MSM 277: eHe’s got eSkeletons in e’s Closet!
Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.
Jokes You Can Use:
How much does a pirate pay for corn?
A buccaneer
What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long?
Polaroids
Why did the pirate go to the Caribbean?
He wanted some arr and arr.
What’s it called when you loan money to a bison?
A buffaloan.
Two atoms are walking down the street together. The first atom turns and says, “Hey, you just stole an electron from me!”
“Are you sure?” asks the second atom.
To which the first atom replies, “Yeah, I’m positive!”
What do you do with epileptic lettuce?
Seizure salad
What kind of guns do Bees use?
BeeBee Guns
Advisory:
A few minutes with … a kid who helps the homeless
Robby Eimers spends his Saturdays like a lot of 12-year-olds, heading to baseball games or handing out meals to 150 homeless people.
Whoa. Wait. Say what?
http://www.freep.com/article/20140615/NEWS/306150058/1001/news
Middle School Science Minute
byDave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Neuroscience for MS Teachers
This is the third in a four part series on neuroscience with special guest Aneesha Badrinarayan, Outreach Programs Manager with the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, in Ann Arbor, MI. You can visit the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum online at:
In this podcast, we look at the question of “Why is neuroscience important for middle school science teachers?”
From the Twitterverse:
Strategies:
20 WORDS THAT ONCE MEANT SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT
Words change meaning over time in ways that might surprise you. We sometimes notice words changing meaning under our noses (e.g., unique coming to mean “very unusual” rather than “one of a kind”) — and it can be disconcerting. How in the world are we all going to communicate effectively if we allow words to shift in meaning like that?
The good news: History tells us that we’ll be fine. Words have been changing meaning — sometimes radically — as long as there have been words and speakers to speak them. Here is just a small sampling of words you may not have realized didn’t always mean what they mean today.
http://ideas.ted.com/2014/06/18/20-words-that-once-meant-something-very-different/
Visual Note Taking
Visual notetaking is a process of representing ideas non-linguistically. (That’s a fancy of way of saying, “drawing pictures.”) Visual notetaking can include concept mapping, but also more artistic ways of visually capturing and representing ideas. On the simpler side of the visual notetaking continuum, visual notes can be used to create narrated art. On the complex end of the spectrum, some visual notetaking applications support the creation of whiteboard animation videos which include audio narration synchronized to screencasts of drawings. Visual or graphic facilitation can be used at meetings to summarize presentations and guide discussions. Whether simple or complex, visual notes can be used to more deeply process information as well as communicate it to others with images.
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2014/06/19/inspired-by-ipadpalooza-2014-visual-notetaking/
http://www.slideshare.net/wfryer/visual-notetaking-with-ipads-june-2014
Resources:
Etymonline
This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.
The dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word (in English, unless otherwise indicated). This should be taken as approximate, especially before about 1700, since a word may have been used in conversation for hundreds of years before it turns up in a manuscript that has had the good fortune to survive the centuries.
The basic sources of this work are Weekley’s “An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English,” Klein’s “A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language,” “Oxford English Dictionary” (second edition), “Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology,” Holthausen’s “Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Englischen Sprache,” and Kipfer and Chapman’s “Dictionary of American Slang.” A full list of print sources used in this compilation can be found here.
Since this dictionary went up, it has benefited from the suggestions of dozens of people I have never met, from around the world. Tremendous thanks and appreciation to all of you.
eSkeletons
eSkeletons provides an interactive environment in which to examine and learn about skeletal anatomy. The purpose of this site is to enable you to view the bones of both human and non-human primates and to gather information about them from our osteology database.
Tips for viewing the eSkeletons website:
- Your screen resolution should be set to at least 800 x 600 pixels and color quality set at “highest.” For best results, set the screen resolution to 1024 x 768 or greater.
- eSkeletons is compatible with the following internet browsers: Firefox 2.0 or higher, Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher, and Safari. For the best viewing experience, we recommend using web standards compliant browsers.
- Make sure JavaScript is enabled. You can check this setting in the Preferences dialog box under the Edit menu.
- Some functions of eSkeletons require QuickTime 3.0 or higher.
Invasion of America
Between 1776 and the present, the United States seized roughly one eighth of the habitable world by treaty and executive order. Explore how it acquired North America in this interactive map of every Native American land cession since the birth of the nation.
http://invasionofamerica.ehistory.org/
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library’s vast digital collections in their teaching.
Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.
Web Spotlight:
No one can credibly argue that teachers are trained well enough to be effective and efficient in today’s classrooms
40 Before and After Shots That Demonstrate the Power of Visual Effects
http://twistedsifter.com/2014/06/before-and-after-shots-of-visual-effects-in-film/
11 facts about US teachers and schools that put the education reform debate in context
The debate over teacher compensation and job security and its relationship to student performance is incredibly bitter and divisive, featuring two competing sides with drastically competing narratives and visions of education. One good place to start with the issue, however, is with some basic facts. Here are eleven.
http://www.vox.com/2014/6/16/5810438/11-facts-about-americas-teachers-and-schools
Blog? Wiki? Website?
One of the questions that I am asked on a fairly frequent basis is, “should I create a blog, a wiki, or a website for my classroom?” Each platform serves a slightly different purpose. Years ago I created a small set of slides to outline the features of each platform. Yesterday, I rediscovered those slides and found that they are still useful.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/06/blog-wiki-or-website-key-points-to.html#.U6WanY1dXSd
Random Thoughts . . .
eCommunity for Moodle