Category: Teaching Tip

Jokes You Can Use:

Bus Tour

A tour bus driver drives with a bus full of seniors down a highway, when a little old lady taps him on his shoulder. She offers him a handful of almonds, which he gratefully munches up.
After approx.15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of almonds. She repeats this gesture about eight times.
At the ninth time he asks the little old lady why they don’t eat the almonds themselves, whereupon she replies that it is not possible because of their old teeth, they are not able to chew them. “Why do you buy them then?” he asks puzzled. Whereupon the old lady Answers, “We just love the chocolate around them.”

The Elevator

An Antartian boy and his father were visiting a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again.
The boy asked his father, “What is this, Father?” The father [never having seen an elevator] responded “Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is.”
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room.
The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.
The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, “Go get your mother.”

On Our Mind:

Google Phone:  A Call from Dr. Tatom

Eileen Award

To Robert in Ukraine

From our Listeners:
Hey guys,

I saw on this week’s podcast notes that someone was talking about screenjelly.  I love using screen casts to communicate with staff and parents, so I am always on the look out for the next best thing.  However, if your school is like mine, then the firewall might prevent using screentoaster or screenjelly.  I did, however, find a great java based site called screencast-o-matic.

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

It works well even through the firewalls.

Robert in Ukraine

Advisory:

Share childhood differences:
For the fun of it, I also listed in my notes some of the elements of my own pre-Internet childhood that I suspect most children today are not experiencing because of the Internet, video games, texting, etc. I decided to post some of them here for your enjoyment.

• Remember when childhood happened almost exclusively outside?
• Remember when a child’s most important resource was a saw, hammer, and bag straightened nails?
• Remember when we daydreamed about building a raft, putting a propeller & wings on our bicycle, or exploring a wilderness with a musket and bowie knife?
• Remember when there was more you could do with a pair of skates than just strap them on your feet and skate?
• Remember when we use to pretend — out loud?
• Remember when every tree was scrutinized for its treehouse suitability?
• Remember when playing house was done with chairs and blankets (not with simulation software)?

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2943

Middle School Science Minute

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

Celebrating 20 years:
National Middle Level Science Teachers Association

From the Twitterverse:

*KentManning RT @mgmitchell: Boys can’t write? Just give them a forum

*bhsprincipal RT @gcouros: RT @snbeach: Common Core disconnect: #bhsc hat #edchat

*ddoherty24 Educate students on deleting cyber-bullying www.onguardonline.gov

*ctrlzee The problem with buying a used iPad is that you know it’s spent as much time in the bathroom as the person you’re buying it from.

*gazelle_com Those upgrading to iPad 2, are you going online or in line? Sell your used iPad and other gadgets to offset costs http://ow.ly/4cxYN #ipad2

*elemenous Excellent school project that utilized iPads and shows the potential of mobile learning. http://tinyurl.com/6f9cfd6 Hat tip to @westleyf!

*Ron_Peck Free Map Tools ~ #geography #sschat #historyteacher

*DianeRavitch Required reading http://zhaolearning.com/

*drmmtatom RT @elenischool: Great resources for teachers. #ccstech #fhuedu610 @MSMatters

*vbek Woz to educators: “be brave, use the new technology”

*CoSN Access educational content from #CoSN11 online with Live Learning Center; learn more: http://ow.ly/49snn

*tombarrett Twitter Dots – Beautiful map rendering of realtime #Twitter tweets #maps #mashups

*rmbyrne Google A-Z – Google Docs – http://goo.gl/Yp8g

News:

Pay Initiative does NOT Lead to Increased Student Performance:

New York City’s heralded $75 million experiment in teacher incentive pay — deemed “transcendent” when it was announced in 2007 — did not increase student achievement at all, a new study by the Harvard economist Roland Fryer concludes.
“If anything,” Fryer writes of schools that participated in the program, “student achievement declined.” Fryer and his team used state math and English test scores as the main indicator of academic achievement.
http://gothamschools.org/2011/03/07/study-75m-teacher-pay-initiative-did-not-improve-achievement/

ISTE Voting is now open

http://iste-listserver.iste.org/t/446353/2089440/2518/0/

82% of schools could soon be labeled as “Failing”
More than three-quarters of the nation’s public schools could soon be labeled “failing” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the Obama administration said Wednesday as it increased efforts to revamp the signature education initiative of President George W. Bush.
“This law is fundamentally broken, and we need to fix it, and fix it this year,” Duncan told the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “The law has created dozens of ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible and focused on the schools and students most at risk.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030903089.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Resources:

Diagramly

Easy to use web based diagraming. Just drag the element (shape, text, image, etc) into the working area. Click on the triangle on an image to add text. Clicking save will allow you to download the image in a number of formats (the default is .xml, but you can also use .jpg or more).
http://www.diagram.ly/

Museum Box

Welcome to Museum Box, This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others.
http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php

Molecular Workbench

The Molecular Workbench™ (MW) is a free, open-source tool that creates and             delivers visual, interactive simulations for teaching and learning science and engineering.
http://mw.concord.org/modeler/index.html

Corkboard ME

Welcome to your own personal cork board. You’ve been given a special link — bookmark this page.  Click to write a note, click-and-hold to move around. Paste an image link and see what happens? Enjoy!
http://corkboard.me/

Pilot Handwriting

Interesting way to create a font of your handwriting. However, you send email through them.
http://pilothandwriting.com/en/

Comic Strip Generator

Use to use and flexible. The tutorial gives a good overview and tips.
http://stripgenerator.com/strip/create/
Tutorial: http://stripgenerator.com/video/show/1/ (5 minute, 36 seconds)

Web Spotlight:

Code for America

Working with city managers, we help to identify projects that can benefit from web-based solutions. Code for America recruits both the development teams and the participating cities through competitive application processes. Once identified and funded, each city project is connected with a web development team that can further scope the project, develop an action plan, and deliver an appropriate solution over an 11-month development cycle. Throughout the development cycle, CFA mentors, trains, and coordinates the teams and facilitates their relationships with their city management clients.
The applications that Code for America fellows build fit a certain model: 1) They are web applications – think Facebook, Yelp, Zillow, or Picnik; 2) They will enable cities to connect with their constituents in ways that reduce administrative costs and engage citizens more effectively; 3) They support the move toward transparency and collaboration; 4) and finally, they are shareable – which means that an application built for one city can be used by any other city.
Fundamentally, it’s all about helping American cities use web technology to do a better job of providing services to citizens.
As the program continues, we will host a suite of web applications all cities can use, fostering the adoption of CFA and outside open source projects by cities across the country and around the world.

Code for America isn’t just a way to offer city governments technical talent at less than market rates. Beyond just the projects our fellows build, the program is designed to:
Cultivate the next generation of public sector technology leaders.
Up to 60% of the municipal workforce in many cities will retire in the next five years. This represents not only a crisis of talent, but also a huge opportunity. Think how much can change if we fill those positions with people who have a native understanding of how technology can work in modern urban life.
Inject a culture virus into city government.
We recruit fellows who demonstrate a networked, web-centric and open approach to problem-solving. Attaching the fellows to the city for the year and helping them build relationships with a wide variety of city workers is an effective way to introduce this kind of thinking and help it spread
Encourage experimentation.
The fellows will be available for side projects in the city that would be difficult to move forward through standard channels. The city leadership and the fellows can function as an ad hoc innovation team, collaborating on a series of interesting experiments throughout the year, all of which will be shared with the other cities.
Change the tool set.
Part of the job of the fellows will be to help introduce lightweight, simple technology that can help with internal functions. These small changes can have large lasting effects.
Facilitate collaboration with other cities.
Code for America is building a network of city leaders who believe there is a better way of doing things, and the program involves both formal and informal channels to share ideas and lessons learned. We’re also working more robust channels for sharing applications and setting technology standards across cities.
http://codeforamerica.org

TED Talk – Khan Academy

http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

Tech Opportunity
Glogster is looking for “ambassadors”.  You get additional resources and a full Glogster account in exchange for your time and use of the Glogster accounts.
http://edu.glogster.com/ambassadors/#newAmbassadorEmail

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

• National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2011 —Saturday, November 10, 2011 Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Promotional Materials:
    • Crossword Puzzle! (Maryland Conference)

• • • 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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.

• • OMLA Registration Form
  • OMLA Presentation Proposal Form

• The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 17-18, 2011 in Coopersville, MI. Coopersville Middle School is a National Schools to Watch School.   (Phone:  (616) 997-3400)
  • MAMSE Exhibitor Form
  • MAMSE Registration Form

• • MAMSE Presentation Form  (Presenter Deadline Extended!)
  • MAMSE Conference Program Book (2011)
• The National Substitute Teacher Association’s Annual Conference July 22-24.
• The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2011
  • Conference Brochure
  • Presenter’s Application
  • Who They Are . . .

• Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.

• • Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.

• 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

Jokes:

Pets
While eating in an expensive restaurant, a patron overhead the gentleman at the next table ask the waitress to pack the leftovers for their dog. It was then that his young son exclaimed loudly, “Whoopee! We’re going to get a dog.”

Signatures
A preacher was standing at the pulpit giving his Sunday sermon when a note was passed to him. The only word written on the sheet was IDIOT. Looking up at the congregation, the preacher smiled and said: I have heard of men who write letters and forget to sign their names but this is the first time I will see a man sign his name and forget to write the letters.

On Our Mind:

Feedback from our Listeners.

From our Listeners:

Shawn & Troy

This is a LONG OVERDUE note of appreciation for the fabulous job you do with your MSM podcast.  I’ve been subscribed to it via iTunes since you started and wouldn’t miss it.  Congratulations to you both on 150 shows, wow that’s a real achievement!  I’ve listened to you getting better and better over the years until now you are very professional.  The jokes are a fun touch.  My limit is knock knock jokes.

Why do I like your podcast so much?
1. It’s a conversation between yourselves and us the listeners
2. It guides me to news items and sites I wouldn’t otherwise get to but not only that, you explain their value and where they can be useful.
3. You have an opinion and are prepared to express it.
4. You discuss the professional literature, highlight reports and books you’ve read.  This I really like.  I’m presently ordering Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
5. The feedback from Twitter is good. (I’ve found you and now follow you myself)
6. Love the app recommendations.
7. You finish up every podcast with all your contact details.  So why did I take so long to get around to this email …………. that’s why I’m ordering Rework!

All the best from the land of fire and floods — Australia.  Hopefully the plague that has hit Texas in funding cuts this week will not come to you.

Thank you again
Camilla

Advisory:

Graphics programs aren’t simply for just editing your photos—they can have whatever fun application you can think of. For a fun, geeky project, here’s a simple papercraft toy you can make with a printer and simple household tools.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/40021/htg-projects-how-to-create-your-own-custom-papercraft-toy/

Middle School Science Minute

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

Clouds!!!

From the Twitterverse:

*EdWeekTeacher Living in Dialogue: Teachers Beware: They are Coming for Our Pensions

*krbiles RT @shannonmmiller: How are you using @Edmodo? Educators from around the world share their ideas http://ow.ly/3ErjZ @lionirons42

*DanielBeylerian Teachers’ Status? RT @CSCorganization: Apparently current gen. of kids better w/ their technology than actual life skools http://ow.ly/3HArB

*cfanch @heymsvalasquez think I’m going to write a blog post about our new collaboration evals @funkdaddytweet came up with. He gets the cred tho

*Larryferlazzo RT @brainpicker: 10 games that make you think about life http://j.mp/gkk9ju

*Learngamer Test prep-Essay, write concise introduction & conclusion, bulk of your time should be answering the question. Make it fun http://ow.ly/3HAbH

*shighley From my alma mater Test-Taking Cements Knowledge Better Than Studying- http://nyti.ms/fMytHC Hmmm

*markbarnes19 Free Technology for Teachers: 42 Tasks – A Free Task Management Tool http://ow.ly/3Hx79

*Orange23 “The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can’t always be sure of their authenticity.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

*edmodo Edmodo Blog: More Inspiration: 7 brand new ideas from teachers

* drmmtatom “Alone Together”: An MIT Professor’s Book Urges Us to Unplug http://tinyurl.com/4ar4gt6 via @fastcompany #fhuedu610 @MSMatters INTERESTING

* The Choice 2.0 Technology Integration Checklist http://t.co/krpJKd8 via @educationweek #fhucid @msmatters

* Snag Films Introduces an #iPad App #fhucid @msmatters http://tinyurl.com/4nqmrh9

News:

Success of College-Readiness Intervention Hard to Gauge

Stubbornly high college remediation rates have revealed a painful equation: High school completion does not equal college readiness. That disconnection has prompted national leaders to focus like never before on figuring out how to ensure that high school graduates are truly ready to succeed in college. In that quest, a California program is often cited as a role model.

“We’ve gone from a system [of state tests] that looks backward, asking how well we did, to one that looks ahead, asking if we have really gotten students ready for college,” said Douglas McRae, who helped design the state’s tests in the 1990s. “That’s a big mindset shift.”

One part of that work is in carrying out new common academic standards that were written to reflect college-level skills and have been adopted fully or provisionally by all but seven states. Another part lies with two big groups of states that are collaborating to design new tests for those standards. Leaders of those efforts cite the EAP as a model as they endeavor to fold elements of it into work they hope will ultimately make college remediation unnecessary: aligning K-12 study and tests to college expectations, creating a feedback loop to inform learning, and providing supports to students and teachers.

Predictions for 2011

1. Textbooks are dead! For real this time!
2. Assessment will be comprehensive and constant!
3. 1:1 becomes BYOT!
4. Facebook will be encouraged!
5. Students will surf away (kind of)!
6. The end of testing is nigh!
7. Students forced to use phones in class!
8. Content will be free for all, all the time!
9. Students will learn outside of school!
10. All data become compatible—globally!

http://techlearning.com/article/35406

Resources:

Reform Symposium

This worldwide education conference will take place on January 8 (and 9th depending on your location), 2011.  The conference is free to attend from the comfort of your home or anywhere you have Internet access!  The Reform Symposium offers the opportunity to connect and learn with educators and professionals in the field of education worldwide. Over 2,400 educators from 59 countries attended our last conference in July! This year the conference will focus on interactive presentations that help teachers with creating engaging classrooms and lessons, building relationships with students, improving literacy, working with interactive whiteboards, and much more!  We look forward to 2 keynote speakers, 18 presentations, an open discussion on classroom management, a panel discussion on parental engagement, a mentor program, and an open lab for hands-on support in helping you continue your professional development in online educator communities.  You have never attended a conference quite like this one!  Join us by registering below for the conference and start connecting and participating now! View the linked video for help. If you need more help with the room links, registering and more please visit us all day in the Open Lab where someone will be available throughout the entire conference to help you!
http://reformsymposium.com/
http://reformsymposium.com/july-2010-podcasts/

Web Spotlight:

Doodle for Google:

Welcome to Doodle 4 Google, a competition where we invite K-12 students to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo for millions to see. At Google, we believe that dreaming about future possibilities leads to tomorrow’s leaders and inventors, so this year we’re inviting U.S. kids to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme, “What I’d like to do someday…”
Whether students want to find a cure for cancer or take a trip to the moon, it all starts with art supplies and some 8.5″ x 11″ paper. And, one lucky student artist will take home a $15,000 college scholarship and $25,000 technology grant for their school, among many other prizes.
Registration closes at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT) on March 2, 2011, and entries must be postmarked by March 16, 2011 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT). The winning doodle will be featured on our Google.com homepage on May 20, 2011.
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/

Qwiki
Qwiki’s goal is to forever improve the way people experience information.
Whether you’re planning a vacation on the web, evaluating restaurants on your phone, or helping with homework in front of the family AppleTV, Qwiki is working to deliver information in a format that’s quintessentially human – via storytelling instead of search.
We are the first to turn information into an experience. We believe that just because data is stored by machines doesn’t mean it should be presented as a machine-readable list. Let’s try harder.
Think of asking your favorite teacher about Leonardo Da Vinci, or your most well-traveled friend about Buenos Aires: this is the experience Qwiki will eventually deliver, on demand, wherever you are in the world… on whatever device you’re using.
We’ve all seen science fiction films (or read novels) where computers are able to collect data on behalf of humans, and present the most important details. This is our goal at Qwiki – to advance information technology to the point it acts human.
Currently, Qwiki’s technology has been applied to describe millions of popular topics – but soon we’ll do much more. Our team needs your help in reaching our goal: join our private alpha now to help test Qwiki and shape the future.
www.qwiki.com

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

• National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2011 —Saturday, November 10, 2011 Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Promotional Materials:
    • Crossword Puzzle! (Maryland Conference)

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.

• • OMLA Registration Form
  • OMLA Presentation Proposal Form

• The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 17-18, 2011 in Coopersville, MI. Coopersville Middle School is a National Schools to Watch School.   (Phone:  (616) 997-3400)
  • MAMSE Exhibitor Form
  • MAMSE Registration Form

• • MAMSE Presentation Form  (Presenter Deadline Extended!)
• The National Substitute Teacher Association’s Annual Conference July 22-24.  
• The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2011
  • Conference Brochure
  • Presenter’s Application
  • Who They Are . . .

• Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.

• • Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.

• 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