Jokes You Can Use:  

“The neurologist wanted to propose to his girl friend, but he just didn’t have the nerve.”

Just changed my Facebook name to ‘No one’, so when I see stupid posts I can click like and it will say ‘No one likes this’.

“Paratroopers pull strings to stay on the job.”

“I went to a budget restaurant to dine and when I returned there was a parking ticket stuck on the windshield. Well, that was fine dining!”

Did you hear about the Hindu yogi who was having a filling put in a tooth? When the dentist asked him if he wanted novocaine, the yogi said, “No. I can transcend dental medication.”

Advisory:

What a classroom looks like in 27 countries around the world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=UApQk25v8Ro

Give Advice

From research, students who face certain challenges do better if they give advice to others in that same situation. The key is to give advice, not get it.

https://qz.com/work/1363911/two-psychologists-have-a-surprising-theory-on-how-to-get-motivated/

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Earth: The Ultimate Recycler

I was recently reading the September, 2018 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  

In this issue, I read the section “From the Editor’s Desk” written by Patty McGinnis. She wrote an article entitled, “Earth: The Ultimate Recycler.” She quotes Wendell Berry – “The Earth is what we all have in common.”

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2018/9/30_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Earth-The_Ultimate_Recycler.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Two Guys👨‍🏫‏ @twoguysde 21h21 hours ago

Wait, You’re Not The Best? http://pedalogical.org/2018/09/22/wait-youre-not-the-best/ …

ted dintersmith‏ @dintersmith

A hoax that speaks volumes about the unquestioned weight placed on research by PhD’s and a complete,breakdown in fact-checking – a critical skill that need priority in school.

https://t.co/mbCCrG2Cu1  

Jenn Mackey‏ @JennMackey313

Cross curricular learning in 7th grade ELA today! Discussed allusions with the history of Rosie the Riveter and how the story’s theme connects to the engineering design process. #makingconnections #processvsproduct #rosierevere @OJ_Orioles

Jennifer Gonzalez‏ @cultofpedagogy

Icebreakers that Rock http://ow.ly/F2pY30m1LpV  #relationshipsmatter #buildrelationships #studenttalk #classroomclimate

Mickey McFetridge‏ @MickMack629

Hands down one of the best #edtech tools for students to use in your classroom! Check out this eBook for @Screencastify! Tips from @jmattmiller, @coolcatteacher, & @ericcurts https://www.screencastify.com/ebook/

Jason Lay‏ @jlay02

The world doesn’t need every student to be a “computer geek”, he said, and he encouraged young people to start “building things”. #Education doesn’t encourage creative thinking, says @Apple co-founder #edtech http://bit.ly/2O9KWSk  via @computerweekly https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252450046/Education-doesnt-encourage-creative-thinking-says-Apple-co-founder …

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”

Resources

TED-Ed Educator Talks Channel Teaser

The TED-Ed Educator Talks channel will be dedicated to celebrating and amplifying the ideas of teachers around the world. Thanks to support from Google, this space will feature Talks for educators by educators, digging deep into some of the newest and most groundbreaking ideas in education.

Subscribe now so that you’ll be ready for our official channel launch in the coming months!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yA4YiIWMOE

And the actual YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9k9wQAp0SrWYZVORZnPIlg/featured

Random.org

All kinds of random resources.

https://www.random.org/

Mybib

Update. Apparently, they were more popular than anticipated. The developers have taken it off line.

Random Thoughts . . .  

Personal Web Site

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Jokes You Can Use:  

I just found out I’m colorblind. The diagnosis came completely out of the dark grey.

If you don’t pay your exorcist, do you get repossessed?

Doctor said that I may have Tom Jones disease.

OMG, I said. Is that rare?

“It’s not unusual…”

I called my boss to see if I could come in a little late.

He said “Dream on”…

He’s so nice.

How do dog catchers get paid?

• By the pound

What is a vampire’s favorite fruit?

• Neck tarine.

Advisory:

How Did “OK” Become One of the Most Popular Words in the World?

Young Boston intellectuals in the early 1800s used a humorous code of abbreviated phrases, like “KC,” or “knuff ced”; “KY,” “know yuse”; and “OW,” “oll wright.” And while most of them eventually fell out of fashion, one abbreviation persisted: “OK,” or “oll korrect.”

OK started off as the LOL of its time. Then Martin Van Buren’s presidential campaign popularized it and its brevity proved useful for sending telegraph messages. You can read more about the history of the word in Allan Metcalf’s book, OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word.

7 Lessons Every Kid Should Learn in School (That Have Nothing to Do with Curriculum)

1. Scratch Your Itch
2. You are in the driver seat. So buckle up and drive.
3. You need to stop distracting yourself and start inspiring yourself.
4. Big thinking actually does work.
5. Motion creates motion…and it creates ideas.
6. You better start trying new things and challenging yourself ASAP!
7. Live for others, not yourself.

http://ajjuliani.com/7-lessons-every-kid-learn-school-nothing-curriculum/

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Illuminating Food Webs: A Maker Jigsaw

I was recently reading the August, 2018 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  

In this issue, I read the article “Illuminating Food Webs: A Maker Jigsaw” written by Shelly Rodriguez, Jason Harron, Patrick Benfield, and Miriam Reyes. The article brings “making” into the science classroom by providing students the opportunity to bring the curriculum to life by combining engineering and design practices with their own creativity.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2018/9/7_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Illuminating_Food_Webs.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Dr. Rogers‏ @LeslieRogersUWL

Looking forward to presenting at @AMLE 2018! This is an outstanding conference. So happy to join forces with the other awesome middle level teachers attending this event! #middlelevelteachersrock #AMLE2018

Beth Houf‏ @BethHouf

After another interesting day, was sure pumped to get these beauties in the mail! #fmsteach #leadlap #tlap

BIGGBY WEST MICHIGAN‏ @BiggbyWMI

Happy National Coffee Day! Get 50% OFF your favorite 16oz, 20oz or 24oz hot brewed coffee today!

EducationalAppAdvice‏ @edappadvice

The modern day retelling of Hansel and Gretel would be a very different story #DigitalNatives

Steven Weber‏ @curriculumblog

A5: You Need Committees, Task Force, Leadership Programs, and Feedback From Multiple Stakeholders #leadupchat

Common Sense Ed‏Verified account @CommonSenseEd

Let’s face it — some online spaces can be full of negative, rude, or downright mean behavior. But what counts as #cyberbullying? Help your Ss learn what is — and isn’t — and give them the tools they need to combat the problem. https://comsen.se/2xtaGP5  #DigCit #lessonplans

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”

Strategies:

Going Digital is About More than just Devices

• Technology should never isolate us.
• Unlocking Passions.
• Enable Collaboration.
• Talk Less and Listen More.
• “Care For” means more than “Care About.”

http://blog.web20classroom.org/2018/09/going-digital-is-about-more-than-just.html

Resources:

Toontastic

Free. No ads. No sign ins. Works off line.

With Toontastic 3D, you can draw, animate, and narrate swashbuckling adventures, breaking news stories, science reports, and all your other wacky ideas

https://toontastic.withgoogle.com

On line equation editor

Creates downloadable images (in many formats, gif, png, etc.) of equations. Also creates the embed codes that can be used. Uses LaTeX for math creation (which is the standard for doing such things). These embed codes include: HTML and WordPress coding.

https://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php

Picular

Like Google, but for colors.

https://picular.co

Web Spotlight:

Print Custom Sticky Notes with Google Slides

Includes a template for printing out custom sticky notes. There are some really great examples and ideas within the post.

https://learninginhand.com/blog/print-custom-sticky-notes-with-google-slides

Are Audiobooks as Good For You as Reading?

http://time.com/5388681/audiobooks-reading-books/

Random Thoughts . . .  

Moodle Moot US

I’m co-presenting! Chris Kenniburg and I will be presenting on Monday morning

https://moodlemoot.org/mootus/

For the record:  The Moodle Audio works on a Chromebook Tab 10 tablet.  In case you were wondering. 🙂

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Jokes You Can Use:  

Why are frogs always so happy?

• They eat whatever bugs them

What do you call an indecisive insect?

• A dust mite

Which punctuation mark would win a race?

• The dash

Why are circles so smart?

• They have 360 degrees

Advisory:

Puzzles

brain-teasers, riddles and optical illusions designed to give your brain a run for its money!

https://twentytwowords.com/iq-top-brain-twisting-puzzles/

12 Characters that didn’t make the cut

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31904/12-letters-didnt-make-alphabet

Harvard followed 800 people over the course of multiple decades and found 6 things that make people live longer, happier lives

https://www.businessinsider.com/things-that-make-people-live-longer-happier-lives-2018-8

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Parent-Teacher Relationships

I was recently reading the August, 2018 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Teacher to Teacher” article written by Susan German. She wrote an article entitled, “Forming Parent-Teacher Relationships Around Three-Dimensional Teaching.” The article is based on several conversations she had with teachers using three-dimensional instruction who are now struggling to garner parental support for the new way of teaching science.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2018/9/5_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Parent-Teacher_Relationships.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Amy Gwizdz‏ @Gwizzy

We are surrounded by teachers, leaders, parents, and even students who are playing the game of school. It’s been set up this way for years and it is hard to break decades of doing things “the way they always have been done” (even when we know it’s not best for kids).A.J. Juliani

Jennifer Fox, EdD‏ @JenniferFox13

Are you comfortable #blogging about your missteps in teaching? My preservice Ts are having a hard time realizing that a T sharing “disasters in the classroom” & what they learn is a good idea for growth. Can any1 help me out? #edtechchat #moedchat #tlap #edchat #2ndaryELA

Matt Miller‏ @jmattmiller

Your ripple effect as a teacher is far-reaching. Never forget your impact. #DitchBook #tlap #WednesdayWisdom #edchat

Kasey Bell‏ @ShakeUpLearning

When learning gets messy, teachers have to become facilitators of the messy. https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/be-a-facilitator-of-the-messy/ … #shakeuplearning #edtech #edchat #shakeuplearning #edtech

Tony Vincent‏ @tonyvincent

Students can ask Siri (instead of relying on a teacher) to spell words. Google Assistant and Alexa will also spell words.

Ditch That Textbook‏ @DitchThatTxtbk

10 low-prep, HIGH-return activities for class tomorrow!   Virtual field trips Caption this Collaborative slides Brain dump @Quizlet live 5 clue challenge Class podcast EduProtocols Graphic Organizers Templates https://wp.me/p3bT67-1SM  #DitchBook #edtech

ASCD‏Verified account @ASCD

Build positive teacher-student relationships this year. @rickwormeli2 https://bit.ly/2M81gNw

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”

Resources:

VoicePod

Place some text into the text box and this site will read it for you. Could be useful for students to have their writing read out loud to them. Could be useful for EL students. Could be useful for Special Ed students.

• Resulting files can be downloaded.

https://www.voicepods.com/

BookMark It

Allows you to “Bookmark” YouTube Videos. You create a bookmark (CTRL | B), add a comment. Then you click on the BookMark It extension to jump to that bookmark in the video.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bookmark-it/adhfhfpebeloakommdgicanmhfbeifnb/related

New Teacher Resources for a New School Year from the Library of Congress

https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2018/09/new-teacher-resources-for-a-new-school-year-from-the-library-of-congress/

Web Spotlight:

Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences (2018)

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/social-media-social-life-2018

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/2018_cs_socialmediasociallife_fullreport-final-release_2_lowres.pdf

Lawnmower Parents Are the New Helicopter Parents & We Are Not Here for It

https://www.weareteachers.com/lawnmower-parents/

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Jokes You Can Use:  

Went to the ATM the other day and there’s guy standing there on leg.  After a bit, I asked him if he’s ok, what’s he doing? He says, “Oh, I’m ok.  Just checking my balance.”

What did the musician name his three daughters?

• Anna 1
• Anna 2
• Anna 3

People said I’d never get over my obsession with Phil Collins, but Against All Odds, Take Look at Me Now, Mama.

My office has croissants once a week. Just one of our French benefits.

Why was there music coming from the printer?

• It was jamming.

Imagine if America switched from pounds to kilograms overnight.

• There would be mass confusion.

It would be impossible to negotiate with Rick Astley in a hostage situation.

Eileen Award:  

• Mail:  Jeff Rodman, Executive Director of the New England League of Middle Schools

Advisory:

Happy Children Do Chores

One small longitudinal study, done over a period of 25 years, found that the best predictor for young adults’ success in their mid-20s was whether they participated in household tasks at age 3 or 4.

Children who help more at home feel a larger sense of obligation and connectedness to their parents, and that connection helps them weather life’s stressful moments — in other words, it helps them be happier.

…parents did most of the housework and intervened quickly when the kids had trouble completing a task.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/opinion/sunday/children-chores-parenting.html#annotations:7e8bzKWWEeiiI__YyRAB8g

Red Solo Cup Challenge

This is a great beginning of the year/end of the year cooperative challenge. Students needed to work together using a rubber band and string to lift cups and put them into formations.  

http://michellekrzmarzick.blogspot.com/2014/06/red-solo-cup-challenge_18.html#annotations:MI7YNKL8Eeid8T_p9xo2Jw

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Reinventing STEM

I was recently reading the August, 2018 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  

In this issue, I read the section “From the Editor’s Desk” written by Patty McGinnis. She wrote an article entitled, “Reinventing STEM Through the Maker Movement.” Through the article she hopes that she will inspire you to grown your students’ maker attitude by incorporating the maker movement into your classroom.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2018/8/22_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Rinventing_STEM.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Jennifer Gonzalez‏ @cultofpedagogy

12 Ways Teachers Can Build their Own Resilience Interview with @artofcoaching1 http://ow.ly/UTTW30lsu5A  #teachers #mindfulness #youmatter #ntchat #buildrelationships #edchat

Classroom 2.0 LIVE!‏ @liveclass20

Come celebrate with us! If you’ve been a presenter or a participant in any of our #liveclass20 shows over the past 9+ years it would mean a lot to our Classroom 2.0 LIVE team to have you share a memory on the mic TODAY! 12pmET Details & login link: http://live.classroom20.com

Dan McCabe‏ @danieldmccabe

You don’t get grades for resiliency, curiosity, agility, resourcefulness, pattern recognition, tenacity. You just get successful. #satchat

Karly Moura‏ @KarlyMoura

It’s FINALLY HERE The Educator’s Guide to Flipgrid FREE eBook Version 3.0 Supercharged with TONS of resources to spark awesome ideas and help you blast off with the NEWEST @Flipgrid features http://bit.ly/flipgridebook3  @SEANJFAHEY #FlipgridFever

Alice Keeler‏ @alicekeeler

Feedback with Bitmoji! Drag from the Chrome extension onto student slides. #googleEDU #googleSlides

Chris Weber, Ed.D.‏ @WeberEducation

Why Are We Still Personalizing Learning If It’s Not Personal? https://buff.ly/2tO4qQ9  @SolutionTree @MrElmerLLC #BoldSchool #divergED

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.  And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!”

Strategies:

Emailing Your Teacher

With Captain Communicator. *Not only is this useful, but could be a challenge for students to create videos as well.

http://nextvista.org/v/6993/

Or a more serious version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgMvrcgYeGY

Random Groups

This is about randomly grouping students every day. Cards are presented for FREE. This could also be done with playing cards, with pick-sticks, Random Team Generator, in Google Sheets

http://mrorr-isageek.com/random-grouping-cards-for-math-class/

Resources:

Classroom 2.0 LIVE Webinar Series

Today is the last Classroom 2.0 LIVE Webinar.  Although they will be discontinuing the weekly show, the Livebinders and other resources will remain available at their website.  You can visit past recorded sessions and replay them to your heart’s content. You can also continue to catch them archived on iTunes.  

Website:  http://www.classroom20.com/  

Classroom 2.0 Live Show:  http://live.classroom20.com/  

New England League of Middle Schools – Jeff Rodman, Ex. Dir.

A great way to get resources for your classroom is to attend conferences.  The NELMS conference has a great reputation for excellent conference sessions and a great place to learn from other middle school teachers.  The conference is March 21 & 22 in Providence, RI (at the convention center). There is also time to be a conference sponsor! Contact NELMS to get more information on how you can connect with New England’s premier regional middle level association.  NELMS: http://www.nelms.org/  Annual Conference Info:  http://www.nelms.org/pages/conferences/annual/annual.html  

RapidWeaver 8 Released!  (And 3 patches)

For those of us who use it to build websites for our students, there’s an update.  And 3 patches in the past week or so. Check it out here: https://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/  (by way of example:  www.mrmcgirr.com)  

MyBib

You can cite websites, books, journals, and over 35 other sources.

• Generate bibliographies and citations quickly and accurately
• 100% free, even the premium features
• No ads, privacy trackers, time limits, or restrictions

MyBib is a free bibliography and citation generator that makes accurate citations for you to copy straight into your academic assignments and papers.

There are tools that already do this, but they’ve stagnated, become infested with ads, and charge you for features that should be free (especially for students). We want to fix this.

If you’re a student, academic, or teacher, and you’re tired of the poor bibliography and citation tools out there, then you’re gonna love MyBib. MyBib’s auto-citer is the best and most accurate one out there, so you can create accurate citations automatically for books, journals, websites, and videos just by searching for a title or identifier (like a URL or ISBN).

Plus, we’re using the same citation formatting engine as professional-grade reference managers like Zotero and Mendeley, so you can be sure our bibliographies are perfectly accurate in over 9,000 styles — including APA, Chicago, MLA 7 & 8, and Harvard.

We listen to our users (that’s you!), and everything we’re building is being open sourced. This means that everyone has access to the MyBib code, and permission to use it to build whatever they want. We don’t show ads, and don’t block all the best features unless you pay a monthly subscription. MyBib is student-friendly, and the tool we wish existed.

MyBib is worked on by volunteers, and server costs are being covered by donations. There are no VCs, investors, or other toxic stakeholders here. We currently have enough donations to run until: October 2022, and just $30 can keep us going for another month. Wanna donate? Get in touch!

https://www.mybib.com/

Richard Byrne did a video on using MyBib

Web Spotlight:

Calling Bull

*NOT FOR STUDENTS. This is a college class on Calling Bull$#!^.

https://callingbull.org/

Random Thoughts . . .  

Personal Web Site

We’d never do this, but . . .

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!