MSM 578: There’s A Lot In That Question . . .

Summary:

Shawn and Troy discuss AI Art, Competencies, break, and more. Dave populates our Science brain.

Jokes:  

How do you tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?

  • By paying attention to whether they see you later, or in a while.

The other day my son said he’s only happy when he’s near the ocean or up in the mountains.

  • I said, “you need an ALTITUDE adjustment.”

What form of transportation spreads allergies?

  • Achoo-choo train.

How many Bitcoin miners does it take to change a light bulb?

  • A million – one to do it and the rest to verify he/she did it.

An elderly couple rushed onto the platform just as the train was pulling out of the station.

“If you hadn’t dawdled with your shopping,” said the husband, “we’d have caught the train.”

  • “And if you hadn’t run so fast,” said the wife, “we wouldn’t have to wait so long for the next one.”

Who was King Arthur’s spiciest knight?

  • Sir Racha.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  8 Billion Humans

I was recently reading the March/April 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “From the Editor’s Desk” column, written by Patty McGinnis.  She wrote an article entitled, “8 Billion and Counting.” 

Human population is increasing rapidly.  More humans on the planet equates to more stress on the planet and its resources.

2022 — 8 Billion Humans

2010 — 7 Billion Humans

1950 — 2.5 Billion Humans

1804 — 1 Billion Humans

http://k12science.net/8-billion-humans/  

Reports from the Front Lines

The Social Web  

Erik M. Francis ,@Maverikedu12

Replying to @Beyond_the_Desk and @AMLE Have them put “How could you” in front of every #NGSS standard. You’ll create a #STEM question that personalizes inquiry, promotes expertise, & demands learn at the deepest #DOK levels. #goodquestions @solutiontree

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the evening is the Finnish invention ‘hyppytyynytyydytys’: the act of falling with a contented sigh onto the nearest available sofa. Literal translation: ‘bouncy cushion satisfaction’.

I’m told the pronunciation is ‘hoop-uh-tu-uh-nuh-uh-duh-tis’. 

Word of the day is ‘circumbendibus’ (17th century): anything that deliberately goes round and round without ever getting to the point.  

Phyllis Fagell, LCPC  @Pfagell

Middle school girl: “My mom says popular kids are like fire. When they’re warm, you want to sit near them, but sometimes they can burn you.” 

*more wisdom from this mom:  

Me: “You can’t make someone stop gossiping, but you can tell them you don’t want to hear it.” Middle school girl: “My mom says gossip is like poop. You really don’t want to get it on your hands, but if you do, the last thing you want to do is spread it.”  

Michelle Wagner  @wagnerlearning

Replying to @courosa and @AndreaZellner  My daughter cut and pasted her essay into ChatGPT and asked for feedback as if from a 7th grade teacher.

Strategies:  

The Trick That Solves Rubik’s Cubes and Breaks Ciphers (Meet in the Middle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL3uWO-KLUE

Inventive History Teacher

High school teacher, Sean Miller, has invented his own creative approach to teaching history. Through various forms of art, he brings historical events and figures to life for his students. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFoJ7DEHsHw

Resources:  

Projection Wizard

About this Tool

Projection Wizard is a web application that helps cartographers select an appropriate projection for their map. Depending on the extent and the distortion property of the map, the application returns a list of proposed map projections with additional projection parameters if necessary. There are PROJ and WKT links next to each projection that open a popup window with a PROJ or Well-Known Text string available for copying to the clipboard. Both strings are used in many cartographic and GIS applications. Projection Wizard displays a map preview on the right side of the list with a suggested projection. The preview shows how the projected data will look using D3.

This tool is based on John P. Snyder’s selection guideline and on the extension to this guideline for world and hemisphere maps written by the Cartography and Geovisualization Group at Oregon State University. Projection Wizard v2.0 also takes into account the results of a study published by Šavrič et al. in 2015. All publications related to Projection Wizard are listed at the bottom of this page.

When you publish a scholarly article that uses Projection Wizard or discusses its functionality, you are kindly asked to cite the following article: Šavrič, B., Jenny, B. and Jenny, H. (2016). Projection Wizard – An online map projection selection tool. The Cartographic Journal, 53–2, p. 177–185. Doi: 10.1080/00087041.2015.1131938.

How to Use this Tool?

Using Projection Wizard is easy and requires only two steps:

1 From the radio button list, select the distortion property of the map.

2 Select the geographic extent by using the input boxes on the left side of the map or by changing the rectangle on the map.

The anchors at the corners of the rectangle allow it to be resized. The rectangle can also be dragged around the map. Any change to the rectangle is reflected in the input boxes and vice versa. Changes to the rectangle or distortion property interactively update the list of proposed map projections and the map preview below the web map.

https://projectionwizard.org/

Canva

A few days ago, we dropped some very special wrapped gifts onto the homepages of more than 125 million people across the globe. It’s been so much fun seeing everyone guess what might be inside the boxes, but today the wait is over.

https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-create-brand-new-era-2023/

Foundation for Teaching Economics – fte.org

Economics and the Environment – https://www.fte.org/teachers/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/eelessons/  

Established in 1975, the Foundation for Teaching Economics’ mission is to introduce young individuals to an economic way of thinking about national and international issues, and to promote excellence in economic education by helping teachers of economics become more effective educators.  FTE focuses its efforts on the secondary education level and provides programs and teaching resources which target primarily, but not exclusively, the social studies curriculum.

Web Spotlight:  

Adrian College teacher education students offer literacy night for Addison Elementary

ADDISON — From phonics to fluency, to nonfiction comprehension and interactive writing, elementary students and parents from Addison Community Schools learned quite a bit about the building blocks of reading, writing and spelling during a literacy night event last week, hosted at Addison Middle/High School and conducted by Adrian College teacher education students. 

“These are all great, motivating activities that parents and kids can do at home,” said Addison Superintendent Dan Patterson, who attended the literacy night.

https://www.lenconnect.com/story/news/education/2023/03/20/adrian-college-students-bring-literacy-event-to-addison-schools/70022506007/#annotations:_EX54McdEe2ss3uz9BylQA

Makayla Noble

Makayla Noble is a senior at Prosper High School in Texas. On September 20, 2021, she was injured in a backyard tumbling accident which resulted in a severe spinal cord injury (SCI). 

https://makaylanoble.com/about/

Youtube Day in the Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H1QeQU9yCo#annotations:bZkUksi4Ee21estUJlww1w

AXIS – The Culture Translator

Subtitled

What it is: A YouGov study of over 3600 adults in Great Britain showed that 61 percent of young people (18-25) prefer to watch television with the subtitles on—even when the material was in their native language.

Who Wants to Be a Shillionaire

What it is: Male influencers in their twenties are making a fortune on YouTube telling other young men how to, well, make a fortune. But watching videos like these won’t help young people develop comprehensive financial literacy because, to put it simply, that’s not what they’re designed to do.  

Random Thoughts . . .  

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MSM 577: Hoisted on my Own Petard

Summary:

Shawn and Troy discuss presentations, Advisory, H5P, and much more. Dave is all Systems Technology Engineer Go!

Jokes:  

The Roman emperor’s wife hates playing hide and seek because wherever she goes, Julius Caesar.


I like what mechanics wear, overall.


I don’t know what you call a small spillage from a pen but I have an inkling.


My grandfather invented the cold air balloon but it never really took off.


 When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.


A boiled egg is hard to beat.


It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.


Everyone knows Mickey and Minnie’s daughter Faye.


https://www.gocomics.com/realitycheck/2023/03/12

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Systems Technology Engineer

I was recently reading the March/April 2023 issue of “The Science Teacher” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association. 

In this issue, I read the “Career of the Month” column, written by Luba Vangelova.  She wrote an article entitled, “Systems Technology Engineer.”  

Systems technology engineers design, develop, test, and/or manage the software, hardware, and firmware that comprise information technology systems.  Rebecca Herold of Des Moines, Iowa is the featured Systems Technology Engineer.

http://k12science.net/systems-technology-engineer/

Reports from the Front Lines

The Social Web  

 Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is a reminder of ‘eye-servant’ (16th century): one who only works hard when the boss and others are looking.

Word of the day is ‘mumpsimuses’ (16th century): those who insist they are right and apportion blame to others without looking at themselves.  

Word of the day is ‘parwhobble’ (old Devonian dialect): to speak continuously so that you never hear the voice of anyone else.

Alice Keeler  @alicekeeler

5 Podcasts for Middle Schoolers https://alicekeeler.com/2021/10/05/5-p MiddleWeb  @middleweb

NEW: A Lesson Template That Works for All Students. #mschat @Larryferlazzo #MLs #ELs This lesson plan template serves the needs of both multilinguals & non-MLs in any subject & assures the planning is highly structured & intentional, writes @TanKHuynh. https://middleweb.com/48626/a-lesson

MiddleWeb @middleweb

ChatGPT Is No Threat to a Learning Community. #literacy #ELAchat @ncte #engchat #writing #educoach #nwp If we teach writing right, we’ll be okay if our kids have access to ChatGPT, says Dina Strasser. She shares several AI-proof instructional strategies. https://middleweb.com/48664/chatgpt-

Jack Berckemeyer@JBerckemeyer

Wonder why teachers are discouraged- while calling home you get yelled at and the parent is more concerned about what the other kid did, having a student say I am not doing this and there is nothing you can do about it and being called Bro/bruh.  

Megan Basham  @megbasham

Here’s a thought—if an article starts to make you feel unsafe, stop reading it. If it makes you angry, write a rebuttal. If it contains demonstrable errors, ask for corrections. Braying for authors to be canceled makes it clear you KNOW you hold cultural power & feel plenty safe.

National Park Service @NatlParkService

If you come across a bear, never push a slower friend down…even if you feel the friendship has run its course.⁣⁣

Hello from the otter slide.⁣⁣  ⁣⁣ I must’ve slid a thousand times… River otter slides down a snowbank onto the ice at\ @YellowstoneNPS

If you think someone is staring at you: 1. Yawn. 2. If they yawn, they were staring.   

Resources:  

ClassQuiz

Create a quiz for your students. There is no tracking or selling information to third parties. I had issues getting it to save. I prefer E-voting through Moodle. 

https://classquiz.de/

Fake Receipt Maker

Creating a free receipt has never been easier. This basic online receipt maker allows you to easily create free custom receipts for your customers without the expense or difficult learning curve associated with most cash receipt software.

http://www.fakereceipt.us/sales_receipt.php#annotations:ZaQGlr0MEe2mY7_6lj68jQ 

Sumplete

https://sumplete.com/

Web Spotlight:  

These 3 ‘secret strengths’ can make introverted kids become highly successful adults, says bestselling author Susan Cain

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/17/susan-cain-secret-strengths-make-introvert-kids-successful-adults.html

Why Core Standards Must Embrace Media Literacy

https://archive.ph/2023.03.08-155554/https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-why-core-standards-must-embrace-media-literacy/2011/06 

Random Thoughts . . .  

12 Years Ago . . . Principal of the Year!!

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

MSM 576: Teaching Chrome: Ipsedixitism

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about Moodle, Presentations, and more. Dave reviews the Pandemic Impact on Students. 

Jokes:  

A man once tried to sell me a broken protractor.

  • I never could figure out what his angle was.

The key to a great joke is not delivery…

  • it’s Digiorno.

Did you hear about the dog that went to the flea circus?

  • It stole the show.

Fun fact: ancient teachers, when discussing a very important idea, would repeatedly dip the sharpened end of their stylus in honey.

  • They felt it was necessary to belabor the point.

Why did the duck decide not to have plastic surgery?

  • He thought the bill would be too large.

What did the linebacker say to the flight attendant?

  • “Put me in coach!”

Anytime someone says “I can’t even”

  • it seems a little odd.

Once I did think I was wrong.

  • It turns out I was mistaken.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Pandemic Impact on Students

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “The Science Teacher” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Editor’s Corner” column, written by Ann Haley MacKenzie.  She wrote an article entitled, “Did the Pandemic Impact the Brains of Our Science Students?”  

A recent study in the Journal, “Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science,” found that teen brains aged prematurely during the pandemic.  The paper states that teenagers’ brains aged several years in just a few months during the isolation and stress of the pandemic lockdown.  For more information on this study, please visit:

www.bpsgos.org/article/S2667-1743(22)00142-2/fulltext

http://k12science.net/pandemic-impact-on-students/

Reports from the Front Lines

  • Crossword Puzzle for Video (and why you should use Restricted Access)
  • Vocabulary, Chrome, and Kids 

The Social Web  

 Help A Teacher  @HelpATeacher

Adorable! 

Success Bound  @successboundorg

@successboundorg

is MIDDLE SCHOOL STRONG!  Celebrate Middle Level Education this month. This year’s theme is #Empowered #Student and @AMLE is centering the voices of students. Learn how you can amplify the voices of your students, click here https://amle.org/middle-level-e

Alexlindsay  @alexlindsay

Replying to @technologylaura I’ve built 100s of presentations on 3 platforms over the last 20 years. Scores: Keynote – 9/10 Power Point – 4/10 Slides – 3/10 Once you build decks in Keynote, going to other platforms is like going from First Class to Economy. You still get from point A to B but style is gone

MiddleWeb  @middleweb

REVIEW: Add SEL to Your Class with Movie Magic. #mschat @AMLE #engchat #elachat  @MsAmberChandler’s feel-good Movie Magic in the Classroom prepares any teacher to guide students through 10 films that address a range of SEL topics, writes @sarahjcooper01. https://middleweb.com/48607/add-movi  

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘vertumnal‘ (17th century): spring-like or giving a foretaste of spring, as in the early buds in the garden or the swelling of birdsong. A nod to Vertumnus, god of the changing seasons.

Word of the day is ‘apanthropy’ (18th century: the desire to be away from other people.   

Kara Priest Bullock

Fat Boy Natural BBQ

Resources:  

Handmade Holograms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv-38lwV6vc

Teen girls are struggling. They need our help

Nancy Jo Sales

Girls and young women report rising rates of suicide, depression and sexual violence in North America – and a lot of it has to do with social media.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/28/teen-girls-are-struggling-social-media-tiktok-instagram#annotations:TPuEMrduEe2qpE8U6mSAmw

Under The Sana’a Skyline

Belquis lives in Old Sana’a, an ancient city in Yemen. An exciting writing competition is announced for her class but there’s just one problem: the story is to inspire the world. Belquis is surrounded by the hardships of war and and struggle. What has she seen that is inspirational?

Under the Sana’a Skyline is a story for children and adults alike that beautifully weaves community and history with one girl’s search for humanity.

How will AI change the world?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkD_rTEBYs&t=2s

Web Spotlight:  

Boeing Engineers Set a New Record for Paper Plane Flight Distance

Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen, two engineers working at Boeing, broke a record in December that had only a little to do with their day jobs: They set a new world record for farthest flight by a paper aircraft, sending a sheet of paper 88.318 meters, or almost 290 feet.

Ruble and Jensen studied origami and aerodynamics for months, putting in 400 to 500 hours of creating different prototypes to try to design a plane that could fly higher and longer.

https://jalopnik.com/boeing-engineers-set-a-new-record-for-paper-plane-fligh-1850157043#annotations:TBLKArilEe2JkUPgcwGpdA

Teachers Pay Teachers Bought Out by IXL Learning

https://thejournal.com/articles/2023/03/02/teachers-pay-teachers-bought-out-by-ixl-learning.aspx#annotations:FO5v4rnjEe24UV-wJuNz5Q

AXIS The Culture Translator

TikTok Time Out

What it is: TikTok announced it will institute a limit of 60 minutes per day for users under 18.

Instagore 

What it is: The Washington Post reports that Instagram Reels featuring disturbing and violent content are being reposted to large meme accounts that have hundreds of thousands of teen followers.

“In C.S. Lewis’ book The Magician’s Nephew, the children Polly and Diggory are met with a choice to ring a bell and “bide the danger,” or ignore it and forever wonder what might have happened if they did. Diggory rings the bell, justifying his actions with the words: “We can’t get out of it now. We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck the bell. I’m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that.” The result of his actions is the arrival of the White Witch in Narnia, and a regret that Diggory carries with him for the rest of his life.”

National Geographic’s “Greeking Out!” Podcast Series for Kids

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/greeking-out

Most Popular Slang by State

https://crossword-solver.io/most-popular-slang-by-state-map/

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!