Monthly Archives: July 2011

MSM 173 BYOD to solve the debt- picture that!

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Jokes You Can Use:

Trees are pretty smart… but they can be stumped.

Two men were walking through the woods and came upon a big black, deep hole. One man picked up a rock and tossed it into the hole and stood listening for the rock to hit bottom. There was no sound.
He turned to the other guy and said “that must be a deep hole…let’s throw a bigger rock in there and listen for it to hit bottom.” The men found a bigger rock and both picked it up and lugged it to the hole and dropped it in.
They listened for some time and never heard a sound. Again, they agreed that this must be one deep hole and maybe they should throw something even bigger into it.
One man spotted a rail-road tie nearby. They picked up the tie, grunting and groaning, and lugged it to the hole. They tossed it in. No sound. All of a sudden, a goat came flying out of the woods, running like the wind, and flew past the men and jumped straight into the hole. The men were amazed.
About that time, an old hayseed farmer came out of the woods and asked the men if they had seen a goat. One man told the farmer of the incredible incident they had just witnessed…they had just seen this goat fly out of the woods and run and leap into the big hole. The man asked the farmer if this could have been his goat.
The old farmer said “naw, that can’t be my goat…he was chained to a railroad tie.”

A man was pulled over for speeding down the highway; the officer came to the driver’s window and said, “Sir, may I see your driver’s license and registration?” The man said, “Well officer I don’t have a license, it was taken away for a DUI.” The officer, in surprise, said,” What, do you have a registration for the vehicle?” So the man replied, “No sir, the car is not mine I stole it, but I am pretty sure I say a registration card in the glove box when I put the gun in it.” The officer stepped back, “There is a gun in the glove box?!?” The man sighed and said, “Yes sir, I used to kill the woman who owns the car before I stuffed her in the trunk.” The officer steps toward the back of the car and says,” Sir do not move, I am calling for backup.” The officer calls for backup and about ten minutes another highway patrolman arrives. He walks up to the window slowly and asks the man for his driver’s license and registration. The man said,” Yes officer here it right here.” It all checked out so the officer said,” Is there a gun in the glove box sir?” The man laughs and says,” No officer why would there be a gun in the glove box.” He opened the glove box and showed him that there was no gun. The second officer asked him to open the trunk because he had reason to believe that there was a body in it. The man agrees and opens the trunk, no dead body. The second officer says, “Sir I do not understand, the officer that pulled you over said that you did not have a license, the car was stolen, there was a gun in the glove box, and a dead body in the trunk.” The man looks the officer in the eyes and says, “Yeah and I’ll bet he said I was speeding too.”

On Our Mind:

RIM buys JayCut for the PlayBook.

Eileen Award:

BuzzGarwood (twitter)

Advisory:

Visualization of the United States National Debt.

From the Twitterverse:

*Funderstanding Eric Cohen Media Strategy: Getting the Free Press to Teach Civics
*mental_floss Mental Floss From last night: 15 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent (We need a word for ‘grief bacon’) — bit.ly/nz6OKB
*tomshepp tomshepp Announcement on JayCut site: http://ow.ly/1uTMML about RIM buying them. #edtech #webapp
*kevcreutz Kevin Creutz WOW!!! A visualization of United States debt bit.ly/nR0EkJ” via @Nunavut_Tweeter @intrepidteacher #fb
*FlyontheCWall On the ClassroomWall luv! RT @punkmaki: More evidence at #mnli2 : When you give teachers time to collaborate, you give teachers time to innovate.
*mikeklonsky Mike Klonsky State Supt. Bennett: Indiana must have the “courage” to hand public schools over private companies.
*JusticeinBah Maria RT @MathEvolve Using iPads in Education:Resources for teachers using iPads in the classroom #ipaded #mlearning #edchat #ipad
* onlinecourse Distance Education Why Flunking Out of College Might Be a Good Thing – http://dedu.org/9WqUtE
*ShellTerrell Shelly S Terrell If schools embraced social media then we could help students learn about digital footprints & help support positive footprints #Edchat
*drmmtatom Monte Tatom Creating a Personal Success Plan – A Sensible Alternative to Standardized Tests by Lisa Nielsen #fhuedu610 http://tinyurl.com/3rk62ey

Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

Atlanta Cheating

There had long been suspicions that cheating on state tests was widespread in the Atlanta public schools, but the superintendent, Beverly L. Hall, was feared by teachers and principals, and few dared speak out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/education/18oneducation.html?pagewanted=1&src=recg

Resources:

Bill McBride

Click on Pages & Files. Lots of resources: including:

  • Graphic Novels in the Classroom
  • Debate Resources
  • Gender Differences
  • Student Engagement
  • Teaching with Technology
  • Vocabulary Resources

http://billmcbride.pbworks.com/w/page/14094960/Welcome-to-my-Wiki

Timer Tab

Online Timer, Alarm & Stopwatch. Keeps time on a tab in your browser.
http://www.timer-tab.com/

Pic4Learning

Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers. Unlike many Internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection.
http://pics4learning.com/

Web Spotlight:

Lino

Online stickies.
http://en.linoit.com/

ISTE 2011:  BYOD Bring Your Own Device

Led by Scott Meech
References:
https://profiles.google.com/smeech.net/posts
http://www.linkedin.com/in/smeech
http://globaleducation.ning.com/profile/ScottMeech

Kenilworth School District has been piloting it with 8th graders.
No spike in behavior issues, let the kids bring ’em in as an expansion of current policy.
As they refreshed the teacher devices, they moved those into use for student use.
They put all the stuff in the cloud  and got rid of individual student folders on the drive.
Kerns High School did a tech initiative:  What devices?
Kenilworth SD used them mostly with executive functioning.
Use for RTI:  Pushing notifications to the kids who need the executive functions piece.
Jim Gates:  Statewide video conference on BYOD (PA)
Even though allowed to bring devices in, students didn’t want to.
Heavy
Fear of being stolen
When allowed, it changed the dynamic, expectations changed lesson design and desire to bring it to class.
How did you get past the IT wanting control?
We don’t control other things (paper, magazines, etc.) why control this?
How would you start?
Approach:  How do we want the kids to use this?
3-5 years out we will probably be talking about how in the world were we worried about this stuff?
Return on Investment:  Are we at the tipping point where it is more expensive to manage it rather than allow it  and educate on how to use it?
School didn’t get rid of all technology that they had, they are using the BYOD for executive functions (time management, calendars, etc.)
What about renting/subsidizing devices?
The opening of iOS will open the use of these in education.
The kids will get around a filtering system.  It comes down to learning respect for the system and responsible use.
How Paul R. Woods got it in his district:
Install wireless first.
Students can bring in their own machines, but they must allow the school to put their proxies on their machines.
If kids try to get around it, the network locks their screen and they have to see the building tech person to get it unlocked again.
How did you get teachers on board?
First year:  bring your device in and allow our techs to look at it.
Following years:  pick an electronic textbook.
The school bought the licensing for all the books on all the devices.
The best way to get teachers involved is to let the kids use it and then let them ask the teachers that don’t use it if they can use it in their classroom.
BYOD is a better way to sustain a 1 to 1 program.  District provided computers are an unsustainable way to provide tech.
Find schools that are doing this successfully and then go to the IT department.
Get administrators on your side before going to IT department.
There is some risk going forward:
3-2-1 Rule:  Save in 3 different spots.
Create a safe place to fail in to create buy-in with your staff/admin/tech.
www.schoolweblockers.com:  Cloud storage for $1.00 per year.
@paulrwood on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/#!/paulrwood
Website:
http://whatisyouritvision.blogspot.com/
Related:
Scott McLeod (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant)
UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

ISTE 2011:  Professional Development led by Liz Davis

In a non-review year, she meets with teachers to help them prepare for their review year. Teacher had kids make stuff:

Kids prepared Choctaws (?) and rotated every 20 minutes.

Kids develop a wiki on the subject. Teachers meet with their TEAM leader to pull together stuff for their bi-annual review.

“Tech Tuesdays” Techies getting time to work with teachers. Tech coaches/IT departments justify their jobs by the level of tech integration. They survey the staff and then evaluate to see how far they’ve moved the staff from where they were to where they are at the end of the year. Tech department evaluations based on level of tech integration/use. Tech department schedules time with the teachers to help them with their job reviews and in doing so, helps them prove their value to the district.

Lots of teachers forget they use the tech and the IT people help them remember the projects to include in their portfolios. Teachers started meeting outside of school time to teach each other once they learned a new tech skill.

(The Geek Mustangs) Side note: lots of aluminum cases for iPads. IT organizes their PD for staff very similarly to what we do here at EduBloggerCon. Some put it in a survey monkey thing and have them pick their sessions there.

Use a food/menu metaphor: Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert Appetizer: Something I want to dip my toe it, something I want to find
out about, but not explore. Main Course: Something I want to learn in depth Dessert: Something fun at the end to wrap it up and I can use in my
classroom. Make an annual report at the end of the year and compliment teachers on their tech integration. Make a celebration at the end of the year out of it. (Culminating experience) Organize the kids to do tech PD for other students.

Students did a screen cast for each of the Google products. Checkout Flipboard for the iPad.

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

      • Other News:
  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

NMSA Announces Name Change

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NMSA President Joan Jarrett and new Executive Director Will Waidelich talk about the name change.  Here’s some points made in the interview from Education Talk Radio:

  • The middle school movement started in Pennsylvania.
  • Dr. Waidelich (pronounced like Wade-Lick) comes from the Future Farmers of America organization with a background in curriculum design, organizational finance and management.
  • NMSA name change reflects the changes in middle level education:  it’s a philosophy, not a building or even a specific group of grades.
  • Teacher training universities are growing their programs in middle level education.
  • Convention information:  Louisville, KY this November with keynote speakers and information on best practice.  “Giant array of product and visitors . . .”
  • Middle schools need to be developmentally responsive, challenging students academically, empowering both students and teachers in academic skills and life choices, and being an advocate for children.
  • Integrated exploratory curriculum and multiple learning approaches.
  • High schools are finding out they too need to embrace some of the philosophies of the middle school.  Balfanz’s research shows one high school student dropping out every 10 seconds.
  • Best configuration for a middle school:  depends on the developmental progress of the kids.  Generally 5th through 9th grade is accepted.
  • An essential component of every middle school: the student is guided by an adult advocate.
  • 25,000 members
  • education-talkradio.org for audio archives.

MSM 172 Confused, Sounds of Silence, Next Week we’re talking about ISTE! Really, we promise. Maybe.

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Jokes You Can Use:

While walking to the ninth hole, one psychiatrist said to his colleague, would you believe that yesterday I had a patient who claimed he heard music every time he put on his hat?”
“Really? What did you do?”
The psychiatrist answered, “I took it away and removed the band.”

A man was on a beach when he discovered an old lamp in the sand. He rubbed it and a genie popped out. The genie said “I will grant you three wishes. The only condition is that you cannot wish for more wishes.” “Alright,” said the man, “I wish for more genies.”

A tribal farmer watching a Tarzan movie rushed out of the hall the moment a tiger appeared on screen, advancing menacingly towards the audience.
The gatekeeper trying to stop him argued that it’s only a movie, to which the tribal replied: “I know it’s a movie, you also know it is, but does the tiger know”?

Q: How do Eskimos have babies?
A: They keep on rubbing their noses together until the little boogers come out.

On Our Mind:

 mthman Ron King Hey @MSMatters…do you remember the #NMSA session about HOTS question stems on colored paper in the teacher’s line of sight? #midleved

Eileen Award:

Liz N. and Tim H. Thanks for the kind words.

Middle School Science Minute

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

Part 3: This middle school science minute is about the ELA common core standards in Reading and their relationship to science.  The four areas of reading include: key ideas and details; craft and structure; integration of knowledge and ideas; and range of reading and level of text complexity.  In this podcast, we look at the three reading standards that relate to science in grades 6 – 8 in the area of integration of knowledge and ideas, along with the range of reading and level of text complexity.

From the Twittervse:

*stardiverr L. Lee Why test scores are not a measure of all students’ learning.  http://tinyurl.com/3ggk9op
*willrich45 Will Richardson Btw, I’ve got 8 Google+ invites if anyone wants one…
*middleweb John Norton RT @MSPortal2: Blended Learning Helps Us Mind the Gaps | Powerful Learning Practice plpnetwork.com/2011/07/13/ble… #vflr @snbeach @rhawk
*shannonmmiller Shannon Miller Love that Steve put this together 🙂 RT @kylepace: LiveBinder of resources on Google+ from @web20classroom:

Add and Share Content With The @Edmodo Bookmarklet http://ow.ly/5G28p
*ckeech Cynthia Keech great idea!RT“@ransomtech:  Idea:  Share one a day w students. “eEtiquette – 101 Guidelines for the Digital World” eetiquette.com” #edchat
*lisibo lisibo Comic Life app for iPad is half price this weekend – £2.49.
*annemareemoore annemareemoore Another great scoop.it @townesy77 iPods and Education on @scoopit bit.ly/poTuti
*RickWormeli Rick Wormeli In classrooms we negotiate for what level of hypocrisy we should tolerate this day. Some days we’re more tolerant than we should be.
*fisher1000 Michael Fisher LiveBinders Update!! Curate your own shelf of others’ binders! #cmi2011 Read about it here: livebinders.wordpress.com (Thanks Barbara & Tina!)
*BethStill Beth Still Ten Sure Ways to Help You Destroy Your Twitter Cred: Are you guilty of any of these?

Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

http://www.minddump.org/you-have-the-same-hours-per-day-as-helen-kell

https://www.sifteo.com/product  Coming this summer.

Show & Tell

These results suggest children are extremely sensitive to the subtleties of a teaching scenario, Schulz says: What matters is not if children are shown a function, but how they are shown that function. If they believe that an informed teacher has taught them everything, they will be less motivated to explore.

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/06/30/if-students-believe-that-a-teacher-has-taught-them-everything-they-will-be-less-motivated-to-explore/
The original post:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/miot-dsd063011.php

What should students be able to do with technology in grade school?

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/elementary-technology-skills-mary-beth-hertz

Resources:

Fur.ly

Multiple URL’s into one window. Adds a bar on the top of the window where people can click through the URL’s. I had trouble getting the Capta to work. You can track how many people have viewed the site.
http://fur.ly/

Brain Rules

Book for sale – I haven’t read it. Does point out 12 Brain Rules.

Brightstorm

Thousands of FREE video resources for Math & Science. One neat thing is that you can search by textbook. There is also Test Prep materials. Includes transcripts for the videos.
http://brightstorm.com/

National Archives Document of the Day

A different historical document every day. Includes support links. Also a mobile app is available.
http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/

Knovio:

Knovio™ is a free tool for turning PowerPoint slides into rich video presentations right from your web browser. No fancy hardware or video software needed – just a webcam and microphone. Currently in private Beta. Will have a free component. Go sign up if interested.
http://www.knovio.com/

Animaps

Create and view beautifully informative animated maps, for free!
http://www.animaps.com/#!home

Kodu

Kodu is a visual programming language made especially for creating games. Kodu’s language is entirely icon-based, fairly easy to learn, and aimed at kids 9 to 17. It works on PCs and on the Xbox.
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/students-create-games-that-focus-on-global-issues/

Show Me
iPad app.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/showme-interactive-whiteboard/id445066279?mt=8

Web Spotlight:

Snag Films: Red, White & Blue
Voting. 35 minutes.
http://learning.snagfilms.com/film/journeys-through-the-red-white-and-blue

ISTE 2011

Led by Scott Meech
References:
https://profiles.google.com/smeech.net/posts
http://www.linkedin.com/in/smeech
http://globaleducation.ning.com/profile/ScottMeech

Kenilworth School District has been piloting it with 8th graders.
No spike in behavior issues, let the kids bring ’em in as an expansion of current policy.
As they refreshed the teacher devices, they moved those into use for student use.
They put all the stuff in the cloud  and got rid of individual student folders on the drive.
Kerns High School did a tech initiative:  What devices?
Kenilworth SD used them mostly with executive functioning.
Use for RTI:  Pushing notifications to the kids who need the executive functions piece.
Jim Gates:  Statewide video conference on BYOD (PA)
Even through allowed to bring devices in, students didn’t want to.
Heavy
Fear of being stolen
When allowed, it changed the dynamic, expectations changed lesson design and desire to bring it to class.
How did you get past the IT wanting control?
We don’t control other things (paper, magazines, etc.) why control this?
How would you start?
Approach:  How do we want the kids to use this?
3-5 years out we will probably be talking about how in the world were we worried about this stuff?
Return on Investment:  Are we at the tipping point where it is more expensive to manage it rather than allow it  and educate on how to use it?
School didn’t get rid of all technology that they had, they are using the BYOD for executive functions (time management, calendars, etc.)
What about renting/subsidizing devices?
The opening of iOS will open the use of these in education.
The kids will get around a filtering system.  It comes down to learning respect for the system and responsible use.
How Paul R. Woods got it in his district:
Install wireless first.
Students can bring in their own machines, but they must allow the school to put their proxies on their machines.
If kids try to get around it, the network locks their screen and they have to see the building tech person to get it unlocked again.
How did you get teachers on board?
First year:  bring your device in and allow our techs to look at it.
Following years:  pick an electronic textbook.
The school bought the licensing for all the books on all the devices.
The best way to get teachers involved is to let the kids use it and then let them ask the teachers that don’t use it if they can use it in their classroom.
BYOD is a better way to sustain a 1 to 1 program.  District provided computers are an unsustainable way to provide tech.
Find schools that are doing this successfully and then going to the IT department.
Get administrators on your side before going to IT department.
There is some risk going forward:
3-2-1 Rule:  Save in 3 different spots.
Create a safe place to fail in to create buy-in with your staff/admin/tech.
www.schoolweblockers.com:  Cloud storage for $1.00 per year.
@paulrwood on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/#!/paulrwood
Website:
http://whatisyouritvision.blogspot.com/
Related:
Scott McLeod (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant)
UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

      • Other News:
  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 171 TwittervISTE #ISTE11

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Jokes You Can Use:

How does a guitar player make a million dollars?
He starts out with eight million.

My brother told me I needed to study more on my gardening.
I had a rock garden this year, and one of the rocks died!

Read this from Readers Digest a long time ago: One day a Cowpoke riding the plains, came upon a warrior with his head down on the ground with his ear on a wagon track, the warrior looked up at the cowpoke and said” Wagon with two horses, one black, one white, man with beard drive, smoke pipe, women ride, wear blue dress with bonnet” the cowpoke looks at the warrior and said” you mean you can tell me all that just by listening to a wagon track? The warrior looked up and replied, “No! Run over me half hour ago…

A frog came into a bank to obtain a loan. He spoke to the loan officer Mr. Paddywack. When Mr. Paddywack asked the frog what he had for loan collateral, the frog held out his hand. “What’s that?” asked Mr. Paddywack, but the frog could not talk. So, Mr. Paddywack took the frog in to see the manager and explained the situation. The manager then asked the frog what collateral he had for the loan and the frog held out his hand. “Oh,” said the manager, “that’s a knickknack Paddywack, give the frog a loan.”

The manager of a large office asked a new employee to come into his office. “What is your name?,” was the first thing the manager asked. “John,” the new guy replied. The manager scowled. “Look, I don’t know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked at before, but I don’t call anyone by their first name! It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority,” he said. “I refer to my employees by their last name only – Smith, Jones, Baker – that’s all. Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?” The new guy sighed and said, “Darling. My name is John Darling.” The manager said, “Okay, John, the next thing I want to tell you…”

Eileen Award:

Allen D. for the web site recommendation.

Middle School Science Minute

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

Part 2 on the relationship between the core standards for ELA and literacy in Science. I look at the three reading standards that relate to science in grades 6 – 8 in the area of craft and structure.

From the TwittervISTE:

* dakinane dakinane  RT @gwoitas: Trends and tools in the classroom from #iste11.What is a flipped classroom? lots of cool tools! bit.ly/jAjEwq #elearning
* surreylearn surreylearn “@stevehargadon: #isteunplugged session recordings all posted! #iste11 bit.ly/mL7okU” #sd36learn
* dwarlick David Warlick How I took notes at #ISTE11 – http://ow.ly/5vrdo
* tcbird1 Tammy Audaer Bird Awesome! RT @mrsebiology Before, During, & After Reading Strategies: #edchat #engchat #midleved #elemchat
* dmcordell dmcordell I’m still trying to process it all! Your presentation was very effective. RT @cathyjo My #ISTE11 Faves http://owl.li/1dzixK
* gret Greta Sandler Webcasts and Keynotes from #ISTE11 by @rmbyrne #edchat
*gcouros gcourosRT @jaymej: @WestEnglish ISTE 2011 Closing Keynote: Chris Lehmann (full) #ISTE11
* lingsc scling The Nerdy Teacher: 10 Things I Hate About You (#ISTE11) thenerdyteacher.com/2011/06/10-thi…
* edmodo Edmodo Recovered from #ISTE11? EdmodoCon2011 – Call for presentations opens tomorrow! August 10th, Global virtual conference –details to come.
* KellyGToGo Kelly Gallagher Harry Potter and the Hatred of Teachers: esquire.com/features/thous…

Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

The 7 Golden Rules of Using Technology in Schools

July 6, 2011 | 3:43 PM | By Tina Barseghian
Sometimes teachers and administrators need a kick in the pants to see what they perceive as problems re-framed in a different way.
1) DON’T TRAP TECHNOLOGY IN A ROOM.
2) TECHNOLOGY IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
3) MOBILE TECHNOLOGY STRETCHES A LONG WAY.
4) THE NEW ‘F WORD’ IS FEAR.
5) TECH TOOLS ARE NOT JUST A PASSING FAD.
6) MONEY IS NOT THE PROBLEM.
7) INVITE EVERY STAKEHOLDER TO THE CONVERSATION.
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/the-seven-golden-rules-of-using-technology-in-schools/

Resources:

Be a Great Learner: Take Notes
by Jeff Cobb
Establishing a consistent habit of writing things down can be very powerful.  A significant body of research supports the idea that simply writing something down contributes greatly to the process of moving it into long-term memory.
http://www.missiontolearn.com/2011/06/note-taking/

Leveling the Playing Field: How to Make Standardized Test Preparation Accessible to All Students

By Andrea Alexander
Strategy 1: Encourage Predictive Reading Habits
Strategy 2: Build Good Vocabularies
Strategy 3: Take Advantage of All the Resources Offered by the Internet
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-make-standardized-test-prep-available-to-all-students

Desmos

Desmos is a place where anyone can create and share rich, interactive content that works across platforms – from computers, to interactive touchscreens in classrooms, and even to many tablet devices and smartphones. We believe that educational content should be easy to build, easy to access, and easy to share, and should never be restricted to one device. Desmos is in private beta, but taking requests to join.
Desmos, at its core, means connection (in English, the study of ligaments is known as Desmology). We build software that allows people to create content and collaborate online.
http://desmos.com/calculator/
http://desmos.com/

One Teacher’s Three-Tiered Intervention Strategy

Jean Laurance and Michael Laurance

I had no sooner returned from Rick Wormeli’s seminar on differentiated assessment and grading than my administrator walked into my office. Her face showed apprehension and a bit of weariness.
My class sizes would be pushed to a staggering 37 students!  “We don’t have enough students to run separate classes, so they will be mixed, but about 10 percent are repeating the class.”
Having the tools required for differentiated instruction is one thing, but here I was faced with the task of truly implementing it. More than that, I would need to adjust differentiation to my teaching style, a diverse group of students, and a bulging class size. I quickly realized that manageability would be just as important as the instruction itself.
http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/620-laurance.aspx

Web Spotlight:

What Does Successful Project Based Learning Looks Like?
by Bob Lenz
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching approach, a mindset, and a framework for teaching skills and content. (Both our working definition and criteria are derived from our own work, as well as the work of, Adria Steinberg’s 6 A’s of PBL, The Buck Institute for Education, and Expeditionary Learning.)
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-definition-bob-lenz

Troy has a new project . . . . Just Arrived!

Stencil:  http://stencil.sourceforge.net/
Make games.  No need to understand programming.  Can make iPhone Apps from this program.  Allegedly Angry Birds was made using this program.

Summer Reading List:

Troy:

  • The Watchman’s Rattle ( just finished) by Rebecca D. Costa
  • What the Dog Saw by Malcom Gladwell

Shawn:

  • Toys to Tools,
  • Safe Practice for Life Online &
  • Web 2.0 How to for teachers
  • The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood  ✔

Our Listeners:

@mthman:  The Classroom of Choice, First Days of School (4th Ed), Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites, & Great Ways to Diff Math Instr (I & II), Leading & Managing a Diff Class, Learning to Love Math, PBL Starter Kit (via Buck Institute), UbD Guide 2 HQ Units

#midleved:

@Waukeestudent:  I plan on reading @johntspencer ‘s new book and maybe his two older books two.

Bonus:

http://www.missiontolearn.com/2011/06/recommended-reading/

ISTE 2011

Led by Scott Meech
References:
https://profiles.google.com/smeech.net/posts
http://www.linkedin.com/in/smeech
http://globaleducation.ning.com/profile/ScottMeech

Kenilworth School District has been piloting it with 8th graders.
No spike in behavior issues, let the kids bring ’em in as an expansion of current policy.
As they refreshed the teacher devices, they moved those into use for student use.
They put all the stuff in the cloud  and got rid of individual student folders on the drive.
Kerns High School did a tech initiative:  What devices?
Kenilworth SD used them mostly with executive functioning.
Use for RTI:  Pushing notifications to the kids who need the executive functions piece.
Jim Gates:  Statewide video conference on BYOD (PA)
Even through allowed to bring devices in, students didn’t want to.
Heavy
Fear of being stolen
When allowed, it changed the dynamic, expectations changed lesson design and desire to bring it to class.
How did you get past the IT wanting control?
We don’t control other things (paper, magazines, etc.) why control this?
How would you start?
Approach:  How do we want the kids to use this?
3-5 years out we will probably be talking about how in the world were we worried about this stuff?
Return on Investment:  Are we at the tipping point where it is more expensive to manage it rather than allow it  and educate on how to use it?
School didn’t get rid of all technology that they had, they are using the BYOD for executive functions (time management, calendars, etc.)
What about renting/subsidizing devices?
The opening of iOS will open the use of these in education.
The kids will get around a filtering system.  It comes down to learning respect for the system and responsible use.
How Paul R. Woods got it in his district:
Install wireless first.
Students can bring in their own machines, but they must allow the school to put their proxies on their machines.
If kids try to get around it, the network locks their screen and they have to see the building tech person to get it unlocked again.
How did you get teachers on board?
First year:  bring your device in and allow our techs to look at it.
Following years:  pick an electronic textbook.
The school bought the licensing for all the books on all the devices.
The best way to get teachers involved is to let the kids use it and then let them ask the teachers that don’t use it if they can use it in their classroom.
BYOD is a better way to sustain a 1 to 1 program.  District provided computers are an unsustainable way to provide tech.
Find schools that are doing this successfully and then going to the IT department.
Get administrators on your side before going to IT department.
There is some risk going forward:
3-2-1 Rule:  Save in 3 different spots.
Create a safe place to fail in to create buy-in with your staff/admin/tech.
www.schoolweblockers.com:  Cloud storage for $1.00 per year.
@paulrwood on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/#!/paulrwood
Website:
http://whatisyouritvision.blogspot.com/
Related:
Scott McLeod (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant)
UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

      • Other News:
  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 170 Football Fields, ISTE, Tweet Me.

/ , , , , , , /

Jokes You Can Use:

What goes up and never comes down?
Your age

1 egg takes 5 minutes to boil. How long do 10 eggs take to boil?
The same 5 minutes.

How many times does a tailor have to cut 100 yards of cloth to get 100 equal pieces?
99 times. You don’t cut the last piece, it is already there

What side of the teacup is the handle on?
I really don’t know the answer

Which is heavier? 1 pound of hay or 1pound of metal.
They both weigh a pound

Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers, Peter piper picked. If Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peckers, how many pickels did Peter piper picked? How many Ps are there in THAT?
None…T..H…A…T…..there are NO P’s in the word THAT

What has 100 eyes and cannot see?
A potato

Two Indians standing on a bridge. One is the father of the other ones son. What is the relation between the two Indians?
Mother and Father

What has NO legs and CAN run?
Water

On Our Mind:

ISTE 2011 (#iste11)
The problems with skipping a show

Eileen Award

Gabe Walker & Michael Cohen

Advisory:

BBC – Witness

Witness – history as told by the people who were there. Five days a week we will be talking to people who lived through moments of history to bring you a personal perspective on world events.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/witness

Middle School Science Minute

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

In this podcast, I look at the ELA Reading Common core for grades 6-8 and see how they apply to science.  This is the first in a three part series.  It focuses in on Key Ideas and Details.

From the Twitterverse:

*MSMatters Shawn & Troy “Treating students as only test scores is the worst form of identity theft.” -Dr. Stephen Covey at #iste11
*deangroom DeanGroom If ya cant build a community, build a creepy treehouse and pretend its a community. After all, its all about you anyway.
*pernilleripp Pernille Ripp Did you know Banana Republic offers a 15% discount for teachers? I didn’t http://ow.ly/5tKLw
*chubbuch Chris Hubbuch Attended a powerful session yesterday on improving our presentations. Reminds me of this ow.ly/5tKuR via @geraldaungst #edchat
*carolynstarkey Carolyn Starkey Updated LiveBinder: School Librarians and the Common Core State Standards: Resources tinyurl.com/3pdrejs #aslachat
*kbkonnected Karen Bolotin 45 recorded sessions from #ISTE – via @dsmacdonald I’m listening to @dmantz @livebinders right now. Awesome…http://tumblr.com/xtl38xls1q
*scottmerrick Scott Merrick #iste11 – @scottmerrick ustream.tv/channel/iste-s… for ustream archive of our fine 1st annual SIGVE Machinima Festival. New faces there! Thx, KC!
*web20classroom Steven W. Anderson RT @dataliberation: We’re happy to announce The Data Liberation Front’s revolutionary new product, Google Takeout:dataliberation.blogspot.com/2011/06/data-l…
*sccsdtechjodee Jo Dee Weltz Adam Bellow: ironic we get our “PD” from Twitter and YouTube, yet we block it in our schools #ISTE11
*cyberteacher Stephanie Madlinger RT @adambellow All new FREE eduTecher apps available now for iPhone, iPad & Android! Check out & enjoy! #education #iste11 #edtech #edchat
*elemenous Lucy Gray Mobile Learning Finds (Apple iOS) (weekly): – Hipstamatic Combination Chart Chart… http://goo.gl/fb/T8Hmg
*kjarrett Kevin Jarrett RT @isteconnects: New Post: Web 2.0 Tools Smackdown: Ideas and Resources from EduBloggerCon 2011 bit.ly/lqWbPD #ebc11 #iste11
*courosa Alec Couros “9 Presentation Apps for the iPad” http://rww.to/jKbxby
*gret Greta Sandler Webcasts and Keynotes from #ISTE11 by @rmbyrne #edchat
*edmodo Edmodo Recovered from #ISTE11? EdmodoCon2011 – Call for presentations opens tomorrow! August 10th, Global virtual conference –details to come.

Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

University of the People

University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first tuition-free online university
dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education.
The University embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring tuition-free academic programs within reach to millions of people around the world.
With the support of academic leadership from top universities and a student body comprised of students from over 115 countries, UoPeople has become a tuition-free higher education global leader.
Currently, University of the People offers the following four undergraduate degrees: Associate (A.S.-B.A.) and Bachelor (B.S.-B.A.) degrees in Business Administration and Associate (A.S.-C.S.) and Bachelor (B.S.-C.S.) degrees in Computer Science.
It should be noted that unless and until University of the People receives state licensing, it will be unable to grant degrees to graduating students.
http://www.uopeople.org/

What’s the Best Way to Grade Teachers?

By Kristina Rizga| Wed Jun. 29, 2011 11:35 AM PDT

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, because we do know that while poverty accounts for much of students’ achievement gap, within a school, teachers make a bigger difference than any other variable.
Elden’s suggests that education reformers spend more time talking with teachers to avoid unintended consequences like firing teachers who want to work with the most challenging students. Hire teachers from diverse backgrounds and varying viewpoints to develop these systems, not just policy wonks or teacher union reps, she says. “Realize that schools are deeply collaborative communities and setting up competition will not always be the best thing for the kids.”
http://motherjones.com/contributor/2011/06/grading-teachers-evaluations

First Digital Only Textbook:

CINCH, is a cloud-based curriculum for K-12 math and 7-12 science. It makes all course materials, which include ebooks, presentations, assessments and animation clips, available from any device with a browser. Students in a class can also participate in Facebook-like conversations that stay with the text. “We’re trying to meet students and teachers where they’re at digitally,” Stansell says.
http://mashable.com/2011/06/27/iste-textbooks-k-12/

The many health perks of good handwriting

Not only does it help the brain develop, it can also improve grades and confidence
Emerging research shows that handwriting increases brain activity, hones fine motor skills, and can predict a child’s academic success in ways that keyboarding can’t.
Handwriting can change how children learn and their brains develop. IU researchers used neuroimaging scans to measure brain activation in preliterate preschool children who were shown letters. One group of children then practiced printing letters; the other children practiced seeing and saying the letters. After four weeks of training, the kids who practiced writing showed brain activation similar to an adult’s, said James, the study’s lead researcher. The printing practice also improved letter recognition, which is the No. 1 predictor of reading ability at age 5.
http://www.healthkey.com/sc-health-0615-child-health-handwriti20110615,0,5764943.story

Resources:

ISTE Online:

Free PD for you.  What happens at ISTE . . . goes social:
http://tumblr.com/xtl38xls1q http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/07/webcasts-and-keynotes-from-iste-2011.html

Socrative:

Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational games and exercises via smartphones and tablets. Our apps are super simple and take seconds to load and run. Teachers control the questions and games on their laptop, while students respond and interact through their smartphones/laptops. Run it as an app or on any web browser.
Currently free. No mention of what prices will be once it is out of beta.
http://www.socrative.com/

Weaving History

Create ‘factlets’ — places, people, events — and string them together into ‘threads’ at the click of a button.Automatically visualize the results temporally and spatially, search by any attribute, automatically import Wikipedia articles and much more …
Very bare bones currently. It’s reliance on Wikipedia could cause some problems for schools (but maybe not).
Potential to be exciting and useful for students and teachers.
http://www.weavinghistory.org/

Web Spotlight:

Ujam

You sing the lyrics, it figures out the tune.  Even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, sing into the mic and it comes up with the music to go along with it.  Anybody can become a musician with this app.  Think of it as your answer to the kid who says, “You can’t make a song out of that!”  Now you can.  http://www.ujam.com/

ISTE 2011

Led by Scott Meech
References:
https://profiles.google.com/smeech.net/posts
http://www.linkedin.com/in/smeech
http://globaleducation.ning.com/profile/ScottMeech

Kenilworth School District has been piloting it with 8th graders.
No spike in behavior issues, let the kids bring ’em in as an expansion of current policy.
As they refreshed the teacher devices, they moved those into use for student use.
They put all the stuff in the cloud  and got rid of individual student folders on the drive.
Kerns High School did a tech initiative:  What devices?
Kenilworth SD used them mostly with executive functioning.
Use for RTI:  Pushing notifications to the kids who need the executive functions piece.
Jim Gates:  Statewide video conference on BYOD (PA)
Even through allowed to bring devices in, students didn’t want to.
Heavy
Fear of being stolen
When allowed, it changed the dynamic, expectations changed lesson design and desire to bring it to class.
How did you get past the IT wanting control?
We don’t control other things (paper, magazines, etc.) why control this?
How would you start?
Approach:  How do we want the kids to use this?
3-5 years out we will probably be talking about how in the world were we worried about this stuff?
Return on Investment:  Are we at the tipping point where it is more expensive to manage it rather than allow it  and educate on how to use it?
School didn’t get rid of all technology that they had, they are using the BYOD for executive functions (time management, calendars, etc.)
What about renting/subsidizing devices?
The opening of iOS will open the use of these in education.
The kids will get around a filtering system.  It comes down to learning respect for the system and responsible use.
How Paul R. Woods got it in his district:
Install wireless first.
Students can bring in their own machines, but they must allow the school to put their proxies on their machines.
If kids try to get around it, the network locks their screen and they have to see the building tech person to get it unlocked again.
How did you get teachers on board?
First year:  bring your device in and allow our techs to look at it.
Following years:  pick an electronic textbook.
The school bought the licensing for all the books on all the devices.
The best way to get teachers involved is to let the kids use it and then let them ask the teachers that don’t use it if they can use it in their classroom.
BYOD is a better way to sustain a 1 to 1 program.  District provided computers are an unsustainable way to provide tech.
Find schools that are doing this successfully and then going to the IT department.
Get administrators on your side before going to IT department.
There is some risk going forward:
3-2-1 Rule:  Save in 3 different spots.
Create a safe place to fail in to create buy-in with your staff/admin/tech.
www.schoolweblockers.com:  Cloud storage for $1.00 per year.
@paulrwood on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/#!/paulrwood
Website:
http://whatisyouritvision.blogspot.com/
Related:
Scott McLeod (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant)
UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

      • Other News:
  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.

Ohio Middle Level Association:




Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life