I’ve been kicking around Prensky’s book, “Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning!”, and he talks about computer simulations and their impact on learning (teacher sense is tingling … this might be a future podcast … or Troy is getting ready to spitball me …) and am reminded that there are physical simulations out there for middle schools as well.

Experientia provides a couple of simulations and encounters at facilities around the country. One of them is Exchange City. Students work through an economics curriculum (think Junior Achievement) in preparation for a day at Exchange City. Students man the shops, provide the labor, consume the goods produced, take out loans, pay for utilities, run a credit union, create and abide city laws, and exercise the franchise through City Hall. Some of the program is scripted, but the rest is a limited microcosm of Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Students experience the red tape of City Hall and the loan process, maintaining a checkbook, earning a “paycheck”, overdrafting (“Impossible, I have checks left!”) and the need to market as well arrange for supplies to produce. There are several goals for each student. Some are entrepreneurs and have to be concerned about turning a profit or at least paying back their initial loan. All have to worry about spending their paychecks without going over their limits. Students have to learn to manage their time and be back from breaks so that others can take theirs. If the entire shop goes on break, staff have been known to go into a shop and take supplies or inventory. They truly have to “mind the store.”

The curriculum includes a post-trip reflection piece that involves looking at the individual accounts for each student and each business. A post-trip business meeting yields interesting conversation analyzing each group’s business plan.

This is also an excellent community service project for high school seniors who are willing to be volunteers in each of the businesses assisting the middle school students as they work through their work day.

There are Exchange City locations in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Tennesee. You can view each state location here. I’m partial to Stacey Mehler. She’s always a great help. If you give them a hollar, mention you saw Exchange City on Middle School Matters.

News & Events:

Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum
Lakeville, Minnesota
June 24, 2008

Institute for Middle Level Leadership
Colorado Springs,
Colorado
July 13-16, 2008
Charleston,
South Carolina
July 20-23, 2008

Best Practices for Student Success
Baltimore, Maryland
July 28, 2008
Fargo, North Dakota
August 6, 2008

International Travel Grant for Teachers
Available to travel next April? Ever considered being an exchange teacher to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, or Ukraine? Here’s your chance! The U.S. Department of Education is holding a competition for U.S. Educators to travel and see the world. Some of it anyway. There are some restrictions and a daily stipend is provided in country. This program takes professional development to new places. Give a click here to apply for the program.

Teacher Ambassador Program: Applications due April 7, 2008

Essential Qualities in Math Teaching Remain Unknown 

By Sean Cavanagh

It is one of most widely accepted axioms in math education: Good teachers matter.

But what are the qualities of an effective mathematics teacher? The answer, as a recent federal report suggests, remains frustratingly elusive.

Research does not show conclusively which professional credentials demonstrate whether math teachers are effective in the classroom, the report found. It does not show what college math content and coursework are most essential for teachers. Nor does it show what kinds of preservice, professional-development, or alternative education programs best prepare them to teach.

Read the rest of the story here.

Advisory Idea: NSTeens - Internet Safety for Teens sponsored by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Videos and printable cards for discussing internet safety and online behavior. Activity cards provide for educators to facilitate discussion and spread information.

Marzano - What works in schools:
School wide:

1. Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum-
   
   1. Opportunity to Learn
      
   2. Time
2. Challenging Goals & Effective Feedback -
   
   1. Monitoring
   2. Pressure to Achieve
3. Parental & Community Involvement
4. Safe & Orderly Environment
5. Collegiality & Professionalism

Teacher Level:
* Note that individual teachers have a great impact on student achievement

1. Instructional Strategies
   1. Identifying similarities & differences (resource, lesson planner, Venn Diagram and Comparison Matrix, Frayer Model, )
   2. Summarizing & Note taking (graphic organizer resource, note taking resource, SQ3R (not "leet speak"), Sticky Note Strategy, THIEVES+)
   3. Reinforcing and providing recognition (post card home, Weekly logs of learning, reflections, Grade tracking)
   4. Homework & practice (Podcast #5, Homework is your Friend ...)
   5. Nonlinguistic representation (alternative assessment pieces, Foldables, step-by-step to a Flip Book creation)
   6. Cooperative learning (resource,
   7. Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback (Timely and specific, Rubrics )
   8. Generating & testing hypothesis (simulations
   9. Questions, cues and advance organizers (Q Tasks, Graphic Organizers or Graphic Organizers )
      

To Be Continued........

“The Mom” song, sung to the William Tell Overture, by Anita Renfroe What a mom says in 24 hours, condensed into 2 minutes and 55 seconds! Check this out for a good chuckle.

Middle School News & Information:

1.  Ning news:  Works nice, but watch out for the Google ads.  Some may not be suitable depending on the site topics.  Add content to the site to draw Google ads that are appropriate, otherwise, pay the bucks to loose the ads.
2.  U.S. Department of Education website:  Doing What Works – The USDE has a new website for best practices (k-12).  Currently the site has content for helping with ELL students but is planning on best practices across the school improvement spectrum.
3.  School Web Locker:  Is your IT “person” grousing about server space and teacher file space?  School Web Locker may be a solution to the problem.  The San Diego based company provides 100 mbs of space for each student and 1 gb of space for each teacher to use on their servers.  Teachers can create a homework assignment and automatically drop it into each student’s locker.  Students can turn in assignments by dropping it into the teacher’s locker.  There is a file size limit, something to consider in moving to a paperless classroom.
4a.  3 Skills needed to be globally competitive (Alan November)
1. The key to using technology in the classroom, November said, is not to train teachers to use it, but to train them on how to incorporate that technology creatively into lessons in engaging and stimulating ways.
2. The second essential skill requires every classroom to become a global communication center with a more globalized curriculum.
3. The third skill today’s students need is self-direction.
4b.  The Editor Reflects:  “Technology and Young Adolescents: Chance for a Better Future and Source of Anguish”
1.  Did folks recognize the importance and forsee the change of Gutenberg’s printing press?
2.  10 years ago could we see what impact the iPhone, iPod, and Blu Ray technologies would have on education?
3.  Are we teaching to current technology or teaching skills to assimilate new technology and apply it to our needs?
5.  Middle Level Essentials Conference in Minnesota:  April 4-5 is sold out!
6.  Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum    Lakeville, Minnesota    June 24, 2008
7.  Institute for Middle Level Leadership   Colorado Springs, Colorado  July 13-16, 2008 and Charleston, South Carolina  July 20-23, 2008
8.  Best Practices for Student Success  Baltimore, Maryland  July 28, 2008 and Fargo, North Dakota August 6, 2008
9.  First Annual Schools to Watch Conference—Celebrating Excellence in Middle Level Education
WHEN:       Wednesday, May 7, 2008 8:15 AM – 2:45 PM
                    Eastern Time Zone
WHERE:     Bovee University Center
                    103 East Preston St.
                    Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
                    USA
FEE:     Individual Registrant   Michigan Schools to Watch Conference $125.00
10. Software Industry Promotes Goals for School Technology from Education Week. (Education Week now includes free articles).

Reversing the Downward Slide of Enthusiasm:
Why do students lose enthusiasm?
Audience responses:

• Peer pressure
• Newness wearing off
• Tired of being wrong  (Nothing breeds success like success?)
• Lack of home support
• Lower assessement pressure
• Lack of Teacher enthusiasm

Presenter Response

• No encouragement
• Boring
• Family issues (student becomes surrogate parent to younger siblings)
• Long day
• Too different from elementary
• Rules
• Other students
• Teacher strictness/interest/enthusiasm
• Too much teacher talk
• Hard work

Academic Life History (Graph this) then ask them why?
Could the student complete a graph of their interest?

Attitude survey
Students do not come to school to be frustrated and unhappy with their assignments.
Ask students why they are here. Have them process that and write it out.

Core Values:

• Take Risks
• Question
• be curious
• Respect ideas
• Team work
• Problem solve
• Frustration is OK
• Challege ideas
• Explore
• Think diversely

Have the students create the aims (core value) and then sign the poster.

I am the creator of the system but the students are the experts in the system.

When you give students more power, it doesn’t mean that teachers lose theirs. It is not a zero-sum gain.

Plus/Delta
Simple T-chart
Students complete with what I learned and what could’ve been done better.  (Reflection piece for the teacher.)  (What if the teacher had a “locker” on their bulletin board where the students did this on a sticky note and the posted it on the “locker” image on the board where the teacher then can get a quick assessment of the day’s lesson.)

Reeves Research:
Core Research:
1.Defeating the “failure of hypothesis”
2.The 90  90  90 schools
3.The collaborative imperative
4.Impact of nonfiction writing
5.From the bell curve to the mountain
6.The Pygmalion Effect for adults (expectations)
7.The futility of format
8.Critical mass of implementation
9.Neworks beat hierarchies
10.Accountability is more than test scores

Stephen White – Pygmalion effect is 3 times more effective in terms of student achievement.
Belief system has a huge impact on teacher effectiveness
Critical mass: unless the majority of teachers are implementing the work, it won’t truly make a difference.

Collegue to collegue is most impactful than anything else.

Rich kids get interventions and extras.

Keys to Monitoring

• Monitor adult actions, not just test scores
• Monitor frequently – once a month is an absolute minumum.
• Monitor constructively – it’s a treasure hunt, not a witch hunt. Find out what the teachers are doing right. Don’t focus on the negative. Focus on the positive.

Laughter is the common thread throughout effective teams video taped by Reeves.

Long-Term Memory:
From Dr. Robert Greenleaf:
Check out his web site for more information:

WAIT ~ PAUSE ~ REFLECTION TIMES
Defined: Short, intermittent pauses in the instructional flow designed to provide time for learners to recall, think,process, discuss, and organize current knowledge and ideas with prior understandings and information.
Researchers: Mary Budd Rowe (1987) ~ First Wait-Time; Robert J. Stahl (1990) ~ “Think-time”; Kenneth Tobin &
Capie  (1987),  William W. Wilen (1987) ~ Question Techniques
 
Research The average teacher pause after a query is 0.7 to 1.4 seconds, before comment, redirect, prompt, continuation, or redirect.

Strategy 1st WAIT TIME (after a teacher question)

• Method ~ Allow 3-5 seconds of uninterrupted silence after a prompt to allow students to consider/recall responses.
• Caution ~ Too much time after imprecise questions can increase confusion. More often this is a period for “recall” requiring less processing. Strategy 2nd WAIT TIME (after a student response)
• Method ~ Provide uninterrupted silence after a prompt to allow students to consider/recall responses. Allows other students to consider whether to add to the response or offer a response of their own. This provides an opportunity for the brain to process, search, connect, organize. Strategy REFLECTIVE “PAUSE” TIME (before, after, or within commentary)
• Method ~ Deliberately pause for 3-5 seconds after a student question, before  responding or in the middle of a statement… allowing students to consolidate thinking – requesting no input from them. This provides time to consider information in a smaller “chunk” rather than in mass.
• Method ~ Extend the pause time to 1-2 minutes, asking students to think an idea carefully through or to write ideas down. Reflection is vital to long term memory and understanding. Strategy WORK-WAIT TIME (brief think/do task)
• Method ~ Individuals or pairs to remain on task to complete a 30 second to 2 minute activity (silently or quietly in pairs). For Example: pairs interactions ask learners to apply skill, concept, or knowledge immediately after explanation or discussion.

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Conference 
General Items
Attendance:  400 or so
Keynote speakers:  Dr. Monte Selby, Zeitouna
New book using Musical Intelligence and 6+1 Writing Traits.  Look for it May on his web site.

Individual sessions:
Dr. McVey:  Social Networking in the Middle School
Scary factor
Poster school 2.0
What are the tools?
Gcast
Wetpaint
Zimbra
We participate therefore we are.
Linkedin
Bebo
Cyworld
Xanga
Orkut
Friendster
Hi5
Facebook
Ning recommended for educators:  http://www.ning.com/
Example:  dc2008.ning.com
No HTML coding required
Can make it very private.
Librarything
Limited to the first 200 books, there’s a fee for going over that amount.
Imagine virtual book clubs.
Dr. McVey’s email:  mmcvey@emich.edu.

Alternates to Retention:
Dr. Nic Cooper

Tyrany of OR (only this or that)

If we’re asking the question about retention:
We’re assuming that all kids must be at the same place at the same time. Could we look at the systemic reasons?

Look at the system, an analogy:
A rigid ceiling restricting growth
A porous bottom allowing kids to fail and fall through the bottom.

We need to turn the system on it’s head.

How do we address the physical aspects of kids development?

Getting to Got It! Helping Struggling Students Learn How to Learn
BETTY K. GARNER
Compliance vs Understanding. Do kids really understand or do they just say “Uh, huh”?

Project Based Learning Through Negotiating and Differentiating the Curriculum
Suzanne Hopkins  hopkinss@saline.k12.mi.us
Backwards planning first:  What is it that I want to teach?
Wide variety of examples.
Key thought:  They’re going to do the project, its just a matter of choice A presentation of mastery of the material, or choice B presentation of mastery of the material.  “Red Cup/Blue Cup”

The X-Factor
Kids earn their way to rewards.
Have someone be in charge of the naming of the teams and theme.
Use theme words in the hallway
Based off of the “Joy Factor” by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Merits: Each student starts with 5 per day and then can lose them. They did this for paperwork reasons, easier to count by deletion rather than addition.

Must keep 90% to participate in the reward.
Rules of the classroom are cause for merit loss.
School rules can also be the cause of merit loss.
Merits are only through core classes and the hallway for the team.
Team has allowed the students to “earn” back merits for some kids (depending upon the reason for Merit loss).

Rewards (try to keep the reward (what it is) a secret until it happens):
Miss one class period per month.
Students not participating are supervised by a teacher. (There is no “punishment”, they are just missing the reward. Basically a study hall)
Sundae Monday
Movie Madness (Movie & Popcorn)
White Elephant
PinBall (dodge ball with a bowling pin behind)
Card Games (different card games in different rooms)
Capture the flag
Duck Races – bought plastic ducks
Musical Plates (spin on Musical chairs) – decorate a paper plate, went outside, put plates in a circle, throw plate in the air, walk around, when the music stops, they had to find their plate.

It’s only an hour, once a month.

What we’d like to see developed at MAMSE:

1. Non-compete clause with MRA.
2. Conversation opportunities with peers built in to the schedule so that folks don’t have to miss a session to verbally process what they’ve seen and learned.
3. Some time to interact with the vendors outside of session time.
4. No sessions during lunch.

Resources from our Presentation at MAMSE

1.   Skype:  www.skype.com
2.   Required t-shirt:  http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/991e/
3.   Hardware:  we recommend www.apple.com/store
4.    Software: WordPress, PodCast Maker, PodPress
5.    Free Options: Gabcast, Gcast, Blogger.

There was an impressive supply of vendors and exhibitors at this year’s Michigan Association of Middle School Educators’ Annual Conference. I didn’t get a chance to visit with all of them but here’s a sampling of some of the ones that caught my eye.

Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum – Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ): The DEQ has five curriculum modules they can send to your classroom for mini-units or curriculum support (GLCE/MCF). Ecosystems, Land Use, Water Quality, Energy Resources, and Air Quality kits include a binder, a CD-ROM, extension lessons, background information for teachers, hands-on activities and experiments, MEAP style unit assessments (not useful in October), and colorful posters and worksheets. The kits incorporate both science and economic sustainability as well as the role of government in environmental decision making. If you’re interested in more information on the kits and free workshops and materials, contact the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality at: www.michigan.gov/deq-meecs. I’d even try if your school isn’t in Michigan.

Michigan Art Education Association: The MAEA holds an annual conference for art teachers and advocates for the arts in Michigan. They also sponsor an art contest for art students and are affiliated with the National Art Education Association. Through them the National Junior Art Honor Society is made available for middle school students. Students have the opportunity to participate in the Middle School State Exhibit and award winners from the Michigan Youth Arts Festival are made part of the Governor’s Traveling Show which is shown around the state for one year. For more information contact them at www.miarted.org.

The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum: This is a hands on science museum with a particular emphasis placed on physics. Students get to handle objects and see how science describes the real world. Field trips can be arranged through the museum at a cost of $5.00 per student and an additional student lab can be arranged for $3.00 more per student. There is a small fee for use of the lunchroom if your group is eating on site. An additional experience to consider in conjunction with a trip to the museum is an Amtrack trip. The museum is two blocks up and two blocks over from the train station in Ann Arbor. Outreach programs that come to the school are also available for things like parent nights and crime labs. They also maintain a distance learning program. You can reach the Ann Arbor Hands-On Science Museum at (734) 995-5439, education@aahom.org, or at www.aahom.org. This is a nice alternative to Toledo, Ohio’s COSI Science Museum which has closed their building but maintains their distance learning program.

mimio Portable Interactive Whiteboard System: The mimio company was present with a demonstration of their smartboard system. The number of templates and resources from the company is growing which makes the mimio a serious choice for teachers and principals in expanding classroom learning to the internet and reaching into the home or after school hours. If you’re interested in looking at the product wander over to www.mimio.com. You can also reach the Michigan representative at jenni.molnar@mimio.com.

Eastern Michigan University – Master of Arts in Middle Level Education: EMU has a masters program centered around NMSA’s Standards and focused on preparing teachers for the middle level classroom. No GRE or Thesis is required for the program. Fall and winter, classes are in the evenings and assignments are classroom based for incorporation into your curriculum. Cohort classes include Middle Level Theory & Practice, Issues in Middle Level Curriculum, and Effective Teaching in Middle Schools. If you’re looking at developing and enriching your teaching you should consider this program. Contact Dr. Pat Williams-Boyd at either patwilliamsboyd@aol.com or call (734) 417-9947.

I ‘d love to hear about the vendors and exhibitors you visited at the conference. Post a message and tell us!

Upcoming Events:
Literacy and Learning, March 8, Seattle, WA
Michigan Association of Middle School Educators, March 13-14 in Saline, MI
Middle Level Essentials, April 4-5, Minneapolis, MN

National Schools to Watch/The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform: June 21-23
Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum: Rick Wormeli, June 24, Lakeville, MN

Advisory Activity:

Newspaper Tent:
Materials: newspaper and cellophane tape.
Task: build a freestanding tent that their entire group can fit into.

Frustrations Give Rise to New Push for Science Literacy

Education Week

What is science? The answer to that question is part of what is traditionally defined as “scientific literacy,” or the ability to understand science, its role in society, and make informed decisions as citizens, based on scientific evidence and knowledge. Scientists and educators have long recognized the importance of that skill. Today, many of them are pressing to make sure that science literacy occupies a more central place in standards and curricula, as well as in textbooks and teaching materials.45rtedfghbn

Backward Design

Understanding by Design: The Backward Design Model

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding

of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you

always in the right direction.” (Covey, 1994)

The backward design model is comprised of the following three stages:

I. Identify desired results

• Worth being familiar with: What do we want students to read, view, research and otherwise encounter?
• Important to know & do:

  Mastery required at this level. Important knowledge (facts, concepts,

  & principles) and skills (processes, strategies, & methods).

• “Enduring” understanding: What we want students to “get inside of.”

Wiggins & McTighe offer four criteria, or filters, to use in selecting ideas and processes to teach for understanding.

The Six Facets of Understanding

In

the Understanding by Design model, there has been developed a

multifaceted view of what makes up a mature understanding, a six-sided

view of the concept. The six facets are explanation, interpretation,

application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. They are most

easily summarized by specifying the particular achievement each facet

reflects.

When we truly understand we:

can explain: provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts, and data

can interpret:

tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a revealing

historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal

or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and model

can apply: effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse contexts

have perspective: see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture (connecting prior knowledge to new material?)

can empathize: find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience

have self-knowledge:

perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of

mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; we are aware of

what we do not understand and why understanding is so hard (Wiggins and

McTighe, 1998)

II. Determine acceptable evidence

How

will we know if students have achieved the desired results and met the

expectations? What will we accept as evidence of student understanding

and proficiency? What is evidence of in-depth understanding as opposed

to superficial or naive understanding? What kinds of assessment

evidence will anchor our curricular units and thus guide our

instruction? This approach

encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first

attained the desired understandings.

• Performance Based
• Multiple Choice

III. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Clearly,

we want our designs to be engaging but engaging work is insufficient.

The work must also be effective, must promote maximum achievement, and

must demonstrate that students have achieved the targeted

understandings. An engaging design stimulates students to actively

participate whereas an effective design includes appropriate evidence

that desired results have been achieved.

The big picture of a Design approach

http://xnet.rrc.mb.ca/glenh/understanding_by_design.htm