Category: NMSA08

advisory, MSM, NMSA08, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson, ,

Podcast #67: Cursing the Cursive?

Breaking News:  The Ohio Middle School Association is now the Ohio Middle Level Associaiton!  OMLA President explains . . .

The Middle School Matters Calendar:

  1. Happy Pi Day!
  2. Book sale!  NMSA is having a clearance sale until March 31st.
  3. North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be March 16-17 in Pinehurst, NC.  Keynote speakers include Bill McBride and Rick Wormeli.  Ron Williamson from Eastern Michigan University will also be speaking at the conference this year.
  4. NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009.
  5. NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  This video spotlight focuses on the building of the technology demonstration classrooms at last year’s Denver Annual Conference.
  6. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event now and hurry to get your presentation proposals in before the deadline!
  7. Any information on the Ontario Middle Level Association?  Their site has gone dark and we hope this does not mean the demise of the Association.
  8. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis,  IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.
    • ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall.  Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus with satellite access for Twittering, Facebooking, and other 21st Century technology access for less than $100.00.  With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference?  There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love:  our students.  (Some of you thought I was going to say something else!)  Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless.  Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details.  Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.
  9. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  10. Free Professional Development through Webinars! NMSA is offering previously recorded webinars for free from their website.
  11. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  12. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the uses of Moodle for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  13. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life
  14. From the Twitterverse:

Vote on iTunes!

Letters from our Listeners:

Hey guys

In a conversation with another teacher in a K-8 building, I mentioned that cursive may no longer be relevant in our schools. Now I’m sure this statement flies directly in the face of readin’, ritin’, rithmatic’ purists whose cursive alphabet adorns the space just above the blackboard in a typical elementary classroom.  And I’m not suggesting that we abandon the teaching of cursive letterforms. But I gave some thought as to when I actually use this practice, and I realized that I never use cursive unless writing a signature. Everything I ever write can be successfully accomplished by either printing or typing. As a matter of fact, I see a growing practice of electronic signatures being used in lieu of any writing at all. This is more prevalent due to documents making their way to intended destinations via email, electronic forms, etc.

This raises a question about how much time we dedicate to the practice of pen to paper versus fingers to keyboard. I facilitate a professional development workshop for teachers that describes the use of good typography as a tool to better reading engagement and comprehension. As a former graphic designer before becoming a teacher, I had to know the “hook” factor of type on a page. If kids (or adults) don’t like the way it looks, they are less likely to read at all. And if they do read, they are less engaged, with less comprehension of the text, when improper type practices are followed. Therefore, the proper use of font, style, placement, and spacing have been shown through research to impact the effectiveness of the message.

My point is this: word processing, keyboards, and digital technologies are not going away. We are moving more quickly every day to a world of electronic communication. Just take a look at the Amazon Kindle or the Apple iPhone as examples. Even text to speech software has now reached an over 95% level of accuracy. And none of these trends point to the use of cursive. So do we abandon the analog form of pen on paper for the tapping of keys with our fingers, or in some cases, thumbs? It certainly won’t be anytime soon. But we do need to consider dedicating more time to teaching students necessary skills with technology, such as proper keyboarding within work processing, that is certainly critical to their future achievement. Now is the time to embrace and support our K-8 technology teachers and not give any credence to the alarming trend of cutting or limiting their programs.

Keep up the good work, and I appreciate your open-mindedness to the “bigger picture” in education.

Ron

News:

High schools may be in for big change

Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to radically transform the way Indiana teens are taught by converting all of the state’s high schools to a hands-on, high-tech approach by the time he leaves office. In every class at a New Tech high school, students work in groups to solve challenges and work on projects rather than learning through lectures. A teacher may present only one or two lessons a week.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090310/NEWS04/903100357/1013/NEWS04

Algebra-for-All Policy Found to Raise Rates Of Failure in Chicago

Findings from a study involving 160,000 Chicago high school students offer a cautionary tale of what can happen, in practice, when school systems require students to take algebra at a particular grade level.Findings from a study involving 160,000 Chicago high school students offer a cautionary tale of what can happen, in practice, when school systems require students to take algebra at a particular grade level. The Chicago school district was at the forefront of that movement in 1997 when it instituted a mandate for 9th grade algebra as part of an overall effort to ensure that its high school students would be “college ready” upon graduation. “It’s not surprising that you’re going to see an increase in [failure] rates if you raise the instructional requirements and you don’t raise the supports,” said Michael Lach, the director of the school system’s office of high school teaching.
The researchers calculate that, for a school that saw an increase of 20 percentage points in algebra enrollment due to the requirement, for example, the percentage of 9th graders failing math would increase by 3 percentage points for students in the lowest-ability quartile, 3.5 percentage points for students in the next quartile, and 8.9 percent for students in the quartile of students who were labeled to be of “average” ability.

Whether similar sorts of algebra mandates­—or efforts to teach algebra at even younger ages—would have the same impact in other locations, however, is unclear, said Leland S. Cogan, a senior researcher at the Center for Research on Math and Science Education at Michigan State University in Lansing.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/03/11/24algebra.h28.html?tmp=671127371

Poverty and Potential:  Out-of-School Factors and School Success

David C. Berliner , Regents’ Professor Arizona State University

The U.S. has set as a national goal the narrowing of the achievement gap between lower income and middle-class students, and that between racial and ethnic groups. This is a key purpose of the No Child Left Behind act, which relies primarily on assessment to promote changes within schools to accomplish that goal. However, out-of-school factors (OSFs) play a powerful role in generating existing achievement gaps, and if these factors are not attended to with equal vigor, our national aspirations will be thwarted.

Therefore, it is recommended that efforts be made to:

  • Reduce the rate of low birth weight children among African Americans,
  • Reduce drug and alcohol abuse,
  • Reduce pollutants in our cites and move people away from toxic sites,
  • Provide universal and free medical care for all citizens,
  • Insure that no one suffers from food insecurity,
  • Reduce the rates of family violence in low-income households,
  • Improve mental health services among the poor,
  • More equitably distribute low-income housing throughout communities,
  • Reduce both the mobility and absenteeism rates of children,
  • Provide high-quality preschools for all children, and
  • Provide summer programs for the poor to reduce summer losses in their academic achievement.
http://epicpolicy.org/files/PB-Berliner-NON-SCHOOL.pdf

NMSA08

Motivating Underachieving Students
Instruction in Support of Success with Every Child
Mike Muir
3:45-5:00
Meaningful Engaged Learning

http://www.mcmel.org/workshops/

Click on Workshops for presentation

9 Essential Elements of Meaningful Engaged Learning:
4 Categories:
Relationship – the single most important place to start.
“I won’t learn from a teacher who doesn’t like me!”

Don’t judge them too quickly.
Don’t think of kids as bright, dumb, etc but rather Hard to Teach & Easy to Teach
This can change by class too. A student who is easy to teach for one teacher may be hard to teach in another class.

We should judge the success of our schools not on the easy to teach students, but on the hard to teach students.

What gets in the way of hard to teach students?

Enthusiasm & Humor:
Treat them “As If”
They are smart
You like them
You must be the grown up. Even if they don’t “deserve” the as if……

1.Relationships
2.Feedback – Helping students succeed
1.Unimportant to kids
2.The most influential
3.Assessment FOR learning
3.Hands-on Active Work
1.Our brains were not designed to be in school, our brains were designed to experience things (Patterns & Schema).
Schema – “Eating in Fancy Restaurant” we know how this works and how it is different from fast food, etc. Allows for efficiency. We don’t have to remember everything, but just a few details.
2.More hands on can lead to more reading not less. The reading becomes more meaningful.
4.Variety and
1.Think of Multiple Intelligences. Which two do most people have has a strength?
Bodily/Kinestic, Visual/Spacial
Which two are most commonly taught? Verbal/Linguistic & Mathematical/Logical
Bodily-Kinestic – Parts of Speech – Do the gesture whenever we get to a specific part of speech (eg. pat their head whenever they got to a noun).
5.Motivation:
1.Take responsibility
2.Should do it
3.It’s their job
4.

Why would they want to? This is an important question.
Learning is like whales feeding. Everything goes in and we keep what we want. Party analogy of having a good conversation and not hearing the background noise until something specific catches your ear.
5.Our Mistake: “Just in case education”
Tie Into Student Interests
Making it Interesting.
Adjectives in a bag. Something is in a bag. The kids pair up and only that pair can look at it. The students then use the sense only to write descriptive words to get the rest of the class to guess.
6.How can Extrinsic Motivation be as powerful as Instrinsic Motivation?
Avoid Bribery Rewards.
There are good extrinsic motivations. We do things for a variety of reasons, some of them are extrinsic. (eg. paychecks)
Bribery (rewards) has temporary desire effect.Shuts down learning. Leads to people doing the minimum, goal shifts to reward (killing the interest).
Random rewards are good. Pizza example. Done after the fact and they don’t know that it is happening. Don’t make it a pattern.  Bad for cognitive effect but OK for behavior.
7.Give students Choice (Autonomous Supportve Strategies)
This can be external motivation that is as powerful as instrinsic
Not “Do What you want” but limited to choices.

8.Meaning
1.What are two most frequently asked questions?
1.Why do we have to learn this?
2.When are we ever going to use this?
9.Context (Rigor & Revelence)
Velcro Brain
Drama
Metaphors & Examples
Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create
Psychology says that we need to start at the upper level of Bloom’s. You need to create in order to remember, understand, etc.
10.Learn in Context & Real World
Isolated Islands of Learning (kids do better taking tests in the class that the learned it).
Paragraph example:
Warning: Simple but not easy.
TV Repair man example. (The repair costs $100. The buyer asks what was wrong. Replaces a .05 screw. The guy complains. The repairmen explains, the screw costs .05 cents. Knowing which screw was $95.95)

advisory, NMSA08, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson,

Podcast #66 Sorry Jack, National Standards and a “New” Route to Depths of Understanding.

Shout out to everyone who chatted up Jack and Apologies to Jack.

Middle School Matters Calendar:

  1. Book sale!  NMSA is having a clearance sale until March 31st.
  2. NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009.
  3. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis,  IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.
  4. NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  This video spotlight focuses on the building of the technology demonstration classrooms at last year’s Denver Annual Conference.
  5. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI.
  6. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township.  Mr. Ron Clark will be keynoting.
  7. North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be March 16-17 in Pinehurst, NC.  Keynote speakers include Bill McBride and Rick Wormeli.  Ron Williamson from Eastern Michigan University will also be speaking at the conference this year.
  8. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  9. Free Professional Development through Webinars! NMSA is offering previously recorded webinars for free from their website.
  10. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  11. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the uses of Twitter for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  12. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life
  13. From the Twitterverse:
  • From GardenGlen’s blog:  CDC Science Ambassador Program.
  • Join the conversation about Congressman John Conyers‘ (blog) new bill to restrict access to scientific papers to journal publishing.
  • From eduprenur: “if your house is being foreclosed- find nearest HUD certified housing counselor in area- will not charge for intervention svcs”
  • Math worksheet creator
  • Be a photo detective !  (Library of Congress link)  Research skills activities associated with the website.  May be a little escoteric for some middle school classrooms.
  • From Twilliamson15:  Physics emulator.
  • From the “Kids aren’t so different” files:  “Pipefiddle: Why is it when the temperature goes above 40 middle school kids insist on wearing flip flops? It really isn’t that warm you know.”  Yup, totally agree.

Media Literacy Test

Advisory Activities:

  1. National Middle School Association’s Month of the Young Adolescent is looking for artwork for the upcoming October celebration.  The deadline is March 16th for submission.
  2. My Week in Three Words.  ABC has a weekend segment that shows off viewers’ video describing something about themselves or their week in three words.  The submissions are short and could be fit into a slide show which could be made using Animoto.  Clips wouldn’t necessarily have to be sent to ABC but could be shown on closed circuit within the building.

Truc et Chose:

  1. Who’s in your PLN?  An elephant seal?
  2. Speaking of PLNs, MSNBC has an article declaring the irrelevancy of Twitter and the New Scientist says that Facebook may be healthy for you.
  3. Still time to vote for one of three Animoto test videos on Middle School Matters.  So far #2 has the most votes.  There’s no prize for the winner.

News:

National Standards Gain Steam

National standards—once the untouchable “third rail” of American education policy—now have the backing of the nation’s governors, a growing number of education leaders, and the U.S. secretary of education. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said he wants the federal government to be “a catalyst” for the development of national standards, and wants to support the NGA and other groups working to set them. “We want to get into this game, … and I’m not leading this game,” Mr. Duncan said. Proposals for such standards are now gathering support, unlike previous attempts to nationalize standards and testing. The recent endorsements of national standards have emerged, in part, because critics say the patchwork of state standards under the NCLB law set inconsistent goals for reading and math. In those two subjects, supporters say, educators should be able to agree on common standards.

The agreement among governors and education policy leaders suggests to some observers that the development of national standards, in some form, is inevitable.

“The question is much more how it will happen,” said Bruno V. Manno, a senior program associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore and a political appointee at the U.S. Department of Education under the first President Bush. “Will it happen in a haphazard way, or will it happen in a thoughtful way?”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/03/04/23nga_ep.h28.html?tmp=2002589534

Students Benefit From Depth, Rather Than Breadth, In High School Science Courses

A recent study reports that high school students who study fewer science topics, but study them in greater depth, have an advantage in college science classes over their peers who study more topics and spend less time on each. The study relates the amount of content covered on a particular topic in high school classes with students’ performance in college-level science classes. The study also points out that standardized testing, which seeks to measure overall knowledge in an entire discipline, may not capture a student’s high level of mastery in a few key science topics. Teachers who “teach to the test” may not be optimizing their students’ chance of success in college science courses, Tai noted.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305131814.htm

NMSA08

Web 2.0: Navigating the new web
Jonathan Edquid
Pin Oak Middle School
Houston, TX

email jedquid@houstonisd.org for handouts.

http://poms6c.wordpress.com
www.pinoak.us
Can we have have students use Google Docs? Revision history. Checking without taking papers home.
Use Google Spreadsheet for tracking Parent Contacts?
Take Google Spreadsheet and turn it into forms. Use the Create New Form function.
Presentations can be shared on line with a chat function.
Presentations can also be collaboratively worked on.

advisory, NMSA08, PodcastBy Troy Patterson, ,

Podcast #64 – We’re excited about reviews, advisory and NMSA08!

Items, Events, and Other:

  1. Book sale!  Clearance prices!
  2. NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009. Robert Balfanz will be keynoting.  He has done a bunch of research on 6th grade transition factors that has been cited by NMSA.

    • “Robert Balfanz is a research scientist at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University and associate director of the Talent Development Middle and High School Project, which is currently working with more than fifty high-poverty secondary schools to develop, implement, and evaluate comprehensive whole-school reforms. His work focuses on translating research findings into effective reforms for high-poverty secondary schools.

      Balfanz has published widely on secondary school reform, high school dropouts, and instructional interventions in high-poverty schools. Recent work includes Locating the Dropout Crisis, with co-author Nettie Legters, in which the numbers and locations of high schools with high dropout rates are identified.  He is currently the lead investigator on a middle school-dropout-prevention project in collaboration with the Philadelphia Education Fund, which is supported by the William Penn Foundation.

      Balfanz received his PhD in education from the University of Chicago.”

  3. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video
  4. New NMSA resource:  http://www.nmsa.org/u_rd/022009/gradNation.htm  NMSA has partnered with America’s Promise to disseminate a resource to middle schools about the dropout crisis in today’s high schools.      National Middle School Association

    “Dear NMSA Member,

    One-third of all students and half of minority youth—a startling 1.2 million kids—fail to graduate high school each year. Many of those who do graduate lack the basic skills needed to succeed in college, work, and life. With this many children at risk, our nation is at risk. We need your help to stem this tide.

    As part of America’s Promise Alliance, National Middle School Association is pleased to present you with Grad Nation, an evidence-based guidebook to help you increase the high school graduation rate in your community.

    We invite you to use this first-of-its-kind “road map” that has the latest data, best practices, and tools for meeting your specific high school dropout challenges. In addition to the research-based guidance for addressing the crisis, Grad Nation also includes ready-to-print tools and links to additional online resources. Available to all free of charge, this online resource can be found at: www.americaspromise.org/gradnation.

    Authored by Robert Balfanz, Ph.D. and Joanna Honig Fox from the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, and John M. Bridgeland and Mary McNaught of Civic Enterprises, Grad Nation presents a compelling case for a broad cross-section of all organizations and individuals to get involved.

    Although there is no silver bullet for reducing the dropout rate, we know which approaches work, and this guidebook is the first ‘one stop shop’ for anyone who wants to assemble the best set of approaches that will impact the problem, including information on public policies proven to help reduce the dropout rate.

    As leaders of middle grades education, we must continue to set an example and inspire others to take action to strengthen our schools and keep our young people on the path to success. The Alliance formally unveiled this tool on February 10, 2009. Please join me in supporting Grad Nation as a valuable new resource.

    Sincerely,

    Betty Edwards, Ed.D.
    Executive Director
    National Middle School Association”

  5. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township.  Mr. Ron Clark will be keynoting.
  6. North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be March 16-17 in Pinehurst, NC.  Keynote speakers include Bill McBride and Rick Wormeli.  Ron Williamson from Eastern Michigan University will also be speaking at the conference this year.    
  7. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  8. Free Professional Development through Webinars! NMSA is offering previously recorded webinars for free from their website.
  9. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  10. NECC is coming this summer!  Here’s an excuse to travel to Washington D.C.
  11. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the uses of Skype in the classroom.  Archived content is available.
  12. Second Life:
  2. From the Twitterverse:

Why I didn’t turn in my homework…

  • I lost it fighting this kid you said you weren’t the best teacher in the school.
  • I was mugged on the way to school and the mugger took everything I had.
  • Our furnace stopped working and we had to burn it to stop ourselves from freezing.
  • I didn’t do it because I didn’t want to add to your already heavy workload.
  • My father had a nervous breakdown and he cut it up to make paper dolls.
  • I didn’t do it, because I didn’t want the other kids in the class to look bad.
  • ET stopped by my house and he accidentally took it home with him.

Shout outs:

  1. C-O Connections bloggers .
  2. Will Richardson, thanks for getting us all excited about your impending visit to Jackson . . . MS! not MI . . .

  3. “I have just started listening to the MSM Podcasts. I download them from iTunes U and listen to them on the way to work. Today I am home with a sick child and I am listening to a marathon of MSM, spending my day with Shawn and Troy. lol.

    I am a special education teacher at the secondary level and have shared the MSM link and iTunes U info on the podcast with the tech department for my school to distribute to the school, because MSM highlights and covers content that isn’t limited soley to the middle school level.

    MSM is an incredible resource for newbies to the tech world. . . like me. . . because Troy and Shawn provide a thorough and comprehensive review of current education, technology, pedagogy and its practice information available from a variety of sources.

    Listening to Shawn and Troy at MSM has “elevated the level of my game” so to speak. They are thoughtful and thought provoking in their content and coverage of material. . . all provided with a good dose of . . . humor!”

    Thanks Jenny!  We appreciate your spreading the word!

Webspotlight:

History Before and After Humans
Shows an overview of the development of Homosapiens and the potential future of humans.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7348103/

Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle The Dropout Crisis

It is a guidebook that provides a road map to help communities tackle the dropout crisis. It is designed to help communities develop tailored plans for keeping students on track to graduate from high school, prepared for college, work and life. Grad Nation is a natural outgrowth of our local summit work to ensure that solutions are developed to put our youth on a path to success.

Grad Nation also includes ready-to-print tools and links to additional online resources, in addition to research-based guidance. It provides information and tools for developing and implementing a customized program that’s right for individual communities.

http://www.americaspromise.org/APAPage.aspx?id=11796

News:

Project Management Keeps Learning on Track

Like other teachers spearheading ambitious collaborative units, Smith’s two-pronged approach to managing the Monster Project — developing his students into self-directed learners while also harnessing technology tools to help keep things on track — has allowed him to smoothly complete complex projects while maximizing student learning opportunities. “Teachers are only successful if they understand how to manage the project cycle,” notes Bernie Trilling, global director for education strategy and partnerships for the Oracle Education Foundation, which emphasizes project learning.

http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-classroom-management

San Jose dad in jail — and mom’s on the way — for 13-year-old girl’s chronic truancy

It started back in third grade with polite letters from the school principal to the East San Jose couple: Your daughter has had a series of unexcused absences; please contact us. Back then, Carol Reynoso and Jayvee Geronimo’s youngest attended school about 80 percent of the time. Now, Vanessa said she’s willing to do anything if only the court would spare her mother from jail, including face her worst fear — school. “I’m willing to really try this time, to go to school,” said Vanessa, whose family says she was mercilessly teased about her weight. “I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_11743743?source=rss

Why All Teachers Must Learn How to Teach Online

Patrick says that public education has struggled to incorporate technology into schools and just adding computers piecemeal is not enough to engage students. Educators properly trained to use the Internet and digital tools can teach in a traditional manner and have unlimited resources at their fingertips. Online learning can also help create more personalized learning plans for each student.
http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/patrick-speaker-spotlight.html

NMSA ’08 Conference Sessions

Lion Taming 101 by Dr. Debbie Silver
Selected notes from Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers
Lion Taming 101 by Dr. Debbie Silver

The Teacher
“Concerning a teacher’s influence, I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive  element in the classroom.  It’s my personal approach that creates and climate.  It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.  As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to mae a child’s life miserable or joyous.  I can e a tool of torture or an instrumnt of inspiration.  I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.  In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.”  – Haim Ginott
Dress Code – Music by Monte Selby
Lion Taming 101
Be Proactive!
Seating charts
We want teaching to be seamless.  No child or teacher should stop the learning process.
Decide what battles you’re going to fight.
Things that are nitpick level, shouldn’t be at the “rule” level.
Practice procedures and routines.
Establish non-negotiables
Lee Cantor’s method can escalate this to an impossible situation.
Don’t get into it with a child in front of the other students.
Stay on your feet and move around the room.
Find your own “rhythm for management”
RESPECT the students.
Taking Inventory
Please answer the question.  There are no right or wrong answers.  What you write will be held in confidence.
1.  What is your full name?  What do you like to be called?  Why?
2.  List 5 words that describe you.
3.  List the people that live in your home(s) and put 2 describing words after each name.
4.  What is your favorite thing to do at school?
7.  Do you like to read? Why or why not?
10.  Write your own question and answer it.
Tips for Successful Communication With Students
Do not begin instruction until all students are focused and attentive.
Be sure your voice and body language are consistent with your words.
Use direct eye contact and simple hand gestures to redirect off-task or inappropriate behavior.
Use clos proximity and a quiet voice to make reminders and censures personal and private
Be warm and friendly, and be firm.
Idea:  Hall Moms & Pops:  Folks in the hall during passing that talk to the students.  Some have erasers, pencils, etc.
Offer choices of behavior so that you control the direction they go.  It also helps them because they can’t come up with choices on their own.
Write notes or emails to students to let them know how much you appreciate them.
Why Students Misbehave
To gain power.
To get attention.
To seek revenge.
To avoid failure
Adapted from Catherine Neale Watson, Middle Ground
They are bored.
You as the teacher are obligated to be engaging, not necessarily to be entertaining.
Things to consider before you react to a disruptive student
Does the student feel the he is not being respected or losing face?
Is it possible that this student really ..
Could this be about your own need to win?
Could have you misinterpreted the situation?
Have you confronted the one who wasn’t the primary instigator?
Behavioral Journal Sheet
Student’s Name ___________________
Class/Period ____________________
I violated our class code by :
I chose to do this because:
A more appropriate choice would have been:
This is how I feel about whathappened:
This is what I plant o do in the future to prevent a recurrence of y actions
This is how my teacher can help me implement my plan:
Student signature and teacher comments:
Individual Behavior plan
Student name, etc.
long-Range goals for the student:
Short-Range goal for the student:
What student will do to meet target goal:
What teacher will do to help student meet that goal:
What Parent ill do to hel reach that goal
What are the consequences?
Positive recognition will be made with _____ of successful behavior.
Rose poem:
When we plant a rose seed in the earth … -Timothy Gallaway.
Secret Password:  iamateacher  www.debbiesilver.com
CEU:  FB3
Selected notes from Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers

Cooperative Learning
Businesses are moving to this model because together they remember more and can do more than alone.
Students can utilize their own strengths

MSM, NMSA08, PodcastBy Troy Patterson

Podcast #61 Middle School Good News Week!

Today’s Quiz:
Teaacher: Can anyone give me the name of a liquid that won’t freeze?
Teacher: Does anyone know which month has 28 days?
Why was the head teacher worried?
Teacher: I told you to stand at the end of the line?
Teacher: I said to draw a cow eating some grass but you’ve only drawn the cow?
Teacher: Why are you standing on your head?
Teacher: That’s quite a cough you have there, what are you taking for it?
*For answers, listen to the podcast.

Items, Events, Calendar, Eclectic Stuff (truc et chose)

  1. NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009. Robert Balfanz will be keynoting.  He has done a bunch of research on 6th grade transition factors that has been cited by NMSA.

    • “Robert Balfanz is a research scientist at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University and associate director of the Talent Development Middle and High School Project, which is currently working with more than fifty high-poverty secondary schools to develop, implement, and evaluate comprehensive whole-school reforms. His work focuses on translating research findings into effective reforms for high-poverty secondary schools.

      Balfanz has published widely on secondary school reform, high school dropouts, and instructional interventions in high-poverty schools. Recent work includes Locating the Dropout Crisis, with co-author Nettie Legters, in which the numbers and locations of high schools with high dropout rates are identified.  He is currently the lead investigator on a middle school-dropout-prevention project in collaboration with the Philadelphia Education Fund, which is supported by the William Penn Foundation.

      Balfanz received his PhD in education from the University of Chicago.”

  2. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video
  3. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township.  Mr. Ron Clark will be keynoting. Approximately 20 days left for the early registration discount.
  4. Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be February 19-20 in Sandusky, OH.  Keynote speakers this year include Mr. Mark McLeod and Mr. Ty Sells.
  5. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  6. Teacher Preparation Symposium information at NMSA.
  7. NMSA is accepting presentation proposals to their Annual Conference in Indianapolis next year.
  8. Interested in a Science Quiz show online and in a virtual game show environment?  Try The Second Question.
  9. NECC is coming this summer!  Here’s an excuse to travel to Washington D.C.
  10. If Mr. Berckemeyer dawdles on getting us the Kindles, soon we’ll want these from Plastic Logic.  “Did you bring pencil, eraser, and epaper with you to class today?”
  11. Saturday, January 17th, 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm GMT: “Google Forms.” The Newbie Question of the Week will be: “What is a feedreader and why do I need one?” Information on how to watch or join in at http://live.classroom20.com.
  12. Thing To Try This Week:  Create a flash mob of faculty at the corner of one of your hallways.  Ideas for the flash mob can be posted here at www.middleschoolmatters.com.
  13. From Steve Hargadon’s Classroom 2.0:  “Looking for Lincoln: Changing Views of History, Changing Views of Race” with speaker Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

    The time for this event is 8:00pm Eastern (USA) / 5:00pm Pacific (USA). A link for international times is HERE.
    PBS Teachers® and Classroom 2.0 are partnering on a series of free monthly webinars designed to help preK-12 educators learn new ways to integrate online instructional resources in the classroom and engage students in curriculum lessons. The webinar series features leading education experts, authors, and PBS producers who will discuss timely and relevant curriculum-related topics, and share their knowledge and ideas on using digital media to create rich learning experiences for students
    Dr. Gates will discuss how Americans’ understanding of President Lincoln and African American history and culture continues to evolve, and ways to approach this topic with students. Dr. Gates is the host of the documentary “Looking for Lincoln,” which premieres in February. The program addresses the controversies surrounding Lincoln about race, equality, religion, politics, and depression by carefully interpreting the evidence from those who knew him and those who study him today.
    A recorded version of the event will be available soon afterwards at http://live.classroom20.com in the archive section.

  14. Second Life notices:
    • 1/25 ISTE Island Tours
    • 1/27 ISTE Seminar:  Virtual Renaissance & Education – Virtual Harlem’s role as a learning community.
    • 1/29 Data Visualization around the Campfire on ISTE island.
    • 1/31 Basic Skills Workshop:  Appearance (ISTE Island 3)
    • 2/3   ISTE Speaker Series (TBA)

News:
Hernando School Board says administrators should get raise, despite what they say

BROOKSVILLE — Four out of five School Board members agreed Tuesday that Hernando County administrators deserve a raise this year.

But at least 16 principals and other senior officials are saying just the opposite, that hard times are not the time for senior staff to be taking extra public money.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article969147.ece

Suit filed over longer middle school day
The Pinellas teachers union filed a lawsuit Tuesday hoping to force the School District to abandon a seven-period middle school schedule that the union claims violates the teachers’ contract.  District officials have maintained for months that reverting to the old schedule would be too disruptive for about 22,000 middle school students and that some would be forced to drop electives they need to get into special high school programs. The standoff began in June, when the School Board voted to lengthen the school day by 14 minutes and add an additional period as a means of cutting $2.2-million from the budget. Officials said the change also would make room for elective courses aimed at getting students more engaged in academics before they reach high school.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article969259.ece

Standards Help Minn. Vie With Top Nations
Thirteen years ago, Minnesota was a state with no academic standards in mathematics and science and what some observers said was a mixed record in grounding students in crucial academic content, such as number skills and algebra.  As one of only two U.S. states to participate in a prominent international measurement of academic skill, Minnesota is scoring at or near the level of many of the highest-performing countries on that exam, and its scores in some categories have jumped significantly since it first took part in 1995.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/21/18minnesota.h28.html?tmp=472824768

Web Spotlight:

Flashcards

  1. Find data to study or add your own data.
  2. Study and play with data online as flashcards, hangman game, crossword puzzle, matching, word search, or word scramble.
  3. Study anytime/anywhere by printing data or exporting flash cards to your cell phone, PDA, or iPod.

http://www.studystack.com/

Journal Article:
An Early Warning System:  by promptly reacting to student distress signals, schools can redirect potential dropouts onto the path to graduation.

  • A final grade of F in mathematics.
  • A final grade of F in English.
  • Attendance below 80 percent for the year.
  • A final “unsatisfactory” behavior mark in at least one class.

Solutions:

  • Whole-school interventions:  Weekly or monthly attendance parties, one individual who intervenes at the first absence, placing or creating a school culture that rewards intrinsically or extrinsically good attendance.
  • Targeted interventions
  • Intensive interventions

http://www.jhsph.edu/preventyouthviolence/Test/An_early_warning_system.pdf

NMSA08, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson, ,

Middle School Matters #59 Carol Josel’s Revision Presentation @ NMSA 08 and Social Networking in Schools.

Quick Quiz:

What did 1 math book say to the language arts book?
Why did the middle schooler bring a ladder to school?
Which word is always spelled incorrectly?
What is a pirate’s favorite subject?

* Want the answers? Just listen to the show.


Items, Events, Calendar, Eclectic Stuff (truc et chose)

  1. Alightlearning is looking for votes and support for a software venture that will incorporate technology and education.  They are competing for a $10,000 grant to start-up their venture.  Generalized information is available on the website.
  2. NMSA ’09 Invitation Video
  3. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township.
  4. Ohio Middle School Association‘s Annual Conference will be February 19-20 in Sandusky, OH.
  5. MIT Vocab Contest!:  Have your students produce a video defining standard SAT vocabulary words.  For every 5 videos uploaded one iTunes download will be awarded up to 1000 downloads per the event in total.  In other words, get ‘am in early and often if you’re looking for the iTunes motivator.  Only 1000 available for the entire WORLD!  Oh, and check out the website.
  6. NMSA is looking for nominations for the Board To nominate yourself (or Troy) click here or go to the NMSA’s main page.
  7. NMSA is accepting presentation proposals to their Annual Conference in Indianapolis next year.
  8. Interested in a Science Quiz show online and in a virtual game show environment?  Try The Second Question.
  9. NECC is coming this summer!
  10. Five questions for Arne Duncan.  Well, maybe from Arne Duncan.  Steve Hargadon has posted the five questions Arne Duncan would like answers to at a teacher’s round table discussion.  Carol Broos has them posted on her blog.  Here are the five:
    • 1. What is the one most important education issue you wish Secretary Duncan to focus on during his tenure and why?
      2. How shall the tenets of the No Child Left Behind act be altered or invigorated? What are its positives? How can its negatives be improved?
      3. How should the new administration respond to the nation’s need for better prepared and more qualified teachers?
      4.What should the new administration do to increase student engagement in mathematics, the sciences and the arts?
      5. How should funding equity issues be addressed?
  11. Go on a virtual field trip!  Land of Lincoln has the Lincoln White House, a typical town, the CSS Hunley, and several other biographical items related to the Lincoln Administration in Second Life.  Use a screen shot recorder (like Snapz Pro) to record a tour to show in class as a virtual field trip.  The Bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth is February 12, 2009.
  12. Second Life notices:
    • 1/11 ISTE Island Wolverine Island Tour 6 pm SLT.  Meet up at ISTE HQ.
    • 1/17 ISTE Island Basic Skills Workshop check the calendar for time and place.
    • From the email bag:  “Cafe 101 is starting up a new semester!  New speakers, new events and a few new teacher tools in the 2nd floor freebie shop!  Come and take a look at Virtual Texas State Technical College’s new sim design while you’re here.
      Play some Una (Uno) on the Cafe roof with a friend, and test your skills at Memory!  Have a great Spring Semester, Everyone!  Cafe 101: Get Your Learn On.”

Discussion of Social Networking and Education:
1. Use by Teachers for professional development
2. Use by classrooms
3. Use by students

Web Spotlight:  Animoto:  Grab all those pictures you took in Advisory (you did take some, didn’t you?) and throw them into Animoto.  Let groups of students pull together music they’d like to set the pictures to and let Animoto do the rest.  Thousands of possible combinations let each group’s work turn out different with the same base material.  What a great way to motivate the kids through the dark winter months.

News:
Are We Testing Kids Too Much?

As a third-grader last year at Portage’s Amberly Elementary School, here’s what Cole took:

• The Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests, which involves more than eight hours of testing during two weeks in October.

• The Standardized Test for Assessment of Reading, a computer exam given four times annually to determine his grade-equivalent reading level.

• The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test, administered three times during the school year to check reading progress.

• The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, which is essentially an IQ-type exam.
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/portage_tenyearold_cole_curtis.html

School Officials: Cuts needed to pay teachers
While districts across the state have explored the idea of a four-day school week, and state officials have tossed it around as a possible cost-cutting measure, most superintendents say the minimal savings isn’t worth the disruption.
The district also wants to redesignate money set aside for summer school, then conduct a less expensive summer program through online courses.
http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/641683.html
Budget Pain Dampening K-12 Efforts
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/07/16session_ep.h28.html?tmp=1659392755

More and More, Schools Got Game
The logic for the importance of improving school mathematics programs is reasonably unassailable. But the problems with mathematics in the United States are just as clear. A depressingly comprehensive, yet honest, appraisal must conclude that our typical math curriculum is generally incoherent, skill-oriented, and accurately characterized as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” It is dispensed via ruthless tracking practices and focused mainly on the “one right way to get the one right answer” approach to solving problems that few normal human beings have any real need to consider. Moreover, it is assessed by 51 high-stakes tests of marginal quality, and overwhelmingly implemented by undersupported and professionally isolated teachers who too often rely on “show-tell-practice” modes of instruction that ignore powerful research findings about better ways to convey mathematical knowledge. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010301556.html

Teaching Intangibles With Technology
Teach students some facts, and they learn for one exam at a time. Teach students to think and they learn how to learn for the rest of their lives. Ambitious work from European and Israeli researchers is making it easier to help students learn to think for themselves. This is exciting stuff for teachers.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090106083838.htm

The Art of Revision (702)

Board Quotes:
Writing makes our thinking visible for ourselves and others.  – unknown
Feed your brain with words.  Read till your eyeballs fall out – Wilson Rowls
A writer takes a sentence, cuts it within an inch of its life, adds a clause, tucks in a few adjectives and then – when it can hardly stand up – hacks away at it again.  It’s hard work and don’t let anyone tell you its’ not – Helen F. Brassel
The writer is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write.  He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know. – Annie Dillard
You have to do a lot of bad writing to get the good writing. – Don Murray
Writing is long periods of thinking and short periods of writing. – Ernest Hemingway
It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly.  Until you have something down on paper, even if its terrible, there’s nothing to work with, nothing you can improve – C.J. Cherryh
Use as many words as you need and not one you can live without.  R. Jordan
The best stories are not written, but rewritten. – Scott Willis
Show, don’t tell.  Writing and reading are acts of discovery.  ‘Telling’ robs a story of the feel of discovery – Rick Jones
Regard your writing as literature – unknown
Poetry is fewer words that say more. – unknown

Carol A. Josel
Bio:  Has a smart big sister.
Valerie went to Yale, Cornell, and Penn.  Valerie is also an artist.
Two things I could do:  Swing by my head and get nose drops on the green velvet sofa.
Good advice:  You need to find something that you’re good at.
University of Maine started as a nursing student.
Didn’t do well in Organic Chemistry.
She has a free e-newsletter.  Please sign up for one.
She has a blog!
Journaling
Kids should journal everyday on a topic or on themselves.
Have a writer’s journal of your own.
Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn 10 times.
Stars:  We twinkle in the cold sky air we are there all night if you try to pull us down we will burn a hole in your pocket.
Ralph Fletcher- “Writing becomes beautiful when it becomes specific.”
Maniac Magee example.
Ralph Fletcher’s book:  Adam (descriptive language, speciific)
Write what you see, not what you’re supposed to see.
Example:  stapler
It’s not a stapler.  It’s a small paper viper, dangerous to paper, and only harmful to humans if they poke at it and provoke it to anger.  You can tell when it has struck by the two tiny holes in the corners of papers.
Play “This is not a …”
Adjectives and adverbs can clutter up a piece of writing.
Example:  “Very gradually, it go really, really windy.  The wind blew a lot.”
Revised:  “At first there was just a breeze.  Later that afternoon, though, a cat blew by my window.”
In the journal put favorite words
Lollipop
Smack
Revision activity:  Fold paper in half make two columns.  Left side put the first word.  Right side put the verbs from each sentence.
Good way to check for the 23 non-action verbs.
Find great leads to read to students.
Leading Types:
1.  Leisurely:  “The first week of August hangs at the firey top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the seat of a Ferris Wheel when i paused in its turning.  The weeks that came before are only a climb from the balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless and hot.  it is curiously silent, too, with blank white downs and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.  Often at night, there is lightning, but it quivers alone.  There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.”  – Tuck Everlasting.
Thought shots
2.  Beginning at the end.
3.  Introducing the narrator
4.  Unreiable narrator
5.  Starting in the middle:
6.  A sound effect:
7.  Dialogue
Now its our turn in the packet.
Practice Leading:  Directions:  Here are some 8th graders’ leads.  Consider them carefully, deciding on their effectiveness.  Then its your turn …
Topic:  The German invasion of Poland which triggered WWII.  A loud roar echoes throughout the Polish countryside, the clear blue sky quickly turning black with billowing clouds of smoke.  (Kelly Ballady)  See packet for more.
Practice:  Roach Facts  Make a lead from the facts.
Was Kafka wrong?  Imagine what you could do in the Olympics if you could run 90 miles per hour!  You’d stay at a roach motel be able to eat a Danish and, if injured, regrow lost appendages.
Barry Lane activity:  Twenty questions.
starter:  There was this dog.
Students ask questions about the dog with no yes/no questions.
Find the best sentence in lot and use that as your leading sentence.
Carol’s ideas for making writing an everyday expected activity:
1.  Message each other frequently by leaving notes on pillows, desks, mirrors, wherever.
2.  Make letter writing a habit for all, sending them to friends, relatives, even Santa.
3.  Write your autobiography as a gift to your child.
4.  Have your child write an annual “Year in Review”–an ongoing record of your lives.
5.  On birthdays, give written gifts of family stories and recalled moments.
6.  Send postcards to each other—without going anywhere.  We all love mail.
7.  Make the sending of thank you notes a must for everyone.
8.  Keep a family journal, a record of your lives over time—and include captioned photos.
9.  Writing letters to the editor keeps the juices flowing.
10. Promote journal writing—and respect privacy.
11. Encourage your child to write and perform skits or puppet shows. Think Popsicle sticks.
12. Contact Student Letter Exchange for pen pals: 516-887-8628; www.pen-pa.com

NMSA08, PodcastBy Troy Patterson, ,

Podcast 57: Arne Duncan Doughnuts in the Teacher’s Lounge!

Items, Events, Calendar, Eclectic Stuff (truc et chose)

  1. Arne Duncan of the Chicago Public Schools will become the next Secretary of Education.  (Sources:  Education.com, Wikipedia, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Post, Time, U.S. Department of Education, MSNBC, World Magazine )
    • Arne Duncan & Arne’s Older Brother?  Maybe not …
    • Has made teachers reapply for their positions.
    • Advocates school of choice and charter academies.  (Started 75 new charter schools in Chicago.)
    • Has replaced faculties in wholesale moves.
    • Advocates the incorporation of technology in education.
    • Has not taught in the classroom.
    • Appointed to the CEO position by the mayor of Chicago.
    • Has a degree in Sociology.
    • High-stakes testing will likely continue.
    • Supports performance pay.
    • Secretary Spellings supports the selection of Arne Duncan.
    • Ideas considered for Chicago Public Schools:  an all-gay high school, pay students for grades, and boarding schools.
    • Advocates longer school days.
  2. Alightlearning is looking for votes and support for a software venture that will incorporate technology and education.  They are competing for a $10,000 grant to start-up their venture.  Generalized information is available on the website.
  3. Jim Politis of the National Substitute Teacher Alliance passes along his Holiday greetings.
  4. NMSA ’09 Invitation Video
  5. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township.
  6. Ohio Middle School Association‘s Annual Conference will be February 19-20 in Sandusky, OH.
  7. Shawn got a Kindle.  Did Troy get a Kindle?  (Thanks Teresa!)
  8. MIT Vocab Contest!:  Have your students produce a video defining standard SAT vocabulary words.  For every 5 videos uploaded one iTunes download will be awarded up to 1000 downloads per the event in total.  In other words, get ‘am in early and often if you’re looking for the iTunes motivator.  Only 1000 available for the entire WORLD!  Oh, and check out the website.
  9. Stupid Spam that got stuck in the filter:  “Hello! All would like to congratulate on coming Christmas!”  Thanks buddy …  from Russia.  We worked hard at it this year.  Spammer of the Week:  maf-ioz.ru (Address has been slightly altered.)

Features:

149 Parenting School-Wise Tips by Carol A. Josel

  • Catagories:  Motivation, Goal-Setting, Organization, Reading, Writing, Revising and Editing, Spelling, Homework, Memory Techniques, Note-Taking, Studying, Test Prep, and Test-Taking.
  • #1  “Remember that motivation is as important as ability.  Keep the focus on motivation.  Without hard work, talent is of little service.”
  • #19 “Station sticky-note reminders on bathroom mirrors, doors, and other easy-to-see places.  Goals require a due date.  Well placed reminders help the process.”
  • #37 “Establish a ‘Drop Spot’ for gathering all school materials at day’s end.  A bedtime reading book and the lunch that’s waiting in the refrigerator are the exceptions.  This way everything is hassle-free and ready to go in the morning.”
  • #67 “Advise keen attention to the ending.  It is as important, if not more so, than the lead.  It must satisfy or it will leave the reader disappointed with the whole piece.”
  • #88 “Provide after-school ‘down time.’  A dose of physical activity and a nutritious snack, such as peanut-butter smeared apples, provide the energy needed for the upcoming homework/study session.”
  • Newsletter Sample (one of my favorite parts & not necessarily for the students):  A Gavi-Good Recipe
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Chicken Pot Pie

    Ingredients:
    2 chicken breasts,a store-bought roaster, or package of pre-cooked chicken
    one package of frozen peas and carrots, thawed
    one 10-oz can of cream of chicken soup
    one store-bought pie crust, such as the Wholly Wholesome brand
    Steps to Take:
    1. If not using pre-cooked or roaster chicken, cook chicken breasts in pot of boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes.
    2. Chop chicken into cubes.
    3. Mix chicken with thawed peas and carrots.
    4. Stir in can of cream of chicken soup.
    5. Place mixture in Pam-sprayed pie plate.
    6. Top with pie crust.
    7. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until crust is golden.

News:
All’s Fair in Middle School Scramble:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/education/26fifth.html?_r=1
In the quest to find the perfect middle school for her 10-year-old daughter, Aimée Margolis has zig-zagged across Manhattan for 11 school visits, grilled pre-teenagers at a school fair on music classes and the preferred attire at dances, and compiled a dog-eared folder full of notes.
Then there is the bathroom test. Ms. Margolis casually slipped away for what appeared to be a quick pit stop. She carefully occupied a stall, waited for a cluster of students to walk in, and listened.
Unlike another school, whose impressive tour was undercut by a dismal bathroom test in which Ms. Margolis heard students poking fun at teachers, making grammatical mistakes and using “trash mouth,” Clinton’s bathroom-goers revealed themselves to be articulate, friendly nonswearers who at least momentarily refrained from gossip.
Too much testing cuts into learning

THE GOAL of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 was to make schools more accountable to their neediest students and to the public. Students must demonstrate competence by passing an English and math test, the MCAS, in order to graduate from high school. But now, passing merely two tests is no longer enough, and an ever-increasing number of tests and retesting opportunities has been imposed upon school systems. Consequently, testing has transformed urban schools into testing and test preparation centers.
The Department of Education requires high schools to schedule 28 days of testing, amounting to 15 percent of the 180-day school year.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/12/25/too_much_testing_cuts_into_learning/

Storybooks On Paper Better For Children Than Reading Fiction On Computer Screen, According to Expert
Clicking and scrolling interrupt our attentional focus. Turning and touching the pages instead of clicking on the screen influence our ability for experience and attention. The physical manipulations we have to do with a computer, not related to the reading itself, disturb our mental appreciation, says associate professor Anne Mangen at the Center for Reading Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway. She has investigated the pros and cons of new reading devices.
Mangen maintains that reading on a screen generates a new form of mental orientation. The reader loses both the completeness and constituent parts of the physical appearance of the reading material. The physical substance of a book offers tranquility. The text does not move on the page like it does on a screen.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081219073049.htm

Website Of The Week:
BrainyFlix:

We’re trying to help kids prepare for the SAT by offering fun and free videos about SAT vocabulary, made by YOU!

We’re offering $600 in prize money to the video that receives the most number of votes. $200 of the payout will go to the maker(s) of the video and $400 to the class or school club of his/her choice.

And to make this viral, we’ll give out 1 free iTunes download for every 5 videos you submit or referrals you provide.*

Contest begins January 1, 2009. Sign up to be notified when the contest starts.

http://www.brainyflix.com/

NMSA ’08

Formative Assessment: What is It And How Can It Improve Student Learning?

Handouts will be available on NMSA web site. (Presenter didn’t prepare for this, “I can’t think of everything”.)

Overview:
Knowledge base for formative assessment.
The Big Picture
The Process of Formative Assessment

The Big Idea: Use of evidence of learning to adapt instruction to meet student needs.

Resources:
How People Learn (NRC, 2000)
Knowing what Students Know, (NRC, 2001)

Laurie Sheppard is the guru on this stuff.
Congnitive & Constructivist Learning Theories:

Metacognition is important in formative assessment.

Reformed Vision of Curriculum:
All students can learn
Challenging Subject matter at HOT & problem solving.
Equal opportunity for diverse learners

Classroom Assessment
Challenging tasks
Learning Processes as well as learning outcomes

Shout Outs:

  • Thanks Teresa for the Kindle on FaceBook!  Troy needs one!
  • Michael Cohen, thanks for finding us on FaceBook!
MSM, NMSA08, PodcastBy Troy Patterson

Podcast #56 Teaching the Middle School Brain, Facebook issues, and Disrupting Class!

Special Notice: Due to web server space limitations, we will be removing some early shows. If you’d like to hear a show that is unavailable, please email us!

Items & Events

  1. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE) Annual Conference will be held in Saginaw Township on March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School.
  2. The Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be held at Kalahari February 19-20.
  3. The National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be November 5-7 in Indianapolis, IN.  The theme will center around globalization and service learning.
  4. The Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held at the Red Rocks in Nevada April 23-34.  Tell your high school colleagues about the special “conference in a conference” on ninth grade teams.
  5. A link to Will Ricardson’s featured presentation at NMSA ’08.
  6. The LEAGUE’s Knight Scholarship Competition:
    The KNIGHT scholarship is a national scholarship competition where 3 students will receive $5,000 each for their writings or reflections on civic experiences in one of three categories: Persuasive Essay (building awareness and inviting action for change in your school, community or the world), Personal Narrative (experiences with service and volunteerism), or News Story (creating newspaper articles that reports acts of service and volunteerism by young people). The scholarship is open to high school seniors from all over the country, even students who are not part of a LEAGUE classroom can apply! The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfoundation.org) promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1954, the foundation has given more than $300 million in journalism grants. Applications will be posted at www.theleague.org beginning January 5th.  Students must submit their applications before the March 6th deadline. For more details about The LEAGUE and the KNIGHT scholarship please visit www.theleague.org.
  7. ACT has a new report on The Forgotten Middle .  You can read the report as a PDF file directly from the NMSA website.
  8. See the folks who attended NMSA08 this year and left a message on the virtual wall at SchoolTube! Videos are posted for you to either relive the experience or get a taste of the convention from the folks who attended.
  9. Recommended website:  Carol Josel was a presenter at this year’s NMSA Annual Conference.  She has a website with wonderful tips for both parents and teachers that draw from her years of teaching experience.  Sign up for her newsletter and get a newsletter bonus feature:  a new receipe from a featured nutritionist!  Do check out her compilation of free articles on her website.
  10. Catch Dr. Debbie Silver at the following locations in January:  Anderson, MO Teacher’s Conference January 5, 2009; California League of High Schools, Monterry, CA January 16; and other Teacher In-Services in a district near you!
  11. Do some Christmas Break PD!  Check out the Second Life Education screen casts here.
  12. Job Opportunity!  The New England League of Middle Schools is looking for a “visionary leader” to guide them into the coming years.  The position of Executive Director is open and persons interested should submit a resume, letter of intent, three letters of recommendation, salary requirements to Mr. Paul Freeman of the East Lyme Public Schools.

Book Update! – Disrupting Class Latest reading update from Troy.

Space Concern: Due to web site space issues, we will be removing some of the early shows.

News!
Student Sues High School over Facebook Suspension:
A former Florida high school student who was disciplined for “cyberbullying” a teacher on Facebook is suing the school principal on allegations of violating her free speech rights.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/us-student-inte.html

Sending Racy photos via phone common amongst Teenagers:
Sending or posting nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures starts at a young age and becomes even more frequent as teens become young adults, according to a new survey that suggests the racy-photo problem might be bigger than many adults realize.
“Teenagers are early adopters of technology–from the latest social-networking sites to the hottest new cell phones,” said Susan Schulz, special projects editor for Hearst Magazines (which publishes Cosmo Girl). “While this tech savvy can be seen as positive, our study reveals there’s also a negative side. Teenagers should be aware of the real consequences of this type of behavior, and we need to provide them with guidance and encourage them to make smarter choices.”
The survey also indicated that 15 percent of teens who have sent sexually suggestive content such as text messages, eMail, photographs, or videos say they have done so with someone they know only online.

To help warn teens and young adults of the dangers associated with sending or posting sexually suggestive material online, the National Campaign has published a list of 10 suggestions.

For parents, the initiative recommends:

1. Talking to kids about what they are doing in cyberspace.
2. Knowing who kids are communicating with.
3. Considering limitations on electronic communication.
4. Being aware of what teens are posting publicly.
5. Setting expectations.

For teens:

1. Don’t assume anything you send or post is going to remain private.
2. There is no changing your mind in cyberspace–anything you send or post will never truly go away.
3. Don’t give in to the pressure to do something that makes you uncomfortable, even in cyberspace.
4. Consider the recipient’s reaction.
5. Nothing is truly anonymous.

Shout outs!:

  1. Mary Henton:  Thanks for the inclusion on the Conference Connections page of NMSA ’09!
  2. Todd Williamson:  Congrats on the new kid and future middle schooler!
  3. Santa Claus:  a new mic for Troy, Apple stock for us both, Kindles for Jack, Troy, & Shawn, and server space.

Teaching the Middle School Brain (Stop by the booth for a handout on the session.)
1.  Principles of Brain Friendly teaching.
2.  Align instruction with how brain best learns through structures.
3.  Silly sports & Goofy games that align with brain friendly instruction.
4.  Deepen our understanding of our 3 pound miracle.
The quiet signal:
1.  Raise your hand.
2.  Full focus attention on Dr. Kagan
What the brain attends to the more the brain retains.
3.  Signal others.
Good brain instruction involves structured interaction and a high level of engagement.
Structure:  Take off, Touch Down
If it’s true, stand up.  If the second statement is true move again.
Why is it brain friendly?
It increases blood and glucose and oxygen in the brain to stand up and sit down a couple of time.
The brain consumes 20% of all the glucose in the body.  It is only 2% of the body’s weight.
Put your two fists together.  That’s the size of your brain.  Disappointed?
Brain dendrites fire 200 times per second.
100 billion neurons.
Standing up and sitting down puts more glucose and oxygen in the brain.
Better nourishment:  Frequent muscle movements are important.
Book:  Spark by John J Ratey, MD.
Evidence for more phys. ed. in  the schools to grow better brains.
Aerobic movement is required.
Brain attends to Novelty.
Stand up, Hand up, Pair up
RallyRobin
Why is RallyRobin more brain friendly?
Frequently stop and have students process information.
Why frequently process?
1.  More energy for new learning.
Inhibiting impulses takes a ton of energy.
2.  Clarify and refine thinking.
Became aware of what you know and what you don’t know.
3.  Store in long-term memory.
4.  Clear working memory.
It’s what we can hold in our heads at one time.
Not usually more than ten things.
Number 11 replaces one of the original 10.
5.  Engage multiple intelligences and multiple memory systems.
Episodic memory is the most engaging of the memory systems.
The brian processes in episodes, something that takes place at a location, has a beginning and an end and a location.
More brains active
More brain parts active
Social Interaction
Episodic memory
Team Interview
Teambuilding
Favorite snacks
anything fun will serve as a teambuilder
Ways to spend $1000.
Fun things to do after schooll
Movies you have liked.
Describe a sceene from a movie you enjoy.
See the Personal Questions page he has prepared.  (Sells?)
Favorites
Academic content
Science:  View on cloning; inert elements
Math:  Geometry Proof; prime numbers
Language arts:  Verbs; metaphors
Social Studies:  Causes of event; consequences of an event.
How will I use?
Interview each other (gambit chips?) and create a 5 paragraph essay based on the information they’ve gleaned from their partners and incorporate transtitions between paragraphs.  3 main paragraphs are based on each of the 3 people interviewed.
What happened in the brain?
The amygdalae
There are 2.
Left processes tone of voice
Right processes faces.
Both sides are threat sensors
When do they fire most?
Stranger
Other race
Fearful face
Angry face > Happy face
out-group > in-group
Linked to all major parts of the brain.
Prefrontal Cortex
Decision making
Emotional Control
Attention, thinking, working memory
The Amygdala can shut this down.
The Amygdalae explain
Impared learning (high stress destroys brain nerves).
Silly Sports
Hagoo:  Inuit game.
If they can make the other person smile, they cross over the line and join their team.  Teams are in two lines.
No touching, can say anything they like.
Great picture of a “teenage brain”
What is white matter?
Myelination of neurons helps them fire 200 times faster.
The teenage brain is not completely myelinated.
Independent Memory systems
There is not one thing called memory!
Memory Test
1 Night
2  tired
3  wake
4  dream
5  sleep  (not on list!)
6  bed
7  rest
8
9 (
10  (slumber)
Memory pinciple:  Memory is not a place it is a process!
SPEWS & Structures (matrix made by Kagan)

MSM, NMSA08, PodcastBy Troy Patterson

Podcast #55 Disrupting, NMSA 08, This Changes Everything!

Items & Events

  1. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE) Annual Conference will be held in Saginaw Township on March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School.
  2. The Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be held at Kalahari February 19-20.
  3. The National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be November 5-7 in Indianapolis, IN.  The theme will center around globalization and service learning.
  4. The Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held at the Red Rocks in Nevada April 23-34.  Tell your high school colleagues about the special “conference in a conference” on ninth grade teams.
  5. A link to Will Ricardson’s featured presentation at NMSA ’08.
  6. The LEAGUE’s Knight Scholarship Competition:
    The KNIGHT scholarship is a national scholarship competition where 3 students will receive $5,000 each for their writings or reflections on civic experiences in one of three categories: Persuasive Essay (building awareness and inviting action for change in your school, community or the world), Personal Narrative (experiences with service and volunteerism), or News Story (creating newspaper articles that reports acts of service and volunteerism by young people). The scholarship is open to high school seniors from all over the country, even students who are not part of a LEAGUE classroom can apply! The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfoundation.org) promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1954, the foundation has given more than $300 million in journalism grants. Applications will be posted at www.theleague.org beginning January 5th.  Students must submit their applications before the March 6th deadline. For more details about The LEAGUE and the KNIGHT scholarship please visit www.theleague.org.
  7. Virtual Pioneers invite you to their website:  www.virtualpioneeers.ning.com.  VP conducts virtual social studies trips in Second Life.
  8. See the folks who attended NMSA08 this year and left a message on the virtual wall at SchoolTube! Videos are posted for you to either relive the experience or get a taste of the convention from the folks who attended.
  9. Recommended website: http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/ Thanks to Teresa for the recommendation on the website!
  10. New report posted on NMSA’s website:  Middle Level is the Turning Point for College and Career Readiness.

Book Update! – Disrupting Class

Algebra on YouTube:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j27byHk1EAb3KhBo1ePXyg0h7rogD950NKS80
YouTube is perhaps best known for its cavalcade of homemade performances and TV clips, but many people like Nissim are turning to it for free tutoring in math, science and other complicated subjects.
Nissim typically scours the video-sharing Web site for clips of bands and comedy skits. But this time she wasn’t there to procrastinate on her homework. It turned out YouTube was also full of math videos. After watching a couple, the psychology major says, she finally understood trig equations and how to make graphs.  (Khan clip)

Session I:  A Web of Connections:  Why the Read/Write Web Changes Everything (601)

Blogs Wikis, and Podcasts:  Book related to this session.  Will Richardson
http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com for the notes to this session and the links.
Provide feed back at the discussion space of the wiki.
Begin with stories about kids to contextualize.
1.  Laura Stockman (Buffalo, NY)
25 Days to Make a Difference is her blog.
This turned into 10 months of making a difference.
All the conversations are monitored by Mom and Mom makes the posts.
This site is blocked at her school.
2.  Sara’s Story
She texts over 600 messages a day.
The point:  She has a learning network that is local.  That is if we use the technology to make it learning.
Schools response
We don’t let them blog.
We don’t let them text.
We don’t let them use the technology that they are already are using.
The web is now a Read/Write Web technology today.
The Big Shift is coming in access to this technology and how it is being used to engage students, either for good or evil.
Book:  Here Comes Everybody: How Digital Networks Transform Our Ability to Gather and Cooperate by Sharkey
The Techtonic Shift:  This changes the game, think Printing Press and its impact on Western Civ.
We cannot escape this group forming ability provided by the Web.
Will Richardson is an upset pubic school parent because his children are not being prepared for their future.
8,000 affinity groups within the Obama campaign which in essence is the platform of the campaign.
This gives the members power of choice within the groups and in the campaign and as a result empowerment.  (Local control)
Kansas State Rep running for office:
Kid put up a post about needing a “group” and got an average of $8.19 per donation and a total of $90,000 for his campaign.
Newspapers aren’t going to survive in the current business model.
Christian Science Monitor is going web based totally.
surfthechannel (The TV guide to illegal content on the net.)
Can go to see all the tv channels of the world.
Pick your tv show and you can watch.
Based in Sweden.  Different Laws Apply!
Amazon.com
Businesses are about groups with common interests.
People read the posts about the product to make a decision on purchase.
Book:  Wikinomics (The more you share, the more you get)
Facebook
“For Mike” A social spot to grieve for a fallen friend.
Kids are going home to unfiltered worlds.  Ironically we’re doing harm by not giving them the opportunity to fail.
Learning is changing.
His blog (as example).
Clustr-Web Traffic tracker
Each dot becomes someone in his group and someone he can learn from.
www.fanfiction.net  Write a new chapter to the book that you really like.
Twilight.  Harry Potter
Kids are going to be Googled during their lifetimes.
We need to teach them the best way to do this without exposing them to the damaging things of social networking.
Social networking is not inherently a bad thing.
Richardson wants his kids found on the net as a networking tool.
We’ve been Datelined to death on the dangers of the internet.
Clarence Fisher and his blog.
Teaches his kids how to blog and as a result increases their learning opportunities.
Learning is changing.
Text 46645 to text google to find the answer to a question.
Why are we asking kids to memorize information when they could use a device to find it more rapidly.
Joke:  Give an open phone test!
Content is not scarce, it is ubiquitous.
MIT has every course online for you to take.  (MITopencourseware)
Teach content evaluation skills and then turn them on to other content sources to learn and bring to the classroom.
Content is not static anymore.
Wikipedia.
Considers this the most important website on the the net at this time.
Content has been proven to be current, accurate, and dynamic.
Textbooks are not dynamic enough.
We need to teach in hypertext environments.
FLYP media.com  www.flypmedia.com
Making our classrooms with “thin” walls.
Learning is a everywhere experience.
Yugma- tool for ?
Flat Classrooms project.
Teachers are everywhere, we need to help our students find them and identify.
Key advantage:  Create a web page or blog and kids will use the experience to learn from their productions.
Willow Web  (Radio WillowWeb)
Kids become invested in the learning.  They do real work for real audiences and create real learning in the process.
Its not enough to just do a paper on it.
Challenge:  What’s stopping you from doing this stuff in your own personal learning environments?
Think about this as building networks and not just a transfer of what we did on paper to now doing it on the web.
How are you going to build your Map?

NMSA08, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson, ,

MSM #54 Families and Media Ecology, What is the Future of Education? NMSA Wrap Up continued.

Items & Events

  1. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE) Annual Conference will be held in Saginaw Township on March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School.
  2. The Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be held at Kalahari February 19-20.
  3. The National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be November 5-7 in Indianapolis, IN.  The theme will center around globalization and service learning.
  4. The Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held at the Red Rocks in Nevada April 23-34.  Tell your high school colleagues about the special “conference in a conference” on ninth grade teams.
  5. The MacArthur Foundation is spending $50 million dollars on a 5 year study seeking to understand digital life and youth.  Three years of the study are reported out in Living and Learning with New Media:  Summary of the Findings from the Digital Youth Project.  Read about the study here in the New York Times article.  We might pull this for discussion in a future podcast.
  6. A link to Will Ricardson’s featured presentation at NMSA ’08.
  7. The LEAGUE’s Knight Scholarship Competition:
    The KNIGHT scholarship is a national scholarship competition where 3 students will receive $5,000 each for their writings or reflections on civic experiences in one of three categories: Persuasive Essay (building awareness and inviting action for change in your school, community or the world), Personal Narrative (experiences with service and volunteerism), or News Story (creating newspaper articles that reports acts of service and volunteerism by young people). The scholarship is open to high school seniors from all over the country, even students who are not part of a LEAGUE classroom can apply!

    The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfoundation.org) promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1954, the foundation has given more than $300 million in journalism grants. Applications will be posted at www.theleague.org beginning January 5th.  Students must submit their applications before the March 6th deadline. For more details about The LEAGUE and the KNIGHT scholarship please visit www.theleague.org.

  8. Virtual Pioneers invite you to their website:  www.virtualpioneeers.ning.com.  VP conducts virtual social studies trips in Second Life.
  9. See the folks who attended NMSA08 this year and left a message on the virtual wall at SchoolTube! Videos are posted for you to either relive the experience or get a taste of the convention from the folks who attended.
  10. Congratulations to Lorri MacDonald who was honored by the State of Michigan as the Michigan Virtual University Teacher of the Year! MacDonald (PR Newswire) Dr. MacDonald talked about the future of learning in virtual spaces at this year’s Michigan Virtual University symposium.

Top Ten Signs You are Addicted to the Internet

  1. You find yourself typing “com” after every period when using a word processor.com.
  2. And even your night dreams are in HTML.
  3. All you daydreaming is preoccupied with getting a faster connection to the net: 28.8… ISDN… cable modem… T1… T3…
  4. You spend half of the plane trip with your laptop on your lap… and your child in the overhead compartment.
  5. You finally do take that vacation, but only after buying a cellular-modem and a laptop.
  6. You refuse to go to a vacation spot with no electricity and no phone lines.
  7. You find yourself brainstorming for new subjects to search.
  8. Your eyeglasses have a web site burned in on them.
  9. Your bookmark takes 15 minutes to scroll from top to bottom.
  10. You kiss your girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s home page.

Scientists: Is technology rewiring our brains?
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56280
What does a teenage brain on Google look like? Do all those hours spent online rewire the circuitry? Could these kids even relate better to emoticons than to real people?

Shawn has an Announcement.  It’s official!  I’m a Friend of Jack!  (FOJ)

Is Second Life in decline?  Forbes thinks so.  Reuters pulls their full time reporter from Second Life.

Heather A Horst:  Families and Media Ecology
The MacArthur Foundation sponsored a study which we talked a little about in last week’s podcast.  The link is in the Items & Events section if you would like to read the entire document (pdf).  Part of the entire report is a section written primarily by Heather A. Horst covering the adoption of media by families.  Several case studies are cited and worth the read as examples of the class distinctions and their differences in approach to adoption of new media.  Key points worth mentioning from the study:

  • “… a large share of young people’s engagements with new media-using social network sites, instant messaging, and gaming-occur in the context of home and family life.”
  • Computers, video cameras, related software and associated training are considered an investment in their child’s future.
  • New media is leveraged for good behavior.
  • Parents are a little nervous about this whole thing while learning to embrace it with their kids.
  • “We begin by concentrating upon the spatial and domestic arrangements that shape new media use in the home, such as the placement of computers. We then turn to the creation of routines and other forms of temporality, including the amount of time and textures of kids’ media usage. In the final section, our analysis centers upon parents and kids’ rules and the creation, bending, and breaking of rules. We conclude by considering how parents and young people transform, negotiate, and create a sense of family identity through new media.”
  • Parenting in the New Media Ecology
    • Along with broader social changes comes the uncertainty of a parents role and parenting since the 1960’s.
    • Parents feel aware and accountable to society at large for their parenting decisions:  “reflexive parenting.”
      • Working class parents:
        • believe in informal play in and around the house.
        • use a laissez-faire approach to parenting.
        • believe that kids will grow and develop naturally as they navigate the world.
        • value respect for authority and prefer to give children the autonomy to navigate their own relationships with peers.
      • Middle class parents:
        • believe that it is their responsibility to develop their children through outside school activities (sports, music, etc.).
        • cultivate activities and interests in their children.
        • organize their student’s daily schedule and get involved in the inner workings of their activities at school or other school type settings.
        • advocate for their students in institutionalized settings.
    • These attitudes towards parent reflect what kind of media is selected for their students in the home.  (Externalizing those previous values).
  • Crafting Media Spaces at Home
    • Public Spaces:
      • Creates a sense of ownership and inherent control over all media devices.
      • Creating Media Rooms within the house as shared media controlled spaces.
        • Wealthy families created entirely new spaces for computers.
        • Other socioeconomic groups “multi-tasked” space for new media to coexist with existing purposes (e.g. the computer is in the kitchen because that’s where the kids do homework while parents make dinner.)
    • Private Spaces:
      • Creates that sense of anxiety in parents’ mind akin to the Dateline reports.
      • Students realize that their bedrooms become partial public space if media are accessible in their rooms (both tv and computers).
  • Mobility and Other Media Spaces
    • Students will explore other media experencies, even ones their parents don’t allow at home, when they visit their friends’ homes.  They “work the rules” in each place to experience media.
  • Making, Taking, and Sharing Media Time
    • Families that structured their media time viewed it as a bonding and relaxing time together.
    • Some families come together to produce their own media as a form of bonding and staying involved with their kids.
      • Transmission of values
      • Gives the kids ownership and some control over their role within the family.
  • Routines & Rhythms
    • Parents use of controls on the computer help kids develop media habits.
      • In single parent homes where there is access at both homes, the parents negotiate a schedule together so the rules are the same in both locations.
      • In nuclear and extended families, it falls to the mother to be the upholder of morality and new media standards.
  • Growing up
    • Parents change and adapt the rules as the student grows chronologically.
    • Cell phones tend to be given at middle school levels and represent a type of freedom.  Its also an easy way to restrict and rein in when students cross the line.
  • Making, Breaking, and Bending the Rules (examples:  AskMeanMom, Cell Phones for Kids?, Mayor Blumberg!, cell phone contracts)
    • Rules end up as intentions and actual practice turns into a negotiation.
  • Plans, Minutes, and Cards
    • What consequences are established for going beyond the boundaries set by parents?
    • Students that have to purchase their own phones and plans tend to be more discerning about their usage.
    • Some parents feel it improves communication with their student if they learn how to text on a phone.
  • Going Online:  Bandwidth, Passwords, and Privacy
    • In lower income families, internet usage is a matter of having the equipment and what level of bandwidth the family can afford in the home.
      • Not part of the study directly:  Thinking about the intense preoccupation with the social domain as transescents, can you imagine the frustration created by a slow connection to a social active student?
    • Some parents restrict it all together based on negative reports on internet usage and social networking.
      • Some parents take the modem with them if they leave their student at home alone for a period of time during the day.
      • Some parents restrict it to the single use it was intended:  homework or schoolwork.
    • While parents control access, students are largely responsible for structuring their online worlds.
      • Redefining privacy:  Parental viewing of a Xanga or MySpace is considered by teens as an invasion of privacy, yet the rest of the world can see it.
        • Think the “Diary” experience:  should parents pick the lock and read the precious pages?
  • Conclusion:  ” …the need to balance independence and dependence, parents’ values and beliefs, and parenting style shapes participation.”
  • Observation:  Perhaps we as educators should be designing experiences like open houses for parents as a way for them to gain experience using the net and social networking.

Session #4
2191 Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education
Steve Haradon
(You can also catch his presentation on SlideShare).

Information is changing:
Who produces it
What it costs to produce
How it is filtered
How it is distributed
How we find it
How it finds us
How we manage it
How we evaluate it

What is Web 1.0? Traditional
reading
receiving
Content is

Web 2.0
Contributing
Collaborating
Creating

No only ha

The Go-Giver (book) and a blog.
The printing press broke more industries than it fixed.
Christian Science Monitor no longer prints a paper copy- web only.

Trend #2 – A tidal wave of information.

The answer to Content overload is to create more content. Analogy of a cocktail party. You don’t try to talk to everyone, or worry about every conversation, but to be a good participant.

Trend #3 – Culture of Openness

Clay Shirkey – Here Comes Everybody.

MITOPENCOURSEWARE

Craig’s list only charges for job listings. Everything else is free to attract interest. The cost of everything else is so low that it works to get them the job listings market.

Trend #4 – Participation

Changing how we do things:
ProAm
ProSumer

Trend #5 – Long Tail (Chris Anderson’s Theory)

Trend #6 –  An Explosion of Innovation
Pro/Am Culture
ProSumer Culture

Trend #7 – Age of the Collaborator
Historical periods favor specific traits.
Picture of Microsoft founders from 1978 – would you invest?
Is the age of the resume over? IS it being replaced by your online presence?
The wisdom of the group trumps the expert.

Trend #8 – The world is flat and getting flatter.
Trend 9 – Web is becoming a conversation

First came blogs…
Then came Wikis…
a web page with an edit button.
Level 1 – Publishing

Trend 10- Social Networking
Read /Write
No talent needed. No skill set needed.

Classroom 2.0 Social Network. Classroom20.com
the aggregation of web tools for Building Content.

Analogy of building materials. You could use the building materials to build a casino or a school. It is the use of the tools not the tools themselves.

Learning Tools:
Profile Page =Personal Portfolio
Forum= Announcements, Assignments, And Asynchronous discussions.
Photo/Video = Content repository
Directory = Learning network
Groups= Learning Teams
IM/Chat = Personalized Attention

We face becoming irrelevant.
Intellectual Isolationism
RIAA & Music = Schools & Learning? (will be become like the RIAA and be in the way).

We must harness the built in capabilities of web 2.0.

email Steve for slides.

Medline Plus- learning surgery online.
GlobalLearner – tutors

Wikipedia – allows for the dissemination of information that previously wouldn’t have previously been available.

MSM, NMSA08, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

Podcast #53 – Getting on the Bus with Jim Collins and the Gang at NMSA08!

Items & Events

  1. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE) Annual Conference will be held in Saginaw Township on March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School.
  2. The Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be held at Kalahari February 19-20.
  3. The National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be November 5-7 in Indianapolis, IN.  The theme will center around globalization and service learning.
  4. The Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held at the Red Rocks in Nevada April 23-34.  Tell your high school colleagues about the special “conference in a conference” on ninth grade teams.
  5. Crime does not pay!  Worried teaching tech skills might open doors to nefarious activities?  This creative internetter used Craigslist to create a caper outside a bank in Washington.  A suspect is in custody.  Bonus points for creativity, not so much for community service content.  Considering the recent economy let me also add this:  Don’t do this at home.
  6. We’ve compared education and technology to the RIAA and piracy laws.  Here’s another take on that conversation for your perusal.
  7. The MacArthur Foundation is spending $50 million dollars on a 5 year study seeking to understand digital life and youth.  Three years of the study are reported out in Living and Learning with New Media:  Summary of the Findings from the Digital Youth Project.  Read about the study here in the New York Times article.  We might pull this for discussion in a future podcast.
  8. What if we thought of internet access like water, gas, electricity and other utilities?  Will Richardson has found an interesting quote from a future Obama official concerning the regulation of the internet and increasing availability in communities across the country.  As proposed, the deregulation would increase competition and lower price making it more available to households.
  9. Quote for the week: “In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”  – Eric Hoffer
  10. A link to Will Ricardson’s featured presentation at NMSA ’08.
  11. The LEAGUE’s Knight Scholarship Competition:
    The KNIGHT scholarship is a national scholarship competition where 3 students will receive $5,000 each for their writings or reflections on civic experiences in one of three categories: Persuasive Essay (building awareness and inviting action for change in your school, community or the world), Personal Narrative (experiences with service and volunteerism), or News Story (creating newspaper articles that reports acts of service and volunteerism by young people). The scholarship is open to high school seniors from all over the country, even students who are not part of a LEAGUE classroom can apply!

    The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfoundation.org) promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1954, the foundation has given more than $300 million in journalism grants. Applications will be posted at www.theleague.org beginning January 5th.  Students must submit their applications before the March 6th deadline. For more details about The LEAGUE and the KNIGHT scholarship please visit www.theleague.org.

  12. Virtual Pioneers invite you to their website:  www.virtualpioneeers.ning.com.  VP conducts virtual social studies trips in Second Life.

News:

No Effect on Comprehension seen from “Reading First”
The $6 billion funding for the federal Reading First program has helped more students “crack the code” to identify letters and words, but it has not had an impact on reading comprehension among 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in participating schools, according to one of the largest and most rigorous studies ever undertaken by the U.S. Department of Education.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/11/18/14read.h28.html?tmp=2107097694

Middle School Substitute Teacher & Spyware:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/154611/how_spyware_nearly_sent_a_teacher_to_prison.html
Amero was an unlikely porn surfer. Four months pregnant at the time, she said she had only just learned to use e-mail. The case ruined her life. She believes that stress from the arrest caused her to miscarry her baby, and her career as a teacher is finished. A heart condition landed her in the hospital after she fainted several times. And while she was briefly employed at an area Home Depot last year, she was fired from the job shortly after an employee posted news clippings about her trial in the employee lounge. Alex Eckelberry, the CEO of Sunbelt Software, who contacted her after hearing about her case. After looking at the evidence, he and other security professionals concluded that Amero had been wrongly convicted.

What Students Want from Teachers:

  • Take Me Seriously
  • Challenge Me to Think
  • Nurture My Self-Respect
  • Show Me I Can Make a Difference
  • Let Me Do It My Way
  • Point Me Toward My Goals
  • Make Me Feel Important
  • Build on My Interests
  • Tap My Creativity
  • Bring Out My Best Self

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov08/vol66/num03/What_Students_Want_from_Teachers.aspx

Session 3
Exploring the Role of the Literacy Coach in the Middle Grade Schools:

Literacy coach is walking, talking Professional Development.
Watch the perception that the coach knows what they are doing while the teacher doesn’t. Be sure to differentiate between the HS coaches and ours.

See notes Coaching Implementation

Literacy Lunches:
Teachers get an article to read and/or a strategy to highlight. If they’ve read the article, they get pizza and a pop. Held once a month.

Friday morning:
Jim Collins Keynote:
Good is the mortal enemy of Great
Greatness = Conscious choice and Discipline
Beat of the Odds Study – Arizona Center of Education website
The Signature of mediocrity of not lack of change. The signature of mediocrity is constant change. It is not allowing enough time for changes to work.
jimcollins.com
There is a free diagnositic tool. There
How many key seats do we have on the bus?
How many are filled with the right people?
What is our plan for getting to 100%?

On a personal level:
Build a council
Write out a vision
What is your ratio of questions to statements? Can you double it?

Work is infinite – Time is finite.
Manage your time, not your work.
Not a job but a responsibility.

Shout Out to MikeTeacher for the iTunes Comment. Thanks MikeTeacher wherever you are.

Happy Birthday! to Us. (Since this is our 53rd show, in some strange sense, we are a year old. Never mind that we’re quite a way into our second year of podcasting).