Charlotte, NC —When elementary school teachers and students across Kentucky’s Johnson County School District (JCSD) return to their classrooms this Fall, they will find new resources in their high-tech toolkits thanks to an expanded partnership with Discovery Education. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports instruction wherever it takes place.
Located in Eastern Kentucky, JCSD’s dedicated staff of professionals serve more than 3,200 PK-12 students in 11 locations across Johnson County. Driven by a bold mission to create the ultimate educational experience for every child, every day, JCSD’s educators partner with the community to create an innovative school system focused on learning without borders.
As part of their ongoing effort to ensure all learners have access to engaging, standards-aligned, digital content capable of supporting academic achievement at home or at school across all subjects, JCSD’s administrators sought a classroom-tested solution with a record of success. Following a careful review of available solutions, the JCSD selected Discovery Education’s award-winning K-12 learning platform for use by the district’s K-6 teachers and students.
Connecting educators to a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, intuitive quiz and activity creation tools, and professional learning resources, Discovery Education’s K-12 platform facilitates engaging, daily instruction in any learning environment.
Discovery Education’s team continues adding, contextualizing, and organizing exciting new content and timely and relevant resources to the platform each month in response to current events and the ever-evolving needs of educators. These resources, sourced from trusted partners, are aligned to state and national standards, and help educators bring the outside world into teaching and learning every day.
Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform is designed to work within the school systems’ existing infrastructure and workflows, and provides safe, secure, simple access methods for educators and students. Through expanded, lasting partnerships with Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, Brightspace, and Clever, integrating Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform into existing IT architecture is easier than ever.
The Discovery Education platform will be used alongside Discovery Education’s Mystery Science service, which has already been integrated into JCSD’s elementary science lessons.
Joining the family of Discovery Education services in 2020, Mystery Science is the winner of SIIA’s Best Science Instructional Solution CODiE award for Grades PK – 8 and provides K-5 educators simple to use, open-and-go, hands-on lessons that inspire students to love science. Each lesson begins by posing a question commonly asked by young students. Students then explore these questions through interactive videos featuring real-world visuals fostering a sense of wonder and actively supporting student engagement in the accompanying discussion prompts. Then, students participate in easy to prepare hands-on labs that use simple science supplies commonly found in classrooms or at home. Mystery Science contains everything teachers need to get students engaged in hands-on science and make that subject the best class of the day.
“Each day, teachers at the Johnson County Schools strive to cultivate student’s natural curiosity from the moment they step into the classroom,” said JCSD’s Digital Learning Instructional Coach Coordinator Lisa Blevins-Salyer. “With our new resources from Discovery Education, district teachers will be able to better engage elementary students in instruction and drive deeper learning in all subjects. We are excited to begin using these great new resources!”
“Discovery Education’s digital resources are easy to add into our existing IT infrastructure, thanks in large part to the integration partnership with Clever,” said District Technology Coordinator Mike Whitaker. “The ability of these resources to be accessed through single sign-on was a big selling point for us, as it saves our teachers precious time they can now put towards working with students.”
Also, all JCSD educators enjoy access to the Discovery Education Network. A global community of education professionals, the Discovery Education Network connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable idea sharing and inspiration.
“Discovery Education is proud to launch this new phase of partnership with the Johnson County School District,” Kaitlin Cavagnaro-Price, Discovery Education’s National Partnerships Coordinator. “This district’s elementary school teachers are already creating innovative learning environments that excite young learners about the natural world, and we are excited to be support efforts to scale their work to all subjects.”
For more information about Discovery Education’s award-winning digital resources—which can be purchased with federal stimulus funds—and professional learning services, visit www.discoveryeducation.com, and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Discovery Education
Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. Through its award-winning multimedia content, instructional supports, and innovative classroom tools, Discovery Education helps educators deliver equitable learning experiences engaging all students and supporting higher academic achievement on a global scale. Discovery Education serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide, and its resources are accessed in over 100 countries and territories. Inspired by the global media company Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Discovery Education partners with districts, states, and trusted organizations to empower teachers with leading edtech solutions that support the success of all learners. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.
