MSM 193: A Whole “Latte” Stuff in This Show!

Jokes You Can Use:

Mom: Were you a good boy today?
Son: Yep. You can’t get in too much trouble standing in the corner.

I wouldn’t say the restaurant was suspicious, but there were 3 shakers on the table: Salt, pepper and alka-seltzer.

Eileen Award:

• Jamie Cruikshank
• Steve Collis

Advisory:

Best Ad Campaigns of All Time.

http://www.englishblog.com/2012/02/infographic-best-ad-campaigns-of-all-time.html

A Short History of Calendars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kzprsR2SvrQ

Middle School Science Minute

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

This middle school science minute is about writing lab reports. In the January, 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Fred Enge wrote an article entitled, “Not Another Lab Report.” Fred shares his ideas on helping his 8th grade students improve on their lab reports.  Two important factors came into play:
1.  Relevance
2.  Guidance

From the Twitterverse:

News:

ISTE Island

ISTE Island has been a resource for many educators over the years.  February 28th the Island goes into LOST mode (vanishes completely) as ISTE will no longer make payments to Linden Labs to maintain the island.  There’s a party on the 27th and all are invited to attend.  

Resources:

Algebra in the Real World Movies

Videos to help show how algebra is used in the real world.
http://www.thefutureschannel.com/algebra/algebra_real_world_movies.php

Latte

Latte is a Mac OS X application that uses such Web engines asCodeCogs and Google Chart to typeset formulas written in LaTeX. Formulas can be dragged to other applications (e.g. Keynote, Pages) and, in the case of PDF formulas, scaled to an arbitrary size. Both the LaTeX input and the rendered output can be saved onto your local disk, making it easy to build a library of formulas.
http://olivierlabs.com/latte/index.html

Text to Speech

Mac Only. Extends the functionality of the built-in Text to Speech.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/10/daily-mac-app-text2speech-lets-hear-what-you-write-in-record-ti

Web Spotlight:

English Slang

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/02/10/nice-pbs-news-hour-story-on-teaching-english-slang/

Solve for X

A forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.
Somewhat similar to TED.
http://www.wesolveforx.com/

Strategies:

AMLE 2011:

Mastery and How to Assess It

Rick Wormeli
This is based on Fair is Not Always Equal.

Has a discussion guide, participant study guide, and videos

Define Mastery

Can use it and apply it in another context?

Must incorporate it later in the year . . .

Final exams given over last 2-3 weeks and never for a long period of time/sitting.

What evidence will you tolerate?

Sit down with your team/department and decide.

What exemplars?

What are teachers putting on their tests?

“Agree on a commonly accepted definition of mastery.”

What is the difference between proficient in the standard/outcome and mastery of the standard/outcome?
What does exceeding the standard mean?

Common Assessments

Written by local teachers

Given when the kids are ready to take them.

Do a variety of them.

They don’t count a huge amount on the report card.

Ask him for the article on Clarifying the Curriculum.

Feedback vs. Assessment

Feedback:  holding up a mirror to students, showing them what they did and comparing it to what they should have done – There’s no evaluative component!

Assessment:  Gathering data so we can make a decision.

Greatest impact:  Formative Assessment.
Be clear:  We mark and grade against standards/outcomes, not the routes students take or techniques teachers use to achieve those standards/outcomes.

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

Ohio Middle Level Association:

• The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference.

• OMLA Registration Form
• OMLA Presentation Proposal Form

AMLE Affiliate Conferences:

• The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 2012 in Warren Woods, MI.  
• MAMSE Exhibitor Form
• MAMSE Registration Form

• MAMSE Presentation Form
• MAMSE Conference Program Book (2011)
• The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012
• Conference Brochure  
• Presenter’s Application
• Who They Are . . .
• This year’s sessions . . .

Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.

• Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.