February 7, 2026February 7, 2026PodcastBy Troy Patterson

MSM 691: The Parents Know

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about Parent Conferences, and more. Dave examines data science in Part 2.

Jokes:

If you want a job in the moisturizer industry, the best advice I can give is to apply daily.

I was fired from the keyboard factory yesterday. I wasn’t putting in enough shifts.

Helen Waite is in charge of my complaint department…

if you have an issue with my jokes, you can go to Helen Waite.

Just got a birthday card, opened it up, and a load of rice fell out.

It was from Uncle Ben.

Did you hear about the incredibly average philosopher? His name was Mediocrates.

If I were a rapper, I’d be MC Spice. Then I could say, STOP! Hammer Thyme!

Why are robots never afraid?

Because they have nerves of steel.

My wife texted me she saw a wolf on the way to work.

My question is how she knew it was on its way to work?…

Who can shave 25 times a day and still have a beard?

A barber!

I just got a new job as a street cleaner! Turns out there’s not much training involved, you just pick stuff up as you go along.

This morning, I accidentally ran into the man who once sold me an antique globe.

It’s a small world.

Did you hear about the guy who tied his spaghetti together?

He ended up skipping dinner.

I tried taking some high-resolution photos of local farmland, but they all turned out a bit grainy.

Middle School Science Minute

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

K12Science Podcast: Data Science Education, Part 2

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

In this issue, I read a featured article written by Matthias Fisher, Cody Pritchard, Zhen Xu, and Joshua Rosenberg. They wrote an article entitled, “Finding Your Way into Data Science Education as a Science Teacher.”

This is the second podcast in a series of three podcasts on the topics of Data, Data Science, and Data Science Education. In this article, the authors aimed to support science teachers without backgrounds in data science. by addressing three major challenges:

1. The lack of training to teach data science.

2. The difficulty of designing relevant and engaging data science lessons.

3. The challenge of teaching data science with limited technological resources.

In this podcast I address challenge #2 – the difficulty of designing relevant and engaging data science lessons

https://k12science.net/data-science-education-part-2/

Reports from the Front Lines

Conferences
- Student Success Meetings
- Flex Time
- Drop in Conferences

The Social Web

The OED @OED

OED #WordOfTheDay: mirabiliary, n. A person who deals in marvels; a collector of marvellous things. View the entry: https://oxford.ly/3O1BZdw

‪Eric Curts‬ ‪@ericcurts.bsky.social‬

💎 New EduGem: www.edugems.ai/gem/educatio… 🗺️ Educational Map Maker – Create a data-rich interactive educational map for any topic with a custom-generated CSV file for Google My Maps #EduSky #EduSkyAI #EdTech #GoogleEDU

‪Keep Indiana Learning‬ ‪@keepinlearning.bsky.social‬

Starting off with a keynote from teacher astronaut Joe Acaba. “Make students uncomfortable – in a good way.” #ExploreWithSally #EduSky

‪MiddleWeb‬ ‪@middleweb.bsky.social‬

Review: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION. “Not Your Granny’s Grammar is more than just a set of grammar lessons – it’s an invitation to reimagine grammar instruction as lively, meaningful, and integrated with student writing.” #edusky #iteachEnglish https://www.middleweb.com/53072/an-innovative-approach-to-grammar-instruction/

‪Ron King‬ ‪@mthman.bsky.social‬

Happy Blue Friday!! Let’s get another Lombardi trophy @seahawksofficial.com #GoHawks #12s

‪MiddleWeb‬ ‪@middleweb.bsky.social‬

WHAT IF EVERY TEACHER TAUGHT MEDIA LITERACY? Media literacy author & consultant Frank Baker shares ideas for working media literacy into lessons across the curriculum. #edusky #medialiteracy @medialiteracynow.bsky.social @routledgebooks.bsky.social #teachersky www.middleweb.com/53068/what-i…

Strategies:

Turn Movie Magic Into Literary Analysis With ‘Anatomy of a Scene’

For teachers, these videos become mentor texts and mini-lessons in the crafts of writing and directing, along with analysis. Each “Anatomy of a Scene” gives students an accessible model for speaking and writing analytically about a moment in a text.

To evaluate learning at the end of our first reading unit using graphic novels, I have my eighth-grade students create their own analyses in the style of “Anatomy of a Scene.” Students read different graphic novels in book clubs, and then they each choose a powerful scene in the texts to analyze, similar to how directors explain the scenes highlighted in the Times series. Above is an example of what the final product looks like.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/learning/lesson-plans/turn-movie-magic-into-literary-analysis-with-anatomy-of-a-scene.html

https://www.nytimes.com/column/anatomy-of-a-scene

Resources:

Applause Meter

https://scenicandlighting.com/applause

Digital Snacks

Digital snacks are free, no login, browser-based, and low prep.

https://padlet.com/tonyv/digital-snacks-nhsoen1ooi67cit4

Web Spotlight:

AI Is Accelerating Inequity

You may have heard of the recent (still not yet peer-reviewed) study at MIT that showed that students using Large Language Models (LLMs, such as ChatGPT) to perform writing tasks demonstrated reduced brain activity and showed little retention of the text that was created as a result.

The pandemic shift will be mild compared to what we may soon see from the ChatGPT generation.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thefreemanmag/p/ai-is-accelerating-cognitive-inequality