Discovering "Discovery Education"

Did you know....

Discovery Education has videos about almost every topic you would teach in a school classroom?
Discovery Education allows teachers to create folders where they can save videos they find useful?
Students can be given usernames and passwords so that they can complete class or individual assignments?
Teachers can add writing prompts to videos and assign these to students?
Quizzes over topics can be found by searching for a topic and can be created and assigned by teachers?

Before taking a class last week from a fellow teaching, I thought the only reason teachers use Discovery Education in their classrooms was to show videos.  I was so surprised to learn all of the other amazing uses for this great resource! 

Not only did I become aware of quite a few ways to for teachers and students to use Discovery Education, I also was able to start implementing some lessons in my classroom the next day.  That's how easy it is to use!  The first step is to purchase a license to use the program, which my district has already done.  After creating a username and password, you can add individual students to your various classes, start saving videos to "My Content," or create an assignment for the students to complete.  I was able to add three videos and create a class in less than hour! 

If you don't have a phenomenal fellow teacher willing to teach you how to do all of this, Discovery Ed has a "user guide" available in almost every area.  It provides clear step-by-step instructions that often include screen shots of what you'll be seeing throughout the process.

This tool isn't only for teachers though.  Librarians can find videos and lessons about teaching research or upload on-line book talks for share with teachers and students.  When collaborating with teachers, school librarians can also share content with other staff members. 

Discovering "Discovery Education" is easy to do and will add value to any school classroom or library!

Book Love by Penny Kittle

                "Every child can read...if you let them."  This is the title of one of Penny Kittle's chapters in Book Love, and I think it is so true!  So oftens, teachers tell students what we want them to read, what they can't read, and how much to read, but do we ever just let them read?  Unfortunately, the answer is to that question is no in too many classrooms across the country.  Penny Kittle points out that the ever increasing demands of standardized testing and upcoming Common Core standards cause teachers to feel as though teaching the assigned literature is the best way to meet all these standards.   One question Penny asks to those teachers is:  isn't reading more books well, better than learning just a few through the eyes of a teacher?   She believes so, and it became her  ultimate mission is to guide as many students into their lifelong love affair with books as possible.  To do this, she's sharing all she believes and has learned with other teachers and many are nodding their heads in agreement.   
                So where do school librarians come in to all of this?   Well, if teachers want to develop "book love" in their students, then school librarians are in the perfect position to help them.  Why?  School librarians love books!  School librarians who keep their libraries full of a variety of text and love many books in that collection can help students find that perfect fit, especially when it takes multiple tries.  School librarians can talk to kids about the books they're reading, creating even more enthusiasm for books.  Finally, when students start to love books and grow as independent readers, school librarians can listen to students and find out what books would be good additions to the school's  bookshelves.  Creating "book love" in children is going to take work, but with passionate and knowledgeable teachers and librarians working together and using Penny Kittle's strategies, I think it's within every school's reach. 

What's New in Your Reader?

            Google Reader allows users to subscribe and manage all the blogs you like to follow in one easy-to-use (after getting some pointers from one of the technology coaches in my district) space.  The five blogs I’m following post frequently and Reader allows me to see all the updates at once, making it easy to glance at new posts and choose what is worth reading.  Setup was easy, but I’m not sure I love the overall appearance of my Reader page.  I wish it looked more inviting like the blogs themselves with colorful backgrounds and interesting fonts.  In the end, creating and using a Google Reader page has made me so excited to start reading blogs again, that I wrote a short Acrostic poem for the occasion.

Reading the blogs I love has become

Even easier

After discovering Google Reader!!  How

Did I never

Ever hear about this before?

Rarely before, has reading blogs been so accessible!

               How could this help me in my teaching?  Reader allows me to keep up with my blogs so that I can occasionally share posts about I read with my students -  like when a blogger raves about a book she recently read or a good book trailer surfaces.  I’ve even shared the links to a few blogs I subscribe to, like the “YA Love Blog.”  This has given my students one more resource to use when looking for the next “book they can’t put down.”  However, I’m yet to share Google Reader with my students.  I think they need to be taught more about blogs before this tool can really be of use to them.  Once they do know the value of blogs and RSS feeds, I think Reader could help them become more digitally literate people.   Having a one place to help you keep up with all the information technology helps people find is something Discover would probably call “priceless.”   

Too Much to Read, Too Little Time

As with many things in life, there is always too much to do and not enough time to do it all.  Dishes, laundry, dancing, spending time with friends and family, exercising, reading, cooking, cleaning, and sleeping are just a few of the things that I would like to accomplish on a daily basis.  Do they all get done?  Maybe within a week's time, during the summer, when I dont' need to grade any papers :)  On top of this, I had an additional goal for the week:  read one post a day from one of the five blogs I follow on Google Reader.

On day one, I read a post!  Not only had I read this blog, http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/top-10-urban-fiction-books-by-jennifer-fountain/, I had even jotted down a few titles that I wanted to read and purchase for my classroom library.  This item on my to-do list was going to be crossed off in no time at all!

 On day two, I read our literacy coach's blog:  noseinabook5.blogspot.com and learned about "Good Reads."  I loved the idea of reading and sharing about books on a social media site!  Who knew accomplishing a task on the neverending to-do list would be so much fun to do? 

 Day three came with a new blog:  "YA Book Love,"  and I was starting to notice a trend - there are a lot of great reads out there and not a lot of time to read them all.  In three days, I had already added three books to the To Be Read list, but hadn't started one.  At this rate, I was going to need a lot more paper for the TBR list, and would probably turn into a macaroni and cheese eater just to save time to read great books people blog about!

The fourth and fifth day were tougher because I was busy with school and I was started to crave time to start one the books on my recently enlarged TBR list, but I managed to pull through.  Once again, bloggers like Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Roten, brought forth a whole new list of books to one day love.   Friday finally came and I was excited because I put aside blogs for the weekend and enjoy some good old-fashioned books.  The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate was my book of choice and the cold weather made sitting on the couch all that more enjoyable.  In one week, I checked task off the to-do list and a book of the To be Read list - way to go me!