MSM 180 Last Stand, Sift(eo) my way, QuickClassics & Memories (all alone in the moonlight . . . )

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Jokes You Can Use:

Ruth_A_Buzzi

1.  Why are hot dogs at Detroit Tigers’ stadium so much better than the ones sold by the Seattle Mariners? Because you can eat them in October.

2.  Ultimately, my ex broke up with the blond chick and married a sweet little Native American lady. I hope they’re one big Hopi family.

On Our Mind:

New “toys” for Shawn.
https://www.sifteo.com/

Eileen Award:

  • Kerry Derminer
  • Noel Parish
  • Kevin Upton

Advisory:kkinstruction Kalysta

How to Make a 1920s Flapper style Dress in only One Hour! Includes 4 Special Bonuses. http://j.mp/nDRXcO

Middle School Science Minute

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

Part 3 of the 4 part series on lab safety.  This podcast focuses in on standards on specific safety precautions involving chemicals and lab equipment.  The importance of lab safety was pointed out last week in the Chicago area when a student suffered a serious injury while passing around dry ice and water in a plastic bottle and it exploded.  The full article can be found at:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-26/news/ct-met-science-class-20110926_1_chemistry-class-nsta-national-science-teachers-association

From the Twitterverse:

*ShellTerrell 10 Reasons Teachers Make Great Punching Bags bit.ly/mTIOEa #edreform
*web20classroom RT @hopkinsdavid: QR Codes in the classroom bit.ly/d1m6Ux #QRCode #edtech
*jybuell How Your Brain Reacts to Mistakes Depends on Your Mindset bit.ly/o6uY3L ScienceDaily cc:// @occam98
*DianeRavitch Is this the best education parody site on Twitter? laststand4children.org
*2learn2 germinate – to become a naturalized German #stevec
*JohnMikulski Schools need a social media strategy that goes beyond simply blocking everything. #edtechconf
*missnoor28 Some of the best resources of #QRcode “My QRCode page” http://j.mp/oNdEKF #dtech #mlearning
*AskAaronLee Are you an educator? Try Google+ as a tool for your class – http://ow.ly/6J4XR rt @chrisbrogan
*web20classroom iPad Apps To Support Blooms Taxonomy from @kathyschrock: bit.ly/oSkbu0
*mcleod New from CASTLE: Virtual Schooling in the News bit.ly/nwbFIE
*rmbyrne New post: dotEPUB – Convert Any Webpage into an ePub Document goo.gl/fb/g8xie

Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

A bet on No Child Left Behind

Diane Ravitch is a glass half-empty kind of gal, while I suffer from excessive Panglossian tendencies. In the spring of 2007, we made a bet. The payoff is dinner at the River Café, at the foot of Brooklyn Heights, overlooking New York harbor and the Manhattan skyline, tucked neatly under the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/who-won-a-2007-bet-on-no-child-left-behind/2011/09/26/gIQAwBBi0K_blog.html

How Teacher Turnover Harms Students

By Barnett Berry
Finally reaching the bottom of one my reading stacks, I found myself fascinated and frustrated by the findings of a new study on the relationship between teacher turnover and student achievement.
http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/advancing-teaching-profession/09-2011/how-teacher-turnover-harms-students
http://www.nber.org/papers/w17176

How to fix this mess called middle school

“Twelves (and thirteens and fourteens for that matter) probably do not belong in formal school environments at all, but in some kind of cross between summer camp and the Civilian Conservation Corps camps of the Great Depression — plenty of physical activity, structured groups and time with peers, with a little formal education thrown in.”
I’ve written before about such a proposal, but it’s worth repeating again as school districts tackle the problem anew. The answer: blowing up middle school as we know it and turning at least some of it into a “boot camp for life.”
Enough with “academic rigor.” Stop testing kids ad nauseam.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-to-fix-the-mess-we-call-middle-school/2011/09/25/gIQAjCx1yK_blog.html

Resources:

Dead Sea Scrolls Online

It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and historians, and the advent of the Internet to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to anyone in the world. Today, as the new year approaches on the Hebrew calendar, we’re celebrating the launch of the Dead Sea Scrolls online; a project of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem powered by Google technology.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html

VizLingo

Turn text into a video representation.
http://www.vizlingo.com/

History Pin

Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history.
Everyone has history to share: whether its sitting in yellowed albums in the attic, collected in piles of crackly tapes, conserved in the 1000s of archives all over the world or passed down in memories and old stories.
Each of these pieces of history finds a home on Historypin, where everyone has the chance to see it, add to it, learn from it, debate it and use it to build up a more complete understanding of the world.
Historypin has been developed by the not-for-profit company We Are What We Do, in partnership with Google.
YouTube introductory video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdT3eKdto4w
http://www.historypin.com/

SpeakIt!

Speak It is a Google Chrome extension that enables you to have the text on most webpages read to you. With Speak It installed just highlight the text on a the page you’re viewing then right-click to activate Speak It. Then click the play button to have the text read to you. The voice is very digitized, but it is clear.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/speak-it-text-to-speech-in-google.html

Web Spotlight:

Cheating

Here’s an overview of some of the most shocking instances of teacher cheating, plus a few episodes that may have been overblown.
http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-most-outrageous-teacher-cheating-scandals

Students need to develop Grit

http://edcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/09/teaching-character-strengths-and-values.html

Teaching All

Jeremy is a special education teacher.  Jeremy’s classroom is a great example of universal design for learning, as his students have access to a myriad of technology tools including iPads and interactive whiteboards.  Outside of the classroom, Jeremy works part-time as a Family Trainer and Technology Advisor.  As a Family Trainer, he consults with families who have children with autism to develop behavior plans, design Intensive Teaching programs, and determine the best technology solutions for children.  When it comes to special education technology, he is an iOS expert!  When Jeremy is not browsing the iTunes App Store or posting about apps on Facebook, he enjoys being outdoors and spending time with his friends and family.
Site has activities for Interactive Whiteboards (IWB’s), iPad Apps and much more.
Tons of links!
http://teachingall.blogspot.com/

Digital Promise

Founded after more than a decade of effort, including a 2004 report to Congress, Digital Promise has been endorsed by virtually every major national association of educators and educational institutions, libraries, and museums. The project that gave rise to Digital Promise was launched by the Carnegie, Century, Knight, MacArthur, and Open Society foundations, sustained by the Federation of American Scientists, and championed by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, civic and business leaders, who came together on its behalf.
http://www.digitalpromise.org/

Strategies:

Read Ten Classic Books in Under a Minute

If you’ve ever lamented to someone about not having enough time to read, there’s a cure for what ails you. While nothing can replace the feel of a good novel in your hands — and the eau de stink of the used bookstore you found it in — the Book-A-Minute website aims to catch you up on all the classics you’ve been meaning to read since … forever. “When even the CliffsNotes are just too long, come here. Covers everything from Shakespeare to Steinbeck,” the site teases. They’ve taken fine literature, science-fiction/fantasy, and children’s bedtime stories and condensed them into amusing one-minute reads. Interestingly enough, you’ll find that many of them are dead-on descriptions of the actual works. Skip through ten classic books below and check a few to-dos off your bucket list.
http://flavorwire.com/213381/read-ten-classic-books-in-under-a-minute

What Will Improve a Student’s Memory?

By Daniel T. Willingham
Question: I often have students tell me that they studied for a  test, meaning that they reviewed their notes and the textbook, but they still did not do well. If they have reviewed the material, why don’t they remember it? Is there anything I can do to help them study more effectively?
http://cdl.org/resource-library/pdf/What%20Will%20Improve%20a%20Students%20Memory.pdf

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

      • Other News:
  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life