Jokes You Can Use:  

Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, and the other was eating fireworks. They charged one – and let the other one off.

Another one was: “Doc, I can’t stop singing the ‘Green Green Grass of Home.’ He said: “That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome.” “Is it common?” I asked. “It’s not unusual” he replied.

A man walks into an ice cream shop with a roll of tarmac under his arm and says: “Cone please, and one for the road.”

My mother-in-law fell down a wishing well, I was amazed, I never knew they worked.

A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Amal.” The other goes to a family in Spain, they named him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his mom. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, “But they are twins. If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Amal.”

I was in Target and I saw this man and woman wrapped in a barcode. I said, “Are you two an item?”

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Heat Affects Density

I was recently reading the Summer, 2017 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  

In this issue, I read the the Disequilibrium section article, “How Heat Affects the Density of Water.” It was written by Todd Hoover.  The article describes how heat affects the density of water and provides teacher instructions to demonstrate this phenomena to students.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2017/8/3_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Heat_Affects_Density.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Wanda Terral‏ @wterral

Lots of bullets #SketchADay #EdTechTeam #GSuiteEDU #GoogleDocs

Dr. Justin Tarte‏ @justintarte

Basic classroom participation shouldn’t be a part of a student’s grade; quiet doesn’t always mean not engaged… #edchat #sblchat #education

Heidi Hayes Jacobs‏ @HeidiHayesJacob

Now here’s a lively book study! #BOLDMOVESforSchools Greenfield Schools G21 Ambassadors @GSDtweet @mariealcock @ASCD @WisconsinASCD

Sarah McBride Miller‏ @SarahMcBrideM

4 Digital Tools to Help Students Increase Appreciation and Self-Worth in Any Classroom #edtech https://buff.ly/2eMgZUM

Eric Curts‏ @ericcurts

Kahoot releases new collection of high quality standards-aligned math Kahoots https://create.kahoot.it/profile/Math_by_Kahoot … #edtech #mathchat

AMLE‏ @AMLE

Help expand the knowledge base on middle grades #teacherprep at the Symposium on Mid Lev Teacher Educ at #AMLE2017 http://bit.ly/1IJtVEl

0 replies 1 retweet 2 likes

Tabina Adam, Ed.S.‏ @TabinaAdam

8 Reflective Questions To Help Any Student Think About Their Learning – http://crwd.fr/2eN2RKY

Eric Curts‏ @ericcurts

20 YouTube Channels for Social Studies http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/09/social-studies-youtube-channels.html … #edtech

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”  

Strategies:

Videos as Visual Writing Prompts

If you teach poetry, creative writing, or are just looking for a way to help your students find inspiration for writing, you need to watch the following time-lapse video.

http://www.techsavvyed.net/archives/1947

Resources:

Edulastic

Choose from a bank of technology-enhanced questions, create your own, mix and match and collaborate with colleagues in your school. Auto-grading saves time and syncing with Google Classroom makes it seamless for students.

http://edulastic.com

EdX

Our Mission

Increase access to high-quality education for everyone, everywhere

Enhance teaching and learning on campus and online

Advance teaching and learning through research

Our Story

Founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012, edX is an online learning destination and MOOC provider, offering high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions to learners everywhere.

With more than 90 global partners, we are proud to count the world’s leading universities, nonprofits, and institutions as our members. EdX university members top the QS World University Rankings® with our founders receiving the top honors, and edX partner institutions ranking highly on the full list.

Our Difference

We were founded by and continue to be governed by colleges and universities. We are the only leading MOOC provider that is both nonprofit and open source.

Open edX is the open-source platform that powers edX courses and is freely available. With Open edX, educators and technologists can build learning tools and contribute new features to the platform, creating innovative solutions to benefit students everywhere.

https://www.edx.org/

Learn Anything

https://learn-anything.xyz/

Udemy

https://www.udemy.com/

Factitious

http://factitious.augamestudio.com/#/

StoryLine

The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more.

Storyline Online receives over 100 million views annually from children all over the world.

Reading aloud to children has been shown to improve reading, writing and communication skills, logical thinking and concentration, and general academic aptitude, as well as inspire a lifelong love of reading. Teachers use Storyline Online in their classrooms, and doctors and nurses play Storyline Online in children’s hospitals.

http://www.storylineonline.net/

Andrée Balloon Crash: A Photographic Journey through the Most Surreal Arctic Disaster

FEW IMAGES ARE MORE STRANGE and haunting than those discovered on some frozen film in 1930. They reveal the mysterious fate of the S. A. Andrée Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897, where a hot air balloon meant to sail over the North Pole instead crashed into the ice.

It wasn’t until the remains of their camp were discovered in 1930 that anyone knew what exactly happened to the Andrée crew.

Remarkably, the remains of not just the three expedition members — their bodies gnawed by scavenging polar bears — were found, but diaries, cameras, and film as well. Even more incredibly, 93 photographs were able to be saved. Below are some of the eerie photographs of the unfortunate journey of the Andrée balloon expedition from that discovered film and other sources.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-andree-balloon-crash-a-photographic-journey-through-to-most-surreal-of-arctic-disasters

Web Spotlight:

Letting Teens Sleep In Would Save The Country Roughly $9 Billion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/01/letting-teens-sleep-in-would-save-the-country-roughly-9-billion-a-year/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.511358c006ef  

“The net nationwide benefit from increased academic performance and lower car crash rates would reach $9.3 billion a year, equivalent to the annual revenue of Major League Baseball.”

How “Words with Friends” Proved to Me that Edward Deci Is Right about Motivation

Typically, studies of merit pay programs show that teachers offered a bonus for higher scores are not likely to produce higher scores than teachers who were not offered a bonus. Teachers are not hiding their best lessons, waiting for someone to offer them a bonus for higher scores. I remember Al Shanker saying, sardonically, “So if you offer teachers a bonus, students will work harder.”

The best book I found on the subject, which spurred other books, was Edward L. Deci’s “Why We Do What We Do.” Deci, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, subsequently inspired the work of Daniel Pink (“Drive”) and Dan Ariely (“Predictably Irrational”). He and Ariely served on the panel of the National Academies of Science that produced a report, “Incentives and Test-Based Acoountability,” which concluded that neither strategy improves education.

It is one thing to read books about motivation. It is another to test it in your own life.

https://dianeravitch.net/2017/08/28/how-words-with-friends-proved-to-me-that-edward-deci-is-right-about-motivation/

Random Thoughts . . .  

Personal Web Site

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Jokes You Can Use:

Hey, did you hear that the Apple Car is almost ready. There is only one problem left.

They are having trouble installing Windows.

What did the sea say to the sand?

Nothing, it just waved.

Whenever I undress in the bathroom, the shower gets turned on.

Why was there music coming out of the printer?

The paper was jamming.

Why was the toilet paper rolling down the hill?

To get to the bottom.

Why did the scarecrow win a prize?

He was outstanding in his field.

I used to suffer from a soap addiction, but I’m clean now.

Can February March?

Well, no but April May.

Find your demographic:

Advisory:

Kids hand him their suicide notes. Now this musician has 120 of their names tattooed on his arm

Several years ago, Robb Nash received an urgent phone call from a high school principal. One of the school’s students had killed herself and in her suicide note revealed that she and a friend had a suicide pact. She didn’t say who.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/06/28/kids-hand-him-their-suicide-notes-now-this-musician-has-120-of-their-names-tattooed-on-his-arm/

The Secret World of Foley

Get to expose kids to another way to express talent.

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2016/06/16/secret-life-foley/

The Secret World of Foley from Short of the Week on Vimeo.

Humpty Dumpty

It’s a short, simple, AABB rhyme. Easy to remember, too, so it’s no mystery as to why it’s well-known. But there is a mystery buried within those twenty-six words, or, more accurately, omitted from them. Everyone agrees that Humpty Dumpty is an egg. But the rhyme doesn’t actually tell us that.

http://nowiknow.com/putting-it-together-again/

Solve the Cube

https://solvethecube.com/

The Secret Anti-Counterfeit Symbol

Have your student inspect a dollar bill. Tell them that there is a secret symbol on it to prevent counterfeiting. Challenge them to find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c-jBfZPVv4

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Science Writing

I was recently reading the April/May, 2016 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  

In this issue, I read the Editor’s Roundtable column entitled, “Moving Beyond Traditional Science Writing.” It was written by Inez Liftig.  The focus of the column was on science teachers and ELA teachers collaborating to help students improve their writing.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2016/6/16_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Science_Writing.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Ashlyn Lazenby ‏@MsAshLaz Apr 3 Georgia, USA

Yes! Just one reason practicing writing is important!

Miguel Guhlin ‏@mguhlin

Miguel Guhlin Retweeted Tiggly

MT Why Every Child Needs To Be A ‘Stretchy Thinker,’ An Interview With Phyl, Founder & CEO of Tiggly …

Miguel Guhlin added,

Tiggly @TigglyKids

Why Every Child Needs To Be A ‘Stretchy Thinker,’ An Interview With Phyl, Founder & CEO of Tiggly http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robyn-shulman-/why-every-child-needs-to-_b_10616758.html

via @HuffPostEdu

1 retweet 0 likes

Dave Schmittou

⚓️ ‏@daveschmittou

Do you remember any of the lessons taught by your teachers? If not, why are you teaching like they did?Undo the past

2 retweets 1 like

Chris Quinn ‏@ChrisQuinn64

So many of these ‘shifts’ are being addressed, so successfully and impactfully, at #ISTE2016 .

NCTE ‏@ncte

What Reading is Not http://bit.ly/2943fl0  via @ProfessorNana

43 retweets 39 likes

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”  

Strategies:

What Doesn’t Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon

5 Less-Than-Optimal Practices

To help us analyze and maximize use of instructional time, here are five common literacy practices in U.S. schools that research suggests are not optimal use of instructional time:

1. “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction
2. Giving Students Prizes for Reading
3. Weekly Spelling Tests
4. Unsupported Independent Reading
5. Taking Away Recess as Punishment

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/literacy-practices-we-should-abandon-nell-k-duke

Louisiana requires Cursive

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2016/06/louisiana_cursive_12th_grade.html

Resources:

OER

https://www.oercommons.org/

Literacy Test

https://www.buzzfeed.com/farrahpenn/can-you-pass-this-1960s-louisiana-literacy-test?utm_term=.rbMmQLyka#.tjXXLzMqK

Web Spotlight:

13, right now

This is what it’s like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing

• She slides into the car, and even before she buckles her seat belt, her phone is alight in her hands. A 13-year-old girl after a day of eighth grade.
• She closes it. She opens Instagram. She opens the NBA app. She shuts the screen off. She turns it back on. She opens Spotify. Opens Fitbit. She has 7,427 steps. Opens Instagram again. Opens Snapchat. She watches a sparkly rainbow flow from her friend’s mouth. She watches a YouTube star make pouty faces at the camera. She watches a tutorial on nail art. She feels the bump of the driveway and looks up. They’re home. Twelve minutes have passed.
• Katherine Pommerening’s iPhone is the place where all of her friends are always hanging out. So it’s the place where she is, too. She’s on it after it rings to wake her up in the mornings. She’s on it at school, when she can sneak it.
• Katherine Pommerening’s iPhone is the place where all of her friends are always hanging out.
• The best thing is the little notification box, which means someone liked, tagged or followed her on Instagram. She has 604 followers. There are only 25 photos on her page because she deletes most of what she posts. The ones that don’t get enough likes, don’t have good enough lighting or don’t show the coolest moments in her life must be deleted.
• Somewhere, maybe at this very moment, neurologists are trying to figure out what all this screen time is doing to the still-forming brains of people Katherine’s age, members of what’s known as Generation Z. Educators are trying to teach them that not all answers are Googleable.
• “It kind of, almost, promotes you as a good person. If someone says, ‘tbh you’re nice and pretty,’ that kind of, like, validates you in the comments. Then people can look at it and say ‘Oh, she’s nice and pretty.’ ”
• School is where she thrives: She is beloved by her teachers, will soon star as young Simba in the eighth-grade performance of “The Lion King” musical, and gets straight A’s.
• Her school doesn’t offer a math course challenging enough for her, so she takes honors algebra online through Johns Hopkins University.
• Some of Katherine’s very best friends have never been to her house, or she to theirs. To Dave, it seems like they rarely hang out, but he knows that to her, it seems like they’re together all the time. He tries to watch what she sends them — pictures of their family skiing, pictures of their cat Bo — but he’s not sure what her friends, or whomever she follows, is sending back.
• Even if her dad tried snooping around her apps, the true dramas of teenage girl life are not written in the comments.
• Like how sometimes, Katherine’s friends will borrow her phone just to un-like all the Instagram photos of girls they don’t like. Katherine can’t go back to those girls’ pages and re-like the photos because that would be stalking, which is forbidden.
• Or how last week, at the middle school dance, her friends got the phone numbers of 10 boys, but then they had to delete five of them because they were seventh-graders. And before she could add the boys on Snapchat, she realized she had to change her username because it was her childhood nickname and that was totally embarrassing.
• Then, because she changed her username, her Snapchat score reverted to zero. The app awards about one point for every snap you send and receive. It’s also totally embarrassing and stressful to have a low Snapchat score. So in one day, she sent enough snaps to earn 1,000 points.
• Snapchat is where flirting happens. She doesn’t know anyone who has sent a naked picture to a boy, but she knows it happens with older girls, who know they have met the right guy.
• Nothing her dad could find on her phone shows that for as good as Katherine is at math, basketball and singing, she wants to get better at her phone. To be one of the girls who knows what to post, how to caption it, when to like, what to comment.
• She’s working on her capstone project, a 12-page essay and presentation on a topic of her choice. At the beginning of the year, she chose “Photoshop and the media,” an examination of how women are portrayed in magazines.
• The whole world is at her fingertips and has been for years. This, Katherine offers as a theory one day, is why she doesn’t feel like she’s 13 years old at all. She’s probably, like, 16.
• “I don’t feel like a child anymore” she says. “I’m not doing anything childish. At the end of sixth grade” — when all her friends got phones and downloaded Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter — “I just stopped doing everything I normally did. Playing games at recess, playing with toys, all of it, done.”
• Propping herself up on her peace-sign-covered pillow, she opens Instagram. Later, Lila will give her a Starbucks gift card. Her dad will bring doughnuts to her class. Her grandparents will take her to the Melting Pot for dinner. But first, her friends will decide whether to post pictures of Katherine for her birthday. Whether they like her enough to put a picture of her on their page. Those pictures, if they come, will get likes and maybe tbhs.
• They should be posted in the morning, any minute now. She scrolls past a friend posing in a bikini on the beach. Then a picture posted by Kendall Jenner. A selfie with coffee. A basketball Vine. A selfie with a girl’s tongue out. She scrolls, she waits. For that little notification box to appear.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/wp/2016/05/25/2016/05/25/13-right-now-this-is-what-its-like-to-grow-up-in-the-age-of-likes-lols-and-longing/

Random Thoughts . . .  

Personal Web Site