The entries are in. Now it is time for you to vote!

A few weeks/editions ago we explored the idea of creating six-word stories using one image and a simple image editor like http://ipiccy.com. I thought that the idea was so cool that I wanted to see if we could create a few ourselves. And just like that a challenge was born. The challenge was for you to submit to me a six-word story that we would all vote on today. I made it a little easier last week when I said that you could email me your finished story. I stated that I would pick six stories and you would all vote upon the ones you liked the best. The top three entries will receive a flip cam. Only two people, and their classrooms, took me up on this challenge - here is their very creative work. Click on the links below to vote!

Matt’s Media Tips 4-9Take Teaching to the Next Level Where Microscope and Mouse Meet

Connecting to a Global Community of Educators

An apple still makes me smile...

Susan Julio West Navarre PrimarySanta Rosa, FL

Once a Website, now the world

Shelly TullochBedford South SchoolBedford, Nova Scotia

Little bird finding hope on Earth

Shelly TullochBedford South SchoolBedford, Nova Scotia

May your TWEETS be with you

Shelly TullochBedford South SchoolBedford, Nova Scotia

Twitter calls. The world TWEETS back.

Shelly TullochBedford South SchoolBedford, Nova Scotia

Huh giant bird gotta TWEET this.

Shelly TullochBedford South SchoolBedford, Nova Scotia

And now onto a few tips and tricks

One of the pieces of feedback that I received recently was from a reader who would like to see if I could describe how to link Discovery Education content to a free program/game development site called Scratch. If you are not already familiar, Scratch is a programming language that is super easy and intuitive to use. By using Scratch, and its free downloadable software, you and your students can create your own dynamic stories, animations, interactive games, music, and art.

From their site, info.scratch.mit.edu/About_Scratch:

“Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, with financial support from the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Intel Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Google, Iomega and MIT Media Lab research consortia.”

What I like about Scratch is that you can upload your own media and then manipulate it or, even better, program your media so that others can manipulate it. Let’s say that your students are working on Reading and comprehending complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. After reading an original piece of text, they could reinterpret it by combining their own words and media into a new form. As part of their assignment they would be tasked with researching and finding complementary themes, articles, images, video, songs, etc., that they could use in their interpretation. All of this content, by the way, can be found inside Discovery Education. Once your students have gathered this information they could use Scratch to program and create an interactive glossary, game, story, music, or some combination of these choices, to demonstrate their understanding of the text that was originally assigned to them.

Keeping with this same standard, students could also use Discovery Education and the free concept mapping tool www.popplet.com to demonstrate their comprehension of an assigned text. Popplet allows you to upload images, write new text, embed media, and then draw links to related concepts and/or core principles. Let’s say we’ve just read Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar. We could use Discovery Education to research and find images, video, and encyclopedia articles about Caesar, Shakespeare, and/or tragedy in literature. Then we could combine our new found media with Popplet to organize and map the content. You could even literally map the content using the embedded Google Map feature!

What I really like about both Scratch and Popplet is that they have both built in the ability to collaborate with other people. Therefore your students can not only be the creators of new content but, by sharing and collaborating with one another, become teachers as well.

www.Scratc.mit.edu

Discovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar Schedule

Dates Time (EST)

Link

4/9 7pm - 8pm

Discovery Education STREAMING 101 The webinar begins with the basics (logins and passwords) and moves quickly through searches, the Teacher Center and Builders, incorporating digital content with web 2.0 tools, and classroom building through our online organizational tools.

4/11 4pm - 5pm

Techbook Admin Webinar Learn to use the tools and features of My Admin to support successful integration of Discovery Education Science Techbook. This training will cover: Navigation of the My Admin Site Managing User Accounts (students and teachers) Managing Student Access Running Usage Reports

4/11 8pm - 9pm

Seasonal Science Stream Lesson Plan Webinar: April Showers Monthly webinar to prepare for Seasonal Science Live Stream. This month's topic: April Showers, A Lesson on Weather and Severe Weather. Join us for a review of three different lesson plans (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) that utilize resources from the Discovery Education Science Techbook.

4/24 7pm - 8pm

Meet NASA’s Leland Melvin! Join Leland Melvin, NASA?s Associate Administrator for Education, to hear first-hand about his incredible career as an astronaut and his current role leading the agency?s education efforts. He will discuss the innovative ways NASA is inspiring student interest in STEM fields and share the many valuable programs and resources available to educators through NASA.

I love, love, love, love this site and now this app, eduTecher - Backpack. Adam Bellow, through his app, combs the internet for the best website and then gives you the ability to bring them into your classroom.

It is free and super easy to use - you don’t even need to register or create an account. It has a collaboration feature (Twitter, Facebook, comments) so that

you can connect with other educators, you can also search for sites by subject/area of study. You can also read what others have commented about different sites, apps, etc.

It is a great app to have in your pocket. The app is available on both iPhone/iPad and Android phones.

What is a DEN Star Member?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 - 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

Miss a week? Catch back up here!4/2/2012 Mi Content es Su Content. Book- marking and sharing your Discovery Education content across your school and district, two great contests, and two text-to-sign mobile apps

3/26/2012 Can You Picture it? Learn how to create a six-word story using iPiccy.com and Discovery Education. Digital Story Challenge! MeeGenius Audiobook app for mobile devices.

3/19/2012 Audio Book ‘em Dano. Eight simple steps for creating an audiobook using iTunes and any computer (Mac/PC). Molecules mobile apps.

3/12/2012 It’s All About The Sharing. Uploading, sharing and accessing your own content within Discovery Discovery Education. Cel.Ly app polling device via any device.

2/27/2012 Teacher Center Treasure Trove of Resources. Interactive Calendar Atlas, STEM Connect explored. Socrative App (student response).

2/13/2012 Special Valentines Issue - Things I love about Discovery Education. Five Minute Preps, Images,Coaches Eye App

2/6/2012 What did you say? Closed Captioning on an iPad? Getting Closed Captions to play on your iPad, GreenScreens on iPhone/iPad with GreenScreen FX app

1/30/2012 Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations whiteboard apps

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

The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!

Help Me Make Matt’s Tips and Tricks Even Better

I am always looking for ways to improve Matt’s Tips and Tricks and your feed back is invaluable to me. With that in mind I’ve created a short 15 question survey. I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts. If you can take a moment to fill out this super fast survey it will go a long way to making each edition better than the next!