Monthly Archives: October 2009

MSM 94: What Conferences Will Come: And That’s Why We Like Faygo!

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Shawn & Troy discuss advisory ideas, share some shout outs, spotlight a few web sites, and look forward to the NMSA09 conference.

Jokes:

Computer Class

For a computer programming class, I sat directly across from someone, and our computers were facing away from each other. A few minutes into the class, she got up to leave the room. I reached between our computers and switched the inputs for the keyboards.
She came back and started typing and immediately got a distressed look on her face.
She called the teacher over and explained that no matter what she typed, nothing would happen. The teacher tried everything. By this time I was hiding behind my monitor and quaking red-faced.
I started to type, “Leave me alone!”
They both jumped back, silenced. “What the . . . ” the teacher said. I typed, “I said leave me alone!”
The kid got real upset. “I didn’t do anything to it, I swear!” It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. The conversation between them and HAL 2000 went on for an amazing five minutes.
Me: “Don’t touch me!”
Her: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit your keys that hard.”
Me: “Who do you think you are anyway?!” Etc. Finally, I couldn’t contain myself any longer and fell out of my chair laughing.
After they had realized what I had done, they both turned beet red. Funny, I never got more than a C- in that class.

Faygo Commercial:  YouTube

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

One Letter off Movies:  #oneletteroffmovies

  • Urbane Cowboy
  • A Streetcar Named Desirex
  • Where the Mild Things Are
  • Sat VI
  • Boy Story

Longer Temper:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/10/22/i-like-this-lesson-because-it-make-me-have-a-longer-temper-part-one/

On Our Mind:

Shout out to March Wells III:  Still on dial up….2 hours to download our Podcast.  The Dedicated Listener Award goes to . . .
Shout out to L.C.:  Thanks for the idea- Snag jokes from Reader’s Digest (so you know they’re funny) and then put them into cartoon form.

Should the National Middle School Association change its name?  This was brought up an annual conference or two ago . . .

Oscar the 3 legged wonder dog.

Webspotlight:

Comparison of cell sizes:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

Schoology

Schoology combines social networking with course management to enable students and educators to manage classroom work while having the ability to seamlessly communicate and collaborate through a safe and secure network.

Schoology offers both school-wide implementations and individual subscriptions.

Schoology is an alternative to other course management systems on the market.

As a web-based application, Schoology is able to offer services at a lower price than traditional systems. Being a fully hosted and fully managed system means less headache for your users and support staff. This allows you to spend your time using the system, instead of maintaining it.

The social networking features of Schoology compliment the course manager by allowing for seamless and effortless communication of information.

There is always 100% accountability and 100% transparency. Student actions are always affiliated with a physical student. Anything done on Schoology can be compared to performing this action in person.

https://www.schoology.com/home.php

SlickPlan

SlickPlan is a web-based sitemap/flowchart generator that allows for the creation of free sitemap and flowchart design. SlickPlan was handcrafted with PHP/MySQL and jQuery by the Dayton website design team at Atomic Interactive.

http://www.slickplan.com/

WatchKnow:

The Internet is full of useful information, but it’s disorganized and often unreliable. Despite its problems, the potential of the Internet for education is especially huge. Imagine tapping into that potential. Imagine collecting all the best free educational videos made for children, and making them findable and watchable on one website. Then imagine creating many, many more such videos. Just think: millions of great short videos, and other watchable media, explaining every topic taught in schools, in every major language on Earth.Finally, imagine them all deeply and usefully categorized according to subject, education level, and placed in the order in which topics are typically taught.WatchKnow—as in, “You watch, you know”—has started building this resource.WatchKnow is both a resource for users and also a non-profit, online community that encourages everyone to collect, create, and share free, innovative, educational videos.WatchKnow is now officially launched, after being developed for over a year. Whether you’re a student, a parent, a teacher, or just someone who cares about the education of children, you can now use our service and get involved to make it even better. Please sign up! (But did you know that you can add new videos to our system without signing up? They’ll have to be approved first.)There is no better online cause than the future of our children. And just imagine how fantastic it would be if there were a resource online we could go to, or send our kids to, that would explain every topic they study in school instantly and reliably. Many of the resources needed for such a site already exist online; they just need to be organized.

http://www.watchknow.org/

News:


National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference November 4-6, Indianapolis, IN.
http://www.nmsa.org/annual/

Stress, Control, and the Deprofessionalizing of Teaching:

By Thomas Newkirk

Until fairly recently, psychologists accepted the common-sense view that job stress was directly related to the significance of the decisions being made. The top executive jobs, by this logic, were the most stressful because so much was riding on decisions. And the lower-level positions—the clerks, custodial workers, and receptionists—were less stressful because decisions had less impact. There was less to worry about. All this made a kind of sense.

But it was exactly wrong.

A key word in the advertising copy for these systems is “easy.” Check it out. There is the regular promise that by minutely directing instruction, these systems will relieve the teacher of the stress of planning and decisionmaking and create great results.

It is a Faustian bargain. When teachers lose control of decisionmaking—when they prepare students for tests they have no role in designing (and often no belief in), when they must abandon units they love because there is no longer time, when they must follow the plans designed by others, when they are locked in systems of instruction and evaluation they don’t create or even choose—they will not be relieved of stress.

It will surely be argued that I am too optimistic here, that only a small percentage of teachers can or will take on this more creative work.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08newkirk.h29.html?tkn=SLXFVNI0pzgQlNmS03dWjNd3b5GbnRR0ra9D

What Ted Sizer Meant to Us

By Patrick J. McQuillan
The death this month of Theodore R. Sizer leaves an immense void in the American educational landscape.
Coming at a time that A Nation at Risk would lay a foundation for neoliberal philosophy to dominate U.S. educational policy, Ted Sizer offered an alternative approach to the shortcomings of American education, one rooted in the vision of John Dewey and progressive reform. Based on the research he conducted in high schools across the country that resulted in Horace’s Compromise, Ted highlighted the “compromises” teachers endured while adjusting and adapting to an ineffective system. They were responsible for so many students that they assigned little substantive work. Lacking time to know students well, teachers leveled their expectations to perceived student abilities. To ensure that they “covered” the entire curriculum, many topics were addressed superficially.
Well aware that students were key to any successful reform, Ted advocated “personalizing” student-teacher relationships, ensuring that “faculty knew students as people and learners,” as he would say.
Ted trusted teachers to organize their curriculum and educate their students. Our present emphasis on high-stakes standardized exams sends teachers and students a set of very different messages.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/29/10mcquillan.h29.html?tkn=PPLF+9RZuGGEuUfRwqevXDYZDDbIdJzHfqkX

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  3. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 93: The Show Name in 140 Characters or Less . . . or Your Money Back.

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Jokes:

Rene Descartes went into his favorite ice cream store and the clerk asked, “would you like your usual ice cream soda, Monsieur Descartes? ” Descartes replied “I think not” and promptly disappeared.

How do we know that the following fractions are in Europe? A/C, X/C and W/C ?

Two Physicists were riding in a hot air balloon and were blown off course sailing over a mountain trail, and were completely lost.

They spotted a jogger running on the trail and they shouted “Can you tell us where we are?”  After a few minutes, the jogger yelled back “You’re up in a balloon.”

One physicists said to the other, “Just our luck to run into a mathematician”. “How do you know he was a mathematician?” asked the other.

“Well, in the first place he took a long time to answer; second, his answer was 100% correct and third, ,it was totally useless.”
If a ham sandwich is better than nothing and Nothing is better than Life, itself, does that mean that a ham sandwich is better than Life itself?

Three statisticians went duck hunting. A duck was approaching and the first statistician shot,And missed the duck by being a foot too high. The secondshot and was a foot too low.  The third cried, “We hit it!”

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

What’s My Line? Cartoon Edition:  http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16000
Take the cartoon, erase the text and let students then create text to fit a scene.  It doesn’t have to relate

On Our Mind:

One of the biggest classroom management mistakes teachers make is that they take disrespectful behavior personally. To quote Tom Hagen speaking to Sonny Corleone in the classic movie The Godfather, “This is business, not personal.”
http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2009/07/31/how-to-handle-disrespectful-students/

Webspotlight:

Create easy flow charts (for Free):
http://www.slickplan.com/

Google Apps for Education Lesson Plans:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/lesson_plans.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=educators_newsletter&utm_medium=email

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

The CU On-line Handbook:
So while online is not a cure-all or “magic bullet”, it does have the potential to revolutionize how we think about, and deliver education. The future is here. The question is only, “What should we do about it?”
https://www.cudenver.edu/Academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/Handbook/Documents/2009/CU_Online_Handbook_2009.pdf#page=50

News:

Stress, Control, and the Deprofessionalizing of Teaching:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08newkirk.h29.html?tkn=SLXFVNI0pzgQlNmS03dWjNd3b5GbnRR0ra9D

Twitter Lessons in 140 Characters or Less

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
“It’s not a research-based tool,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. “The most important thing to remember is that we have no idea what impact these tools have on learning, and it will take a decade to answer that question.”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08twitter_ep.h29.html?tkn=XTSF0PfbwZav1%2BekG07b5iRl6u4Y9q5vJbpA

Nearly half of Dallas 5th-graders not ready for middle school

As Dallas schools focus on getting all students ready for college, they face a daunting challenge uncovered by a new district tracking system: Almost half of fifth-graders are not even ready for middle school.
To be considered ready for middle school, fifth-graders had to pass the state TAKS exams in reading, math and science, and could not fail more than one core academic class, according to the district’s formula.
“You don’t just get on the college track in high school. You’re really on the college track well before that,” Dahlander said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102209dnmetfifthgrade.3d3bdd1.html

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/65330407.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  3. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM-92: Advisory Cartoons

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Districts ban Facebook & social networking:

Chicago Public Schools:  http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/district-299/2009/08/school-board-bans-facebook-twitter-for-teachers.html
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6639197.html?nid=2413&source=title&rid=140246606
Cyberbullying:  http://cyberbullying.us/blog/teachers-prohibited-from-using-facebook-to-communicate-with-students.html
Should districts ban teachers from social networking?:  http://ow.ly/oEXp
Dallas-Fort Worth area district bans then unbans Social Networking:  http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/McKinney-ISD-May-Pull-Plug-on-Teacher-Student-E-Mail-Text-Ban-61266222.html AND http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/McKinney-ISD-Backs-off-Teacher-Student-E-Mail-Text-Ban-62679187.html
Two Mississippi districts ban social networking:  http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/doh-school-districts-ban-texting-between-teachers-and-students/

Podcast Awards Nominations due October 18th.  http://podcastawards.com/

Jokes:

How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2 How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.


3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals
attend …. Except one. Which animal does not attend?


Correct Answer : The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there.  This tests your memory. Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.


4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and
you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?


Correct Answer:? You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to     Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the
Professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers.    Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals do not have the brains of a four-year-old.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Body Image:  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1130618347958&ref=mf
(Alternate:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqlzBKFPxyE)
(Submitted by AK Jenny)

This idea is simple enough to implement in any size advisory group, in any amount of time, and in any way that best suits the needs of the students and teacher in the group. Students can be asked to list 5, 10, 20, or 25 random things about themselves. Students can create written or verbal lists or both. Lists can be kept private or volunteers can be asked to share them.

Students can be asked to tally how many things they have in common with other students if the lists are shared. Students can be asked to choose their 3 most random things to be explored at a later date, possibly as an assignment in another class. Depending upon how often advisory groups meet and how long each advisory class lasts, the “25 Random Things” can be done in one day or spread out over one week.
http://middle-school-lesson-plans.suite101.com/article.cfm/found_on_facebook_an_advisory_activity

Chad Fry:  Illustration Guy:  http://www.chadfrye.com/  Monster a day for a month.  Not so much an idea as a resource for an advisory . . . http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/notes.php?id=66977838632 .

Webspotlight:

Wolframalpha Homework Day:
http://homeworkday.wolframalpha.com/
Meet us here on October 21, 2009, for the first Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day. This groundbreaking, live interactive web event brings together students and educators from across the country to solve your toughest assignments and explore the power of using Wolfram|Alpha for school, college, and beyond.

Comic Creation Online:
http://www.wittycomics.com/

http://www.toondoo.com/ (Demo)

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

Seven Free software Apps (6 for Mac users):
http://www.digmo.co.uk/news/software/7-free-apps-for-education/

News:

This time, we are starting out with our Brainypics flashcard contest, in which students create interesting sentences and pair them up with memorable pictures as a visual cue.  Between now and Dec. 7, we’ll be selecting 5 Brainypics each week which will qualify for our Grand Prize of $200.  We are also giving out iTunes songs for every 5 Brainypics created and gift cards to the runner ups of the finale.  Full details here: http://brainyflix.com/main/contest_rules.

Growing Up Scripted

And Losing Freedom Along the Way

By Christopher L. Doyle

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/14/07doyle.h29.html?tkn=PPZFBvRZ3nUselC6N3%2FU%2BX%2FYmVRt9PQZn6gb

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  3. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

MAMSE Bus Info

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The past two years we’ve tried to fill a bus of 7th and 8th graders for a Washington DC trip. It’s a select bunch we have to draw from (6th graders are excluded) and there’s a cost involved.  Folks have to pay for it beyond the normal school costs and the kids usually have to pester their folks to let them go on the trip.  There’s hemming and hawing to be done, negotiations about dishes and chores, allowances and souvenir money to discuss as well.  Nevertheless, it must be tried.

It’s tough to do and you have to cancel ’em sometimes.

CMU has their bus about filled I’m told.  The MAMSE bus . . . not so much.  So with sadness we were informed that the MAMSE bus to Indy has been cancelled.

Podcast 91: Math, Technology and Oops, Gotta Go!

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Jokes:

Homework usually takes about 90 minutes. Here is how most high school students spend those 90 minutes.

* 15 minutes searching for assignment while reading your text messages.
* 11 minutes calling a friend for the assignment.
* 23 minutes explaining why the teacher is mean and just does not like students.
* 8 minutes in the bathroom.
* 10 minutes getting a snack.
* 7 minutes checking and answering e:mails.
* 6 minutes telling parents that the teacher never explained the assignment.
* 10 minutes sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Mom or Dad to do the assignment.

A mathematician, statistician and accountant were finalist for a position as VP in a large corporation. The hiring committee asked them all the same last question:

The mathematician was first.”How much is 500 plus 500 ?” , they asked”1000″ he replied without hesitation.”Thank you”, they dismissed him.

Next the statistician.”How much is 500 plus 500?””On the average, 1000 with 95 % confidence” replied the statistician”Thank you”, they dismissed him.

Next the accountant.”How much is 500 plus 500?””What would you like it to be?” responded the accountant.They hired the accountant.

LITTLE BOY: “My math teacher is crazy”. MOTHER: “Why?”

LB: “Yesterday she told us that five is 4+1; today she is telling us that five is 3 + 2.”

From the Twitterverse:

* karlyb WOW! – 5th grade math resources by unit: http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/Edtech/edm/5.htm
* karlyb Promethian giveaway contest at The Henry Ford: http://thehenryford.promo.e…
* paulallison Download Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 2 of 3 – Exploring Author’s Craft – TTT171- 10… http://bit.ly/1a4Zq0
* rmbyrne Free Technology for Teachers: Musopen – Free Recordings and Sheet Music http://ff.im/-9yQW0 or http://www.musopen.com/
* cliotech New blog post: Sharing Best Practices is OK! http://bit.ly/GtCzo
* vtdeacon RT @DeborahMersino RT @russeltarr: Great ‘classic’ stories in comic form, awesome : http://tinyurl.com/okjoyc
* Twilliamson15 @paulbogush we have more in common now…I’m quoted in Rick Wormeli’s new book 🙂 …preview at http://snipurl.com/wormelibk
* gardenglen Now available: CALL FOR BETA TESTERS OF NETS DRAFT RUBRIC http://url.ie/2m63
* vtdeacon this looks like a pretty cool lesson on using excel in math class- plus connection to halloween:) http://tinyurl.com/yl9susr
* web20classroom RT @ejulez: by end of 2013, 70% of businesses will have behavior/dress code policies for employees online avatars. http://ow.ly/tEZV
* schoolwise Children’s Good Manners Month and Thank You Notes: http://EzineArticles.com/?i…
* JoHart RT @coletteamber: Laughing at: “pencil metaphor – Leading a Digital School” ( http://bit.ly/EtSFT )
* ambermac OK, I’m moving to Sweden if this keeps up! RT @jeff_andersen Tune in to another invention by the Swedes: http://bit.ly/e8Eoe
* web20classroom Good Advice for School Leaders- Decisions You Can Live With…http://is.gd/4765z

On Our Mind:

Technology:

Project RED
http://projectred.org/

Netbook News (from Twitter)

Larry Ellison’s take on Cloud Computer (think netbooks)

Advisory:

National Children’s Good Manners Month: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=3016989

Middle School Advisory 101
http://middleschooladvisory101.blogspot.com/
Webspotlight:
ClassTools: Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!
http://classtools.net/
See an example:
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=78798&title=Classtools_net

Timeline Creators:

XTimeline
xtimeline is a free web-based timeline. Easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos.
http://www.xtimeline.com/

TimeGlider
There is a time traveler in each of us. Whether you are a litigator or an 8th grader, TimeGlider can quickly enhance your experience of the past, present, and future. Once you’ve explored a TimeGlider timeline, you’ll wonder why you’ve never seen information organized like this before.
http://timeglider.com/index.php

Mind42.com – Mind Mapping software that fits in a browser: http://ow.ly/truL

Seven Free software Apps (6 for Mac users):
http://www.digmo.co.uk/news/software/7-free-apps-for-education/

News:

More Time on Task:
Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, have called attention to the amount of time students spend in school, because school calendars in the United States are based on outdated priorities and are too short to give students the tools they need to compete on a global stage. Since the 1960s, schools nationwide have adhered to 6½-hour days, five days a week, 180 days a year. Individual schools have extended days for students to participate in certain advanced classes or extracurricular programs, but most follow the shorter day, established in a time when farmers needed their children to help out in the fields part of each day, and all day during the summer. Summer vacation didn’t come about because that’s when the swimming pools are open.
There are many who will criticize these suggestions. A seemingly opposite trend is exemplified by an October 2008 study for the American Academy of Pediatricians, which concluded that children are overscheduled, under stress and in need of more unstructured time to play. …cautioning only that “improving the quality of instructional time is at least as important as increasing the quantity of time in school.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091006/OPINION01/910060315/Editorial++Give+kids+time+to+wrap+heads+around+learning

Netbooks:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?&i=61122

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

1. NMSA’s Annual Conference: NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video: Indianapolis, IN Conference November 5-7, 2009. Individual Registration is now open. September 30th early registration deadline is approaching (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
* Video Competition: NMSA is looking for student based videos for the transitions between events at their annual conference. Information is at their website.
* Indiana schools may apply for a waiver and send their staff to the Friday sessions as a professional development day.
o Steps to obtain waiver request
+ Franklin Community Schools Request (example)
o NMSA teacher session sheet (Note: It only has four, so if you’re not part of the Indiana crew, you’ll want to print one off for each day of the conference.)
+ Concurrent Sessions
o NMSA follow up sheet. (Note: This is geared to the Indiana group. I would suggest simplifying this for your own group.)
2. ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall. Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus. With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference? There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love: our students. Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless. Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details. Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.
3. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference. Here’s a teaser at TED.
4. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available. Some hotels are nearing full if not so already. Special housing rates end October 5th.
5. NMSA 09 Conference Connection: Stay connected before, during, and after the conference! Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

1. 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.
2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
* OMLA Registration Form
* OMLA Presentation Form
3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
* MAMSE Exhibitor Form
* MAMSE Registration Form
* MAMSE Presentation Form
4. Theater Education Opportunity: Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

“The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
By Jackson Lacey
Directed by Pam Cardell
December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am. Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.
5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
7. Second Life:
* No Events specified. Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
* Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 90: Digital Learning: Get those 1’s and 0’s in order!

/ /

Jokes:

I’m failing geometry because I refuse to believe that pie are squared.
The school board decided to remove speech and debate from the course schedule; there was no argument.
Today in Art class we were going to paint a nude model, but the teacher sent her to the office for violating dress code.

How does a blind skydiver know they’re nearing the ground?  The leash goes slack . . .

From the Twitterverse:

On Our Mind:

Clocks. Is it necessary to know how to read an analog clock?

MEAPs coming up, state mandated testing.  Do you put the pressure on or do you soft-shoe it into the testing period?

DropBox
http://www.getdropbox.com/iphoneapp

Advisory:

Return to the overview:
During the first month of school have every student take a piece of string and place one end under their shoe then stretch the string so it reaches the top of their head. Cut the string and fold it up. Place a piece of masking tape with the student’s name around the folded piece of string. Put all of the strings into a bag and do not open it until the last week of school. Then have them take their string and see how much they have grown over the last year. Many of your students will be amazed at how much they have grown.
A way to show what adolescents stand for is to have them outline their foot and then list all of the things they believe in inside the outline.
http://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/On_Target/advisory/advisory_8.pdf

October is MOYA!  www.nmsa.org/moya

Webspotlight:

Educon 21 at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA.
http://educon21.wikispaces.com/

Stumbleupon
http://www.stumbleupon.com (or in Troy’s universe:  stumbleupon.com)

VUE 3.0- The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information.
http://vue.tufts.edu/

News:

Surfing the Net with kids: Phonics

Phonics is a widely used method of teaching children to read. It is based on connecting sounds of spoken English with the letters that represent those sounds. Today’s websites stand at the intersection of education and recreation, using games to reinforce phonetic concepts.
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/family/articles/2009/10/02/surfing_the_net_with_kids_phonics/

House Panel Targets Teacher Distribution, Pay

Differing opinions about incentive-pay programs, the role of test scores in pay and evaluation, and how prescriptive the federal government should be in seeking to boost teacher effectiveness were aired at a House hearing.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/02/06teach.h29.html?tkn=XLXF2b3tQQks2uYCPFvfd64lCGoFEfUQJLwE

Online education expanding, but awaits innovation

The online education sector grew 13 percent last year, but it had been growing at about 20 percent in previous years, Reuters reports — leading some to suggest that online learning is starting to plateau until further innovations are introduced.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/around-the-web/index.cfm?i=61047

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall.  Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus.  With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference?  There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love:  our students.  Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless.  Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details.  Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.
  3. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  4. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  5. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. The Wisconsin Association of Middle Level Educators is holding their Annual Conference October 8-9, 2009.
  5. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  6. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  7. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available.  This week’s session:  “Interesting Ways to Use a Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom“.
  8. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life