MSM 184 You’d think that we had plenty to talk about . . .
Jokes You Can Use:
A businessman finds that his neighbor in the first class cabin of his flight is a parrot. They take off and the stewardess asks what they would like to drink.
“Glenlivet on the rocks with a twist,” says the parrot.
The businessman orders a coke.
After waiting two or three minutes, the bird starts yelling, “Where’s my drink?! Stop fooling around and give me my drink!”
The stewardess runs to him with his glass, leaving the businessman still thirsty.
Half an hour later the stewardess makes a second round.
The bird orders another Glenlivet and a Wall Street Journal. The businessman asks for another coke.
Again, after a couple of minutes, the bird screams, squawking, “You lazy idiot! Where is my drink?!” The poor woman nearly trips over herself getting the parrot his drink and the newspaper.
The businessman still has nothing, and after ten more minutes decides to take his cue from the bird. “Hey! Where’s my coke! The service here stinks!”
Out of nowhere the purser, the captain and two passengers grab the businessman and the bird, open the hatch and throw them out of the plane.
At 30,000 feet in the air the two fall side by side and the parrot says to the terrified man, “Wow, that took a lot of guts for a guy with no wings.”
On Our Mind:
- AMLE Attendance
- Flipped Classrooms
Eileen Award:
- Vlad Gutkovich of Flowcabulary
Use AMLE11 to get a free month of Flowcabulary for your classroom! - Jack Berckemeyer
Advisory
Google Fun
http://geekbeat.tv/6-awesome-google-tricks-and-games/
(Correction: Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th . . . )
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
This middle school science minute is about nature artists. It is based on an article written by Ashley Campbell, entitled, “Avenues to Inspiration: Integrating the Life and Work of Nature Artists into Middle School Science.” The article can be found in the October, 2011 edition of Science Scope, which is published by the National Science Teachers Association.
The following nature artists are cited in this podcast:
Marie Sibylla Merian
John James Audubon
Wilson A. Bentley
Andy Goldsworthy
From the Twitterverse:
 *NancyW RT @scampnyc Shelley Carson on the Creative Brain: shelleycarson.com #LB30 >>Thanks! |
 *mbteach A great argument for making student blogs (plogs) public amzn.com/k/7O3DFRXXZXTC #Kindle |
 *russeltarr 30 Great Sites for Learning a Language Online for Free: tinyurl.com/chaetwe |
 *rmbyrne New post: Free Music from Moby for Amateur Filmmakers goo.gl/fb/lKgGC |
 *ShellTerrell aPLaNet – Promoting Teacher Autonomy bit.ly/s6xKT2 via @Marisa_C #esl |
 *mcleod Scott McLeod
New bookmark: Skillshare bit.ly/v1b3mH New bookmark: OpenStudy http://bit.ly/rTD2PB New bookmark: Scitable http://bit.ly/rTD2PB |
 *kjarrett 10 ways to change the minds of tech-reluctant staff smf.is/1ACrug (via @summify from @topsurf, @eschoolnews, and 4 others) |
 *markbarnes19 RT @baldy7: RT @L_Hilt: Personal Branding: Why It Matters For Teachers zite.to/sG2BE9 #edchat #cpchat |
 *TeacherSol Why Facebook in Education: I created this FB page yesterday, I will utilize my Facebook Professional Page for en… bit.ly/sp58Zv |
 *vickisteer “@the_college: Middle leaders: practical guide to help you improve learning in secondary school – bit.ly/vitHlb” @RavoLearning |
 *WatchKnowLearn Watch Know Learn.org Use Katy Perrys Firework song to teach figureative language. watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?Vid… Youtube blocked? We r ur solution. #engchat #midleved #k12 |
 * Flocabulary Flocabulary Teaching Poe today? We’ve got two songs to get you started: ow.ly/7e7g2 #edchat #engchat #midleved #ntchat #tlchat |
 *willrich45 Will Richardson I don’t want best practice. I want changed practice. The former usually is just using tech to do the same as we’ve always done. #grumpytour |
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. |
News:
This American Life
This week, at the suggestion of a 14-year-old listener, we bring you stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school. Including a teacher who transforms peer pressure into a force for good, and reports from the frontlines of the middle school dance.
Mainly, she says that she wrote to us because she and her friends were talking right after they left eighth grade about how terrible middle school was. And she wondered was it just as bad for other people as it was for them?
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/449/middle-school
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/449/transcript
Common Core Webinars
Now that the Common Core State Standards are coming to just about every school, what every school leader needs is a straightforward explanation that lays out the benefits of the common core in plain English and gets everyone thinking about how to transition to this promising new paradigm.
http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/webinars/common-core-webinars.aspx
Resources:
BrainHoney
BrainHoney is learning infrastructure hosted in the cloud. Use complete solutions today, like the BrainHoney LMS, or build cloud solutions using BrainHoney components.
http://brainhoney.com/
Simple Science’s Video
Here are all Simple Science‘s videos on Vimeo. You can see both the videos this user has uploaded, as well as any other users’ videos they appear in.
Choose “Uploaded” to see the videos this user has uploaded to Vimeo. Choose “Other Credits” to see the videos that Simple Science is credited in by other users.
We recommend using the sort bar which allows you to view these videos in different orders or formats. If you are looking for a particular video, use the “search these videos” link.
http://vimeo.com/user697789/videos
MathChimp
Welcome to Math Chimp! We collect free online math games and organize them by the common core standards. We’re glad you’ve come to play cool math games here… they’re free and always will be!
http://www.mathchimp.com/
Pictures that bring the War home
For much of the 20th century, photography was the single most powerful method for conveying the horrors, triumphs, epic challenges, and small, daily struggles of warfare. In searing, unforgettable pictures, great photojournalists quite literally brought war — every war — home to millions of Americans. Here, LIFE.com presents 50 extraordinary photographs from three 20th-century conflicts that, in many respects, were defined by the way LIFE magazine covered them: images from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam that, collectively, serve as a testament to those who fought, and an admonition to those seeing the pictures today: Remember. ABOVE: Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie (left), wounded in a firefight during “Operation Prairie” in Vietnam, reaches out to a stricken comrade in Larry Burrows’ astonishing 1966 photograph. Here, in what might be the greatest picture from a legendary career, Burrows captured for LIFE magazine’s millions of readers both unfathomable desolation and galvanic camaraderie in the utterly alien universe of Southeast Asia. That the image, made at the height of the Civil Rights era, depicts a black soldier desperately trying to aid a wounded White comrade only added resonance to an already emotionally devastating tableau.
http://www.life.com/hdgallery/66681/image/50590785/50-photos-that-brought-the-war-home#index/0
Draw a StickMan
Fun, time waster. You draw, the story unfolds.
http://www.drawastickman.com/
Web Spotlight:
68 Ways to Use an iPad
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_721gdk5jtd8
Strategies:
How to Creatively Integrate Science and Math
BY BEN JOHNSON
In math class one of the biggest needs is relevance. Why not use science to teach math? Since one of the biggest uses of mathematics in science is data gathering and analysis, that is the best place to start. When a teacher gives students a real science problem to solve — one that requires math tools — the teacher is giving the students a reason to use math. Math then becomes something useful, not something to be dreaded.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/integrating-math-science-creatively-ben-johnson
AMLE 2011:
Thursday Sessions
NMSA/AMLE Affiliate Meeting Thursday 7:30 am.
Session Title: Advocating for AMLE
Article passed out at registration: Mark of Leadership: If Not You, Then Who? by Tom Burton (p. 44 AMLE) (I get to sit next to Ross Burkhardt!)
Opening remarks
What to expect from the Association?
1. People come first!
Tell our stories through our members
2. Focus on delivery on what members need through This We Believe
3. Serving our customers is why we are here.
4. Increase our build of brand, especially as we change to new name and logo.
Funding in schools is incredibly tight.
Still can’t lose sight of the need to learn and improve.
Teams that Make A Difference
Recognition of dignitaries.
Ross Burkhardt
Something new on Page 8.
Friends of the Foundation (105 people)
Encourages us all to donate to the Foundation.
Char Pike is one who helped start the Foundation.
Nancy Polosino
Introductions of Board of Trustees
Jeff LaRoux!
Teams That Make a Difference Award Presentation
Keynote:
Advocating One Day At A Time: IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO? by Tom Burton
These best practices are “gone”.
Today’s message won’t always be nice, but it will be honest.
We haven’t done enough, “I” haven’t done enough. The effort needs to be personal and one to one level.
True Advocacy: What does it mean?
Racing Against Time Honestly
Month of the Young Adolescent
We need to do research that supports us.
There’s a video called “Racing against time” (Honda?)
Overcome every challenge. Have no fear.
The Racing spirit is one of power.
Set a goal, set it high. Raise expectations.
Tune out the noise: What is the one thing I want to see?
Honda has a project clarity department . . . that’s interesting!
We put tons of energy into a product we’re not sure people will use because we know it’s right.
“Would be nice if we could end the “oil age” not because we’re out of oil, but because we found something better.”
Asking difficult questions:
Are we doing enough?
What do we need to do?
Racing
Pressure
Conversation
Goals
Spirit
Ticking clock
Transformational shift
Ahead of the competition
Against
Want to be the best!
Unleashing power
Reach the top and then cruise
Push the envelope
Those that can do it when it absolutely counts (It counts now-right!)
Make it happen!
A false urgency is an urgency created out of a sense of fear.
Time
Provide solutions
If you have people on the board, not doing the job, need to go.
Find out who the mavin is in your district and state, find out who your salesperson is. Get ’em to sell it.
We know it is RIGHT!
Future will be brighter
We need teamwork
Dream the Impossible!
Books
Sense of Urgency: A Sense of Urgency (A Must Read for Affiliates.)
Our Iceberg is Melting
True vs. False Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency in your affiliate.
Confronting the brutal facts of your current situation.
Underlying a true sense of urgency is a set of feelings: a compulsive determination to move, and win, NOW!
Must win attitude
Never letting up- After . . .
What can I/you do?
Promote! Promote! Promote!
In your classroom/office
Team
BuildingDistrict
MOYA what did you do?
once
twice
every day
DID YOU DO ENOUGH?
CAN YOU DO MORE?
Lessons from a Roosevelt
“it is not the critic who counts: not the mean one who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who ears and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasisms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who , at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst . . .”
If not you, then who?
Commercial: Man choking video, “Make it Happen.”
Events & Happenings:
Calendar of Events:
ISTE 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:
- The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference.
AMLE Affiliate Conferences:
- The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 2012 in Warren Woods, MI.
- The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012
Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
- Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
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