MSM 222: Flipped Off!

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

 

Call for Action:

iTunes Reviews

Jokes You Can Use:

Three leaders of the big beer companies meet for a drink. The president of Budweiser orders a Bud. Miller’s president orders a Millers and the president of Coors orders a Coors. When it is Guinness turn to order he orders a soda. Why didn’t you order a Guinness everyone asks? Nah Guinness replies. If you guys aren’t having a beer neither will I.

Life is very short. It’s only a 4-letter word.

A guy took his girl friend to her first Longhorn football game. They had great seats right behind their team’s bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience. “Oh, I really liked it,” she replied,
“Especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn’t understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents.”
Dumbfounded, her date asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well, I saw them flip a coin and one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was: get the quarterback. Get the quarterback! It’s only 25 cents!

Officer to driver going the wrong way up a one way street. “And where do you think you are going?”
Driver: – “I’m not sure, but I must be late as everyone else is coming back.”

Advisory:

How do you get to school?

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/12/14390958-risky-river-crossing-filipino-kids-tube-to-get-to-school

Everything I Need to Know I’m Learning From My Sixth Graders

http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/10-2012/everything-i-need-know-i-m-learning-my-sixth-graders

Middle School Science Minute

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

This podcast is based on an article from the Fall, 2012 issue of Green Teacher.  The article was entitled “Children’s Rights and Climate Change.”  The article was written by Paula Gallo and Barbara Strang.

The purpose of the article was to help teachers help young people realize their right to a healthy planet.  Teachers, have an invaluable role to play in generating the power of students, and they can do so by exploring with students the world of climate change and other environmental issues, as seen through the lens of children’s rights.

From the Twitterverse:

Resources:

The Flip: End of a Love Affair

…my brief love affair with the flip has ended. It simply didn’t produce the tranformative learning experience I knew I wanted for my students .
My students loved the idea of trying something that very few other students were doing. Some of my students even benefited from watching and re-watching videos. Even so, we used it sparingly.
As I shifted my classroom from teacher-centred to student-centred, my students began to do lots of their their own research. Sometimes this resulted in them teaching each other. Sometimes they created a project with the knowledge they were acquiring. But the bottom line was that their learning had a purpose that was apparent to them, beyond simply passing the unit exam.
As this new way of learning played out over time, my students found they didn’t need me to locate or create videos for them. Instead, they learned how to learn, and they were able to find their own resources.
It took almost a year for me to notice it was gone. Instead, our classroom had become a place where students discovered and shared their own resources, while engaging in projects with each other. There was no need for me to assign video homework or create portable lectures. It all happened during class.
Lest anyone think we were able to do this because we learn in a high-tech school, that’s not the case. We weren’t a 1:1 classroom. We used whatever devices my students had, which often was a couple of iPads, a few computers, and student cell phones. There were students who didn’t have a device, so other students shared. We made it work and everyone learned.

1) I dislike the idea of giving my students homework.

2) A lecture by video is still a lecture.

3) I want my students to own their learning.

4) My students need to be able to find and critically evaluate their own resources.

I told my students we had 10 concepts to learn in 8 weeks. They could work at their own pace, with whatever resources they chose, but in the end, we all needed to be done in 8 weeks when the semester ended.
http://plpnetwork.com/2012/10/08/flip-love-affair/

The Google Cultural Institutue

Awesome materials presented in a very visual manner. The concept is to promote and preserve culture on line.

We have created this site to provide a visually rich and interactive online experience for telling cultural stories in new ways. Discover exhibits by expert curators, find artifacts, view photographs, read original manuscripts, watch videos, and more.

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

Make InfoGraphics

http://piktochart.com/

Web Spotlight:

 

What happens if there is a tie in the President Election?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sHEDXzOfENI#!

Common Core Resource

Smarter Balanced sample items illustrate the rigor and complexity of the English language arts/literacy and mathematics items and performance tasks students will encounter on the Consortium’s next-generation assessments.
http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks/

News:

While taking amphetamine-like drugs to improve academic performance is typically seen as a vice in richer children, Anderson considers it a virtue for poor kids, helping level the playing field. And there is little disagreement among child psychiatrists that lack of funding and resources means that giving drugs is often seen as the only option to help many children, even in cases where the evidence shows that talk therapies are not only safer but more effective.
http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/10/drugging-poor-kids-to-boost-grades-in-failing-schools-one-doc-says-yes/

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 2013 in Dearborn, 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, 2013
  • 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.