Orange, CA – June 20, 2016 – Orange Unified School District is proud to announce that Dana Johnston has been honored with a DENny Award by Discovery Education (DE) for her involvement in the Discovery Education Network (DEN) and for supporting the integration of digital resources into instruction to transform teaching and learning. Johnston has been recognized with a DENny Award in the Involvement category for her efforts to share resources and innovative teaching methods with fellow educators to improve student engagement and achievement across the District, state, and world.

Johnston co-facilitated the OUSD DEN Ambassadors program with Christina Baroldi, training teachers to utilize the resources in Discovery Education. She also traveled across the country to present digital learning strategies and skills with Discovery Education at their Day of Discovery and Summer Institute professional development events and promoted the use of the Spotlight on Strategies (SOS) to increase use of digital media in classrooms across the District.

As West Orange Elementary’s school site instructional specialist, Johnston modeled lessons in the classroom using Discovery Education resources and SOS strategies for her peers and worked with teachers one-on-one to help them understand how to integrate Common Core lessons with the Streaming Plus lessons available for use on DE.

“I encourage teachers across the country and in our District to join and participate in the online Discovery Educators Network community,” said Johnston. “It is an amazing resource for any teachers who are passionate about education and being the best teacher they can be. The DEN has transformed the way I teach and learn.”

Founded in 2005, the Discovery Education Community is an active and growing group of education professionals who are passionate about transforming the learning experience and sharing best practices for using digital media.