Jokes You Can Use:  

How did the Vikings send secret messages?

• Norse code

Teacher: What’s 2 and 2?

Pupil: 4

Teacher: That’s good.

Pupil: Good?, that’s perfect!

Why were the early days of history called the dark ages?

• Because there were so many knights!

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Thank the Ocean

I was recently reading the January, 2019 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 section “From the Editor’s Desk” written by Meghan E. Marrero. She wrote an article entitled, “Thank the Ocean.” The path to ocean literacy, “an understanding of the ocean’s influence on you, and your influence on the ocean”, begins in the classroom.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2019/1/10_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Thank_the_Ocean.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Jamie McGinnis‏ @MrsMcGinnisHMS

Great way to have students think about what they are actually putting on their slides instead of just copy and pasting information. Too many words on a screen are boring! #PLSDproud #PLSDedu @jamessturtevant

Bob Harrison‏ @DbnTechCoach

Whether kids do homework is about the learning culture that has been established. #FixThatHomework

Larry Ferlazzo‏Verified account @Larryferlazzo

Every teachers dream – to be highlighted as ‘annoying ‘ in a Wash Post headline Thanks ⁦@valeriestrauss⁩ “NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’ – The Wash Post

Michigan Medicine‏Verified account @umichmedicine

BRRRRR! With much of the U.S. experiencing cold weather this week, do you know what to do to stay safe? Dr. @braduren has tips you need: https://mmheadlines.org/2016/12/brrrrrring-it-on/ …

Remind‏ @RemindHQ

Despite Verizon’s PR promises, they haven’t signed an agreement with us—there’s no deal yet. Please keep making your voices heard and ask @verizon to #ReverseTheFee and #PutItInWriting. More here: https://www.remind.com/blog/no-deal-with-verizon-yet …

Russel Tarr‏ @russeltarr

Miming, Freeze-Framing, Body Sculptures in the classroom: http://www.classtools.net/blog/miming-freeze-framing-body-sculptures/ …

AMLE‏ @AMLE

Great @nytimes article by @LDamour features AMLE columnist @Pfagell : “Most commonly, conflict stems from anything ranging from a misunderstood comment, to a spilled secret, to a lopsided friendship.”

https://t.co/Vqoui22IcH

AMLE‏ @AMLE

Bring your gift of great strategies to #AMLE19. The call for presentations deadline for concurrent sessions is this Sunday! http://www.amle.org/annual/Presenters/CallForPresentations/tabid/769/Default.aspx …

Kelly Malloy‏ @kellys3ps

Have you used @BouncyBands in the classroom to keep students on task? https://buff.ly/2RDiQkl

Molly Ness‏ @drmollyness

#ilachat #g2great #weneeddiversebooks #nctechat #kidsdserveit #buildyourstack

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”

Resources:

27 Free Alternatives to Adobe’s Expensive App Subscriptions

Adobe appears to have upset a number of users with another price increase for its app subscriptions. While the hit only appears to be targeting specific countries at this point—you’re spared, North American users—there’s no reason to think that you won’t have to pay more to subscribe to an Adobe app (or its whole suite of creative apps) at some future point. That’s business, folks.

As you can imagine, Adobe’s price increase has set off a flurry of activity on the internet, with many annoyed users jumping onto Twitter threads and blog posts to suggest alternatives to Adobe’s ever-more-expensive subscription apps.

https://lifehacker.com/27-free-alternatives-to-adobes-expensive-app-subscripti-1831737178#annotations:KEViFBoDEemial9bxg_M8A

The Science of Learning – What Every Teacher Should Know

This education course will show you, through current research, how we learn — the way our brain makes, stores, and retrieves memories.

You will examine common misconceptions and misunderstandings about learning that can prevent students from learning at their fullest capacity. Along the way you will explore the practical implications of cognitive science for classroom teaching in terms of choosing effective instructional strategies, developing useful assessments, motivating student effort, and designing learner-centered curricular units.

This course is aimed to enhance the practice of K-12 teachers.

https://www.edx.org/course/the-science-of-learning-what-every-teacher-should-know#annotations:DezeLBrNEemgWNM4UGPmTA

EUROPEANA

Explore 58,059,820 artworks, artefacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en

Web Spotlight:

Doodle for Google

We’re excited to see some amazing doodles this year. Students can work with any materials they want, but all doodles must be entered using the entry form. Parents and teachers can mail us the completed entry form or submit it online as a .png, or .jpg. The contest is open for entries until March 18, 2019 8:00pm Pacific Time (PT), so here’s some information to help you get started:

1. Download or print the entry form.
2. Doodle:
   Artists create their doodles using any materials they want.
3. Write:
   1. Doodle description – Write an artist statement to tell us a bit more about what you have drawn and how it represents something that inspires you.
   2. Fill out the rest of the required information and sign the entry form.
4. Submit:
   1. Enter the contest.
   2. Entry form doodles: If the doodle is created directly on our entry form, you can either upload them to our site as a .jpg or .png (visit the enter tab) or mail them in (address listed on the enter tab).
   3. Detached doodles: If the doodle wasn’t created directly on our entry form, take a high res digital photo or scan of the doodle in good lighting and combine it with the entry form.

https://doodles.google.com/d4g/how-it-works/

Past its Prime – The History Major is Dying of Self-Inflicted Wounds

“Over the last 10 years, the number of university students majoring in the discipline has dropped 30 percent—a smaller share of bachelor’s degrees than at any time since 1950, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This could be because the trend is overwhelmingly in favor of STEM courses and social sciences. That’s where the money is, or so we’re told.”

https://world.wng.org/2019/01/past_its_prime

Random Thoughts . . .  

Personal Web Site  

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