Monthly Archives: October 2010

MSM 140 NMSA 2010, Math & Reading Resources!

/ , , , , /

Jokes:

Proper Grammar
The teacher wrote on the blackboard, “I ain’t had no fun all summer.” “Now Paul,” she said. “What shall I do to correct this?” “Get a boyfriend.” Paul replied.

Dressing Rooms
A lady walked into a boutique and asked the sales lady, “May I try on that cute dress in the window?” The sales lady replied; “Sure, but wouldn’t you be more comfortable in a dressing room?”

Birthday Presents
The parents of a difficult boy were discussing what to give him for a birthday present. The mother said, “Let’s buy him a bicycle.” “Well,” said the father, “maybe but do you think it will improve his behavior?” “Probably not,” said the mother, “but it will spread it over a wider area.”

On Our Mind:

NMSA 2010 Conference (If you’re going, contact us. We have a great link for you).
Keep in mind that new flight rules take effect on Nov. 1st.

Middle School Science Minute

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

Dave is looking for an excellent Earth Science Middle School Teacher.

From our Listeners:

As far as the testing discussion goes, I am blown away by states that test the previous year’s material at the beginning of the following year. That just doesn’t make sense to me (not that I agree with all of NC’s testing program either). Here in NC, we administer EOG (End-of-Grade) tests about 3 weeks before school is out for the summer. Admin get the scores back about 5 hours after the last test is finished, and teachers usually get scores the following day. Scores are released to students before going home for the summer. The past couple of years, we have had a retest program for students who did not score at proficient levels.

Granted, there are issues with this system as well. Testing that far in advance of the end of school leads to a “Why are we still here?” attitude from some of the kids after the test. I think that makes much more sense than not being able to start the year covering relevant grade-level material.
Todd Williamson
Note:  We’re hoping there will be a ton of folks at his presentation on Friday at 7:30 am in Baltimore this coming week.  If you’re going to NMSA and willing, please consider his presentation in Room: 339 (Baltimore Convention Center)
Audience: Community Leaders, Media Specialists/Librarians, Pre-service teachers, Teachers, Technical Coordinators
Presentation Level: Intermediate
Presentation Description:  Students today live in a highly networked world—from email to text messaging to online gaming and social networking. Teachers, meanwhile, often express concerns about staying one step ahead of technology savvy students. Learn about the rationale for using social media in the classroom along with strategies for navigating the new media landscape with your students. Also featured will be the SMARTR portal, a STEM portal of youth- focused Math and Science virtual learning experiences developed for and by students!

From the Twitterverse:

*BernajeanPorter by ipadeducatorsRT @cnansen: @BernajeanPorter One of the most useful sites I have run across in the last month-Dot Voting http://www.dotvoting.org/ #edchat
*AngelaMaiers The Complete Facebook For Educators! | Tech the Plunge http://ow.ly/2ZYRd
*CBrannon In a meeting. They gave me a laptop and want me to pay attention….I will…In a minute….
*kylepace 100 incredibly useful YouTube channels for teachers: #edtech
*jybuell How Allies Used Math Against German Tanks | Autopia | Wired.com wired.com/autopia/2010/1…
*Curriki “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore…” and nevermore will you be without great Halloween lesson plans! http://ow.ly/2ZlIX #english #history
*stevehargadon Recording posted of interview with Diane Ravitch on How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education http://icio.us/z3fkbn
*DanielPink Memory decline accompanies earlier retirement, study finds . . . http://nyti.ms/9efpih (via NY Times)
*drmmtatom My Brainshark – Easily Narrate and Share Presentations #fhuedu508 http://tinyurl.com/39n6csk

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :

Hero Machine: Design your own superhero: http://tinyurl.com/olzc3a
Uber-Mongo-Important assignment for operative Infamous40000:  Design a superhero and share the experience with us.  Call us at (262) 724-6653 and send us a copy of your superhero!

Tech Tools:

AlternativeTo:

Great way to find new software.
http://alternativeto.net/software

Wiggio

Set up your group in under a minute.
Add people to your group by pulling them in from your email or Facebook contacts. They never need to sign up. As soon as you add, you can start communicating.
Each feature is designed to be straightforward and self-explanatory. No training. No learning curve.
Keep up with your group on-the-go. You can text message and email into your group, and receive group communications to your cell phone, email and Facebook.
All the tools you need packaged together.

http://wiggio.com/

Math Open Geometry

Great geometry resources.
http://www.mathopenref.com/index.html

Microsoft Academic Search

Looks to be technically oriented. Some good possibilities though. Conferences are included.
http://journalogy.com/

One Word

Interesting idea for a writing assignment.
http://oneword.com/

News:

Robots in the classroom?  They’re here!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teachers/index.html

Political Peril for the Common Core?

How to Assure Continued Progress

By Michael D. Usdan
Could the backlash against large governmental programs (like healthcare) effect the implementation of Common Core Standards?
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/27/09usdan_ep.h30.html?tkn=QMZFzckQpU3lROPtxOCXWM%2FnuCM2CsPo6oqD&cmp=clp-edweek

Webspotlight:

Google Search Tools

“Secret” codes to make your google searching even better.
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html

Big East Career Fair

Could this be the start of a new way of finding a job?
http://www.bigeastcareerfair.com/

Teacher Jotter

Social Network for Teachers.
Build professional relationships, share resources, exchange ideas and opportunities.
http://www.teacherjotter.com/

Reading Slowly

Interesting thoughts on reading.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/0621/Should-your-child-be-learning-the-art-of-slow-reading

Collaboration Video

Does this look like collaboration at your school?
http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2010/10/planning-collaboratively.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.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 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

On Reading

/ /

Larry Ferlazzo links to an article from the Christian Science Monitor on “slow reading” . The gist of the article is that students are learning to read in a different way than before. They are skimming instead of reading for understanding. This is part of a larger movement which says that people who read on a screen tend to skim more than read longer works. This reading style than changes the way that our brains are wired.

This made me think of some of the changes that we have made at our school. Our sixth grade students are all conferencing with their teachers. This conferencing has made it much more difficult for kids to “fake read”- which apparently lots of them have been doing for a long time. By having to talk to a teacher about the book, they are being held accountable. For many of them, they are truly reading whole books for the first time.  These students have been getting away with pretending to read, or reading just parts of books for a long time (apparently several of them have learned that if you read the very beginning and the very end of the book- you can convince the teacher that you’ve “read” the book). Another popular strategy is to “read” books that have a movie out. The conferencing is going well for the most part. There are still some kinks to work out, but it seems to be paying good dividends.

How do you know that your students are really reading?

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/10/28/reservations-about-christian-science-monitor-column-on-slow-reading-movement/

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/0621/Should-your-child-be-learning-the-art-of-slow-reading

Thoughts about Standardized Testing

/ /

I found this thoughtful post about standardized testing by John Spencer. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that he teaches using an “authentic approach” and his scores are terrific. I also think he makes a good point in that the students behave different if the people with the “clipboards” are there. Of particular interest is the quote

“Our test results are a bit of an anomaly, because I told my students outright that the system is more rigged than Chuck-E-Cheese games and that no one wins in the process, but that huge transnational conglomerates want to feast on their minds like zombies.”

Good stuff.

http://jtspencer.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-testing-does-to-good-teachers.html

MSM 139 Testing, Conferences & Tools

/ , , , /

Jokes:

Ailments
A man was feeling terribly out of sorts and decided to go to the doctor so he made an appointment and showed up the next day. After the doctor examined the man, the doctor invited him into his office for the consultation. The doctor came into the room with three different bottles of pills. The doctor told the man to take the red pill in the morning with a big glass of water, the blue pill in the afternoon with a big glass of water and the green pill in the evening with a big glass of water. The man, terribly shocked at the amount of pills he had to take, asked the doctor what in the world was wrong with him. The doctor replied, “You aren’t getting enough water.”

On Our Mind:

Testing Relief
Conferences
Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy’s Take on Conferences.

Middle School Science Minute

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

Human Body Systems Facts

From the Twitterverse:

* Twilliamson15 Todd Williamson:  @Frideswidel haha, thanks…I’ll stick with hoping enough folks show for a decent conversation
* drmmtatom Monte Tatom Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Co-Host TEACH Town Hall w/ A&E Network @ Temple University | U.S. Dept. of Ed http://tinyurl.com/2esmcml
* drmmtatom Monte Tatom  Action Research: What Do We Know About Learning in the Cloud? #fhuqep http://tinyurl.com/2dw7ww3
*appleplaza Apple Plaza Angry Birds Halloween Edition Comes to Apple iOS Devices http://sns.ly/AEq59
* AngelaMaiers Angela Maiers Chalk Talk 10/22/10
*ktenkely ktenkely Animation Chefs will teach your students how to create their own stop motion animations #edtech #edchat
* lthumann Lisa Thumann Web 2.0 apps from the afternoon session with @edutecher and I http://thumannresources.com/2010/10/22/tltechforum/ #tltechforum
(Call us if you try any of these websites at (262) 724-6653)
*timoreilly Tim O’Reilly  Rule #1: Have Fun. Summary of my talk on innovation at Greenbiz Innovation Forum:
*mcleod Scott McLeod  Can a student bully a teacher? Do these videos constitute teacher bullying? @russgoerend

Advisory:

Famous Partners

Place the names of famous couples on index cards, mix them up, have students match up. (http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/List_of_famous_pairs/)

Life Raft

Students stand on top of shower curtain and flip it over without anyone stepping off.

Life Skill Lessons

How to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to do anything….celebrate success!!

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :
Animation Chefs:  Learn how to animate from these three chefs!

Tech Tools:

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/

TestMoz
http://testmoz.com/

Google Fusion Tables

Google Fusion Tables is a modern data management and publishing web application that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online.
http://www.google.com/fusiontables/public/tour/index.html

News:

Charter school first in county to switch to four-day week

A Palm Beach County charter high school plans to switch to a four-day school week beginning in January. Students would be in school for a total of 902.4 hours this year, above the 900-hour minimum state requirement, according to a calculation received by the district, Edwards said.
It’s pitched as an opportunity for students to have more time for part-time jobs, school activities, and dual-enrollment programs that enable students to earn college credit. Daniel also described it as a way to decrease “discipline issues and student absences.”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-four-day-school-week-20101021,0,6276565.story

Moving Forward With the Common Core
By Sarah Fine

If there remains any doubt about the momentum of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, let it be abandoned once and for all. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, which collectively educate three-fourths of all school-age children in this country, have pledged to adopt the core. Intellectual gatekeepers have given the standards a resounding pass. Plans for implementation have begun. For better or worse, the boulder is on its way down the mountain, gathering strength and speed as it goes.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/20/08fine.h30.html?tkn=LYXFpDDbwWg77mw9AnpIQPhrrQpBWyZw4y%2Fk&cmp=clp-edweek

Webspotlight:

Virtual Pumpkin Carving

A, um, virtual pumpkin to carve.
http://www.ncs-tech.org/pub/carve_pumpkin.swf

The Fisch Flip

Colorado teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams were some of the first educators I learned about who are leveraging the power of podcasting, screencasting, and video sharing to “flip” the traditional model of lecture in class and homework at home which predominates in many schools today.
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/10/20/the-fisch-flip-in-michigan-dale-eizenga-on-flipping-traditional-lecture-and-homework-routines/

ISTE 2010:  Google Apps in Education

For full online presentation, go here:  http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dd4wqj5_406gwcsdnf4
Connecting Education.com
New Approaches for the 21st Century
www.connectingeducation.com
alt:  www.schoolinfo.ca
Waiting for initial slide . . . .

Side note:  look for Googletrekers
I’ve so got to check out TodaysMeet
Telling us a little about Skoodat
•  Similar to Salesforce.com
•  Large toolset to work with.
•  Very scalable.
•  www.skoodat.com

Roger Nevin
“School is becoming irrelevant.”  – Student Quote
Bridging the gap
•  Connecting education with how young people use digital technology in their personal lives.  This web site has the following mandate when recommending technologies:
•  it must improve learning
•  it must engage students
•  it must be based on best practices and research
•  it is free and sustainable
•  we have tested it successfully
… and one more

Using Google Apps Education Edition to Improve Learning.
Presentation content
•  Challenges of traditional uses of computers in schools
•  Paradigms of cloud computing and the 2009 Horizion report
•  And many more  ……
Teacher Comments
•  Students worked in groups.
•  Students were engaged.
•  Students who liked music were into podcasting.
•  Every student worked and collaborated on the group wiki.
•  Students were engaged.
– Jackie Anderson, Teacher
Despite our success with using technology there were still challenges
•  Audacity
•  “Microsnot” Office
•  Corel

What do you do if…
•  Jason arrives to school with is World Issues ISU essay on a USB key.  He tries to open it at school but it is unable to because of . . .
•  Maria creates a presentation for her Law class on a Mac computer at home.  Unfortunatelly she can’t open it at school.  (NOTE:  This is not necessarily accurate.  Macs can save it so that it can be opened on a Windows machine.  I included it because it was part of the presentation.)
•  You have assigned a group presentation in your ENG 4UI class.  In one group . . . .
•  You are teaching a grade 12 history course and the final June essays are due.  One of your students loses the assignment.
•  You have asked your Grade 10 Science class to do their class presentations using Power Point. .  . .
Cloud Computing
•  You are already using cloud computing
•  Data is held on internet servers.
•  Programs which run the email service are on Internet servers.
Research & Best Practices
•  The 2009 Horizon Report “introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within horizons over the . . .
Cloud Computing
•  Which means …
•  You only need a browser to access both programs and data.
•  Google has servers on ships.
•  Accessed by any computer or PDA through an Internet Connection.
•  Main apps
•  email, chat, talk
•  Images – Draw
•  Calendar
•  Word processer
•  Spreadsheet – forms
•  Can make online tests.
•  Presentation Software
•  Wiki/Web Page
•  Video
UNDER ONE PLATFORM
•  site:  http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=?
•  Google Apps Education Edition is Free! and Ad Free!
•  Why is it Free?
•  This is their version of Charity Donations
•  Secondary School in New York Video
•  Teachers and Principals talk about Google Docs
•  What do you get?
•  7 gigs of space for students to save podcast and video assignments
•  Gives users a virtual drive that can be used to uplad and download any file up to 200MB to a total of 2GB
•  Spam/Virus Checkers
•  It is a paperless solution
•  Saves printing costs.
•  Documents are never lost – saves automatically
•  Do not have to worry about the correc software version
•  Can both upload and download documents off of your hard drive
•  Quick setup
•  Easy to administrate
•  Ability to share assignments, documents
•  Student to student
•  Student to teacher to student
•  Teacher to teacher to administration
•  Communicate using documents to parents
•  Prevents plagiarism
•  Improves learning
•  On-line tests and surveys
•  Private or public
•  Can record names
•  Can automatically mark tests
•  practice for EQAO Literacy Test
•  Surveys (student, parent, staff)
•  Example:  Adam Scott:  adamscott.ca
•  Administrator power
•  Can disable services
•  Have precise control of who has access to what.
•  Students keep their login and all account data for their entire school career and further.
•  Challenges
•  Need Internet Access
•  However you can save documents off line as a word, ppt, rtf, open office document
•  PDAs can access most features – but not all
•  Your data is stored in another country (maybe)
•  Patriot Act allows the US government to access your data
•  However … there is not document cast where any government tapped into students or faculty google apps documents or emails.
Google Apps – Postini
•  July 2009 Google added Postini security suite
•  Audit emails
•  Filtering
•  High level virus and spam checker.
Selling Apps to Admin.
•  Realize that many IT departments are not in favor of Google Apps
•  Use applications such as bitstripsforschools which use the cloud.
•  Start smaller with Google Apps Standard Edition
•  Say, “This is a pilot project.”
•  Use Google Standard Edition.
•  Set up a formal meeting or presentation.
•  Google Apps and the cloud is supported by leading research (Horizon Report)
•  Is Secure
•  Easier to administer
•  Saves lots of $$$$$
•  Easy for teachers to learn and allows them to be more productive
•  Improves learning while teaching 21st Century Skills
•  Promotes the school
•  Is Green.
•  Everything you make in google docs is searchable text.
Setting up Google Apps (easy)
•  Get a domain (godaddy is good) – Cost is $10-15 per year
•  Go to google
•  Simple form to fill out (showing admin approval)
•  Set MX records on the domain you registered and use forward feature from your domain to redirect your domain to the Google Apps Site
•  Get a text file of students with first name, last name, login and password (could use pseudonyms)
Administration
•  Less than one hour per week spent on it per 1000 students
Implementing Google Appls
•  Use “buy in” approach (if you are not a schol administrator)
•  Start with a few classes
•  Must be successful from the beginning
•  Teach both the students and the teacher – Helps to have (Yellow highlighting white words)
•  Create an ? where the students have to create both a shared document and a web page where they images of the video.
Google Apps Activity One
Google Apps – Quote
“Everyone saw the benefits of share . . . .”
The Did You Know Video 4.0
Free Netbook program a success at Milton High School
•  The price of netbooks is coming down.
•  Lightweight
•  Google is bringing out their own operating system.
•  Kids prefer the net books
•  Portability and connectivity
connectingeducaiton.com:  Presentation site.
Presentation:   http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dd4wqj5_406gwcsdnf4

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.
  • 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

Testing Concluded- Almost

/ /

Today was the last day of our standardized testing. Well, today was the last day of general testing. We still have some make ups to do for kids who were absent on testing days or kids who have just registered with us. The teachers are happy but exhausted. The kids are happy but really exhausted. Our students take much, much more time than the “suggested” times given to us. The kids work really hard. They want to do well. They take their time and focus. I wonder how much the legislators really understand about the testing that they have invested so much into. My favorite quote was that they are using “irrefutable data” to determine how good schools are. This in light of two of the tests have incorrect directions. One of the tests has an answer sheet that doesn’t match the test.

But, really, the kids are wiped out. They tested, and tested. They worked really hard. It’s difficult for middle school kids to be quiet for 3 hours at a time. But they did it. They allowed the students who work more slowly the opportunity to finish the test.

Next up is for us to spend hours packing up the tests and getting them shipped back. We’ll spend lots of time in this endeavor. Much more than I’m hoping legislators understand. For if they understand how much time and energy are spent on this and choose to ignore it…well.

We’ll wait months for the results. So much for informing instruction. The results will be pretty predictable. That is, results are most predictable by the social economic status of the students.

Soon (within a couple of years) we’ll have a national test. It’ll be interesting to see what that one is like. Will it be timed like the ACT? Will it be middle school developmental appropriate? (Please don’t misunderstand that- I don’t mean lower expectations).

What does standardized testing look like for you?

MSM-138 Whither the Wi-Fi?

/ , , , /

Jokes:

Counting Skills
A teacher asked little Johnny if he knows the numbers 1 to 10. “Yes! Of course! My pop taught me even more than 10.” “Good. What comes after three? “Four,” answers the boy. “What comes after six?” “Seven.” “Very good,” says the teacher. “Your dad did a good job. Now, what comes after ten?” “Jack.”

On Our Mind:

  • NMSA 2010
  • Whither Wi-Fi?
  • Will TodaysMeet be used?
  • iTunes Rankings
  • Helping others:

Hello fellow middle school science teachers.  This is a reminder to please complete this survey. My gratitude to the hundreds of teachers who have already done so. I am conducting a study of middle school science teachers and their teaching about the ocean.  I need your help!  Your answers to my survey questions will contribute to what we know about the current state of ocean literacy education in the United States.  All other challenges to the world ocean aside, the intricacies of the current oil spill crisis are reason enough to ensure that our citizenry is ocean literate.
If you have at least one year of experience teaching middle school science, would you please take my survey?  It will take 15-20 minutes to complete and your answers are completely confidential and anonymous.  The survey can be accessed by clicking on the following Internet link: https://purdue.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_87zwywgq8dNRqn2

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science on Twitter
Headrush – MythBusters for Kids
Team America Rocket Contest

From the Twitterverse:

*kevcreutz Kevin Creutz Questions for schools to truly assess how technology is being used.
*
kevcreutz Kevin Creutz  Remove boredom by teaching naked
*
Katjewave Katje Lehrman @smartinez One local middle school just got 140 students “returned” because the charters didn’t want them. #educationnation
*
NMHS_Principal Eric Sheninger  by tfulk523 RT @cpoole27: Writing Fix: prompts. lessons, and resources for writing classrooms!
*web20classroom Steven W. Anderson RT by tfulk523 Technology Integration Matrix:
*msbearce Ms. Bearce:  this is what we did in my advisory today. woot! http://twitpic.com/2ww8u9
*andreacarr1 Andrea Carr
What does Britain sound like? British Library is creating the first crowd-sourced, nationwide sound map.

Advisory:

Voki – Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.

Inspirational Quotes – Here, I’ll share 20 of my favorite inspirational quotes. I won’t include any commentary because the quotes speak for themselves. I hope they resonate with you as much as they have with me 🙂

University of Virginia’s Honor Code:  Use this video in connection with the “Coat of Arms” materials from NMSA’s Treasure Book to build an Advisory activity!

Tech Tools:

Markup IO

Draw on any webpage. Share your ideas. Mark. Share. Done.
Draw on any webpage with MarkUp to quickly share your thoughts. Try it now by choosing a shape to trace. Get MarkUp to use it any time.
http://markup.io/

Yudu
“Read online publications and self publish digital magazines, eBooks and more.” Here’s one thing that I like about it – you can create your own library of books. I started with a couple of books by Richard Byrne (Free Tech for Teachers)- Google for Teachers and Google for Teachers II.

10 Sites to create Comics from Tech Learning

“Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do with students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done with any number of applications, such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer a nice solution as well.”
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/33632

Webspotlight:

School study sees benefits in economic integration

“This study turns that wisdom on its head to some extent. It says, actually, it’s who you are going to school with.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/14/AR2010101407051.html

Effort Targets ‘Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations’

Researchers and policymakers agree that teachers’ expectations of what their students can do can become self-fulfilling prophecies for children’s academic performance.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/13/07nua_ep.h30.html?tkn=VVSFYFZRTFCluQuL2iUL74zLUE%2FrRBupwKqS&cmp=clp-edweek

Edutopia Parent Guide

Need to register to get the guide.
http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-home-to-school-guide.pdf

EdWeek focuses on Will Richardson

http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?intc=fall_tsbem

ISTE 2010:  Crap Detection – Teaching Students to Research

Presenter:  Dr. Howard Rheingold
www.vlog.rheingold.com
www.rheingold.com
www.twitter.com/hrheingold
How can you pluck the answer to any question out of the air?
How do you know that what you find is accurate?
They seem to be a set of literacies.
Attention as a literacy
Participation as a literacy
Collaboration
Critical consumption
The Literacies
Attention
Critical consumption
“Crap Detection” came from Ernest Hemmingway.
There’s a lot of crap on the web and it is up to us to be good consumers of information.
1996/1997 he began to think about this stuff.
His daughter began to look up things on the web.
Example:  Martin Luther King, Jr. An Historical …
The site doesn’t have a good opinion of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Do a whois on the site and it tells you who the owner is.
Stormfront owns it.  (White Supremacy)
This is a cloaked website.
Example:  Hitler Historical Museum
Showing these sites to students is the first step to understanding that what is out there isn’t always real.
There are all kinds of actors out there purchasing URLs.
BP bought a ton of search terms from Google.
Example:  First Genetics:  genetically mapping a better future.
It isn’t a legit site.
Example:  Free Online Pregnancy Test
Example:  Faisal Shahzad Facebook mixup highlights hazards of Web journalism.
Example:  Help save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
Article:  SFGate:  Howard Rheingold
http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/
Looking for teaching stories there.
There are many spam and port sites that are now looking like legit sites and teachers and students need to be able to detect the difference.
Online is the greatest source of one’s disease as well as some totally bogus information.
The one thing that we can do is to improve the commons is to convince people that the things that are in error are in error.
Other Literacies
Attention:
Example:  Student has the ability to look at other subjects and do well at the main course topic.
Multitasking isn’t effective.
Participation:
Collaboration
Media production is unlike other areas of production.
Look Penguin Revolution
Network Awareness
Networked Individualism
Professional Learning Networks
Trust Network
Find people you can learn from.
Long tail, small worlds, power law.
Presentation of self and a networked world.
There’s a great need for this in institutions today.
Call to Action!
The best we can do is work together and for each other.
http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/
http://socialmediaclassroom.com
www.twitter.com/hrheingold
howard@rheingold.com
Additional Resource
Daniel Poynter Hand Out – Crap Detection  (See below)
Please note:  Clicking on the document should bring up a dialog box to switch between each page of the PDF.

Author Information:  Daniel Scott Poynter
Direct link to Crap Detection 101:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/detail?blogid=108&entry_id=42805#ixzz0rdqUmHft
CLEAR Model for Critical Reading:  http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~rparis/critical.html
Diigo Resources from ISTE and Howard Rheingold’s “Crap Detection”:  http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/Diigo+Resources
Video associated with this presentation:  http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/

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.
  • 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

Technology Training for Teachers

/ , /

The Cool Cat Teacher, Vicki Davis, has posted an article about expecting teachers to use technology but not providing them any technology integration classes. She starts with the premise that we wouldn’t ask teachers to teach something that they have no background or expertise in, yet we really do that all of the time. She claims that no states require technology integration classes. I don’t personally know if that’s true.

I would agree that we sometimes think that the younger teachers have more technology expertise than the more veteran teachers. Yet that isn’t always the case. It is surprising, in some cases, as to what  people know and don’t know.

The issue may be even bigger though. Do we really agree at what good “technology integration” looks like, feels like and is? Would every principal agree on “technology integration”?

Her point is well taken. However, I would take it even further. Too many teachers coming out of college don’t know the difference between summative and formative assessment. Too many teachers coming out of college have been trained for what was – not what is or what will be.

Yes, technology integration is important. So is the bigger picture.

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2010/10/unrealistic-expectations-wanting.html

MSM- 137 Title: Better late than never …

/ , , /

Jokes:

Said the officer to the soldier, “Private, why did you salute that refrigerator?” The soldier replied, “Because it was General Electric.” “And that jeep?” the officer asked. Replied the soldier, “Because it was General Motors.”

On Our Mind:

Standardized Testing

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski
2 big events:
Earth Science Week – Oct. 10th – 16th
National Fossil Day – Oct. 13th

From the Twitterverse:

*colwar Colin Warren
twitter’s like being at a parade & catching s(t)weets thrown into the crowd. Some we pick up, some we miss, but there’s always more. #yam
*phsprincipal Dave Meister
RT @bhsprincipal: RT @web20classroom: Some Cool Lesson Plans Using Various Google Apps: Nice! #PCHS
*RichWhite Rich White
Design Blocks is a lot like MIT Scratch but in the browser … http://www.designblocks.net … Dan Green shared with me today #Scratch
*phsprincipal Dave Meister
RT @bjnichols: Challenge/Competition Resources… 21 Century Skills and PBL For All Subjects… Part One #PCHS
* iPads replacing paper for German parliament (schools too!): http://www.9to5mac.com/29571/ipads-replacing-paper-for-german-parliament
* mbteach  @chrislehmann @BeckyFisher73 I wonder why they don’t hold themslves accountable 4 not hiring these ‘amazing’ teachers they want in 1st place.
* mischakrilov  Warning, puns can cause physical damage: “England doesn’t have a kidney bank; but it has a Liverpool.”
* jutecht  What Administrators Need? I Need Teachers Who Think like Distance Runners

Advisory:

How do people spend their money?
http://www.creditloan.com/infographics/how-the-average-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/

Tera & Bella

An elephant and a dog become best friends. We use it to talk about how people might be different, but can still get along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0TjfOKnF-c
The follow up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljcfWFZaYzs

Tech Tools:

Visual Words

Here are six visual dictionaries and thesauri that can help your students better understand the meanings of words.
From Free Technology for Teachers.

  1. Snappy Words
  2. Visuwords
  3. Lexipedia
  4. Merriam Webster’s Visual Dictionary
  5. Wordia
  6. Got Brainy

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/10/six-visual-dictionaries-and-thesauri.html

Quiz Break

What is QuizBreak!?
QuizBreak! is a highly flexible program that allows teachers to create fun, Jeopardy©-like games for the language classroom.
QuizBreak! allows you to:

  • Write clues in any script (left-to-right, right-to-left, and non-Roman scripts will all work)
  • Add images to clues
  • Record or upload audio and/or video clues

Program Features

  • User-friendly editing interface for easy category-creation
  • Prize amounts can be displayed using any currency symbol
  • Multi-platform program works on PCs and Macs

http://clear.msu.edu/quizbreak/

Webspotlight:

BBC News: Faces of the U.S. Civil War

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11470304

OK, this one is just silly- but with a good cause behind it. The idea plays off of the talking baby meme. You can type in up to 600 characters, pick a baby and listen/watch the fun. The cause supports no baby born with HIV by the year 2015. Check it out.
http://www.one.org/international/actnow/babyprotest/widget.html

How to be a Good Commenter:

Karen shared her Paper Blog activity with me a few months ago and I’ve used it with my students to get them ready to blog with the “real thing.” My students have practiced writing and most of all commenting appropriately.
http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-be-good-commenter.html

7 Delightfully Nerdy Apps for Math and Science Geeks

  1. Celestia
  2. Stellarium
  3. OSXplanet
  4. Smell-O-Mints
  5. GNU XaoS
  6. Eigenmath
  7. Magic Number Machine

http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/7-delightfully-nerdy-apps-for-math-and-science-geeks/

ISTE 2010:  Steve Hargadon’s “Birds of A Feather” Session

Website for this session:  www.tinyurl.com/iste10crb and http://tinyurl.com/isteclassrom2-0
Note:  It looks like the links are broken …
Format:
Ask a question, take two or three answers from the audience.
Show a site or something online that you like.
Posterous will upload anything for free.
Pearson will sponsor a NING, but it’s limited and you’re tied to the vendor.
Topos will transition stuff from NING to another site.
Site Show Off:
Scientists Space (NING)
Click on members
Kids took on the persona of a scientist and they worked on the project in groups of three.
They could use any number of Web 2.0 tools to show their understanding of the content.
Wordle
Graphics
Music
Kid who posted it is below grade reading level.
These were SPED kids who put together the Mendeleev page.
Question:  For the scientist site:  They’re using a gmail hack (cheat).  Use a gmail account with a + but all the email account escheats+(scientist name)@gmail.com
Web demo:  TypeWithMe  (www.typewith.me)
Web demo:  WallWisher
Post a question and get responses.
Is there a way to merge the stickies?
It’s designed to be strictly online.
Software:  Microsoft Mouse Mischief
Instead of the wall wisher website.
Does work with wired mice.
Highest number mentioned so far has been six mice at a time.
Site Show Off:  www.historyplace.com/speeches
Use with www.wordle.net
Tagxedo is a Wordle in a picture/art work form.
Note:  Tagxedo is a pay site.
Just for fun:  Copy and paste a school policy into Wordle …
Jen Wagner is posting a puzzle called “Guess the Wordle”
jenuinetech.com/gtw
Put people’s tweets in there to see what their interests are.
General Question:  How do you avoid teacher burnout?
Look at what you are teaching first and then look to apply the tool.
Quizlet.com
General Question:  How do you define Web 2.0?
Ask Todd Williamson
Website:  www.voki.com
Create characters that talk.  Speaking avatar for everyone (free).
Site Show Off:  National Lab Day
Scientists commit to help out for a day.
e.g. Civil war Sally
e.g. Madame Curious (Madam Curie) and sent her around the world to different scientists and had them use the “doll” like Flat Stanley.
Site Show Off:  Adobe Connect Now
Polling system.
Twitucate:  designed for classrooms.
Edmodo
Global Education Conference.com   www.globaleducationconference.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.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 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
1 2