Author: Shawn McGirr

Co-host of Middle School Matters Podcast.
UncategorizedBy Shawn McGirr, , , , , ,

AMLE Annual Conference Day 2

So every year we go, someone always raves about Mark McLeod. This year I gave two blocks of time to his presentations. I was not disappointed. I felt affirmed in some of my classroom practices and challenged to do better in other areas through is presentation on classroom management and student motivation. I highly recommend his sessions if you get an opportunity in the future.

Tonight was the traditional Friday Debrief dinner where we get together with other schools in Michigan and talk about our favorite sessions from the conference. It should count as a MAMSE Mini-Conference. So many ideas shared by everyone around the table.

Sadly we weren’t able to Skype in Troy to the dinner. The signal was weak and after trying to get it to work for 20 minutes, one of the waiters mentioned it hadn’t been working all night. Huge disappointment at the table. We had dinner with Mr. Jeff LaRoux, President-Elect of AMLE and while we were there a pantheon of Middle School Greats stopped in at our table. Dr. Monte Selby stopped by, two past presidents of AMLE, Rick Wormeli, Jack Berckemeyer, and David Puckett also made appearances. Lots of laughter, shared ideas, and collegiality. This dinner is one of my favorite “sessions” of the conference.

UncategorizedBy Shawn McGirr

AMLE Annual Conference Day 1

Great day at AMLE 2011! I had an opportunity to attend the Affiliate Breakfast and sat next to Mr. Ross Burkhardt. The Team that Made a Difference was honored by Pearson and we had a motivational presentation to do better for our local affiliates.

In the afternoon I attended Rick Wormeli’s session on Tiering instruction and assessment. I’ve done some tiering in the past, but I want to get better at it. Rick’s session had great ideas for using in my classroom. Look for some of those ideas in an upcoming podcast.

If you’re in Louisville and you can find me at the conference, I’ve got a MSM pencil that can be yours . . .

Conferences, News, NMSABy Shawn McGirr

NMSA Announces Name Change

NMSA President Joan Jarrett and new Executive Director Will Waidelich talk about the name change.  Here’s some points made in the interview from Education Talk Radio:

  • The middle school movement started in Pennsylvania.
  • Dr. Waidelich (pronounced like Wade-Lick) comes from the Future Farmers of America organization with a background in curriculum design, organizational finance and management.
  • NMSA name change reflects the changes in middle level education:  it’s a philosophy, not a building or even a specific group of grades.
  • Teacher training universities are growing their programs in middle level education.
  • Convention information:  Louisville, KY this November with keynote speakers and information on best practice.  “Giant array of product and visitors . . .”
  • Middle schools need to be developmentally responsive, challenging students academically, empowering both students and teachers in academic skills and life choices, and being an advocate for children.
  • Integrated exploratory curriculum and multiple learning approaches.
  • High schools are finding out they too need to embrace some of the philosophies of the middle school.  Balfanz’s research shows one high school student dropping out every 10 seconds.
  • Best configuration for a middle school:  depends on the developmental progress of the kids.  Generally 5th through 9th grade is accepted.
  • An essential component of every middle school: the student is guided by an adult advocate.
  • 25,000 members
  • education-talkradio.org for audio archives.
UncategorizedBy Shawn McGirr

ISTE 2011: Monday

I can’t believe the number of people here this year! Walking down the halls is tough no matter if its the Exhibit Hall or if its the outer halls to the conference sessions. I tried three different 2:00 pm sessions and all were full LONG before I got there. One was full 60 minutes before the actual session started. Ouch. Musical Chairs is On!

I met a listener to the show today! Gabe made my day today and I’m glad he came up and introduced himself.

Lots of great sessions today varying from Steve Dembo in a Family Feud suit and crowd sourcing answers to questions to Dr. Helen Barrett leading a discussion on electronic portfolios.

If you’re at ISTE and find me, I have a Middle School Matters gift for you (while my supplies last). I’d love to meet any of you at the conference. Looking forward to tomorrow and more great stuff!

UncategorizedBy Shawn McGirr

ISTE 2011: EduBloggerCon

For a couple of years I’ve tuned in to EduBloggerCon via the stream and the tweets on Twitter. I made up my mind last year to attend this year. The fun is everything it is cracked up to be. About 200 people were in attendance this year (you can see us on the steps at the EduBloggerCon website). The discussions were rich and a lot of experience was shared. One of the common threads among all the discussions was the need for communication among teachers, administrators and IT people. Teachers to teachers, administrators to IT, and teachers to administrators. I’ll post notes. Make plans to grab the stream of the Web Smackdown next year the Saturday before ISTE.

UncategorizedBy Shawn McGirr

Back channel chat from MAMSE 2011

We ran a back channel during our sessions at MAMSE 2011 this year and promised folks we’d post it here on the website. Thanks everyone for participating during the sessions and for contributing to the back channel.

mamseE107.
Welcome to the back channel folks! You are now an ad hoc PLN (which is a TLA for Professional Learning Network). Shawn at 14:18 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
How many of you use Twitter? Shawn at 14:20 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I have thought about it, but don’t yet. Macy at 14:21 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
He color codes it to show me how much I have to talk about! LOL Shawn at 14:22 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Please don’t lurk in here. 🙂 Shawn at 14:23 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Got it Tom at 14:47 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Jump to your Twitter Don at 14:47 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
If you’re interested in following the presenters, we’re at @MSMatters and @frideswidel on Twitter. Shawn at 14:51 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
We’re using #mamse2011 for our Tweets on Twitter. Join us! Shawn at 14:55 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Did you have anything else you wanted Troy to talk about concerning Twitter? Shawn at 14:58 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Sounds like a 21 Things class. Cool stuff. Dean at 15:01 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Troy has done the 21 things thing through Wayne RESA. When I get some time (ha!) I’ll give it a go too. Shawn at 15:02 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Imagine you had TodaysMeet for your classroom. Would you use it? Shawn at 15:03 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Is Today’sMeet free? Macy at 15:03 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
This is a first by the way. I usually can’t get Troy to talk this much. 🙂 Yes, TodaysMeet is free. Shawn at 15:04 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Is there a place to look for good education blogs to follow? Jessica at 15:09 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I’d use a RSS feed. Shawn at 15:17 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Feel free to talk to us through here. If there’s something you’d like us to spend more time on, let us know. Shawn at 15:18 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I like Twitter, Troy doesn’t. Shawn at 15:19 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Holy Cow, I’m on… Soooo cool! Mariacg at 15:23 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Woot! Shawn at 15:23 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Ask him if Pitt will win the NCAA tournament . . . Shawn at 15:24 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Does everyone know what a hash tag is? Shawn at 15:26 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
One has to be a bit ADD to teach middle school Mariacg at 15:26 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
And to present…. Shawn at 15:26 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Some of you have seen this stuff before. How much time do you want us to spend on this? Shawn at 15:29 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
i just tweeted about learning about twitter. #mamse2011 Danielle at 15:30 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I don’t Tweet Jason at 15:30 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Yes, how do we find links to, say other teacher tweets? Mariacg at 15:31 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Also, which organizer you’d use, nambu, twitterific, etc. Mariacg at 15:32 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
#edchat, #engchat, #mathchat are some tweets you can follow. Pete at 15:34 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
any hashtags for spanish teachers? Danielle at 15:35 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Not sure, I would start with #edu Shawn at 15:36 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Tweetdeck seems to have the most legs. It is also crossplatform. It runs on AIR, so all versions are the same. Shawn at 15:37 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
You can also use Lists to find others. Shawn at 15:37 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Edmoto is a twitter alternative for education. Shawn at 15:38 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
where is edmoto? Jason at 15:39 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
http://www.edmodo.com/ Shawn at 15:40 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Glogster EDU is a cool resource too. http://edu.glogster.com/ Shawn at 15:41 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Twibes http://www.twibes.com/ Shawn at 15:44 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Twitter Packs http://twitterpacks.pbworks.com/w/page/22555521/FrontPage Shawn at 15:48 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Middle School Matters is my favorite podcast! Shawn at 15:54 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
www.middleschoolmatters.com Shawn at 15:54 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
There’s a great video on creating podcasts with students to study Shakespeare. Shawn at 16:05 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
any privacy issues with putting up kids podcasts? do we need to check with parents for permission? Mariacg at 16:06 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Good question. Check your district’s policy. We tend to have the kids not put their last names on the ‘cast. Shawn at 16:07 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
We have a check box on the Emerg. Care Form that says we can use it for “educational purposes” and if left unchecked, we can’t use. Shawn at 16:07 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
troy, is tech tools for the classroom different info? Tom at 16:12 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Excellent session guys! tanya at 16:19 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Thanks! Shawn at 16:28 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
This starts the Web X.0 Section of the TodaysMeet discussion. Previous to this was PLNs. Thanks. 🙂 Shawn at 16:50 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
What about text from a book? Christina at 18:16 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
great job Christina at 18:48 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Thanks so much for coming to our sessions today! See you tomorrow! Shawn at 19:06 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web

ConferencesBy Shawn McGirr

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference 2011

We hope you’re able to attend the MAMSE conference this year no matter what state or province you hail from.  Here’s a list of the sessions Troy and I are doing:

Thursday:

10:05 – 11:05  Troy & Shawn:  Location: E107; “Professional Learning Networks: Social Networks, Internet Resources, and Blogs”

11:10 – 12:10  Troy & Shawn:  Location: E107; “Professional Learning Networks: Micro-blogging, Virtual Environments, and Podcasts”

1:50 – 2:50  Shawn:  Location: E107; “Web X.0 Smackdown!”

2:55 – 3:55 Troy:  Location:  E107; “Tech Tools for the Classroom”

 

Friday:

8:00 – 9:00 Shawn:  Location: E107; “Web X.0 Smackdown!”

9:05 – 10-05  Shawn:  Location: E107; “Making the Transition to Middle School”

1:50 – 2:50  Troy:  Location: E107; “Google Docs”

Stop us and introduce yourself.  We’d love to chat with you!

 

 

TechBy Shawn McGirr

EduBloggerCon East 2010

Did ya miss it?  EduBloggerCon East 2010 is done.  It was great cranking the ‘puter up to full volume, listening to the presenters and running back to chime in on something in the chat room.  You can get the chats by looking up #ebce10 on Twitter or catch the Smackdown! video at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8236239 and checking out the links at http://www.edubloggercon.com/EBC+East+2010+Smackdown.  Well worth the bandwidth and I recommend you put it on your calendar for next year!