MSM 178 Confession- Talking is hard, Need a Job?

Jokes You Can Use:

Ruth_A_Buzzi Ruth Buzzi
If Catholic dogs go to Catechism, how can Catholic cats accept that dogma? (#HappyCaturday to @jwgagne)

When choosing a cat, remember the striped ones make you look thinner. #happyCATurday

An older cat, reclining on a psychiatrist’s couch, said, “Sometimes I think I could have done so much more with my lives.” #HappyCATURDAY

Were you first hibited before you were inhibited, after which you could become uninhibited? If so, #yougottaberealspecial

Eileen Award:

Patty Riccardi

Advisory:

Don’t Laugh at Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTNVXlirF4Y (Book version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv9fN0-062k (This one includes the lyrics on screen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9xyIGCp7ss  (Peter Yarbourgh)
Lyrics:
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/don’t-laugh-at-me-lyrics-peter-paul-mary/3a0b58077c50623648256a22002cb23e

What People Don’t Get About My Job: From A(rmy Soldier) to Z(ookeeper)

Over the summer, The Atlantic gave our readers a simple prompt: Tell us what people don’t get or appreciate about your job. The response was so eloquent and overwhelming, it was practically encyclopedic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/what-people-dont-get-about-my-job-from-a-rmy-soldier-to-z-ookeeper/244231/1

Middle School Science Minute

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

This middle school science minute is the first in a series of four podcasts on lab safety in the middle school lab.  You can download a copy of the Science Laboratory Rules and Regulations from the National Science Teachers Association, by visiting:
http://www.nsta.org/middleschool

In this podcast, we look at the 7 standards of student conduct in the laboratory and in the field.

From the Twitterverse:

 

News:

The bait and switch of school “reform”

But behind the high-profile back and forth over specific policies and prescriptions lies a story that has less to do with ideas than with money, less to do with facts than with an ideological subtext that has been quietly baked into the very terms of the national education discussion.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/12/reformmoney

What was Ron Clark Thinking?

September 10th, 2011 by Larry Ferlazzo
I hope any teacher reading it ends up following the opposite of some of the advice he gives:

And if you really want to help your children be successful, stop making excuses for them. I was talking with a parent and her son about his summer reading assignments. He told me he hadn’t started, and I let him know I was extremely disappointed because school starts in two weeks. His mother chimed in and told me that it had been a horrible summer for them because of family issues they’d been through in July. I said I was so sorry, but I couldn’t help but point out that the assignments were given in May.

Now, that’s the way to model empathy….

http://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/2011/09/10/jeez-what-was-ron-clark-thinking/

Middle School AP Posting:

I am posting a Middle School Assistant Principal position today. If you know of anyone that may be a good fit, send them my way. It is a short posting. Deadline is next week Monday at 4:00pm  you know of a good candidate that may be the right fit, pass it on to them.

Thanks

Mr. Ryan K. Pfahler

Middle School Principal
Coopersville Area Public Schools
198 East Street
Coopersville, MI 49404
616-997-3401 Phone
616-997-3414 Fax
www.coopersvillebroncos.org

Resources:

The Likeable Constitution

http://www.thelikeableconstitution.com/#state=EV&part=bor&order=mostliked

FauxFlash

Fauxflash is an online application that takes the hassle out of flash cards and lets you get right to studying.
http://fauxflash.com/

Super Book of Web Tools

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/66326425/The-Super-Book-of-Web-Tools-for-Educators

Web Spotlight:

Confessions of a bad teacher

And, according to my personnel file at the New York City Department of Education, I was “unprofessional,” “insubordinate” and “culturally insensitive.”
In other words, I was a bad teacher.

Little did I know I was entering a system where all teachers are considered bad until proven otherwise. Also, from what I saw, each school’s principal has so much leeway that it’s easy for good management and honest evaluation to be crushed under the weight of Crazy Boss Syndrome. And, in my experience, the much-vaunted “data” and other measurements of student progress and teacher efficacy are far more arbitrary and manipulated than taxpayers and parents have been led to believe.

Good teacher? Bad teacher? I suppose it’s how you measure it. As far as I know, there is only one scrap of positive data in my personnel file at the DOE, a memo from the assistant principal commending me for passing enough students to put Latinate’s pass rate in the Department of Education’s “safe harbor.”
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/08/29/confessions_of_a_bad_teacher/index.html

Strategies:

More on Teaching Innovation with the Curiosity Box

More than one reader expressed an interest in seeing some examples of the kinds of metaphorical connections that my kids are making between the content that we are studying and the odd objects that we are collecting in our curiosity box.

http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/tempered-radical/09-2011/more-teaching-innovation-curiosity-box

Is REAL Formative Assessment Even Possible?

Formative assessment—timely feedback gathered and reviewed during the course of a learning experience that serves to ‘inform’ both teachers AND students and allows for the ‘formation’ of new learning plans—matters.

But I’m really starting to wonder whether or not effective formative assessment is even possible in the classroom.
http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/tempered-radical/09-2011/real-formative-assessment-even-possible

 

Web Tools:

Teacher 2.0

Steve Hargadon has created a place for teachers to do their own professional growth online.  As you answer questions about your teaching, you get feedback from other participants and the chance to encourage others in their growth.