MSM 652: Six Things or AI Will Stupify Our Kids
Summary:
Shawn and Troy talk about AI, break, and more. Dave remembers why we remember.
Jokes:
Crocodiles can grow up to 15 feet.
- But most have only four.
Just watched a documentary about beavers…
- It was the best damn program I’ve ever seen.
There exists a quantity of artificial butter flavor beyond which people begin to believe it’s not butter.
- This is known as the margarine of error.
If you’re feeling down, why not just go for a run?
- You’ll quickly realize your physical health is way worse than your mental health.
Going to the park without any food… Is no picnic…
Microwave safe?
- It doesn’t seem like a sensible place to keep your valuables.
I was fired from the keyboard factory yesterday.
- I wasn’t putting in enough shifts.
I’ve no idea why my new plug-in air freshener won’t work.
I plug it in and switch it on.. nothing!
- It just doesn’t make scents.
A new tennis player goes to the library and asks for books about aces.
- “No way”, says the librarian, “You won’t return them”.
My new car has a button for everything. There is even one that says, “rear wiper”.
- I’m still afraid to try that one.
I bought a new plane the other day.
- I was disappointed they wouldn’t let me keep the hangar.
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Why We Remember
I was recently reading the December 9, 2024 issue of “Smithsonian” magazine.
In this issue, I read an article entitled, “The Ten Best Science Books of 2024,” written by Joe Spring, Riley Black, Shi En Kim, Dan Falk, Christian Elliott, and Benjamin Cassidy.
The book review that I enjoyed the most was “Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold On to What Matters,” written by Charan Ranganath. Ranganath draws on 25 years of experience studying the mechanisms of human memory to explain how remarkable it is that we remember anything at all.
http://k12science.net/why-we-remember/
Reports from the Front Lines
- Reading
- Anne Tyler – Three Days in June
- Fredrik Backman
- And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer
- The Deal of a Lifetime
- Matt Haig – The Life Impossible
- Hendrik Groen – On The Bright Side – The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 Years Old
- Moodle Work
- Filters
- Competencies
- Learning Plan
The Social Web
Word of the day is ‘blutterbunged’, from 19th-century dialect: to be open-mouthed in astonishment.
Marion McGarry @marionmcgarry.bsky.social
For #IrelandReads day, I highly recommend this one! It’s in all good Irish bookshops or you can buy direct from the publisher here www.orpenpress.com/books/irish-… And it’s written and illustrated by me!
Michael Dashow @mdashow.bsky.social
I’m finally able to share this cover I created for Garrett’s Forester’s book ‘Garrett’s Ventures – First Profit: Gum.’ It’s about a kid learning about financial responsibility as he tries to make money, and also about friendship. See more at www.garrettsventures.com
Yesterday I had my students doing Catch up Pickle time (catch up on work then pick something to do from a list)…”I shouldn’t hear talking, you are silent pickles! Pickles don’t have mouths so they are silent!” Then heard kids repeating “be silent pickles” to each other. 🤪🤣
Jason Chen@chenphilosophy.com
One of my top tips for teachers is to use pattern interruptions in class.
I elaborate on what I mean in the linked article.
https://chenphilosophy.substack.com/p/use-pattern-interruptions-to-retain
Strategies:
AI Will Stupify Our Students If We Don’t Do These Six Things
“As a veteran teacher (this is year 39), I, too, fear that our students will not be prepared for the future. Many students lack the grit and willpower to resist the temptation to take the easy way out. If I may be so bold. Many current students will be downgraded by AI, and that future might be inevitable without a radical change in how we do school.”
- Reimagine what happens IN the classroom.
- Deemphasize inappropriate use of technology in the classroom.
- Use AI as a tutor when in class.
- Teach students how to use AI as a collaborator to enhance learning.
- Implement the Mastery Learning model at scale.
- Expect More.
Nordic Baltic Region of FIPLV – BBC English – Running Dictation
Dictation is a great way to learn English. Running dictation is having a short text at one end of the room and have a pair of students alternate going to that text then coming back and telling their partner what it says in order to accomplish a task at their table.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/165U6eKa3V
Three Ways You May Be Cognitively Overloading Your Students
- The Seductive Details Effect
- The Split-Attention Effect
- The Redundancy Effect
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/cognitive-overload/
Resources:
KwizAI
The quiz is generated by LLM models (like ChatGPT), which are far from perfect and weren’t designed for purposes like this. They may contain errors, confusing questions, inaccurate answers, and repeated questions – especially if the prompt is similar.
With KwizAI’s AI-driven quiz generator, you can currently create single-answer multiple-choice quizzes, true-or-false quizzes, or fill-in-the-blank quizzes. The exact quiz format depends on how you structure your prompt, ensuring flexible and precise quiz creation.
AXIS The Culture Translator
Angling Toward the Light
What it is: A doomed anglerfish swimming from the dark depths to the sunlit surface of the ocean has captured the internet’s heart this week.
Why it’s connecting with people: The tale almost writes itself: an anglerfish, knowing her end is near, chooses to reject the darkness of her home and, as her final act, swims to the surface to see the sun for the first and final time. The light hitting her face—a face some might consider horrifying—is maybe the only “true” light she has ever seen. The internet’s telling of the tale has been poignant, beautiful, and with a hint of tragedy. Of course, a variety of things could’ve motivated the fish’s final exodus, but that doesn’t change the empathy the doomed anglerfish is inspiring in others.
the case for lowercase
why it matters: for many teens, lowercase letters feel more informal, relaxed, and conversational. even though most smartphones start with auto-capitalization turned on, teens often disable this feature in order to avoid seeming too formal in their texts to friends and family. as gen zer maelle kouman puts it, “lowercase feels like an ongoing conversational tone without a start or end. it removes the serious tone certain texts can exude, without even trying.” gen z artists like olivia rodrigo reinforce this trend with lowercase song titles like “drivers license” (although others, like billie eilish, have resorted to all-caps titles like “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”). in professional relationships and environments, many teens still opt for standard capitalization, and this is sometimes equated on tiktok with growing up
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