Summary:
Shawn and Troy talk about AI, creative counting, PD, and more. Dave is passionate about passionate teachers.
Jokes:
Professional drum solos are hard to beat.
Why are pediatricians always so angry?
- They have very little patients
I asked a friend how it was going down at the National Ambidextrous Society. He said people are joining left and right.
At an interview..
First question: Describe yourself in 3 words
Me: Not very good with numbers
I’ve just deleted all the German names from my phone.
- Now it’s completely Hans-free.
What sound does a cow make when it runs out of milk?
None.
There is udder silence.
Drilling holes is boring
I saw a microbiologist today…
they were much bigger than I expected…
A guy has just assaulted me with a strawberry flavored milk!
How dairy!
My son: The manual in the car says not to turn up the volume of the stereo to the maximum.
I told him that’s…. sound advice.
This lady is taking FOREVER to tell this story and now I’m really regretting eavesdropping in the first place.
Which mountain do they harvest the dew from?
- Is it a trade secret?
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
K12Science Podcast: A Passionate Teacher
I was recently reading the May – June 2025 issue of “Science Scope”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.
In this issue, I read the section, “From the Editor’s Desk” written by Patti McGinnis. She wrote an article entitled, “‘The Power of a Passionate Teacher.”
Passionate teachers inspire their students to learn, they create collaborative learning environments where risk-taking is encouraged, and they help students connect their learning to real-world applications. Passionate teachers are committed to their discipline, are knowledgeable to world events, and are committed to ensuring their students learn.
http://k12science.net/a-passionate-teacher/
Reports from the Front Lines
- Presentation Acceptance
- AI PD
- End of the Year Planning
- Creative Counting
- DHMO
The Social Web
Hey, psst, would you like an intuitive explanation of binary and hexadecimal numbers? (and really, any number base as long as it’s a positive whole number)
Because I may have something for you.
https://observablehq.com/@jobleonard/binary-counting-made-easy
Made with @observablehq
(I started working on this all the way back in 2019 and then completely forgot about it for six years)
My 17yr old was ranting last night about teachers encouraging the use of AI and how stupid it was.
They had done a quiz about a film, and the quiz had been ai generated. They spent most of the lesson pointing out all of the mistakes in the quiz and the woefully incorrect answers.
It became an impromptu lesson on why you *shouldn’t* use AI.
“I hate everything about it” she finally said.
Striking sailors would sometimes sign their petitions with their names arranged in a circle to prevent management from singling out the first signatories for retaliation as strike leadership, hence the term “ringleaders.”
If everything around seems dark, look again, you may be the light!
~Rumi
I recently tried to search the web for whether or not it was possible to embed a calendar in a Google Doc. Every single result I found said yes it totally is, and then invented steps that do not exist. In hindsight, clear AI slop.
Not some “AI overview” (I don’t use those); actual articles on actual websites that do not disclose they are machine generated—and flat out lies.
The Web we once knew is dead, murdered by the world’s richest corporations burning our planet and shilling their garbage.
I love this, almost as much as German’s ‘Fernweh’: ‘far-sickness’.
Quote: The OED @OED
OED #WordOfTheDay: spring fret, n. A sense of restlessness or desire to wander, felt by humans or animals in the spring. View entry: https://oxford.ly/4kjWTj8
When you’re interviewing middle school students about their school, and they keep using the word… Joyous.
Resources:
“Fast Fourteen” Bellringers
https://blog.tcea.org/fast-fourteen-bellringers/
Web Spotlight:
AXIS The Culture Translator
Slang of the Week: “Aura Farming”
Have you ever met someone who you’re convinced does certain things to try to look cool? There’s a new term for that: “aura farming.” For teens, “aura” is the charisma and coolness you exude. “Aura farming” is doing specific things to try to elevate that “aura.” Young people continue to value authenticity above almost anything else, so calling out aura farming is a way to call out people who are trying maybe a little too hard. Online, the term is often used to poke fun at certain storytelling clichés, like Batman overlooking Gotham City in the rain or Darth Vader doing… pretty much anything.
It’s Breathtaking How Fast AI Is Screwing Up the Education System
https://gizmodo.com/its-breathtaking-how-fast-ai-is-screwing-up-the-education-system-2000603100
U.S. Department of Education “Humans In The Loop”
USDE guidance on using AI in local school districts is here.
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College
ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.
Lee used AI to breeze through with minimal effort. When I asked him why he had gone through so much trouble to get to an Ivy League university only to off-load all of the learning to a robot, he said, “It’s the best place to meet your co-founder and your wife.”
Although Columbia’s policy on AI is similar to that of many other universities’ — students are prohibited from using it unless their professor explicitly permits them to do so, either on a class-by-class or case-by-case basis — Lee said he doesn’t know a single student at the school who isn’t using AI to cheat. To be clear, Lee doesn’t think this is a bad thing. “I think we are years — or months, probably — away from a world where nobody thinks using AI for homework is considered cheating,” he said.
Craig Mod on the Creative Power of Walking
“From this boredom, words flow. I can’t stop them.”
When I’m not talking, just walking (which is most of the time), I try to cultivate the most bored state of mind imaginable. A total void of stimulation beyond the immediate environment. My rules: No news, no social media, no podcasts, no music. No “teleporting,” you could say. The phone, the great teleportation device, the great murderer of boredom. And yet, boredom: the great engine of creativity.
https://lithub.com/craig-mod-on-the-creative-power-of-walking
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