Podcast 70- Advisory, Water, and Getting FIT!
How do you get straight A’S?
–by using a ruler
What happened to the plant in math class?
–it grew square roots
What did the dog get when he graduated from school?
–a pedigree
Why did the teacher go to the beach?
–to test the water
Why was the teacher crossed eye?
–she couldn’t keep her pupils straight
Events and Happenings:
- Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C.
- NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009.
- NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video. This video spotlight focuses on the building of the technology demonstration classrooms at last year’s Denver Annual Conference.
- NMSA ’09 Elections must be in by May 15th.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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. 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.
- The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June. See the flyer at their website for details.
- Free Professional Development through Webinars! NMSA is offering previously recorded webinars for free from their website.
- Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
- Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: This week’s discussion is on the uses of Screencasting for Teachers. Archived content is available.
- 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
- There is a conference being held by ISTE in Second Life, wander over to the auditorium behind the Headquarters to check it out.
- From the Twitterverse:
- From GardenGlen’s blog: I needed this Zits Teen Translator when my first was 15. I spend WAY too much time asking questions 2 understand meaning: http://url.ie/1ew8
- That kid that gets under your skin? Here’s one for that: russeltarrRT @quote_daily: Speak in anger and you will hold the best speech you ever regretted. Winston Churchill.
- instruisto RT @screamingeagle1: “Speak when U are angry and U will make the best speech U will ever regret.”— A Bierce (Hmm, interesting . . .)
- instruisto RT @screamingeagle1: “Speak when U are angry and U will make the best speech U will ever regret.”— A Bierce (Hmm, interesting . . .)
- Our poet laureate: LadyParadis Sunday morning peeks / over my shoulder to see / what I am up to #haiku.
- instruisto RT @KlKidwell: There’s a law in TN legisl. wanting to end tenure for new teachers. Boo!! >:( *Do ppl not get the security/$$$ tradeoff?*)
- rrmurry RT @guykawasaki: New Bill Would Give Obama Power Over the Internet http://adjix.com/3922 AC. Ummm- YIKES. A national lead controling info? rrmurry RT @guykawasaki: New Bill Would Give Obama Power Over the Internet http://adjix.com/3922 AC. Ummm- YIKES. A national lead controling info? (Note: Links to Mother Jones’s website as news source.)
- instruisto RT @LoriMoreno: The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly ~G.K. Chesterton
- geekbert RT: @WishAponAStar “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genious has its limits.” -unknown
Shout-outs:
Thanks for the additional anonymous evaluation on iTunes!
From our Listeners:
“This is Jack from BrainyFlix . If I hadn’t done so already, I wanted to thank you for letting your visitors know about our video contest. We received about 800 video submissions (way more than we had expected!) and you were a big part of that. Much appreciated. :]
I was wondering if your visitors would be interested in an update about BrainyFlix . I ask because the voting for the video contest is coming up next Monday March 30. Also, we built this new feature called lolcabulary, which lets kids make a flashcard that has a word attached to an image and sentence. We’ll be running weekly contests to get kids to make flashcards by giving away iTunes to the winners. We’re thinking we’ll do themes like “make lolcabulary flashcards about ninjas” and then get teachers we’ve met to pick their favorites made that week.”
Web Sightings:
http://www.factmonster.com/ – Fact Monster is an ideal reference site for kids ages 8-14 that provides entertainment and educational resources. It combines the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas, and several almanacs loaded with statistics, facts, and historical records. A single search engine allows you to search all these sources at once.
In addition to an electronic database that is continuously updated and expanded, the Fact Monster site includes information from the following reference works:
- The TIME for Kids Almanac®, edited by Beth Rowen of Fact Monster and published by Time Inc.
- Selected content from The TIME Almanac, with Information Please®, edited by Borgna Brunner of Information Please and published by Time Inc.
- The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, published by Columbia University Press.
- Infoplease Dictionary, based on the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary
- The Infoplease Atlas, which includes several hundred maps from Magellan Geographix.
I did find ads on the site.
http://mrssmoke.onsugar.com/ – Making Teachers Nerdy
Library of Congress Digital Collection: http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html
Advisory Ideas:
Life Skill Lessons…how to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to
do anything….celebrate success!!
Q:C:Q: – Quote, Comment, Question…analyze a famous quote, old
or new
Create a Shelter…use newspaper and masking tape to create
shelter the group fits under w/out talking
Tubes and Marbles Race…use half pipes in a race to place a
marble in a bowl on the floor across the room
News:
Structure More Effective In High School Science Classes, Study Reveals
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326114415.htm
Student fitness bill raises questions
FIT Kids Act would require new data tracking for schools
Legislation pending in Congress, called the “Fitness Integrated with Teaching Kids Act” (FIT Kids Act), would update current physical fitness standards in K-12 schools and hold educators accountable for a portion of their students’ health. If passed, the bill would redefine gym class from what it has come to mean for many students and teachers, and the bill also would implement new data tracking and reporting requirements that could necessitate a change in student information system (SIS) software.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58065