Podcast 50 NMSA08 Annual Conference Wrap Up Part 1

Items & Events

  1. Get introduced to ISTE!
  2. Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference, February 19-20, 2009 in Sandusky, OH.  Presenter information is posted on the page.  Download now and get it it in to your administration while they’re too confused and dazed with the opening of school’s events to say, “No.”  (You could argue . . . )
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE ) Annual Conference will be meeting March 12-13 in Saginaw.  Make plans to attend.
  4. The Michigan Department of Education has posted new proposed Tech Standards for K-12 and opened a Zoomerang survey page for posting comments and replies.  You can get to the proposed standards directly here and you can go to the survey page here.  No one will stop you at the front door of the survey if you’re not in the Great State of Michigan, so have at.
  5. The New England League of Middle Schools has a whole bevy of professional development planned for the 2008-2009 school year and you can access it here.
  6. ADVISORY IDEAS NEEDED:  NELMS is putting together an Advisory Resource page with lessons for you to use.  They are asking for submissions here by January 1, 2009.  If your entry is used, you will be entered in a raffle for a 3 day NELMS conference ticket.
  7. Are you a member of the National Middle School Association?  You are eligible to join MiddleTalk, a listserv for middle school teachers that engages in middle level “shop talk.”  Sign up here.
  8. Join the gang going to NMSA’s Annual Conference by signing up at the Ning site and connecting with other Conference goers:  NMSA08 Please do sign up and connect with other conference attendees.  Of course, you’re always welcome to post here too . . .
  9. There’s a new research document on counselors in middle schools and the importance they play in our students’ lives.  The research summary details the importance of each student knowing one adult well and how to do that before the counselor’s role can become multifaceted.  In a way, think of them being the ultimate super Advisory teacher first then counselor.  Check it out here.
  10. If you get a chance to visit Second Life, zip over to the ISTE island for their speaker series on Tuesdays & Thursdays.  This Tuesday’s topic is Open Sim as Prototyping (TBA).  It begins at 6:00 pm Pacific and is scheduled to end at 7:00 pm pst.
  11. NMSA is looking for an editor!  Tom Erb was honored at this year’s Annual conference with the John Lounsbury award for his many years of service to middle schools as editor of the Middle Journal.
  12. ISTE is holding their annual Computing Conference (NECC) in Washington D.C. this year.  Click here for housing and dates.

NMSA Wrap up

Overall General Observations:

  • Handouts were non-existent
  • Technology is part of life.
  • This conference remains powerful. Conversations with several attendees iterated how much they got out of the conference as well.
  • There is rarely enough time to really search throughout the exhibit hall.
  • There seemed to be lots of room in many sessions (even though Shawn couldn’t get into two of them because of fire codes & the halls were jam packed).

Book:  Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen

Shout Outs:
1.  Theresa Sutherland of MAMSE for recognizing us at NMSA!

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