Month: April 2015

Jokes You Can Use:

Paul told his girlfriend that she drew her eyebrows too high. She seemed surprised.

I have the heart of a Lion, and a lifetime ban from the San Diego Zoo.

What did one orphan say to the other?

“Robin, get in the Batmobile.”

Did you hear the rumor going around about butter? Never mind, I shouldn’t spread it.

What do you get when you cross a dyslexic, an agnostic, and an insomniac?

Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there is a dog.

And God said to John, “Come forth and be granted eternal life.” But John came in fifth and won a toaster.

What happened to the cow that jumped over the barbed wire?

Udder disaster.

Why did Star Wars episodes 4, 5 and 6 come before 1,2, & 3?

Because in charge of scheduling, Yoda was.

Sometimes I just tuck my knees up to my chest and lean forward. Because that’s how I roll.

I, for one, like Roman numerals.

Working in a mirror factory is something I can totally see myself doing.

I came up with a new word yesterday: Plagiarism.

I broke my finger last week. On the other hand, I’m okay.

What’s the difference between a well dressed man on a bike and a poorly dressed man on a unicycle? Attire.

Eileen Award:

• Twitter: Justin Baeder,

Advisory:

Learn Chinese:  Chineasy TED Talk

http://chineasy.org/films/ted-talk.aspx

Ever look at a piece of chinese text and say to yourself, “It’s Greek to me”?  Well it’s not. It’s Chinese!  This TED Talk on Chineasy shows students 8 symbols to begin understanding Chinese.  If it’s this easy to learn something new in an Advisory class, how hard can the rest of the day be?

20 Fun Sentences

1. I never said she stole my money.

This fun sentence takes on seven different meanings depending on which word is emphasized: [I] never said she stole my money. – Someone else said it. I [never] said she stole my money. – I didn’t say it. I never [said] she stole my money. – I only implied it. I never said [she] stole my money. – I said someone did, not necessarily her. I never said she [stole] my money. – I considered it borrowed. I never said she stole [my] money. – Only that she stole money— not necessarily my own. I never said she stole my [money]. – She stole something of mine, not my money. While this trick works for plenty of other sentences as well, this one’s short and easy to understand.

http://distractify.com/default-category/the-19-most-mind-blowing-sentences-in-the-english-language/?v=1&ts_pid=2&ts_pid=2

Eye vs. camera – Michael Mauser

Your eyes don’t always capture the world exactly as a video camera would. But the eyes are remarkably efficient organs, the result of hundreds of millions of years of coevolution with our brains. Michael Mauser outlines the similarities and differences between your eye and a video camera.

Since this is an EdTed, it includes follow up.

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/eye-vs-camera-michael-mauser#watch

36 Asking Questions

1. “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” – Eugene Ionesco
2. “Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.” – Euripedes

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/36-quotes-from-successful-people-about-the-wisdom-asking-questions.html

Middle School Science Minute

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

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-SCIENCE JOURNALING PART 2

I was recently reading the February, 2015 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.

In this issue, I read the Guest Editorial written by Kristin Kandel and Natalie Brew, entitled “Our Science Story: When Science Inquiry Meets the Common Core.”  They explain, in this second part of a two podcast series, what their interactive science journal, for middle school students, actually looks like. For more information on the journal, contact Kristin Kandel at kandelk@ewsdonline.org

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2015/4/21_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Science_Journaling_Part_2.html

From the Twitterverse:

Strategies:

GoFormative

Interesting assessment site.

https://goformative.com/

Resources:

8 Top Tips for Highly Effective PD

Highly effective classrooms can result from highly effective professional development. Recent research (Butler et al., 2004) has shown that effective professional development includes creating classroom content, modeling techniques for teachers to use in their classrooms, and feedback on lessons (Harris, Graham, and Adkins, 2015). It’s not enough to teach the right things to your teachers — you have to teach your teachers in the right way.

Here are some top tips for delivering highly effective PD to your teachers.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/top-tips-highly-effective-pd-vicki-davis

https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/files/2015/04/Interventions-arent-10libxc.jpg

Evidence-based education is dead — long live evidence-informed education: Thoughts on Dylan Wiliam

https://community.tes.co.uk/tom_bennett/b/weblog/archive/2015/04/11/evidence-based-education-is-dead-long-live-evidence-informed-education-thoughts-on-dylan-wiliam.aspx#.VSlGOYwpi24.twitter

Story Board

Teacher Guides

To help our community get the most out of Storyboard That, we have worked tirelessly to create world class teacher guides. With these guides your students will rapidly master concepts and have fun doing it!

Each teacher guide contains:

• 5-7 Common Core aligned class activities of various difficulties
• Tips from our artists on how to make the “perfect storyboard”
• Teacher Refreshers

http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/teacher-resources

Commonly used Idioms

Idiom: a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language

Every language has its own collection of wise sayings. They offer advice about how to live and also transfer some underlying ideas, principles and values of a given culture / society. These sayings are called “idioms” – or proverbs if they are longer. These combinations of words have (rarely complete sentences) a “figurative meaning” meaning, they basically work with “pictures”.

This List of commonly used idioms and sayings (in everyday conversational English), can help to speak English by learning English idiomatic expressions. This is a list, which contains exactly 66 of the most commonly used idioms and their meaning.

http://www.smart-words.org/quotes-sayings/idioms-meaning.html

Web Spotlight:

Middle Class

http://www.businessinsider.com/middle-class-in-every-us-state-2015-4

3 Tips to Make Any Lesson More Culturally Responsive (and it’s not what you think!)

1. Gamify it.
2. Make it social.
3. Storify it.

http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/

Why Education Won’t Fix Economic Inequity

In short, more education would be great news for middle and lower-income Americans, increasing their pay and economic security. It just isn’t up to the task of meaningfully reducing inequality, which is being driven by the sharp upward movement of the very top of the income distribution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/upshot/why-more-education-wont-fix-economic-inequality.html

Random Thoughts . . .

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