Category: Lesson Plan

advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 168 Fight, Fight, Who’s on Twitter and who is right?

Jokes You Can Use:

A wife went to the police station with her next-door neighbor to report that her husband was missing. The policeman asked for a description. She said, “He’s 35 years old, 6 foot 4, has dark eyes, dark wavy hair, an athletic build, weighs 185 pounds, is soft-spoken, and is good to the children.” The next-door neighbor protested, “Your husband is 5 foot 4, chubby, bald, has a big mouth, and is mean to your children.” The wife replied, “Yes, but who wants HIM back?”

A husband was having great difficulty getting along with his wife – nothing but arguing and friction – so he decided to consult a marriage counselor. After they had talked for a while, the counselor said, “I suggest that you run five miles each day for a week. Then please call me back.”
A week later the counselor received a call from the husband, “Well,” asked the counselor, “how are things going with you and your wife?
“How should I know?” said the husband. “I’m thirty-five miles away.”

Lady, this vacuum cleaner will cut your work in half.
Good. I’ll take two of them.

Two ROBINS were lying on their backs, BASKING in the sun. A mama cat and her kitten were walking by. The kitten complained, ‘Mama, I’m so hungry, what can we eat?’ To which the mama cat, spying the two robins, replied,
How about some Baskin Robbins?’

A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party.
As her dad donned his tuxedo she warned, “Daddy, you shouldn’t wear that suit.”
“And why not, darling?” he asked.
“You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.”

On Our Mind:

If you had $9,000 left in building PD, what would you choose to spend it on?

– Must be spent before the end of July.
– Must be approved by your building principal, School Improvement Committee, and perhaps Act of Congress.

Eileen Award

Janelle Rowe, newest member to the Diigo group.

Advisory:

What do you get when you combine Mythbusters, Tesla coils and Doctor Who? The answer is one charged-up performance.
ArcAttack is a performance art group that has rocked audiences with its custom-built Singing Tesla Coils since 2005. The plasma speakers produce musical tones by modulating spark output, a phenomenon that was featured in the Nicholas Cage film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame took it to another level though at this year’s Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this YouTube video, Savage awkwardly dances to the tune of Doctor Who‘s iconic theme music while in a cage. The result is a performance that electrified the crowd (pun intended).
http://mashable.com/2011/05/25/adam-savage-doctor-who-tesla-coils/

Stats of the Union

If you have an interest in American demographics and statistics, you need to check out the Stats of the Union iPad app. Statistics are only useful when you have a clear way of organizing and viewing the data. Without being able to do that, you can’t glean any useful information from the numbers. What Stats of the Union does is take a host of data from the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) report and present it on an interactive, color-coded map.
Stats of the Union allows you to visualize any number of statistics for the entire country, all the way down to the county level. There are multiple subcategories in the seven prime categories including Summary, Demographics, Births, Deaths, At-Risk Groups, Diseases, and Risk Factors. For example, with a few taps I can see that in the county where I grew up (St. Louis County), life expectancy is 77.4 years, and population is 991,830. 20 percent of those people are at risk of health issues from smoking, and 102,548 people under the age of 65 (over 10 percent of the population) lack health insurance.
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/29/stats-of-the-union-brings-american-demographic-data-to-the-ipad

Middle School Science Minute

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

Middle School Science Minute – Dissections and Dissection Apps.

From the Twitterverse:

*EDPressSec Justin Hamilton

@arneduncan: @DianeRavitch in denial & insulting hardworking teachers, principals & students proving her wrong every day me.lt/760ka

Note:  Arne Duncan’s verified account doesn’t follow a single teacher.
*

DianeRavitch Diane Ravitch

Having worked in the U.S. Dept of Education, I truly don’t understand why the Dept would use its resources to attack one person. Shameful.
*FlyontheCWall Find free grants for teachers and schools by searching by grade level, subject, or deadline.
*bethstill A great opportunity today to learn about ISTE Unplugged, Edubloggercon, and Bloggers’ Cafe at #iste11. Noon EST. bit.ly/9Du1vP
*web20classroom From @justintarte-10 Reasons To Get Educators Blogging:
*coolcatteacher I’m fully convinced inigma is the best QR code app http://www.i-nigma.com/i-nigmahp.html #qrcode
*HappyTeacherLA @toughLoveforx @DianeRavitch waiting 4 edreformers 2 pass laws 2 jail prnts 4 not reading the prescribed minutes 2 their children at home.
*bhsprincipal A Professional Development Design Concept (via @jimohagan) < Thoughts on Learning Spaces for Teachers? #edchat #cpchat
*Larryferlazzo The Best Rubric Sites (And A Beginning Discussion About Their Use)
*markgammon RT @armano: (good read) What College Degrees Are Really Worth #edu
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

E-Book prices fuel outrage — and innovation

by Narasu Rebbapragada

An e-book that costs the same as a printed book doesn’t feel right. No trees died to make it. No heavy machinery ran to print it. No planes flew to ship it. You might need to buy one of those new $139 Barnes & Noble Nooks, announced this week, to be able to read it. So why should you have to spend as much as you would for a heavy hardcover book to own it?

http://www.macworld.com/article/160120/2011/05/ebook_prices_outrage_innovation.html

Resources:

Our school recently changed our school-wide referencing tool.

We have had a school wide referencing system in place for the past 6 or 7 years, we like many other Australian schools were a “Harvard referencing” school and we used a program called citation which was loaded on all the schools computers.

We shopped around for a few online referencing tools, looking at BibMe, Noodle Tools and EasyBib. We decided on Easybib and although it is a free product we opted to pay a small fee so that we could get APA referencing as an option for our students, which is similar to our previous Harvard system.

http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/essential-tools-using-easy-bib/

Merriam-Webster Dictionary now available on iPad for free

You could argue that there’s not much need for a separate dictionary app any more. With dictionary services built into nearly every interface and Google and Wikipedia searches just a tap away, it’s not hard to find out what a word means or how it’s spelled any more. But sometimes you may just want to browse around or look a word up for yourself, and for those times, there’s the Merriam-Webster Dictionary app, which is now available on the iPad for free.

Technology Integration Matrix

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated below.

http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php

Zondle

This is zondle, where you can play games to support your learning!

http://www.zondle.com/publicPages/welcome.aspx

Books Should Be Free

Free audio book in mp3, iPod and iTunes.

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/

Web Spotlight:

Waiting for a School Miracle

By DIANE RAVITCH

Teachers and principals have been fired and schools that were once fixtures in their community have been closed and replaced. In time, many of the new schools will close, too, unless they avoid enrolling low-performing students, like those who don’t read English or are homeless or have profound disabilities.

Teachers and principals have been fired and schools that were once fixtures in their community have been closed and replaced. In time, many of the new schools will close, too, unless they avoid enrolling low-performing students, like those who don’t read English or are homeless or have profound disabilities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01ravitch.html

TEDEd Calling for Submissions: Are you ready for TED?

by ANGELA MAIERS

As a huge fan of TED, I was thrilled to see the TED organization reaching out to follow educators in search of powerful content for educators created by educators.

TEDEd is launching a global search for new best of breed educational videos. They are inviting content submissions for 10 video series in the following catagories:

1. Math in real life

2. Creativity in Action

3. Inventions That Shaped History

4. How and Why?

5. Questions no one (yet) knows the answer to

6. Mindshifting stories

7. Playing with language

8. Same – and different

9. Things they don’t teach you in school

10. The five minute aha

http://www.angelamaiers.com/2011/05/are-you-ready-for-ted-teded-calling-for-submissions.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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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

 

advisory, Lesson Plan, Strategy, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 167 Fairly Infinite

Jokes You Can Use:

Why was the cat afraid of the tree?
Because of the tree bark. 

Guy: Haven’t I seen you someplace before?
Girl: Yes, that’s why I don’t go there anymore.

An Antartian ordered a pizza and the clerk asked if he should cut it in six or twelve pieces.
The Antartian replies, “Six, please. I could never eat twelve pieces.”

Five doctors went to on a duck hunt: a GP, a pediatrician, a psychiatrist, a surgeon, and a pathologist. After a while a bird came winging overhead, the GP raised his shogun but didn’t shoot because he wasn’t sure if it was a duck or not. The pediatrician also raised his gun, but then he wasn’t sure if it was a male or female duck, so he didn’t shoot. The psychiatrist raised his gun and then thought, I know that’s a duck, but does the duck know it’s a duck?” The surgeon was the only one who shot. Boom!! He blew it away. Then he turned to the pathologist and said, “Go see if that was a duck.”

Q. Why was the strawberry so sad?
A. His parent’s were in a jam.

On Our Mind:

The nuttiness of the end of the year.

Eileen Award

Carol Brown. Thanks for the thoughts.

Advisory:

Turn o Phrase

You can do a three before you sign in. This would be enough to show the students how it works. They could then create their own.
http://turn-o-phrase.appspot.com/

Sixty Second Lectures

Lectures in 60 seconds. (Warning: links to YouTube for videos).
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/home/news/sixtysec_lectures_archive.html

Middle School Science Minute

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

You were both talking about measurement during the last podcast and then starting talking about units (thanks for the Bydlowski Unit).  I got to thinking about measurement in middle school science and its connection to the math curriculum.  In Michigan, we stop teaching measurement in grade 6 and it all becomes application.  I think it is a good idea for middle school teachers to check out the math curriculum on measurement so that they have a solid understanding of the knowledge that students have, coming into their classrooms.  Often, science teachers will say that their students can’t measure, but math teachers know they have been teaching a lot about measurement.

From the Twitterverse:

*missnoor28 Creating a Summer Reading Network by @edutopia #edtech #edchat 

RT @kylepace: RT @mmorley: 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging #edtech #edchat
*rkiker http://newsmap.jp/ is like Wordle for the news – cool interactive news cloud!
*janellewilson One last time: an overview in photos of what a year in my classroom is like. animoto.com/play/0iwDUqHo3… #NASATweetup #scichat #edchat
*russeltarr Turn a work of literature into a boardgame #englishteacher: http://tinyurl.com/3p3ugjm
*jstepheng Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers http://zite.to/mBsN4N via @Ziteapp
*drmmtatom RT @skipz: Five Historical Map Resources thx dougpete #ccstech 

FlipSnack: Turn a PDF into an embeddable Flash Flip Book http://tinyurl.com/3jx6mqa #ccstech
*russeltarr The 500 most recent “Fakebook” creations from teachers/students: http://tinyurl.com/3nlpzxs
*coolcatteacher Tons of apps on sale for memorial day weekend. – From AppAdvice.com: Popular iOS Apps And Games On Sale For… http://tumblr.com/xxh2pupmr4 

Qr code classroom implementation guide is approaching 200 tweets glad it is helpful. #edtech
*RT @mathonthemind: The new Common Core Math Standards in the US will have a writing portion. Students must explain their work. #mathchat
*DianeRavitch Works every time: push out low-performing kids. See scores and grad rates go up. A miracle! trib.in/lPyXdg
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

Make My School a Prison

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!
http://bigthink.com/ideas/38573?lolamericanpriorities

Film Depicts Hardships, Dedication of the ‘American Teacher’

By Anthony Rebora on May 25, 2011 1:24 PM
Researchers, policymakers, and parents tend to agree that effective teachers are the key to high-quality schools—and, by implication, to maintaining an educated and thriving citizenry. So why are teachers in the United States so undervalued and lately even disparaged?
Narrated by Matt Damon, “American Teacher” seeks to counteract popular misconceptions about the teaching profession…
But the film’s central theme is money.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2011/05/the_struggles_of_the_american_teacher.html?cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1

Strategy of the Week:

Put the Directions to the Side, Make the Learning Central

We’ve all heard about and experienced the Digital Natives’ ability to navigate the world of technology, and I am not going to contradict Marc Prensky’s enormously influential thesis in any way, but I do have an observation to make, as well as a suggestion (skip to the end if you just want the tip)!

1. Create a new document to be used as a template for students’ work.
2. Highlight specific points of the assignment where you feel the language load of the directions will be challenging for any/all of your students. From the Google Docs menu, select Insert>Comment.
3. Write step-by-step those areas of the assignment for which you anticipate students may need clarification (remember later the docs you have done this with, so that you can copy and paste procedures that are repeated across assignments)
4. Share the document with your students as “View Only” with the anticipation that they will need to make their own editable copy.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/put-directions-to-side-make-learning.html

Resources:

Flocabulary

We provide a free song from each of our titles in Vocabulary, Literature, Social Studies, Math and Science. You can find these samples by clicking on the subject heading above. We’ve produced videos for some of these songs. We’ve also created a handful of free songs and videos that don’t correspond to any particular album.
http://www.flocabulary.com/teacher_free_songs_videos.html

Tildee

Quick and easy way to create step by step directions. Allows for editing. Email address is needed to edit and create accounts. Directions can include Google Maps, Videos, and Images (and text, of course).
http://www.tildee.com/

Teach Handwriting

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy057.shtml

Web Spotlight:

Computer Desktop Clutter Reveals Your Personality

Computer users with messy desktops are more likely to be liberal, educated city-dwellers who are career-minded and good at math, while those that keep their computer icons neat and tidy are more likely to be young tech-savvy suburbanites that say their personal life is more important than work. At least according to a new survey.
http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1931

Myth of Bell to Bell teaching

Many teachers have been told to teach from bell to bell. Unfortunately, some teachers believe this means they must stand and deliver in front of the board for 50 minutes. Big mistake! In traditional urban schools, it is hard to keep students’ attention for even 5 minutes without them taking out their phone or simply daydreaming while acting like they are paying attention.
http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/bell-to-bell-instruction-vs-golden-rule-of-15-minutes.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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:


Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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

 

advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Strategy, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 166: Tons of Advisory ideas, Measuring and more.

Jokes You Can Use:

A man was checking into a hotel when he saw a golden retriever sitting on a rug near the hotel elevator. Talking to the man behind the desk, he asked, “Does your dog bite?” The attendant said, “No, he doesn’t.” But as the man let his hand down to pat the dog, it bit his hand and held on so tightly that the man had to throw him across the room.

Returning to the desk, the man said, “I thought you said that your dog didn’t bite.” He directed the attendant’s attention to the dog, who now had returned to the rug. The attendant simply answered, “My friend that is NOT my dog.”

TEACHER: Desmond, your composition on “My Dog” is exactly the same as your brother’s. Did you copy his?
DESMOND: No, teacher, it’s the same dog!

Q: What do you call a woman that knows where her husband is 24/7?
A: A WIDOW!!!!!

Eileen Award

Tami Readinger, Thanks for the Twitter Follow!

Advisory:

Create a Unit of Measurement:  “We recently discussed a few unusual units of measurement, including the Wheaton (500,000 Twitter followers) and the milliHelen (the quantity of beauty required to launch a single ship). On the chalkboard of made-up measurements, there’s still plenty of room. So let’s invent some new ones!
Your fake units can measure anything: height, weight, time, the amount of energy required to do something, whatever.  We’ll award a copy of Split Decision to the person who coins our favorite new unit, and we’ll have other prizes for three runners-up. We’ll also start casually using your term in conversation. This might take off.”
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/87272

Kinestic Challenge

  • You don’t have to be at a desk but you must be sitting.
  • While sitting at your desk make clockwise circles with your right foot.
  • While doing this, draw the number ” 6 ” in the air with your right hand.
  • Your foot will change direction.

Middle School Science Minute

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

NASA Explorer School Program, since Shawn was asking about it on the last show.  NASA has changed the way they do these NES Schools, so it is much easier to participate.  Check it out at:  explorerschools.nasa.gov

From the Twitterverse:

*camlecolorado “Many parents failing to supervise kids on Facebook” SF Chronicle bit.ly/lS1ri9 via @Larryferlazzo
*jsmummert History sleuths, what the heck is this?
*
Larryferlazzo Larry Ferlazzo”Artificial Grammar Reveals Inborn Language Sense, Study Shows”
*bivey MT @SOSMarch: RT@EdReformPR “I teach, therefore I’ve lost sleep worrying about other people’s kids. <Man, that’s the truth!
*LogicalChoice Individualized Technology Plan Helps Student with Autism Achieve Learning Goals freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/indivi… #autism #edchat
*OCESS Did you know @NASA is giving space shuttle tiles to U.S. schools & universities until 5/23? http://go.nasa.gov/gpkYzD #edcampplano
*ColoradoHowe Please help contribute to a GDoc on World History online video clips at Great start so far! #sschat
*tombarrett One Question Surveys – Simple Surveys Chunky Results :: 1000+ Responses Each
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

Textbook Pilot

We are pleased to announce that Nature Publishing Group will shortly be releasing Principles of Biology, an evidence-based textbook solution for today’s biology classrooms.
Principles of Biology is a high quality reinvention of the textbook, drawing on Nature Publishing Group’s ties into science research and reflecting the values of the education community.

  • More than 200 customizable peer-reviewed mini-chapters created by dozens of scientists, instructors, and editors
  • 75+ online interactive exercises to give students a hands-on way to apply their knowledge
  • 40+ Bioskills units teaching students real scientific skills, including data analysis
  • 2000+ assessment questions
  • Synopses and links to milestone research papers from Nature and other journals
  • Accessible on laptop, smartphone, or tablet
  • Affordably priced for all students

Principles of Biology covers all of the topics taught in majors introductory biology courses including chemistry, cells, genetics, evolution, biodiversity, plant physiology, animal physiology, and ecology.
We are looking for a small number of pilot partners to help us field test this resource during the 2011 fall semester.
http://www.nature.com/nature_education/biology.html

Walden University has expanded its MobileLearn service by releasing content through Apple’s iTunes U. The university’s new iTunes U page provides students with course content, experiential videos, highlights of Walden students, and a number of other resources for enhancing the student experience. When partaking in MobileLearn-enabled courses, students can access video and audio content from the classroom through iTunes, as well as save the content for offline access. In addition, the university also offers an iOS application that provides access to online classrooms, university messages, a Walden e-mail account, and student support services.
http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/11/05/12/ledet.updates.courses.for.ipad.integration

Strategy of the Week:

Addressing Bullying

Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.
We exist because our nation’s children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development . As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sample-lesson

Tips for Using Project Based Learning to Teach Math Standards

Let’s be honest. Designing PBL for Math can be a different beast. With the pressure of high-stakes testing and a packed curriculum, I often coach teachers who are nervous about giving time to a robust PBL project. In addition, because of the plethora of math standards, it can be difficult to choose the right learning target(s) for the project. Here are some tips for teachers designing individual Math PBL projects.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-math-standards

Resources:

National Jukebox

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/

Anne Frank Virtual Tour

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Enter-the-3D-house/#/house/21/

Good Reads Makes Good Readers

So if you are here you read blogs, but do you read books too? Do your students? Mine didn’t. Not much anyway. Then about a month ago I read a book for teachers called The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/goodreads-makes-great-readers.html
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1qEV4Ht-aKZuYM8NF_bSLpKfSzMD41lPaLR6rLnHRAbg

Yong Zhao Learning
Famed Educational Expositor has a website with links to videos of his presentations on various educational topics.
http://zhaolearning.com/

Web Spotlight:

Book Writing

So you want to write a book. Well, why not? So does about 80 percent of the United States population according to a survey by the Jenkins Group.

  • 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
  • 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
  • 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
  • 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
  • 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
  • 70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.
  • 70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.
    (Source: Jerold Jenkins, www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)
  • 53 percent read fiction, 43 percent read nonfiction. The favorite fiction category is mystery and suspense, at 19 percent.
  • 55 percent of fiction is bought by women, 45 percent by men.
  • (Source: Publishers Weekly)
  • About 120,000 books are published each year in the U.S.
  • (Source: www.bookwire.com)
  • A successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies.
  • A successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies.
  • (Source: Authors Guild, www.authorsguild.org)
  • On average, a bookstore browser spends 8 seconds looking at a book’s front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover.
  • (Source: Para Publishing, www.parapub.com)
  • Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
  • (Source: Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment banker)

http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1898

Across More Classes, Videos Make the Grade

Film students aren’t the only ones producing videos for homework these days.
http://chronicle.com/article/Across-More-Classes-Videos/127422

20 Questions That Will Make You a Better Person

Excellent students of life take the time to answer good questions.
Sit down with a piece of paper and play twenty questions with yourself.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/05/20-questions-that-will-make-you-better.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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:


Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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

 

advisory, Lesson Plan, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM- 164 Michigan Reform, Cursive, and Comedians.

Jokes You Can Use:

TEACHER: What is the chemical formula for water?
SARAH: “HIJKLMNO”!
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
SARAH: Yesterday you said its H to O!

Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, “why is the bride dressed in white?” “Because white is the color of happiness,” her mother explained. “And today is the happiest day in her life.” The child thought about this for a moment. “So why is the groom wearing black?”

Confucius say: Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient.

Two guys were riding in a car, arguing about how to say the name of the city that they were in. One said “Louieville” and the other “Louiseville.” They went on arguing and arguing, until they came upon a fast-food restaurant. The one guy goes inside and says to the waitress, “Tell me the name of the place where I am right now really, really, really slowly.” The waitress goes, “Bur-ger-King.”

On Our Mind:

Gov. Snyder announces Michigan School Reform
New certification level:  Master Teacher
New certification steps:  Provisional – 5 years
Pre-Professional – 3 years
Master Teacher – National Certification or State Level Observations
“Degrees Matter”:  Anybody with a degree can teach in their area.  (Except education degrees . . .)
What does this do to “Highly Qualified”?
Seniority:  If your principal eliminates your position, the other buildings don’t have to let you bump into a position there.

Advisory:

Who Am I?
http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/resources/whoami/whoami.html

Middle School Science Minute

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

Science Scope, the National Science Teachers Association’s middle school science journal.  It comes with membership in NSTA.

From the Twitterverse:

*Frankwspencer Developing Better Teacher Evaluation Systems – High School Notes (usnews.com) usnews.com/education/blog…
*teach42 Steve Dembo Looking for some fun sites to play around with this weekend? Check out http://www.scoop.it/t/edu-2-0 Trust me, you’ll find SOMETHING new 🙂
*Larryferlazzo RT @SeanBanville: 17 lesson plans & listenings for holidays in May – Twinglish
*LS4C1 Rhee says teachers don’t put students first. Gov. Christie calls teachers fat. Soon Donald Trump will say they have weird hair
*schoolwise Education Week: How Education Reform Traps Poor Children edweek.org/ew/articles/20… via @educationweek
*QcodesR Students give QR codes mixed reviews
*drmmtatom Who Am I? A History Mystery http://tinyurl.com/3z5m3ov #fhuedu508
*JohnMikulski Blog: Teachers, advocate for yourself and your profession. #ntchat
*ktenkely “Teach your students facts and you empower them for a test. Teach them how to think, and you empower them for a lifetime. http://j.mp/htCp4z
*3woshA4MA Aysha Al Awadhi“@habhoub84: @justinbieber its my 1st time tweeting u! Plz let my students concentrate in class! Pleads of middle school teacher :D”
*CaliLewis New owners for Delicious (you might have heard of them), and some search engine help for stolen cameras! http://geekbeat.tv/175
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

Delicious has a new owner:

Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.

To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy.

What Educators Can Learn From Comedians:

Talking Education: A Virtual Workshop for Innovations
By Andrew Marcinek

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/sharing-innovation-workshop-andrew-marcinek

The Case for Cursive

For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html?_r=1

Strategy of the Week:

Using ‘Answer Cards’ to Identify Struggling Students

Each student has at his desk a set of index cards. You will have distributed these at the beginning of class. Written on each card is a single response, such as A, B, C, D or YES or NO. You may want to add TRUE and FALSE or any others that you need.
http://adhdsolution.com/using-answer-cards-to-identify-struggling-students/

Resources:

OpenSource.com

We want to shine a light on the places where the open source way is multiplying ideas and effort, even beyond technology. We believe that opensource.com will be a gathering place for many of the open source stories we’d like to share–through articles, audio, web presentations, video, or open discussion.
http://opensource.com/education

BEAUTIFUL WEB-BASED TIMELINE SOFTWARE

Welcome to TikiToki, a web app that makes it dead easy to make stunning, animated timelines that work in your browser. Our basic account is completely free.
How would you like to create beautiful, interactive timelines that include videos and image galleries? Well, now you can thanks to a great new web service brought to you by ChronoFlo and Webalon.

TikiToki makes creating online timelines as easy as possible. Sign up for our free, basic account and within almost no time, you could be creating a timeline of your life, of a historical event that interests you or of the life of a great musician or artist… the possibilities are endless.

Already have loads of videos and images on Flickr, Youtube and Vimeo. You’ll be pleased to hear that we have integrated TikiToki with these popular services, making adding videos and images to your timeline a cinch.

You don’t even have to pay a penny to start creating timelines. Our basic account is completely free.

Click the ‘continue’ button below to see a demonstration of how our timeline software works. And when you are finished playing with it, sign up and start making a timeline of your own!

 

Timelines can be Flash or Javascript.

http://www.tiki-toki.com/

Web Spotlight:

 

Need Children Read “Proficiently” by Grade 3 to Be Sure to Graduate From High School? Some Possible Misinterpretations of Hernandez

by Stephen Krashen

http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=412

Much Ado About Nothing

http://weeklyreader.com/ado

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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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

 

advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, Podcast, Strategy, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 163 We’ll start at 1:38:26.98765432221 pm. Maybe. (And finish after cursing out Skype).

Jokes You Can Use:
One reason the Military Services have trouble operating jointly is that they don’t speak the same language. For example, if you told Navy personnel to “secure a building,” they would turn off the lights and lock the doors. The Army would occupy the building so no one could enter. Marines would assault the building, capture it, and defend it with suppressive fire and close combat. The Air Force, on the other hand, would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy. 

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Because if they flew over the bay, they’d be baygulls (bagels, get it?).

At a Catholic school, there was a “meet the teacher” open house for the 2nd graders. After the meeting, a Nun announced that there would be a small reception afterwards in the cafeteria. All the children and parents filed in, and saw on a table a plate of apples, a plate of cookies, and some water bottles and juice. As the children went through the line, one boy saw that there was a sign on the plate of apples that said, “Take only one. God is watching.” So, the boy took an apple and moved on to the cookies. He helped himself, and then took a small piece of paper, and wrote: “Take all you want”. God is watching the apples.”

Q: What did the green grape say to the purple grape?
A: “BREATHE YOU IDIOT, BREATHE!”

On Our Mind:

What do you mean by learning?
http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/and-what-do-you-mean-by-learning/

Eileen Award

Erin. Thanks for the link.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/a-better-way-to-teach-math/

Advisory:

Taxes:
Where do taxes go?
http://datavizchallenge.org/viz/56

Middle School Science Minute

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

Foresenics: CSI for Middle School students. forensics.rice.edu

From the Twitterverse:

*shannonmmiller Thanks for sharing RT @gwynethjones: Design QR Code Social Mini Cards| With Colours! ventipix.com/vpx_qrcode_mst… #vanmeterbpchs LOVE this
*drmmtatom Learnable – Teach or Take a Course Online #ccstech http://tinyurl.com/69s8gcr 

Show Me – Create & Share Lessons on an #iPad #ccstech http://tinyurl.com/3jka9kp

Free Documentary TV – Find & Watch Free Documentaries #fhuedu508 http://tinyurl.com/3op2ghj

iPad apps to improve your executive functioning skills #ccstech #fhucid http://tinyurl.com/43jkq3v
*Inspire_Us You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. -John Wooden
*DianeRavitch Indiana passes sweeping voucher bill, ending 160 years of public-funded public education: http://tinyurl.com/3ozf8mg
*missnoor28 13 Websites That Converts Photo Into a Cartoon Character #edtech #edchat #esl #efl
*mthman A new #midleved poll is out! http://j.mp/gGYuc5 #elemchat #cpchat #ntchat #gtchat #mathchat #scichat #sschat #engchat #edchat #edreform
*francesblo Tonight’s chat archive #midleved at
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

A Trial Run for School Standards That Encourage Deeper Thought

In three years, instruction in most of the country could look a lot like what is going on at Hillcrest, one of 100 schools in New York City experimenting with new curriculum standards known as the common core.
At a training session last month, teams representing several schools in the pilot were asked to list lessons they had learned. Teachers from the Forward School of Creative Writing, a middle school in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, wrote on a piece of cardboard: “Visuals help students make meaning” and “Many students are reading far below grade level.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/nyregion/100-new-york-schools-try-common-core-approach.html?_r=1
The Common Core Standards:  http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Can a 9-Hour School Day Prevent Students from Dropping Out?

That means that every student stays an extra three hours per day, four days a week, working on everything from language arts and math to art and P.E. in project-based groups. (Fridays are used for staff development.)
Students spend time in enrichment programs, in P.E. classes, social studies, science and other areas.  And through the apprenticeship programs, they learn about careers in science, business, journalism, even photography and art.
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/can-a-9-hour-school-day-prevent-students-from-dropping-out/

Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet—It’s Higher Education

Instead, for Thiel, the bubble that has taken the place of housing is the higher education bubble. “A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”
But Thiel’s issues with education run even deeper. He thinks it’s fundamentally wrong for a society to pin people’s best hope for a better life on something that is by definition exclusionary. “If Harvard were really the best education, if it makes that much of a difference, why not franchise it so more people can attend? Why not create 100 Harvard affiliates?” he says. “It’s something about the scarcity and the status. In education your value depends on other people failing. Whenever Darwinism is invoked it’s usually a justification for doing something mean. It’s a way to ignore that people are falling through the cracks, because you pretend that if they could just go to Harvard, they’d be fine. Maybe that’s not true.”
http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1860

IPS is meeting the challenge of teaching kids who don’t speak English

Within five to seven years, they become “academically literate” — not just able to get by linguistically but also able to navigate the language in more complicated school subjects.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110417/NEWS1003/104170395/IPS-meeting-challenge-teaching-kids-who-don-t-speak-English?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com

Pay Teachers for Performance?

By Bill Schechter
President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are also parents who naturally want the best for their kids. Obama enrolled his two children at Sidwell Friends, a private Quaker school in Washington, D.C., and Duncan enrolled his two children in the Arlington, Va., public schools, respectively.
Do these excellent schools evaluate or pay teachers on the basis of student standardized test scores?
The answers recently arrived in two emails:
• Arlington school district teacher, March 31, 2011::
“We do not tie teacher evaluations to scores in the Arlington public school system.”
• Sidwell Friends faculty member, April 1, 2011:
“We don’t tie teacher pay to test scores because we don’t believe them to be a reliable indicator of teacher effectiveness.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/performance-pay-at-schools-obama-duncan-picked-for-their-children/2011/04/12/AFNBuPTD_blog.html

Resources:

Free Documentaries Site.

Please preview first. You might be best using this for find videos and downloading rather than watching “live”. Many of the videos are hosted through YouTube. However, this can help with discovery.
http://www.freedocumentary.tv/

CinchCast

Cinch is a free and easy way to create and share audio, text and photo updates using your phone or computer. Cinch enables you to capture and report on your experiences in a way that simple text just can’t do. Using a simple interface, you can make and broadcast your content creations through Facebook, Twitter, CinchCast.com and more.
Getting started is easy.
Step 1: Login to Cinch

  • Register for a Cinch account, or just login using your current Facebook or Twitter account, to begin creating content.

Step 2: Record and share

  • Create and share audio, text and photo updates all in one place using CinchCast.com, the Cinch iPhone App or by calling 1-646-200-0000.

Step 3: Organize and save

  • Organize and save all your favorite cinches in albums that people can easily follow.

Step 4: Search, find and connect

  • Find and follow your family, friends and colleagues, and albums on specific topics interest on CinchCast.com.

Step 5: Invite your friends to join

  • Can’t find all the people you want to hear from? Invite them to join the conversation here.

http://www.cinchcast.com/

Online Physics Simulations

Click on the “Play the sims…” button. There are lots of simulations, including:

  • Balancing Chemical Equations
  • Membrane Channels
  • Molecules and Light
  • Gravity and Orbits
  • Buoyancy
  • Acid-based Solutions
  • Density
  • Nuclear Fission
  • and much more

http://phet.colorado.edu/

Comic Book Maker

http://www.digmo.co.uk/apps/teaching-with-comic-life-2-free-ebook/

Convofy

The Private Social Network for your Company
Enabling conversations at your workplace. Convofy connects your team like no app has ever done. It connects people to people, people to content, and people to discussions.

http://convofy.com/

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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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
advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 162-Yap away, yap away, yap away, Twitterland . . . o.O

Jokes You Can Use:
Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.
Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.
‘What in bag?’ asked the old woman. Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, ‘It’s a bottle of sweet smelling cologne. I got it for my husband.’
The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said, ‘Good trade.’

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That’s amore.
When an eel bites your hand and that’s not what you planned
That’s a moray.
When our habits are strange and our customs deranged
That’s our mores.
When your horse munches straw and the bales total four
That’s some more hay.
When Othello’s poor wife, she gets stabbed with a knife
That’s a Moor, eh?
When a Japanese knight used a sword in a fight
That’s Sa…mur…ai.

One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweat-shirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, “What setting do I use on the washing machine?”
“It depends,” I replied. “What does it say on your shirt?”
He yelled back, “University of Oklahoma.”

A man and his wife, now in their 60’s, were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. On their special day a good fairy came to them and said that because they had been so good that each one of them could have one wish.
The wife wished for a trip around the world with her husband. Whoosh! Immediately she had airline/cruise tickets in her hands.
The man wished for a female companion 30 years younger…
Whoosh…immediately he turned ninety!!!
Gotta love that fairy!

On Our Mind:

What have you gotten better at this year?
What do you still need to figure out or work on?
What’s keeping your kids from making big time gains (that are within our control)?
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/03/30/three-good-questions-for-teachers-to-ask-themselves-answer-them-here-if-you-feel-like-it/

Eileen Award

Yvonne. Good luck with the interviews.

Advisory:

Create Claymation Public Service Announcements (Digmo)
If at first you don’t succeed . . .

Middle School Science Minute

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

The World Traveler Dave is unavailable this week. We have hopes that he will return with his uber valuable contributions next week.

From the Twitterverse:

* shannonmmiller MapMaker Interactive – National Geographic Education http://ow.ly/4BEFX
* SuzanneWhisler RT @shannonmmiller Internet Safety Hangman….great review after internet safety lesson http://ow.ly/4BEAa (Free Tech for Teachers site)
* theresawhite RT @kylepace Apps for high school writing (PDF): #edtech #edapp
* web20classroom The Complete Educators Guide To Using Skype From @suewaters:
*DigMo Easy Claymation Animation Techniques: iStopmotion is one of the best (and easiest) animation application.. #edtech
*markbarnes19 Teachers nationwide criticized for Facebook usage http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/535315/T… (cont) http://deck.ly/~Q2Mbs
*classblogs Twitter for #Teachers – Support Videos (via @tonnet)
*hasai 5 Failures Who Overcame the Odds digg.com/d361zob
*mguhlin Debunking 6 GoogleApps for Education Myths http://goo.gl/fb/pB4iB
*camlecolorado “@mountainteacher: The Complete Educator’s Guide to Using Skype effectively in the classroom bit.ly/ibcUTT”
*adamgolub @DianeRavitch Slogan: “You watch Channel One. We’ll clean up the scantron sheet.”
*BethRitterGuth RT @plugusin: Myths and Facts About the Impact of Technology on the Lives of American Teens. http://ow.ly/4yK41 #engchat
*lthumann Five Steps for Implementing a Successful 1:1 Environment | Edutopia diigo.com/0gmvm via @andycinek
*CarolJago Why metaphors matter http://tinyurl.com/3ppdddm by David Brooks.
*coolcatteacher MacdonaldTechForTeachers – iPad Apps for Education …cdonaldtechforteachers.wikispaces.com/iPad+Apps+for+…
11 Apr
*drmmtatom Brainstorming – Google Across the Curriculum #fhucid http://tinyurl.com/455ak6g

The Art and Science of Teaching #fhuedu610 http://tinyurl.com/3nc2en5

Some good reasons to go to school #fhuedu610 http://tinyurl.com/66kgha7
*Larryferlazzo “Microsoft Word Now Includes Squiggly Blue Line To Alert Writer When Word Is Too Advanced For Mainstream Audience” http://onion.com/h9W3eW
*bivey MT @ncarroll24 What Kids Say is the Biggest Obstacle 2 Tech @ Schl rww.to/eSeLzQ via @JenniferBarnett <They c mobile device potential.
*blairteach Nicely done. RT @SuzanneWhisler: Teaching with Technology in the Middle: Diigo for Digital Writing Reflection
#midleved Middle Level Ed Chat takes place in the Twitterverse on Fridays at 8:00 pm EST.  Please join in the conversation.

News:

Federal Budget’s Approval Sets Stage for Future Battles

By Alyson Klein
Education advocates are already bracing for protracted budget battles in the coming year, even as they sort the winners and losers in the bill approved by Congress on Thursday financing the U.S. Department of Education and the rest of the federal government through September.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/14/28fedbudget.html?tkn=VTVFVlNU5PF7n5xlYXH4CSTsWTmv5Wgw15mr&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

Resources:

Memidex

Memidex is a free online dictionary and thesaurus with a simple interface, complete inflections, auto-suggest, adult-filtering, frequent updates, a browsable index, support for mobile devices, and millions of external reference links for definitions, audio, and etymology. It’s fast too. Use the Find box for exact matching or browse using the complete index.
http://www.memidex.com/

SuperMaths

A variety of math games.
http://www.supermathsworld.com/

YapTime

A simple way to connect.
Teens don’t email. Grandparents don’t text. To keep connected simply create a group, invite members, post private messages, photos, videos, files and calendars — all one safe place.

http://yaptime.com/

Web Spotlight:

NASA releases sky-mapping archive

By Alicia Chang, Associated Press

NASA has released a trove of data from its sky-mapping mission, allowing scientists and anyone with access to the Internet to peruse millions of galaxies, stars, asteroids and other hard-to-see objects.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-04-15-nasa-sky-mapping-spacecraft.htm

Idioms 4 You

Idioms, um, for you.
http://www.idioms4you.com/index.html

CAST

A nonprofit leader in education, CAST works to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning. Explore this website to find out more about our research and development, innovative learning tools, and professional services.
http://cast.org

UDL Guidelines

The goal of education in the 21st century is not simply the mastery of content knowledge or use of new technologies. It is the mastery of the learning process. Education should help turn novice learners into expert learners—individuals who want to learn, who know how to learn strategically, and who, in their own highly individual and flexible ways, are well prepared for a lifetime of learning. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) helps educators meet this goal by providing a framework for understanding how to create curricula that meets the needs of all learners from the start.
The UDL Guidelines, an articulation of the UDL framework, can assist anyone who plans lessons/units of study or develops curricula (goals, methods, materials, and assessments) to reduce barriers, as well as optimize levels of challenge and support, to meet the needs of all learners from the start. They can also help educators identify the barriers found in existing curricula. However, to fully understand these Guidelines one must first understand what UDL is.
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines

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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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
advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 161 Bad Jokes Abound, Update History, and Football!

Jokes You Can Use:

A teacher sees a lad entering the classroom – his hands were dirty.
She stopped him and said, “John, please wash your hands. My goodness, what would you say if I came into the room with hands like that?”
Smiling the boy replied, “I think I’d be too polite to mention it.”

Two explorers, camped in the heart of the African jungle, were discussing their expedition. “I came here,” said one, “because the urge to travel was in my blood. City life bored me, and the smell of exhaust fumes on the highways made me sick. I wanted to see the sunrise over new horizons and hear the flutter of birds that never had been seen by man. I wanted to leave my footprints on sand unmarked before I came. In short, I wanted to see nature in the raw. What about you?” “I came,” the second man replied, “because my son was taking saxophone lessons.”

So the bus driver said to the string, “Are you a string?” and the string said, “No, I’m afraid not”. (A frayed knot).

On Our Mind:

NMSA Executive Director Search
NMSA Elections:  Vote Early, Vote Often

Eileen Award

Eileen!

We heard from Eileen this week!  The free hugs are on!

Advisory:

Overcoming Challenges:

The true story of the Panyee Football Club. Video is 5 minutes and 15 seconds long- subtitles in English.
*Notes (explain football (soccer), pitch (field), boots (shoes).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU&

Get Your Day off to a better Start

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110404151353.htm

Daily Pictures

Pictures from around the world.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2011/04/images-of-daily-life-around-th.html

Middle School Science Minute

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

The Middle School Chemistry Project can be found at middleschoolscience.com.  By the way, did it on the iPad again.  First time I used three tracks.  One for voice, one for guitar and one for stand up bass.  Good show this week, as always.  I enjoyed the interview with Doc Tatom.

From the Twitterverse:

**kelalford Web 2.0 Tools That Will Inspire via DEN Blog Network – Spring has Arrived!! Let’s talk about some Web 2.0 … http://tinyurl.com/3e47zkq
* bivey MT @ncarroll24 What Kids Say is the Biggest Obstacle 2 Tech @ Schl rww.to/eSeLzQ via @JenniferBarnett <They c mobile device potential.
*middleweb CoSN and NEA Foundation offering $1000 prizes for best ideas about “teaching with mobiles”. Thru 5/13.
*ckeech RT“@web20classroom: Using QR Codes In Student Projects: bit.ly/i2SbrE”@dremmy7431
*drmmtatom “First iPad Magazine For Kids” Makes Its Debut [VIDEO] http://on.mash.to/e4pt0Y #ccstech
**russeltarr Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up: http://tinyurl.com/ye3lc6h
*
DianeRavitch Diane Ravitch
Why not rate doctors by how many patients die? That way, no one would practice critical care or become cardiac surgeons. Lesson for ed eval.

How about if we close down Fire Departments if there are too many fires in their neighborhood?

I have suggested Congress should pass a law that within 12 years every city should be crime-free. Close down Police Dept if they are not.
**SpeechTechie Ending @GlogsterEDU week with Gaggle of Glog examples, ideas for SLP applications!! Glogs for PD, social, cplx categ
**MyMathCloud Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more. Albert Einstein
**Ron_Peck Office Templates for Teachers ~ #edtech
**jybuell The CST for 8th grade social studies appears to copied entirely from Trivial Pursuit cards. U should get pie pieces instead of a score.
**RigorRelevance RT @jimwarford: Skype launches social network for teachers worldwide http://sbne.ws/r/78hR
**hrheingold My blog/video of @angelamaiers on new media literacies now up at DMLcentral! http://goo.gl/5XVX5
**russeltarr Back to School: Top 10 iPhone Apps for Students: http://tinyurl.com/kojx2q
**DanielPink This month’s Sunday Telegraph column: Don’t incentivize teachers. Overpay them. (No, really.) telegraph.co.uk/finance/busine…
**drmmtatom RT @nancyrubin: Screencasting: A 21st Century Teaching Tool community.learningobjects.com/Users/Nancy.Ru… via @AddThis #fhucid



News:

No Dentist Left Behind

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/no-dentist.html

Cell Phones and Privacy Risks

http://dearbornschools.org/dtube?v=949NN4oT8MmHj&Itemid=333

Resources:

Google Bloomin’

Google Tools to support the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
http://kathyschrock.net/googleblooms/
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Anw3Hl3DL4wfdG9WR3JQZjJXNFZFcE5pLWhrZEVNU1E&hl=en&authkey=CIf9_uoC# ‘

Civil War Timeline

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/10/29/opinion/20101029-civil-war.html

Civil War 150 years later

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/civil-war-anniversary/index.html?SITE=AP

Rolls Off the Tongue

http://rollsoffthetongue.tumblr.com/

GeoGames

http://reachtheworld.org/geogames/index.html

Wicked Science Interactives

http://www.wicked.org.nz/r/wick_ed/interactives/science.php

Web Spotlight:

Demographic Chart Book

Provides a wide-ranging audience of persons interested in American history – including historians, other social scientists, teachers, and students – with graphics portraying the demographic history of the United States, as shown by the decennial census of population.
http://www.demographicchartbook.com/Chartbook/

Story Boarding

The more we podcast and have our students create video clips or other digital storytelling projects, the more we need to teach storyboarding as part of the process. Being able to pre-visualize how your story will unfold is becoming a vital skill to have for storytellers.
http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/04/03/storyboarding-pre-writing-activity/

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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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

 

advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 159 Stuff For Your Classroom!, #SKYPE FAIL!, #midleved this week on Middle School Matters!

Call Us at (262) 724-6653 (Google Voice)
Diigo Group:  http://groups.diigo.com/group/middle-school-matters

email:  middleschooleducators@gmail.com

Twitter:  @MSMatters

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Middle-School-Matters/348279537549

Jokes You Can Use:

How did the Vikings send secret messages?
By norse code!

Why were the early days of history called the dark ages?
Because there were so many knights!

Teacher: Where is your homework?
Pupil: I lost it fighting this kid who said you weren’t the best teacher in the school

When a teacher closes his eyes, why should it remind him of an empty classroom?
Because there are no pupils to see!

Teacher: How much is half of 8?
Pupil: Up and down or across?
Teacher: What do you mean?
Pupil: Well, up and down makes a 3 or across the middle leaves a 0!

Q. Your riding a horse at full speed, a giraffe is beside you, an elephant in front of you and a lion behind you! What do you do???
A. You get off of the carousel !!!

Bill and Bob, two children, were sitting outside a clinic. Bill happened to be crying very loudly.
“Why are you crying?” Bob asked.
“I came here for a blood test,” sobbed Bill.
“So? Are you afraid?”
“No. For the blood test, they cut my finger.
As Bob heard this, he immediately began crying profusely.
Astonished, Bill stopped his tears and asked Bob, “Why are you crying now?”
To which Bob replied, “I came for a urine test!”

On Our Mind:

21st Century School vs 20th Century Assessment
MAMSE 2011
#edchat, #midleved Fridays at 8:00pm.
Next week:  iPads with Dr. Monte Tatom

Eileen Award

Eric from Chicago

Advisory:

Rock Paper Scissors

On the computer. With thoughts why the computer picks…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/rock-paper-scissors.html?hp

Middle School Science Minute

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

I just did my first podcast, completely recorded on the iPad, using GarageBand.  It was a lot of fun.  Just attached my SnowBall mic and played a few chords on the Smart Guitar and out came the podcast.
The importance of Science…

From the Twitterverse:

*drmmtatom What’s Popular This Week on The Innovative Educator #fhuedu610 #ccstech @msmatters http://tinyurl.com/4zluxxj 

85+ Resources: Educator Guide for Integrating Social Media http://t.co/wtFP3XD via @ziteapp #ccstech @msmatters

Tips for Conducting PLN Professional Development bridgemiddle.blogspot.com/2011/03/tips-f… via @ziteapp #fhuedu610
*TeacherSabrina 5 myths about #teachers that are distracting policymakers http://ow.ly/4lRJQ YES!!! Must-read. #edreform #edchat
*NMSAnews Fundamentals for Student Success in the Middle Grades
*gardenglen Ever wonder what teaching Middle School is like? “Toro Pink” http://youtu.be/TVvEd4LV6HM #ilovemyjob
*garystager @gdahlby I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again. I can be either the dancing monkey or the crew, but not both.
*lkolb Made video calls from your smartphone…Free! http://www.tango.me/
*AncientProverbs A Jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated. -Chinese Proverb
*cybraryman1 RT @LiteracyNetwork: Give your child a digital camera & tell them to document 1 day. …y but they are learning to tell stories #ptchat
*francesblo @mthman @MSMatters @rushtheiceberg @tdeacon Lots of interest in what’s allowed, cell phones. How about dealing with tech policies nxt week?
*ipadnewsdigest Emerging iPhone, iPad 2 App Enables Remote Surveillance: A new iPad app aims to give soldiers on the street a bi…
*hrheingold Mediactive by @dangillmor great (free!) resource on crap detection, active participation in media creation http://goo.gl/wr6kV
*cybraryman1 My How to Take Part in an Educational Chat on Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/4utvwpd #edchat
*mthman Join us! We’re talking MIDDLE SCHOOL this Friday (3/25) 8 pm EST. Topic: How can tech improve learning? #engchat #mathchat #cpchat #elemchat
*karlyb #macul11 – My blog post with list of iPhone Teacher Toolbox apps from my presentation. http://tinyurl.com/iphoneteacher
*lkolb Turn your iPhone into a high-powered scientific Microscope http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope
Note:  #midleved on Twitter is happening at a new day and time!  Join #midleved on Fridays at 8:00 pm EST.  Hope to see you there! 

This week the topic centered around using Technology in the Classroom.  Several resources were mentioned including Xtranormal, Edmodo, Glogster, Notaland and cell phone use.  It was interesting to read the conversations about cell phone use.  Many students have them evidently, but families are not turning on the data plan.  Next week the conversation starts out with Acceptable Use Polices, but just like the middle schoolers we love to teach, the conversation could go anywhere

 

News:

‘Curriculum’ Definition Raises Red Flags (Crvena Zastava)

By Catherine Gewertz
Calls for shared curriculum for the common standards have triggered renewed debates about who decides what students learn, and even about varied meanings of the word “curriculum,” adding layers of complexity to the job of translating the broad learning goals into classroom teaching.
Some of the debate about common curriculum for the standards is driven, observers say, by the multiple meanings of the word “curriculum.”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/23/26curriculum.h30.html?tkn=XQZF8Ew7XPeRb9TDOhxfZzkTiWf%2FZYw5ZU9f&cmp=clp-edweek

What if?

http://bigthink.com/ideas/31604

Resources:

The Noun Project

Simple Graphical Images. Could be used as story starters.
http://www.thenounproject.com/

Thought Boxes

Organize everything you do.
Thoughtboxes is a simple tool that helps to organize your thoughts so you can make things happen.
Keep track of almost anything, and share your thoughts with friends.
http://thoughtbox.es/

PuzzleMaker

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/?CFID=10757332&CFTOKEN=39482384

EdiStorm

Edistorm takes the metaphor of sticky notes on a boardroom wall and brings it online allowing anyone – anywhere to brainstorm with only a web browser.
Each user picks their favorite ideas and Edistorm brings the best ones forward.
http://www.edistorm.com/

Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a free tool that helps you quickly grade multiple-choice or fill-in-blank assignments. I designed it for my own classroom, and want to share it with other teachers… for free!

* Flubaroo works with Google docs. Click if you need an introduction to Google docs.

More than just a grading tool, Flubaroo also:

  • Computes average assignment score.
  • Computes average score per question, and flags low-scoring questions.
  • Shows you a grade distribution graph.
  • Gives you the option to email each student their grade, and an answer key.

Read the overview below, or jump straight to Step 5 to see what Flubaroo creates.

The instructions below walk you through creating an assignment, and grading it with Flubaroo:

http://www.flubaroo.com/

66 Ways to Use Google Forms

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzc5Y25zc201Zzc&hl=en_GB&pli=1

Toasted Cheese

Writing prompts.
http://www.toasted-cheese.com/webcal/webcal.cgi

Web Spotlight:

The Civil War:

PBS first episode available for free.
http://www.macnews.com/2011/03/23/psb-stream-civil-war-ios-devices

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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
  • 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
advisory, Conferences, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 158 MAMSE, DropBox, Latin, and Facebook!

Jokes You Can Use:

A man wrote a letter to the IRS: “I have been unable to sleep knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. I understated my taxable income and have enclosed a check for $200.00. If I still can’t sleep, I will send the rest.”

THE CAT:
One day, a cat dies of natural causes and goes to heaven, where he meets the Lord Himself.
The Lord says to the cat, “You lived a good life, and if there is any way I can make your stay in heaven more comfortable, please let me know.”
The cat thinks for a moment and says, “Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor.”
The Lord stops the cat and says, “Say no more,” and a wonderful, fluffy pillow appears.
A few days later, six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident, and all of them go to heaven.
Again, the Lord is there to greet them with the same offer.
The mice answer, “All our lives we have been chased.
We have had to run from cats, dogs, and even women with brooms.
Running, running, running; we’re tired of running.
Do you think we could have roller skates so that we don’t have to run anymore?”
The Lord says, “Say no more” and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates.
Week later, the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing on the pillow.
The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, “How are things since you got here?”
The cat stretches and yawns, then replies, “It is wonderful here.
Better than I could have ever expected. And those ‘Meals On Wheels’ you’ve been sending by are the best!”

On Our Mind:

MAMSE

Troy gets an Award and a Surprise!
Competition with MACUL
Great folks at Coopersville Middle School
Congrats on being recognized as a National Schools to Watch school.

Eileen Award

Robert Jackson

Advisory:

Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields –

Middle School Science Minute

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

April EarthKAM project for MS students utilizing the International Space Station.  Pretty cool 🙂

From the Twitterverse:

*russeltarr Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields –
*Frankwspencer Why Arguing Improves Students’ Reasoning Skills healthland.time.com/2011/03/17/why… via @TIMEHealthland
*OCESS Applications for Stanford’s Middle School Teachers’ Summer Program in Nanotechnology (July 19-23) due 5/1. http://cot.ag/cHlFKr @egfi
*theresawhite RT @local4news: This just in! judge has given Emergency Financial Manager academic control of #Detroit Public Schools:
*willrich45 Donate your 1G iPad to a school in need: Nice idea.
*rmbyrne RT @shannonmmiller: How to create a Digital Publishing Culture…creating ePubs with students http://ow.ly/4hOVH
*kconners09 Why #geography education matters. http://ow.ly/1scl8R #sschat #edchat Amazing short vid on population.
*missnoor28 RT @kbkonnected: FaxZero – free internet faxing http://goo.gl/fb/UHDSe by @daveandcori #edtech #edchat
*DianeRavitch Is subjectivity a problem in evaluation? http://shankerblog.org/?p=2170
*kevcreutz Ice Breaker Tags – Creative Name Tags via @rmbyrne #edtech
*marinmacteacher SnipSnip.it – Share a clip of a Youtube Video by start/end time:
*ktenkely ktenkely
I’ve come to realize that standardized tests serve mostly to make dreadful forms of teaching appear successful. -Kohn http://j.mp/hvTMCf
*CoachB0066 10 Great websites for principals via ISTE #cpchat
*NCMSA Over 45 presentations now posted on the wiki!!! Still plenty of time to have your #NCMSA11 posted. Directions at .

News:

 

Feds requiring principals to monitor students’ Facebook and other social media during lunch times and after school.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/16/fed-instructs-teachers-to-facebook-creep-students/

“Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.”

School of One

“The School of One is based on the premise that, in a regular school, … there are basically three or four math classes that are going on in any given period,” explains Christopher Rush, the program’s co-founder and chief product officer, who is in charge of the project’s analytics. “So why don’t we take all the kids from those math classes, and all of the teachers from those math classes, and try to use those resources more strategically?”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/17/25schoolofone.h30.html

Resources:

TimeToast

Easy to create timelines. Free
http://www.timetoast.com/

Urli.st

Create and share a list of links.
http://urli.st/

Web Spotlight:

Adults with college degrees.
http://chronicle.com/article/Adults-With-College-Degrees-in/125995

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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
  • 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

Contact Us:

Call Us at (262) 724-6653 (Google Voice)

Diigo Group:  http://groups.diigo.com/group/middle-school-matters

email:  middleschooleducators@gmail.com

Twitter:  @MSMatters

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Middle-School-Matters/348279537549

advisory, Conferences, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, TechBy Troy Patterson

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