MSM 233: BaaaNaaaNaaaa, Quote the Movie

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

Why is 6 afraid of 7?
What do you call a pencil without lead?
What is Mozart’s favorite fruit?
How do you make an octopus giggle 10 times?
Why do gorilla’s have big nostrils?

Eileen Award:

 

• Scoopit:  Jim Farmer
• Twitter:
• Facebook:  C. Joan Seager
• Google+:
• iTunes:
• eMail:

Advisory:

Ordering a Pizza by Phone

in 1974.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=94d_h_t2QAA#!

Living to 100

The Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator uses the most current and carefully researched medical and scientific data in order to estimate how old you will live to be. Most people score in their late eighties… how about you?
http://www.livingto100.com/

Middle School Science Minute

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

I was recently reading the January, 2013 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.

I went on to read the Editor’s Roundtable, written by Inez Liftig.  The title of the editorial is, “You Can’t Wing It.”  The purpose of the editorial is to emphasize the skills that are needed by teachers.

By the way, I added a Twitterverse to my bi-monthly Michigan Science Matters Network eBlast.  Check it out at:
http://www.msta-mich.org/educator-support/84-science-matters/256-science-matters-e-blast-january-24-2013

From the Twitterverse:

Resources:

Subzin

Find quotes from movies quickly and easily.
http://www.subzin.com/

Free Online OCR

Convert pdf, jpgs and more to editable documents.
http://www.onlineocr.net/default.aspx

Mission US

Mission US is an interactive adventure game designed to improve the understanding of American history by students in grades 5 through 8. Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” explores the reasons for Revolution through the eyes of Loyalists and Patriots in 1770 Boston. Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom” explores resistance to slavery along the Kentucky-Ohio border in the years preceding the Civil War. Additional missions will follow in the coming years.
http://www.mission-us.org/

Google Cultural Institute

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/home

Web Spotlight:

Hollywood Hates Math

A super cut of Math in movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3uYBoWH3nFk

Learn Something New

Take a class online. Based out of London. The idea is to share knowledge from those who have been doing something. Billed as helping the next generation.
http://www.theamazings.com/

Crisis-I Feel Like Switching Careers

By Megan Allen
I was feeling beaten down, judged, and downtrodden by people outside my field who don’t understand what teachers do every day
The truth—I’m not the only one.
So many wonderful teachers I know are having similar thoughts. This should send off red flags to our legislators, administrators, and parents
Teachers must have TIME TO TEACH.
We must use data correctly
create a culture of support without intimidation
rethink our definition of success.
Administrators and teachers must stand up and say enough is enough.
Administrators must shelter their teachers
refocus on what is important in education
http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/01-2013/crisis-i-feel-switching-careers

Take Control of a Noisy Class

This could be useful for basic classroom management. There are 3 videos to watch.
http://www.behaviourneeds.com/noisyclass/video-1/

Mindset Examples

This video is from the Vook “Mind in the Making: The Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs Volume. Download this Vook here: and experience all of the fascinating findings and helpful tips to your child’s development.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TTXrV0_3UjY

Picasso, Kepler, and the Benefits of Being an Expert Generalist

One thing that separates the great innovators from everyone else is that they seem to know a lot about a wide variety of topics. They are expert generalists. Their wide knowledge base supports their creativity.
As it turns out, there are two personality traits that are key for expert generalists: Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition.
http://99u.com/articles/7269/Picasso-Kepler-and-the-Benefits-of-Being-an-Expert-Generalist

News:

Palaeolithic Park? Harvard professor seeks ‘adventurous’ woman to give birth to baby Neanderthal

 

• A Harvard professor is looking for an “adventurous” woman to give birth to a baby Neanderthal.
• Although the 58-year-old is not certain his plan would work, he says he is now ready to put theory into practice.
• Professor Church’s plan is to create artificial Neanderthal DNA based on the genetic code found in bone samples, then put this DNA into stem cells
• Professor Church is one of the scientists who helped initiate the Human Genome Project that successfully mapped human DNA
• Professor Church believes Neanderthals were highly intelligent
• Human cloning is illegal in many countries, but as Professor Church is theoretically dealing with a Neanderthal, not a Homo Sapien, existing laws may not apply.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/palaeolithic-park-harvard-professor-seeks-adventurous-woman-to-give-birth-to-baby-neanderthal-8460273.html

iPad App:

European Exploration: The Age of Discovery

Explore the new world as a European power in the 15th Century by funding and sending expeditions out into the unknown. Hire captains, build ships and outfit voyages to learn of the wonders of the new world. Expeditions can be dangerous however, so be careful or else Europe may never hear of your discoveries!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/european-exploration-age-discovery/id393625741?mt=8

HotKeys

Turn your iPad into a visual keyboard shortcut master controller.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hotkeys/id374164481?mt=8

Bonus Material:

13+ Things Your Kid’s Principal Won’t Tell You
Straight from the principal’s office: Use these tips for a better school year.

1. If you want to talk to me about a problem, schedule a morning appointment, when I’m fresh.
By the afternoon, I can get pretty frazzled.

2. You’re right, that teacher does stink.
I’m actually in the process of firing her. Legally, I can’t tell you that, though, so that’s why I’m sitting here quietly while you complain.

3. Of course I’m going to disapprove of a child missing class for vacation.
What I won’t tell you is that I encouraged my own daughter to pull her kids out of school to visit me during my break.

4. We had a young man struggling to focus during year-end tests.
“My underwear is on backward,” he said. That’s the problem with all this testing: We’re being judged by assessments taken by kids who may have their underwear on backward.

5. You think that what happens at home stays at home?
We hear about your financial problems, your nasty fights, your drinking problem. We end up knowing way too much about everybody.

6. The child you see at home?
That’s almost never the one we see at school.

7. Don’t tell me your child would never lie to you.
All kids make mistakes, and great students are often the ones most afraid to tell their parents when they screw up.

8. When we have a child who throws things or tries to hit when she’s angry…
…her parents inevitably say, “I don’t have a problem with her at home, because I spank her.”

© Jupiterimages/Creatas/Thinkstock
9. My biggest pet peeve?
Parents who complain to me before talking to the teacher.

10. Don’t ask me to make a teacher forgive a homework assignment or not to teach a specific subject.
We don’t dictate to teachers; we work with them.

11. I’ve had a few students who were bullies.
We suspend them again and again, but it’s very tough to expel a student. The truth is, they have a right to an education.

12. Kids are easy.
It’s the parents who are tough. They’re constantly trying to solve their kids’ problems for them.

13. What do I love about this job?
I can influence and inspire kids and adults, help work through problems, and find solutions. And every day I can pop into a classroom where something interesting is going on. What other job gives you all of that?

14. C’mon parents, this is your child’s homework, not yours.
We know what a seventh-grader can do, and we know what an adult with an engineering degree can do, so please don’t do your child’s work for him. Kids need to make mistakes and struggle through things; it’s how they learn.

15. Principals never know what the day will hold.
One minute you’re mopping up vomit, the next you’re in a special ed meeting, and the next you’re dealing with two kids who got in a fight. Then you shovel snow off the sidewalk in front of school, you meet with teachers to decide whether to change the language arts curriculum, and you play basketball with a group of kids. And that’s just in the first two hours.

16.The last thing I want to do on the sidelines of a basketball game or during intermission at the school play is have a conference with you about your child.
If you have something to talk to me about, come by my office during the day or even better, make an appointment.

17. If you and your child don’t like his teacher, tough luck.
Think of it as a lesson: In school, as in life, sometimes you have to learn to deal with things you don’t like.

18. When an unruly student gets sent to my office, my favorite strategy is not to engage right away.
I just let them sit there in agony while I keep working. It gives them a chance to calm down and de-escalate. Try it at home; it works.

19. For years, folks have said that if you can’t do anything else, you can always go into education.
The truth is, we’re not the leftovers, and this is what most of us wanted to do. I had been accepted to law school, but I chose this.

© iStockphoto/Thinkstock
20. Our favorite kids aren’t necessarily the ones with the highest IQs.
What we really value is hard work.

21. Since the economy has gotten bad, it seems that more parents are taking any job they can get, working crazy hours and neglecting their children.
Then a lot of them try to make up for that by coming to their child’s rescue when there’s an issue with a teacher, coming in here and hollering at us.

22. As a principal, you’re expected to know about bus routes, curriculum, communication, school lunches, adolescent development, conflict management, learning disabilities, and more.
You have to be an expert on everything, sometimes in the same 20 minutes.