Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about ISTE 2025. Dave deals with chemicals.

Jokes:  

A yawn is a silent scream for COFFEE

Why are fish easy to weigh? 

• Because they have their own scales.

What do you need in order to poop in the woods? 

• Toilet-trees.

How do you spell candy with 2 letters?

• C and Y…

My son asked me what procrastinate means.

• I said: I’ll tell you later.

What kind of music do mummies like best?

• Wrap.

Why is 69 afraid of 70?

• Because they once had a fight and 71.

The impact of a dad joke can be measured on a sighsmograph

This is what a human hand looks like under a microscope.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Best Practices for Science Classroom Chemicals

I was recently reading the June 30, 2025 blog posting on the National Science Teachers Association website. 

The blog was posted by Ken Roy and the title of his blog post was “Dealing with Chemical Waste in the Science Instructional Space.”

Unattended hazardous chemical waste can be unsafe, and at times, dangerous.  In Ken’s blog posting, he shares 10 key factors to consider for an appropriate chemical disposal program in school.  

https://k12science.net/best-practices-for-science-classroom-chemicals/

Reports from the Front Lines

• ISTE Keynotes
  • ISTE 2013 Sunday Keynote: Jane McGonigal
  • Transformational Learning Principals
  • Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate by Richard Culatta
  • Miral Kotb
• AI changes our digital landscape
• Pilot Pen Company – The Frixion Series of pens and highlighters.  
• ISTE Swag
  • Bags
  • Pilot

The Social Web

‪Alex Spiers‬ ‪@alexspiers.bsky.social‬

mcompton.uk/2025/06/10/a…

‪Richard Oelmann‬ ‪@richardsedtech.bsky.social‬

‪Flo 🔶‬ ‪@faz.ms‬

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘swullocking’, from 19th-century East Anglian dialect: sultry, sweltering, and sudiferous (sweat-inducing).

ISTE  @ISTEofficial

Want to explore AI in education? Apply to join ISTE+ASCD’s GenerationAI Communities of Practice!  In-person & virtual sessions  $1,000 stipend  All travel covered  Apply by July 20: https://hubs.li/Q03vRFty0 #GenerationAI #AIinEducation

Resources:  

AXIS The Culture Translator

Huntrix In Your Area

What it is: An animated film called KPop Demon Hunters released on Netflix, and it’s been dominating both music and video streaming charts.

Why it’s perfect for social media: The movie has funny moments, relatable characters and themes, Easter eggs for rewatches, catchy music, and lots of stylish outfits. The plot pits Huntrix, the K-pop stars from the title, against the Saja Boys, a K-pop boy band made up of, you guessed it, demons. The two groups battle for the hearts, minds, and souls of their fans via stylish action scenes and K-pop, all while the two leaders of the warring bands are slowly falling in love. It all plays very well on TikTok, as fans obsess over the characters, the songs, and pretty much everything about it.

Project Guntenberg

Project Gutenberg is a library of over 75,000 free eBooks

Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for you to enjoy.

https://www.gutenberg.org

ELT Buzz

1,000s of Quality Vetted Teaching Resources. Free and Paid.

Your Instant Lesson Library.

We save you time planning and finding quality lesson materials. That means more time for your actual teaching. Paid members – Contact us and we’ll direct you to the top resources for your needs! Or if we don’t have it, we’ll work with you to create it.

https://resources.eltbuzz.com

Portrait of a Successful Middle School Student

I checked out competencies that today’s graduates need and started picturing what a well-prepared middle school student – one ready for success in high school and beyond – might look like. Here’s what I came up with.

https://www.middleweb.com/52371/portrait-of-a-middle-school-stem-student/

Web Spotlight: 

The Edtech Experiment:  Disruptive, Toxic, and Costly Too by Carol Josel

“Storage is not understanding. Search is not synthesis. And AI summaries, while efficient, can make it worse… The tools we think are helping us remember are actually training us to forget. Everything becomes equally searchable, which means nothing feels worth knowing.”  ~ Debbie Jenkins, founder of Postnoted: The Antidote to Digital Amnesia  

https://schoolwisebooks.com/technology-in-education/the-ed-tech-experiment-disruptive-toxic-and-costly-too/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLY1wxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFmd1B0YVlRd2ZLSTdOTWE3AR6GRnhA7sjj-rZWaMxqgIuqhsT-LK9IGGiTGZc5xVs9lfhTLcWIMtBtuYpttQ_aem_L4QQfTGDP2QRokrRTWd1eg

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Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about ISTE25. Dave teaches science to girls.

Jokes:  

A boxer complains to his doctor about insomnia.

Doc Have you tried counting sheep?

Boxer Yes, but whenever I get to 9, I stand up

Beethoven wasn’t in the market to buy a house.

• He was just looking Für Elise.

Nothing embarrasses a psychic more than throwing them a surprise party.

If my name were Bill, I would go to the payroll department every payday and say “it’s time to pay your Bill”.

for those of you asking:

do ya know where my jokes come from?

• I get them from my dad-a-base…

Turns out when you’re asked who your favourite child is you’re expected to pick from your own. 

• I know that now.

A dog gave birth to puppies on the road…

• A cop cited her for littering…

What’s the difference between a jeweller and a jailer? 

• One sells watches while the other watches cells.

My air conditioner broke.

• I lost my cool.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Teaching Science to Girls

I was recently reading the June 20, 2025 blog posting on the National Science Teachers Association website. 

The blog was posted by Susan Deemer and the title of her blog post was “Why Teaching Science to Girls Now is More Important Than Ever.”

Susan said that the longer she teaches, the more she realizes that cultivating a scientific mindset is the most important thing that she can teach, particularly when teaching girls, as she has for most of her career.  This is important for two reasons:

1.  Scientific thinking can help eradicate self-defeating thought patterns and deconstruct stereotypes about girls and women perpetuated for generations.

2.  A scientific mindset is critical as girls grow up to become consumers of products, news, and services, as well as citizens who effect change in their communities.

https://k12science.net/teaching-science-to-girls/

Reports from the Front Lines

• ISTE 2025
  • Most recommended AIs were Claude, Chat GPT, You.ai, and Poe.com.  
  • HAIL:  Humanize, Augment, Integrate, Leverage for your Lesson Design
  • Wrappers or LLMs?
    • Wrappers are making $$:  School AI, Magic School, Brisk
  • 
  • The AI Assist: Strategies for Integrating AI into the Very Human Act of Teaching
    • https://files.ascd.org/pdfs/publications/books/The_AI_Assist_sample_chapters.pdf 

The Social Web

‪Eric Curts‬ ‪@ericcurts.bsky.social‬

Did you know that Quizizz is changing their name? I received this box from them with the new name inside. On June 24th I will open the box and reveal the new name! Stay tuned… @quizizz.bsky.social  #BeyondtheZZZ #EduSky #EdTech . And here’s a rant by a teacher whose computer finally doesn’t autocorrect Quizizz and will now have to be retrained on the new name:  https://youtu.be/-CK0MkdO1XY .  The new name is Wayground.  Got the t-shirt.  

‪Eric Curts‬ ‪@ericcurts.bsky.social‬

· 14m

If you attended #ISTELive (in person or virtual) and missed my session: 🧰 The AI Toolbox: Best AI Tools for Schools ▶️ You can watch the recording of the session on the ISTE site – conference.iste.org/2025/program…

Eric Curts  @ericcurts

If you attended #ISTELive keep the learning going by sharing your favorite resources, sessions, takeaways and more in our sharing document – http://bit.ly/iste25-share

Stephanie Howell  @mrshowell24

Don’t miss out—level up your edtech experience with my specially curated ISTE 25 resources. Packed with valuable insights and ideas you can implement immediately!  Grab your resources here: http://tinyurl.com/4rthmcve #ISTELive25 #ASCDAnnual

Strategies:  

Using AI in the Classroom

Finding the right visual to explain a difficult concept is time consuming.  Here’s a strategy for making your own quick image to use in class. First, open an AI that does graphics.  Second, ask it to define the difficult concept using metaphors and similes.  Ask it to be visual and verbose. Check the output for accuracy and then finish it off by asking it to create an image based on that description.  Chat GPT has worked well for me on this.  

Resources:  

Book:  The AI Assist by Nathan Lang-Raad 

“We must recognize the value of human connection in teaching, ensuring that AI tools serve as supplements to—not replacements for—human teachers. This approach will help maintain a balance where AI enriches human interaction, creativity, and empathy in the classroom.”  

AXIS:  The Culture Translator

Peak Gaming

What it is: A difficult and cute cooperative climbing game called Peak has grown in popularity in the gaming space over the last few weeks.  

Why it’s so popular: In Peak, the goal is to summit a mountain with up to three friends by solving puzzles, fighting off environmental hazards, and helping each other up. Failing any of these means you could fall, and lose minutes or even hours of progress. Peak combines two of the more modern genres in gaming: simple, open-ended co-op games (think Lethal Company and REPO) and punishing, challenge-based games (like Getting Over It and Jump King). Teens and social media algorithms appear to love the combination of friends on voice chat and the triumph and anguish of a challenge.  

175 Writing Prompts to Spark Discussion and Reflection

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/learning/175-writing-prompts-to-spark-discussion-and-reflection.html

Web Spotlight: 

My students think it’s fine to cheat with AI. Maybe they’re onto something.

What is the real value of a humanities education?

Their real aim, as the philosopher Megan Fritts writes, is “the formation of human persons.”

…while the purpose of other departments is ultimately to create a product, a humanities education is meant to be different, because the student herself is the product. 

 Aristotle proposed back in Ancient Greece. He believed the real goal was not to impart knowledge, but to cultivate the virtues: honesty, justice, courage, and all the other character traits that make for a flourishing life.

your job is to focus on something else — something that will help them flourish in the long run, even if they don’t fully see the value in it now.

Your job is to be their Aristotle.

 …knowing how to make good judgments when faced with the complex, dynamic situations life throws at you.

 breakneck pace of technological innovation means they’re going to have to choose, again and again and again, how to make use of emerging technologies — and how not to. The best training they can get now is training in how to wisely make this type of choice.

 using generative AI in the classroom threatens to short-circuit, because it removes something incredibly valuable: friction.

Encountering friction is how we give our cognitive muscles a workout. Taking it out of the picture makes things easier in the short term, but in the long term, it can lead to intellectual deskilling, where our cognitive muscles gradually become weaker for lack of use.

https://www.vox.com/advice/413189/ai-cheating-college-humanities-education-chatgpt

Random Thoughts . . .  

Our Matrix discussion platform is public!

https://h5p.org/node/1536211

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