Cartoon versions of Troy & Shawn

MSM 696: That Was An Inordinate Amount of Time

Summary:

Shawn and Troy discuss teachers, certifications, AI, and more. Dave shares advice for new Science teachers. 

Jokes:

Whoeverโ€™s job it is to perforate these paper towels they just arenโ€™t cutting it


Whatโ€™s the difference between a fly and a bird? 

A bird can fly, but a fly canโ€™t bird.


The KFC Bluesky account only follows 11 people: the 5 Spice Girls and 6 guys named Herb, because of their ‘secret blend’ of 11 herbs and spices.


So if a bishop and archbishop cross paths, do they have to fight to the death?


People saying boo! to their friends has risen by 85% in the last year.

That’s a frightening statistic.


A ton is heavy, but not backwards.


What part of the bread factory do lobsters work in?

The crust station.


Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Advice for New Science Teachers

I was recently reading the November 24, 2025 NSTA Blog, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

 In this blog I read an article written by Jason Strohl. He wrote an article entitled โ€œEmbrace the Chaos: Advice for New Science Teachers.โ€

Jason interviewed Madeline Grygiel, a science instructional support teacher for the Richmond (Virginia) Public Schools.  The article shares four keys to successful science teaching:

  1. Redefine what science looks like
  2. Connect lessons to the real world
  3. Collaborate with fellow educators and professional organizations
  4. Remember your โ€œWhyโ€

https://k12science.net/advice-for-new-science-teachers/

Reports from the Front Lines

  • Hiring Teachers
  • Lippy ChatGPT
  • Meta Prompts
    • Meta promptโ€จThe only really thing you need to remember is to give AI tools permission to ask you questions. One โ€˜metaโ€™ prompt that Iโ€™ve come across which can be useful is:
    • Donโ€™t answer my question yet.
    • First do this:
    • 1. Tell me what assumptions Iโ€™m making that I havenโ€™t stated out loud
    • 2. Tell me what information would significantly change your answer if you had it
    • 3. Tell me the most common mistake people make when asking you this type of questionโ€จThen ask me the one question that would make your answer actually useful for my specific situation rather than anyone who might ask this.
  • Only after I answer โ€” give me the output
  • My question: [paste anything here]
  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Vocabulary Support
    • Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots
    • H5P – drag/drop (prefix to the root, and new definition), Glossary, Board, Speak the Word, Context Cluesย 
    • Moodle – self-paced, groups (Android-iPhone), DOK level,ย 
  • Macbook Neo

The Social Web

โ€ชAMLEโ€ฌ โ€ช@amleorg.bsky.socialโ€ฌ

Brain science is not a fad! When an entire faculty understands how learning works, collective efficacy rises & students benefit. Glenn Whitman joins our podcast to share guiding principals from his school’s 18-year focus on the science of learning: ow.ly/AStP50YwwTH

โ€ชEamon Costelloโ€ฌ โ€ช@eam0.bsky.socialโ€ฌ

New article from the amazing โ€œAlternatives to Instrumentalist Online Learning in Higher Education” project with Jason K McDonald and James Brunton. I learned so much working with them. โ€œAgentic Online Learning: How University Staff Make Their Work Matterโ€ doi.org/10.1007/s424…

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-026-00634-8โ ๏ฟฝ

We found: Their work gave staff a sense of purpose, Their work reflected staffโ€™s senses of identity, Staff coped with challenges that their work raised, Staff confronted work realities by investing themselves, Staff navigated tensions between being the shepherds or originators of work concepts.

We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings, particularly critiquing the trend to fit staff into our theoretical notions of what online education practice should look like. We call on researchers and practitioners to be

โ€ชEric Curtsโ€ฌ โ€ช@ericcurts.bsky.socialโ€ฌ

๐Ÿ’Ž New EduGem: www.edugems.ai/gem/deca-rol… ๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ DECA Role-Play Sim – Interactive practice tool designed to help DECA students prepare for impromptu role-play events #EduSky #EduSkyAI #EdTech #GoogleEDU  

โ€ชAMLEโ€ฌ โ€ช@amleorg.bsky.socialโ€ฌ

Don’t forget! The deadline to participate in this year’s Student Soundoff Contest is 4/3! amle.org/soundoff Students can sound off on their middle school experience by responding to one of our prompts in any format of their choosing, eg: โœ… Artwork or photography โœ… Video or music โœ… Essays or poetry

โ€ชKeep Indiana Learningโ€ฌ โ€ช@keepinlearning.bsky.socialโ€ฌ

Stop searching and start discovering! ๐Ÿ’ก Get edtech tips, book studies, fast teacher tips, and monthly shows – all on our YouTube channel! PD that fits your schedule & interests! Check it out! youtube.com/KeepIndianaL… #EduSky

Strategies:  

Suno

Make some music to fit the motivation . . . 

Historianโ€™s Anthem:  https://suno.com/s/ceSPS2Glit3eV9ue  

Washington D.C. Trip:  https://suno.com/s/d933R5KGKCaqHC1K  

Resources:  

Survival of the Best Fit

While Survival of the Best Fit demonstrates how automated decision making can be biased, modern Large Language Model (LLM) based tools can do more than just classify candidates as good and bad. They can summarize work your experience into a resume, generate realistic job descriptions, screen resumes, and even conduct initial interviews. These other tools are based on the same framework where algorithms are trained on massive datasets.

https://www.survivalofthebestfit.com

Web Spotlight: 

Early Grade Retention Harms Adult Earnings

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2026/03/10/third-grade-retention-study-in-texas-shows-long-term-harms-on-graduation-and-earnings

The Most Common Jobs for Women in the 1920s vs. 2020s

https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/most-common-jobs-women-1920s-2020s

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

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