News & Events

1.  Start planning for October’s Month of the Young Adolescent!
2.  Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference, February 19-20, 2009 in Sandusky, OH. 
3.  Institute for Middle Level Leadership.  July 13-16 & 20-23
4.  Best Practices for Student Success.  July 28 & August 6 
5.  NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 – November 1 (Video sample) 
6.  Summer Teacher-to-Teacher professional development program registration is open. (free)
7.  Canadian National Middle Years Conference, November 5, 6, & 7 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Shout outs:

1. Folks in Rock Hill, SC and Black Diamond, WA:  Thanks for listening! 
   
2. Ron for the email.

News:

Text Message ruling could affect school policies. Seems as though work issued cell phones could be exempt from search unless a warrant or employee permission is given.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=54232;_hbguid=11811143-391a-4171-a124-ad9529840329&d=top-news

Teens face felony charges of computer break-ins
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-cheaters18-2008jun18,0,1317744.story

How do we transform our schools? Use technologies that compete against nothing … Education Next journal
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/18575969.html
In order to create change, do we have to blow everything up and start from new? Highlights here. 

From Literacy to Digiracy
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11392128
“So, no surprise that when we incarcerate teenagers of today in traditional classroom settings, they react with predictable disinterest and flunk their literacy tests. They are skilled in making sense not of a body of known content, but of contexts that are continually changing.”

Is Google Making Us Stupid?
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google


Mailbag Followup:

Hey guys,

Just to follow-up on some of your questions from the podcast…our schedule is six 50-minute classes.  We are a team of four with 115-120 kids with an “advanced” class for each core subject (makes scheduling tricky).  As far as the flex class, all the details have yet to be flushed out.  Here is what we have been told.  We will have a three week focus (the first being LA/Math) made up of our unintentional non-learners.  We talked about offering “other activities” for those are do not need to extra time.  Some ideas we came up with include club activities (chess, gaming, etc.) as well as simple SSR time, open gym, etc.  Our building uses the Honor Level Discipline System and the move to this flex schedule nullifies a daily reward (a 10-minute break between second & third periods).  I suggested (I also teach leadership) a bi-weekly assembly that is fun for kids (mock-olympic style games, game shows, skits, etc.) to replace this daily reward since our honor level system required students to be compliant for 7-10 days before they get their privileges back.  Anyway, students would have a choice of activities to participate in (including some on different halls with their friends they don’t typically get to spend much time with during the day) if they are….???….caught up on homework, not failing any classes, ???  We really haven’t figured that part out yet.


Did I miss anything?

Ron

Ideas: 

1. The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Young People Who Want to Make a Difference 500 service learning projects that you could implement with kids.

2. There’s one school in Ohio (and if I can remember their name I’ll post it) that had their teachers take their personal interests create a class centered around it and then they tied it in with their state standards and went to the board with it as a curriculum.  The kids thought it was just fun time when they were learning skills.  I thought it was a creative way to tie in standards and student interests.  Students could sign up for the classes and then take them for the 3-4 weeks the class ran and then they would let kids sign up for another round of classes.  The teachers wouldn’t have to redo the class every time since there are probably a number of kids who want the class, but can’t get in every class they want in each rotation. 
   

3. Academic assemblies:  Hold Olympic style events for academic subjects:  use Keynote/Powerpoint to create content questions team classrooms can answer as a challenge, do a “Password” style game where pairs of students sit opposite of each other and the teacher flashes a term from the unit on the screen where only one of the pair can see it (Dave Wilkie’s idea), create multiple choice style questions and give the students A-B-C-D-E answer cards they hold up.  Kids can create a drama series based on current content. 
   
   
4. Mass Study Hall: Actually this becomes a “self-select”. Teachers are available for additional support. Kids who are not in need of “catch-up” report to a large common area. See DuFour’s Research.

Add your ideas to the Comments!
Summer Reading lists

Shawn’s:

1. Education Next (Summer ’08)
2. Regina Silsby’s Phantom Militia by Thomas J. Brodeur
3. “Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning!” by Marc Prensky
   
4. Not Quite Burned Out but Crispy Around the Edges by Sharon M. Draper
5. Web Literacy for Educators by Alan November (Opening lines:  “Long, long ago, there was a magical invention called paper . . . “)
6. Lighting Fires by Joseph Tsujimoto
7. Embattled Courage by Linderman (a re-read)
8. Middle Grades Education: A Reference Handbook by Dr. Pat Williams-Boyd (re-reading sections)
   
9. Service Learning in the Middle School: Building a Culture of Service by Fertman, White and White
   
10. Energizers – Calisthenics for the Mind by Carl Olson
    
11. Promoting a Successful Transition to Middle School by Akos, Queen, and Lineberry
    
12. Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom: Using Performance Criteria for Assessing and Improving Student Performance by Arter and McTighe
    
13. History Makers by Myra Zarnowski 
    

Troy’s List:

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
   
2. Getting Things  Done by David Allen( a re-read)
   
3. Getting to Got It! by Betty K. Garner
   
4. “Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning!“by Marc Prensky
   
5. Transformative Assessment by W. James Popham
   
6. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nick Carr
7. Fair is not always equal by Rick Wormeli
8. What Works in the Classroom by Marzano
   
9. Classroom Assessment & Grading That Works by Marzano
10. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
    

MSM #39 Book Talk, Hacking & Transformation Download

News & Events

1.  Start planning for October’s Month of the Young Adolescent!
2.  Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum, June 24 in Minnesota. 
3.  Institute for Middle Level Leadership.  July 13-16 & 20-23
4.  Best Practices for Student Success.  July 28 & August 6 
5.  NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 – November 1 
6.  Summer Teacher-to-Teacher professional development program registration is open. (free)
7.  Michigan Joint Education Conference, June 25 in Holt, MI.  Integrated Education Conference. 


Reader/Listener Mailbag:
*some parts of the email below were deleted for privacy sake.

Fellow Teachers

There is a disturbing trend happening in school technology education in New Jersey. From my experience as a middle school computer teacher, it appears that school districts think technology can be thrown-in as an add-on to academic subjects like Language Arts or Math. I’m seeing the addition of laptop carts as a way to integrate technology into the classroom, but having more hardware and software at student’s fingertips does not provide proficiency any more than additional textbooks on a classroom shelf. My previous school district decided that teachers can be trained to add computer skills into their curriculum allowing the elimination of computer rotation in exploratory arts. While I agree that computers are a wonderful tool for student learning, and laptops provide flexibility and limited time-wasting, the technology that they represent is extremely content laden unto itself. Technology education in not an ACADEMIC ACCESSORY any more than teaching is a FALL-BACK PROFESSION.

When I began teaching computer technology, I was too naive to realize that many teachers viewed specials as a chance for their prep time and for kids to relax their brains for REAL education later in the school day. Therefore, I included things such as tech-specific vocabulary, quizzes, tests, hands-on projects, independent research and collaborative learning. I held kids accountable for CONTENT, and I handled my grades 5 through 8 as if they were any other academic class. I did my best to connect the dots, from simple to complex, word processing to page layout,  bitmap painting to multi-layered vectors and pixels, single-use programs to software suites and acronyms of WWW to GIF, TIFF and JPEG. And we were just scratching the surface. Podcasts, Blogs, Websites and Video were to come as we partnered together, students and teacher, and grew the program to another level. How can all of this possibly be integrated into the already overburdened schedule of academic teachers whose main function is to please administrators with student proficiency demonstrated on standardized testing?

Shortsightedness is described as “lacking imagination or insight.” The bigger picture was very clear to me. As we provide the opportunity for students to grow in their hands-on skills, and we continue ongoing training for teachers to be on-level with their students, integration of technology in the classroom comes through the assignment of projects that utilize these very skills. The Social Studies teacher wouldn’t expect me to teach the kids about ancient Mesopotamia, so why would I expect them to teach paragraph vs. line breaks, document formatting, or picture editing techniques?

Technology in NJ, as of 2007, is now subject to scrutiny at the 8th grade level by the state. We as teachers needed to assess students and show an acceptable level of proficiency, and my guess is that some type of structured test is to come. Is now the time to cut back our training and content? Aren’t we going in the wrong direction, or am I just missing the point?

Thanks
Ron
New Jersey

First….thanks for the shout-out to the hard working folks down here in Lacey, WA.  Out of curiosity, why?  I hope it has to do with the great many listeners you get from our area.  (Ed. Note:  It does.)

I just finished listening to podcast #37 and I had a couple of thoughts (and maybe future topics).  I was wondering if you could talk about creative scheduling to meet the needs of students that don’t learn.  For instance, in our school next year, we are implementing a seventh period flex-class (30 minutes) everyday except our early-release Wednesdays.  The time is dedicated to reaching non-learners, but not necessarily the intentional non-learners.  There are built-in incentives to push kids to take more responsibility for their learning, etc.  What are some other things that have been tried?

Personally, I am an eighth grade math teacher (Pre-Alg & Alg) in a building that has a teaming model.  I feel that I am at a crossroads in my teaching because our principals have taken away many of the “fun things” that kids look forward to during the school year and in many ways have changed us into a results-oriented staff.  While I endorse the standards movement, I wonder how you (and your audience) feel about the move to focus on the content standards instead of the process standards. 

Our building also got rid of football and baseball several years ago due to a double-levy failure and 1 part of the fallout is our buildings losing some of their spirit and personality.  What have you seen done to pump-up the spirit level in your buildings?

Ron
Lacey, WA

Shawn & Troy had lots to say about the letters. Now we need your input.

• How do you feel about technology? should it be integrated or taught separately?
• How do we address content standards and process standards?
• How do you integrate technology into your class? Why?
• What would you like to do in integrating technology? What is holding you back?
• How do we address students needing extra opportunities for learning?

Your thoughts? Please add to the comments or drop us an email.

Other Media Download

News & Events

1.  Start planning for October’s Month of the Young Adolescent!
2.  Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum, June 24 in Minnesota. 
3.  Institute for Middle Level Leadership.  July 13-16 & 20-23
4.  Best Practices for Student Success.  July 28 & August 6 
5.  NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 – November 1 
6.  Summer Teacher-to-Teacher professional development program registration is open. (free)

MiddleTalk question:  Where can I find some resources on teambuilding to incorporate into Advisory on a teacher’s paycheck? 

There are a number of stock resources that can be used for advisory.  Some of the best are strategies that you can apply to content. 

• www.kaganonline.com – Teamwork Tools by Wendy C. Horikoshi & Yael Schy, Silly Sports & Goofy Games by Spencer Kagan, Community Building
  In the Classroom Vanston Shaw, Discussion Chips for post activity, Classbuilding, Miguel, Laurie, and Spencer Kagan, and Teambuilding by Miguel, Laurie, and Spencer Kagan. 
  
• NMSA’s Treasure Chest, Goal Setting, and the Student Goal Setting workbooks.
  
• Youth Leadership (www.youthleadership.com) Designing Student Leadership Programs: Transforming the Leadership Potential of Youth
  • Links to organizations with resources. 
    
  • Journals of resources. 
    
  • Resource books.
    
• Project Adventure has lots of materials for teambuilding activities.  Look at their materials and their books.  Also look at your local resources and see what matches up.  Some times you can get the materials they use or make it yourself for cheaper and just get the books for the activities. 
  
• Laurie S. Frank’s book Adventure Education for the Classroom Community
  
• Previous Middle School Matters Podcast (#20) and blog post. 
  

Video Taping of Teacher called to question:
District Superintendent Carol Whitehead revealed Friday in a two-page letter to district employees that the district used a video camera to record Powers’ classroom between May 10 and June 11 last year. A district lawyer just last month denied a surveillance camera was used.
It was done to determine who was entering and leaving the classroom on weekends, she said, adding that it is the 18,500-student district’s “paramount duty to protect students,” Whitehead said.
Powers was placed on leave in June and fired in November for helping students publish an underground newspaper despite a warning not to do so. She was reinstated in April to a teaching post at Henry M. Jackson High School after reaching a settlement with the district.
http://heraldnet.com/article/20080528/NEWS01/396823946

Internet2
With an average speed of 100 gigabits per second, Internet2 supports even the most bandwidth-heavy research projects and group collaborations, such as high-definition video conferencing, telemedicine, and tele-immersion, or shared virtual reality.
Participation in the Internet2 network was expanded to include K-12 schools a decade ago. As of last year, nearly 4,300 K-12 school districts were connected to the network, and this number has been climbing slowly but steadily each year, said Greg Wood, director of communications for the Internet2 initiative.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53893;_hbguid=f6e3cf57-d645-46ee-8e62-f0c89d8551a2

Arizona Presses e-Learning
Backers of “e-learning” in Arizona are trying to maintain their state government’s momentum in helping provide digital curricula to schools across the state, even as the state’s economic headwinds stiffen.
Although advocates of e-learning in Arizona—including state officials and groups representing school boards, technology, and e-learning businesses—say the state needs to make heavy investments in helping its rural schools have robust access to the Internet, they have instead focused on crafting policies and on limited experiments that will keep the initiative advancing during the expected lean years ahead.

One, an amendment tacked on to a bill on student bullying would would have given school districts greater flexibility in issuing bonds for the purchase of instructional technology, rather than funding it only through state allocations for curriculum materials, including printed textbooks, as is now done.

The amendment also would have required school districts to forego textbooks if they invest state money in digital curricula and laptops for every student, unless the digital curricula failed to meet state standards. But the Senate narrowly rejected that amendment last week.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/06/11/41digital.html


Hurdles Remain for ELL students
Ong Vue’s very first day of school came when she was 15 and was enrolled in 9th grade at Luther Burbank High School after arriving here as a refugee from Thailand.

The Hmong teenager says her family couldn’t afford to send her to school in Thailand. When she started at Luther Burbank, she spoke Thai and Hmong, but no English.

Four years later, Ms. Vue is a senior at the 1,970-student school and has passed the math section of California’s high school exit exam. She plans to attend community college in the fall, and hopes to become an elementary school teacher.

Despite her clear academic progress, Ms. Vue’s showing on standardized tests has been a handicap in her school’s quest to meet the yardstick for adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/06/04/39sacramento_ep.h27.html

Other Media Download

Podcast #36

News & Events

1. Start planning for October’s Month of the Young Adolescent!
2. Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum, June 24 in Minnesota.
3. Institute for Middle Level Leadership. July 13-16 & 20-23
4. Best Practices for Student Success. July 28 & August 6
5. NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 – November 1
6. Summer Teacher-to-Teacher professional development program registration is open. (free)
7. Transition Practices Research (RMLE Online)
Interesting quotes: “The fact that discipline problems increase upon school transitions suggest that this new school environment poses a challenge to students during early adolescence.”
“The ideal middle school environment engages young adolescents by helping them feel capable of meeting academic challenges, offers them choice and control over their learning, and makes them feel safe and secure in their learning environment (Roeser, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2000). Interventions such as the Coping Power Program—a prevention/intervention program implemented the year prior to and immediately following the middle school transition—can help adolescents meet the new demands associated with transition (Lochman & Wells, 2002).”

Alan November’s Books


YouTube lawsuit test copyright law:

“This would have a profound impact on education, where the benefits of Web 2.0 [technologies] are only just beginning to be realized. These sites offer myriad educational opportunities to reinforce key 21st-century skills, and their diversity offers educators a wide range of choices to include in their lessons and/or practice.”

From eschoolnews.com

Plagarism allegations jolt school
School District 203′s superintendent moved to reassign Naperville Central High School Principal Jim Caudill next school year, while student Steve Su is being asked to return his valedictorian’s medal, after each plagiarized portions of speeches they gave during commencement events last week, the district announced Thursday.


Student Demo uses for Google Phone OS
What do you want your cell phone to be able to do? Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Hal Abelson put that question to about 20 computer-science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: Design a software program for cell phones that use Google Inc.’s upcoming Android mobile operating system.


The 23 Things Wrap up.

Social Bookmarking
18. Learn about tagging and social bookmarking.
19. Set up your account and experience del.icio.us.
20. Revisit RSS and subscribe to new feeds.

Online Video
21. Explore online video sharing sites.
22. Embed and download video from video sharing sites.

Click the link below to listen.

Download: (Note: Please use this link and not the one below)

Other Media Download