how federal stimulus money should be used to spark educational innovation, spread best practices and improve accountability” along with his belief that the “U.S. must improve its educational standing in the world by rewarding effective teaching and by developing better, universal measures of performance for students and teachers” (Source).
Miguel Guhlin has once again pushed my thinking. This time its about the issue of personal content that K-12 teachers post online. I’ve spent a lot of time researching, thinking about and discussing this topic, but it struck me that this issue is actually a lot hairier than I’ve previously realized. There are a lot of different aspects that need to be considered.
Here are a few points from Miguel’s post. I encourage you to consider each question twice asking yourself Do.. the first time and Should… the second time.
Rather than commenting on the discussion at this point, I hope to further it by asking a few more questions.
Today is Teacher Appreciation Day and the good folks at Chick-fil-A are showing their gratitude for all the good that teachers do by offering them a free order of Chik-N-Strips. Click here to see if a location near you is participating.
