Search Results for: lesson

MSM-102-Happy New Year – Skype Frustration (Skype is soooooo 2009 …)

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Jokes:

Things Not To Do During Exams

1. Bring a pillow. Fall asleep (or pretend to) until the last 15 minutes. Wake up, say “oh geez, better get cracking” and do some gibberish work. Turn it in a few minutes early.

2. Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming “Andre, Andre, I’ve got the secret documents!!”

3. If it is a math/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative. Use the integral symbol.

4. Make paper airplanes out of the exam. Aim them at the instructor’s left nostril.

5. Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop, yell out, “I’m so sure you can hear me thinking. ” Then start talking about what a jerk the instructor is.

6. Bring cheerleaders.

7. Walk in, get the exam, sit down. About five minutes into it, loudly say to the instructor, “I don’t understand any of this. I’ve been to every lecture all semester long! What’s the deal? And who are you? Where’s the regular guy?”

8. Bring a Game Boy (or Game Gear, etc. . . ). Play with the volume at max level.

9. On the answer sheet (book, whatever) find a new, interesting way to refuse to answer every question. For example: I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs. Be creative.

10. Bring pets.

11. Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say “They’ve found me, I have to leave the country” and run off.

12. Fifteen minutes into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell out “Merry Christmas. “If you’re really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every fifteen minutes.

13. Do the exam with crayons, paint, or fluorescent markers.

14. Come into the exam wearing slippers, a bathrobe, a towel on your head, and nothing else.

15. Come down with a BAD case of Turet’s Syndrome during the exam. Be as vulgar as possible.

16. Do the entire exam in another language. If you don’t know one, make one up! For math/science exams, try using Roman numerals.

17. Bring things to throw at the instructor when s/he’s not looking. Blame it on the person nearest to you.

18. As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.

19. Walk into the exam with an entourage. Claim you are going to be taping your next video during the exam. Try to get the instructor to let them stay, be persuasive. Tell the instructor to expect a percentage of the profits if they are allowed to stay.

20. Every five minutes, stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, continue with the exam.

21. Turn in the exam approximately 30 minutes into it. As you walk out, start commenting on how easy it was.

22. Do the entire exam as if it was multiple choice and true/false. If it is a multiple choice exam, spell out interesting things (DCCAB. BABE. etc. . ).

23. Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.

24. Get the exam. Twenty minutes into it, throw your papers down violently, scream out “Forget this!” and walk out triumphantly.

25. Arrange a protest before the exam starts (i. e. Threaten the instructor that whether or not everyone’s done, they are all leaving after one hour to go drink)

26. Show up completely drunk. (Completely drunk means at some point during the exam, you should start crying for mommy).

27. Every now and then, clap twice rapidly. If the instructor asks why, tell him/her in a very derogatory tone, “the light bulb that goes on above my head when I get an idea is hooked up to a clapper. DUH!”

28. Comment on how sexy the instructor is looking that day.

29. Come to the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 minutes, put on a white mask and start yelling “I’m here, the phantom of the opera” until they drag you away.

30. Go to an exam for a class you have no clue about, where you know the class is very small, and the instructor would recognize you if you belonged. Claim that you have been to every lecture. Fight for your right to take the exam.

31. Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say “you don’t really expect me to waste my time on this drivel? Days of our Lives is on!!!”

32. Bring a water pistol with you.

33. From the moment the exam begins, hum the theme to Jeopardy. Ignore the instructor’s requests for you to stop. When they finally get you to leave one way or another, begin whistling the theme to the Bridge on the River Kwai.

34. Start a brawl in the middle of the exam.

35. If the exam is math/science related, make up the longest proofs you could possibly think of. Get pi and imaginary numbers into most equations. If it is a written exam, relate everything to your own life story.

36. Come in wearing a full knight’s outfit, complete with sword and shield.

37. Bring a friend to give you a back massage the entire way through the exam. Insist this person is needed, because you have bad circulation.

38. Bring cheat sheets for another class (make sure this is obvious. . . like history notes for a calculus exam. . . otherwise you’re not just failing, you’re getting kicked out too) and staple them to the exam, with the comment “Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit. “

39. When you walk in, complain about the heat.

40. After you get the exam, call the instructor over, point to any question, ask for the answer. Try to work it out of him/her.

41. One word: Wrestlemania.

42. Bring balloons, blow them up, start throwing them around like they do before concerts start.

43. Try to get people in the room to do the wave.

44. Play frisbee with a friend at the other side of the room.

45. Bring one pencil with a very sharp point. Break the point off your paper. Sharpen the pencil. Repeat this process for one hour.

46. Get deliveries of candy, flowers, balloons, telegrams, etc. . . sent to you every few minutes throughout the exam.

47. During the exam, take apart everything around you. Desks, chairs, anything you can reach.

48. Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.

49. Bring a musical instrument with you, play various tunes. If you are asked to stop, say “it helps me think. ” Bring a copy of the Student Handbook with you, challenging the instructor to find the section on musical instruments during finals. Don’t forget to use the phrase “Told you so”.

50. Answer the exam with the “Top Ten Reasons Why Professor xxxx is a Terrible Teacher”

For your classroom:  http://www.mathteacherstore.com/middle/midlpost/5-8/155101main.htm

On Our Mind:

Reading List:

  • The Alphabet versus the Goddess – Shlain
  • Catching Up or Leading the Way – Zhao
  • The Dumbest Generation- Bauerlein
  • Why Students Don’t Like School – Willingham
  • How People Learn
  • Super Freakonomics – Levitt

Letter:
Mr. TB:  Thanks for letting us know we’ve been out of contact. We had an issue with the xml file which is now fixed.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Pamela Chandler’s students recently completed an activity in which they took a survey about the stressors in their lives. “Students were amazed at how many stressful things they deal with on a daily basis,” said Chandler. After the survey, students brainstormed ways of dealing with those stressors.

Last fall, before parent conferences, Stern asked her advisees to fill out a form designed to gather information about how students felt about school and how they thought their parents would respond to the upcoming advisory conference. “Included on that form was the question What would you like me to discuss with your parents that you feel is difficult for you to address?” said Stern. “Students have brought up the need for privacy, how they are trying hard even if they are not meeting with the results they would like, and that even though they like and respect their parents, they need to try things out for themselves. These can be difficult issues, and parents and the advisor can then discuss how to deal with them so that everybody is happier.”

Things that happen in one minute:
http://www.insurance-quotes-for-you.com/20_Things_That_Happen_In_One_Minute.html

Webspotlight:

Free Books:

This collection features free e-books, mostly classics, that you can read on your computer, smart phone, or Kindle. It includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To learn how to download these ebooks to your computer/mobile device, please visit our eBook Primer.

http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks

LoudLit:
Literature for your eyes and ears.
http://www.loudlit.org/

Top Documentary Films- Free
An aggregation site for documentary films. They don’t host them. Well organized and easy to use. You’ll probably need to download the films.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Newspaper Headline
Create the banner and lead article for your own newspaper.
http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

15 TED Talks for Teachers to Watch Before 2010 by Free Tech 4 Teachers (Richard Byrne)
OK so we’re a little late- you can still watch them.
1. John Wooden on Winning vs. Success.
2. Clifford Stoll Teaches Physics to Eighth Graders.
3. Don’t Eat the Marshmallow
4. Bill Gates Talks About Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.
5. David Merrill Introduces Siftables
6. Tom Wujec – 3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.
7. Jimmy Wales – The Birth of Wikipedia.
8. Julian Treasure – 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.
9. How Cell Phones, Twitter, and Facebook Can Make History.
10. Matthew White Gives the Euphonium a New Voice.
Update: Lead Like the Great Conductors.
Bonus: David Pogue on the Music Wars
Update #2: More reader suggestions
Pranav Mistry – The Thrilling Potential of Sixth Sense Technology.
Benjamin Zander – On Music and Passion
Dan Pink – The Surprising Science of Motivation

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/12/10-ted-talks-for-teachers-to-watch.html

NMSA09:

Integrating Open Education Resources into the Middle School Classroom

Session Description: As school districts struggle in today’s restrictive budget environment, administrators must find innovative options for providing high-quality, standards based curriculum. Open education resources are becoming a viable alternative for how school districts use electronic curricula. The integration of free content not only enhances existing curriculum but also provides educators with a wide array of additional instructional options. This session will demonstrate how teachers and educators can work together to modify, improve, and enhance the material and then share it with other educators.
Very personalized
Based upon curriki. http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Teachers need time to spend playing. It’s not the end but the process that is important.
Teachers generally don’t get time to play. This is the advantage that kids have.
Have teachers evaluate sites.
The World is Open by Curtis Bonk.
The Machine is Using Us – You Tube The Machine is (Changing) Us – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU&feature=channel Curriki: Free membership – just need to register. Use the advanced search to limit searches down quickly. Several different filters are available.
3* – Collection gets a 3, then each individual lesson gets a 3 also.

Digital Manipulation:
http://www.iwanexstudio.com/
Porfolio | Mouse over the images (one is inappropriate for school)

RW7

John Collins Writing
John Collins presenting.  Had a chance to talk with him.  Great introduction.
Make a note of any chapters or topics we will cover in the next few weeks:
idioms
5 paragraph essay
Improving Academic Performance:  What assignments are best?
1.  4-6 paragraph persuasive essay
2.  Friendly letter
3.  Summary
4.  Process paper- explaining how to do something
5.  Personal narrative
6.  Lab report
7.  Compare and contrast essay
8.  Research paper- proving a point with sources
9.  Literary analysis-analyzing literature
10.  Other . . . .
My pics from the list
4-6 paragraph persuasive essay
Summary
Personal narrative
John’s ‘Right Answers’
Compare & Contrast
Persuasive Essay (not supported by research)
Summary
Other:  Vocabulary Cards  (think Frayer Model)
Avril Coxhead

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:
  • Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: “We’re very excited to announce our first ever Google Teacher Academy for Administrators.  Since many of you have been asking for a GTA for Admins for a while, we’ve decided to host the first one immediately preceding the ASCD conference, on Friday, March 5th in San Antonio, Texas.  As you might know, the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment.  Potential applicants include educational leaders or decision makers including (but not limited to) school principals, assistant principals, state, county or district superintendents, technology directors or coordinators, and CTOs who actively serve K-12 teachers and students.  For more information, please check out:  http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html
    OR
    Apply before midnight, January 25th here:  https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA

MSM 101: NMSA09 Wrap Up 6 – The start of a new century! (Ya know … 101 … )

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Jokes:

The teacher says to her new class, “For our first lesson, each of you will stand up, tell us your name, what your father does, spell what your father does, and then explain it to us. All right, Billy. You go first.”

Billy stands up and says, “My name’s Billy. My father’s a lawyer, l-a-w-y-e-r, and he defends people in court.”

The teacher says, “Very good. All right, Benjamin.”

Ben stands up and says, “My name’s Ben. My father’s a pharmacist, f-a-m … f-a-r-n … f-n…”

The teacher says, “Benjamin, you go home tonight and learn how to spell pharmacist. All right, Jennifer.”

Jennifer stands up and says, “My name’s Jennifer. My old man’s a bookie, b-o-o-k-i-e, and if he was here, he’d give you nine-to-five odds Benjamin ain’t spellin’ pharmacist by tomorrow.”

A teacher asked one of the boys in her class,
“Can people predict the future with cards?”
His response is, “My mother can.”
The teacher replies in disbelief, “Really?”
The young boy is quick to explain,
“Yes, she takes one look at my report card and tells me what will happen when my father gets home.”

Who designed Noah’s ark?
An ark-itect! (from Arkansas) …

What did they wear at the Boston Tea Party?
T-Shirts!

When crossing the Delaware River why did George Washington stand up in the boat?
He was afraid that if he sat down that someone would give him an oar to row!

If Atlas supported the world on his shoulders, who supported Atlas?
His wife!

What’s the moral of the story about Jonah and the whale?

On Our Mind:

Interim Executive Director Named:  Dr. Pino
From the NMSA Press Release:

“While National Middle School Association conducts a search for the next leader of the association, the NMSA Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Santo Pino as interim executive director. Dr. Pino will work with the board and staff to continue to advance the work of the organization until a new leader is in place.

Dr. Pino is currently a consultant for schools and districts primarily in the state of Florida and serves as an advisor to the Florida League of Middle Schools. During his career, Dr. Pino has been a principal, a district director of middle level education in Florida and Ohio, and served as president of National Middle School Association (2000-2001). Additionally, Dr. Pino is a core member of the faculty for NMSA’s summer leadership institutes.

The NMSA board and staff are pleased to welcome Dr. Santo Pino.”

Get your tax deduction on school supplies.  (IRS website)

Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Advisory Coat of Arms:
russeltarr Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields – http://tinyurl.com/m2jdfr

Webspotlight:

Interactives

“Interactives” provides educators and students with strategies, content, and activities that can enhance and improve students’ skills in a variety of curricular areas.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/

Money Soap

It pays to get ’em to shower after PE …

Letters

What’s the best way to share documents like in DropBox?  Is there a better program than DropBox?

DropBox Screencast

DropBox Wiki

Easier Said Than Done: Leasons Learned From A Born Again Teacher

Now that I’m back in the classroom teaching, I can honestly say there’s plenty of things that have surprised, saddened and delighted me. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned in only 4 months:

  • It’s Not The Administrators; It’s The Parents.
  • They All Have Computers But They Have Even More Excuses.
  • There’s No More Shame in Admitting We’re Preparing Our Students For The Test
  • It’s Not The Little Stuff That Counts
  • Giftedness is Everything
  • “B” is the new “D”
  • Being Flexible Requires a Willingness to Admit You’re Wrong
  • You Don’t Need to Spend Hours At The Copy Machine
  • Yeah, We Still Need Textbooks
  • The Light Still Shines Bright

http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2009/12/easier-said-than-done-lessons-learned.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AGeekymommasBlog+%28A+GeekyMomma%27s+Blog%29

NMSA09:

Todd Williamson:  8 Internet Tools
(My notes incomplete due to session scheduling.  Complete notes (and a Prezi!) can be found at Todd Williamson’s blog.)
Chatzy
Private Chats.
Edmodo
Private micro-blogging service
Animoto
http://animoto.com/education
xtra normal
www.xtranormal.com
If you can type, you can make movies.
Doesn’t require a sign-in.
Has a place to write the script.
Choose a camera angles.
Alice is a simple programming language between characters.
Similar to xtra, but xtra is simpler.
Make Beliefs Comix  www.makebeliefscomix.com
Easy way to make a comic strip.
Leave it blank and have the kids draw in the background.
Netvibes
RSS feeds.
Public RSS feed page.
www.netvibes.com/sunfish#Science_Feeds (Note:  This sample link is no longer available.)
Twilliamson15 on twitter.

Eight (or more) Tech Tools to Blend into your Classroom

Todd Williamson (See also Shawn’s Notes)

Session Description: This session will focus on web-based tools that allow your students to collaborate, communicate, and create. Join us for a fast-paced (possibly lightening fast) look at eight (or more) tech tools that you can use to enhance your teaching and student learning. Oh, and they’re free too!

Create multiple tabs on one web site. This means that the teacher need only send the students to one URL to see all of the sites. Great tool to solve the problem of students writing down multiple web sites.

No registration needed. Stickies on a wall. Useful as graphic organizer. Students can move the notes around.

Chatzy:

Temporary Chat Room – Free Private Chat

Used to create an engaging environment

Password from the Teacher

Used with a video to keep the kids engaged.

Easy to track what the kids do.

Edmodo

Kids posting in the chat room.

Kids are turning in assignments

Private Microblogging Service – (Think Twitter for a selected group of students).

Code from the teacher.

Kids can only send to everyone or the teacher.

Animoto

Free slide show creation with sound.

Used to create videos from still pictures. Can be used to demonstrate understanding.

Look for educational account which lengthens the videos.

XtraNormal:

If you can type, you can make movies.

Free account allows you to create 1-2 character movies.

Make Beliefs Comix

Comic strips on line

Free and easy to use.

Can have them put the background in after they print.

Can be printed or emailed.

No email or account required.

Multiple characters and multiple expressions are available.

See also:

Wallwisher

virtual stickies.

Netvibes

Allows you to set up Public RSS feeds. You can control the information sources.

Sunfish Learning on netvibes.

ShareTabs:

http://www.sharetabs.com/?8techtools

UD4

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:
  • Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: “We’re very excited to announce our first ever Google Teacher Academy for Administrators.  Since many of you have been asking for a GTA for Admins for a while, we’ve decided to host the first one immediately preceding the ASCD conference, on Friday, March 5th in San Antonio, Texas.  As you might know, the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment.  Potential applicants include educational leaders or decision makers including (but not limited to) school principals, assistant principals, state, county or district superintendents, technology directors or coordinators, and CTOs who actively serve K-12 teachers and students.  For more information, please check out:  http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html
    OR
    Apply before midnight, January 25th here:  https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA “

Podcast 100- NMSA09 Wrap Up 5: Happy Birthday Carol Josel! This is Betaland! (TY GoogleWave …)

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Jokes:

The 36 Rules of Life

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. Don’t worry about what people think, they don’t do it very often.

3. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a muffin in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides nice contrast to the realworld.

25. It ain’t the jeans that make your butt look fat.

26. If you had to identify in one word the reason why the human race has not achieved it’s full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.

27. There is a very fine line between ‘hobby’ and ‘mental illness.’

28. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

29. You should not confuse your career with your life.

30. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

31. Never lick a steak knife.

32. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

33. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

34. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

35. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe we are good drivers.

36. Your friends love you anyway.

(http://gotfunny.leroysjokes.com/2008/08/18/the-36-rules-of-life/)

On Our Mind:

NMSA Director Search!

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Conversation Starter:
Today’s episode of CNN Student News has a short segment in which there is a discussion about the differences in the ways in which male and female students learn. The segment talks about the idea of all male or all female middle schools. This segment could be a good prompt for getting students to reflect and discuss the ways in which they learn.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/12/student-conversation-starter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

Webspotlight:

Proprofs – Online Game Creation

Practicing new skills and learning new facts is often presented as less than exciting, but education does not have to be this way. Good teachers have always known that puzzle games are some of the best ways to get old and young alike well on their way towards mastering a subject area. ProProfs is dedicated to the mission of combining education and entertainment, providing free online puzzles, brain games, and other fun resources to get people actively involved in the learning process.
http://www.proprofs.com/

Free Audio Book: A Christmas Carol

(http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Literature/European-Classics/A-Christmas-Carol/29311)

Footnote:

Footnote helps you find and share historic documents. We are able to bring you many never-before-seen historic documents through our unique partnerships with The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

http://www.footnote.com/

Reading Practice Can Strengthen Brain ‘Highways’

by Jon Hamilton

Intensive reading programs can produce measurable changes in the structure of a child’s brain, according to a study in the journal Neuron. The study found that several different programs improved the integrity of fibers that carry information from one part of the brain to another.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121253104

NMSA09:

Cross-Over Boundaries

Brain research has reported that the brain does not compartmentalize information. “The brain is by nature a pattern-detecting appartus… The focus of this session is on developing curricula that integrates
multiple subjects with arts-based project applications while encouraging use of higher order critical and creative thinking skills, with participants developing curricula suited to their needs through discussion, examples of student work and assessment.
aviary web site. All about integrated teaching. Don’t teach single subject teaching. Art teacher who is big upon cross the boundaries of teaching and learning. Points out the make up of the brain. Teachers need to work together to develop multi-disciplinary lessons.

Getting School Wise:

Carol Josel
(Troy’s Notes)  Session Description: As children reach middle school, pressure builds, coursework and studying demands intensify, and supporting students’ academic efforts with essential learning strategies becomes even more crucial but is often overlooked. This presentation will help teachers incorporate time management, memory techniques, study strategies, 2-column notes, and test-taking skills into their lessons, regardless of the content area. All activities are included in a take-it-with-you packet for immediate classroom use.
www.Schoolwisebooks.com
http://www.schoolwisebooks.com/blog
mailto://carol.schoolwisebooks.com
Move to nationalize standards. Some teachers are being asked to report where they are in every book every 2 weeks.
Salaries tied to student performance. Pretty Good Student by Charles Osgood. 1/3 of states have lowered their standards over the past few years.
Ask students to define time. How structured is your time? If completely structured rank as a 10. Teenagers should get at least 9 hours of sleep a night. Time Activity (see handout pg 64).

Memory Tips:
• Repetition • Recitation • Chunking
Good Books: Demonic Mnenomics
How to Spell It – can look words up by the “wrong” spelling.
DMSCB – Divide/Multiple/Subtract/Check/Bring down (Does McDonald’s See Cheese Burgers)
Kids read more closely just by highlighting. Post-its in the textbook are also helpful. SQ3R
CEU: GR6

(Shawn’s Notes)  Quote:  “Helen Ladd:  “One theory of action seems to be that holding teachers accountable for their student’s scores . . .”
“The Pretty Good Student . . . ” by Charles Osgood.
Time activity
Define time
How efficient are you with your time.  A scale of 1 to 10.
What is your personal time waster?
Kids spend 45.5 hours per week watching television and related activities per week.
Notebook check  (This is an actual, physical notebook)
Ingredients:
Assignment Book
Homework folder
Hole puncher
Small pencil case
22 dividers (+ keyboarding)
Notebook paper
Sample section
Science
Notes
Tests/quizzes
Homework
The Interference and Memory Curve
99-95% crammed at night
80%  by the time the student hits first hour.
50-60% retention by the time of the test.
0% a day or two after the test.
Memory strategies:  Einstein “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Factual knowledge is important also.
Yellow paper activity.
Repetition
Recitation
Chunking
Mnemonics
Book:  Demonic Mnemonics
Book:  How to Spell it
DMSCB
Does McDonald’s Sell Cheese Burgers?
Divide/Multiply/Subtract/Check/Bring Down
Study Skills
Two column note taking
On the left put the question
on the right put the answer.
Students can fold it and then quiz themselves.

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-98 NMSA09 Follow up 3 Get Your Wave ON!

/ , , , /

Jokes:

Real Teachers:

  • cheer when April 1 doesn’t fall on a school day
  • Clutch a pencil when thinking
  • never teach the conjugations of lie and lay to 8th graders.
  • can’t walk past a group of students without straightening up the line.
  • have disjointed necks from constantly looking around 180 degrees
  • can eat lunch in under 3 minutes
  • can predict exactly which parents will show up at Conferences.
  • know the shortest route to the office, bathroom (all of them) and caffeine
  • know that secretaries and custodians run the school.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Pictures of our World. Have students take pictures of “their world”. Have the students narrow down their choices to 1 picture. Discuss why the picture is important.

On Our Mind:

MAMSE: Contact your local MAMSE board member and volunteer to be a Regional Coordinator!

Charter Colleges: Marvin Olasky proposes charter colleges to further democratize education.

Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott

Webspotlight:

Students live in a Digital World. Are schools ready to join them?

Seale and educators across the country are employing an array of digital tools—blogs, wikis, videos, and social media—to tap into their passion for collaborating, creating, and sharing.

“It’s about initiating higher levels of engagement,” says Seale, “and making the learning more self-directed and self-motivated.” “Let’s face it,” she adds, “being literate today means more than reading words on a printed page and writing an essay.”

“I don’t think we yet have a handle on what it really means to be literate in the 21st century,” Fisch acknowledges.

So don’t throw away your copies of To Kill a Mockingbird; even the most fervent Web evangelists believe there is still space for the Great Books. But the bottom line remains: We can’t stop there. Our students are living in a different world.

http://www.nea.org/home/35939.htm

FastPencil: Turn your blog posts into a book. http://ow.ly/E8z3

One of the laments of librarians and English teachers about blogs is the lack of permenance. Once the electrons go away, so does the content. FastPencil can turn blog posts into chapter books for paper books.

What happened to Second Life? BBC questions current model of marketing in virtual environment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8367957.stm

ANKI:

Spaced Repetition

Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS). It helps you remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards, so that you can learn a lot of information with a minimum amount of effort. (Available for Mac/Linux/iPhone-iPod Touch/Windows)

http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html

NMSA09:

Strategies That Motivate Students

Mark McLeod

*Notes from Todd Williamson who took much better notes than I (any errors in transcription though are mine alone):

Session Description: Student engagement is the key to learning for middle school students. This session will explore many teaching strategies and techniques that encourage students to get excited about learning. The presenter will model various strategies that can be used immediately in the classroom. Both veteran and new teachers will leave this session with many powerful, yet practical strategies to motivate today’s middle school students.

Idea of emotional bank account Attitude is the most important thing. There are 2 feat which interfere with success:

• Fear of Embarrassment

• Fear of Failure

Personal life needs to be in order. The kids bring enough baggage. Kids need to be involved or the drop out later. What is the #1 Quality you want in your students?

• • •

Positive Attitude Treat Others with Respect Motivated to Want to Learn

Am I treating everyone in here with the attitudes I expect?

We can’t change other people, we can only change ourselves…so make sure you do that and enjoy what you do.

No one forces anyone to have a great attitude. It’s your choice.

Has everyone spend a few minute encouraging others…return to seats when we hear YMCA, and do YMCAtogether. FUNTIMES!!

Teachers have to be willing to step out and take risks. Take ideas, tweak them to work for yourself, and take the chance to use them.

Many teachers are afraid of embarassment and failure, so they never take risks.

BIGGEST MOTIVATOR: RELATIONSHIPS

Kids bring enough baggage, teacher doesn’t need to bring more into the picture. Make desposits into kids emotional bank accounts. Are we making deposits or withdrawals from our kids accounts? These are not accounts we want closed.

You can’t change what’s in the past, so don’t let it stop you. If you’ve made too many withdrawals in the past, don’t dwell on it, just start making deposits from then on.

Sometimes we have to INTENTIONALLY make deposits until it becomes habit. WE ARE SO INGRAINED AS TEACHERS TO LOOK FOR THINGS TO CORRECT, SOMETIMES WE JUST NEED TO FOCUS ON WHAT ALREADY IS GOOD.

Developing positive relationships doesn’t just happen in the classroom, we have to do it everywhere in life so it becomes habit.

It’s not the teacher that sends students to the office, it’s the environment. Free time and inappropriate conversations happen when positive relationships aren’t established.

AGREE WITH A TWEET BY @MSMATTERS…MARK MCLEOD IS GIVING GREAT ADVICE FOR LIFE AS WELL AS THE CLASSROOM

Students AND Adults both need deposits into their emotional bank accounts. What are some ways to make deposits into students emotional bank accounts?

1. ATTEND GAMES

2. GIVE JOB IN CLASSROOM

3. POSITIVE PARENT CONTACT

4. DISCUSS INTERESTS

5. PRAISE

6. RECOGNIZE BIRTHDAYS

7. STICKERS (haha)

8. REWARDS

9. FOOD

10.NOTICE THINGS FROM OTHER CLASSES SUBJECTS

Adults

1. FOOD

2. SHOW UP FOR SIGNIFICANT EVENTS (DEATHS, ILLNESS, WEDDINGS)

3. LISTEN

4. REWARDS

5. KNOWING WHO KIDS ARE

6. RECOGNITION

Practice attention getting strategies in the classroom…bells, sayings, etc…don’t just tell them, actually practice it.

Students don’t know how to make deposits…we have to help teach them. “Cha-ching” shirts…on the back “Have you made a deposit today?”

2nd Biggest Motivator: Success

Set up students for success…self-motivated students blurt out because they want the thrill of victory

Don’t worry about the blurtter-outers…they’re self-motivated and will learn anyway. Target the kids who never raise their hands and set them up for success.

#1 Questioning Technique to add Tension: Ask, Pause, Call…Tension keeps all engaged, don’t start question with “Suzy, what is…” everyone else tunes out and learning stops. Random name generators add to tension as well. This keeps kids engaged…and no one has to know for sure who’s name is pulled out if you really want to call on a particular student.

#2 Questioning Technique is “Volunteers”…This gives a bad sampling because you get the same volunteers every time. Ask Pause Call with random name generator causes more thinking, from a larger number of students, and allows you to climb up Blooms.

#3 QuestioningTechnique: Choral Response…Have a signal when you want students to respond together, otherwise they won’t know when to start or stop.

#4 Questioning Technique: Signal Response…Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down/Windshield Wiper… Whiteboards…SHOWING WHITEBOARDS WITH A HANDLE, MARKER, AND 4 DIFFERENT COLORS.

Notes: Ross Burkhardt on Writing for Real Reasons

Quote: “Our sincere interest in students’ lives and their opinions is one of the strongest motivators we have. Nothing on earth is so irresistible to a writer as the knowledge that her writing might actually influence someone else’s thoughts or feelings.”

CEU code: EQ7

Why are we using writing as punishment? (Cartoon reference)

NCTE quote: “Conventions of writing are best taught in the context of writing.”

NCTE quote: “When writers actually write, they think of things that they did not have in mind before they begin writing.”

“Writers need a classroom culture that supports writing, a culture in which everyone, including the teacher, is part of a writing community.” Vicki Spandel

“You can’t be what you can’t see.” Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Nov. 2003 in an Atlanta Speech.

The Teacher As Writer

“Almost nothing does more to sustain a culture of writing than a teacher who writes with students, thereby underscoring the importance of writing, and also allowing students to see the process.” Vicki Spandel

“Save all drafts!”

What Ross did in his classroom will not work in our classrooms.

Adapt these writing strategies to your own:

Students

style

setting

Take out a sheet of paper . . .

Activity: Letter of appreciation or acknowlegement.

On the sheet of paper, identify three people that are important to you and why.

It doesn’t matter who they put down on the paper.

Letter to Jack Berckemeyer . . .

Share/Pair instructions

Decide who goes first.

First person shares – 1 minute

Switch

Second Person shares – 1 minute (or so)

Teacher reads a letter of gratitude and then seals it in an envelope.

Real audience

Real person

Shows authenticity

Choose principal, AP, fellow teacher, etc.

Send the student to the person in the sealed envelope that they saw sealed and then point out that they came back empty handed.

Assignment

You’ve identified three people, now write a letter like this to one of those three people.

“Grade is an A. I will not read it.” “If you’d like me to read your letter to help with your grammar and punctuation, I will read it.”

“Tomorrow I will be at the door. Have your letter ready to go when you walk into class tomorrow. Your grade goes down from there if you didn’t turn it in.”

Part Two:

Make three columns on a piece of paper.

Put the number 8 at the top left column.

Put all the things you did (best stuff) in a column. Things you did in 8th grade.

Wherever you stop, draw a line. Write down the best stuff from 7th Grade.

Go around the room and mention one thing. Kids can add as each contributes.

Do the same for 6th Grade

Look over the entire list and pick the three best things you ever did in middle school.

Identify the staff member who was most responsible for making that activity happen.

It’s the last week of school kids, you have a list in front of you the best stuff in middle school and the people who made it happen. What could we do with that information?

Assignment: Write two letters of acknowlegement to staff.

If they want to write to you, they have to write a third letter.

HMP: Holiday Memory Piece

Monday before Friday before Christmas Break.

“Kids, I’m going to read you something and then I’m going to ask you some questions”

There are no questions, lol!

Christmas Eve Exchange . . .

Questions are a little bit about the story . . .

“Ok kids, we’ve got a holiday coming up . . . ” shows a list of holidays.

“On Friday of this week you’re going to share one of your holiday memories.”

Let the Jehovah’s Witness kid talk about not celebrating holidays.

Can’t fail because they can pick from any memory.

They’ve experienced it and it has already happened.

Tell them that they are going to create a public piece of writing.

GOW: Gift of Writing

identify three people who are important to you and briefly describe them.

Share a model of what this writing will look like.

“Tears on the Turnpike”

“In what way is your experience different than your experience of the story?”

She’s in it. She’s a participant.

He gave this piece of writing to his sister as a gift.

Assignment:

Your job is to create a gift of writing to give to an intended audience.

Letter to Self: LTS

The Grade is a B and I will not read it.

Minimum of two pages on the next 5 topics.

Put the heading at the top of the page and you turn in two pages in to me at the door.

Want an A? Turn in three pages.

This honors the narcissism of the adolescent.

This could address the GLCE about creating writers who “want” to write.

Belief informs Action

The 10 Assertions.

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.

“The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”

By Jackson Lacey

Directed by Pam Cardell

December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM

December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM

School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am. Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  • Second Life:
  • No Events specified. Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
  • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 97 – NMSA09 Wrap Up 2, New “Pair-a-dimes” For Schools

/ /

Jokes:

I’m a 7th grade life science teacher, so we often use microscopes.  My room is a retro-fitted science classroom, so I don’t have big lab benches for microscopes – instead I bring in my power cords from Christmas lights. The first time any class uses microscopes, we spend a good ten minutes of class going over the procedure for plugging in and turning on the microscopes.  One particular fifth period I had just instructed the students to plug in the microscope and turn them on – and after sufficient wait time announced “At this point, everybody should be turned on.”  This is when I got some very strange looks from a group of boys in the corner, and all I could do was laugh.

Earlier this year, I was reviewing Celsius/Fahrenheit conversions.  I was explaining to the kids that there was a messy mathematical formula we could use to do these conversions, but for our purposes I helped them out and gave them a side-by-side picture of the two thermometers that they could draw lines across to make the conversions. “This way you all can avoid the getting your hands dirt with all the math for now.”  To which one of my smartalic boys blurted out “But what if we want to do it the dirty way?”  As the rest of the class burst into laughter, I chuckled inwardly and then explained that we’ll have plenty of chances to get our hands dirty in science this year, but this won’t be one of those times.

Kate K.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

MOYA:  Artwork due March 12, 2010

On Our Mind:

MAMSE:  Contact your local MAMSE board member and volunteer to be a Regional Coordinator!

iTunes Comments

iTunes App:  Coverup

Webspotlight:

Students live in a Digital World. Are schools ready to join them?

Seale and educators across the country are employing an array of digital tools—blogs, wikis, videos, and social media—to tap into their passion for collaborating, creating, and sharing.
“It’s about initiating higher levels of engagement,” says Seale, “and making the learning more self-directed and self-motivated.” “Let’s face it,” she adds, “being literate today means more than reading words on a printed page and writing an essay.”
“I don’t think we yet have a handle on what it really means to be literate in the 21st century,” Fisch acknowledges.
So don’t throw away your copies of To Kill a Mockingbird; even the most fervent Web evangelists believe there is still space for the Great Books. But the bottom line remains: We can’t stop there. Our students are living in a different world.
http://www.nea.org/home/35939.htm

NMSA09:

Taking the Challenge Out of Challenging Students – Unlocking the Mystery of Hard-to-Manage Kids

Diana Day
Session Description: You will be prepared to work with disruptive, aggressive, disrespectful, attention-demanding, and unmotivated youngsters. Rather than hearing descriptors of misbehavior, you will leave knowing what to do about it! Learn where to seat them, motivate and set limits for each of these types of students who challenge your authority daily. Knowledge is power. Empower yourself, going home happy and fulfilled. There are ways to deal with difficult students.

adversity reveals character.

Comprehending Massive Psychological Drives

  • Needs massive attention
  • Grow up to be on your faculty
  • No attention – they will act out.
  • Touches, annoys
  • No malice
  • They like their teachers.
  • Need complete attention though.

Typical Adult Reaction:

  • Annoyance
  • Stops but only temporarily.
  • You are their fix for attention.

Response:

  • Always place these students near the area where you teach
  • Praise them in front of the group.
    • Praise a specific, desired behavior.
    • Give praise immediately after the desired response.
  • Never reprimand in front of the group.
    • Explain in advance what you will do when he acts out and then swiftly carry it out.
    • Is helpful if a signal can be given. Give no extra attention during the correction so it doesn’t become reinforcement
  • Time with you is important and should be planned.
    • Earn a privilege for the group
    • As to tell a story about himself or a joke to the entire group.
    • Give awards, commendations, certificates in front of a group.
  • Don’t put multiple of them right next to each other.
  • Less Large Group or Lecture Format Lessons
    • Large group creates opportunities for spotlight.
  • Rotate Leadership
    • Attention Demanders may take over the small group. Change leadership frequently. Assign each person an assigned number 1-4. Change leadership by choosing different numbers to lead the group.
  • You are _______, I want_______ Use this as a redirect.
  • Have a refocus area. Not a time out.

Prime Time activity (Bellwork).
The less you talk when doing discipline, the better. The more you can signal, the better.

Limit Seeking Behavior

  • Have anger or resentment towards authority with malice because of:
  1. Abuse-
  2. Being over-managed at home
  3. Living in home where there are no limits.

Urgent – they want what they want when they want it Talks back – dismisses correction as silly or not about them. Lies- becomes verbally abusive – will talk a lot about simple questions. Fights- power struggles, threatens, cusses, throws things.
Limit Seeking Behavior:
you’ve got to fight all of the battles, you just choose when you fight them.
They want to make you mad. They win by engagement.
Send the kid to the “Buddy Room” – have a card with another room number written on it. Send the kid to another room. Tell the kid that it’s not working with us. Talk later.
This is a specific program.
Kid 3 Motivation lacking student.
Good teacher with lots of information. Not sure how much is actually useable by all of us.

Dr. Debbie Silver:  Helping Teachers Find the “Beat of Their Different Marchers”

The Greatest Teacher Activitiy
Objectives:  To help participants focus on the importance of having the “courage of one’s convictions.”
Time:  13-20 mins.
Materials:  Pre-assigned note cards (for participants to select and list 5 great teachers)
Of those five identify their characteristics and share in a group.
“Who’s got that vision?”  Monte Selby
A young boy carves on the walls of the cave, (check lyrics online)
Pictures shown during the “show”
Ghandi
Mother Theresa.
Mr. Rogers
One of the things we’ve lost is telling our stories about our teaching, growth and experience.  Retell the stories, retell the fundamentals.
Personal Teaching Vision
Objective:  To challenge teachers to fullfill their personal . . .
Sheet:
My Vision for Myself
Name:
Date
Why I became a Teacher . . .
My most noble vision of myself as a teacher ….
What am I going to do over the next few months to reconcile my vision of myself at my greatest with my present circumstances?
Not a group activity.
Have them write this letter to themselves and seal it in an envelope.  Pass it back in three months or so.
Hearing a Different Drummer/Marcher
Directions
1.  On signal close your eyes and keep them closed until instructed to open them.
2.  Follow the directions carefully, but ask no questions and make no comments.
3.  If you find it hard to complete a task, just do the best you can.
Hand on paper
Fold in half and make a crease.
Fold it in half again.
Fold it in half again.
Tear off the right corner.  (unfold if you need to to find the right corner and then refold to tear it folded.)
Flip paper over and tear the right hand corner.
Unfold the paper completely.
Hold it up and look around.
None of the papers should be uniform to the teacher’s “paper”.
What do we need to know about our students in order to give them a REASONABLE chance for success?
Notecard activity.
Handout:  I can do something! (Debbie Silver, 2006).
Student Profiles
What do we need to know?
Reading level
English language proficiency.
Level of adult supervision and involvement at home.
Personal interests
Preferred learning styles
Least favorite things
Fears
Strength areas (Multiple Intelligences)
“Great teachers never lose their Marvels!”
Recognizing differences
Objectives:  to introduce the concept of differentiation
Materials:  Many lemons, one per participant.
Procedures:
Give each teacher a lemon as they come into the meeting and then have them hold it for a while.  Tell them to bond with the lemon and examine the lemon.  Collect part way through the meeting and then at the end dump them out on a table and have them find their lemon.
Even though they are similar, they will find differences and find their lemon.
What does the following run-on sentence say?
i a m n o w h e r e
I am now here
I am no where
Practicing Safe Stress
Two Wolves Inside story
an elder Cherokee Natie American was teaching his grandchildren about life . . .
IALAC  Activity
100 ways to enhance self concept in the classroom.
Killer Statements
I Am Loved And Capable
Tell a story of people having a bad day . . .
Tear away the paper with IALAC on it as you tell all the terrible events of the story or day.
Don’t take stuff away that you don’t give back emotionally to the teacher.
CEU Code LZ9
Website:  www.debbiesilver.com  password:  iamateacher  NMSA 2009 zip file.

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA Annual Conference:  Baltimore 2010.
  2. Month of the Young Adolescent (MOYA) Artwork due March 12, 2010.

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

Podcast 96 NMSA09 Wrap UP #1: Summaries & Why Middle Schools Matter!

/ /

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

2 Truths & a lie – have students make 3 statements: 2 are true, 1 is a lie. Section the room into thirds. Have the other students move to one of sections that they think is the lie.

On Our Mind:

Shout out to March Wells III:  Thanks for being on the podcast with us!
Shout out to our NMSA traveling buddies:  Jennifer Fryzel, Andrea Melaragni, Nancy Kiefer, Kathy MacDonald, March Wells III, Fran Delaney, Vickie Molnar!
Shout out to Dr. M. Monte Tatom and Susie Highley for saying, “HI!”, at the NMSA conference.

MAMSE:  Contact your local MAMSE board member and volunteer to be a Regional Coordinator!

Webspotlight:

Breakthrough Learning Conference:

https://sites.google.com/site/breakthroughforum/home

Triand:

Trusted by thousands, Triand is the
national, state-standards based,
social teaching tool.

Find resources, share lesson plans,
create tests, view reports, make teaching fun.

http://my.triand.com/

NMSA09:

Session 1- 10 ways to scaffold super summaries across the curriculum.

Dr. Lori G. Wilfong Kent State Unversity
Thursday 10:30 am

5 words or less.

  1. Tear a piece of paper into 10 pieces.
  2. Write 1 word on a piece of paper that describes you.
  3. Arrange the words in a way that makes sense to you.
  4. Share with someone.

Write about themselves first. This gets them going.
Scaffold summary writing by having students subtract out the 10 (teacher picks the number) on pieces of paper. Have them arrange the words in a way that makes sense. They then use those 10 words and only those 10 words to create a summary – in full sentences. Can use notecards, sticky notes, scratch paper, etc.

Strategy #2: Class Trip by David Lubar
SWBST: Somebody Wanted But So Then: (Something Wanted But So Now)

Somebody Wanted But So Then
Mr. Pegler To go to the museum
Congress Reform healthcare They can’t agree They keep arguing We still don’t have reform.

One sentence summaries are made easy.
Can also remove the Then if that is a repeated item.

Strategy #3: (See The Most Important Thing by Margaret Wise-Brown)
The Most Important Thing:

  • The Most Important Thing about __________________________ is ____________________
  • Detail
  • Detail
  • Detail
  • But, the most important thing about ____________ is ________________________

Leads to the structure that helps kids do well on standardized tests.

Strategy #4: Found Poetry

  • Taking any piece of prose and turning it into poetry
  • Choose a passage that feels important to you or that exemplifies the text in 75 to 100 words. Write that passage on a piece of paper.
  • Carefully discard the words or phrases that are not that important.
  • Pretend that you have to pay for each word you are keeping and want to pay the minimum.
  • Copy your saved words onto a page.
  • Cite the author

Works with a wide variety of sources. Works with fiction and content.

Strategy #5: Fishbones

  • backbone main idea
  • Supporting details.

Strategy #6: Four-Two-One

  • Individually, generate 4 words or concepts that summarize your learning.
  • With a partner, share 2 words. Together, come up with 2 common words or concepts about the story.
  • In a small team, Share your words. Together, come up with one word or concept that best summarizes your learning about your learning.
  • As a whole group.

Strategy # 7: Final Countdown
(Large Triangle with 1 space on top, 2 in the middle, 3 on the bottom). This is a reverse 3-2-1.

  • Using the Final Countdown template, write the 3 most important details from the story.
  • Write the 2 questions you still have about the story.
  • One way this relates or connects to material previously learned.

Strategy # 8: Vanity Plates

  • Create a personalized license plate about the material.
  • Limited to 8 characters
  • Can expand to symbols as well

Strategy # 9: Magnet Summaries: Similar to 10 words or less.

  • After each paragraph, they substract out the most important word on a sticky.
  • Take each of the words to put them in order.

Strategy # 10 Shaping Up Review Four shapes. Heart, square, triangle, circle:

  • Heart – one thing that you loved learning
  • Square – Four concepts that are important
  • Triangle – 3 most important facts
  • Circle – One all encompassing statement that summarizes all of the important concepts and facts.

All of these strategies can be used to facilitate a written summary.

Shawn’s Session 1:  Dr. Robert Balfanz on Why Middle Grades Matter!
Why Middle Grades Matter
Finding 1 half or more of eventual dropouts can fall off the path to graduation in the middle grades.
Asked how early in the middle grades could we identify students who, without intervention, likely would not graduate.
Wanted reliable and valid inidcators
Collectively wanted the indicators to produce a high yield of future non-graduates.
Four sixth grade indicators emerged
1. Attending less than 80% of the time.
2.  Receiving a poor final behavior grade in a core course.
3.  Failing Mth.
4.  Failing English.
Sixth graders with any one of this indicators had 25% or lower graduation rates.
Colectively indicators identified 40% of all dropouts.
Failed English.
Sixth-graders who fail English have a 1 in 8 chance of making it to the 11th grade on time.
Only 16% graduate on time or with one extra year.
Failed Math
Sixth-graders who fail math have a less than 1 in 5 chance.
Attendance and Behavior are porwerful components of course fialure in 6th Grade.
85% of 6th graders who failed English and 75% of those who failed math also received a poor final behavior mark and/or attended less than 80% of the time.
Note:  There’s usually both a behavior and a grade failure component.  Not happening in isolation.
This is a school engagement issue.
By comparision, students who enter middle school with basic skills, attend regularly, behave and pass their courses are likeley to graduate.
Sixth graders who came to school most days got good behavior makres, passed math and ?English and had basic (not proficient) academic skills had a 69% graduation rate.
In short, middle grades (even high poverty) schools work much better for the students for whom they were tradtionally designed.
The key is that the schools are designed for the kids.
In many large cities or high poverty areas these students are in short supply.  Less than a quarter of the sixth graders might match this description.
Comparison group.
6th graders with 90% attendance, excellent behavior do well.
Extension and replication studies.
Have looked at additional cohorts in Philly.
Analysis has been replicated in six schools.
Major finding
Students in high poverty school districts who successfully navigate grades 6-9 by and large graduate from high school 75% or higher grad rates.
In high poverty school districts 75% of eventual dropouts can be identified in sixth grade.
Students are knocked off course in the early secondary grade by the A,B,C’s
Attendance
Behavior
Course failure
Attendance
No common thresholds across the districts – philly needede to be below 80% attendance to get 75% yield.  Boston needed to be below 90%.
Where you are in the attendance distribution may be a factor, as well as total days missed.
States and districts will need to do their own analyses to identify key attendance thresholds.
Behavior
Philly data indicates that sustained, mild misbehavior is a problematic as behavior that generates suspensions.
Challenge-most districts do not systematically collect data on mild misbehavior, only on suspensions.
Suspensions were predictive through number and type varied by school district, ut may more students in Philadelphia had poor behavior grades than were suspended.  thus suspensions as only behavior indicator may miss a significant number of off-track students.
We need a way to tack mild misbehavior.  This is a key to identification.
Course Perforance
Failing courses in the middle grades was consistently predictive of non-graduation and ropping out across districts.
In most districts, 6th Graders failed only one or two courses.  Failing a single core course typically signaled off-track status.
Only extremely low test scores- below the 5th percetile- on nationally normed tests had predictive power that produced high yields.
The earlier student develop off-track behavior . . .
The onset of adoleescence combined with concentrated, inter-generational poverty creates its own set of risk factors.
The developmental and cognitive challenges all middle grade studetns face-magnified by the freedoms of urban environments and large numbers of studetns with below grade level academic skills,
Neighborhood challenges-gangs and criminal enterprises need young adolescent males.
Family responsibilities brought on by poverty increase in adolescence.
Males are in an empty house somewhere playing x-box and the girls are mostly helping at home.

Thses challenges are met with an inadequate educational response, making matters worese.
Large numbers of studetns with demanding emotional, social, and academic needs in a sub set of middle schools
Insufficient numbers of skilled, stable adults in these schools and neighborhoods.
As a result, middle grade students in high poverty schools begin to disengage from school in large numbers and at a n accelerating rate.
Some stop attending school on regulary.
Flight
Some start acting out and being distruptive
Fight
Some just stop trying and start failing courses
Withdrawl.
Student disengagement precedes involvement with the juvenile justice system and teenage pregnancy.
4-years of resilience.
Finding 2:  Students who enter High School two or more years below grade level struggle to pass standards based courses and exit exams.
Attendance and behavior are the key to achievement over time and graduation.
Effective instruction PLUS student engagement – achievement gains.
Having a good teacher made the largest difference.
Attendance and behavior had additive effects beyond just having a good teacher.
As attendance and behavior improve, it has a doubling effect on achievement.
Implications for Practice
Most of the things we think matters, does matter but with limited impact.
To make progress will need comprehensive strategies.
In addition to good teachers, stron ginstrucitonal programs, and safe and supportive learning environments we will need to pay attention to the ABC’s to improve achievement.
Attendance
We need to measure attendance in informative and actionable manners- Every Absence Needs to Bring a Problem Solving response.
We need to track attendance closer than the average daily attendance.
We need acknowledge good attendance.
Social recognition is better than physical reward.
Half of kids absences are discretionary absences.  They chose to be absent.
Good attendance needs to be recognized regularly through public acknowledgement and social rewards.
For better or wrose need to acknowledge that middle grade students are making independent decisions about rather they are engaged by school.
“How many students are missing 20 or more days a year?”
Behavior and Effort
Need high engagement electives that provide avenues for short term success and positively recognize asymmetrical skill levels in students.
We need to build in short cycle activities to provide recognition.
Need activities that honor and use middle grade students desire for adventure and camaraderie.
Why are they skipping school?  They’re getting adventure and friendship out of it.
Positive behavior needs to be recognized.
Same as attendance.
Organizational and self-management skills need to be taught.
PRAGMATICS!
Course Performance
Quality course work involves the ability to integrate a series of skills and a set of knowledge to produce and intellectual product.  Common benchmark assessments may not measure this.
We need to acknowledge the implication of course grades being more predictivie of eventual success than standardized test scores.  Need common grading rubrics.
We are pressured to make middle school like high school, but this is not right.
We need to create standards that fit the maturation level and cognitive ability.
We need to create high school and college readiness indicators that are meaningful and engaging to middle grade students, and understood by parents.  Think Academic Merit Badges.
We need to get Extra Help Right.
Standard model is to provide extra help by someone else.
Providing extra help on what he doesn’t know isn’t helpful for his need on the test on Friday.  Aim extra help at the stuff he needs for the test coming up in class.
Putting it all together with early warning and Intervention systems.
Focus on effective intervention is not just identification.
Recognize and build on student strengths.
Provide time, training, and support to teachers.
We’ve gone from just teaching to teaching and making sure that kids are staying on track.
Match resources to student needs but practice intervention discipline.
Evaluate the effectiveness of interventions
Measure which ones work and drop the ones that don’t by looking at them with a microscope.
Remember you can get started with the data in your school.
Diplomas Now is designed for the middle and high schools with the greatest number of “off-track” students
1.  Combine whole school reform, national service, and integrated student supports with an early warning indicator system and on-site coordination to provide a full school tiered system for supporting all students.
2.  Continuous monitoring of student performance related to key early warning indicators.
3.  Identification of students who are veering off track by indicator.
Used Americorps volunteers to follow kids as a cohort.
4.  Provide the appropriate interventions.
Diplomas Now Schol Design.
Providing the right support to students at the right time.
information:  See Robert Balfanz’s website to get the powerpoint.
http://www.every1graduates.org  (Presentation Here)
rbalfanz@csos.jhu.edu

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA Annual Conference:  Baltimore 2010.

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 94: What Conferences Will Come: And That’s Why We Like Faygo!

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Shawn & Troy discuss advisory ideas, share some shout outs, spotlight a few web sites, and look forward to the NMSA09 conference.

Jokes:

Computer Class

For a computer programming class, I sat directly across from someone, and our computers were facing away from each other. A few minutes into the class, she got up to leave the room. I reached between our computers and switched the inputs for the keyboards.
She came back and started typing and immediately got a distressed look on her face.
She called the teacher over and explained that no matter what she typed, nothing would happen. The teacher tried everything. By this time I was hiding behind my monitor and quaking red-faced.
I started to type, “Leave me alone!”
They both jumped back, silenced. “What the . . . ” the teacher said. I typed, “I said leave me alone!”
The kid got real upset. “I didn’t do anything to it, I swear!” It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. The conversation between them and HAL 2000 went on for an amazing five minutes.
Me: “Don’t touch me!”
Her: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit your keys that hard.”
Me: “Who do you think you are anyway?!” Etc. Finally, I couldn’t contain myself any longer and fell out of my chair laughing.
After they had realized what I had done, they both turned beet red. Funny, I never got more than a C- in that class.

Faygo Commercial:  YouTube

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

One Letter off Movies:  #oneletteroffmovies

  • Urbane Cowboy
  • A Streetcar Named Desirex
  • Where the Mild Things Are
  • Sat VI
  • Boy Story

Longer Temper:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/10/22/i-like-this-lesson-because-it-make-me-have-a-longer-temper-part-one/

On Our Mind:

Shout out to March Wells III:  Still on dial up….2 hours to download our Podcast.  The Dedicated Listener Award goes to . . .
Shout out to L.C.:  Thanks for the idea- Snag jokes from Reader’s Digest (so you know they’re funny) and then put them into cartoon form.

Should the National Middle School Association change its name?  This was brought up an annual conference or two ago . . .

Oscar the 3 legged wonder dog.

Webspotlight:

Comparison of cell sizes:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

Schoology

Schoology combines social networking with course management to enable students and educators to manage classroom work while having the ability to seamlessly communicate and collaborate through a safe and secure network.

Schoology offers both school-wide implementations and individual subscriptions.

Schoology is an alternative to other course management systems on the market.

As a web-based application, Schoology is able to offer services at a lower price than traditional systems. Being a fully hosted and fully managed system means less headache for your users and support staff. This allows you to spend your time using the system, instead of maintaining it.

The social networking features of Schoology compliment the course manager by allowing for seamless and effortless communication of information.

There is always 100% accountability and 100% transparency. Student actions are always affiliated with a physical student. Anything done on Schoology can be compared to performing this action in person.

https://www.schoology.com/home.php

SlickPlan

SlickPlan is a web-based sitemap/flowchart generator that allows for the creation of free sitemap and flowchart design. SlickPlan was handcrafted with PHP/MySQL and jQuery by the Dayton website design team at Atomic Interactive.

http://www.slickplan.com/

WatchKnow:

The Internet is full of useful information, but it’s disorganized and often unreliable. Despite its problems, the potential of the Internet for education is especially huge. Imagine tapping into that potential. Imagine collecting all the best free educational videos made for children, and making them findable and watchable on one website. Then imagine creating many, many more such videos. Just think: millions of great short videos, and other watchable media, explaining every topic taught in schools, in every major language on Earth.Finally, imagine them all deeply and usefully categorized according to subject, education level, and placed in the order in which topics are typically taught.WatchKnow—as in, “You watch, you know”—has started building this resource.WatchKnow is both a resource for users and also a non-profit, online community that encourages everyone to collect, create, and share free, innovative, educational videos.WatchKnow is now officially launched, after being developed for over a year. Whether you’re a student, a parent, a teacher, or just someone who cares about the education of children, you can now use our service and get involved to make it even better. Please sign up! (But did you know that you can add new videos to our system without signing up? They’ll have to be approved first.)There is no better online cause than the future of our children. And just imagine how fantastic it would be if there were a resource online we could go to, or send our kids to, that would explain every topic they study in school instantly and reliably. Many of the resources needed for such a site already exist online; they just need to be organized.

http://www.watchknow.org/

News:


National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference November 4-6, Indianapolis, IN.
http://www.nmsa.org/annual/

Stress, Control, and the Deprofessionalizing of Teaching:

By Thomas Newkirk

Until fairly recently, psychologists accepted the common-sense view that job stress was directly related to the significance of the decisions being made. The top executive jobs, by this logic, were the most stressful because so much was riding on decisions. And the lower-level positions—the clerks, custodial workers, and receptionists—were less stressful because decisions had less impact. There was less to worry about. All this made a kind of sense.

But it was exactly wrong.

A key word in the advertising copy for these systems is “easy.” Check it out. There is the regular promise that by minutely directing instruction, these systems will relieve the teacher of the stress of planning and decisionmaking and create great results.

It is a Faustian bargain. When teachers lose control of decisionmaking—when they prepare students for tests they have no role in designing (and often no belief in), when they must abandon units they love because there is no longer time, when they must follow the plans designed by others, when they are locked in systems of instruction and evaluation they don’t create or even choose—they will not be relieved of stress.

It will surely be argued that I am too optimistic here, that only a small percentage of teachers can or will take on this more creative work.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08newkirk.h29.html?tkn=SLXFVNI0pzgQlNmS03dWjNd3b5GbnRR0ra9D

What Ted Sizer Meant to Us

By Patrick J. McQuillan
The death this month of Theodore R. Sizer leaves an immense void in the American educational landscape.
Coming at a time that A Nation at Risk would lay a foundation for neoliberal philosophy to dominate U.S. educational policy, Ted Sizer offered an alternative approach to the shortcomings of American education, one rooted in the vision of John Dewey and progressive reform. Based on the research he conducted in high schools across the country that resulted in Horace’s Compromise, Ted highlighted the “compromises” teachers endured while adjusting and adapting to an ineffective system. They were responsible for so many students that they assigned little substantive work. Lacking time to know students well, teachers leveled their expectations to perceived student abilities. To ensure that they “covered” the entire curriculum, many topics were addressed superficially.
Well aware that students were key to any successful reform, Ted advocated “personalizing” student-teacher relationships, ensuring that “faculty knew students as people and learners,” as he would say.
Ted trusted teachers to organize their curriculum and educate their students. Our present emphasis on high-stakes standardized exams sends teachers and students a set of very different messages.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/29/10mcquillan.h29.html?tkn=PPLF+9RZuGGEuUfRwqevXDYZDDbIdJzHfqkX

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  3. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM 93: The Show Name in 140 Characters or Less . . . or Your Money Back.

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Jokes:

Rene Descartes went into his favorite ice cream store and the clerk asked, “would you like your usual ice cream soda, Monsieur Descartes? ” Descartes replied “I think not” and promptly disappeared.

How do we know that the following fractions are in Europe? A/C, X/C and W/C ?

Two Physicists were riding in a hot air balloon and were blown off course sailing over a mountain trail, and were completely lost.

They spotted a jogger running on the trail and they shouted “Can you tell us where we are?”  After a few minutes, the jogger yelled back “You’re up in a balloon.”

One physicists said to the other, “Just our luck to run into a mathematician”. “How do you know he was a mathematician?” asked the other.

“Well, in the first place he took a long time to answer; second, his answer was 100% correct and third, ,it was totally useless.”
If a ham sandwich is better than nothing and Nothing is better than Life, itself, does that mean that a ham sandwich is better than Life itself?

Three statisticians went duck hunting. A duck was approaching and the first statistician shot,And missed the duck by being a foot too high. The secondshot and was a foot too low.  The third cried, “We hit it!”

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

What’s My Line? Cartoon Edition:  http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16000
Take the cartoon, erase the text and let students then create text to fit a scene.  It doesn’t have to relate

On Our Mind:

One of the biggest classroom management mistakes teachers make is that they take disrespectful behavior personally. To quote Tom Hagen speaking to Sonny Corleone in the classic movie The Godfather, “This is business, not personal.”
http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2009/07/31/how-to-handle-disrespectful-students/

Webspotlight:

Create easy flow charts (for Free):
http://www.slickplan.com/

Google Apps for Education Lesson Plans:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/lesson_plans.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=educators_newsletter&utm_medium=email

Museum Virtual Box:
Welcome to Museum Box, This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others
http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php

The CU On-line Handbook:
So while online is not a cure-all or “magic bullet”, it does have the potential to revolutionize how we think about, and deliver education. The future is here. The question is only, “What should we do about it?”
https://www.cudenver.edu/Academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/Handbook/Documents/2009/CU_Online_Handbook_2009.pdf#page=50

News:

Stress, Control, and the Deprofessionalizing of Teaching:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08newkirk.h29.html?tkn=SLXFVNI0pzgQlNmS03dWjNd3b5GbnRR0ra9D

Twitter Lessons in 140 Characters or Less

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
“It’s not a research-based tool,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. “The most important thing to remember is that we have no idea what impact these tools have on learning, and it will take a decade to answer that question.”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08twitter_ep.h29.html?tkn=XTSF0PfbwZav1%2BekG07b5iRl6u4Y9q5vJbpA

Nearly half of Dallas 5th-graders not ready for middle school

As Dallas schools focus on getting all students ready for college, they face a daunting challenge uncovered by a new district tracking system: Almost half of fifth-graders are not even ready for middle school.
To be considered ready for middle school, fifth-graders had to pass the state TAKS exams in reading, math and science, and could not fail more than one core academic class, according to the district’s formula.
“You don’t just get on the college track in high school. You’re really on the college track well before that,” Dahlander said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102209dnmetfifthgrade.3d3bdd1.html

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/65330407.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  3. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

MSM-92: Advisory Cartoons

/ /

Districts ban Facebook & social networking:

Chicago Public Schools:  http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/district-299/2009/08/school-board-bans-facebook-twitter-for-teachers.html
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6639197.html?nid=2413&source=title&rid=140246606
Cyberbullying:  http://cyberbullying.us/blog/teachers-prohibited-from-using-facebook-to-communicate-with-students.html
Should districts ban teachers from social networking?:  http://ow.ly/oEXp
Dallas-Fort Worth area district bans then unbans Social Networking:  http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/McKinney-ISD-May-Pull-Plug-on-Teacher-Student-E-Mail-Text-Ban-61266222.html AND http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/McKinney-ISD-Backs-off-Teacher-Student-E-Mail-Text-Ban-62679187.html
Two Mississippi districts ban social networking:  http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/doh-school-districts-ban-texting-between-teachers-and-students/

Podcast Awards Nominations due October 18th.  http://podcastawards.com/

Jokes:

How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2 How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.


3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals
attend …. Except one. Which animal does not attend?


Correct Answer : The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there.  This tests your memory. Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.


4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and
you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?


Correct Answer:? You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to     Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the
Professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers.    Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals do not have the brains of a four-year-old.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Body Image:  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1130618347958&ref=mf
(Alternate:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqlzBKFPxyE)
(Submitted by AK Jenny)

This idea is simple enough to implement in any size advisory group, in any amount of time, and in any way that best suits the needs of the students and teacher in the group. Students can be asked to list 5, 10, 20, or 25 random things about themselves. Students can create written or verbal lists or both. Lists can be kept private or volunteers can be asked to share them.

Students can be asked to tally how many things they have in common with other students if the lists are shared. Students can be asked to choose their 3 most random things to be explored at a later date, possibly as an assignment in another class. Depending upon how often advisory groups meet and how long each advisory class lasts, the “25 Random Things” can be done in one day or spread out over one week.
http://middle-school-lesson-plans.suite101.com/article.cfm/found_on_facebook_an_advisory_activity

Chad Fry:  Illustration Guy:  http://www.chadfrye.com/  Monster a day for a month.  Not so much an idea as a resource for an advisory . . . http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/notes.php?id=66977838632 .

Webspotlight:

Wolframalpha Homework Day:
http://homeworkday.wolframalpha.com/
Meet us here on October 21, 2009, for the first Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day. This groundbreaking, live interactive web event brings together students and educators from across the country to solve your toughest assignments and explore the power of using Wolfram|Alpha for school, college, and beyond.

Comic Creation Online:
http://www.wittycomics.com/

http://www.toondoo.com/ (Demo)

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

Seven Free software Apps (6 for Mac users):
http://www.digmo.co.uk/news/software/7-free-apps-for-education/

News:

This time, we are starting out with our Brainypics flashcard contest, in which students create interesting sentences and pair them up with memorable pictures as a visual cue.  Between now and Dec. 7, we’ll be selecting 5 Brainypics each week which will qualify for our Grand Prize of $200.  We are also giving out iTunes songs for every 5 Brainypics created and gift cards to the runner ups of the finale.  Full details here: http://brainyflix.com/main/contest_rules.

Growing Up Scripted

And Losing Freedom Along the Way

By Christopher L. Doyle

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/14/07doyle.h29.html?tkn=PPZFBvRZ3nUselC6N3%2FU%2BX%2FYmVRt9PQZn6gb

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

  1. NMSA’s Annual Conference:  NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.  September 30th early registration deadline is approaching  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  2. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference.  Here’s a teaser at TED.
  3. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.  Some hotels are nearing full if not so already.  Special housing rates end October 5th.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

  1. 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.
  2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010.  Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
  3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI.  MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
  4. Theater Education Opportunity:  Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

    “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
    By Jackson Lacey
    Directed by Pam Cardell
    December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
    December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
    School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am.  Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.

  5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available. 
  7. Second Life:
    • No Events specified.  Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled.  See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
    • Video:  Educational Uses of Second Life

Podcast 91: Math, Technology and Oops, Gotta Go!

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Jokes:

Homework usually takes about 90 minutes. Here is how most high school students spend those 90 minutes.

* 15 minutes searching for assignment while reading your text messages.
* 11 minutes calling a friend for the assignment.
* 23 minutes explaining why the teacher is mean and just does not like students.
* 8 minutes in the bathroom.
* 10 minutes getting a snack.
* 7 minutes checking and answering e:mails.
* 6 minutes telling parents that the teacher never explained the assignment.
* 10 minutes sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Mom or Dad to do the assignment.

A mathematician, statistician and accountant were finalist for a position as VP in a large corporation. The hiring committee asked them all the same last question:

The mathematician was first.”How much is 500 plus 500 ?” , they asked”1000″ he replied without hesitation.”Thank you”, they dismissed him.

Next the statistician.”How much is 500 plus 500?””On the average, 1000 with 95 % confidence” replied the statistician”Thank you”, they dismissed him.

Next the accountant.”How much is 500 plus 500?””What would you like it to be?” responded the accountant.They hired the accountant.

LITTLE BOY: “My math teacher is crazy”. MOTHER: “Why?”

LB: “Yesterday she told us that five is 4+1; today she is telling us that five is 3 + 2.”

From the Twitterverse:

* karlyb WOW! – 5th grade math resources by unit: http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/Edtech/edm/5.htm
* karlyb Promethian giveaway contest at The Henry Ford: http://thehenryford.promo.e…
* paulallison Download Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 2 of 3 – Exploring Author’s Craft – TTT171- 10… http://bit.ly/1a4Zq0
* rmbyrne Free Technology for Teachers: Musopen – Free Recordings and Sheet Music http://ff.im/-9yQW0 or http://www.musopen.com/
* cliotech New blog post: Sharing Best Practices is OK! http://bit.ly/GtCzo
* vtdeacon RT @DeborahMersino RT @russeltarr: Great ‘classic’ stories in comic form, awesome : http://tinyurl.com/okjoyc
* Twilliamson15 @paulbogush we have more in common now…I’m quoted in Rick Wormeli’s new book 🙂 …preview at http://snipurl.com/wormelibk
* gardenglen Now available: CALL FOR BETA TESTERS OF NETS DRAFT RUBRIC http://url.ie/2m63
* vtdeacon this looks like a pretty cool lesson on using excel in math class- plus connection to halloween:) http://tinyurl.com/yl9susr
* web20classroom RT @ejulez: by end of 2013, 70% of businesses will have behavior/dress code policies for employees online avatars. http://ow.ly/tEZV
* schoolwise Children’s Good Manners Month and Thank You Notes: http://EzineArticles.com/?i…
* JoHart RT @coletteamber: Laughing at: “pencil metaphor – Leading a Digital School” ( http://bit.ly/EtSFT )
* ambermac OK, I’m moving to Sweden if this keeps up! RT @jeff_andersen Tune in to another invention by the Swedes: http://bit.ly/e8Eoe
* web20classroom Good Advice for School Leaders- Decisions You Can Live With…http://is.gd/4765z

On Our Mind:

Technology:

Project RED
http://projectred.org/

Netbook News (from Twitter)

Larry Ellison’s take on Cloud Computer (think netbooks)

Advisory:

National Children’s Good Manners Month: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=3016989

Middle School Advisory 101
http://middleschooladvisory101.blogspot.com/
Webspotlight:
ClassTools: Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!
http://classtools.net/
See an example:
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=78798&title=Classtools_net

Timeline Creators:

XTimeline
xtimeline is a free web-based timeline. Easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos.
http://www.xtimeline.com/

TimeGlider
There is a time traveler in each of us. Whether you are a litigator or an 8th grader, TimeGlider can quickly enhance your experience of the past, present, and future. Once you’ve explored a TimeGlider timeline, you’ll wonder why you’ve never seen information organized like this before.
http://timeglider.com/index.php

Mind42.com – Mind Mapping software that fits in a browser: http://ow.ly/truL

Seven Free software Apps (6 for Mac users):
http://www.digmo.co.uk/news/software/7-free-apps-for-education/

News:

More Time on Task:
Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, have called attention to the amount of time students spend in school, because school calendars in the United States are based on outdated priorities and are too short to give students the tools they need to compete on a global stage. Since the 1960s, schools nationwide have adhered to 6½-hour days, five days a week, 180 days a year. Individual schools have extended days for students to participate in certain advanced classes or extracurricular programs, but most follow the shorter day, established in a time when farmers needed their children to help out in the fields part of each day, and all day during the summer. Summer vacation didn’t come about because that’s when the swimming pools are open.
There are many who will criticize these suggestions. A seemingly opposite trend is exemplified by an October 2008 study for the American Academy of Pediatricians, which concluded that children are overscheduled, under stress and in need of more unstructured time to play. …cautioning only that “improving the quality of instructional time is at least as important as increasing the quantity of time in school.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091006/OPINION01/910060315/Editorial++Give+kids+time+to+wrap+heads+around+learning

Netbooks:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?&i=61122

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:

1. NMSA’s Annual Conference: NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video: Indianapolis, IN Conference November 5-7, 2009. Individual Registration is now open. September 30th early registration deadline is approaching (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
* Video Competition: NMSA is looking for student based videos for the transitions between events at their annual conference. Information is at their website.
* Indiana schools may apply for a waiver and send their staff to the Friday sessions as a professional development day.
o Steps to obtain waiver request
+ Franklin Community Schools Request (example)
o NMSA teacher session sheet (Note: It only has four, so if you’re not part of the Indiana crew, you’ll want to print one off for each day of the conference.)
+ Concurrent Sessions
o NMSA follow up sheet. (Note: This is geared to the Indiana group. I would suggest simplifying this for your own group.)
2. ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall. Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus. With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference? There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love: our students. Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless. Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details. Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.
3. Dan Pink is keynoting the conference. Here’s a teaser at TED.
4. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available. Some hotels are nearing full if not so already. Special housing rates end October 5th.
5. NMSA 09 Conference Connection: Stay connected before, during, and after the conference! Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!

Other News:

1. 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.
2. The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting.
* OMLA Registration Form
* OMLA Presentation Form
3. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
* MAMSE Exhibitor Form
* MAMSE Registration Form
* MAMSE Presentation Form
4. Theater Education Opportunity: Eastern Michigan University’s Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season.

“The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird”
By Jackson Lacey
Directed by Pam Cardell
December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM
December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM
School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am. Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free.
5. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
6. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
7. Second Life:
* No Events specified. Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
* Video: Educational Uses of Second Life

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