MSM 515: Here We Go All Caught in 4K!
Summary:
Shawn and Troy talk about COVID restrictions reopening school. What can you do? How do you handle group work? Dave colors our world with sunshine.
Jokes:
The FBI showed up at my house. I just got back from an international trip. First I went to China. Then I went to Peru. Next up, Greenland, which is a territory of Denmark. Finally, I went to the province of Ontario in Canada.
- The algorithm detected one red flag after another.
How do you roast a cobbler?
- Make fun of his shoes
Where do bad rainbows go?
- Prism
- But, they always get a light sentence
I got hit by a rental truck:
- It Hertz
My cellphone took about 30 minutes of video of me walking.
- It was pretty good footage.
If a medium can communicate with the dead, just think about what a large can do.
Eileen Award:
- Facebook: Jack Berckemeyer
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
What Color is the Sun?
I was recently reading the May/June 2021 issue of “Science and Children” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association. In this issue, I read the section “Science 101” written by Matt Bobrowsky. Matt wrote an article entitled “What Color is the Sun?”
The fact that the Sun is white is why we can see so many different colors in the outdoor world. If sunlight were purely green, then everything outside would look green or dark. We can see the redness of a cardinal and the blueness of a blue jay because sunlight contains red and blue light. The same is true for all the other colors. All of these colors combined make the light from the Sun look white.
http://k12science.net/what-color-is-the-sun/
Reports from the Front Lines
- “Open House”
- COVID Policies in the Classroom, Who takes the blame if the kid gets sick?
- Lunch Room
- Group Work
- Lockers
- Hall Passes
- Water fountains
- Building Relationships & Dealing with COVID
- Project Adventure
- Growth String
- Question to Leave
- And now for the “Maine Idea!”
Advisory:
Amazing Designs
The Twitterverse
Shabana Basij-Rasikh @sbasijrasikh
In March 2002, after the fall of Taliban, thousands of Afghan girls were invited to go to the nearest public school to participate in a placement test because the Taliban had burned all female students’ records to erase their existence. I was one of those girls. Nearly 20 years later, as the founder of the only all-girls boarding school in Afghanistan, I’m burning my students’ records not to erase them, but to protect them and their families. https://twitter.com/i/status/1428776691820908548
NEW TEACHERS! 25 Best Posts for New Teacher Mentors #mschat #middleschool
@AMLE #ntchat #newteachers #mentoring #educoach #profdev #teachingtips https://middleweb.com/23435/25-of-mi
Why your students need a podcast: How to do it fast and free http://ditchthattextbook.com/2018/02/28/why-your-students-need-a-podcast-how-to-do-it-fast-and-free/
Teacher friends, I wrote a MS/HS unit that can be taught in person, remote, or hybrid that covers #growthmindset, neuroplasticity, emotions, #sel and the science of happiness. Please use/share freely: It would be a great way to start the year
@jcorippo https://t.co/HWWlxIvFGg?amp=1
From a Facebook post:
Write a scary story using *exactly* four words. There was this response:
Shawn McGirr Elliott wrote a story one time when she was probably in second grade. The title was “The Teacher Without Coffee”
#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”
Strategies:
Manual Water Pump for 5 Gallon Water Bottle
Need to get around the water fountain/hall pass issue? Put a 5 gallon water jug on the table and insert the pump. Water bottle filler and your students don’t have to ask for a hallway pass. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B087PCMSVV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Clean/Dirty Dishwasher Sign
Use the Clean/Dirty dishwasher sign on your door to tell custodial if you’ve been in the room today.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078MMXJPC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Mask Extenders – Save your ears!
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08K3RDC6H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Resources:
3D Periodic Table
https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/periodic-table/#annotations:tQtVJACCEeyyWFfoKUYuiA
Welcoming Staff Back to the Building
- Be mindful as you plan for return to school team-building activities. Consider your staff’s comfort level.
- You can survey staff prior to the start of the school year.
- In this post, you will learn some suggestions on how to build school culture at the beginning of the year.
https://www.teachbetter.com/blog/welcoming-staff-back-into-the-building/
10 Secrets to Raising Good Listeners
So my principal changed my schedule yesterday and I now have to take a project and interactive simulation based class and turn it into a lecture based class. They’re going to have to learn differently.
https://www.janetlansbury.com/2011/03/10-secrets-to-raising-good-listeners/
Web Spotlight:
Can you fix middle school by getting rid of it?
Proponents of K-8 schools, or “elemiddles” as they’re sometimes called, say they promote strong relationships between not only teachers and students but also teachers and parents and offer stability to young teens during a tumultuous time in their lives.
The research comparing outcomes of students at K-8 and middle schools remains inconclusive.
…many of the new middle schools had been built for pragmatic reasons, rather than ideological ones, they tended to resemble the junior highs they’d replaced. They were “middle schools in name only,” said Mary Beth Schaefer,
LMS Showcase
https://michiganvirtual.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LsMWNUV4SoKcsv05uqBSMQ
Axis – The Culture Translator
No Emoji is Safe
What it is: Digital natives tend to use emoji less sincerely than their older counterparts, which makes for some confusion when it comes to the family group text.
Why it’s best to stick with words: As we’ve written about before, the “cry-laughing face” emoji has long been banned from the Gen Z-approved emoji lexicon. Now, as the Wall Street Journal reports, your emoji keyboard is practically a buffet of faux pas potential. That pained-looking frowny-face guy? He’s what Gen Z uses to express desire, not frustration. And that smiley face emoji, once the most straightforward of fellows, is mostly interpreted by Gen Z as a passive-aggressive dig. (After all, nobody looks that happy in real life.) You might want to ask your teen if your emoji-vocabulary needs some brushing up.
Slang of the Week
Caught in 4K: Capturing someone’s reaction on camera or catching someone “red-handed.”
For Example:
“You tried to pretend you were over that girl, but your face says it all! Caught in 4k!”
Random Thoughts . . .
Personal Web Site
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