Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About!

Most people know that Discovery Education is full of great video clips and imagery. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Discovery Education is also a rich resource for sound effects, encyclopedia articles, interactive labs, and more. In this edition we’re going to focus on the songs that all subscribers have access to within Discovery Education. In fact, if you were to drop down the search bar and just choose “Song” in the Media drop down-box you would find over 1200 songs that cover all subjects and grades.

I have two favorite singer/song writers within Discovery Education. For my elementary educators check out the Teacher and the Rockbots who sing about about everything from Health - Where Will I Go? (Digestive System), Science - One World (Take Care of It) to Math - Six Skinny Bug Legs, and more.

For my middle and high school educators check out Dr. Lodge McCammon! He’s provides over 50 songs that cover everything under the sun. Some of my favorite songs include: Full Employment which tackles macroeconomic concepts like inflation, My (0, Y) Find is a song that explains how to find the slope of a line, and Atomic Brother - a song that explores three subatomic particles - protons, neutrons and electrons.

All of Lodge’s songs come with teacher’s guides and lyrics. Make sure that you click on the Related Materials Tab to access them!

Songs are great to incorporate into your instruction because their lyrics often repeat themselves, they rhyme, have rhythm and meter, etc. All of this, as it turns out, help us learn new information. It’s why songs can get stuck in our heads for days!

But songs can also be used to address different modalities of learning. Just how might a song, let’s say one of Lodge’s, be used to reach a kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learner at the same time? Turn the page my friend, turn the page.

Matt’s Media Tips 1-30Take Teaching to the Next Level Where Microscope and Mouse Meet Connecting to a

Global Community of Educators

The Discovery Education and Dr. Lodge McCammon Video Challenge has Launched!

What is the Challenge you ask? Well Lindsay Hopkins explains it best in her blog post. Here are her words:

What’s up?Launching today, the Dr. Lodge Music Video Challenge asks students to select one of Dr. Lodge McCammon’s standards-based songs, determine the dance moves, and film the music video in 1-take.

What could you win?One grand prize winner will receive a school assembly with Dr. Lodge McCammon, a Flip camera, and thirty backpacks for the winning classroom. Ten more finalists will receive Flip cameras and sets of classroom backpacks, too!

Why would you do it?If fabulous prizes and national recognition aren’t enticing enough, Dr. Lodge’s songs are standards-based and focus on specific content areas. The challenge is open to all students – from elementary to high school grades. Nothing could be more fun, engaging, and…educational.

I’m in. What’s next?To participate, register anytime between January 30 and February 26. Review the rubric, and utilize the resources available to you and your class. When you’re ready, upload your video, and be sure to vote for your favorite from the selected finalists!

There must be more information. Where can I go?For everything, including important dates, judge’s rubric, resources, and other contest information, visit:

http://links.discoveryeducation.com/videochallenge

What is a DEN Star Member?

Discovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar Schedule

Dates Time (EST)

Link

2/1 7pm - 8pm

Making Mobile Media Meaningful in Your STEM Classroom (and beyond!) Make your classroom walls expand! Mobile phones, iPads, and tablets have the ability to create and share learning both in the classroom and in the extended online anywhere/anytime universe. Hall Davidson will show educators how to build interactive projects and assessments that tap and expand student knowledge with apps, QR codes, social media sites, and more. Attendees will learn how free resources, media libraries, and the web can work mobile - even for students without smart phones. You don’t want to miss this webinar!

2/1 7pm - 8pm

An Overview of Discovery Education STREAMING Get back to the basics of Discovery Education STREAMING! This webinar will explore the myriad of curriculum resources and time-saving features found in Discovery Education STREAMING.

2/2 8pm - 9pm

STAR Techbook Webinar. Learning to Use Discovery Education Science Techbook. Are you a DEN Star member? If so you can access the Discovery Education Techbook for free! Find out how to use all of its great resources through the Star Techbook Webinar Series.

I found out about these apps through my colleague Kyle Schutt. We were talking about cool free apps to include in this week’s edition and he recommended two great apps for Screencasting.

Kyle shared the ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard app with me first. He described it as an easy, entry level app that is super simple to use - without a lot of bells and whistles. In fact, if you like Audioboo, you may like this

app for its simplicity and functionality. Showme allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online.

If bells and whistles are more your thing, Kyle recommends the Educreations Interactive Whiteboard app. Educreations is also free and it has a few more features built into its app. In addition to creating a video tutorial

with your voice, you can also add annotations, take and import photos, and share your creation via email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Miss a week? Catch back up here!

1/23/2012 Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app

1/18/2012 In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App.

1/9/2012 Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students

12/19/2011 Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App

12/12/2011 50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter App - Flash for iPads

11/28/2011 What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps

11/14/2011 Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool you can do with Google. TED and Animoto Apps

11/7/2011 First Six Weeks Aggregated

11/4/2011 Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge

10/24/2011 Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps

10/17/2011 Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site

Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps

10/3/2011 Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives

9/26/2011 Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!

9/13/2011 Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE