Tag: middle school

MSM, PodcastBy Troy Patterson, , ,

MSM 412: Very Transform your class, Very Read this, or that, or the other thing. It’d be a Very, Very, Very good thing.

Jokes You Can Use:  

What’s the favorite part of computer for an astronaut?

  • The space bar

Why will you always find yogurt at Art exhibits?

  • It’s cultured

What do you call an apology letter written in dots and dashes?

  • A Remorse letter

How did the hipster burn his mouth?

  • He drank his coffee before it was cool

What do you get from a pampered cow?

  • Spoiled milk

Why is it frustrating to eat next to basketball players?

  • They dribble all the time.

How many times can you subtract 10 from 100?

  • Once, the next time you would be subtracting from 90

I got my daughter a fridge for her Christmas.

  • I can’t wait to see her face light up when she opens it.

How can you turn root beer into beer?

  • Pour it into a square glass

Why did the nurse always have a red pen at work?

  • In case, she needs to draw.

Eileen Award:  

  • iTunes:  Dave Bydlowski

Advisory:

Heartburn

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Bottle Flipping, Part 1

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

In this issue, I read the article, “Bottle Flipping,” written by Douglas Llewellyn and Aaron Shafer.  The purpose of the article was to integrate pop culture into the science classroom. In this first of a three-part podcast series we look at the first day of the 5 – E Instructional Lesson — Engage.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2018/12/7_Middle_School_Science_Minute__Bottle_Flipping_Part_1.html

From the Twitterverse:  

Beth Houf‏ @BethHouf

Hey, hey PLN! We are preparing for a classroom management strategy slam! What is your favorite tip or tool? Pics encouraged! (and yes, relationships, relationships, relationships is first, next and always!) #leadlap #tlap #principalsinaction #bfc530 #KidsDeserveIt

Chad Frye‏ @ModestlyChad

Had a GREAT time last night at the Warner Bros. Studio holiday party. These are some of the folks who are working hard to cook up some “Green Eggs & Ham” which will one day be served on Netflix. #animation #WarnerBros #Burbank #DrSeuss #Christmas #party #snow


TCEA‏ @TCEA Dec 3

Get your student coders in the holiday spirit with these fun lesson plans! From coding the perfect snowflake to making a elf dance video, there’s computational merriment for all! #HourofCode http://ly.tcea.org/SantaTracker  #DigLn #SantaTracker #Google

Ditch That Textbook‏ @DitchThatTxtbk

20 video project ideas to engage students Create a personal narrative Record interviews Make a tour Record stop-motion animation More UPDATED ideas & resources! http://wp.me/p3bT67-l6  via @jmattmiller #ditchbook


Kandi Hogue‏ @khogue714

Students now race to see who can film their @Flipgrid first! They LOVE my new pod. #FlipgridFever

Lacey London‏ @thelaceylondon

A VERY good list for every writer to use… #amwriting #writerslife


Steven Weber‏ @curriculumblog

A4: This is some of the best advice I have seen on mistakes and a culture of risk-taking in schools #LeadUpChat


Alice Keeler‏ @alicekeeler

Google Classroom Student Chooser Feature – https://alicekeeler.com/2018/10/12/google-classroom-student-choose-feature/ …


Kelly Malloy‏ @kellys3ps

20 Teacher’s Gifts Under $20 https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/an-apple-for-teacher-5254727/20-teachers-gifts-under-dollar20-6678689515 … on @bloglovin

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

Strategies:

Transforming the First Ten Minutes of Class

“You know what the problem is with kids these days? They don’t read!”

On the first day of school, my students and I met in the library. Instead of going over a syllabus or introducing course expectations, the librarians and I gave brief book talks, sharing novels we had read or that we knew were well-received by young adults. When I invited my juniors to choose a book to read, they stared at me blankly.

Their first homework assignment was to write me a letter about their relationship with reading.

https://medium.com/@heinemann/transforming-the-first-ten-minutes-of-class-ab1f19a18cf9

The Essentials of Visual Learning and Teaching

The Essentials of Visual Learning and Teaching

Resources:

5 Printable Game Boards to Turn Curriculum Review into Fun

Download these and adapt to your curriculum. Or, have the students create games based on similar boards.

5 Printable Game Boards to Turn Curriculum Review into Fun

Panosian by Chris Anderson  

Teaching the Holocaust?  Remember the Armenian Genocide?  In Michigan, schools are required to teach the topic of genocide.  There are lots of resources on the Holocaust during World War II, but there have been others.  Panosian is a biography of Dr. Edward Panosian who recounts the Armenian Genocide as experienced by his family.  Historian Chris Anderson sections the work into workable pieces.

  • ISBN-10: 0996160590
  • ISBN-13: 978-0996160599

Convert PDF’s

No ads. No registration.

https://easypdf.com/

Web Spotlight:

Christmas Tree Ornament Calculator

Welcome to the Christmas tree calculator, where you will find how to decorate your Christmas tree in the best way. Take a look at the perfect Christmas tree formula prepared by math professors and improved by physicists. Plan in advance how many lights and decorations you’ll need!

https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/christmas-tree

Beyond the midterms: Helping students overcome the impact of No Child Left Behind

We each use a structure for midterm exams in which we distribute a series of questions well in advance of the test day. Students are told that the test will include a subset of these questions. No surprises.

When they spoke in class, our students were just as knowledgeable as their counterparts a decade ago—perhaps even more so. But the mere thought of a written exam created palpable fear in our classrooms.

Here’s a thought: Today’s juniors in college are the first cohort of students who spent their entire public education under the educational reform law known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

NCLB created sweeping reforms that would leave an indelible mark on teachers and students alike. It promised to refashion education, with a sharp focus on reading and mathematics and little time for extras like social studies, physical education, music, or recess.

Scientific research strongly suggests that testing helps students learn. Yet, for this to be the case, it is important to give the right kind of tests. Those adopted by the states in response to NCLB were largely fill-in-the-blank, one-right-answer tests that never asked students to defend a position or to find different pathways to come to a defensible conclusion.

Our students are, not surprisingly, very good at memorizing and regurgitating small bits of information—as far as we can discern, they are better at this than past cohorts.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2018/11/21/beyond-the-midterms-helping-students-overcome-the-impact-of-no-child-left-behind/#annotations:Z8m3rPWFEeiSSpuAB8SARA

Random Thoughts . . .  

Happy Birthday to Troy Patterson and Carol Josel.  

Personal Web Site  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

advisory, MSM, NMSA09, PodcastBy Troy Patterson, , , ,

MSM-104-The Terrible 2’s (There are 52 weeks in a year . . . well, you get it.)

Jokes:

Buddaist Monk walks into a restaurant. What can I get you?
Make me one with everything.
Thanks Steven

On Our Mind:

Thanks to you, we’re a Top 20 podcast in K-12 education. Please help us by voting on iTunes.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Masters of Disaster:


http://www.redcross.org/preparedness/educatorsmodule/ed-cd-6-8-main-menu-1.html

Try this with your Advisory:
tremellino Three Swedish switched witches watch three Swiss Swatch watch switches. Which Swedish switched witch watch which Swiss Swatch watch switch?

Webspotlight:

A National Yardstick for Gauging Math Progress

States Show Uneven Performance; Even Top Achievers Fall Short

By Christopher B. Swanson

To complement Quality Counts 2010’s exploration of reinvigorated interest in common standards and assessments on the national stage, the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center conducted an original analysis intended to help ground these dynamic debates in a firm understanding of state performance in one core academic area.

Geography matters. Where a student lives affects his or her chances of benefiting from known correlates of achievement and attainment. Those would include exposure to a middle school curriculum that places students on track for advanced coursetaking during high school, as well as the opportunity to learn from experienced and well-qualified math teachers.
For example, only one out of five students nationally attends a school where taking algebra by the 8th grade is the norm. However, the index shows tremendous cross-state variability in this opportunity indicator, with virtually no 8th graders attending such schools in some states, compared with more than half in California.
A closer investigation of Math Progress Index data reveals that states where poor students have more-equal access to experienced math teachers also tend to post significantly smaller math-achievement gaps. This is, just to be clear, correlation and not causation.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17math.h29.html?tkn=R[MF4Qzo6orsW67cZxBzNGAHZdia9LvSag4Z
http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2010/17overview.h29.math.pdf

Debunking the Case for National Standards

By Alfie Kohn

I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does.
A decade ago, many of us thought we had hit bottom—until the floor gave way and we found ourselves in a basement we didn’t know existed. Now every state had to test every student every year in grades 3-8, judging them (and their schools) almost exclusively by test scores and hurting the schools that needed the most help. Ludicrously unrealistic proficiency targets suggested that the federal law responsible was intended to sabotage rather than improve public education.

  • Let’s be clear about this latest initiative, which is being spearheaded by politicians, corporate CEOs, and companies that produce standardized tests. First, what they’re trying to sell us are national standards. They carefully point out that the effort isn’t driven by the federal government. But if all, or nearly all, states end up adopting identical mandates, that distinction doesn’t amount to much.
  • Second, these standards will inevitably be accompanied by a national standardized test.
  • Third, a relatively small group of experts—far from classrooms—will be designing standards, test questions, and curricula for the rest of us.

Advocates of national standards say they want all (American) students to attain excellence, no matter where they happen to live. The problem is that excellence is being confused with entirely different attributes, such as uniformity, rigor, specificity, and victory.

…common-core-standards Web site, don’t bother looking for words like “exploration,” “intrinsic motivation,” “developmentally appropriate,” or “democracy.” Instead, the very first sentence contains the phrase “success in the global economy,” followed immediately by “America’s competitive edge.”

Yes, we want excellent teaching and learning for all—although our emphasis should be less on achievement (read: test scores) than on students’ achievements. Offered a list of standards, we should scrutinize each one, but also ask who came up with them and for what purpose. Is there room for discussion and disagreement—and not just by experts—regarding what, and how, we’re teaching and how authentic our criteria are for judging success? Or is this a matter of “obey or else,” with tests to enforce compliance?
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17kohn-comm.h29.html?tkn=WXUFzMageZQH55f62llSx04pEy9h1dTAV7g0

Walnut school adds iPod touch to three Rs

By Caroline An, Staff Writer

With their headphones and iPod Touch machines on, Beatrice Azanza’s 20 third grade students were geared up for an afternoon of reading and math.
After a lesson on addition and subtraction, Azanza’s students can get on the iPod Touch, launch the Basic Math application, and test how quickly they can solve a set of problems. The fun, Azanza said, is endless.
In September, Azanza’s class was chosen for a pilot program to gauge if students’ English comprehension and fluency improved with daily use of the iPod Touch. Oswalt Academy is already using technology in the classrooms, having implemented a One to One Laptop Learning Program two years ago. Currently, fifth through seventh grade students use computers with pre-loaded textbooks and other applications, said Astrid Ramirez, Oswalt’s principal. Oswalt was recently named one of eight schools in California as an Apple Distinguished School.

Azanza said to help students improve their reading and comprehension skills, she will have to listen to a book on iPod Touch so they can hear the different intonations and where the pauses are. After that, the students will record themselves reading the same story.

The idea is to have an audio archive so students can hear how they have improved over the weeks.

“It’s also for the parents, too. I’m going to play them during parents conferences so they hear their child’s progress,” she said.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_14161816

Epson has new “short throw” data projectors.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2009/11/04/epson-introduces-two-ultra-short-throw-projectors-designed-with-k-12-education-in-mind/

NMSA09:

Teaching in 4-D:  Rick Wormeli Closing Keynote
Expertise
What elements of This We Believe have we really integrated into our teaching?
We teach in ways they best learn, not we best learn.
Teachers have their own secret code so the kids don’t know what’s going on:  Cursive.
We don’t settle for this reality in exchange of a potential reality.
“I don’t know” gets the response of “If you did know, what would you say?”
Fine arts gives dimension and meaning!
Kids need to eat every 90 mins. or they lose cognition.
Irritability is the first sign of dehydration.
Creativity
Mantra of the middle school teacher is “Let me get out of the way.”  Open up all the possibilities for our students to express what they have learned.
(example:  juggling illustration of ethos, pathos, and logos.)
We need to teach our kids how to ask good questions.  Really GOOD questions.
Thems that ask the questions are doin’ the learning!
Teach in different ways.
How would you teach if you couldn’t give homework?
How would you teach if there wasn’t long term memory?
Failure
Concerned with the demonization of failure.
Differentiate the assessment if the assessment is not the product.
The person who never makes mistakes takes his orders from one who does.
Go beyond the “Gotcha/Caughtcha” mentality.
Rim Waver:  the child digs a pit and the teacher stands at the rim and waves . . .
Your job is to jump into the pit and tell the kid, “I’ve been here before.  I know the way out.”
Our commission:  I teach so that you can learn.
Redos
Let them redo.  Every real world test does!
Make them do a letter about what they learned if they do a redo
Make it a learning experience (a small hassle) to redo, but let them redo.
Get them to get permission from their parent to do a redo.
Charge $5.00 to do a redo and finance the budget.
Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the judgement that something else is more important than that fear.  (Horace Redmoon?)
Collaboration
There is a democratization of knowledge.
Kids can check your facts.
We do all this stuff together.
We become a bright, shining community …
Full use of personal technology!
Narcissism
Facebook, MySpace:  We’re creating an online culture where people only visit sites that are familiar.
We need to expose our students to multiple sources of information.
Join a listserv (MiddleTalk Rules!)
Write a letter to yourself about all you learned here at the conference and then seal it in an envelope and give it to a friend to mail to you in six months as a
way to re-ignite the fire from the conference.
… that can become the echo (slide changes before I can finish …)
Doubt is the compass rose to an educator.
Who’s voice is not being heard?
How do our metaphors limit us?
Core classes (What are the others then?)
LD  (Learn Differently or Learning Disabled?)
What is the role of homework?
Does it matter WHEN he learns it?
The General Westmoreland paratrooper story.
We need to hang out with the folks who inspire us to be better teachers.
Fight the good fight more than 50% of the time.
Go out and ask the important questions and inspire the next generation.
This, we believe . . .
Video:  The Perfect Teacher, an Instructional Lesson in …  Instruction!
Sound of Music clip.

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 “

advisory, MSM, TechBy Shawn McGirr,

Podcast 87: Back to School Special

Jokes:

With four daughters and one son always dashing to school activities and part-time jobs, our schedule was hectic.

To add to this, we kept running out of household supplies.

I instructed them all to let me know when they used the last of any item by writing it down on a note pad on the refrigerator.

As a reminder, I wrote at the top: “IF WE ARE OUT OF IT, WRITE IT DOWN.”

When I checked the pad a few days later, to my delight I found the following message:

“MOM, YOU MAY BE A BIT OLD-FASHIONED, BUT YOU ARE NOT ‘OUT OF IT.”‘

Things Mom Would Never Say

“How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?”

“Yeah, I used to skip school a lot, too”

“Just leave all the lights on … it makes the house look more cheery”

“Let me smell that shirt — Yeah, it’s good for another week”

“Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey. I’ll be glad to feed and walk him every day”

“Well, if Timmy’s mom says it’s OK, that’s good enough for me.”

“The curfew is just a general time to shoot for. It’s not like I’m running a prison around here.”

“I don’t have a tissue with me … just use your sleeve”

“Don’t bother wearing a jacket – the wind-chill is bound to improve”

Shout outs:

From the Twitterverse:

  • Frideswidel Starting to feel the excitement of first day back with kids. Anybody else not get any sleep the night before “The First Day”?
  • JohnMikulski The best part of another school year is getting new shoes.
  • mrichme If anyone is looking for an ASUS netbook woot.com has an excellent deal today $149.99.
  • annemareemoore come see our students experience Indigenous Culture . Feel free to add your comment at
  • russeltarr The 7 Most Impressive Libraries Throughout History: http://tinyurl.com/mkbl44
  • rrmurry “Teaching Naked” at 7th grade level — it works and is great. End class one day w/video to discuss next day. http://e4z2m.tk
  • AngelaMaiers: Soungle.com – Royalty Free Sound Effects (FX) Library for Download http://ow.ly/oWMc
  • AngelaMaiers: 100 Mobile Tools for Teachers – Tips – Mobile Maven http://ow.ly/oDRA
  • gardenglen intriguing idea why 2 not teach fractions from Penn State 60 sec. Lectures: http://url.ie/2exj
  • deangroom and finally today “Smart learners will find teachers who speak their own language” – go with honour ppl
  • http://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2009/09/free-medieval-history-courses.html

NMSA Goal Setting

Webspotlight:

Book Suggestions:
http://www.toreadnext.com/

Middle School “Dos and Don’ts”
http://www.teachersfirst.com/20/getsource.cfm?id=7594

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/08/three-student-planners-organization.html

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives:
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vLibrary.html

What’s on our Mind:

Mindset:

The Graphing Calculator Story:  http://www.pacifict.com/Story/  Video:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567#

1.  How do your regional coordinators stay in contact with you?
2.  Are you a member of your state’s middle school association?
3.  Have you ever attended another state’s middle school association annual conference?
4.  What did you do to survive the first day of school?
5.  Reading a book called “Readicide” at the moment.

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.  (Use MAMSE09 as your source code.)
  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.
  5. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
  6. Bob Spears does an interview on the Evolution of Advisory on NMSA’s podcast.

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. The Wisconsin Association of Middle Level Educators is holding their Annual Conference October 8-9, 2009.
  5. 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.

  6. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  7. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  Archived content is available.  This week’s session:  “Web 2.0 Tools Demonstration Using Prezi” by Steve Dembo of the Discovery Education Network.
  8. 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

PlayPlay

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MSM, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson, ,

MSM-85 Taken to Task

Joke:

This simple page of alleged creative writing quotations gave me multiple chuckles, fueled with snippets like these:

  • “They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.”
  • “John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.”
  • “He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.”

Shout outs:

  1. Todd Williamson:  Audio response. (Visit Todd at http://thetechnorateteacher.wordpress.com )
  2. Dr. Debra Franciosi:

From the Twitterverse:

FeedBack:

I came across this podcast for the first time today, and while significant time has passed, I cannot let this go without comment. While some parts of your program were interesting, I was disappointed in your lack of critical analysis of the reading research. (Yes, I am in a biased position on this, being employed by one of the study treatment companies, but my doctoral work in ed and research came before my latest venture with CRISS, and there is injustice in this!) You (along with an Ed Week reporter, etc) shared that “none of them [treatments] are effective”. The fact is, a null effect or no positive effect in statistical research does NOT mean a treatment is ineffective. It means they didn’t find results — and that can be for a variety of reasons, including faulty research design. Having read the research report and talked to teachers and trainers (for CRISS), I know that the design was flawed, as was the way the researchers grouped the info. CRISS is the only one of the treatments that is a professional development program, NOT a canned curriculum. All four were treated as the same thing. Even if the design wasn’t flawed, the researchers themselves stated that the study demonstrates likely outcomes in a “typical” implementation. In the case of many of the sites CRISS worked with, teachers had NO input into their participation and therefore NO BUY-IN. Some teachers did not show up for the trainings, but the test data was kept in the mix anyway. It makes no sense.
Before I started working for CRISS last September, I taught middle school for 9 years and was the 6-12 Literacy Specialist for 3. We implemented CRISS at the high school and the teachers that participated loved it and used what they learned — and saw positive results. But it takes time (3 years to get teachers fully implementing, with regular support); changing pedagogy isn’t easy.
That said, gentlemen, I ask that you revisit adolescent literacy again — maybe after looking at the report that came out last spring(Ed Week March or April?)that noted that random control/treatment studies done by the IES are consistently coming out with null effects. It appears that education does not fit into that paradigm of research design. Kids aren’t widgets, and you can’t control for all the chaos that human subjects bring to public schools. There ARE concrete things educators can do to improve students’ literacy. No canned program (or professional development, for that matter) required.
Thanks!
Dr. Debra Franciosi

California should fund Music:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/30/EDQ01910HK.DTL

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.
  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. NMSA 09 Housing Information now available.
  4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
  5. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced:  Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
  6. NMSA has a new publication on the role of middle grades in drop-out prevention.  You can download it as a pdf file.
  7. Middle Level Promise and Practice Moorhead, Minnesota August 5, 2009
    Speakers: Mark McCleod & Monte Selby

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 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!
  3. 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

  4. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  5. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on “Telling Stories with Digital Threads“ for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  6. 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

advisory, Podcast, Tech, UncategorizedBy Troy Patterson, ,

Podcast 77: Wasting Money, Effective Teachers and Google Docs Fu

A school teacher injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. He wore it under his shirt and it was not noticeable at all. On the first day of the term, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the toughest class in the school. Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible and then busied himself with desk work. The classroom became a bit unruly and he admonished them. This happened several times. While working at his desk, the strong breeze from the window made his tie flap annoyingly. He kept rearranging and rearranging the tie as the class become more and more unmanageable. Finally, becoming disgusted with the wayward tie, he stood up and took a big stapler off his desk and stapled the tie to his chest in several places. Discipline was not a problem from that day forth.

Advisory! Advisory! Advisory!

A New Zealand man fled with his girlfriend after receiving millions of dollars in a banking error.
http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2009/05/its-not-often-that-new-zealand-gets-a-mention-on-the-english-blog-but-heres-a-story-from-the-times-which-would-make-a-good-s.html

From the Twitterverse:

* AngelaMaiers RT@cristama…this year has transformed me (and my teaching) in so many ways. (I feel the same- so much I owe to PLN!)
* shareski Kramer on Openness and Transparency. @courosa you should use this in a presentation http://bit.ly/lV1Bo
* AngelaMaiers RT @Zweibz7 @problogger: if there’s one lesson I’ve learned this week it is – ‘build your network before you need it’.
* paulallison Looking for stories about resilient students in your classroom: First a request, then an invitation. (If you’ve .. http://tinyurl.com/nmvh8f
* AngelaMaiers RT @education_com @BNBuzz – giving free book 2 kids who complete summer reading program http://bit.ly/bU2pj

Shout Outs:
Thanks to our Robert Jackson in Kiev for the link to the Aspire One as Kindle.

News:
Report: Costly plan failed to improve schools
A $100 million investment in Miami-Dade County’s lowest performing public schools failed to boost student achievement, according to the school district’s final report on the program. The School Improvement Zone was a three-year push at 39 elementary, middle and senior high schools throughout the county. Students participated in a specialized reading program and had a longer school day than students at other schools. They also had a longer school year. ”The zone program exhibited at best an inconsistent impact that was limited to the elementary grades,” program evaluators wrote. The report also noted that the extended school year — starting a week early and tacking extra days onto the end — was ineffective.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1049341.html

New CEO: Gates Foundation learns from experiments
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent billions of dollars exploring the idea that smaller high schools might result in higher graduation rates and better test scores. Instead, it found that the key to better education is not necessarily smaller schools but more effective teachers.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBfu1Zu7aIsLeH_NGiMaHbc4AEnQD98F58R80

Senate bill supports 21st-century skills
Shelley Pasnik, director of the Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology, said she is pleased to see the bill addresses more than simply putting more technology into schools. “Students need to go beyond just learning today’s academic context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, communications skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills, and information and media literacy skills,” the bill reads.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58949

School counselors face big workload in Illinois
Bartlett High School counselor Stephanie Fullhart has been keeping track of nearly 340 students this year, an overwhelming caseload in the eyes of many counselors. Of the 10 states with the largest school populations, Illinois’s ratio was second only to California, which had 966 students per counselor in 2006-07. The ratios are calculated by dividing a state’s prekindergarten-to-Grade 12 enrollment by the number of guidance counselors reported to the federal government. There is little public pressure to add counselors. Parents usually pay more attention to the number of students per teacher. “We need to start getting the word out about who professional school counselors are, so administrators see them as pivotal in making school change,” said Christina Nolan, president of the Illinois School Counselor Association and an assistant professor at National-Louis University.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-counselors-west-zone-27-may27,0,3192041.story

Human anatomy for everyone!
You don’t have to leave home to take an interesting class. You don’t even have to pay. By Linda K. Wertheimer

Not all higher education costs a pretty penny. You can peek into some college classrooms around the world, experience lectures in text, audio, or video at any time, and, in some cases, take the final, all without leaving home — and all for free.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/05/31/human_anatomy_for_everyone/
Teaching Ideas:
Using Google Docs Spreadsheet for Education:
1. Flash Cards
2. Word Study
3. Word Search
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/05/spotlight-on-developers-educational.html

Twenty Interesting Ways* to use Google Docs in the Classroom(*and Tips)

http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_8323t58h3ft

1. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection: Stay connected before, during, and after the conference! Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
5. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced: Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
6. NMSA has a new publication on the role of middle grades in drop-out prevention. You can download it as a pdf file.
7. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C. Conference registration info.
8. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
9. 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.
10. 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!
11. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
12. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: This week’s discussion is on “Student Web Radio Broadcasts” for Teachers. Archived content is available.
13. 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: Play in new window | Download

advisory, MSMBy Troy Patterson, , ,

Podcast 76 Reading & iPods

  1. Nominate an outstanding teacher for the John Lounsbury Award!  Deadline:  June 1, 2009
  2. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
  6. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced:  Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
  7. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C.  Conference registration info.
  8. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
  9. 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.
  10. 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!
  11. Brainyflix extends their “video vocabulary” contest to May 22, 2009.
  12. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  13. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on “Mathcasts” for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  14. 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
    • There is a conference being held by ISTE in Second Life, wander over to the auditorium behind the Headquarters to check it out.
    • Training on Presentation Tools (part 1) May 16, 2 to 4 pm.

Advisory!  Advisory!  Advisory!

  1. Duct tape a kid to the wall . . .
  2. What’s in a cigarette? http://middleschooladvisory101.blogspot.com/
  3. The Quiz: http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/Quotation-Quizzes/h/Humorous-Quotations-Quiz.asp

From the Twitterverse:

Shout Outs:

  1. Thanks to Jenny Anteau for the mention in her PLN presentation!

Web Sitings:

http://etymonline.com/ Dean Shareski’s blog.
http://www.monteselby.com/

A CRITICAL MISSION:  Making Adolescent Reading an Immediate Priority in SREB States

Nationwide, students in the middle grades and high school are failing to develop the
reading and writing skills they need in order to meet higher academic standards later
in their educational careers.

While most of the 16 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have seen
recent gains in reading achievement in the early grades, the same cannot be said
of achievement in the middle grades and high school. There is also evidence that
students who struggle to meet academic standards in subjects such as science and
mathematics have poor reading skills.
The good news is clear: We now know how to solve this problem.

Too many students begin to fall behind in reading after they leave the early grades.
By ninth grade, many struggling readers are destined to become high school
dropouts. By college, one in four freshmen must take remedial reading classes —
and few of these students finish a degree.

Students who leave eighth grade with weak reading skills quickly fall behind in
high school. More students in SREB states repeat ninth grade than any other grade,
swelling ninth-grade enrollment by 14 percent in the SREB median states in 2005.
Students who falter in ninth grade are likely to become high school dropouts.

Although formal reading instruction stops after the early grades for most public
school students, many researchers and educators now realize that it should continue
through high school. Reading skills do not advance automatically, even for students
who read at grade level when they begin the middle grades. While most students
continue to develop speaking skills naturally, they do not develop advanced reading
skills on their own — particularly the ones they need for success in high school and
college.

“Most [teachers] devote little, if any, class time to showing students, explicitly, what
it means to be a good reader or writer in the given subject area. And most students
engage in very little discussion of what they have read,” according to a 2007 Alliance
for Excellent Education report.

Across the country, states have an obligation to take immediate action to improve
students’ reading and writing skills. Accordingly, the Committee recommends that
each state set policies that will lead to improved practices at the state, district and
school levels. These policies should call for each state to:

  • define the specific reading skills students need in order to master each key subject.
  • identify the best teaching strategies to help middle grades and high school students develop their reading comprehension skills in each subject.
  • ensure that these strategies are applied statewide in all public schools by including them in professional development for current teachers and in preparation and licensure for new teachers.
  • provide the extra help that struggling readers need, so that all students read at grade level in the middle grades and high school.

http://www.sreb.org/publications/2009/09E01_Critical_Mission_Reading_.pdf

Reading Programs Found Ineffective

A federal study intended to provide insight on the effectiveness of programs for reading comprehension has found that three such programs had no positive impact, while a fourth had a negative effect on student achievement.

In other words, the conclusion is that none of the four programs studied—Project CRISS, ReadAbout, Read for Real, and Reading for Knowledge—is effective.

They concluded that Project CRISS, developed by Creating Independence Through Student-Owned Strategies; Read About, produced by Scholastic Inc.; and Read for Real, created by Chapman University and Zaner-Bloser, had no effect on reading comprehension. In addition, they found that Reading for Knowledge, created by the Success for All Foundation, had a negative impact on the composite test scores and the science-comprehension test scores for students using that curriculum.

http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/education/selectsupplreading.pdf

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

advisory, MSM, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson,

Podcast #75 – Coercive Science of the Twitter!

  1. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
  2. NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.
  3. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.
  4. 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.
  5. NMSA 09 Conference Connection:  Stay connected before, during, and after the conference!  Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
  6. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced:  Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
  7. NMSA ‘09 Elections must be in by May 15th.  (Vote for Jeff LaRoux! No NMSA campaign funds were used in this endorsement.)
  8. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C.  Conference registration info.
  9. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
  10. 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.
  11. 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!
  12. Brainyflix extends their “video vocabulary” contest to May 22, 2009.
  13. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  14. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the preparation for NECC 2009 for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  15. 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
    • There is a conference being held by ISTE in Second Life, wander over to the auditorium behind the Headquarters to check it out.
    • Training on Presentation Tools (part 1) May 16, 2 to 4 pm.

Shout Outs:

  1. Thanks to ERyan S, and Mrs. C in FL for their reviews on iTunes!
  2. Big thanks to Teresa S. for the kind comments at yesterday’s meeting!

iTunes:

We’re at 10 comments, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 15 comments.

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory Idea:

  1. StickK.com:  Here’s a tech based way to help your students modify their behavior.  StickK.com is a website that helps you establish a goal you want to achieve, develop a plan to get there, and provide some motivation along the way.  Students can put in a goal, establish a person as a Referee that monitors their progress toward that goal and inputs that information into the StickK.com website.  The student can designate other StickK members as their friends to help them along the way with encouragement and co-participation.  There is a second part to the site as well, but only for credit card holders.  You can make it a financial motivation by inputting your credit card, designating an amount, and if you don’t reach your incremental goal, $10 is charged to your credit card that week.  At the end of the challenge the money is sent to a charity you have designated in your name from the StickK site.  The contract/financial motivation is optional.
  2. Build self-confidence and help students get to know each other: Paper Bag Self.
    The students decorate the outside of a paper bag with pictures and words that represent their “outer selves,” such as favorite color, sport, food, etc. Then, they put a word or picture inside their bag that reflects a personal concern, such as health, divorce, peer problems, grades, etc. As a way of introducing themselves to the class, students share the outside of their bag. If they feel comfortable, they are welcome to share the inside of their bag privately with their peers or advisor.
  3. Another advisory group activity that creates the feeling of “family” and focuses on the individual as part of a whole is a puzzle activity. Each member of the class, including the advisor, is given a large cardboard puzzle piece to decorate. The puzzle piece features their name and artwork that reflects their uniqueness. When the pieces are complete, they are joined together to form a puzzle that represents a united advisory group.

Letters:

From: Jenny McAvoy-Anteau:
(Lots & Lots of information, here’s just a snippet):

Western Michigan University (WMU)_ researchers have discovered no significant advantage to teaching students through experimenting instead of teaching them through direct instruction.
www.physorg.com/news153990337.html (the summary includes this — “The data, while marginally favoring inquiry, really show that as long as the instruction is good either way, the two approaches (inquiry vs direct instruction) lead to no significant difference- at least as far as science content understanding is concerned”  William Cobern of WMU’s Mallinson Institute for Science Education).

Ideas for Middle School Science.
http://fc.dc-grimes.k12.ia.us/~gklocke/Class%20notes – Eighth-grade science teacher Gary Klocke shares his teaching materials, including lesson plans, templates for class notes, review and practice sheets, and PowerPoint presentations at the above link.

Students have been given cell phones loaded with educational software as part of a project at Trinity Meadow Intermediate School in Keller, Texas.
www.ur.umich.edu/0809/Feb16_09/04.php (in story — “5th graders recieved phones containing “Mobile Learning Environment” software developed by University of Michigan scientist Elliot Soloway and Cathleen Norris, a regents professor at the University of North Texas.  The software turns the phones into computers that can do almost everything a laptop can for a fraction of the price claims Soloway.  Students use the phones  to map concepts, animate drawings, surf “relevant” sites on the internet and integrate material into their lessons.  The phones also have mini versions of Microsoft Word and Excel.  The school district will examine whether listening to recordings of texts enhances at-risk student’s reading comprehension and will assess student’s technological savvy before and after the project.)

Web Sitings:

Press Kit for promoting the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference.   http://www.nmsa.org/annual/AbouttheConference/PromotionalTools/tabid/1882/Default.aspx
Edublogs Live :  Video recorded Elluminate education discussion events.  Sue Waters, an Australian educator, hosts these discussions.
Fancy Talking Blocks:  http://siftables.com/
NMSA’s Al Summers is posting his own blog about the NMSA 2009 Annual Conference in the run up to the big event.  This from that blog:  “NMSA is currently looking for “tech savvy teachers” to feature. We would like to highlight especially those who are doing project-based learning with a community and/or global impact. If you know of any teachers doing cutting edge work like this through technology, please e-mail me information—PLEASE DON’T POST IT ON THE BLOG. My e-mail is asummers@nmsa.org”
NASA is Twittering from Space to increase its face time with readers & taxpayers here on Earth.
Obama Administration is cutting the Educational Technology budget by 63%.  The money budgeted goes from $163 million dollars to $100 million dollars.  I’m not sure I could even wrap my head around spending $100 million dollars just by myself.
Make A Video For Mom:  It is what it is.  Enjoy.  🙂
Get your Cursive Handwriting App from the iTunes Store! Learn Cursive Today!
Future of Education (.com)  Michael Horn of Distrupting Class will be on their podcast coming up.

Comic: www.xkcd.com

Books We’re Reading (or going to):

  1. The Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles:  Walt Whitman meets Baseball.  Good story for kids.
  2. The Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
  3. Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
  4. Moodle Teaching Techniques & Moodle by William H Rice IV
  5. MindSet by Carole Dweck
  6. The Leader in Me by Stephen Covey

News:

My Coercive Classroom

By Cossondra George

When we become adults, life itself is coercive by nature. Most everything we do, we do with some amount of coercion present, in one form or another.
My curriculum is coercive. But while I often complain that the guidelines set forth by the state limit what I can and must teach students, I also know that – in the larger scheme – without those grade-level content expectations, students would be left to the whims of individual teachers as to what they are taught in school.
However, I think it’s unreasonable to hope for unfettered freedom in our current K-12 public education system.

It seems only fair to my students that I keep my classroom coercive. I want kids to leave the learning environment we’ve shared for a year knowing a lot more about math than when they arrived. I want to be satisfied that we have maximized our time together. I want them to learn, to grow, and to leave wanting to learn and grow even more—carrying with them the core math skills they’ll need in the grades and years to come.

If that takes a little arm twisting on my part, then so be it.
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2009/05/06/050609tln_george.h21.html?r=881287244

Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson, ,

MSM #74 – You Swine & The Mighty-Morphing Middle School!

The school board decided to remove speech and debate from the course schedule; there was no argument.

The best part of going back to school is seeing all your friends. The worst part is that your teachers won’t let you talk to them.

School is where you always try to do your best-except when your friends are watching.

Teacher: I told you to stand at the end of the line ?
Pupil: I tried, but there was someone already there !

Walking through the hallways at the middle school where I work, I saw a new substitute teacher standing outside his classroom with his forehead against a locker. I heard him mutter, “How did you get yourself into this?” Knowing that he was assigned to a difficult class, I tried to offer moral support. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Can I help?” He lifted his head and replied, “I’ll be fine as soon as I get this kid out of his locker.”

One morning I was called to pick up my son at the school nurse’s office. When I walked through the main entrance, I noticed a woman, curlers in her hair, wearing pajamas. “Why are you dressed like that?” I asked her. “I told my son,” she explained, “that if he ever did anything to embarrass me, I would embarrass him back. He was caught cutting school. So now I’ve come to spend the day with him!”

Events and Happenings:

  1. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
  2. NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.
  3. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.  Individual Registration is now open.
  4. 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 satellite access for Twittering, Facebooking, and other 21st Century technology access for less than $100.00.  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.
  5. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced:  Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
  6. NMSA ‘09 Elections must be in by May 15th.  (Vote for Jeff LaRoux!)
  7. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C.  Conference registration info.
  8. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
  9. 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.
  10. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  11. Brainyflix extends their “video vocabulary” contest to May 22, 2009.
  12. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  13. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the uses of Copyright and Creative Commons for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  14. 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
    • There is a conference being held by ISTE in Second Life, wander over to the auditorium behind the Headquarters to check it out.

iTunes:

We’re at 8, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 10.

From the Twitterverse:

Listener’s Letters:

Gents,

Again, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your show.  Once a week, I get up early with the birds, make a cup of coffee and listen to your podcast in silent reverence.  Actually, scratch that.  I get up with my two little ones, plug in my headphones as I run around trying to get ready for the day…but your show does have a Zen quality that calms me down and gives me confidence to face the day with my MS students.

I do have a question…next year, I am implementing a 1:1 notebook program with our middle school students.  What resources would you recommend as I start staff training in using moodle and notebooks in the classroom?  I know this is a huge question…but to whom else can I turn in my time of need?

Thanks guys and keep up the good work.

Robert Jackson
Kyiv International School

We also discussed New Tech High School.

advisory, PodcastBy Troy Patterson, ,

Podcast #73 Award Award Assembly Conundrum!

Why were you late ?
Sorry, teacher, I overslept.
You mean you need to sleep at home too !

Teacher: Class, we will have only half a day of school this morning.
Class: Hooray
Teacher: We will have the other half this afternoon!

Teacher: You missed school yesterday didn’t you ?
Pupil: Not very much !

Teacher: I’d like to go through one whole day without having to tell you to stop talking.
Pupil: You have my permission !

Be sure that you go straight home
I can’t, I live just round the corner !

Events and Happenings:

  1. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
  2. NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.
  3. NMSA ‘09 Elections must be in by May 15th.  (Vote for Jeff LaRoux!)
  4. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C.  Conference registration info.
  5. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
  6. Any information on the Ontario Middle Level Association?  Their site has gone dark and we hope this does not mean the demise of the Association.
  7. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.
    • 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 satellite access for Twittering, Facebooking, and other 21st Century technology access for less than $100.00.  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.
    • Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced:  Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
  8. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  9. Brainyflix extends their “video vocabulary” contest to May 22, 2009.
  10. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  11. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the uses of Copyright and Creative Commons for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  12. 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
    • There is a conference being held by ISTE in Second Life, wander over to the auditorium behind the Headquarters to check it out.

iTunes:

We’re at 8 reviews on iTunes, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 10.

From the Twitterverse:

Listener’s Letters:

Hello famous iTunes podcasters

Just for fun, I googled the words “student award certificates” and received 481,000 relevant entries. Certainly I know as a teacher the importance of celebrating the success of our students. And providing the incentive for recognition at an awards assembly can be a motivator for some. But there are two things I question, from what I have seen, on which you might have opinions.

Observation #1: At an awards assembly in a 5-8 middle school, the principal asked the 300+ student body to hold up and wave any awards they had received during the presentation. As I glanced around the bleachers, it seemed that everyone had something to show for their accomplishments. But I wonder if this is too much. If everyone is rewarded, how effective an incentive can recognition be? At college graduation ceremonies, academic excellence awards such as Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude are marked individually with sashes or cords of various colors. And you don’t tend to see the entire graduating body displaying this accomplishment. And yet, they have all met the undeniably outstanding goal of a college education. They are beaming with self-esteem regardless of whether they were displaying the adornments of high academic success.

If we are truly preparing students with authentic content and experiences, shouldn’t we be clear on the reality that everyone does not earn honors, an award, or a certificate for doing what is already expected of them as students? Every single child is a winner just by virtue of them learning both academic content and life skills as they attend school each and every day throughout the school year. Shouldn’t we be stressing self-management and recognition of worth instead of tying it so heavily to extrinsic displays of pomp and circumstance?

Observation #2: Following streams of students receiving one certificate after another, I would have expected to see recognition for a teacher’s success as well. From the students’ view, one would believe that teachers are neither striving for nor attaining success on a regular basis in their own lives. Yet, how many teachers during a marking period or school year attend seminars and workshops or pursue ongoing academic fulfillment in graduate courses? If we are acting as role models to our students, don’t we need to do a better job reflecting our commitment to ongoing education and love of learning? What role does our school administration have in this process?

As intelligent and experienced educators, this good work that you do is expected. But even though I provide no certificate, ribbon or award, I’m sure you are self-motivated by the intrinsic satisfaction received from your website and podcast success. Itunes ratings cannot compare to your internal mechanisms that generate the love of learning and sharing with others. It is appreciated.

Web Sitings:

Press Kit for promoting the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference.   http://www.nmsa.org/annual/AbouttheConference/PromotionalTools/tabid/1882/Default.aspx
Differentiated Classroom:  Characteristics and reference for the classroom.
tuesdays with Karen:  An educator’s blog.
EdTech Conference on iTunesU.
MyRead http://www.myread.org/
NMSA’s suggestions for how you can spend your Education Stimulus money!
Math and Technology Comics.

Shout Outs!

  1. Karen C. Seddon, thanks for the review on your blog!
  2. Teresa Sutherland & Jenny McAvoy-Anteau for their shout-outs on Twitter this week!

News of the Weird:

News:

Superintendent Thinks Small in Plan to Revamp Middle Grades

“If you haven’t got them by the end of their eighth-grade year, you’re going to lose them,” Summers said.
Under Sherman’s plan, George Washington Middle School, which has 950 students, would be divided into two schools. Hammond Middle School, which has 1,350 students, would be split into three.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603943.html?hpid=sec-education

advisory, MSM, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson, , ,

Podcast 70- Advisory, Water, and Getting FIT!

How do you get straight A’S?
–by using a ruler
What happened to the plant in math class?
–it grew square roots
What did the dog get when he graduated from school?
–a pedigree
Why did the teacher go to the beach?
–to test the water
Why was the teacher crossed eye?
–she couldn’t keep her pupils straight

Events and Happenings:

  1. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C.
  2. NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009.
  3. NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video.  This video spotlight focuses on the building of the technology demonstration classrooms at last year’s Denver Annual Conference.
  4. NMSA ’09 Elections must be in by May 15th.
  5. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event now and hurry to get your presentation proposals in before the deadline!
  6. Any information on the Ontario Middle Level Association?  Their site has gone dark and we hope this does not mean the demise of the Association.
  7. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video:  Indianapolis, IN Conference  November 5-7, 2009.
    • 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 satellite access for Twittering, Facebooking, and other 21st Century technology access for less than $100.00.  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.
  8. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June.  See the flyer at their website for details.
  9. Free Professional Development through Webinars! NMSA is offering previously recorded webinars for free from their website.
  10. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  11. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog:  This week’s discussion is on the uses of Screencasting for Teachers.  Archived content is available.
  12. 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
    • There is a conference being held by ISTE in Second Life, wander over to the auditorium behind the Headquarters to check it out.
  13. From the Twitterverse:
  • From GardenGlen’s blog:  I needed this Zits Teen Translator when my first was 15. I spend WAY too much time asking questions 2 understand meaning:  http://url.ie/1ew8
  • That kid that gets under your skin?  Here’s one for that:  russeltarrRT @quote_daily: Speak in anger and you will hold the best speech you ever regretted.  Winston Churchill.

    • instruisto RT @screamingeagle1:  “Speak when U are angry and U will make the best speech U will ever regret.”— A Bierce (Hmm, interesting . . .)
  • Our poet laureate:  LadyParadis Sunday morning peeks / over my shoulder to see / what I am up to #haiku.
  • instruisto RT @KlKidwell:  There’s a law in TN legisl. wanting to end tenure for new teachers. Boo!! >:( *Do ppl not get the security/$$$ tradeoff?*)
  • rrmurry RT @guykawasaki:  New Bill Would Give Obama Power Over the Internet http://adjix.com/3922 AC. Ummm- YIKES. A national lead controling info? rrmurry RT @guykawasaki:  New Bill Would Give Obama Power Over the Internet http://adjix.com/3922 AC. Ummm- YIKES. A national lead controling info?  (Note: Links to Mother Jones’s website as news source.)
  • instruisto RT @LoriMoreno:  The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly ~G.K. Chesterton
  • geekbert RT:  @WishAponAStar “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genious has its limits.” -unknown

Shout-outs:

Thanks for the additional anonymous evaluation on iTunes!

From our Listeners:

“This is Jack from BrainyFlix .  If I hadn’t done so already, I wanted to thank you for letting your visitors know about our video contest.  We received about 800 video submissions (way more than we had expected!) and you were a big part of that.  Much appreciated.  :]

I was wondering if your visitors would be interested in an update about BrainyFlix .  I ask because the voting for the video contest is coming up next Monday March 30.  Also, we built this new feature called lolcabulary, which lets kids make a flashcard that has a word attached to an image and sentence.  We’ll be running weekly contests to get kids to make flashcards by giving away iTunes to the winners.  We’re thinking we’ll do themes like “make lolcabulary flashcards about ninjas” and then get teachers we’ve met to pick their favorites made that week.”

Web Sightings:

http://www.factmonster.com/ – Fact Monster is an ideal reference site for kids ages 8-14 that provides entertainment and educational resources. It combines the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas, and several almanacs loaded with statistics, facts, and historical records. A single search engine allows you to search all these sources at once.
In addition to an electronic database that is continuously updated and expanded, the Fact Monster site includes information from the following reference works:

  • The TIME for Kids Almanac®, edited by Beth Rowen of Fact Monster and published by Time Inc.
  • Selected content from The TIME Almanac, with Information Please®, edited by Borgna Brunner of Information Please and published by Time Inc.
  • The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, published by Columbia University Press.
  • Infoplease Dictionary, based on the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary
  • The Infoplease Atlas, which includes several hundred maps from Magellan Geographix.

I did find ads on the site.

http://mrssmoke.onsugar.com/ – Making Teachers Nerdy

Library of Congress Digital Collection:  http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html

Advisory Ideas:

Life Skill Lessons…how to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to
do anything….celebrate success!!

Q:C:Q: – Quote, Comment, Question…analyze a famous quote, old
or new

Create a Shelter…use newspaper and masking tape to create
shelter the group fits under w/out talking

Tubes and Marbles Race…use half pipes in a race to place a
marble in a bowl on the floor across the room

News:

Structure More Effective In High School Science Classes, Study Reveals

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326114415.htm

http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_086010229.html

Student fitness bill raises questions

FIT Kids Act would require new data tracking for schools
By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Legislation pending in Congress, called the “Fitness Integrated with Teaching Kids Act” (FIT Kids Act), would update current physical fitness standards in K-12 schools and hold educators accountable for a portion of their students’ health. If passed, the bill would redefine gym class from what it has come to mean for many students and teachers, and the bill also would implement new data tracking and reporting requirements that could necessitate a change in student information system (SIS) software.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58065