Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about AI, middle school students who are not lazy, and more. Dave goes to the birds. 

Jokes:  

To stay in shape my grandma started walking five miles a day when she was 60.

• She’s 97 today and we don’t know where she is

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No matter how kind you are, German children are kinder.

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I was told that exercise helps with your decision-making.

It’s true…

After going to the gym earlier I’ve decided I’m never going again.

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chopping cheese, but I think that I may have a grater problem

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It’s alright if you don’t know what “prefix” means.

• It’s not the end of the word.

One shouldn’t throw sodium chloride at people.

• That’s a salt.

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Frazz by Jef Mallet

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Bird Count History

I was recently reading the March – April 2025 issue of “The Science Teacher”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Right to the Source,” written by Jessica Fries-Gaither  She wrote an article entitled, “‘The 1900 Christmas Bird Census: Introducing a New Annual Tradition and Citizen Science Project.

This “historical” podcast provides an entry point for students in the Christmas Bird Count’s history and current applications in ornithology.  Students use data from the Count’s history to help construct their scientific understanding.

http://k12science.net/bird-count-history/ 

Bonus: 

https://birdcast.info/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Vacation
• AI Thoughts
  • Teacher’s Need to Know
  • Students and Digital Citizenship
  • ISTE
  • Nobel Winner – https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/press-release/ 
• AEIOU
• PBIS
  • PickleBall Tournament

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Soubhiye, from Lebanese Arabic, is the enjoyment of a quiet moment of peace in the early morning, before everyone else is awake. Gökotta is a Swedish term for waking up early to enjoy the birdsong.

Kit Bashir@Unixbigot@aus.social

Via Mx 17 (final year of high school):  “One of the kids in my class called a landline a ‘table cellphone'”

MiddleWeb‬ ‪@middleweb.bsky.social‬

NEW: Vision Boards Can Help Us Reignite Our Career Goals. If you know your ‘why,’ parlay it into a set of directions that will motivate your daily work. Educator Kelly Owens shows how vision boards help both teachers and their students. #edusky #mschat #educoach www.middleweb.com/51732/vision…

Michael Taylor‬ ‪@teacherrunner42.bsky.social‬

One of my FAVORITE parts of the old place was #MSChat – a place where middle school educators could come together – I haven’t seen much here yet want to restart #MSChat in 2025 – Please join us on January 9th at 8:00 PM Eastern! @blocht574.bsky.social  #edusky #booksky #mathsky #elasky

Strategies:  

“I Got Nothin…”

https://bsky.app/profile/tcea.org/post/3lnpqnt6cmr2e

Resources:  

AXIS The Culture Translator

Ice Breaker

What it is: The Ice Bucket Challenge is back, this time to raise awareness for mental health.

Why it’s resonating: The University of South Carolina’s MIND (Mental Illness Needs Discussion) Club is bringing back the social media trend under the new name #SpeakYourMIND. In the videos, a teen stands somewhere outside, they say a few words about mental health, they tag three friends to keep the trend going, and then someone drenches them with a bucket filled with ice water. The movement began at USC in honor of two students who died by suicide, and it has since raised nearly $300,000 for the mental health non-profit Active Minds. It’s personal, it’s performative, and it’s everywhere—especially on TikTok and Instagram. Gen Z is embracing this new version of the challenge not just because it’s going viral, but because mental health issues have affected so many members of their generation.  

Harvard X

https://www.edx.org/school/harvardx

EZ Gif

Ezgif.com is a simple, free online GIF maker and toolset for basic animated image editing.

Here you can create, edit and convert GIF, APNG, WebP, MNG and AVIF animations.

https://ezgif.com

Google Learn About

Discover how Learn About can enhance your learning experience. Learn About is a generative AI learning companion that brings Google Search, Gemini, and teaching principles to provide interactive learning experiences.

https://learning.google.com/experiments/learn-about

Learn About Learn About

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/15662709?visit_id=638812767833106988-560311743&p=learn_about&rd=1

Web Spotlight: 

COPPA Update

https://natlawreview.com/article/ftc-publishes-final-coppa-rule-amendments

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/22/2025-05904/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule

The Professional Development Paradox: Why Good Intentions Go Astray in Schools

PD is the cornerstone of district and school culture. The idea is sound: equip educators with new skills, knowledge, and strategies to better serve their students. Yet, for many teachers and administrators, the mention of PD evokes a sigh rather than excitement. Why does this crucial investment so often fall short of its potential? The answer lies in several common pitfalls that plague PD initiatives in schools.

https://esheninger.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-professional-development-paradox.html

10 factors to consider when lesson planning with AI 

https://ditchthattextbook.com/learning-genie

Yes, Middle Schoolers Are Hard To Teach, and Nobody Is Really Lazy

I taught 39 years, and I never met a lazy student in my entire life. What I met were students who were making choices about their own agency.

https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2025/04/yes-middle-schoolers-are-hard-to-teach.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/02/disengaged-teens-parents-nagging-school/681834

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about testing, spaced practice, trusting students, and more. Dave balances negative and positive, discusses polarity, and well, isn’t all wet. 

Jokes:

Why do nurses carry around red crayons? 

• Sometimes they need to draw blood.

Albert Einstein is a real person.

• I thought he was a theoretical physicist.

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I passed all my courses except for Greek mythology.

• That has always been my Achilles’ elbow.

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Choices over escalators or elevators reflect a difference in upbringing.

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“I’d like to sit by the window, please. 

• I’m here for a light breakfast.”

The tobacconist was replaced by an apparel shop.

• Clothes, but no cigar.

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What was a more important invention than the first telephone? 

• The second one.

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I walked down a street where the houses were numbered 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K and 1MB.

• That was a trip down memory lane!

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Do you think Neil Young still sings “Old man” ? 

• And if so, who is he singing to?

Tub of hummus: serves ten

• Me: challenge accepted

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What do you call a really fast escalator? 

• – An escasooner…

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I went to a specialist shop the other day and bought some binoculars, but they cost a fortune.

• I think they saw me coming.

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I’ve often heard that icy is the easiest word to spell.

• Looking at it now…

I
see
why.

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Water for Life

I was recently reading the March – April 2025 issue of “Science Scope”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Scope on the Skies,” written by Bob Riddle.  He wrote an article entitled, “‘Water Bound: Part I”

Space missions that search for water are important because they could add to our understanding of the origin and evolution of life on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system and beyond.  Finding the presence of water is an important aspect of the search for life beyond the confines of our planet.

http://k12science.net/water-for-life/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Testing Season
  • PSAT
• Data Structure

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

I’m not sure what was going on in the 16th-century imagination, but this is at least a reminder that ‘to steal someone’s thunder’ originated with an event in 1709, when one theatre company nicked a thunder-making machine from another to use in their own play, leading the wounded

Quote:  

The OED  @OED

OED #WordOfTheDay: rounce robble hobble, n. The sound of a clap of thunder; a sound 

resembling this. View the entry: https://oxford.ly/4cmZztu

Dublin City University‬ ‪@dublincityuni.bsky.social‬

Crisis in the classroom: burnout and stress amongst Irish teachers. Piece by DCU’s Dr Sabrina Fitzsimons, Dr Pia O’Farrell and Professor Catherine Furlong @dcucreate.bsky.social, for @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social. Read here: launch.dcu.ie/43Iojdm #RTEBrainstorm

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0410/1506656-ireland-teachers-schools-burnout-stress-mental-health-dcu-survey

‪DCU Library‬ ‪@dculibrary.bsky.social‬

How noisy is it in the library today? Look out for our noise thermometers at the entrance of each library. Play your part to keep the library nice and quiet! Noise monitors will update the scale depending on noise levels, which library will be the quietest space?!

@dublincityuni.bsky.social

‪Kane Murdoch‬ ‪@ccguerilla.bsky.social‬

Seen on campus today. They seem like a real go getter, an entrepreneurial type.

Strategies:  

Hexagonal thinking: Creating connections in the classroom

Hexagonal thinking is all about creating connections. Imagine each idea, concept, or term as a hexagon on a board. As students arrange these hexagons, they’re essentially building a web of interconnected thoughts. The beauty of this method lies in the discussions it fosters because students must explain and justify their connections, which leads to deeper understanding and critical thinking.

https://ditchthattextbook.com/hexagonal-thinking

Spaced Retrieval Made Easy

On day one, I prepare three questions; two either multiple choice or fill in the blank questions and one short answer question. I will task my classes with answering these three questions from the first lesson of this unit before we even begin the first lesson. It may seem somewhat odd to ask students questions about a topic we haven’t covered, but there is growing evidence that pretesting has beneficial effects on student learning.

The next day (day two), instead of just answering three questions at the beginning of class, they will now answer six; the same three from the previous day (so now they’ve attempted to answer those questions three times) and three new questions from today’s lesson.

At the end of day two, depending on how much time we have, I may have them answer just that day’s three questions again or I may have them attempt all six again. 

On day three, I drop the three questions from day one and students attempt the three questions from day two (spacing out that retrieval) and then pretest them on the questions for day three…and this pattern continues for the entirety of the unit. 

Now, the real magic in this is that they are seeing the very concepts and terms they will be tested on during the unit summative assessment several times before they even consider studying for that test. 

https://theeffortfuleducator.com/2025/04/09/spaced-retrieval-made-easy/

Resources:  

AXIS The Culture Translator

On the Scent

What it is: For teenagers, the hottest trends in fragrance smell like bakery items and spice rack staples.

Why they’re selling so well: In a piece for Vox, Kyndall Cunningham outlines some basic reasons why sugary scents are selling out. First, since a lot of fragrance purchasing now happens online, a scent with notes of marshmallow, brown sugar, or vanilla is easy enough to imagine. There’s also the TikTok factor: influencers and celebrities, most of whom are being paid to shill these scents, make hefty claims about how much passers-by love the smell of these perfumes.

A Minecraft Movie

What it is: Teens are clapping and cheering so enthusiastically during A Minecraft Movie that theaters are requiring chaperones and/or calling the police.

Why it’s not what the internet predicted: When trailers for A Minecraft Movie first started coming out in 2024, people were horrified at the movie’s CGI renderings of sheep, villagers, and other game elements. (Plus, why was Minecraft’s main character, Steve, rendered as a human, but other game characters weren’t?) And yet between audience nostalgia (and/or an ongoing love of the game), Jack Black’s sheer ridiculousness, and so many inside jokes about game mechanics, the movie has been a big hit—at least with teen boys. In fact, the movie made more money on its opening weekend than any Warner Bros. movie since 2023.

YouTube AI Music Rollout

Got the students making videos?  Wish they had some Intro/outro or underlying music?  YouTube is rolling out an AI that will generate that very thing.  Check out the TechCrunch article for details:  https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/10/youtube-rolls-out-a-free-ai-music-making-tool-for-creators/  

Web Spotlight: 

Hard work feels worth it, but only after it’s done – new research on how people value effort

When deciding if something is worth the effort, whether you’ve already exerted yourself or face the prospect of work changes your calculus. When you consider a future effort, more work makes the outcome less appealing. But once you’ve completed the work, more effort makes the outcome seem more valuable. 

Not everyone responds to effort the same way. Our study also uncovered striking individual differences. Four distinct patterns emerged:

1. For some people, extra effort always subtracted value.
2. Others consistently preferred items with more work.
3. Many showed mixed patterns, where moderate effort increased value but excessive effort decreased it.
4. Some experienced the opposite: initially disliking effort, then finding greater value at higher levels.

…people, and even animals, often prize things that require hard work for no additional payoff?

In health care, starting an exercise regimen feels overwhelming when focusing on upcoming workouts, but after establishing the habit, those same exercises become a source of accomplishment. 

https://theconversation.com/hard-work-feels-worth-it-but-only-after-its-done-new-research-on-how-people-value-effort-252684

The average college student today

https://archive.md/XBbk2

Bouncy Balls

Control noisy classrooms with bouncing balls!

A fun and free noise management tool.

https://bouncyballs.org

https://help.classroomscreen.com/article/31-sound-level

https://www.hmhco.com/blog/free-online-noise-meters-for-classroom

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