Summary:
Shawn and Troy talk AI, project-based learning, and more. Dave communicates with parents.
Jokes:
What do you feel when you accidentally send out the same Morse Code twice
Remorse
How do you get the farmer’s daughter to fall in love with you?
A tractor.
Just finished a novel about an immortal cat.
- It was impossible to put down.
My complimentary hotel breakfast did not tell me I looked nice even once.
Proctologist: Today I looked up an old friend from school.
It’s only a murder of crows if there’s probable caws.
Somebody threw a bottle of omega-3 pills at my head.
- Luckily my injuries are only super fish oil.
It’s only August and I’ve already crossed nine out of ten things off my 2025 todo list!
I didn’t do any of them. I just wanted them off the list.
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
K12Science Podcast: Parent Newsletters
I was recently reading the July-August 2025 issue of “The Science Teacher”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.
In this issue, I read the section, “Idea Bank” written by Alexander Eden. He wrote an article entitled, “The Power of Newsletters: Welcoming Parents into the Biology Classroom Community.”
When leveraged correctly, engaging parents and families can have a positive impact on students and the classroom. It is critical to maintain a line of communication with families that is not solely based on when student concerns arise. One method of maintaining consistent communication with families involves the construction of a parent newsletter.
https://k12science.net/parent-newsletters/
Reports from the Front Lines
- Last Hurrah of Summer
- The Summer of My “Glow Up”
The Social Web
Fun fact, ~64% of Americans use assistive technology to overcome a disability.
And that’s just one single type of disability: issues with eyesight.
Type the @ symbol in the #Gemini chat box to connect to Google services like YouTube. This lets you pull in content from other places…a great way to find videos for your next lesson! #GoogleEDU https://x.com/jrsowash/status/1956026875559432513/photo/1
National Park Service @NatlParkService
Keep at least 25 yards from bison at all times and never approach a bison to take a photo. If they want a photo with you, they will let you know. Boundaries. Not just lines on a map.
Word of the Day is ‘copemate’ (16th century): the friend in life who gets you through.
Resources:
The Tech Exit
“In the last week or so, you may have seen a startling picture of data put together by an analyst for Financial Times. The graph shows changes in personality traits over the last 8 years. Starkly down: conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extroversion—particularly for young people. These are traits that positively affect career, marriages and life expectancy. On the rise, neuroticism. People are more anxious, tense, and emotional. The author of the article blames it on distraction. He points the finger directly at the digital world.”
https://wng.org/podcasts/the-tech-exit-1755288004
America 250
Merch is now available: https://ctrk.klclick3.com/l/01K2PRWRTFTJF1Q0XFJP6A4DQE_11
Embracing the Change: Middle School 101 for Parents and Families
Embracing the Change: Middle School 101 for Families is a concise brochure designed to support parents and families as they guide their middle schooler through a transformative phase of life.
https://my.amle.org/Shop/Store/Product-Details?productid={354C6C66-E960-F011-BEC2-000D3A4DB114}
Zavala
A good, simple outliner for macOS and iOS.
AXIS The Culture Translator
AI Blues
What it is: OpenAI released “GPT-5,” a new version of their AI that touts better processing, more efficiency, and fewer “hallucinations.” Yet, ChatGPT users are not happy.
Why they’ve turned: With this new update, OpenAI consolidated all of its models into a single experience, and now just routes a user’s request through whatever tool it deems best for the job (for example, photo requests get sent through the photo generator). However, this means users can no longer access those individual models, which felt to many like losing features. The backlash signals a growing normalization of AI, as users now have their own expectations and preferences about the technology.
Striking a Pose
What it is: “The Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge” is a TikTok trend where participants balance on one foot in sky-high heels, often on unstable objects like cans or bottles—mimicking a pose from Nicki Minaj’s 2013 “High School” music video
Why it’s risky: A few seconds of internet fame can cost a lot. One influencer fractured her spine just weeks after giving birth, and Mikayla Matthews, star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, faced major backlash after trying the trend blindfolded while holding her newborn. Media outlets estimate that #nickiminajchallenge has racked up more than 1.3 billion views on TikTok, with over 130,000 hashtagged videos posted.
In Search of Lost Time
What it is: A long-form piece in The Free Press explores why time flies by when we’re using social media platforms. (Hint: It’s not because we’re having fun.)
Google Has Often Failed At AI, But They Have Hit It Out Of The Park – For ELLs, At Least – With New “Storybook”
The biggest mistakes in mapmaking history – Kayla Wolf
Travel through the history of mapmaking and discover what big mistakes cartographers made about the world’s geography.
Here Be The Dragons!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77hLX8jO6e4
Web Spotlight:
GIFT Validator
https://fuhrmanator.github.io/GIFT-grammar-PEG.js/editor/editor.html
FBI and NSPCC alarmed at ‘shocking’ rise in online sextortion of children
Snapchat logged about 20,000 cases last year of adults grooming children online, more than other social media platforms combined
The NCA said: “Sextortion is a heartless crime, which can have devastating consequences for victims. Sadly, teenagers in the UK and around the world have taken their own lives because of it.”
Tech companies including Snapchat and Facebook reported more than 9,600 cases of adults grooming children online in the UK in just six months last year – the equivalent of about 400 a week.
The children’s charity, NSPCC, described the figures as “shocking” and said they were likely an underestimate.
Behaviorism as Cognitive Science
In his July 24th article, “‘Cognitive Science,’ All the Rage in British Schools, Fails to Register in U.S”, he did not even attempt to be objective as he lionized a form of ‘Cognitive Science’ that is a euphemism for behaviorism.
A cognitive science subset, Cognitive load theory, was developed in mid-1980s by Australian education psychologist John Sweller. His theory pays attention to human cognitive architecture: characteristics and relations between long-term memory and short term memory, and how load on memory affects learning.
As Kohn stated, in the debate between behaviorism and “constuctivism”, Hirch comes down squarely on the side of behaviorism.
https://tultican.com/2025/08/10/behaviorism-as-cognitive-science/
Random Thoughts . . .
Grammarian vs. Errorist
Get the English teacher on your team ready for school this year: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19aHhX68Ce/
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