MSM-127 Back Channel and Boy Crisis

/ , , /

Jokes:

Serious Questions
A police recruit was asked during the exam, “What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?” He said: “Call for backup.”

Great News
While eating in an expensive restaurant, a patron overheard the gentleman at the next table ask the waitress to pack the leftovers for their dog. It was then that his young son exclaimed loudly, “Whoopee! We’re going to get a dog.”

Lord Send Me A Hundred
A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to the Lord, USA, they decided to send it to the President. The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill, as this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00, and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord. It said: Dear Lord, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington, DC and as usual, those jerks deducted $95.

On Our Mind:

ISTE 2010 and Back Channels . . .
What do you get when you mash up a former VP of the World Bank, a PowerPoint, and a bunch of tech savvy educators?

Conference Survival Gear
Maxpedition Mongo Bag
Soundpaper

Listeners:

Teachers in Illinois use iPod Touch to customize lessons
One Illinois school district will have teachers and students using iPod Touch devices in classrooms this fall. District staff received 15 hours of training on using the devices for individualizing lessons and helping students improve reading fluency by listening to their recorded voices reading aloud. “This is the way students are wired to learn, and we are looking at every method to make learning more engaging and stimulating for our students and teaching more exciting for our staff,” the district’s superintendent said.
David Bydlowski
Science Consultant

Hey Guys — I still need to respond to your response to my response to the UDL article!  I came a cross this link today – and thought you might be interested —http://atcubed.blogspot.com/2010/06/thinking-about-relationships.html — it does go with the UDL topic.

later – jen

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Xtranormal:  Go Play!  Report back here what you learned.  We’ll talk about it on the show.

Tech Tools:

WordPress Now Lets You Phone in Your Blog Posts

You can already write and publish WordPress blog posts from your iPhone, iPad, Android, e-mail and desktop, but now you can also post audio via your phone.

http://mashable.com/2010/07/01/wordpress-phone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

Aviary in Education:
A safe, private environment to use Aviary tools with your students

  • Create private student accounts
  • Manage assignments and projects
  • Use the image editor, vector editor, audio editor & music creator
  • All content and images are 100% school safe

http://www.aviaryeducation.com/

Webspotlight:

Putting the “Boy Crisis” in Context

Finding solutions to boys’ reading problems may require looking beyond gender
By MICHAEL SADOWSKI
“The Boys Have Fallen Behind.” “Girls Lead the Nation in Reading Scores.” “Are Teachers Failing Our Sons?”

http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/473

Word Games

http://www.wordgames.com/

Google Apps Education Training Center

Welcome to the Google Apps Education Training Center. This is an online learning environment dedicated for educators and students to learn how to effectively use Google Apps in an educational context.
Access to a Google Apps Education account is strongly recommended so that you can experiment and apply what you learn.
http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home

Shout out:

Thanks to InFocus for the shout out on Twitter and for the USB drive at the conference!  (Me, getting an USB drive.)

News:

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE 2010)

10 Leadership Components of Effective Technology Leadership
Observation:  This session is filled with folks.  Standing room only.  10 mins. to go to presentation too!
“Very quick and inappropriate” video. Old lady sets off airbag.  Patience is not only a virtue, it’s a money saver.  Here’s the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I11k-OUXaAw

Sponsor info:  Skoodat.com
Presenter:  Chris O’Neal

“Storm the stage” – Alternate title.
His website:  Chris.wikispace.com and this presentation’s site:  http://leaders.wikispaces.com/
T to (?)
Equity of access.
This should include access at home.
We should have this between 8 & 3:30
We should not use tech as a reward but as a tool.
Our problem is not enough tech to use in the classroom.
Understanding and Using Data.
Rigor and relevance.
Effective Professional Development.
Think individual schools and individual grades.
Walk the walk, talk the talk.
We have to model the tech we want people to use.
Vision: collaborative and authentic:  http://tiny url.com/istelead
Using a google survey/form in a faculty meeting.
Vision.
Write down what your technology vision is for your school/district/students.
Have the staff write down what their technology vision for your school/district/students.
Throw it into wordle and see what commonalities pop up and what differences you need to address.
Reward growth.
Look for the ASCD survey on rewards.
Reward those who push themselves outside of their comfort zones.
Genuine Reflection
NSD says that reflection is critical to integrating PD.
Student-driven technology
Get student managers
PLN.  You need one.  Your teachers need one.

NETS-A:  National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators
1. Visionary Leadership
2. Digital Age Learning Culture
3. Excellence in Professional Practice
4. Systemic Improvement
5. Digital Citizenship

Presenter’s website and local for presentation notes:  Chris.wikispaces.com
Fellow attendee’s blog about the session:  http://edtechworkshop.blogspot.com/

By the way, if he goes up to you and gives you a smiley-face sticker . . .

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.
    • ISTE 2010 June 27-30, 2010 (Formerly NECC) in Denver, Colorado.
        • Experience a virtual learning experience sim as the ISTE folks take you on an authentic silver mine tour.  Meet at the Denver Convention Lobby.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 16 – 18, 2011.
  • 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

On Common Core Standards

/ /

There seems to be a bit of push back regarding the Common Core Standards. Many seem to be disappointed at President Obama’s continuation and extension of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind. Make no mistake, we are headed toward a national test. Interesting when other nations are realizing the strength of the American system.Read Yong Zhao’s “Catching Up…Or Leading the Way” for a different perspective on national testing. Anyway, a letter by Cindy Lutenbacher, Professor at Morehouse is currently making the rounds. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here:

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/core-standards-more-drill-553702.html

She makes  a variety of good points. Among those points:

  • Look at who benefits.
  • Look at who developed the test (follow the money).
  • What do the people who are developing these tests know about educating children?
  • Which research is being followed and why?
  • Which research is being ignored and why?

All in all, it is a thoughtful article that should be debated.

MSM-126 Title: China Test and Creativity KIPP Shoots, KIPP Scores, KIPP Kicks Kids Off of the Island!

/ , , /

Jokes:

Waiters
A man walks into a restaurant and is shown to his seat by the hostess. The waiter approaches and asks, “Would you like to try our house special? The man replies, “No, just bring me a steak, and make it lean”. The waiter, somewhat puzzled, looks at him and replies, “which way?”

Important Tasks
A doctor got a phone call from one of his colleagues. “We need a fourth for poker,” the voice on the phone said. “I’ll be right over,” replied the doctor. As he was putting on his overcoat, his wife asked, “Is it serious?” “Oh yes, quite serious,” he said gravely. “They’ve had to call in three other doctors as well.”

On Our Mind:

Catching Up or Leading the Way
Yong Zhao

Listeners:

Comment:
Thank you for keeping us updated. I incredibly enjoy it and discover all the information really useful.
Krav Maga

Hi guys,
I am at the Technology Integration and Instruction for the 21st Century Learner conference in Storm Lake, Iowa at Buena Vista University.  I listen to your podcasts (and have given you the 4 stars on i-Tunes).  Love the links, discussion and your thoughts.  It gives me time to reflect, something we do not do enough of.  I do have a suggestion, and this is on the technical side of the the podcast production.  Please moderate the theme music, it is so loud that it drowns out the voice and is much louder than the volume of the spoken word.  I have to quick reach for the volume on my i-pod, or computer so it does not wake my daughter or wife in the next rooms as I listen to you late at night when everyone is in bed.  I know through using garage band that the volumes can be adjusted.  It is way worse than the increase in volume of commercials on TV.
Thanks again for your great work,

Craig Cadman
Middle School Science

From ASCD:
Middle-school students create podcasts as part of place-based learning
Middle-school students at an Oregon charter school created podcasts as part of their study of a local streetcar line that used to operate near their school. Educators say the streetcar project and the podcasts are a form of place-based learning, which includes studying the history of neighborhoods, communities and buildings under the umbrella of environmental education. The student recordings are posted on the website of the regional transportation planning agency, which is considering reviving the original line.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/06/southwest_charter_school_stude.html

David Bydlowski

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Remember that origami stuff we talked about before?  Here’s a website that illustrates it:  http://www.en.origami-club.com/others/index.html

Tech Tools:

Doodle – Collaborative Scheduling

http://doodle.com/

DabbleBoard –

Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that’s centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that’s actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw. Finally the whiteboard enters the digital age!
http://dabbleboard.com/

Free Web Pages
http://pageeasy.com/

Webspotlight:

Interesting world view:
http://timemaps.com/history/

Top 100 technology blogs for teachers

Posted on Jun. 17th 2010 6:23 PM by alexis

(This article is a continuation and combination of two previous lists: “The Top 25 eLearning Blogs,” and “The Top 20 Teacher Blogs“)


http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers/

News:

Report finds KIPP students outscore public school peers

The study, which KIPP commissioned, comes as the Obama administration is promoting the spread of strong charter schools as a strategy to improve urban education. 
Skeptics say that the program benefits from highly motivated parents seeking alternatives to ineffective public schools and that KIPP often winnows out students who don’t fit its program. 
Read more… 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062200009.html

Prince George’s bans student cellphone use during school day

There is an epidemic of under-the-desk text messages during class, a virtual economy of exam pictures posted to Facebook, a trade in school fight videos on YouTube, they say. To combat it, the county school board voted Thursday to ban cellphones and other electronics during the school day, even as many school systems across the country are loosening their rules.

Nor will students be allowed to post photos and videos shot on school property on the Web, which would include such sites as Facebook and YouTube.

“We know for a fact that the use of cellphones on school property around this country has led to a number of problems around safety,” said Board of Education Chairman Verjeana M. Jacobs (At Large), citing issues of explicit text messages and videos of fights posted online — one case of which happened just last week at Bowie High School.

Read more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061804420.html?wprss=rss_education


Carpe Data: In Defense of Common Standards

By H. Ogden Morse III

For me, the epiphany came on a Tuesday in September two years ago. I was sitting around a small conference table with our assistant superintendent, principal, and English chair, as we tried to determine whether we should be concerned about the reading and writing capabilities of some of the students in our senior class. Before us, across paper and laptop screen, were various pieces of data—an SAT score here, some classroom grades there—intended to aid us in making this determination.

Only they weren’t. Instead, I grew increasingly perplexed as I realized that the four experienced educators sitting around that table were engaged in a comparison of apples and oranges that was proving, well, fruitless.

Read more…
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/25/36morse.h29.html?tkn=RVSFiEEZ47gbiUHMUSM5DK9Da1ygfd6HtbYj&cmp=clp-edweek

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.
    • ISTE 2010 June 27-30, 2010 (Formerly NECC) in Denver, Colorado. 
      • June 19:  ISTE Denver Metaverse Meeting 4:00 – 5:00 in Second Life ISTE Island
        • Experience a virtual learning experience sim as the ISTE folks take you on an authentic silver mine tour.  Meet at the Denver Convention Lobby. 
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 16 – 18, 2011.
  • 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


Classroom 2.0/EduBloggerCon Coming Up This Weekend!

/ /

If you’ve got some free time this weekend, head over to Classroom 2.0 and check out EduBloggerCon which precedes ISTE 2010. Someone will be streaming it over Ustream and you should be able to get in with a Twitter Account to participate. Here’s the email that came out:

EduBloggerCon, the all-day Saturday unconference for social media in education, this Saturday, June 26th, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. You do not need to be registered for ISTE conference to come. The session brainstorm page is also up now, as well as the basic agenda.
OpenSourceCon: same day, same idea, just the first time ever for Open Source Software. We know we have a cadre of strong support for this event, and OpenSourceCon is replacing the annual K12 Open Minds conference, but we’re not sure how many will actually be able to attend (some of our Open Source friends just don’t have travel budgets right now). If the group turns out to be smaller, we’ll combine with EduBloggerCon (which several people have hoped we would do anyway).
Our recently announced Global Education Conference will have a “booth” (table?) at the Global Collaboration Session Sunday night from 7:00 – 8:30pm in the Convention Center Lobby A, table #P19.
Bloggers’ Cafe: the physical location is now listed on the ISTE website as “in the main concourse overlooking the Korbel Ballroom.” Stop by for the best conversation of the show, and–since we do have a computer with webcam and microphone that will be keeping a streaming connection open with those watching from afar–be sure to say hello the remote viewers!
About half of the ISTE Unplugged session slots are now filled, and by the end of EduBloggerCon the rest should be taken. If you’re going to be at ISTE and you’ve never presented, or if for some reason your presentation(s) this year wasn’t (weren’t) accepted, come present at ISTE Unplugged! The final location has not been indicated, but it should be very close to the Blogger’s Cafe. The wiki also has and can hold information about other streaming or nighttime activities, so feel free to use it for that purpose.
Speaking of which, two Tuesday activities are on the ISTE Unplugged wiki: the Wikispaces and Edmodo parties. If you plan well, you can attend both! Adam Frey and the gang at Wikispaces have been terrific supporters of Classroom 2.0, and while I don’t have a lot of details on the Edmodo party (and I’m sure it will be great), don’t miss partying it up with Wikispaces–and note that you are asked to sign up in advance so that they can plan!
The Classroom 2.0 Birds-of-a-Feather meeting is Tuesday from 4:45-6:15pm. No new news, but a great place to gather.
The Classroom 2.0 LIVE! ladies will broadcast their show live from the Blogger’s Cafe / ISTE Unplugged area on Wednesday from 1:30pm – 2:30pm. Come participate if you are there, or tune in remotely at http://live.classroom20.com.
Ways to participate remotely if you can’t attend ISTE in person. OK, so you can’t be in Denver this coming week, but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about you or that you can’t participate. Here’s your quick list of what to you can do!
Look for us to list the annual “Speed Demo” or “Smackdown” session at Saturday’s EduBloggerCon on the wiki at http://www.edubloggercon.com/EduBloggerCon+2010. While it would be impossible to broadcast the discussion sessions, we will stream and record (via Elluminate) this fast-paced, fun, Web 2.0-filled set of demos that typically fills an hour. Always a blast!
Tune into the Blogger’s Cafe Webstation and say hi to different folks. We’ll be encouraging those that you know, and those that you don’t yet, to come to the station and give you a shout-out–and maybe even answer some questions. Have your webcam ready if you’ve got one, and if you don’t, come anyway! The Elluminate room will sometime after 8:30am (Mountain Time) on Monday and stay live through Wednesday afternoon. The link will be at ISTE Unplugged, or you can log in directly here.
Tune into ISTE Unplugged! ISTE Unplugged both gives presenters a chance to present material that they otherwise would not be able to, and give remote viewers constant content to watch from afar. Check it out!
Listen to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show on Wednesday afternoon from 1:30-2:30pm. Tune in directly from ISTE Unplugged or from http://live.classroom20.com.

MSM-125 Twitter is our friend.

/ , , /

Jokes:

Obedience
A father of five won a large stuffed animal in a raffle. All the way home he agonized about which child should receive the toy. When he arrived, he called the kids together. “I have decided this gift should go to the most deserving,” he said. “Who is the most obedient?” he asked. “Who never talks back to mommy? Who does everything she says?” Five small voices cried in unison. “You do, Daddy!”

Helping the Town
A seedy-looking man was sitting in the first row heckling the mayor as he delivered a lengthy speech. Finally the mayor pointed to the heckler and said, “Will that gentleman who differs with me please stand up and tell the audience what he has ever done for the good of the city?” “Well, Mr. Mayor,” the man said in a firm voice. “I voted against you in the last election.”

IRS
One day at the local all you can eat buffet, a man suddenly called out, “My son’s choking! He swallowed a quarter! Help! Please, anyone! Help!” A man from a nearby table quikly stood up and announced that he was quite experienced at this sort of thing. He stepped over they boy with almost no look of concern at all, wrapped his hands around the boy, and squeezed. Out popped the quarter. The man then went back to his table as though nothing had happened. “Thank you! Thank you!” the father cried. “Are you a paramedic?” “No,” replied the man. “I work for the IRS.”

Pregnancy Questions
The room was full of pregnant women and their partners, and the Lamaze class was in full swing. The instructor was teaching the women how to breathe properly, along with informing the men how to give the necessary assurances at this stage of the plan. The teacher then announced, “Ladies, exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial. And, gentlemen, it wouldn’t hurt you to take the time to go walking with your partner!” The room really got quiet. Finally, a man in the middle of the group raised his hand. “Yes?” replied the teacher. “Is it okay if she carries a golf bag while we walk?”

On Our Mind:

The “Reply All” button

The Michigan Joint Education Conference:  www.mijec.org
Troy presents at the 8:00 and 10:00 sessions.  You’ve got to be there!

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Listeners:

Hey guys,

Hope you are enjoying your summer.  We still have another full week of school.

Ran across this the other day and thought you might be interested:

http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/

It is a free product from Microsoft.  Since most students learn how to use powerpoint in computer class, this would be a fun tool for student presentations.

Robert

PS  Still not on Twitter.

—
Robert Jackson
Kyiv, Ukraine

Model Schools Conference, Orlando
HUGE thanks to Dr. John Harrison for recommending Middle School Matters to his session attenders at the Model Schools Conference in Orlando, Florida this week.  We really appreciate the recommendation, though it cost us the last of our business cards.

Tech Tools:

Teen Chat Decoder

http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/

Create Short Animations at Fuzzwich

http://www.fuzzwich.com/

Free Quizzes that you can play right in your browser!

Welcome to Quiz-Tree.com! Who said that learning has to be boring? Everybody learns better when they are having fun! Here at Quiz-Tree.com you will find educational games and quizzes on many subjects, including Math, Reading, Spanish, Geography, SAT, Spelling, Music and more. All activities come with animated interface, fun sounds and other cool features that make learning more enjoyable.

To find an activity, start by clicking on the general subject that you are interested in.
http://www.quiz-tree.com/index.html

Webspotlight:

Your Next Read

http://www.yournextread.com/us/

Forbes Map

Interactive Feature Map: Where Americans Are Moving Jon Bruner
More than 10 million Americans moved from one county to another during 2008. The map below visualizes those moves. Click on any county to see comings and goings: black lines indicate net inward movement, red lines net outward movement.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html

Understanding Genetics

http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/ugenetics/

Are Good Teachers Always Good, No Matter Where They Go?

The more we fixate on the “good teacher,” the less we seem to concern ourselves with good teaching.
But the story also drove home how seldom we hear about the conditions that foster good teaching. Most news stories on ed reform leave the impression that a good teacher is a good teacher is a good teacher, no matter where he teaches, no matter what challenges he faces, no matter how toxic the climate in his school is. Good teachers, it seems, are widgets to be deployed to all manner of schools, where they’ll climb every mountain and ford every stream.
http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/are-good-teachers-always-good-no-matter-where-they-go?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LFA+%28Public+School+Insights%3A+What+is+WORKING+in+our+Public+Schools%29

News:

Prince William middle school to try single-sex classes

Fred M. Lynn Middle School will run a pilot program during the coming school year that will have single-sex classrooms for core academic classes for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. Lunch and elective courses will be coed. Coleman, who launched a similar program when she taught in another school system, pitched the idea to school administrators this month and sent a letter to parents June 11 describing the pilot program. Applications to be in the single-sex classes are due Friday, but Coleman said that if 150 students aren’t signed up by then, the deadline will be extended.
A staple at many private schools, single-sex classrooms are making their way onto public campuses — more than 500 U.S. public schools, including Woodbridge Middle, offer single-sex education opportunities, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061505183.html

Old Mill Elementary teachers building centers of learning

Literacy effort to intensify next school year
“Literacy centers have really become best practice for teaching reading skills, and we want our teachers to be able to become more purposeful and comfortable using them,” Vachon said.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100616/ZONE10/6160309/1060/NEWS0105/Old+Mill+Elementary+teachers+building+centers+of+learning

Educators, students can benefit from technology training

By Michael Hildebrandt
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/06/17/educators-students-can-benefit-from-technology-training/

Middle Schools Conference Notes

Ironies:
1.  You’re expected to use technology, just don’t plug it it.
2.  You’re expected to use technology, but there’s no internet access point where the sessions take place.
3.  You’re expected to tweet and facebook the conference, but not where the sessions take place.
4.  All presentations are on the website.  Presenters then fly through the slides not letting you read the info on the screen because . . . it’s on the website . . . you can’t access.

Boston Globe example.

Teachers need to be the objects of change.
Stop waiting for the cure, Educators are the cure!!
Educators should be the agents of change.
In order to get better, we need to be different.
So what is stopping us?
Themes
The challenge we face
Best Practices, Next Practices and innovation
Empowerment
Closing thoughts
FUN.
YOU WILL PARTICIPATE
TEXT.
What got us to where we are today in education is not what will get us to the future.
In many cases, our efforts to transform education look much like the original system.
Shreddies Video
Add value without changing the value.
TED Conference Video.  LOL!
Why is it so hard to change?
The more successful a system is, the more difficult it is to recognize when it must change. By example, market leaders are the last ones to transform.
The American Education System, “The market leader during the industrial era.”
Dominant logic.  “That’s the way we do things here.”
We need to stop looking at threats and opportunities that we face through our dominant logic!
In the years ahead the “forgetting curve” may be more important than the learning curve!
(the most adaptable)
Have we adapted?

Mental Lock
We don’t need to be cretive for most of what we do (driving, shopping, business of living).  So staying on routine thought paths enables us to do many things without having to think about it.
The Right Answer.
The Second Right Answer
Not:  What is the answer?
What are the answers?
Not:  What is the meaning of this?
What are the meanings of this?
Not:  What is the result?
What are the results?

Activity:
Soft Hard
Metaphor                     logic
Fantasy                       Direct
Dream                        Focused
Hunch                         Parody
Child                           Adult
Generalization              Work
Appropriate

Answers
metaphor                     Logic
Dream                         reason
Humor                         precision
anbiguity                         …

shades of gray             black and wihte
hard to pick up             easy to pick up
many answers              right answer

What is the connection between these two words:  cat – refrigerator
They purr
They have tails
Excuses we use in education.
That’s not logical  (side)
Follow the rules
The rules keep you doing what you’re doing in the current system.
Be Practical

Theme:  Best Practices, Next Practices and Innovation.
“I don’t want non-education people telling us what to do.”
AYP line
Get to the line by Researched Based Successful Practices.
“Tight-Tight” environment
Critical point when you get to the AYP line.
Remain Tight-Tight
Will not get you any higher and eventually will decline.
Go Tight-Loose
When you institute this environment there will be an implementation dip and then you will go up and get to a critical point.
Best practices allow you to do what you are currently doing a little better, while next practices increase your organization’s capability to do things that it has never done before.
Best Practices
Researched Based
Imitation
Copy
Replication
Successful Practices Network
Read 180
I Can Learn
Learning Together

Best practices allow you to do what your are currently doing a little better, while next practices incrust your organization’s capability to do things that it has never done before.

College and career readiness Defined
Cognitive strategies
Content knowledge
Academic behaviors
Contextual skills and knowledge.
Next practices
Penn Foster
Princeton Review
Expert Space
Expert 21

Expertise can sometimes be a roadblock to aproblem solving and the development of Next Practices.  Experts see their points as critical to resolution, wihtout sometimes valuing the thinking of others.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Shumyu Suzuki

System (round circle)
Great idea:  (Triangle)
Fit the triangle into the round circle.
Edges overlap
This is sustaining Innovation
The pieces that were cut off because they aren’t in the circle are “Next Practices”
Make the circle an oval and include the corners of the traingel and that’s “Disruptive Innovation”
Video clip:  The Marshmallow Challenge.  TED Video
18 mintues
Who consistently performs poorly?
Business school
Who does well?
Kindergarteners.
Why?
Kindergarteners build prototypes.
They get consistent feedback.
They learn from FAILURE.

Next Practice Thinking
The Iterative Process
We need the freedom to fail and to retry ideas.
People need empowerment.
Sustainability is about the relationship between people . . .
“Well.  I would have exhibited more leadership if someone would have told me.
Successful lleadership . . .  lost it.
Four quadrants of leadership
A:  Authoritative
B:  Collaborative Leadership
C.  Visionary Leadership
D.  (Moved too fast . . . “it’s on the website.”)
Quadrant D Leadership cannot be implemented unless people are empowered to act.  Developing teacher’s and students’ capacities to lead is clearly important.
Empowerment is a soft word, can you measure it?
Why good spreadsheets make bad strategies.
We live in a world obsessed with science, predictability and control.  If we can’t measure it, it doesn’t count.
PollEverywhere used to find out what audience thinks.
We must consider the possibility that if we can’t measure something, it might be the very most important thing!
www.eharmony.com
Culture Trumps Strategy
What does empowerment look like?
Talking with kids …
What makes a teacher worth going to and what makes a teacher worth listening to?
It’s not us against them!
(Title of his book by the way …)
Empowering the students:  Day of Pink:  A day to stand against bullying, harrassment, and discrimination.
Kids chose to tie it to curriculum by doing “Quick Writes.”
Question:  Do you feel like you’ve been bullied or has there been a time where you’ve been pressured by a bully?  Then held an assembly where the kids were the speaker.
CULTURE TRUMPS STRATEGY
Versions
Create a disciplined , managed space for deelopment of new way to accomplish difficult tasks.

Theme:  Closing Remarks
The system is not to blame, we are, for not adapting it to our ever changing world.
Two ways to move your system.
1.  Find a system that starts with the What, How and then the Why.
What:  We educate all the children
How We have the best.  (tech, teachers . . )
Why:  OUr children deserve the best.
Highly effective starts with the:
Why:  OUr children’s future success rests on their ability to apply what they know against what they don’t know.
How: Engaging our children . . .
What:  lost it.
I can’t imagine anything worse than looking back at the oppportunity before us in education and thinking we blew it!

Connecting Successful Practices to Next Practices and the Role of Empowerment.

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.
    • ISTE 2010 June 27-30, 2010 (Formerly NECC) in Denver, Colorado.

      • June 19:  ISTE Denver Metaverse Meeting 4:00 – 5:00 in Second Life ISTE Island
        • Experience a virtual learning experience sim as the ISTE folks take you on an authentic silver mine tour.  Meet at the Denver Convention Lobby.
  • The Michigan Joint Education Conference will be at Thurston High School in Redford, MI this June 23, 2010.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 16 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:

MSM 124- Summer Blues? We’re still talking.

/ , , /

Jokes:

“In making a sermon, think up a good beginning, then think up a good ending and finally bring these two as close together as you possibly can.”
– Frederick Temple

Graduation Day:
It’s graduation day, and everybody’s going to get their diploma but Josh. At the assembly, the entire senior class stands up and shouts “Let Josh graduate, let Josh graduate!”

The principal agrees to give Josh one last chance. “If I have five apples in my right hand and five in my left hand, Josh, how many apples do I have?” he asked.

Josh thought long and hard and then said: “Ten.”

And the entire senior class stood up and shouted, “Give Josh another chance. Give Josh another chance!”

New Principal:
A new school principal was checking over his school the day before the first school class day. Passing the stockroom, he was startled to see the door wide open and teachers bustling in and out, carrying off books and supplies in preparation for the arrival of students the next day.

The school where he had been a principal the previous year had used a check-out system only slightly less elaborate than that at Fort Knox.

Cautiously, he asked the school’s long time custodian, “Do you think it’s wise to keep the stockroom unlocked and to let the teachers take things without requisitions?”

The custodian looked at him gravely and said, “We trust them with the children, don’t we?”

On Our Mind:

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Send us your Advisory ideas!  What worked well for you?  What do you want to try next year?  Send us an email at middleschooleducators@gmail.com.

Listeners:

Response to  podcast #123 – UDL article

The points that were made in the Lisa’s Lingo Blog  were right on.  One in particular struck me however,  “UDL means providing all students what they need to be successful.”  Later in the post – it went on to say “Once we wrap our heads around the idea that we, as educators, are responsible for helping every child meet with success, then we begin to examine reasons why some children aren’t.”  This makes it a student centered classroom — where students are the focus  instead of a subject.  (What do you teach, content or students?)

In the very core of my personal and professional being my guiding principle is that students would if they could, so why aren’t they and what can be done so that they can.  In the MSM #123 podcast Troy voiced a concern regarding student responsibility for learning in just such a situation.  My question is, who is responsible when a student is unable to access the curriculum?  Far too often, as the Lisa’s Lingo Blog  post states – “We say all children should be successful but maybe we really mean all children who are engaged and work hard should be successful.”  Far too often the teacher centered perspective assigns a reason behind a student action or behavior  and  – places – not responsibility – but blame — on the student for lack of engagement (in its many forms), lack of work submittal, and failing test scores.  It has been my experience, in my 14 years as a secondary special education instructor working mainly with students receiving services for learning disablitites, that those very behaviors generally are not direct affronts to the teacher or content, but rather mal-adaptive coping/survival mechanisms that the student has developed in order to survive in a classroom where his or her needs are not being met — a classroom where learning is not truly accessible by all. When I work with students I help them to be thinkers about their learning (be meta-cognitive), identify what is working and what isn’t, and what they can do to help themselves as well as what others (i.e. the teacher, me as their advocate) can do to support their learning efforts. I advocate with the teacher for supports that meet both the students’ and the teacher’s needs.  The goal is for my students to be active participants in and to take increased responsibility for their learning.

In my thinking, UDL goes right along with differentiated instruction which means increased /improved access to instruction, content, demonstration of mastery (options), the educational environment and to each and every students personal and academic potential.

I agree whole heartedly with the other points raised in the Lisa’s Lingo blog post. Her last point “educators must give up that position of power to allow students the freedom to do what they need to be successful” calls for a shift in educational paradigms – from teacher centered to student centered and from 20th century to 21st century educational ideals – where opportunities are provided for students to develop basic skills through authentic higher order thinking based activities,  where process is just as important as content, where not everyone has to do everything the same way in order to be considered successful, and where every student has access to and can use to the tools that allow him or her to move beyond an education system that continues to prepare students for the past instead of the future.

Jenny

–Thanks Jenny for the letter and the great discussion starter!

Hi Guys,
I know you commented on a couple of iPad articles on this weeks show, but thought I would share another.  It is from Edutopia and is entitled:  “Could the iPad become a valuable tool to improve student learning?”  You can view the article on my facebook page at: k12science.  It has some great comments, as well.
We received a NASA grant on climate change, for 8th – 12th grade teachers and we are going to be developing apps for the iDevices.  It is pretty exciting.  We are going to have a “kickoff” Climate Change Summit and your 8th grade teacher audience might be interested in attending.  It will be at Wayne RESA on August 24.  The two best things:
a.  It is Free!
b.  We are giving away a WIFI iPad.
You can get full info at:
resa.net/science

BTW, my favorite Science apps are:
NASA
Climate Change News
Science Friday
GPS HD
NFB (National Film Board of Canada)
Early Edition
Observatory
Star Walk
and of course MLB At Bat 2010 (had to mention that one).

Keep up the great work,
Dave

Comment:
We are a 7/8 middle school and we’ve had a “Moving Up Ceremony” every year for the past 25+ years in this building.  It’s too much like a graduation, we’ve even used the graduation theme music one year, and this year with us losing our teaming model, we will probably rethink our Move-Up!

@Troy – your Honors Ceremony sounds like an interesting alternative.  How is that organized and what sorts of “Honors” are presented?

-Ron

Tech Tools:

MicroMobs:

Micro Mobs is a free service that allows anyone to create their own public or private micromessaging network. To get started just name your mob (network) pick a URL then register for an account. You can register for a Micro Mobs account or use your Twitter or Facebook account to login into Micro Mobs. Once you’ve created your Micro Mobs network you can invite others by email, Twitter, or Facebook message. If you choose to make your Micro Mobs network private it can only be accessed by the people you have invited.
Micro Mobs could be a good private platform for hosting a backchannel chat in your classroom. Micro Mobs might also be a good platform for keeping in contact with parents or colleagues.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/06/micro-mobs-realtime-group-messaging.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

http://micromobs.com/

Weebly

Easy website creation is our passion.
When we say easy, we mean it! Weebly was named one of TIME’s 50 Best Websites of the year in 2007 and we’ve since made our service even more powerful, while keeping it simple. We have 3 million customers who would likely agree that there’s really no better place to create a website online – here’s why:

  • Create a free website & blog
  • Easy drag and drop interface
  • No technical skills required
  • Dozens of professional designs
  • Free domain hosting

http://www.weebly.com/

Webspotlight:

NCLB damages US education by narrowing the curriculum

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to harm the formal educational experiences of millions of students and teachers in the United States. In her recent book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” Diane Ravitch explains why. In her chapter titled, “Hijacked!” on page 29, Ravitch writes:
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/06/05/nclb-damages-us-education-by-narrowing-the-curriculum/

Educational Leadership Archives:
Now available for FREE
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/archived-issues.aspx

http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/WebBased/WebBased.htm

News:

Teacher Evaluation
Dr. Sally Vaughn, MDE Chief Academic Officer/Deputy Superintendent

State Overview – What we need to accomplish – Race To The Top Update.
Greetings from Mike Flanagan.
To say that it has created anxiety is an understatement.
Many States have also passed this legislation and they’re also trying to figure out what this means.
We have a bit of reform ahead of us.
We have a strong reform package passed through the Legislature.
Michigan has submitted their application.  3.4 Billion available in this round.
The RTTP application is online and the appendices are in two parts.
We expect them to make decisions on the applications very soon.
Michigan asked for 399 million dollars.
Phase One
Michigan did well in some areas and did not do well in some others.
One area was an outlier on the evaluation and that may be the area Michigan didn’t get selected
Michigan did not have labor support and as a result it hurt the application.
Unions and Boards were asked to sign a MOU without the opportunity to reading the application.
The application couldn’t be finished until they had all the MOUs and no one would sign a MOU without reading the application,
As a result of the extra time, they were able to pull together a group of reviewers.
Many groups have signed on to the RTTP application and have given support.
RTTP assessment proposal is due soon.  MSU has been involved in Round Two.
Phase Two
Not as many groups signing on.
The application is strong, but the competition is also strong.
There are some states who aren’t even applying.
End of August or Early September States will know whether or not they have won RTTP funds.
The stakeholder groups didn’t talk to each other.
There are still some tough issues.
1.  More focused on improving student achievement.
Improve the student achievement gap.
2.  Collective capacity.
Profesional Development.
3.  Theme:  Accelerate Michigan Plan
Going to be used whether Michigan gets the RTTP funds or not.

Four things to remember:
1.  Standards and Assessments
Common K-12 Standards for Language Arts and Math
June 15th Board Meeting, Michigan will present theirs.
It looks like DC wants standards to align with standards across the nation.
Assessment (350 million dollars)
Common Assessments
Michigan is in a consortium with 31 other states that will have common standards.
The Feds will fund up to two consortiums.
Assessments will be so critical to a teacher’s instruction.
Assessments will be used to evaluate growth
Assessments will be used to evaluate teachers and administrators.
Assessments will be tied to standards.
2.  Data Systems.
Quick data return for teachers to evaluate what students have learned and what they haven’t learned.
3.  “The List”  Consistently poor performing schools.
Bottom 5%
No official list until the Federal Grants come out.
School Improvement.
It’s not a straight 5% ranking
Tier One
The schools that get Title 1 funds:  Literal 5%.
Tier Two
School SES.
Tier Three
Low scores
MDE is going to fund Tiers One and Two
Do we have effective teachers in those lowest performing schools?
Not talking highly qualified anymore.
4.  Effective Teachers and Leaders
Focuses on Central Office
Measuring Student Growth
Annual evaluation systems that use student growth as a factor
High minority and high poverty schools have effective teachers.
Providing Professional Development.
It’s not blaming teachers if students don’t learn.
How is the system working?
Do teachers and principals have effective PD targeted to meet individual teacher needs?
-This is a MAMSE selling point!
The idea is to support teachers to teach.
Per State Law, evaluations will be tied to pay, tenure, and employment.
Recommendation:  Don’t tie them to teachers in the first three years, the data won’t be stable enough to make that evaluation.
What happens if that teacher gets involuntarily transferred?
We don’t want to set teachers up for failure.
These are uncharted waters.

Writing assignment:
1.  Write name
2.  Write name using other hand.
This is an example of how difficult it is to do something cognitively different.

Dr. Chris Brandt and Dr. Jane Coggshall, National/Regional Perspective – A Bridge From Research to Practice.
Measuring Teacher Effectiveness

About Learning Point Associates
We partner with educators and policymakers to transform the education system via:
Research
Evaluation
Synthesis and analysis of policy and practice
Techinical Assistance
How Important are school leaders and teachers in supporting students’ academic growth?

How do Current Evaluation policies and praactices support teaching and learning?
Teacher’s impact on student growth (effective vs. ineffective)
One year:  10 percentile points.
Across three years:  50 percentile points.
Principal’s impact on student growth
Account for 25% of total school effects.
Effectively predict student performance through ratings of their teachers.
Actually better than many of the instruments in place now.
State and district policy and guidance
REL Midwest (2008, 2007)
Standards & Criteria
Processes
Results
How are they communicated to teachers?
District Policy and Practice
Midwest States’ Policies
Many details were left up to local districts.
Lots of variability among the states.
For tenured teachers only one state required yearly evaluation.
67% districts provided guidance on how to evaluate teachers.
Patterns
Many districts distunguish between beginning and experienced teachers.
Most evaluations are used for . . .
Practice:
More than a few teachers fail to do a good job and are going through the motions:  59%
Quite a few:  4%
None:  18%
A few:  18%
Summary of Findings:  Teachers were treated as interchangeable parts.
Widget Effect
All teachers rated “good” or “great” <1%
Excellence indeterminate:  Excellend ratings are the norm making it difficult to identify exceptional teachers.
Rarely used to design Professional Development
Minimal support to novice teachers.
Federal Response:  RTTP
Multiple measures to differentate effectiveness (student growth)
Annual evaluation
Educator involvement in evaluation development
Sharing data on student growth
State/district Responses (Midwest States)
Pay for performance
Portfolio assessment
Individual professional devlopment planning (informed by the evaluation)
Career ladders
Mentoring (encouraging formative evaluation)
Dr. Coggshall’s part of the presentation
Educator Evaluation:  From Federal Policy to Resources for Implementation
Bluepring for Reform:  The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Great Teacher and Leader’s Section
Race To The Top
“Great Teachers and Leaders” section is clearly a “make or break” for states (constitues 128 of 500 points assigned).
School Improvement Grants ($3.5 billion)
Teacher Incentive Fund Grants ($437 million)
33 States have indicated they will use some measure of Student Achievement in Teacher evaluaiton.
Other measures mentioned in Frist Round Race to the Top Applications
Artifacts
Peer reviews
Teacher Reflection statements
Why Evaulate Teachers and Leaders Differently?
Comply with law and ensure continued federal funding.
Advance Teaching and learning by:
Making better personnel decisions (summative).
What are the key fetures of a High-Quality evaluation system?
“Professionally credible, publicly acceptable, legally defensible, adminstratively fesible, and economically affordable”
Purposeful
Standards-based
The goal should be to improve teaching and learning.
What are the key fetures of a high-quality evaluation system?
The system serves the prpose for which it was designed
Valid and reliable
Timely and useful
Meaningflully differentiates between high, middle, and low performers/performances.
The system is based on multiple measures/baried sources of evidence.
Depending on the purpose a high-quality evaluation system also will provide explicit feedback about the quality of current practice, set clear, observable and measureable criteria for higer levels of performance.
(More lost to time)
The sytem has high standards for implementaiton.
Evidence gathering and interpretation procedures are spelled out clearly and fully so they can be implemented uniformly
Assessment conditions and frequency are well specified
High standards are set for evaluatore, selection, training, and montoring.
Evaluator ideally . . .
The system is “smart”; it has a built-in ability to continuously improve over time.
The system ensures systematic assessment and improvement o the evaulatuion system on a regular basis
The sytem needs to be periodically evaluated eo ensure that it is indeed serving the purpose for which it was created.
What are multiple mesures?
Classroom observations
Analysis of Classroom Artifacts
IQA Teacher work samples
Value Added Measures
Tennesee value a. . .
Portfolios
National Board for Professional Teacher Standards
Student work
Getting started makeing critical decisions about Teacher Evaluaiton
Critical decisions guide:  Building teacher reflectiveness systems
Go to their webpage (products)  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality.
New:  80 or so tools used to research . . .
Teacher self report methods
Student surveys
Classroom observations
Washington DC’s Impact Model

The TQ Center website:  www.TQSource.org
TQ Tips & Tools Key Issue on Principal Evaluation (coming soon to www.TQSource.org)
Principal Evaluation.

Example of a Model with Multiple Measures:  IMPACT (Washington DC)
Classroom Observation:  Teaching and Learning Framework
Individual Value-Added Student Achievement Growth
Non-Value-Added Student Achievement Growth
Commitment to School Community
Schoolwide Value-Added SVA
Core Professionalism (CP)
Differentiated Weighting
Catagories:
General Education Teachers in Tested Subjects
General Education Teachers in Non-tested subjects
Special Ed
Another one that left the screen too quickly.
Calcualting a teacher’s overall Rating    (There’s a lot of data crunching going on here.  This is a hassle for administrators.)

Panel Discusion
If we put this in the current system, the principal doesn’t stand a chance. (HA!)
The Joint statement between the MEA, AFT, MAASP and the MEMSPA came about over a four day conference (1 day a week).

What brought us together
Meaningful Evaluations
They’ve degenerated into a personality “What have you done for me lately” thing.
“Doable” Process
Data for Student Improvement
Process applicable:
For educators at every level of the system
For educators in all subjecs and support areas.

Sounds like the principals are ganging up on the teachers . . .
MEA feels shared interest in this process.

Let’s respect what we do right now and then proceed from there.
Recognize the importance of the bargaining table.
Develop a framework for items to discuss at the bargaining table.

Common talking points
Every educator wants to improve.
Tenure law still effect for probationary teachers
Goals should be targed/focused on student growth data
Opportunities to create a system built around collaboration
Framework must be flexible/adaptable to the local systems and collective bargaining.
A test run was made with the Accelerate Michigan plan.
Our 3 C’s
Common Language
Comon Understandings
Data Quality Measures
Indicators of Success
Process
Common Professional Development
Goal Setting
Data
Collaboration and Leadership
School Improvement
MEA is likely to ask for common training for the evaluators.
Framework for Educator Evaluations
Individual Professional Development Goals
Professional Team Development Goals
School Improvement Plan and Student Performance Data
This is the beginning of the Framework
Required by law
Contains student data
“Might as well start somewhere . . .”
Get your student data points from here.
Goals and Performance Statement
The Overarching Statement needs to be the School Improvement Plan and needs to be the professional discussion in the building in every corner of the building.  Better communication by the School Improvement Team.
If you’re not part of the “Team” you’re expendable.
So if you don’t look like you’re enthusiastic about the School Improvement Goal(s) you can plan on being moved/unemployed.
Encore, Core, Board Members, and CO need to put this stuff in every communication.  Union needs to frame all their statements in this context.
Paths to Improvement:
1.  Exceeds Goals
2.  Meets Goals
3.  Progressing Towards Goals (No shame in this catagory.)
4.  Not Progressing Towards Goals  (Here’s where there’s a problem.)
This will be collectively bargained.
Meets, Exceeds Goals meets Tenure Law.
If you’re doing this as a team, there should be no surprise to anybody here.
There isn’t anybody in the system that cannot be held to this criteria.
Shared Capacity and Accountability
MDE
ISD
Superintendent
PROFESSIONAL TEAMS
Central Office
Building Administrators
Teachers and Professional Staff
Paths to Improvement
Challenge and Opportunities
Data access and use
School Culture
Technology
School Law
Time
Professional Development
Evaluation Process.
60% of districts and using “Explore” and “Plan” to evaluate students and inform instructional decsions.
Lets decide what the data will be:
Pre-Post Spelling Test data.
CAPS/COPS test for career planning
What data will we use to hold ourselves accountable?
Existing writing assessment stuff we do semesterly?
“A high school is a group if independent contractors using a joint parking lot.”
This will help dissolve the miscommunications.
Principal at this table asked if they could hire someone to help do that.
Professional Development does not have a good reputation across the state and is seen among teachers as being ineffective.
This is a bargaining issue.
Professional Development is required to be tied into the data.

Question and Answer time:
1.  Under the framework, is there a guideline for when is it you take them to the tenure hearing when they get an unsatisfactory in year one?  How many unsatisfactoriness does a teacher have before you take them to the tenure hearing?
A.  Untenured generally get 3 unsatisfactory or 3 opportunities to change before the tenure hearing.  If you see a problem, start the “untenure” process.

2.  In reviewing the framework the PGP (Professional Growth Plan) keeps the principal from developing the team goals, but it is in the individual goals.  Are they in both or just the one?
A.  The administrator is assumed to be on multiple teams.  Could be negotiated.

Cautionary note:  References to time “common planning time, professional time” and (this pricipal sees RTTP as the “Race to the Bottom”) references to instructional time being blurred.
We need to rethink the way utilize the time.

3.  How do itinerant Staff fall into the evaluation process?
A.  They need to fall under this.  They need to be on teams.  The evaluation system should apply to them also.  Both Core and Encore teachers should have the same evaluation system.  Difficult, but believed to be doable.

Legal Issues

Lisa Swen, J.D.
Michigan Educator Evaluation:  Implications of the New Legal Requirements
Topics
How did we get Here?
What do we have?
RSC Sec. 1249 Evaluations
RSC Sec. 1250:  Compensation
SSAA Sec. 94:  Teacher Identifier System
Interplay with Teacher’s Tenure Act
Interim Teaching Certificate
Collective Barganing Implications

Education Reform
“It’s been one of the most important seasons for education reforme in American History.”  – Jon Schmur, CEO  New Leders for New Schools, NYT, June 1, 2010.

How did we get here?
The Widget Effect:  Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness (June, 2009)
“Excellent teachers cannot be recognized or rewarded, chronically low-performing teachers languish, and the wide majority of teachers performing at the moderate levels do not get the differentiated support and development the need to improvement as professionals.”
Recognize and Support
In binary evaluations, 99& of teachers are “satisfactory”
Excellence goes unrecognized.
No special attention for novices.
No recognition for teachers who go beyond the contract or go beyond their individual responsibilities.
Poor performance goes unaddressed
Inadequate PD
This should not be a “gotcha” to catch teachers, but should be a way to “atta boy” the ones who do well.
Evaluation Practices
“The characteristics above the exacerbated and amplified by cursory evaluaiton practices and poor implementation.  Eval . . .
“These polices were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers, bu thtey have produced an industrial, factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets.”  – Arne Duncan.

Evaluation Drives Improvement
“Improved evaluation will not only benefit students by driving the systematic improvement and growth of their teachers, but teachers themselves . . .
Reversing the widget effect
“Adopt a  comprehensive performance evaluation that fairly, accurately and credibly differentiates based on their effectivemenss in promoting student achievement.”
Rigorous, Transparent, and Fair assessment instruments.
Evaluation Training
“Train administrators and other evaluators in the teacher performance evaluation system and hold them accountable to using it effectively.”
Not just here’s a form and check it off and call it done.  Those days are short lived.
Integrate Evaluations
“Integrate the performance evaluation system with critical human capital polices and functions such as teacher assignment, professional development, compensation, and . . .
Dismissal
“Adopt dismissal policies that provide lower-stakes options for ineffective teachers to exit the district and a system of due process that is fair but efficient.”

Michigan’s Race to the Top (RT3) Education Reform Legislation (PA 201-205 2009)
Section 1249 SEC
“With the involvement of teachers and school administrators, the board . . . SHALL adopt and implement for all teachers and school administrators a rigorous, transparent, and fair performance evaluaiton system that does all of the following . . . ”
Evaluate teacher/adiminstrator’s job performance “at least annually while providing timely and constructive feedback.”
Establish “clear approaches to measuring student growth.”
Provide teachers/administrators with “relevant data on student growth”
Use “multiple rating categories that take into account data on student growth as a significant factor.’
For these purposes, “student growth shall be measured by national, state, or local assessments and other objective criteria.”  (MCL 380.1249)
Effetiveness of teacher’administrators.  “ensuring that they are given ample opportunities for improvement”
The key is “given the opportunity to improve.”
A one year window was deemed sufficient.
Most school attornies aren’t comfortable with a one year window.
This needs to be addressed at the bargaining table, so as not to go beyond the timeframe in the law.
Requisite observations 60 days apart, was it 60 days before the end of the school year?
“Promotion, retention, and development” of teachers/administrators, including providing “relevant coaching, instruction support, or professional development”  MCL 380.1249.
These words aren’t in the tenure act, but the ideas are in the IDP langauage.
Decisionmaking Framework
Use “rigorous standards and streamlined, transparent, and fair procedures” to determine
“Whether to grant tenure or full certification, or both, to teachers and administrators.”
Remove ineffective tenured and untenured teachers and administrators after “ample opportunities to improve”
This language suggests a probationary teacher must be given an ample opportunity to improve.  This language is not in the tenure act.

Implementation Timeline
State effective Jan 4, 2010.
Unlike section 1250 (compensation), section 1249 does not expressly condition duty to adopt and implement a performance evaluation system upon compatibility with, or expiration of, applicable CBA.
Evlautation considerations
Mandatory bargaining subjects include
Reappointment, retention, and promtion criteria.  CMU Faculty v. CMU, 404 Mich 268 (1978)
Compensation method
A district SHALL implement a compensation method for its teachers and administrators that includes “job performance and job accomplishments as a significant factor” to determine compensation and additional compensation.
Collective Bargaining Agreement
If a CBA is in effect, it doesn’t apply until the CBA is done.
Constitutional Considreation
Article VI, Section 6 of Michigan Constitution
Permits “merit system” except for teachers under contract or tenure.
Requires approval by local electorate.
This hasn’t been challenged . . . yet. . .
Undefined terms
Rigorous
Transparent
Fair
Note:  Tenure ACt does not define “satisfactory”
Rules of Statury Interpretation
“Cours must give effect every word, phrase, and clause ina statue, and must avoid an interpretation that would render any part of the state surphisage or migatory.  Further, we give undefined statutory terms their plain and ordinary meanings.  In those situations, we may consult dictionary definitions.”  Kootz v. Ameritech Services, Inc.  466 Mich 304.312 (2002)

State School Aid Act Sec. 94a Teacher Identifier System
In cooperation with MDE, CEPI SHALL implement a tecaher identifier system with ability to match an individual teacher to individual stdents the teacher has taught.
Subject to student privacy laws, the teacher identifieer system SHALL:
Make accessible annual state assessment records of individual students
Correlation of individual student academic achievement data, including growth in academic achievement, to each teacher who has taught the student.
School board members, teachers, and administrators access to the data so they can make informed decisions to improve instruction and student achievement MCL 388.1694a(i)
State Tenure Commission
“This Commission has long held that neither students’ mastery of the subject matter sufficient to enter the next grade nor their test scores on standardized tests are conclusive evidence of the teacher’s competency.”  Gantz v. Detroit STC 96-17 (1997)
Educational Malpractice
“The ultimate responsibility for what is learned, however, remains in the studetn, and many considerations, beyond teacher misfeasance, can factor into whether a student recieves the inteded message. Further, teaching methods vary and what is considered appropriate by some, may considered inappropriate by others.”  Nalepa v. Plymouth-Canton SD 207 Mich App 580 (1994)
The ultimate responsibility of learning is with the student.  According to Michigan Court of Appeals.  INTERESTING
Cases of “You Didn’t Do Your Job” of students suing districts have been thrown out.
Job Evaluation should not be “Gotcha” time.
Tenure Act:  Probationary Teacher Annual Year-End Evaluation
Board “SHALL ensure . . . that the teacher is provided with at least an annual year-end performance evaluaiton each year during the teacher’s probationary period.”  MCL 38.83a(1)
“The annual yea-rend performance evaluation SHALL be based on, but is not limited to, at least 2 classroomobservations held at least 60 dyas apart, unless a shorter interval between the 2 classroom observations.”
Garcia v. Eaton Rapids PS STC 99-13
Teacher’s year-end evaluation based on 11 observations, bu tthere were not 60 days between EACH observation
The 60-day standard “is satisfied l. . . ”
Duration of Classroom Observation
Tenure Act does not specify amount of time for classroom observation
Advisable to spend sufficient time to form fair appraisal of effectiveness of teaching
Secondary:  Full class period
Elementary:  Full Lesson
Follow collective bargaining agreement.
Evaluation “SHALL  . . .
“Failure of a school instruct to compy with a subsection (1) with respect to an individual teacher. . . shall be deemed satisfactury”
Impact on Non-renewal Process
“At least 60 dyas before the close of each school year the controlling board shall provide the probationary teacher with a definite written statement as to whether or not his work has been satisfactory.”  MCL 38.83
Cartoon:  Teacher after 35 years of service
Tenure ACt:  Tenured
“The controlling board of the school district empoying a teacher on continuing tenure SHALL ensure that the teacher is provided with a prerformance evaluation at least once every 3 years…”  MCL 38.93(1)
1249 says that each teacher will be evaluated at least annually.
“… if the teacher has received a less than satisfactory performance evaluation, the school district SHALL provide the teaher with an IDP developed by appropriate administrative personnel in consultation with the teacher.”  MCL 38.93(1)
1993 amendments to the tenure act impose on principals the need to document and address that need.  Must show the deficiences to the teacher and provide a way to improve.
In re Scharrett (STC 98-01)
School district may use IDP for tenured teacher when performance problems are observed that do not warrent a “less than satisfactory” formal evaluation, but whch still necessitate remedial assistance.
A tenured teacher may be put on an IDP without an unsatisfactory evalluation.  The IDP should not be a “gotcha” document.
A teacher does not need to meet all IDP goals  (review this)
“The performance . .
Consequence:
“Failure of a school district to comply”  defaults to satisfactory
Discharge
“…discharge or demotion of a teacher on contuing tenure may be made only for reasonable and just cause, and only as provided in this act.”  MCL 38.101
The 5 BB standards
1.  Knowledge of subject
2.  Ability to teach
3.  Classroom discipline
4.  Ability to handle the stress.
Interim Teaching Certificate ITC
SPI must establish process for ITC that qualifies persons to teach in public schools and earn MI teaching certificate
Must align with NCLB
No ITC for special education
SPI must devlop rules, astandards, and procedures.
ITC Eligibliity
participate in approved laternative teaching program.
Pass a test
one more . . .
EEmployment
District may employ person with ITC just as a person with an teaching cert with lots of observations.
Will they qualifiy for the Tenure Act, (yes.)
Collective Bargaining AGreements
Evaluation criteria
Limitations on Assessment
Number frequency
Evaluators
Presumption of compentency
Timelines
Grievance procedure
CBA Provisions

Models

Evaluation of individual growth should be at the building level
Don’t use the first system that comes down the pike  but you’ve got 30 days.

We need to look at Danielson as a model.
You need buy-in from the teachers
It puts a burden on the teacher to promote the goals of a building.

For special ec use the IEP process to determine student progress and teacher evaluation

Tied into prosessional learning communities

Teachers learn more from each other ran they do from other sources

How much time will a letter of understanding buy us?

How will we get our people together to vote on this?  Train on this?

We need to follow Collins’ plan of the “to do” list and the “to stop doing” list

There seems to be a push to shove thisbdown to the teachers in the building.
Bring in CO to take the principal’s job so they can do the evaluation.

Took care of the anxiety by having the teachers do a self evaluation.
Teachers collaborate on a piece and that shows their collaboration talents

IEPDP is online for personal use

Contract language needs to include criteria about attendance and longevity.
Where is the qualitative data or goal in this?

Graduation rate for US high-schoolers falls for second straight year

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Staff writer / June 10, 2010

The national high school graduation rate has slipped in recent years, despite an array of public and private efforts to boost the percentage of students going on to college. But some districts are beating the odds, succeeding with many students who otherwise may have fallen through the cracks.
The numbers can be important even for families with no children in school, Ms. Pinkus notes. If dropouts were reduced by half in America’s 50 largest cities, the graduates’ extra earnings would add up to about $4.1 billion a year, which would increase state and local tax revenue by as much as $536 million, according to a recent analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0610/Graduation-rate-for-US-high-schoolers-falls-for-second-straight-year

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • Second Life:

MSM 123 – Easy as 123…

/ , , , /

Jokes:

The Book
Lunching with a friend in a fast food restaurant, I was telling her about a teenager who had rear-ended my car. The teen blamed me for the accident. “She called me every name in the book!” I said. Just then I looked over to the next table where two nine-year-old boys had apparently been paying close attention to my story. One said to the other, “There’s a book?”

A Birthday Number
A couple phoned a neighbor to extend birthday greetings. They dialed the number and then sang “Happy Birthday” to him. But when they finished their off-key rendition, they discovered that they had dialed the wrong number. “Don’t let it bother you,” said a strange but amused voice. “You folks need all the practice you can get.”

On Our Mind:

“Graduation”

Summer Time

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Bullying Awareness Project

Teacher Page:
http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/rpt/RPT_Zero_Tolerance/teacher.html
Student Page:
http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/rpt/RPT_Zero_Tolerance/student.html

Listeners:

Robert sent along the web site:
http://www.hippocampus.org/

Tech Tools:

Notalon
http://bitbucket.org/saketh/notalon/overview

Webspotlight:

UDL Discussion

http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-wont-more-teachers-set-up-udl.html?spref=fb

Rethinking Schools

As a special introduction to our new website, the text of the entire summer issue of Rethinking Schools is accessible here, free of charge. If you aren’t already a member of Rethinking Schools, we hope a look at the exciting and thought-provoking articles in this issue will inspire you to join.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml

Will the iPad make kids smarter?

http://www.examiner.com/x-46117-Long-Island-iPad-Examiner~y2010m6d5-Will-the-Apple-iPad-make-kids-smarter?cid=channel-rss-Gadgets_and_Tech

News:

Districts’ Financial Crisis Is Not the Time to Talk Reform

By Harold J. Kwalwasser

Financial chaos does not promote positive change. When districts’ funding is uncertain, administrators and school boards have no time to worry about innovation and transformation. All life is sucked from discussions of reform. The nitty-gritty of how to balance the budget, whether it is how many teachers to fire or which programs to cut, drowns out any consideration of real, long-term improvement.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/03/33kwalwasser.h29.html?tkn=XQQF13b3BxIwIjwm%2FHgRJ0uyoj6rmBYizVXS&cmp=clp-edweek

4 Day Weeks gain popularity

During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma’s house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center.

Don’t bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/04/358869usfourdayschoolweek_ap.html?tkn=WVTFdqIRlkDrbw0wXdYDRUmFzEFsRwCKamBh&cmp=clp-edweek

States’ Fiscal Condition Still Dismal, New Report Finds

By Alyson Klein on June 3, 2010 10:30 AM
State finances remain as bad as they have been in decades, and the fiscal picture isn’t likely to clear up anytime soon, according to a report released this morning by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/06/states_are_still_in_terrible_f.html

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • Second Life:
  • Friendly’s Restaurants
    • Free ice cream Saturday June 5, 2010

MSM- 122 Amazing People, School’s out.

/ , , , /

Jokes:

A newsboy was standing on the corner with a stack of papers, yelling, “Read all about it; Fifty people swindled! Fifty people swindled! Curious, a man walked over, bought a paper, and said, “Hey kid, this is an old paper, wheres the story about the big swindle?” The newsboy ignored him and went on calling out, “Read all about it; Fifty-one people swindled!”

On Our Mind:

Memorial Day Weekend
Red Skelton – Pledge of Allegiance

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

1.  10 YouTube Videos of People Doing Amazing Things

*Note- turn the sound off for the breakdance video
http://mashable.com/2010/05/24/youtube-amazing-people/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

2. Time to revisit one of your Advisory activities from the Fall!
Remember measuring your Advisory students’ height this past fall?  We talked about an activity to help your students see their growth over the course of the year.  In case you missed that podcast, you take a length of twine and have the student put one end at their heel and the other end at their head.  Try to get as exact as you can (you’ll be off by a little, don’t worry about it) and then label each students’ string for June.  When the last week of school comes around do the activity again and have the students compare strings.  Some will be dramatically different, some not so much.

Listeners:

From Dave Bydlowski, RESA Science Specialist:

10a.  You Be the Chemist on TV This Week
Watch Students in Grades 5-8 compete in the Michigan championships of the You Be the Chemist contest. The winner advances to the national YBTC championship in Philadelphia.  It will be broadcast on Detroit Public Television on Tuesday, June 1 at 8:00 PM and Wednesday, June 2 at 1:30 AM.  You can view the commercial for the event on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YliqWw99X3s
or just search for You Be the Chemist.

9a.  Introduce Your Students to Nanoscale Science
Nano concepts represent self-contained instructional materials focusing on the key ideas in nano scale science and engineering (NSE) and their applications. Each Nano concept contains a general user introduction, main concept, notes, images and/or simulations. A usage guide and connections to general science concepts aid integration into the classroom environment. You can get more information by visiting:
http://www.nanoed.org/concepts_apps/nanocos
Plus:  The interactive Nanocos game encourages students to learn important science concepts and their role at the nanoscale. Combining both the entertainment of popular card games with the educational value of nano concepts, Nanocos will appeal to both students and educators alike. Contained within each card is a scientific concept that forms the basis of modern nanotechnology.  Because of the varying levels of complexity that unfold during each game, students will never get bored looking for the perfect strategy. Visit the Nano concepts site to download instructions for playing the game.  To play the game, please visit:
http://165.124.3.22/card/nanocos.html

—————————————————————–
9c. New Science Teacher Academy
The NSTA New Science Teacher Academy Foundation is a professional development initiative created to promote quality science teaching, enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence, and improve teacher content knowledge. Program expenses will be paid for qualified middle or high school science teachers entering their second or third year of teaching and working a schedule with more than 50 percent of their classes in science.  The deadline to apply is June 21, 2010.  For more information, please visit:
http://www.nsta.org/academy/

—————————————————————–
9d. Spark Interest in STEM Careers

MWM’s inquiry- and design-based STEM program trains teachers on what are called Materials World Modules, teaching units focused on matter and its applications. The idea is to give teachers the lessons and tools to increase student interest and achievement in STEM subjects and careers. The program pairs teachers with scientists and engineers, who will also serve as mentors and resources after the program is completed.  Just visit:
http://www.materialsworldmodules.org/

From the website:

  1. Todd Williamson Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 9:35 pmHey Troy, thanks for your thoughts on the iPad. I’m still holding out (though barely) for the 2nd Generation as I think there will be some significant changes between the 1st and 2nd. I know during one of my MLE sessions someone mentioned having a class set of iPod Touches and that they were able to sync them all to a single iTunes account. I’d love some clarification on that from a legal standpoint, but it seems like that is likely what has happened so far with the Touch. That would mean that Apps purchased for the account were available to all Touch/iPads connected to that account. Seems like a loophole Apple would want to clarify one way or the other.

    I really think we’re going to see a significant price drop or production drop on the eReaders from Amazon and B&N now that apps exist for both companies for the iPad. Overall, those two companies are focused on selling books, both digital and dead tree. Why stay in a market you aren’t built for (eReader hardware design) when there is a platform available that you can pump money into the software side, and still sell your books? Time will tell…

    Thanks again!

Tech Tools:

Online Stickies:
(similar to WallWisher).
http://en.linoit.com/

FedFlix:

http://www.archive.org/details/FedFlix

Technology Assessment

A plethora of links to evaluate technology planning, web resources, technology impact, and evaluations & reports.
http://www.4teachers.org/inttech/index.php?inttechid=ta

GradePad
iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app that lets you take grades in a rubric format while you circle the room.

Webspotlight:

Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution

Clay Shirky and Daniel Pink have led eerily parallel lives. Both grew up in Midwest university towns in the 1970s, where they spent their formative years watching television after school and at night. Both later went to Yale (a BA in painting for Shirky, a law degree for Pink). And both eventually abandoned their chosen fields to write about technology, business, and society.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_pink_shirky/all/1

Videos: Making Data Matter

Education leaders and school data experts from the district, state, and national levels discuss how data-driven decisionmaking can be used to drive instruction during a recent Education Week Leadership Forum on “Making Data Matter.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/video-galleries/april10-event-data.html

News:

Banking Giant Offers Financing for Charter Schools

JPMorgan Chase & Co., a global financial-services company, has announced a $325 million effort to support building, expanding, and renovating charter school facilities.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/28/33jpmorgan.h29.html?tkn=PPYFbNdxAuarBPKe2qcSOmnhI+20xtqZ+oV6&cmp=clp-edweek

School’s out, but should it be?

But experts say extended school year would avoid “summer slide”
A movement is underway to lengthen the school year, or at least provide students with year-round academic enrichment to prevent “the summer slide.”

But districts continue to cut programs as budgets have shrunk.

http://www.denverpost.com/education/ci_15178799

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.
    • ISTE 2010 June 27-30, 2010 (Formerly NECC) in Denver, Colorado.
  • The Michigan Joint Education Conference will be at Thurston High School in Redford, MI this June 23, 2010.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  • Second Life:

Podcast 121: Common Core Motivation

/ , , , /

Jokes:

Ugly Suits
When the store manager returned from lunch, he noticed his clerk’s hand was bandaged, but before he could ask about the bandage, the clerk had some very good news for him. “Guess what, sir?” the clerk said. “I finally sold that terrible, ugly suit we’ve had so long!” “Do you mean that repulsive pink-and-blue double-breasted thing?!” the manager asked. “That’s the one!” “That’s great!” the manager cried, “I thought we’d never get rid of that monstrosity! That had to be the ugliest suit we’ve ever had! But tell me, why is your hand bandaged?” “Oh,” the clerk replied, “after I sold the guy that suit, his seeing-eye dog bit me.”

On Our Mind:

Thanks for the ratings. We’ve added to the iTunes rating and really appreciate that.
School year is coming to a close.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Ad Hoc idea:  Info Please/ChaCha – Here’s an idea to let your kids use those smart phones in school.  Grab some worksheets from your teammates and hold a surprise review quiz in Advisory.  They can use two resources to help them find the answers:  Info Please and ChaCha.  Info Please is a reference site put together by Pearson.  Tons of resources at the ready.  Not enough computers in your Advisory classroom?  Fine.  Let the kiddos pull out their cell phones and get the answers from ChaCha, a cell phone based search engine.

Try these:

1.  Who is Jeff LaRoux?

2.  How many feathers are in a peacock?

3.  What is the average flight speed of an African Swallow?

Tech Tools:

Gpanion:
Gives you an online dashboard to your Google Apps and life.
http://gpanion.com/

Timeline tools:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/05/five-ways-for-students-to-build.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29
XTimeline
TimeGlider
Time Toast
TimeRime
Dipity

Facebook search engine:

Openbook draws attention to the information Facebook makes public about its users via its search API. Facebook exposed this service on April 21st, 2010.

Our goal is to get Facebook to restore the privacy of this information, so that this website and others like it no longer work.

Anybody can search, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. However, if you are logged into your Facebook account, you’ll see full profile pages when you click on a user.
http://youropenbook.org/

AutoMotivator

AutoMotivator is for making printable motivational posters or parody demotivational posters. You choose the picture, colors, and text, and we make your poster.

You can put the poster on your website, or even get a print for just $9.95. A giant, 36″ wide print is just $19.95!

http://wigflip.com/automotivator/
e.g.: Mistakes Poster http://site.despair.com/images/dpage/mistakes03.jpg

Webspotlight:

Net Generation:
Downloadable information revolving around the Federal Government and its IT capabilities. Also has sections on Net Generation, use of web 2.0 tools, etc.
http://www.slideshare.net/DepartmentofDefense/net-generation?from=embed

News:

Common-Standards Draft Excludes ELL Proficiency

The writing teams for common standards have sought the advice of researchers on English-language learners, but the organizations that are coordinating the venture don’t plan to produce a set of English-language-proficiency standards to go with the common standards.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/20/33common-ell.h29.html?tkn=MQOFnULgtF%2Fgh5hnaIt1UWPBxqDYo516eELj&cmp=clp-edweek

Education officials may scrap MCAS test

Massachusetts education officials are quietly putting together a proposal to scrap the controversial MCAS exams in English and math and replace them with new tests they are developing with about two dozen other states.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2010/05/20/education_officials_may_scrap_mcas_test/

Are We Really Teaching Them How To Fish (by Jennifer Wagner)

Teaching teachers to fish instead of simply relying on PLN’s for all the answers.
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/29850

Opportunity:  Knowledge For Teaching Study
http://www.ets.org/Media/Campaign/13700/
What makes a good teacher?  Here’s a study to find out and a chance for you to participate in a study that is designed to find out those very things.

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 Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  • Second Life:

MSM-120 Title: Sneaky Science Achievement . . .

/ , , /

Jokes:

How do you keep a parrot on its perch?    Polly Grip.

Trains and Tea Kettles
A man who had spent his whole life in the desert visited a friend. He’d never seen a train or the tracks they run on. While standing in the middle of the RR tracks, he heard a whistle, but didn’t know what it was. Predictably, he’s hit and is thrown to the side of the tracks, with some minor internal injuries, a few broken bones, and some bruises. After weeks in the hospital recovering, he’s at his friend’s house attending a party. While in the kitchen, he suddenly hears the teakettle whistling. He grabs a baseball bat from the nearby closet and proceeds to batter and bash the teakettle into an unrecognizable lump of metal. His friend, hearing the ruckus, rushes into the kitchen, sees what’s happened and asks the desert man, “Why’d you ruin my good tea kettle?” The desert man replies, “Man, you gotta kill these things when they’re small.”

On Our Mind:

NMSA hires new Executive Director:  Dr. Drew Allbritten

“Beginning his professional life as a middle school mathematics and science teacher, his career has included serving as executive director for the Council for Exceptional Children, the Georgia Association of Educators, the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, and the Iowa Association of Community College Trustees. During that time, he held roles in the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Committee for Education Funding, Coalition of Lifelong Learning Organizations, and the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET). Allbritten also served as a United States presidential appointee and as an elected member of the Michigan House of Representatives where he championed reform in middle schools.”  -From the NMSA Press Release.

NMSA hires new Research Journal Editor:  Dr. Karen Weller Swanson

“Karen Weller Swanson was previously a middle school science teacher at Mount Elden Middle School in Flagstaff, Arizona. She is currently an associate professor teaching doctoral research methods for the Tift College of Education at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Northern Arizona University (NAU). Her research topic was “How does high-stakes testing pressure influence collaborative practices of middle school teams?” Her master’s and bachelor’s degrees were in secondary education and biology from NAU. Additionally, Swanson was named a 2010 Carnegie Academy of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Scholar.” – From the NMSA Press Release.

NMSA announces new Voucher Program.

  • Minimum amount $250/No Maximum.
  • Expires two years from date of issue.
  • Valid on membership, book purchases, event registrations, on-site professional development, and Middle Grades Assessment.
  • No refunds or cash back.
  • Voucher may be redeemed via mail, fax, phone, or online. Limitations apply to online redemption and cannot be used for on-site purchases.
  • Member discounts apply upon usage of voucher.

From Our Listeners:

—————————————————————–
Middle School Teachers
—————————————————————–
9a.  Cell Phone Science Workshop for MS and HS Teachers

Join other outstanding physics and technology teachers from across the Midwest to discover the fundamental science and engineering of cell phones and other wireless communications.  We live in a world with instantaneous global communications.  Over 270 million Americans have cell phones.  Our students use iPhones, BlackBerrys, and other wireless devices every day.  Despite the ubiquitous nature of modern communications, most students (and teachers!) don’t have a clue of the science behind these wonderful, technological marvels.  Three high school teachers working with engineers from Cingular, Motorola, and the University of Michigan have developed an exciting and innovative 3-week program.

The Square One Education Network will host the 2-day workshop.  The workshop will be at the Macomb Intermediate School District in Clinton Township, MI June 23rd and June 24th from 8:30 AM till 3:30 PM. Square One will pay for training, invited speakers, meals, and a complete classroom set of equipment for participants.  CEU credits will also be available.  Mark Davids and Rick Forrest, authors and designers of the program, will lead the sessions.  The deadline to apply is May 18, 2010.  Conference Details will be updated on the Square One website at:
http://www.squareonenetwork.org

—————————————————————–
9b.  World Environment Day Contest

The Project Earth World Environment Day Contest is designed to highlight the efforts of students in grades 6-12 to become more environmentally sustainable and for teachers and students around the world to share and learn from each others ideas and efforts.  The winner of the contest will be announced on World Environment Day, June 5, 2010, and will be awarded $500. All participants will receive a participation certificate. The last day to enter the contest is May 22, 2010.  For more information, please visit:
http://www.projectearth.net/

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Origami Projects:
http://en.origami-club.com//index.html
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/supplies/b21b/:  Sticky Notes
Book version:  Sticky Note Origami

Don’t Buy It – Consumer Awareness:
http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/
http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/buyingsmart/

Tech Tools:

GeoGebra
GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package. It has received several educational software awards in Europe and the USA.
http://www.geogebra.org/cms/

MeetingWords:
MeetingWords is a simple text editor for the web.

Your text is saved on the web, and more than one person can edit the same document at the same time. Everybody’s changes are instantly reflected on all screens.

Work together on meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, homework, team programming and more!

http://meetingwords.com/

Webspotlight:

Scitable
A free science library and personal learning tool brought to you by Nature Publishing Group, the world’s leading publisher of science. Scitable currently concentrates on genetics, the study of evolution, variation, and the rich complexity of living organisms.
http://www.nature.com/scitable

Udemy

Udemy is a website that enables anyone to create an online course. Our goal is to provide our teachers with everything they could possibly need to create a great learning experience over the internet. We’ve worked hard to build this site and we hope you like it. Everything is completely free, because we believe nobody should have to pay for Udemy unless they are making money themselves.

But why did we create this site? We created it to solve a simple problem:

Currently, educators are constrained by the physicality of their course. Whether an SAT tutor or an IT education company, instructors can only teach those in proximity to their location. Online education breaks down those barriers, but publishing an online education course is time-consuming and expensive. Online education is dominated by large businesses that have spent millions on developing the infrastructure necessary to create, distribute and monetize their content.

http://udemy.com/

Physics Central:
Learn how your world works. Includes Physics Quest:
PhysicsQuest is a story-based activity that exposes middle school students to the fun and relevance of science. APS provides a free PhysicsQuest kit to registered 6-9th grade physical science classes, home school groups, science clubs, and after-school programs. The kit includes a user’s manual and materials for four physics experiments.
Also:
Ask a Physicist
http://www.physicscentral.com/

News:

Educational Attainment Rises Among All Americans

Demographic Shift Could Pose Challenges for Schools

Americans across major racial and ethnic groups became better educated over the past decade, though significant gaps remain in the rates at which blacks and Hispanics earn a high school diploma or college degree, a new analysis of U.S. census data finds.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/19/32census.h29.html?tkn=ULYFpqIWdt6KUupP26LQsrRNkhFWndwAL0n5&cmp=clp-edweek

College for all? Experts say not necessarily

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER (AP)
The notion that a four-year degree is essential for real success is being challenged by a growing number of economists, policy analysts and academics. They say more Americans should consider other options such as technical training or two-year schools, which have been embraced in Europe for decades.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gFJnsnt6zUOz2LwZnZgsoBxUQC6QD9FM535G0

An Idea to Consider: The Purpose Is the Point

By Phillip Harris & Bruce Smith

Just do it, screams the ad copy. Git ’er done, crows the comedian. Whatever you do, don’t shilly-shally around overthinking your actions. If America had a national bumper sticker, that’s the message our society would doubtless want it to convey. We understand and often share those feelings. But a more judicious approach is not just more sensible, but the only one likely to get us where we want to go.
But all of this effort, and the haste with which we try to adopt the policies, is misguided for at least two reasons.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/12/31harris.h29.html?tkn=WYVFhdem88gTCb5WD1xyQ%2B1JQ8ZRGaX2lOUF&cmp=clp-edweek

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

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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 Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  • Second Life:
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