Looking for videos

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You’ve heard of YouTube. Certainly your students have. Much of the video on YouTube is inappropriate for educators to use. However, there is no denying the power of video. What if there were a similar site specifically for teachers? Wait, there is. Check out TeacherTube.

Fun Stuff

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We’re looking for an icon. Not an idol, but an icon. We need a symbol to help people recognize that they’ve made it to the right place. If you have a suggestion, let us know.

Success!

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We’ve done it! We are now off of Blogger on onto our very own little piece of the world (or at least our own very little piece of the world wide web). Currently we have set it up as a blog. We’ll try that out to see how everything works. If need be, we could switch to a more traditional web page. However, with the advancements in blogging software, this should allow for more interactivity. We’ve copied over the old posts so those are still available. Now that we have this part done (???), we are working on getting the podcast ready to go for Fall 2007. Still much to be done there. Time will fly be quickly.

Hope to see you soon. We’ll post things here occasionally, and continue our work.

We’re moving

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While we are still working on some pesky technical issues, we have pretty much worked out one issue. We’re going to move to a “real” web page. Look for a link to follow once all the registration stuff has gone through (and someone writes us a web page).

Cheers.

Behind the Scenes

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Middle School Matters has been hard at work behind the scene. Although it seems remarkably easy (more about this in a minute), there is a lot of work to be done behind the scene. Making the remote recording work, the remote hosting, proper tags and all is a bit of work. We want to make sure that you have a quality podcast to listen to when we debut in the Fall. Oh, we’re pretty sure that the first few won’t be perfect (OK, maybe they’ll never be perfect, but you get the idea) but we’ll try to start with some pretty dog gone decent quality. It’s also a tough time of year as we are working on dealing with a very real budget crisis, preparing to close out this year and start up next year. Oh, what fun.



About that remarkably easy. Some of things that we are doing were absolutely impossible just a few years ago. One of us has some experience in college radio (just a, um, few years ago). The things that we can do now we didn’t even dream about in that long ago experience. So, yes, on one hand, it is remarkably easy. However, remarkably easy (as any middle school educator can attest to) is a matter of perspective.





End of the Year

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The year is winding down quickly. Someone pointed out to me the other day that we had 7 more Mondays for this school year. We have 8 more Fridays. While that means that this year is quickly coming to a close, it also means that our debut Podcast is coming up quickly. We’ve worked out some of the technical issues. We’re going to polish some of that up and work on some of the procedural kind of things. Mostly though, we’re getting to work on developing the kind of show that Middle School Educators will find:

  • Useful
  • Entertaining
  • Humorous
  • Thoughtful
  • Insightful
  • Relevant
  • Intriguing
  • Exciting

And much, much more! OK, so we aim a little high. As always, if you have any suggestions, drop us a line.

New Hope

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I’ve long said that we are in time of great change in education. The changes that are taking place for middle school, high school and the rest of the educational experience bear that out. I’ve also said that the job of educators isn’t the same one as it was 30 years ago. Heck, it isn’t even the same job as 10 years ago. In fact, I’m not sure that it’s the same job that Universities are currently preparing teachers for.



However, it wasn’t completely clear to me exactly how the job was different. It is now becoming more and more clear. However, not everything is changing.



Let’s start with the vestiges of what was. Our schedule is still derived from the farming schedule. In fact, lawmakers in Michigan like the schedule so much that we are barred by law from having students return to school before Labor Day. That is one example of what was.

Those same lawmakers also passed a law that every student must have an “on-line” experience. New schedule, meet the old schedule.



Teachers are being asked to do more and more. Yet we don’t recognize that. We don’t honor that. We don’t applaud that.



How has the job changed?

More to come.

The Times they are a changin’

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Sunday’s post probably displayed a little more frustration that was intended. Middle school is certainly undergoing some attacks and some change. However, generally we try to be pretty optimistic around these parts. There is a reason that we work in middle school. We really do love what we do.

With that, it is important to look at the opportunities that are presenting themselves. (Not really sure I’ve made it quite far enough to have found them all). Anyway, we’ll discuss some of the changes that are occurring and try to find as many positives as we can.

First of all, education as a whole is changing. The job of teaching looks very different right now than it did a few years ago. We’ll venture to say that the job will look different yet in a few more years. This is an exciting time in education due simply to that fact. It may not always be fun to go through the change, but at least we have an opportunity to be a part of it.

Will we look back in a few years and remember these as “the good old days?”



Middle School at it’s end?

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Middle school has long been under attack. However, I feel the attack may be getting ever stronger. Recently Michigan has made some major changes in terms of High School graduation requirements. This has impacted high schools in numerous ways. One of the ways that this is being interpreted by District level personnel as having some dramatic effects on middle school. Here’s how the logic goes:
– kids will have fewer opportunities for gaining elective credit.
– Michigan now allows students to earn High School credit while in Middle School.
– let’s teach high school courses in middle school, give the students credit for high school while in middle school and every one is happy.

Well, maybe not everyone. There is a reason for middle school. Middle school has some very important concepts that deal with physical, emotional and psychological development of adolescents. However, few people really understand middle school and middle school kids.

Is middle school going to revert to junior high? It’s far too early to tell, however, it is obvious that middle school has been and continues to be under attack. We’ll keep fighting for what is right for the students. We believe in the middle school beliefs.

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