MSM 328: Motivated or not, Make it – Sit on it Potsy! (Then be grateful).
Jokes You Can Use:
My friend dropped a box of Italian pastries on the floor.
I cannoli imagine what he felt at that moment.
Wife comes downstairs and asks her husband, who is lying on a sofa, “What have you been doing?”
He replies, “Killing Flies.”
“How many you have killed so far?”
“Five, three males and two females.”
“How did you figure that out?”
“Well, three were sitting on the remote and two were sitting on the phone.”
At a wedding ceremony, the pastor asked if anyone had anything to say concerning the union of the bride and groom. Everything quickly turned to chaos when a woman carrying a child started walking towards the front.
Everybody was surprised, shocked, and the bride even fainted. The pastor asked the woman if she had anything to say.
The woman replied, “We can’t hear in the back.”
Eileen Award:
- Twitter: Angela Meier
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Everyday Engineering – Chair Design
I was recently reading the March, 2016 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.
In this issue, I read the Everyday Engineering column entitled, “Sitting Around Designing Chairs.” It was written by Richard H. Moyer and Susan A. Everett. In this 5E-learning-cycle lesson, using newspaper and tape, students design and build a chair that is capable of supporting their weight.
From the Twitterverse:
Mike Janatovich @mjanatovich Apr 20
Students had an opportunity to update their nature journals today. Awesome opportunity to extend the classroom.
Social In Detroit @SocialINDetroit
Great new word game for your next game night! Play individually or as teams- http://dld.bz/exDbP @CommonGroundTG
Top story via Kleinspiration Should I Download That App? A Ten Question Checkli… https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-04-20-should-i-download-that-app-a-ten-question-checklist-for-making-tools-worth-your-while …, see more http://tweetedtimes.com/KleinErin?s=tnp
1 retweet 0 likes
Marlena Gross-Taylor @mgrosstaylor
A5: A reflective leader is an evolving one. Must provide Ts/admin time to think/reflect/dream. #leadupchat
Larry Ferlazzo @Larryferlazzo
Effective Strategies For ELL Error Correction is my latest Ed Wk column http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2016/04/response_effective_strategies_for_ell_error_correction.html … @nortoneducation
#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”
Strategies:
Strategies to Motivate Unmotivated Students
Edutopia has an article about different ways intrinsic motivation is better for students than extrinsic motivation.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-self-persuasion-david-palank
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WROTE A POSITIVE NOTE HOME TO PARENTS?
I’ve only been writing for a week, but I’ve already learned a few important lessons:
Writing doesn’t take me long at all: I’ve chosen to write my notes during my lunch period — which is 23 minutes long. I’ve had no trouble writing two notes AND eating lunch AND shooting the breeze with my colleagues for a few minutes during that period. That means “finding the time” isn’t an excuse for me any longer.
My kids dig the letters that I’m writing: I’ve also chosen to leave the letters that I write unsealed and to tell the students whose parents that I write to that they are welcome to read what I’ve written before bringing their note home. Almost every kid has done just that — pulling out their notes as soon as I hand them out and reading them immediately. That matters, y’all: Kids crave praise from the important people around them. Especially those who struggle academically or behaviorally as compared to their peers.
I had to explain the purpose of my letters to my students so they wouldn’t panic: The first day that I handed letters to students, both kids said, “Did I do something wrong?” Talk about a stinging critique of my communication patterns, right? Letters home from Mr. Ferrriter = Someone’s in trouble. So I took a few minutes in class to let my kids know that I was sorry for not taking more time to send positive notes home. Now, my kids are almost always surprised when I hand them an envelope, but surprised in a good way instead of nervous about what’s inside.
Writing letters has made ME feel good, too: My original goal for writing to parents was to make THEM feel good about their children. That’s an easy win, right? Every parent likes to know that others see special things in their kids. What I didn’t realize was just how good writing to the parents of my students would make ME feel. The few minutes that I spend identifying and articulating the things that I value the most about the students in my classes — including those who struggle academically and behaviorally — serve as a daily reminder that EVERY kid sitting in EVERY class really is wonderful in their own way.
Study: Gratitude Increases Self-Control
- Please write at least three sentences about a time (or times) you have felt successful and happy:
- Please write at least three sentences about something that is important to you (friends, family, sports, etc.) and why it’s important:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2014/04/17/study-gratitude-increases-self-control/
Resources:
What Teachers Should Know
- Myth 1: New technology is causing a revolution in education.
- Myth 2: The Internet belongs in the classroom because it is part of the personal world experienced by children.
- Myth 3: Today’s “digital natives” are a new generation who want a new style of education.
- Myth 4: The Internet makes us dumber.
- Myth 5: Young people don’t read anymore.
http://www.aft.org/ae/spring2016/debruyckere-kirschner-and-hulshof
10 Realities About Bullying at School and Online
- “most educators aren’t aware of the function bullying serves in school,”
- The majority of kids don’t bully other kids and haven’t been victimized
- Kids pick on others as a way to secure their standing among their peers or to move up a notch.
- aggression is intrinsic to status and escalates with increases in peer status until the pinnacle of the social hierarchy is attained.”
- Children from single-parent homes, and those with less educated parents, are no more apt to bully than kids with married and learned parents. African-Americans and other minorities show the same rates of bullying as their white counterparts.
- The popular notion of bullies as sullen social outcasts who come from broken homes is a myth.
- What adults call bullying kids call drama.
- Cyber-bullying is just an extension of what’s happening in the classrooms, halls, and cafeteria
- online cruelty merely makes visible what kids are doing in person behind the backs of adults.
- Just another way for kids to express hostility towards targets they’ve already gone after—or are in retaliation against those who have attacked them in school.
- Kids don’t intervene because doing so would jeopardize their own standing, they lack the tools to assist, and because they don’t think it will help anyway.
- Adolescents are fixated on their social standing, and anything that jeopardizes their fragile position will be avoided.
- students receive scant training on how to help in such a way that it won’t backfire.
- “Asking students to be empowered and responsible bystanders is tantamount to telling them to be good readers or safe drivers without giving them instructions, guidance, and opportunities to practice,”
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/04/22/10-realities-about-bullying-at-school-and-online/
Web Spotlight:
History Connected
British Museum teams up with Google.
https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
Random Thoughts . . .
Moodle FlashCards
Interview
https://www.joomlalms.com/blog/expert-interview/student-centered-approach-troy-patterson.html
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