Summary:

Jokes:  

What’s the favorite music at a golf club? 

• Swing

Do they allow loud laughing in Hawaii?

• Or just a low ha?

What did one tectonic plate say to the other when they bumped together? 

• Sorry, my fault

My ophthalmologist moved to a little island off the coast of Alaska. 

• Yep, my doctor is now an optical aleutian

The meaning of opaque is unclear.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Scientific Literacy

I was recently reading the March/April 2021 issue of “The Science Teacher” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  In this issue, I read the section “Commentary” written by Andrew Zucker.  Andrew wrote an article entitled “Teaching Scientific Literacy.”

Here are five themes to consider in order to promote scientific literacy:

• Pay attention to the personal and societal contexts of science.
• Relate scientific literacy to traditional forms of literacy.
• Teach about how to find reliable information about science and how to reject junk science.
• Include some important events in the history of science.
• Help females and minority students realize their potential in science.

http://k12science.net/scientific-literacy/

Reports from the Front Lines

• The push to the end of the year . . . 
• Wooclap
• The Eid
• Kids attending school
• What are you keeping?

39 min

Advisory:  

Money Matters

https://www.moneyconfidentkids.com/

Project Database

The Twitterverse  

Joy Kirr @JoyKirr

How’s your battery, and what will you do to recharge today? What’s that next step towards better mental and physical health?  https://twitter.com/ImpactWales/status/1390933636459925506/photo/1  

𝓓𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓢𝓬𝓱𝓶𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓸𝓾 𝓔𝓭.𝓓. @daveschmittou

When people are redundant in their tweets it feels so repetitive. It’s also like they don’t know what to write too. It’s reading the same words over, and over, and over again. Sometimes 280 characters seems like so much, like a lot.

Soundtrap for Education by Spotify  @soundtrap

Teachers! This year has been extraordinary, and the fact that you have kept students engaged & motivated and feeling loved & supported is remarkable.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We are grateful for you this week and all year long.

Chris Jakicic  @cjakicic

How is your team tracking common formative assessment results? Is this information accessible to all of the people who support your team? #atplc

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

Strategies:  

Team-Based Quizzes

We complete a quiz every single week – students get 4-5 questions to complete individually in 10 minutes, and then the same questions as a team of 4-5 students.

Your online students are using Zoom and placed into random breakout rooms. Students complete 11 quizzes over the term and we take the best 9 scores – overall the assessment is worth 15%. Half of the marks come from their individual score, half from the team attempt.

The quizzes are open book and open internet – I write new questions every single week and students have access to past quiz questions when they are preparing for the class. The questions focus on application of theory in small case contexts.

My observations over the last 5 years

• Students like the idea of frequent assessment to help them stay up to date with their studies
• There has been an improvement in communication skills, especially for non-English speakers. We provide advice at the beginning of the semester about how to communicate as a group – not one person talking all the time, inviting others who haven’t said anything to contribute
• Students feel less pressure to “study for a test” since they do have access to their resources, but they need to be able to apply that knowledge to practical situations.
• I can see lightbulb moments happening during the assessment – a sign of a great formative assessment item.

Resources:

ASP HOMEROOM

ASP HOMEROOM is a civic engagement collaboration between the Close-Up Foundation and A Starting Point to create a nationwide educational network that will work with middle school and high school educators and students to help educate the next generation of Americans on the most pressing issues of our time. With the goal of inspiring informed participation in our democracy, ASP HOMEROOM creates cross-cultural and interactive learning opportunities between different schools, communities and states on issues surrounding government and politics.

https://homeroom.astartingpoint.com

Free English Books

Gratuitous Folk Song Video

Just as the title says . . . 

Belgian Farmer Accidently Moves French Border

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56978344?fbclid=IwAR14VJAeWs2LXeiFwJN0xZDIwfk4kBloGYfhpcjCE2f_fSWXc0qCjsiI-tg

Web Spotlight:  

Is SAMR Dead?

https://www.techlearning.com/news/is-samr-dead#annotations:YxzboKaTEeucaXP5iEc2Qw

Magnus Carlsen’s Mind-Blowing Memory! World Chess Champion tested

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen is put to the test by English Grandmaster David Howell! How many games can he recognise?

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Summary:

Troy and Shawn talk about remote learning moving forward, gamification and more. Dave discusses the importance of curiosity, persistence, and perseverance.

Jokes:  

I’m having a hard time getting rid of old magazines. 

• I’ve got issues. 

I told my 2 year old to pick out a bedtime story. She chose a seed catalog. 

• Lettuce get started. 

My wife is still mad at me. Seems I put super glue on her pen yesterday. She just can’t seem to let it go. 

Eileen Award:  

• iTunes: AllforJMJ

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Technology and Scientific Habits of Mind

I was recently reading the March/April 2021 issue of “The Science Teacher” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  In this issue, I read the section “Editor’s Corner” written by Ann Haley Mackenzie.  Ann wrote an article entitled “Technology and Scientific Habits of Mind.”

The focus of her article was on the importance of curiosity, persistence, and perseverance.  If we are too busy covering the content instead of providing a place for uncovering the science content with the students, then many chances for curiosity, persistence, and perseverance are lost.  

Reports from the Front Lines

• The push to the end of the year . . . 
• How do you build/develop a course in an LMS?
• Do you share? 
• What do we focus on moving forward?
• Tone setting when kids come back

The Twitterverse  

Michelle Wagner @wagnerlearning

Wayne RESA continues to create short snippets of learning for educators. Perfect for your weekly staff email/newsletter. #WayneLiteracy #WRESA #PDminutes @GabrionLaura @HRottermond @strimbel1 @WayneRESAELA https://lln.resa.net/professional-learning/pd-minutes/

Ditch That Textbook  @DitchThatTxtbk

10 low-prep, high-return activities for class TOMORROW http://ditchthattextbook.com/2018/04/25/10-low-prep-high-return-activities-for-class-tomorrow/… #ditchbook

https://twitter.com/DitchThatTxtbk/status/1388311798768676866/photo/1

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

Strategies:  

How to Build a Resilient School Community, Phyllis Fagell, AMLE Mag. Oct. 2020.

1. Establish the Mindset – How will they look at this situation?  
   1. Use family stories of how they overcame a situation, resource materials for class that show how people have overcome adversity in the past.
2. Set up a culture of confidence and competence:  
   1. Create some parenting supports.  
      1. Establish what a learning situation at home looks like.  What teacher skills are useful for a parent in this situation?  Parents won’t be evaluated as teachers, different skill sets.  
   2. Provide supports for the teaching staff. 
   3. Play to student strengths and provide flexible assessments with choice boards that let students have choice in how they show mastery.  
   4. Feedback ratio:  6 positive to 1 negative.  
3. Emotions spread across a social network – Set the tone!  

https://www.amle.org/download/april-2020-duplicate-1/?version=full

Resources:

AMLE Resource Center

Announcing the new AMLE Resource Center. Search for resources and products across 30 categories, each with short, informative descriptors to help you quickly determine what might meet your school’s requirements. The Resource Center will be regularly updated, so you can check back frequently for the latest listings.

https://my.amle.org/Resources/Resource-Center

Axis – The Culture Translator

From Snapchat to SCOTUS

What it is: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Levy (a former high school cheerleader) vs. the State of Pennsylvania.

Why it will set a standard: Freshman Brandi Levy was furious when she discovered, four years ago, that she wasn’t going to advance to the varsity squad. So she did what many teens her age might do; she posted an expletive-filled rant to her private Snapchat account, which she anticipated would disappear after 24 hours. Instead, a screenshot of her post was shared with one of the cheer coaches, and Levy was kicked out of the program completely. A federal court ruled that Levy’s speech took place off-campus, making it within her rights to post whatever she wanted. But social media has changed the way that many people define a “place,” and the school argues that it’s hard to pin down where “campus” ends and private life begins. Current free speech protections for students are mostly based on a SCOTUS hearing on students’ rights to protest the Vietnam War, a ruling that came down in 1969. The SCOTUS verdict, expected in June, will likely set a landmark precedent for students’ free speech rights on social media.

Slang of the Week

issa vibe: when all the details of a situation come together to provoke one sensory feeling or experience. (Ex: “Ice cream, flip flops, my favorite tank top, the smell of the lake and an old beach blanket. Issa vibe.”)  

Web Spotlight:  

Random Thoughts . . .  

Personal Web Site   

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