Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference 2011

We hope you’re able to attend the MAMSE conference this year no matter what state or province you hail from.  Here’s a list of the sessions Troy and I are doing:

Thursday:

10:05 – 11:05  Troy & Shawn:  Location: E107; “Professional Learning Networks: Social Networks, Internet Resources, and Blogs”

11:10 – 12:10  Troy & Shawn:  Location: E107; “Professional Learning Networks: Micro-blogging, Virtual Environments, and Podcasts”

1:50 – 2:50  Shawn:  Location: E107; “Web X.0 Smackdown!”

2:55 – 3:55 Troy:  Location:  E107; “Tech Tools for the Classroom”

 

Friday:

8:00 – 9:00 Shawn:  Location: E107; “Web X.0 Smackdown!”

9:05 – 10-05  Shawn:  Location: E107; “Making the Transition to Middle School”

1:50 – 2:50  Troy:  Location: E107; “Google Docs”

Stop us and introduce yourself.  We’d love to chat with you!

 

 

MSM 155 Rice, Rice Baby … Kaplan for Kindergarten!

Jokes You Can Use:

Definitions:

BEAUTY PARLOR:
A place where women curl up and dye.
CANNIBAL:
Someone who is fed up with people.
CHICKENS:
The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.
COMMITTEE:
A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
DUST:
Mud with the juice squeezed out.
EGOTIST:
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.
GOSSIP:
Never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.
KLEENEX:
Cold Storage.
INFLATION:
Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.
MOSQUITO:
An insect that makes you like flies better.
RAISIN:
Grape with a sunburn.
SECRET:
Something you tell to one person at a time.
SKELETON:
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.
TOOTHACHE:
The pain that drives you to extraction.
TOMORROW:
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.
YAWN:
An honest opinion openly expressed.
WRINKLES:
Something other people have. You have character lines.

On Our Mind:

Embracing the Wide Sky
Daniel Tammet in audiobook format

From our Listeners:

No Eileen Award today

Advisory:

Free Rice

  • Click on the right answer in the middle of this page.
  • If you get it right, you get a harder question. If you get it wrong, you get an easier question.
  • For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance.
http://freerice.com/

Middle School Science Minute

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

  • Science Songs
  • Plate Tectonics

From the Twitterverse:

*shannonmmiller Your Classroom as an Apple Store from Rethink the Box…Love the ideas! http://ow.ly/3ZABJ
*missnoor28 RT @simfin: RT @russeltarr: 10 Killer Content Sources for Your iPod Learning Mix: http://tinyurl.com/yflj5tu #mlearning #edtech

RT @marynabadenhors: If doctors were treated like teachers (I wish teachers were treated more like doctors) #edreform

RT @jdthomas7: 10 Ways 2 Use QR Codes in yr Classroom | Technology Teacher – #edtech #edchat

*tombarrett 14 Interesting Ways to use Web Conferencing in the Classroom – I know there are plenty more good ideas, pls add yours
*willrich45 ACT out against the SAT Interesting vid. Will be dealing with this soon enough. #college #testing
*IAM_SHAKESPEARE THE_REAL_WILLIAM Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
*itrt High School ipad apps http://www.diigo.com/annotated/34bd3822e59f5bae78327df034dd87d9
*maggiecary If Teachers Graded Parents:
*bethstill If you are new to ISTE this year you might want to check out this event on Saturday: #iste11

News:

Studies Find Language Is Key to Learning Math

By Sarah D. Sparks

New research shows a lack of language skills can hamstring a student’s ability to understand the most fundamental concepts in mathematics.
Children start counting everything in sight as soon as they begin to speak, but research shows they do not immediately attach abstract meaning to the numbers.
The findings provide more evidence for the link between early literacy and numeracy suggested by other recent research.
The findings also may suggest the importance of using number lines rather than finger-counting in early grades, Ms. Goldin-Meadow said.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/02/17/21math.h30.html?tkn=RMVFed6tRXiQd1a8OyriYPqFy8qmkJgPYe0F&cmp=clp-sb-ascd

Wisconsin

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/the-wisconsin-protests-do-public-employees-make-more-than-private-employees
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/17/wisconsin.budget/index.html

Prepping for Kindergarten Test

This year she hired a former Montessori teacher to tutor her preschooler on everything from learning continents to sounding out words.
Tutor Lemi Erinkitola started a tutoring company for kids as young as 3, preparing children, mostly on the South Side, for CPS’ admissions tests. She said that when she went through the process with her own three children, she found few resources.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-testing-0215-20110214,0,3146773.story

Resources:

Find out who is linked to your (or your school’s) web site:

  1. Go to AltaVisa
  2. Type in link:webaddressIwanttoknowlinks.com (um, after link: type the address of your web site or your school’s web site).
  3. Change “Show Links” button to Except this domain – this will exclude your own posts.

Web site extensions:

.org – organization
.com – company
.sch – school (used outside of U.S.)
.k12 – most U.S. school sites
.edu – U.S. higher ed
.gov – U.S. government (add country code for outside U.S.)
.ac – higher ed outside of U.S. usually used with country code, example: “.ac.uk”
.net – network
.mil – U.S. military
.co – Company (if paired with a country code, example: “.co.uk,” the state of Colorado or the country, Columbia)

EmbedPlus as an educational tool for videos

Our core features could help teachers focus students on relevant parts of existing     videos and allow them to add extended material. See our initial ideas below:

  • Chapter/Scene Skipping – Videos often have specific segments or turning points that viewers may wish to jump back and forth to – especially after the first view. A video could span multiple topics and/or contain different speakers. Teachers can mark each turning point for easy navigation using the jump buttons on the player. Alternatively, if a video has certain ‘skippable’ parts that are not relevant to the desired lesson, the beginning of the relevant parts could be marked for direct access to them.
  • Movable Zoom and Slow Motion – These are the other DVD-like             controls. They can be particularly valuable for science and nature videos in which students are to make observations. To illustrate, a video might contain experiments     and chemical reactions that may happen too quickly for normal playback. Slow motion     and zoom offers students a chance to get a closer and clearer understanding of the     event. They can also provide greater accessibility that some students might need     for viewing text and other objects within a video.
  • Third Party Annotations -Teachers might wish to offer additional             information beyond what is presented in a video. Such information could be effectively     displayed using annotations that popup at user-defined times. EmbedPlus offers such     a feature for third-parties-i.e. anyone that wishes to embed a video. While annotations/captions are also possible through YouTube, they can only be added by a user with access to the video’s channel. EmbedPlus complements YouTube in this way. You will also find that with EmbedPlus’ annotations, the control bar of the player displays the text to avoid blocking the video screen and possibly distracting viewers.
  • Real-time Reactions – This optional feature displays YouTube and Twitter reactions right inside the player. We are speculating that some comments from YouTube and Twitter can offer students useful viewpoints from others that have viewed a video-particularly those outside the students’ classroom. This of course         depends on the nature of the commenters and tweeters.

http://www.embedplus.com/

Free Stuff from 3D Vinci

Sketch-Up tutorials
http://www.3dvinci.net/ccp0-display/freestuff.html

Math Practice – Make 5

Practice using Addition/Subtraction/Multiplication. Students answer questions to get 5 in a row.
http://www.fi.uu.nl/toepassingen/00091/toepassing_wisweb.en.html

TutPup

Welcome to Tutpup, where you can compete in fun, educational games against other kids from all over the World!
Our aim is to provide simple, fun, competitive games that help children learn and gain confidence with Maths, English and other key skills and knowledge.
http://tutpup.com/

Web Spotlight:

TED Conversations

A new platform for sharing ideas. 3 ways to engage:

  • Ideas
  • Questions
  • Debates

Useful to find ideas for discussions.
http://www.ted.com/conversations

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 16 – 17, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM #150- Show #150! It’s Because of You!

Jokes:

Swimming
An urgent call was put in for a plumber at noon but he didn’t arrive until 5 hours later. “How is it?” he asked entering the house. “Not so bad,” replied the home owner. “While we were waiting for you to arrive, I taught my wife how to swim.”

Spots
“Doctor!” complained the patient, “I keep seeing spots before my eyes.” The doctor scratched his head. “Why have you come to me? Have you seen an ophthalmologist?” “No,” replied the patient, “just spots.”

On Our Mind:

Robert Nay:  Bubble Ball is the most popular free download for the Apple App Store. If he would have charged for it, he would have made 2 million dollars from it.  He’s 14.

From our Listeners:
Happy new year my friends

I’m not sure which of you are still active substitutes but i do hope all of you will do me the kindness of forwarding this to as many people and organizations who substitute or work with substitute teachers as you can.

A Seattle venue is relatively close for California and “right next door” for Oregon. The Northwest is a nice location for a conference/vacation combination for anyone!

Link to Flyer:  http://www.nstasubs.org/2011Conference/Call%20to%20Conference%202011-%20Final.pdf

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Girls and Science
http://www.braincake.org/
http://stemstories.org/

From the Twitterverse:

*PrometheanUSA RT WhiteheadsClass Martin Luther King, Jr. vocabulary and spelling games and resources: #promethean #iwb #edtech
*russeltarr Simple Graphic Organizer Makes Fractions a Little Less Painful: http://tinyurl.com/ycfqaud
*bhsprincipal RT @nothingfuture: A grade is the smallest amount of information we can possibly record about a student’s experience.
*stevehargadon We listen to business leaders more than educators “reform” dialog. Why? http://wapo.st/frBgX5 via @tonnet
*DanielBeylerian Any teachers found ways 2 supplement their income by teaching online? Ontario Certified Teacher. PD oriented instruction is goal #edchat
*rkiker Teens In Tech Launches Startup Incubator for Young Entrepreneurs http://pulsene.ws/JqK1
*clifmims Skype’s New Resource Specifically for Teachers http://ow.ly/3BZhl #education #edtech
*NancyTeaches RT @justwonderinY: I learn the most when PD is layered. (focused, embedded in daily practice, across year, & about kids) #elemchat
*stribs Story of man who’s spent over a decade trying to convince doctors that he’s not mentally ill > This American Life
*sharon_elin Virginia Poised to Ban Teacher-Student Texting, Facebooking rww.to/gMQPzF via @RWW Comment on google doc: cut.gd/sk6a
*kconners09 Have students draw to write- getting over writers block. Good 4 SS. Edutopia http://ow.ly/1rZtMc #english #sschat
*rushtheiceberg The GMAIL+ method I spoke about in my preso at #edcampoc The Edublogger #edchat
*lkolb Join us in May for first annual U of M Virtual Ed Tech Conference (Free! Wear your PJ’s and Network)….more info @umvirtualcon

NSMA 2010 Session 6:

Session 4:

He Says, She Says
The Home School Connection
Debbie Silver & Monte Shelby

Family Tree

The new research:
create a home environment that encourages learning.
communicate high, yet reasonable expectations.

Reading with parents. Muffins with moms/ donuts with dad. The kids read to the parents.
Saturday picnics. No “traditional” school focus, just a picnic held at school. provide the food and prizes. Just play games and make connections.
Staff development while the parents have all of the kids. Do they picked a routine thing that all of the kids could do. The parents then monitor the kids. The parents were trained. First thing on Monday morning – kids behave better at that time.
The parents ran the program. Agenda was shared with the parents. Parents called other parents with personal invitations. Social things where the only expectation was that parents show up.  Example of pool night at community center. Parents mentoring parents. 8th grader parents mentor 6th grade. Someone to call.

Develop list of things that parents can do:
Theatre Aid
Hall Moms and Pops
Teacher’s Aid
Have parents take pictures- make sure they get each kid over the weeks. Email the picture immediately to the parents.
Add question on a “take home” assignment that needs a parental response. Name a family member who emigrated. Name the favorite food of a parent.
Parent input page. The student has to teach the parent something. The parent has to respond with what they were taught.

Professional Development Kit: The what, the why, the how of student led conferences. by Jack Berckemeyer and Patti Kinney.

Make sure that you make good calls. Can be especially useful if you make a good call before you ever make a bad one.
Check NAESP for good suggestions for parents.

News:

SnagFilms

SnagFilms is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and making them available to the wide audience these titles deserve.
SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of over 1500 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free.
SnagFilms can be summed up in four words: Find. Watch. Snag. Support.
Find. Whether using our custom search tools, browsing by topic, or tuning into one of the great channels provided by our partners, with a few clicks you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for.
Watch. By streaming films worldwide, on-demand, 24×7 and with no software installation or downloading required, we have radically expanded the audience for documentary films. All you need is a decent broadband connection. Just click play, go full-screen, and lean back and enjoy our films.
Snag. Widgets let you take your favorite SnagFilms with you wherever you like to go online. Open a virtual movie theater right in your webpage, blog, Facebook or MySpace page, or just about any other place online you can think of.
Support. At their best, documentaries don‘t merely entertain us, they engage and inspire us to action. We provide a link for you to a charity related to the topic of each film (many of them selected by the filmmaker) so you can get involved, immediately.  And just by embedding our widgets, you’ve donated your pixels and helped support independent film.

http://www.snagfilms.com/

Tech Spotlight:

British Library introduces first app for iOS, Android

The British Library has launched its first-ever mobile app, Treasures. The title is available in three separate editions, for iPad, iPhone/iPod and Android. It so far provides access to a little over 100 items from the Library’s collection, such as a 1215 copy of the Magna Carta, music manuscripts belonging to Handel, Purcell and Mozart, and Buddhist, Christian and Zoroastrian religious documents.
The iPad app, Treasures HD, is priced at £2.39, and benefits from a higher-resolution native interface. The iPhone/iPod title is £1.19. While the former requires only iOS 3.2, the latter demands at least iOS 4; both are restricted to the UK App Store.
http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/11/01/10/provides.access.to.rare.books/

Google Goggles gets faster, smarter and solves Sudoku
Check this out.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-goggles-gets-faster-smarter-and.html

GEL Conference

Short for “Good Experience Live”, Gel is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms – in art, business, technology, society, and life.
Gel was founded by Mark Hurst in 2003 and has run a spring event in New York City each year since.Gel 2011 will be the 9th annual event. (Hurst has also run two spinoff events, Gel Health in 2009 and euroGel in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2006. See Past Gels.)
Instead of focusing on just one thing – design, technology, user experience, business, etc. – like many conferences, Gel touches on many things. This challenges attendees to find, and learn from, the patterns that underlie good experience, even in disciplines vastly different from their own.
The best way to understand the Gel experience is to attend. (Next event is Gel 2011.) You might also like to watch videos from Gel 2010 to get a sense of the caliber and range of speakers – though attendees have said that the videos don’t fully describe the Gel experience.
http://www.gelconference.com/

99%

http://the99percent.com/videos

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 146 NMSA 2010 Dinner Conversation

This week’s show is a recording of the dinner conversation we enjoyed during the National Middle School Annual Conference. There is a lot of background noise, but the audio is surprisingly decent considering. The conversation revolved largely around the Department of Education questions that Shawn was asked. We should be back with a “normal” show next week.

MSM 144 NMSA 2010: PLC’s, Listener Question & Adolescent Thinkers

Jokes:

Tuning
The doorbell rang, and the lady of the house discovered a workman, complete with tool chest, at the front door. “Lady,” he announced, “I’m the piano tuner.” The lady exclaimed, “Why, I didn’t send for a piano tuner.” The man replied, “I know, but your neighbors did.”

Age
A teacher said to her student, “Billy, if both of your parents were born in 1967, how old are they now?” After a few moments, Billy answered, “It depends.” “It depends on what?” she asked. “It depends on whether you ask my father or my mother.”

Space
When the Smith family moved into their new house, a visiting grandparent asked five-year-old Tommy how he liked the new place. “It’s great,” he said. “I have my own room, Alex has his own room, and Jamie has her own room. But poor mom is still in with dad.”

Painting
Mary goes to her first show at an art gallery and is looking at the paintings. One is a huge canvas that has black with yellow blobs of paint splattered all over it. The next painting is a murky gray color that has drips of purple paint streaked across it. Mary walks over to the artist and says, “I don’t understand your paintings.” “I paint what I feel inside me,” explains the artist. “Have you ever tried Alka-Seltzer?”

On Our Mind:

NMSA 2010 Conference

From the Audience:

Guys-  I have just recently started to listen to your podcasts and follow you on Twitter.  I am impressed and look forward to learning from the networking.  I am a middle school principal in Lowell, Indiana.  I need some help with a couple of things.  First,  it is a Science adoption year here in Indiana and I need help locating quality digital resources for adoption instead of textbooks.  Do you guys know of any that I could research.  Second,  I am interested in Second Life and how you guys use this web tool.
Reid

Middle School Science Minute

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

Cell Phones, iPods and energy. What do your students need to know?

Advisory:

Have your students take a short quiz on World Hunger. You could have the students take the quiz collaboratively, or take it yourself first, then give it to the students. Good discussion topics. Plus a donation is made every time someone takes the quiz.
http://gifts.wfp.org/quiz/

From the Twitterverse:

*ransomtech ✜ Stephen Ransom Gr8 screencasting tool on Mac!! RT @ScreenFlow: #BlackFriday is here! 15% off ScreenFlow thru end of November 🙂
*brasst Tami Brass Connect Safely |A Parents’ Guide to Facebook | Safety Advice Articles diigo.com/0dsjc via @Diigo
*rkiker How I Planned a Successful Unconference in 6 hours – and You Can Too http://pulsene.ws/o0Eo #edchat #edcamp
*kevcreutz Seven Ways to Build Your Own Educational Games #edtech
*
kconners09 RT @DanielPink: An inspired school principal (@L_Hilt) tries a FedEx Day for her teachers. Fantastic.
*shannonmmiller 10 Terrific iPhone and iPad Musical Performances http://ow.ly/3fUBZ @johnccarver
* drmmtatom Twitter Rubric: #fhucid
* jeanbont #pun outside class door today: “My arm!”, said Captain Hook, offhandedly.
*maggiecary When Your Child’s Grades are Failing:

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :
Waiting to hear back from Infamous40000 . . .

NSMA 2010 Session 3:

Session 3

Professional Learning Communities

Making a School Great: Professional Learning Communities

PLC is NOT:

  • A program
  • A package of reforms to be adopted
  • A step-by-step recipe for change
  • A sure fire system borrowed by another school
  • One more thing to add to an already cluttered school agenda

The research says that we take on the characteristics of the students we teach.

Culture
Climate
•Standards based (Learning Targets)
Coaching

Early success breeds Hope.

Covey’s concept of Sphere of Influence.  Sphere of control is where we need to operate.

Collaboration leads to taking out the walls.

Professional Development:

  • Research Based
  • Center around principles
  • BS or BA (Borrow straight or Borrow adjusted)

True Colors

Adults do not learn from experience, they learn from reflection. J. Mezirow
Must build reflection into the PD experience.

The starting of the PLC:

  • Pacing Guides – Calendar
  • Academic vocabulary
  • Writing prompts

Led to:

  • Pre/Post tests
  • Summative assessments

Instructional Focus
Formative assessment
Metacognition (Think alouds)
Prior Knowledge

  • Foundation
  • Scaffolding

Collaboration is the key.

Starting collaboration:
Grade level;
2 collaborative sessions  required per 9 weeks. There was form for follow up.
The next year, 1 was required. The third year, no mention. The idea was to integrate it into what they do.
Special education started getting involved. The special ed teachers gave some ideas for accommodations.

Common planning for departments. Started vertical articulation. This lead to similarities being identified. Identified overlap of standards.
Developed a 2 year plan. Language Arts teachers decided to “loop”. (5th & 6th and 6th & 7th grades.).
Cross curricular

  • writing prompts
  • Sharing ideas

Leads to Differentiation as well.
Leadership Team

  • How did it begin?
  • What does it look like now?

The leadership team takes issues to the principal. Makes sure that all teachers have a voice.

Reading became the focus of the school.
Reading became the common core.

First Step:
SRA

  • Scripted
  • Starts with the basics
  • Progresses through levels
  • Remarkable progress

Next:

  • Researched reading strategies
  • School wide:
  • Word Walls
  • Book Walks
  • Anticipation Guides
  • Anticipation Guides
  • Graphic Organizers
  • Think-Alouds
  • QAR

Sphere of Influence.

ICU – Intensive Care Unit
Exploratory Math labs, Lit labs
Saturday School
Summer school

ICU questions. All students are listed on Google Docs. Students who have issues are marked and followed up by everyone (eg. student missing homework).

  • Who do you owe?
  • What do you owe?
  • What do you need?
  • How can I help you?

Every teacher has to make 3 parents calls a week. At least 1 must be positive.
Celebrations at card marking

  • Movies
  • Baseball game
  • Bowling

*************************************************************************************

NMSA 2010:  Developing Adolescent Thinkers

SoundNote Recording created November 4, 2010 12:30 PM:

Sheila_J_Berlinger@mcpsmd.org
Jennifer_Bernard@mcpsmd.org
Denise_M_DeFlore@mcpsmd.org
Elizabeth_A_Sandall@mcpsmd.org

Pink folder on table and name tag.  Types of development paper to share.

This we Believe
“For middle school students to be successful, the school’s organization, curriculum, pedagogy and programs must be based on the developmental readiness, needs and interests of young adolescent learners.”
We need to staff our middle schools with experts in teaching middle school kids.

Outcomes

•  Identify the characteristics of the adolescent learner

•  Explain the instructional implications for adolescents based on their brain development.

•  Articulate how the selection of instructional ….
Characteristics of the Adolescent Learner:  Step One
Step one

•  Draw 2-3 strips from the envelope.

•  Sort the characteristics by the categories on the placemat.

Step two

•  Look at the hot pink paper and discuss.

•  Consult the document titled “Characteristics of Adolescent Learners.”

•  Examine how the characteristics were sorted.

•  Compare your lists to one we have provided.

Implications for learning
What implications does the information on the characteristics of the adolescent learner handout have for planning and instruction based on your role in your school district?
I need to incorporate those characteristics into my teaching to support their learning.
Why is rigor important and why does it matter?

•  Review your rigor placement.

•  Define Rigor:

International competitiveness.
Teaching with the end in mind.
Using thinking based learning.
Green Handout:  Rigorous Instruction in the middle school
Triangle image on the page.

1.  Explicit opportunities for critical thinking

2.  Selection of rigorous instructional materials

3.  Appropriately matched and differentiated instructional strategies.
Application activity:
Toni Morrison’s The Big Box
Chosen for an adult audience in a conference setting.
This is an illustration for use around the triangle.

1.  Listen to and look at the Big Box.

2.  With your table mates, revisit the text with the elements of reasoning.

3.  Be prepared to share your assignment element(s).

Reflection:
How did this experience motivate and engage you?
Rigor selection process.

Provocative:  To what extent is the curriculum concerned with the central problems in the discipline that challenge students’ previous concepts?

Ambiguous:  To what extent does the curriculum focus on cymbals and images paced with multiple meanings?

Complex:  To what extent is the curriculum organized around complex, interrelated concepts?

Emotional:  To what extent is the curriculum …

(Lilac paper)

Ambiguous:  forced us to interpret

Emotional:  there were things there that each reader can identify with.

Provacative:  Things to defend or discuss vigorously.

Complex:

PACE and the Big Box.
Implications for planning and instruction
What implications do the definition and measure of rigor (PACE) have for planning and instruction based on your role in your school district?
Engaging the students in something worthy of their time.
The elements of thought:  The Reasoning Wheel
Richard Paul and Linda Elders model.

1.  Points of view

2.  Purpose of the thinking

3.  Question at issue

4.  Information

5.  Interpretation and inference

6.  Concepts

7.  Assumptions

8.  Implications and consequences

Am I critical thinker?

Implications:  things that might happen

Consequences:  Things that will happen.

Discussion:

How would this model support their learning and help ensure rigorous instruction?
Adolescent Brain Development
Emotions??  Highly developed …
Reasoning and reflection?
Under construction …
(Until early or mid-twenties)
Developmental Rates
Significant growth occurs in the adolescent similar to childhood growth.
As those synapses are growing, we need to use them or lose them.
The stronger the relationship between the student and the teacher, the better the ability to set emotions aside and learn.
Prune the students to direct their energy to where it should go and strengthen the core of the tree/student.
Which neuron provides the greater potential for connection?
What students are asked to think about and what they’re asked to do determines the level of neuron they have.
Neuron develops on feedback and challlenge.
Challenge:  problem solving, critical thinking, relevant projects, complex materials.
Feedback:  Exemplars, connected to clear standards and criteria, various forms, timely, opportunity to use it.

Sense and Meaning
Long term memory:  retrieving information
Sense:  comprehension, I understand it, it makes sense.  Until it makes sense, it’s not stored.
Meaning:  Relevance-I can connect it to something else I know.  No connection = no meaning.
“Of the two, meaning has the greater impact on the probablily that the information will be stored.”  -Sousa
Implications for planning and instruction:  What implications does the information on the adolescent brain have for planning and instruction based on your role in your school district?

Rigorous Instructional Practices

•  The content refers to WHAT students will learn.

•  The process refers to HOW students will learn or explore the content.

•  The product is the EVIDENCE of student learning.

Implications for planning and instruction
What do I now have to consider in order to successfully develop adolescent thinkers?
CEU Code:  UN8

News:

Thanksgiving Sites

What Really Happened?
A comparison of Thanksgiving stories:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/what-really-happened-comparing-stories-of-the-first-thanksgiving/

Webspotlight:

7 Ways to build your own games

Sharendipity
ClassTools.net
Purpose Games
What 2 Learn
YoYo Games
Jeopardy Labs
ProProfs Brain Games
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/11/seven-ways-to-build-your-own.html

Students, Ownership and Creativity: 35 Resources

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM- 143 NMSA 2010: Motivating Students and Summarization Pt. 2

Jokes:

Frogs
A guy was walking beside a pond when a frog jumped out and told him that she was really a beautiful princess and if he were to kiss her, she would make him VERY happy! He picked up the frog and put it into his pocket. A few minutes later, the frog poked her head out and said, “Didn’t you hear me?! I’m a beautiful princess and if you kiss me I will stay with you and do ANYTHING you want!” The guy took the frog out and said, “Look, I understand what you are saying, but I am a computer programmer and right now I don’t have time for a girlfriend… but a talking FROG is REALLY, REALLY COOL!”

Scotland
Over a remote Scottish island a helicopter lost power and was forced to make an emergency landing. Luckily there was a small cottage nearby. The pilot walked over to it and knocked on the door. “Is there a mechanic in the area?” he asked the woman who answered the door. She scratched her head and thought for a few seconds. “No,” she finally said, pointing down the road, “but we do have a McArdle and a McKay.”

On Our Mind:

NMSA 2010 Conference

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
“Heliophysics.” and more.

From the Twitterverse:

* NMSAnews NMSA RMLE Online: Influences of High-Stakes Testing on Middle School Mission and Practice
* rguthrie Rachel Guthrie Is school a selective process where students need to be ranked, sorted and culled? or an experience meant to encourage and promote learning?
*chadratliff Ouch: The 20 worst-paying college degrees in 2010 http://yhoo.it/b8ESfk
*PrometheanUSA THANK A TEACHER MERCHANDISE AVAILABLE IN ON PROMETHEAN PLANET STORE GET 10% OFF ALL ADULT T-SHIRTS +15% ON yr ORDER $40 OR MORE**code TY15
*presentationzen Mac News reporting that Pearson/Peachpit books, including my books, now on iBookstore. http://snipurl.com/1hb5uc
*DianeRavitch Is teacher experience important? “Reformers” say no. Research says yes: http://shankerblog.org/?p=1319
*go2publicschool Professor gives an exam, analyzes the grades, realizes 1/3rd of his class cheated. Proceeds to call them out: #badass
*doctorjeff #EDUCATION VIEW: LET’S TEST to see if testing has taken all joy out of our classrooms, and if we find it hasn’t, let us test until it does.
*drmmtatom Official Google Docs Blog googledocs.blogspot.com/?spref=tw #fhucid

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :
Waiting to hear back from Infamous40000 . . .

NSMA 2010 Session 2:

Session 2:
1267
Sharon Faber
Ms. Sandra Dutemple
Motivating Students

Great Strategies that Increase Positive Behavior & Motivate Students

“Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but children have the equal right to develop their talent, their ability and their motivation”
John F. Kennedy

Kids are different. They are smarter -they know stuff, just not necessarily what we want them to know.

  • Reaffirm
  • Reinforce
  • New learning

Kids come to school to see their friends – we just happen to be there.
Research says 4th grade is crucial. Once they feel dumb- they need to save face.

Insanity – Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results .

When the horse dies – get off.

“The goal of teachers is to meet all students at their starting points and to move each one along a continuum of growth as far and as quickly as possible. Learning has no ceiling. ”
Tomlinson

Vocabulary & Prior Knowledge are required to increase knowledge.
Need to have a personality to be a good teacher.
Teachers need to be enthusiastic.

BA  or BS – Borrow and Adjust or Borrow Straight.

Use a different noise to bring kids back. Not all of the kids will hear your voice. Then the good

Email for handout

You teach like you learn.

“For these are all our children. we either profit or pay for what they become.” James Baldwin

Successful teaching is an evolving process.
It is important to keep an open mind because new and promising ideas are constantly emerging.
When a strategy or method clearly increases student learning, follow the practice as early as possible so that the students become accustomed to the specific way of thinking and acting.

Teachers make a tremendous difference in student achievement.
The key trait of effective teachers is that use systematic and explicit instructional strategies that work in any content.

Systemic
Skills and con pets are taught in a planned, logically progressive sequence.
Explicit
Direct explanation: stories, example
Teacher modeling: show them
Guided practice: pairs think together
Independent practice: formative assessment
Application: own, understood, useable

More than pairs allows for “slugs”
Too often the cooperative group allow for training kids to not think. (Time keeper, etc. )

Common Behaviors

  • Acting Out
  • Impatience & Impulsive
  • Gaps in politeness & social graces
  • Increased absences
  • Tardiness
  • Incidents of illness during class.
  • Academic learning and achievement problems (va
  • Inattentive & easily districted
  • Short attention span
  • Low self-esteem
  • Narrow range of interest
  • Fear failure
  • Lack structure & organization
  • Avoid responsibility

What you can do:

  • Model behavior

Hardwired by DNA:

Teach:

  • Humility
  • Forgiveness
  • Empathy
  • Optimism
  • Compassion
  • Sympathy
  • Patience
  • Shame
  • Cooperation
  • Gratitude

• Give respect to students when they seem to least deserve it.
• Share decision making with the class. Maintain expectations while offering choices and getting input.
Avoid sarcasm.
Model the process of adult thinking. Keep voice calm
Discipline through positive relationships instead of exerting power or authority.
Embed social skills like meet and greet skills, turn taking, thanking others.
Be inclusive
Celebrate efforts as well as achievement.

Actions that DON”T help:
Focus only on the basics.
Maintain order through force.
Eliminate or reduce time for arts, sports & PE.
Decrease interaction among students.
Deliver heavy handed, top down lectures. ( Kids know what your buttons are and will use them).

Actions that DO help:
Teach in 15 to 20 minute blocks and then let them share.
Routine & Consistency are crucial

Motivation always revolves around good teaching.

Davis Sousa – How the Brain Learns to Read. 2005

sharonfaber.com

Get their attention
emotion drives attention
focus their attention
maintain their attention
Keep them on task.

How long until I retire?
OR
What miracles can I create today?

NMSA 2010:  Summarization in Any Subject

Part Two:
Rick Wormeli, 2010  (Handout provided)

Break
Summarization Strategies:
Reading Notations
Annotated text is one of the best things we can teach according to research.
(Check Mark)          I agree with this.
X                I disagree with this.
??                I don’t understand this.
!!                Wow!  (‘Elicits a strong emotion)
CL                General Claim
EV                Evidence for the Claim
(These can be numbered to indicate their sequence, too:  EV1, EV2, EV3…)

Journalistic vs. Encyclopedic Writing
Read the journalistic version first then read the encyclopedic version is workable.
They’ll hang on the encyclopedic version if they read the journalistic stuff first.
Create narrative versions of boring stuff that we have to teach.
Reading Notations
EV for evidence
Annotated text is one of the best things we can teach according to research.
Journalistic vs. Encyclopedic writing.
Read the journalistic version first then read the encyclopedia version is workable.
They’ll hang on the encyclopedic version if they read the journalistic stuff first.
Create narrative versions of boring stuff that we have to teach.
Text structure:  The kids memorize the key words for each structure to identify it in class.
Chronological Order
Definition and Key words:
Compare and contrast
Proposition and support
Enumeration
Virtual Metaphors:  Graphic Organizers
Matrix
Venn Diagram
Writing is 98% thinking!
“If I had more time, I’d have written less.”  -Pascal
Kids need feedback in 1 – 3 days to internalize it.
Shorter is better, less is more.
T-Chart/T-List
Cornell Note-Taking format
T-Chart with summarization at the bottom.
Somebody wanted but so
Somebody (characters)
wanted (plot motivation)
but (conflict)
so (resolution)
Something Happened and Then
Something (independent variable)
happened (change in that independent variable) …
and (effect on the dependent variable) …
then (conclusion)  …
Narrowing the Topic
Is the topic narrow enough to be focused , but broad enough to have plenty to write about?
When we summarize, we:
Delete some elements
Keep some elements
Substitute for some elements.  (DKS) Ask students to memorize these three actions.

TaRGeTS
Trivia
Redundancies
Generalize
Determine Topic Sentence (Subject and author’s claim about it)
(What’s the headline for this?)
Writing Concisely
Avoid redundancies and saying the same thing in different ways:  see slide.
-Write Tight, 1993 by William Brohaugh
More Summarization Tips.
Use reading notations.
Allow students to mark consumable and non-consumable text.  (Highlighting tape)   Eraseable highlighters and wikisticks
Emphasize opinion free summaries – no commentaries.
Teach students to evaluate their own summarizations.
Set length slimit of 10 to 25% of the original text, <1% for longer text.
Encourage two or more readings or exposures.
Evaluating our Summaries (see handout)
Does it convey the information accurately?
Is it too narrow or too broad?  Does it convey . . . .
Help with Paraphrasing
Build students’ vocabulary and verbal dexterity.  Post word banks.  Use vocabulary immersion.
Provide repeated experiences with varied sentence combinations and word play.
Use repeated think-alludes
Play renaming and clue games such as Password, Taboo, and $25,000 Pyramid.
3-2-1
3: Identify
2:  List
1:  Name/What
Unique Summarization Formats/Products
See slide on handout.
Endless list of writing possibilities  see slide
RAFTS
Raise the complexity:
Lower the complexity:
Change the verb:
See the verb list from the slides.
Backwards Summaries
“Make the web from which this paragraph came.”
Save the Last Word for Me
Read a passage, making notations as they go.
They identify three or more sentences to which they have a response.
Place students in groups of 3 to 5, then one member of each group to read a line that he has identified.  He reads; there is no commentary or reason for choosing it given.
Each group member other than the reading person responds to … see slides.
Change the point of view
Tell the story from the points of view of other objects/people . . .
Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Frayer Model
“Word Link”
Each student gets a word and they have to find someone to join with and explain the connection.
Summarization Pyramid.
Great prompts for each line:  Synonmy, analogy, question, three attributes, alternative title, causes, effects, reasons . . .
One word summaries
Exclusion Brainstorming
Premise: Ther eis not any curriculum so symbolic or abstract that we cannot “physicalize” it for better student learning.
Funny:  Yelling Movie in a crowded Firehouse …
Physicalizing Process:
Identify essential pieces
Physicalize those pieces and present them to the class.
Class critiques the physicalization in terms of accuracy, comprehensiveness.
see slides
Statues (Body Sculture)
Line-up
“If I get the kids to say it, they hear it.”
Summary Ball
The ones left standing are declared the winners.
Human Bingo
Always put something in there that’s crazy.
Human Continuum (Mobile Socratic seminar)
Masking tape on the floor (winding)
A=Gree
D= Duh, or disagree
Middle Line is uncomfortable to respond.
It’s ok to tell little white lies to protect the kid.
$25,000 Pyramid
Pictionary
Taboo Cards
Share one, Get one
We think primarily in physical terms.  Over time we become adept at translating symbolic and abstract concepts into meaningful structures or experiences.
Metaphor
Make one!
________ is/are a _____________ because ____________ .
Ask students …
Metaphors Break Down
Descriptions with and without metaphors.
Common Analougous Relationships (kids memorize)
4-Square Synectics
Brainstorm four objects from a particular category
How is the human digestive system like each household item:  sink, old carpet, microwave, broom.
Highly Recommended and Scummarization Ideas
Go to NCTE’s ReadWriteThink website.
Where do we go from today?
3x3x3!
Three Strategies/principles/aspects that will be in your thinking in the next three weeks for four weeks.
Three topics/ skills . .

Webspotlight:

DisUnion

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans went to war with themselves. Disunion revisits and reconsiders America’s most perilous period — using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/

ViewChange

Using the power of video to tell stories about real people and progress in global development.
Varied length of videos. Videos can be downloaded. Some really great videos can be found. You can change the view from an interesting circle to a list view. Many different subject areas are represented.
http://www.viewchange.org/

Google Lit Trips:

http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html

When Pictures Make History

A timeline of image-makers who have shaped world history
Excerpted from the book, TIME History’s Greatest Events
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2031505,00.html#ixzz15pzqxYhq

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2031505,00.html

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 139 Testing, Conferences & Tools

Jokes:

Ailments
A man was feeling terribly out of sorts and decided to go to the doctor so he made an appointment and showed up the next day. After the doctor examined the man, the doctor invited him into his office for the consultation. The doctor came into the room with three different bottles of pills. The doctor told the man to take the red pill in the morning with a big glass of water, the blue pill in the afternoon with a big glass of water and the green pill in the evening with a big glass of water. The man, terribly shocked at the amount of pills he had to take, asked the doctor what in the world was wrong with him. The doctor replied, “You aren’t getting enough water.”

On Our Mind:

Testing Relief
Conferences
Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy’s Take on Conferences.

Middle School Science Minute

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

Human Body Systems Facts

From the Twitterverse:

* Twilliamson15 Todd Williamson:  @Frideswidel haha, thanks…I’ll stick with hoping enough folks show for a decent conversation
* drmmtatom Monte Tatom Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Co-Host TEACH Town Hall w/ A&E Network @ Temple University | U.S. Dept. of Ed http://tinyurl.com/2esmcml
* drmmtatom Monte Tatom  Action Research: What Do We Know About Learning in the Cloud? #fhuqep http://tinyurl.com/2dw7ww3
*appleplaza Apple Plaza Angry Birds Halloween Edition Comes to Apple iOS Devices http://sns.ly/AEq59
* AngelaMaiers Angela Maiers Chalk Talk 10/22/10
*ktenkely ktenkely Animation Chefs will teach your students how to create their own stop motion animations #edtech #edchat
* lthumann Lisa Thumann Web 2.0 apps from the afternoon session with @edutecher and I http://thumannresources.com/2010/10/22/tltechforum/ #tltechforum
(Call us if you try any of these websites at (262) 724-6653)
*timoreilly Tim O’Reilly  Rule #1: Have Fun. Summary of my talk on innovation at Greenbiz Innovation Forum:
*mcleod Scott McLeod  Can a student bully a teacher? Do these videos constitute teacher bullying? @russgoerend

Advisory:

Famous Partners

Place the names of famous couples on index cards, mix them up, have students match up. (http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/List_of_famous_pairs/)

Life Raft

Students stand on top of shower curtain and flip it over without anyone stepping off.

Life Skill Lessons

How to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to do anything….celebrate success!!

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :
Animation Chefs:  Learn how to animate from these three chefs!

Tech Tools:

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/

TestMoz
http://testmoz.com/

Google Fusion Tables

Google Fusion Tables is a modern data management and publishing web application that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online.
http://www.google.com/fusiontables/public/tour/index.html

News:

Charter school first in county to switch to four-day week

A Palm Beach County charter high school plans to switch to a four-day school week beginning in January. Students would be in school for a total of 902.4 hours this year, above the 900-hour minimum state requirement, according to a calculation received by the district, Edwards said.
It’s pitched as an opportunity for students to have more time for part-time jobs, school activities, and dual-enrollment programs that enable students to earn college credit. Daniel also described it as a way to decrease “discipline issues and student absences.”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-four-day-school-week-20101021,0,6276565.story

Moving Forward With the Common Core
By Sarah Fine

If there remains any doubt about the momentum of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, let it be abandoned once and for all. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, which collectively educate three-fourths of all school-age children in this country, have pledged to adopt the core. Intellectual gatekeepers have given the standards a resounding pass. Plans for implementation have begun. For better or worse, the boulder is on its way down the mountain, gathering strength and speed as it goes.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/20/08fine.h30.html?tkn=LYXFpDDbwWg77mw9AnpIQPhrrQpBWyZw4y%2Fk&cmp=clp-edweek

Webspotlight:

Virtual Pumpkin Carving

A, um, virtual pumpkin to carve.
http://www.ncs-tech.org/pub/carve_pumpkin.swf

The Fisch Flip

Colorado teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams were some of the first educators I learned about who are leveraging the power of podcasting, screencasting, and video sharing to “flip” the traditional model of lecture in class and homework at home which predominates in many schools today.
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/10/20/the-fisch-flip-in-michigan-dale-eizenga-on-flipping-traditional-lecture-and-homework-routines/

ISTE 2010:  Google Apps in Education

For full online presentation, go here:  http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dd4wqj5_406gwcsdnf4
Connecting Education.com
New Approaches for the 21st Century
www.connectingeducation.com
alt:  www.schoolinfo.ca
Waiting for initial slide . . . .

Side note:  look for Googletrekers
I’ve so got to check out TodaysMeet
Telling us a little about Skoodat
•  Similar to Salesforce.com
•  Large toolset to work with.
•  Very scalable.
•  www.skoodat.com

Roger Nevin
“School is becoming irrelevant.”  – Student Quote
Bridging the gap
•  Connecting education with how young people use digital technology in their personal lives.  This web site has the following mandate when recommending technologies:
•  it must improve learning
•  it must engage students
•  it must be based on best practices and research
•  it is free and sustainable
•  we have tested it successfully
… and one more

Using Google Apps Education Edition to Improve Learning.
Presentation content
•  Challenges of traditional uses of computers in schools
•  Paradigms of cloud computing and the 2009 Horizion report
•  And many more  ……
Teacher Comments
•  Students worked in groups.
•  Students were engaged.
•  Students who liked music were into podcasting.
•  Every student worked and collaborated on the group wiki.
•  Students were engaged.
– Jackie Anderson, Teacher
Despite our success with using technology there were still challenges
•  Audacity
•  “Microsnot” Office
•  Corel

What do you do if…
•  Jason arrives to school with is World Issues ISU essay on a USB key.  He tries to open it at school but it is unable to because of . . .
•  Maria creates a presentation for her Law class on a Mac computer at home.  Unfortunatelly she can’t open it at school.  (NOTE:  This is not necessarily accurate.  Macs can save it so that it can be opened on a Windows machine.  I included it because it was part of the presentation.)
•  You have assigned a group presentation in your ENG 4UI class.  In one group . . . .
•  You are teaching a grade 12 history course and the final June essays are due.  One of your students loses the assignment.
•  You have asked your Grade 10 Science class to do their class presentations using Power Point. .  . .
Cloud Computing
•  You are already using cloud computing
•  Data is held on internet servers.
•  Programs which run the email service are on Internet servers.
Research & Best Practices
•  The 2009 Horizon Report “introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within horizons over the . . .
Cloud Computing
•  Which means …
•  You only need a browser to access both programs and data.
•  Google has servers on ships.
•  Accessed by any computer or PDA through an Internet Connection.
•  Main apps
•  email, chat, talk
•  Images – Draw
•  Calendar
•  Word processer
•  Spreadsheet – forms
•  Can make online tests.
•  Presentation Software
•  Wiki/Web Page
•  Video
UNDER ONE PLATFORM
•  site:  http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=?
•  Google Apps Education Edition is Free! and Ad Free!
•  Why is it Free?
•  This is their version of Charity Donations
•  Secondary School in New York Video
•  Teachers and Principals talk about Google Docs
•  What do you get?
•  7 gigs of space for students to save podcast and video assignments
•  Gives users a virtual drive that can be used to uplad and download any file up to 200MB to a total of 2GB
•  Spam/Virus Checkers
•  It is a paperless solution
•  Saves printing costs.
•  Documents are never lost – saves automatically
•  Do not have to worry about the correc software version
•  Can both upload and download documents off of your hard drive
•  Quick setup
•  Easy to administrate
•  Ability to share assignments, documents
•  Student to student
•  Student to teacher to student
•  Teacher to teacher to administration
•  Communicate using documents to parents
•  Prevents plagiarism
•  Improves learning
•  On-line tests and surveys
•  Private or public
•  Can record names
•  Can automatically mark tests
•  practice for EQAO Literacy Test
•  Surveys (student, parent, staff)
•  Example:  Adam Scott:  adamscott.ca
•  Administrator power
•  Can disable services
•  Have precise control of who has access to what.
•  Students keep their login and all account data for their entire school career and further.
•  Challenges
•  Need Internet Access
•  However you can save documents off line as a word, ppt, rtf, open office document
•  PDAs can access most features – but not all
•  Your data is stored in another country (maybe)
•  Patriot Act allows the US government to access your data
•  However … there is not document cast where any government tapped into students or faculty google apps documents or emails.
Google Apps – Postini
•  July 2009 Google added Postini security suite
•  Audit emails
•  Filtering
•  High level virus and spam checker.
Selling Apps to Admin.
•  Realize that many IT departments are not in favor of Google Apps
•  Use applications such as bitstripsforschools which use the cloud.
•  Start smaller with Google Apps Standard Edition
•  Say, “This is a pilot project.”
•  Use Google Standard Edition.
•  Set up a formal meeting or presentation.
•  Google Apps and the cloud is supported by leading research (Horizon Report)
•  Is Secure
•  Easier to administer
•  Saves lots of $$$$$
•  Easy for teachers to learn and allows them to be more productive
•  Improves learning while teaching 21st Century Skills
•  Promotes the school
•  Is Green.
•  Everything you make in google docs is searchable text.
Setting up Google Apps (easy)
•  Get a domain (godaddy is good) – Cost is $10-15 per year
•  Go to google
•  Simple form to fill out (showing admin approval)
•  Set MX records on the domain you registered and use forward feature from your domain to redirect your domain to the Google Apps Site
•  Get a text file of students with first name, last name, login and password (could use pseudonyms)
Administration
•  Less than one hour per week spent on it per 1000 students
Implementing Google Appls
•  Use “buy in” approach (if you are not a schol administrator)
•  Start with a few classes
•  Must be successful from the beginning
•  Teach both the students and the teacher – Helps to have (Yellow highlighting white words)
•  Create an ? where the students have to create both a shared document and a web page where they images of the video.
Google Apps Activity One
Google Apps – Quote
“Everyone saw the benefits of share . . . .”
The Did You Know Video 4.0
Free Netbook program a success at Milton High School
•  The price of netbooks is coming down.
•  Lightweight
•  Google is bringing out their own operating system.
•  Kids prefer the net books
•  Portability and connectivity
connectingeducaiton.com:  Presentation site.
Presentation:   http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dd4wqj5_406gwcsdnf4

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM-138 Whither the Wi-Fi?

Jokes:

Counting Skills
A teacher asked little Johnny if he knows the numbers 1 to 10. “Yes! Of course! My pop taught me even more than 10.” “Good. What comes after three? “Four,” answers the boy. “What comes after six?” “Seven.” “Very good,” says the teacher. “Your dad did a good job. Now, what comes after ten?” “Jack.”

On Our Mind:

  • NMSA 2010
  • Whither Wi-Fi?
  • Will TodaysMeet be used?
  • iTunes Rankings
  • Helping others:

Hello fellow middle school science teachers.  This is a reminder to please complete this survey. My gratitude to the hundreds of teachers who have already done so. I am conducting a study of middle school science teachers and their teaching about the ocean.  I need your help!  Your answers to my survey questions will contribute to what we know about the current state of ocean literacy education in the United States.  All other challenges to the world ocean aside, the intricacies of the current oil spill crisis are reason enough to ensure that our citizenry is ocean literate.
If you have at least one year of experience teaching middle school science, would you please take my survey?  It will take 15-20 minutes to complete and your answers are completely confidential and anonymous.  The survey can be accessed by clicking on the following Internet link:
https://purdue.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_87zwywgq8dNRqn2

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science on Twitter
Headrush – MythBusters for Kids
Team America Rocket Contest

From the Twitterverse:

*kevcreutz Kevin Creutz Questions for schools to truly assess how technology is being used.
*
kevcreutz Kevin Creutz  Remove boredom by teaching naked
*
Katjewave Katje Lehrman @smartinez One local middle school just got 140 students “returned” because the charters didn’t want them. #educationnation
*
NMHS_Principal Eric Sheninger  by tfulk523 RT @cpoole27: Writing Fix: prompts. lessons, and resources for writing classrooms!
*web20classroom Steven W. Anderson RT by tfulk523 Technology Integration Matrix:
*msbearce Ms. Bearce:  this is what we did in my advisory today. woot! http://twitpic.com/2ww8u9
*andreacarr1 Andrea Carr
What does Britain sound like? British Library is creating the first crowd-sourced, nationwide sound map.

Advisory:

Voki – Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.

Inspirational Quotes – Here, I’ll share 20 of my favorite inspirational quotes. I won’t include any commentary because the quotes speak for themselves. I hope they resonate with you as much as they have with me 🙂

University of Virginia’s Honor Code:  Use this video in connection with the “Coat of Arms” materials from NMSA’s Treasure Book to build an Advisory activity!

Tech Tools:

Markup IO

Draw on any webpage. Share your ideas. Mark. Share. Done.
Draw on any webpage with MarkUp to quickly share your thoughts. Try it now by choosing a shape to trace. Get MarkUp to use it any time.
http://markup.io/

Yudu
“Read online publications and self publish digital magazines, eBooks and more.” Here’s one thing that I like about it – you can create your own library of books. I started with a couple of books by Richard Byrne (Free Tech for Teachers)- Google for Teachers and Google for Teachers II.

10 Sites to create Comics from Tech Learning

“Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do with students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done with any number of applications, such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer a nice solution as well.”
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/33632

Webspotlight:

School study sees benefits in economic integration

“This study turns that wisdom on its head to some extent. It says, actually, it’s who you are going to school with.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/14/AR2010101407051.html

Effort Targets ‘Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations’

Researchers and policymakers agree that teachers’ expectations of what their students can do can become self-fulfilling prophecies for children’s academic performance.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/13/07nua_ep.h30.html?tkn=VVSFYFZRTFCluQuL2iUL74zLUE%2FrRBupwKqS&cmp=clp-edweek

Edutopia Parent Guide

Need to register to get the guide.
http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-home-to-school-guide.pdf

EdWeek focuses on Will Richardson

http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?intc=fall_tsbem

ISTE 2010:  Crap Detection – Teaching Students to Research

Presenter:  Dr. Howard Rheingold
www.vlog.rheingold.com
www.rheingold.com
www.twitter.com/hrheingold
How can you pluck the answer to any question out of the air?
How do you know that what you find is accurate?
They seem to be a set of literacies.
Attention as a literacy
Participation as a literacy
Collaboration
Critical consumption
The Literacies
Attention
Critical consumption
“Crap Detection” came from Ernest Hemmingway.
There’s a lot of crap on the web and it is up to us to be good consumers of information.
1996/1997 he began to think about this stuff.
His daughter began to look up things on the web.
Example:  Martin Luther King, Jr. An Historical …
The site doesn’t have a good opinion of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Do a whois on the site and it tells you who the owner is.
Stormfront owns it.  (White Supremacy)
This is a cloaked website.
Example:  Hitler Historical Museum
Showing these sites to students is the first step to understanding that what is out there isn’t always real.
There are all kinds of actors out there purchasing URLs.
BP bought a ton of search terms from Google.
Example:  First Genetics:  genetically mapping a better future.
It isn’t a legit site.
Example:  Free Online Pregnancy Test
Example:  Faisal Shahzad Facebook mixup highlights hazards of Web journalism.
Example:  Help save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
Article:  SFGate:  Howard Rheingold
http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/
Looking for teaching stories there.
There are many spam and port sites that are now looking like legit sites and teachers and students need to be able to detect the difference.
Online is the greatest source of one’s disease as well as some totally bogus information.
The one thing that we can do is to improve the commons is to convince people that the things that are in error are in error.
Other Literacies
Attention:
Example:  Student has the ability to look at other subjects and do well at the main course topic.
Multitasking isn’t effective.
Participation:
Collaboration
Media production is unlike other areas of production.
Look Penguin Revolution
Network Awareness
Networked Individualism
Professional Learning Networks
Trust Network
Find people you can learn from.
Long tail, small worlds, power law.
Presentation of self and a networked world.
There’s a great need for this in institutions today.
Call to Action!
The best we can do is work together and for each other.
http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/
http://socialmediaclassroom.com
www.twitter.com/hrheingold
howard@rheingold.com
Additional Resource
Daniel Poynter Hand Out – Crap Detection  (See below)
Please note:  Clicking on the document should bring up a dialog box to switch between each page of the PDF.

Author Information:  Daniel Scott Poynter
Direct link to Crap Detection 101:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/detail?blogid=108&entry_id=42805#ixzz0rdqUmHft
CLEAR Model for Critical Reading:  http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~rparis/critical.html
Diigo Resources from ISTE and Howard Rheingold’s “Crap Detection”:  http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/Diigo+Resources
Video associated with this presentation:  http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 134- Advisory and a Way with Words.

Jokes:

Best Signs
Sign on company bulletin board: “This firm requires no physical-fitness program. Everyone gets enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying of the handle, running down the boss, flogging dead horses, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility, and pushing their luck.”

Listeners:

Dave Bydlowski:  thanks for the email.  Looking forward to hearing from you throughout the year!  Go Science!  (David’s Podcast)

From the Twitterverse:

  • * paulbogush @msstewart You can lead kids..don’t give tool, ask what do you need to be successful, they will give Ans, you suggest tool …
  • * Larryferlazzo Good Parent Engagement Video
  • * teach42 An to anyone I may have wronged without realizing it this year, I apologize. #Twitonment
  • * tombarrett I’d be grateful of you visited Class 9’s Blog + comment to encourage them as they begin their blogging journey :-
  • * msstewart Anyone ever given opt-in group work? Students have option to work either independently or in a group for different parts of project
  • * web20classroom Lessons in the Absence of Teachers « Cooperative Catalyst
  • * phsprincipal Whew… someone else RT @micwalker: RT @garystager: Ladies & gentlemen, I give you the worst principal in the world –
  • * web20classroom From @TeachPaperless-Increasing Student Engagement By Getting Rid Of Textbooks:

Advisory:

Making Hard Decisions:

What would your students do if they discovered that they had broken a rule?
http://www.pgatour.com/2010/r/09/02/teenager-disqualified.ap/index.html

Career Path Discussion:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703466704575489773416987814.html

Tech Tools:

Basic Google Search that everyone should know:

10 Basics tips to make your google searching better and easier.
http://www.techlearning.com/article/32300

Wordia

From their About page:
Wordia.com is a high-quality online dictionary: a professional authoritative textual dictionary but with one big difference…
Like a traditional dictionary, Wordia allows users to search for the spelling, meaning and etymology of a word but what makes Wordia unique is the ability for users to explore the personal connotation of word through video.
My Take:
Videos vary in quality. However, look beyond just the video. There are also definitions, etymologies and more. It is a great idea though. You could do something similar with your class. Or your class could contribute.
http://www.wordia.com/

SnappyWords

Free visual English dictionary.  An online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words. You can easily see the meaning of each by simply placing the mouse cursor over it.
http://www.snappywords.com/

DocDroid

DocDroid is a completely free online document uploading, conversion and sharing tool.

  • Upload documents in nearly any format.
  • Share the document via eMail, Twitter or Facebook.
  • Fast HTML preview for readers.
  • Let the reader choose in which format he wants to download the document.
  • Multiple file upload is possible.
  • Password protection is possible.
  • Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, PAGES, RTF, OTT, XLS, XLSX, TXT, PPT, PPTX, ODP and more!
  • Documents can be deleted by you or are deleted after 60 days without view.

http://www.docdroid.net/

Webspotlight:

Free Teaching History Poster

You can order a FREE historical thinking poster. They also have resources for elementary, middle and high school.
http://teachinghistory.org/

Math Fun Facts

This archive is designed as a resource for enriching your math courses and nurturing your interest and talent in mathematics! Each Math Fun Fact is a math puzzle or short article that contains a cool mathematics idea. You’ll can learn about the mathematics of things like card shuffling to poker to computer vision to fractals to music, just to name a few. This makes great enrichment material for gifted math students or problem-solving groups.
http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/

Commonly misheard expressions

From a friend Down Under. Still a great discussion.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/09/ten-misheard-expressions-to-avoid-in-your-writing/

Classroom Secrets- Taking My Students on a Classroom Tour

By Marsha Ratzel
The first tour stop is the “Start of Class Procedure and Class Agenda,” projected on my interactive whiteboard.
I’m not sure the procedures and routines of Room 66 are worth much, monetarily speaking. But collectively they maximize our learning time together by allowing us to accomplish the administrative tasks quickly, efficiently, and without trauma to students. I estimate that they give me an extra 4-5 minutes of class time every day – which means I’m able to squeeze out an extra day of instruction every 10 days. Since we are in school for 10 months, that means I’m creating nearly 18 extra class periods of instruction versus someone who doesn’t use these kinds of tricks. That’s almost a month of extra instructional time in each class.
http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/09/15/tln_ratzel.html?tkn=ZRZF%2FCsty6RQ0ltMWceCfc%2B5%2FYBAcGhCp00l&cmp=clp-edweek

News:

Did Bill Gates waste billions of dollars over math errors?

Did Bill Gates waste a billion dollars because he failed to understand the formula for the standard deviation of the mean?  Howard Wainer makes the case in the entertaining Picturing the Uncertain World (first chapter with the Gates story free here).

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/09/the-small-schools-myth.html

ISTE 2010

Kathleen Blake Yancey:  kyancey@fsu.edu
National Council of Teachers of English
Former President of said organization.
Online Resourcing and Researching
Two large parts
1.  What it was to research and what it means to research now.
2.  How can we help them research online now.
Assumptions
1.  Sources = Materials
2.  Materials = Verbal, Visual, and Multimedia
3.  Use of the Materials of Others
4.  Creation of Materials
One:  An Historical Document
The Victorian Albert Museum of London
Anybody can access the library . . . when they’re open.
Banker’s Hours
7 slips in order to get the material you want to view.
If they’re still open, you get to read it.
The Seattle Public Library
$15.00 cost if you’re not a citizen of Seattle.
Very recently were we allowed to access it ourselves.
Victorian Albert Museum Library has open shelves.
The amount of material that is accessible is very new and very recent.
Two:  Web -> Print Upload
Libraries are getting rid of duplicate copies and divesting themselves of print materials because of space.
JSTOR is a research device that will let students archive material to read, i.e. make their own collection.
Example:  Visual Search ability
Think of it as a MindMap research context.
Three:  Ecology!
Genetics?
New England Journal of Medicine
Wired Science
LA Times Online
DNA Talk – off topic source
Genetics and Health
The Medical Quack
The Classroom (STEDMAN/YANCEY)
Ethics
Knows how information/knowledge is created, historically and currently.
Knows academic conventions
Knows IP/copyright law (including fair use)
Composes ethically with the materials of others.
Knowledgeable
Finds appropriate information
Contextualizes information
Evaluates information
Creates new meanings with information
Searching Text/Context
Focused and systematic (Card Catalogues/Search Engines)
Stumbling -> Physical context as search instrument (Principle of Proximity:  What’s next door?)
Breadcrumbing/Linking -> Electronic, hypertextual context as search instrument (principle of conceptual proximity:  What’s related?)
The first two are direct, the last is indirect.
Sam Wineberg’s Three Moves That Make History
Corroboration:  Walther Fisher’s “Fidelity”
Convergency begets competence.
Sourcing
Contextualization
His book:  How Knowledge Is Made
Case Study I:  How do they compare?
1.  Analysis of an Encyclopedia entry and a Wikipedia entry – an opportunity to consider how a given term is defined in two spaces purporting to provide information of the same quality; intended to help us understand how they are alike and different and what one might do in creating a Wikipedia entry.
Case Study II:  Answering a question using online resources.
1.  Is Bright Star accurate?  http://www.rc.mud.edu
2.  Patients Like Me  www.patientslikeme.com
Shows the patient’s symptoms through the view of the patient.
3.  New York Times:  State of the Union Addresses Search Tool.
4.  Weather/Climate Events
Which sources of information do you trust and why?
Convergence Begets Confidence
1.  What sources did you find?
2.  How do they compare?
3.  Can you map them?
4.  How credible are they?
5.  How did you know?
And just the other day ….
Beth:  A lot of it begins with medical/pharmaceutical research and then considers research in other areas.  At a quick glance, really just a quick Google search [if you want a more complete bibliography, I have one in my office …]
Case Study III:  What’s the Story Behind Copenhagen?
The New York Times:  Times Topics
Case Study IV:  How Would You Document the Decade?
The New York Times:  Documenting the Decade.
How would you document the decade and you get one image to represent the decade.
Each picture comes with student written text, so it doesn’t stand alone.
The Learning Network (NYT)
Student challenge:  Create a New York Times ‘Found Poem’.  (example given)
National Gallery of Writing Website
www.galleryofwriting.org
Create a profile
Search/contribute
writing
audio
scanable images
Teachers can create their own gallery and have the ability to approve/disapprove pieces.

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life