Over the next few weeks there are a couple of professional development opportunities available from Discovery Education that I want you to know about.
- Tech or Treat – The Discovery Educator Network regularly hosts free, virtual professional development sessions for teachers via their website and webinars. However, every few months they also have face to face events. On Saturday, October 20th from 8-1, one of the DEN VirtCon is happening at CSD on Craig Road. This is a great opportunity to hear some great speakers, meet teachers from around the region and ask questions about technology. Whether you consider yourself and expert, interested in learning about some new tools, or want to know more about Discovery Education, this is a great event. If you can’t stay the entire time, no worries. Come and go as you need to. DE will even provide lunch to those who register in advance. I’ll be there for part of the morning answering questions and helping out so feel free to stop me to find out more.
- Webinars – One of the advantages that DE provides teachers and schools who subscribe to their services is the webinars that they regularly host. Topics range from DE tools to challenge-based learning to student creativity. They’re well done and held in the evening at 6 p.m. CST. Additionally, there are archived webinars that can be accessed if you can’t make it live. When you login to Discovery Education, look on the right hand side for your profile and then select the “Webinars” link to see a list of those that are coming up.
Three of them that I am interested in are:
- Challenge-Based Learning 101 – October 16, 6 p.m. CST – Today’s students learn and think differently. To succeed in a global context students need to flourish into 21st century learners with the skills needed to be creative problem-solvers in a teaming setting. With the evolution of instructional technologies, we can now foster creative, emphatic, whole-minded students using digital media and web 2.0 tools to enhance academic content in a meaningful and interactive way. Join us as we explore challenge-based learning (CBL), a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks. We will explore the basics of CBL and examine how to construct and organize CBL experiences in the classroom. Then we’ll shift into strategies for managing, assessing, and celebrating CBL. At the end of this whirlwind tour, you will feel empowered to facilitate the process while transforming learning in your own classroom.
- Discovery Education Builders 101 – October 22, 6 p.m. CST - The Discovery Education Builders webinar provides an introduction to our unique services for building assignments, writing prompts, quizzes, and science assessments. Learn to select from provided content and add your own to create exactly the assignments your students need. Put the power of Discovery Education to work for you to create engaging, relevant, and rigorous experiences.
- 10 Tips for Sparking Curiousity – October 25, 6 p.m. CST – Kids are curious. They have questions. Keep their curiosity piqued by teaching them how to find information, explore interests, and solve problems. Starting with the free resources provided through the Curiosity in the Classroom website, we’ll explore ten tips for sparking curiosity in the classroom. Educators will learn how to use free resources like agoogleaday to refine students’ information literacy skills and Guess the Wordle to find the answers to challenging questions.
