Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about translation, the break, AI, and more. Dave has part 1 of the Microbiomes. 

Jokes:

You never hear of accountants getting attacked. 

• There must be safety in numbers.

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What do you call a man lying in front of a door? 

• Mat.

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My tailor really likes fixing my clothes. 

• Or sew it seams.

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What washes up on tiny beaches? 

• Microwaves.

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I can’t believe I was arrested for impersonating a politician…

• I was just sitting there doing nothing.

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I made a playlist for hiking. It was music from Peanuts, The Cranberries, and Eminem.

• I call it my Trail Mix.

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They should make another Taken movie about Liam Neeson being under-appreciated for trying to keep his family safe.

Taken 4: Granted

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Alarming news!

A clock factory was on fire.

Second-hand smoke everywhere!

People were gathered around to watch. I think they were all cuckoo.

I’m a little ticked off about what some people will do just for a hot time.

If you don’t understand this joke…

I’ll give you a minute.

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Never debate me on which vowel is most important…

• I will always win.

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Is a stolen Hershey bar considered

• hot chocolate?

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Dad, how do you cast spells?

Dad: You just follow the instructions.

Which instructions?

Dad: Yep, they’re the ones.

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Middle School Science Minute  

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)

K12Science Podcast:  Microbiomes

I was recently reading the November-December 2025 issue of “Science Scope”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Citizen Science” written by Jill Nugent. She wrote an article entitled, “Meet the Microbiome.”

The human microbiome refers to the microorganisms that live on and in the human body. Colony B is a citizen science project that invites learners to engage in science and contribute to what is known about the human microbiome. Colony B was designed by researchers at McGill University, and it involves sorting and analyzing microbiome data that were gathered as part of the American Gut Project.  To learn more about this citizen science project, visit their website at:

https://scistarter.org/education/colony-b-homeschool

https://k12science.net/microbiomes/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Translation by Apple
  • Spanish – worked well
  • Arabic – classic vs regional
  • HeyGen
• Break Time Activities
  • Reading
  • Photography
  • Writing
• Google Certification
• AI in Social Studies

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

A few of my favourite words from the season. Some are beautiful, others might be necessary. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. https://twowords2.page.link/play

Strategies:  

4 Simple Strategies for Student Self-Assessment

• Muddy Point Board
• Reflective Journals
• Video Confessionals
• Which Road Are You On?

https://www.middleweb.com/52511/4-simple-strategies-for-student-self-assessment/

4 Ways to Reach the Disengaged Learner

• Unleash Agency Through Choice
• Cultivate Radical Relevance
• Focus on Competence, Not Just Grades
• Build a Culture of Relatedness

https://esheninger.blogspot.com/2025/12/4-ways-to-reach-disengaged-learner.html

Resources:  

A250 iCivics Teacher Challenge

Join iCivics for A250 Teacher Trivia—25 weeks of fast, fun civics that celebrate 250 years of the Declaration of Independence!  

Teacher Trivia Challenge

AI and the Future of Pedagogy 

Click to access ai-and-the-future-of-pedagogy.pdf

At Sixes and Sevens

The whole ‘six seven’ thing couldn’t just be for fun, could it? Jonah Goldberg / December 26, 2025

https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfile/six-seven-meme-coincidences/

The Teacher’s Game Plan:  Winning With Students from Day 1 by Kim Campbell

New book!  The Teacher’s Game Plan: Winning With Students From Day One is a playbook for new teachers who want to step into the classroom with confidence, clarity, and purpose.

Drawing on lessons from the basketball court, veteran educator and coach Kim Campbell shows you how the same strategies that build winning teams can help you build strong, lasting relationships with students, set high expectations, and create a classroom culture where everyone can succeed.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G25BPF6P

Web Spotlight: 

Maybe More Experienced Teachers Can Afford To Be Less “Data-Driven”?

https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2025/12/14/maybe-more-experienced-teachers-can-afford-to-be-less-data-driven/

The Important Work

Since ChatGPT was released in 2022, writing instructors from across the world have found each other on social media, at conferences, and through newsletters to share information, teaching ideas, and more. While there are some great repositories of assignments and approaches to teaching writing in the era of generative AI, there’s no substitute for talking to colleagues about what works, what doesn’t work, what problems we’re encountering, and what we’re discovering.

The goal of “The Important Work” is to bring some of those conversations to a wider audience. Each newsletter will be a dispatch from someone’s classroom—a reflection on an assignment that incorporates AI or one that actively doesn’t, a reckoning with what we’re gaining and losing, a call for advice or feedback from others who are experimenting in the classroom.

https://theimportantwork.substack.com

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

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Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about AI in social studies, conference material, and more. Dave (well, not Dave, but Fred) sings science. 

Jokes:

My tailor really likes fixing my clothes. 

• Or sew it seams.

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Where does an angry sailor go? 

• Anchor management.

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Do I enjoy making courthouse puns?

• Guilty.

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The new password for my computer now is ‘fireplace.’

• It’s so I can log in.

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My son’s math teacher called him average. 

• I just think he’s mean.

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I quit my job as a mailman when they handed me the first letter to deliver.

• I looked at it and realized: ‘This isn’t for me.’

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Why is ‘dark’ spelled with a K and not a C?

• Because you can’t ‘C’ in the dark.

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Middle School Science Minute  

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)

Traditional Christmas Songs and Science

As the holiday season approaches, I am reminded of some of the songs that I recorded with the group, Science Explosion.  All of the songs that we sang were written by group member Fred Ribits.  Many of the songs were written to familiar tunes and some of them were written to the tunes of traditional Christmas songs.  

In this podcast I will share three of the songs.  If you enjoy them and want to share them with others, just visit:

http://k12science.net/scienceexplosion/songs

There you will be able to listen to and download the vocal and instrumental tracks for the songs.  You will also be able to download a Science Explosion songbook that includes the lyrics, critical thinking questions, and mind-mapping opportunities for each song.  

The three songs are most appropriate for elementary and middle school students. 

1.  The first song will be a life science song entitled “Energy Flow” (1:13) written to the tune of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” 

2.  It will be followed by another life science song, “Natures Way” (1:00), written to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” 

3.  The final song is a science practices and concept song entitled “Creative Expression” (1:14) written to the tune of “What Child Is This?”  

Happy Holidays!

https://k12science.net/traditional-christmas-songs-and-science/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Troy’s Meetings, or lack thereof
• NCSS  

The Social Web

H5P  @H5PTechnology

Here’s your reminder   People forget up to 70% of what they learn in 24 hours… unless they interact with it. H5P makes content active, memorable, and learner-driven.  Get started here: https://ow.ly/g69H50XmmPS  

Moodle | Online learning, delivered your way.  @moodle

We’ve built AI in Moodle LMS around a clear set of principles — grounded in choice, privacy, and people-first learning. Learn more:  https://moodle.com/news/field-notes-where-ai-meets-learning-in-moodle-lms/  

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Which words have bought you happiness this year? I’d love to hear them. And if you fancy a distraction over the holidays, do give my game Two Words a go. https://twowords2.page.link/play

‪Glenn K‬ ‪@nerdyheisenberg.bsky.social‬

Yesterday was my last day as a teacher/lab technician. I spent the day preparing labs & hiding tiny babies & ducks. My legacy in the dept will be felt for years. They will be finding toys forever. Thanks go to  @vimtotime.bsky.social  & her Etsy shop for the tiny babies & ducks.

‪MiddleWeb‬ ‪@middleweb.bsky.social‬

Must read. Spot on. And middle grades teacher leader Bill Ivey nails it again! #edusky

‪Education Week‬   ‪@edweek.org‬

Larry Ferlazzo’s 10 Education Predictions for 2026 (Opinion): Gazing into his crystal ball, Larry Ferlazzo divines what’s ahead for education next year.

Larry Ferlazzo’s 10 Education Predictions for 2026 (Opinion)

Gazing into his crystal ball, Larry Ferlazzo divines what’s ahead for education next year.

‪Eric Curts‬ ‪@ericcurts.bsky.social‬

💎 70 Gems! www.edugems.ai There’s now a total of 70 Gemini Gems on my EduGems site covering: 💡 Curriculum & Lesson Design 📖 Literacy & Language 🧒 Student Activities 💯 Assessment 🔑 Support 💼 Professional Tasks Use, copy & share for free!

‪Eric Curts‬ ‪@ericcurts.bsky.social‬

💎 New EduGem: www.edugems.ai/gem/historic… ⌛ Historical What If? – Create an engaging “Alternative History” scenario with new narrative, primary sources, critical thinking activities and more #EduSky #EduSkyAI #EdTech #GoogleEDU

Mx. Eddie R@silvermoon82@wandering.shop

George Clooney is an actor.

Put him in the role of a surgeon in front of a camera, and he will do and say things the average non-surgeon viewer will agree are surgeonish. After an hour of that, we are, as average non-surgeon viewers, satisfied and entertained.

Put him in an operating theatre, and the patient will die because he’s not a surgeon and knows nothing about really doing surgery.

This is a post about LLMs.

https://scholar.social/deck/@silvermoon82@wandering.shop/115719385219593342

Strategies:  

Concert Etiquette and Communicating to Families  

How to teach students concert behavior.  

https://mrsstouffersmusicroom.com/concert-etiquette-and-communicating-it-to-families/

Resources:  

NCSS Conference Session:  AI in Social Studies

1. AI for Education
   1. Legislating AI – What rights should we make sure are in the bill?
      1. The ability to be forgotten.  
      2. Argument A:  (See website resources)
      3. Argument B:  Same as above
   2. Simulation:  Taxes, am I right?
      1. Prompt generated by AI for quick simulation and conversation.
   3. AI Makes Choices – Who decides if these are the right choices?
2. Essential Historical Thinking Skills
   1. Corroboration
      1. The Humanization of Andrew Jackson
      2. Sherman’s March to the Sea
         1. Interesting to see what a student would write and what AI would write.  
         2. Write an historical marker that humanizes Andrew Jackson.  
      3. Us Critical analysis of AI – Prompting Skills
      4. Using effectively:  Center Human Originality, Use the “best fit” tool, Prompting skills to effectively communicate with AI Evaluating and refining AI Outputs
   2. Effective Prompt Writing
      1. Say What You See https://artsandculture.google.com/ex
      2. AI for Education – Resources
      3. Image Generation
      4. Tool:  Deep AI  
3. Design Learning Activities
   1. Cognitive Offloading:  the Real Threat in the Classroom
      1. Use AI as a scaffold for cognitive thinking.
      2. What is the productive struggle that supports content specific learning?  
      3. What is counterproductive struggle that negates or detracts from learning?  
      4. Designing and facilitating AI-Integrated learning activities
         1. Ask AI to generate different perspectives for students to examine.
         2. Note:  There is a problem with this in that these presenters are treating this as history.  It isn’t even a secondary source.  Perhaps this is the advent of the Tertiary Source.  

I Don’t Know What to Think About America’s Declining Test Scores and Neither Should You

…anchored by a fascinating report from UC San Diego about their surging remedial math program. She thinks this surge reflects a decline in basic math skills. But there’s no decline on California’s state tests, which instead show increases up until the pandemic (and slow recovery since).

Play around with NAEP scores and you’ll notice that the declines are concentrated in the weakest students. This seems to be the case also for TIMSS, an international assessment. On both the 4th and 8th grade exams, America’s lowest performing students peaked in 2011, while the strongest students continued improving through 2019.

So are American students “getting dumber,” as Matt Yglesias says?

American scores on PIAAC, a test of workplace skills for adults of ages 16 to 65, have also been on the decline, arguably also peaking around 2014.

So it’s not just kids that have lost progress, but adults. How could schools possibly be responsible for that?

But as Aldeman points out, phones are everywhere and declines in TIMSS scores aren’t universal:

> Smartphones and social media are global phenomena, and yet scores in Australia, England, Italy, Japan and Sweden have all risen over the last decade. A couple of other countries have seen some small declines (like Finland and Denmark), but no one has else seen declines like we’ve had here in the States.

Here’s the situation: Americans are getting dumber…well, mostly not. But our lowest performing students seem to be losing ground. And, simultaneously, our adults. Some international tests show a similar decline happening in other countries. On other exams, America is on its own. What gives?

https://pershmail.substack.com/p/i-dont-know-what-to-think-about-americas

Web Spotlight: 

AXIS The Culture Translator

Pretty Little Baby

What it is: TikTok’s most-used sound in 2025 was a 63-year-old love song from the late Connie Francis called “Pretty Little Baby.”

Why it’s surprising: According to a press release from TikTok, the song was used over 28.4 million times as the soundtrack for “wholesome videos featuring family, pets, relationships and flowers,” which altogether netted over 68.6 billion video views. 

What Parents Can Do When Their Child Is in an Active-Shooter Lockdown

The text, from a fellow ER doctor and former Brown University faculty member, arrived at 4:27 p.m. on Saturday: “Active shooter near Brown engineering building? Is Hannah ok?” Within seconds, I looked on my phone for my daughter’s location—she was on campus in Friedman Hall. I texted her. It was real. 

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/what-parents-can-do-when-their-child

Cozy ‘Grandma’ Hobbies Are Trending—and They Have Surprising Benefits for Your Mental Health and Well-Being

And it turns out, knitting, baking, and other cozy pursuits can have plenty of benefits for you (beyond a cute scarf or a delicious batch of cookies). Get the scoop on granny hobbies, their benefits—and how to find the best one for you.

Generally, “grandmacore” hobbies are the kinds of quiet, slow hobbies you can take your time doing. They also tend to be on the crafty and creative side—such as sewing and crocheting.

• Sewing
• Quilting
• Crocheting and Knitting
• Embroidery and Needlework
• Baking
• Canning
• Gardening
• Reading
• Birdwatching
• Board Games
• Jigsaw Puzzles

https://www.realsimple.com/grandma-hobbies-trend-8786625

Random Thoughts . . .  

AI Icons

Ai Icons to inform students

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