Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about summer, jobs, and more. Dave is planning an amazing summer.

Jokes:  

My friend who’s a knitter told me she has a pattern for sunglasses.

• I think she’s trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

---

According to the will, I’m getting a couple of yurts.

• That’s my inheri-tents.

---

What’s a dinosaur’s least favorite reindeer?

• Comet!

---

Odorless perfumes are non-scents.

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I’ve got some racing geese for sale. 

• Let me know if you want a quick gander

My book, How to say no emphatically in German, Is now available –

Only $9.99.

In all good bookstores…

---

I had a dream where I weighed less than a thousandth of a gram.

I was like 0mg.

---

I just discovered that the word nothing is a palindrome…

• Backwards it spells gnihton, which also means nothing.

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Amazing Summer

I was recently reading the May – June 2025 issue of “Science and Children”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “The Poetry of Science” written by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.  She wrote an article entitled, “‘Out of the Box Summer.”

As we enter, “Summer Vacation Time,” it is helpful to provide students with some creative ways that they can enjoy summer outdoors. 

http://k12science.net/amazing-summer/ 

Reports from the Front Lines

• End of the school year
• WWDC

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day, from Pennsylvanian Dutch, is ‘ferhoodled’, meaning ‘tangled’ or ‘all mixed up’. Can be used of anything from a sock drawer to life.

‪Ron King‬ ‪@mthman.bsky.social‬

Good morning from the #PNW #pnwonderland

‪MiddleWeb‬ ‪@middleweb.bsky.social‬

REVIEW: Grammar Inquiries in Middle School. In his latest book, teacher educator Sean Ruday prioritizes inquiry-based learning and asset-based practices to foster a deeper understanding of English grammar. @seanrudayliteracy.bsky.social #edusky #iteachEnglish www.middleweb.com/52298/integr…

‪Keep Indiana Learning‬ ‪@keepinlearning.bsky.social‬

Level up your skills this summer! ☀️ Dive into Building Thinking Classrooms, Secondary Science of Reading, ILEARN Checkpoints, Supporting multilingual learners, SIOP, & Teacher Evaluations. Invest in YOU! Register now: keepindianalearning.org/events #EduSky

Resources:  

AXIS The Culture Translator

The Ties That Bind

What it is: A story in the New York Times explores the unique challenges of so-called “grandfamilies,” in which grandparents serve as primary caregivers for their grandkids.  

Who it is impacting: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 6.7 million adults live with their grandchildren. Of this number, about a third are the primary or sole caretaker for their grandkids. This dynamic occurs for all sorts of reasons—financial convenience or a preference for community living, for example. But oftentimes, there are tragic circumstances at play, including mental illness, disability, and death of an adult child. The grandparents highlighted in this first-person essay are a Christian couple raising four grandchildren after raising five of their own kids. They admit that they’re very, very, tired. But they also say that raising their daughter’s children feels like a deep and special way to love their daughter, who lives with substance use disorder.  

Twine

https://twinery.org

Web Spotlight: 

It’s Not Just a Feeling: Data Shows Boys and Young Men Are Falling Behind

https://archive.md/GB8QH

Impossible Fold

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Uph85if3lEs

You Can Use ChatGPT for Looksmaxxing, but You’ll Regret It

https://www.vice.com/en/article/you-can-use-chatgpt-for-looksmaxxing-but-youll-regret-it/

Greater awareness behind ADHD surge, study suggests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5vp62dnnro

Random Thoughts . . .  

Forget Paper Routes—12-Year-Olds Are Making Bank Online

Side hustles used to mean lemonade stands, mowing lawns, or babysitting your neighbor’s kid. Now, some 12-year-olds—barely out of elementary school—are making $14 an hour streaming Minecraft, flipping sneakers, or editing TikToks from their bedrooms.

Popular online income streams include selling clothes (20.1%), streaming games (14.1%), editing content (10.5%), and influencer marketing (9.1%). For a growing number of Gen Z and Gen A, this work is structured, intentional, and profitable. It’s starting to replace traditional part-time jobs altogether—and, in many cases, out-earning them.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/forget-paper-routes-12-year-olds-are-making-bank-online/

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about AI, Metacognition, banning water, and more. Dave plays around. 

Jokes:  

To everyone that received a book from me for Christmas, they’re due back at the library next Monday.

---

While most puns make me feel numb. math puns make me feel number.

---

I know a man who can chop down trees in his sleep.

• He’s a slumberjack.

---

My friend said he didn’t understand what cloning was. I said that makes two of us.

---

To the person who stole my glasses.

• I will find you, I have contacts!

---

I’ve been teaching myself to juggle clocks. 

• People are saying I’ve got too much time on my hands.

What do you call a man in a slow cooker painting a portrait?

• Stuart.

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Playful Classroom

I was recently reading the May – June 2025 issue of “Science and Children”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Editor’s Note” written by Elizabeth Barret-Zahn. She wrote an article entitled, “‘Prioritizing Play.”

We can’t turn every lesson into an open-ended discovery session. But where can discovery, creativity and fun be sprinkled in? With a subtle mindset change, we can make learning feel less like work and more like play.

 http://k12science.net/playful-classroom/

Reports from the Front Lines

• DHMO Update
• Seeking Socrates
  

The Social Web

Marco Luna  @mluna360

Happy Last Day of School 2025 to all elementary thru high school students whose last day of school for the 2024-2025 school year is today!    

TIME  @TIME

Today’s Word of the Day with  @MerriamWebster is ‘apotheosis.’

https://twitter.com/i/status/1096423953218879488

‪Keep Indiana Learning‬ ‪@keepinlearning.bsky.social‬

Discover a wealth of professional development opportunities on the Keep Indiana Learning YouTubechannel! 💡It is packed with options for teachers, administrators, and counselors, and we’re constantly adding new content. Check it out & subscribe today – youtube.com/KeepIndianaL… #EduSky

‪AMLE‬ ‪@amleorg.bsky.social‬

Our celebration of advisory wraps up this week! As the school year also closes, it’s a great time to reflect on how your team advocated for students this year. Share what worked in the comments! Need advisory support? Check out these resources from AMLE: ow.ly/L8wX50VZ8kN

Mike Shaw‬ ‪@mikeshaw.bsky.social‬

Word of the day

ALT

Strategies:  

What Happens to Reading Comprehension When Kids Focus on the Main Idea

Why do so many students struggle to understand what they read, even after they learn how to read?

One camp has been arguing that schools have been going about it all wrong. These critics say that instead of drilling students on the main idea (similar to questions students will see on annual state exams), teachers should spend more time building students’ background knowledge of the world.

“If we want all the children to read, we have proven that they can be taught with the right strategies,”  

…drilling students on the main point or the author’s purpose isn’t helpful because a struggling reader cannot come up with a point or a purpose from thin air. (She’s also not a fan of highlighting key words or graphic organizers, both common strategies for reading comprehension in schools.

…first step is to guide students through a series of questions as they read, such as “Is there a problem?” “What caused it?” and “Is there a solution?” Based on their answers, students can then decide which structure the passage follows: cause and effect, problem and solution, comparisons or a sequence. Next, students fill in blanks — like in a Mad Libs worksheet — to help create a main idea statement. And finally, they practice expanding on that idea with relevant details to form a summary.

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65536/what-happens-to-reading-comprehension-when-kids-focus-on-the-main-idea

Affirming Neurodiversity Through Our Practices

Neurodiversity recognizes that every person’s brain functions uniquely, contributing a wide array of perspectives, skills, and ideas to society. 

Neurodivergent, however, specifically describes individuals whose neurological characteristics diverge significantly from what society has established as norms. Conditions typically classified under neurodivergence include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, epilepsy, and Tourette’s syndrome. 

https://www.middleweb.com/52270/affirming-neurodiversity-through-our-practices/

Resources:  

Chat-Animator

https://motion-tools.com/chat-animator

AXIS The Culture Translator

Meme of the Week:  “Holy Airball”

This trend is much easier to understand if you see it, so here’s an example! “Holy airball” is a social media trend that involves someone (usually a girl) saying something about themselves, a faceless responder (usually a boy) misunderstanding what they mean and asking a presumptive question, and then an image or response proving their ignorance, accompanied by the phrase “holy airball!” The expression offers a tongue-in-cheek commentary about the often incorrect assumptions people make when they are getting to know someone. It also plays on some cultural idioms, with the term “airball” referring to missing a shot in basketball so badly that it only hits the air, as well as the idea of “shooting your shot” being the moment someone tries to ask someone for a date.  

Screentime Regrets

What it is: A handful of Gen Zers explained to The Guardian why they plan on implementing significant restrictions in their own kids’ smartphone and social media use.  Se also The World from A to Z at https://youtu.be/VSfBQ48w8MM?t=193 

Web Spotlight: 

‘Metacognitive Laziness’: How AI Helps Students Offload Critical Thinking, Other Hard Work

Tech evangelists may be dazzled by the promise of AI, but two well-designed new studies — one in China and one by a leading AI company — signal trouble ahead.

Many students are letting AI do important brain work for them.

To the researchers’ surprise, the students in the ChatGPT group improved their essays the most — even more than the group with human writing teachers. But the ChatGPT group didn’t learn more about the topic they read and wrote about, nor did the ChatGPT students feel more motivated to write and learn than students in the other three groups. Indeed, there were signs that the students who enjoyed the assignment the most and maintained interest were those who merely received the writing checklist but otherwise completed the assignment without AI or human handholding.

As the researchers analyzed how students completed their work on computers, they noticed that students who had access to AI or a human were less likely to refer to the reading materials. 

“This highlights a crucial issue in human-AI interaction,” the researchers wrote. “Potential metacognitive laziness.” By that, they mean a dependence on AI assistance, offloading thought processes to the bot and not engaging directly with the tasks that are needed to synthesize, analyze and explain.

“This raises questions about ensuring students don’t offload critical cognitive tasks to AI systems,” the Anthropic researchers wrote. “There are legitimate worries that AI systems may provide a crutch for students, stifling the development of foundational skills needed to support higher-order thinking.”

The hope is that AI can improve learning through immediate feedback and personalizing instruction for each student. But these studies are showing that AI is also making it easier for students not to learn.

AI advocates say that educators need to redesign assignments so that students cannot complete them by asking AI to do it for them and educate students on how to use AI in ways that maximize learning. To me, this seems like wishful thinking. Real learning is hard, and if there are shortcuts, it’s human nature to take them.

“Writing is not correctness or avoiding error,” she posted on LinkedIn. “Writing is not just a product. The act of writing is a form of thinking and learning.”

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65511/university-students-offload-critical-thinking-other-hard-work-to-ai

I was a first-round MLB bust. Here are 5 lessons I learned

1. The hard moments teach you what the easy ones never could
2. Your identity must be bigger than your achievements
3. Sometimes the greatest growth comes after letting go
4. Letting go of something allowed an even better version of myself to emerge
5. What feels like a loss can actually be relief in disguise

https://archive.md/rCt74

But what if you ask an AI?  Here’s what it says:

Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels and Perplexity Usage

Bloom’s Level

Definition & Example Activities

How Perplexity Supports This for 13-Year-Olds
Remember	Recall facts, definitions, lists.“List Newton’s laws of motion.”	Perplexity provides quick, accurate retrieval of factual information, dates, names, and definitions, helping students memorize and recall key concepts.
Understand	Explain ideas, summarize, interpret.“Summarize the plot of a novel.”	Students can ask Perplexity to explain or paraphrase concepts, summarize readings, or clarify confusing topics in accessible language.
Apply	Use knowledge in new situations.“Solve a math problem using a formula.”	Perplexity helps students apply learned concepts by guiding them through problem-solving steps or showing how to use information in practical scenarios.
Analyze	Break down information, compare, contrast.“Differentiate between two theories.”	Students can use Perplexity to compare sources, analyze arguments, and break complex topics into parts for better understanding.
Evaluate	Judge, critique, defend positions.“Assess the credibility of a source.”	Perplexity’s citation feature allows students to evaluate the reliability of information, critique arguments, and justify their opinions with evidence.
Create	Produce new work, design, invent.“Write a story or design an experiment.”	Students can synthesize information from Perplexity to generate original projects, essays, or creative work, using the tool to gather and combine ideas.

Key Points

• Bloom’s Taxonomy is hierarchical: each level builds on the previous one

By mapping Bloom’s Taxonomy to Perplexity’s capabilities, educators can design activities and assessments that leverage AI to foster higher-order thinking skills in young learners.

Perplexity’s features—such as natural language querying, source citations, and summarization—support learning objectives at every level of the taxonomy.

For 13-year-olds, this means Perplexity can be used not just for memorizing facts, but also for deeper understanding, critical thinking, and creative synthesis, aligning with modern educational goals

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about DHMO, student conferences, and more. Dave buzzes about the bees. 

Jokes:  

What is the leading cause of dry skin? 

• Towels

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According to this BMI chart, I need to grow a lot taller.

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If Watson isn’t the most famous doctor in the world… Then Who is.

---

Scottie always finds fastening two pieces of metal together to be riveting.

---

Good bread dough always rises to the occasion.

---

I taught a creative writing class at a prison.

It had it’s prose and cons.

---

DIET DAY 1

I have removed all the bad food from my home.

It was delicious.

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Good night to everyone except people who use various color fills in spreadsheet rows without telling anyone what the colors mean.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Bumble Bee Watch

I was recently reading the May – June 2025 issue of “Science Scope”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Citizen Science” written by Jill Nugent.  She wrote an article entitled, “‘Participate in Pollinator Science This Season with Bumble Bee Watch.”

Spring and summer serve as a rewarding time for students to survey pollinator biodiversity.  In fact, the month of June is known as pollinator month, making this a natural time of the year to incorporate pollinator science in your classroom.  Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative project focused on tracking North American Bumble Bees.  To learn more, visit the project website at:

https://www.bumblebeewatch.org

http://k12science.net/bumble-bee-watch/ 

Reports from the Front Lines

• DHMO – 92% of the vote . . . and how to make the lunch ladies cry.  
• MLTI Conference
• Flint K-12 AI
  • Tutor for students
• Great or Gimmick

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘ingordigiousness’ (19th century): extreme greed at the expense of principles.

‪Rick Wormeli‬ ‪@rickwormeli.bsky.social‬

ICYMI: New piece, candid and practical, hopefully useful: “When Our Grading Philosophies Conflict With Those of Our Faculty,” Principal Leadership from NASSP, May 2025 www.nassp.org/publication/…

‪Rene Corbeil‬ ‪@utrgv-edtech.bsky.social‬

“Ella Stapleton said she was surprised to find that a professor had used ChatGPT to assemble course materials. “He’s telling us not to use it, and then he’s using it himself,” she said.” nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t… #edtech #ILoveEdTech #ImFutureReady #elearning #AIEd

https://archive.md/sTgpX

AMLE‬ ‪@amleorg.bsky.social‬

Excited to be launching our account here on Bluesky! We’re the Association for Middle Level Education, the only international organization of its kind for middle school educators. AMLE is dedicated to helping middle school educators reach every student, grow professionally, & create great schools.

Resources:  

101 Rules of Effective Living

https://mitchhorowitz.substack.com/p/101-rules-of-effective-living

Five small habits sports psychologists wish everyone did

• Switch out the word “but” for “and”
• Scenario plan
• Be on time
• Call yourself out when you notice your mood is based on results
• Break large tasks down into steps

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6358944/2025/05/16/five-small-habits-sports-psychologists-wish-everyone-did

It’s Not Just a Feeling: Data Shows Boys and Young Men Are Falling Behind

https://archive.md/cqwvG

A Parent Guide Through the Middle Grade Years

https://www.middleweb.com/52264/a-parent-guide-through-the-middle-grade-years/

https://www.middleweb.com/52027/why-its-hard-to-teach-parent-middle-graders/

​​7 Graphic Organizers to Scaffold Student Learning

https://www.middleweb.com/52250/7-graphic-organizers-to-scaffold-student-learning/

Flint K12 AI

https://app.flintk12.com

Have you considered having an AI create a chat around your math or reading resources?  Flint K12 is an AI with prebuilt resources that can have a “chat” with your students around 

Web Spotlight: 

ChatGPT Rewrote a Newsweek Article in Gen Alpha Slang, Here’s What It Said

https://www.newsweek.com/chatgpt-newsweek-article-gen-alpha-slang-2073347

I’m a college writing professor. Here’s what AI still can’t do

https://mashable.com/article/how-a-college-writing-professor-teaches-students-about-ai

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about AI, creative counting, PD, and more. Dave is passionate about passionate teachers. 

Jokes:  

Professional drum solos are hard to beat.

---

Why are pediatricians always so angry? 

• They have very little patients

I asked a friend how it was going down at the National Ambidextrous Society. He said people are joining left and right.

---

At an interview..

First question: Describe yourself in 3 words

Me: Not very good with numbers

---

I’ve just deleted all the German names from my phone. 

• Now it’s completely Hans-free.

What sound does a cow make when it runs out of milk?

None.

There is udder silence.

---

Drilling holes is boring

---

I saw a microbiologist today…

they were much bigger than I expected…

---

A guy has just assaulted me with a strawberry flavored milk!

How dairy!

---

My son: The manual in the car says not to turn up the volume of the stereo to the maximum.

I told him that’s…. sound advice.

---

This lady is taking FOREVER to tell this story and now I’m really regretting eavesdropping in the first place.

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Which mountain do they harvest the dew from? 

• Is it a trade secret?

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: A Passionate Teacher

I was recently reading the May – June 2025 issue of “Science Scope”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “From the Editor’s Desk” written by Patti McGinnis.  She wrote an article entitled, “‘The Power of a Passionate Teacher.”

Passionate teachers inspire their students to learn, they create collaborative learning environments where risk-taking is encouraged, and they help students connect their learning to real-world applications.  Passionate teachers are committed to their discipline, are knowledgeable to world events, and are committed to ensuring their students learn.

http://k12science.net/a-passionate-teacher/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Presentation Acceptance
• AI PD
• End of the Year Planning
• Creative Counting
• DHMO

The Social Web

@vanderZwan@vis.social

Hey, psst, would you like an intuitive explanation of binary and hexadecimal numbers? (and really, any number base as long as it’s a positive whole number)

Because I may have something for you.

https://observablehq.com/@jobleonard/binary-counting-made-easy

Made with @observablehq

(I started working on this all the way back in 2019 and then completely forgot about it for six years)

Kōtare @jdmcg@mastodon.nz 

My 17yr old was ranting last night about teachers encouraging the use of AI and how stupid it was.

They had done a quiz about a film, and the quiz had been ai generated. They spent most of the lesson pointing out all of the mistakes in the quiz and the woefully incorrect answers.

It became an impromptu lesson on why you *shouldn’t* use AI.

“I hate everything about it” she finally said.

L. Rhodes ⁂@lrhodes@merveilles.town 

Striking sailors would sometimes sign their petitions with their names arranged in a circle to prevent management from singling out the first signatories for retaliation as strike leadership, hence the term “ringleaders.”

Generika @generika@bananachips.club 

If everything around seems dark, look again, you may be the light!
~Rumi

Cassidy James @cassidy@blaede.family

I recently tried to search the web for whether or not it was possible to embed a calendar in a Google Doc. Every single result I found said yes it totally is, and then invented steps that do not exist. In hindsight, clear AI slop.

Not some “AI overview” (I don’t use those); actual articles on actual websites that do not disclose they are machine generated—and flat out lies.

The Web we once knew is dead, murdered by the world’s richest corporations burning our planet and shilling their garbage.

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

I love this, almost as much as German’s ‘Fernweh’: ‘far-sickness’.

Quote:  The OED @OED

OED #WordOfTheDay: spring fret, n. A sense of restlessness or desire to wander, felt by humans or animals in the spring. View entry: https://oxford.ly/4kjWTj8

Katie Powell  @Beyond_the_Desk

When you’re interviewing middle school students about their school, and they keep using the word… Joyous. 

Resources:  

“Fast Fourteen” Bellringers

https://blog.tcea.org/fast-fourteen-bellringers/

Web Spotlight: 

AXIS The Culture Translator

Slang of the Week:  “Aura Farming”

Have you ever met someone who you’re convinced does certain things to try to look cool? There’s a new term for that: “aura farming.” For teens, “aura” is the charisma and coolness you exude. “Aura farming” is doing specific things to try to elevate that “aura.” Young people continue to value authenticity above almost anything else, so calling out aura farming is a way to call out people who are trying maybe a little too hard. Online, the term is often used to poke fun at certain storytelling clichés, like Batman overlooking Gotham City in the rain or Darth Vader doing… pretty much anything.

It’s Breathtaking How Fast AI Is Screwing Up the Education System

https://gizmodo.com/its-breathtaking-how-fast-ai-is-screwing-up-the-education-system-2000603100

U.S. Department of Education “Humans In The Loop”

USDE guidance on using AI in local school districts is here.  

https://www.paulmcafee.com/paul_mcafee_educator/artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-teaching-and-learning-us-dept-of-education

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College 

ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.

Lee used AI to breeze through with minimal effort. When I asked him why he had gone through so much trouble to get to an Ivy League university only to off-load all of the learning to a robot, he said, “It’s the best place to meet your co-founder and your wife.”

Although Columbia’s policy on AI is similar to that of many other universities’ — students are prohibited from using it unless their professor explicitly permits them to do so, either on a class-by-class or case-by-case basis — Lee said he doesn’t know a single student at the school who isn’t using AI to cheat. To be clear, Lee doesn’t think this is a bad thing. “I think we are years — or months, probably — away from a world where nobody thinks using AI for homework is considered cheating,” he said.

https://archive.md/a93f7

Craig Mod on the Creative Power of Walking

“From this boredom, words flow. I can’t stop them.”

When I’m not talking, just walking (which is most of the time), I try to cultivate the most bored state of mind imaginable. A total void of stimulation beyond the immediate environment. My rules: No news, no social media, no podcasts, no music. No “teleporting,” you could say. The phone, the great teleportation device, the great murderer of boredom. And yet, boredom: the great engine of creativity. 

https://lithub.com/craig-mod-on-the-creative-power-of-walking

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about Blookit, AI, and more. Dave fosters Innovation, Creativity, and Curiosity. 

Jokes:  

Napoleon and his wife are buried next to each other.

• They’re only a bone apart…..

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Every horse in the 2025 Kentucky Derby traces back to Secretariat.

• This is a clear case of neighpotism.

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I just saw a sign “Laser hair removal” Why would anyone want to remove their laser hair? Laser hair would be awesome

---

the formula to measure the area of a pun is

• Length time wit!

---

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but the orcas now have two F/A-18 Hornets

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DO people in electric cars listen to AD/DC…

• or something current?

---

I have a phobia of trampolines.

I can’t help it, they just always make me jump.

---

what do you call fire fighters who become influencers?

• Stop, Drop, and Roll Models!

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My favorite butcher links their own sausage, to make ends meat…

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What do Alexander the Great and Winnie the Pooh have in common?

• Same middle name.

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Innovation, Creativity and Curiosity

I was recently reading the May – June 2025 issue of “The Science Teacher”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Editor’s Corner” written by Brooke A. Whitworth.  She wrote an article entitled, “‘Fostering Innovation, Creativity, and Curiosity in Science Education.”

In this article, Brooke shared many practical strategies that teachers can implement immediately, regardless of resources, in the areas of:

• Community-Connected Science
• Resource-Conscious Innovation
• Curiosity-Driven Learning

http://k12science.net/innovation-creativity-and-curiosity/ 

Reports from the Front Lines

• ACTEM Spring 2025
  • AI DIY
  • JAMF
  • Google Admin
• Blookit!
• DHMO Project Update

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Wonderful. Although I quite like ‘restaurant’ because it rests on the idea of being ‘restored’. Restaurants were originally establishments supplying fortifying meat broth intended to restore health.  

Wylfċen @wylfcen

DON’T say “restaurant,” which is from French. The native English word is SNEEDINGHOUSE. 

Dupont La Joie  @HyperDupont

Indeed, Restaurant being derived from French should be the word for places serving food fit for human consumption whereas. Another word is needed for places offering British food.

4 Frens  @4_frenz

I feel like this is knowledge I was never, ever meant to learn.

‪Martin Compton‬ ‪@martc.bsky.social‬

The AI festival is just round the corner … a ton of events and an entire day dedicated to AI in Education – if you can be in London 20th-24th May, sign up for events here: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/serie…

‪Bernie Goldbach “topgold”‬ ‪@topgold.bsky.social‬

Ethics, morals, road rage killing, and forgiveness: www.bbc.com/news/article…

‪Dublin City University‬ ‪@dublincityuni.bsky.social‬

Who owns my child’s data? Teachers, parents and children should have a say in the role of technology in schools. Piece by DCU’s Dr Eamon Costello  @eam0.bsky.social and Dr Rob Lowney @lwnyrb.bsky.social for @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social. Read here: launch.dcu.ie/3EZO0Mt #RTEBrainstorm

‪Duncan at CAPDM‬ ‪@capdm.com‬

This is a *really* good set of tactics for reducing the impact of AI rot in teaching and learning.

Dan Hassler-Forest‬ ‪@danhf.bsky.social‬

After the brutal reality of dealing with student papers in the ChatGPT era finally hit me, here are a few tactics that I’ve found at least somewhat effective in getting students to do their own writing:

1. LOWER THE BAR: most students don’t think they write well, so they are easily tempted to “improve” their writing by asking AI for alternatives. Giving them extra credit for imperfect but genuine writing while teaching them to take ownership of their words and ideas has helped.

2. MAKE IT PERSONAL: Rather than asking students to explain a theory, apply a conceptual framework, or reproduce material they rarely feel confident they really understand, I ask them to reflect in writing on what an essay or an idea has meant to them.

3. FEEDFORWARD, NOT FEEDBACK: instead of having students submit a paper and return a grade (with maybe a little bit of feedback), I now have students submit a first complete draft, for which I give them a provisional grade and feedforward that they can use to revise and resubmit for a final grade.

4. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: in every course I teach, I now make sure to incorporate at least two moments in which I launch into a diatribe about the evils of AI. It gives me an opportunity to vent and the students love it because deep down, they know it’s wrong and need to hear that.

5. DON’T PANIC: after a moment of deep depression, I realized that most students really can be persuaded to do work in good faith. Some will of course end up cheating, but this has always been the case and it always will be. So focus more on inspiring them and less on making courses “AI-proof.”

6. NEVER USE IT YOURSELF. EVER! The most common issue I hear from students is that some of their lecturers use ChatGPT for feedback, syllabus creation, etc., so why shouldn’t they? Of course I’m not the boss of you, but as soon as you use it for ANYTHING, you’re giving students implicit permission.

Reposted by

Rick Wormeli

‪Hypervisible‬ ‪@hypervisible.bsky.social‬

“Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate…Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/openai-chatgpt-ai-cheating-education-college-students-school.html

Reposted by

Rick Wormeli

Jane Rosenzweig‬ ‪@janerosenzweig.bsky.social‬

Reply to

Jane Rosenzweig

What structures are in place that make students choose to outsource their own thinking, and how we got to a point where the step that seems important to do yourself is the “writing up” of a bot’s ideas rather than the thinking. /2

Resources:  

Your Student Finished Early—Now What?

These extension activities for all grades will help teachers keep fast finishers engaged in meaningful work.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/fast-finishers-school-keeping-students-any-grade-engaged

AXIS The Culture Translator

Please Don’t Stop The Music

What it is: Some young people are taking a break from listening to music

Why it’s happening: There was a time when hearing music required access to an actual musician. Now, the infinite availability of music on apps like Spotify can lead to a paradox of choice, and to a desire to find the “perfect” soundtrack for every moment. Some young people are finding that the ability to completely control every sound they hear is turning into an unhealthy coping mechanism—a way of managing their thoughts and feelings into submission, instead of truly sitting with them. Others find that constantly filling their space with music is making it harder to think clearly. As Dazed puts it, “The rise of algorithmically generated playlists and near-constant headphone use means music has often become background noise, something to fill space, not deepen experiences.

Web Spotlight: 

The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con

https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llmentalist

Parents’ Phone Use May Harm Kids’ Health and Development

A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that when parents use technology in the presence of their young children—a behavior researchers call “parental technology use” (PTU)—it may be harming key aspects of kids’ health and development.

https://www.newsweek.com/parents-phone-use-harm-kids-health-children-screen-2067235

Productive Struggle: What We Lose When AI Does the Thinking

https://ideasandthoughts.org/2025/05/06/productive-struggle-what-we-lose-when-ai-does-the-thinking/

AI Is Bad At Grading Essays (Chapter #412,277)

The main hurdles to computerized grading have not changed. Reducing essay characteristics to a score is difficult for a human, but a computer does not read or comprehend the essay in any usual understanding of the words.

Like self-driving cars, robograding has been just around the corner for years. 

The Learning Agency. TLA is an outfit pushing “innovation.” It (along with the Learning Agency Lab) was founded by Ulrich Boser in 2017, and they partner with the Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Georgia State University, and the Center for American Progress, where Boser is a senior fellow. 

TLA has dug through data again, to produce “Identifying Limitations and Bias in ChatGPT Essay Scores: Insights from Benchmark Data.” They grabbed their 24,000 argumentative essay dataset and let ChatGPT do its thing so they could check for some issues.

This particular study found bias that it deemed lacking in “practical significance,” except when it didn’t. Specifically, the difference between Asian/Pacific Islanders and Black students, which underlines how Black students come in last in the robograding.

…result is that ChatGPT just isn’t very good at the job. At all. There’s more statistical argle bargle here, but the bottom line is that ChatGPT gives pretty much everyone a gentleman’s C. 

Using ChatGPT to grade student essays is educational malpractice. It is using a yardstick to measure the weight of an elephant. It cannot do the job.

TLA ignores one other question, a question studiously ignored by everyone in the robograding world– how is student performance affected when they know that their essay will not be read by an actual human being? How does one write like a real human being when your audience is mindless software? What will a student do when schools break the fundamental deal of writing–that it is an attempt to communicate an idea from the mind of one human to the mind of another?

“The computer has read your essay” is a lie. ChatGPT can scan your output as data (not as writing) and compare it to the larger data set (also not writing any more) and see if it lines up. Your best bet as a student is to aim for the same kind of slop that ChatGPT churns out thoughtlessly.

https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2025/05/ai-is-bad-at-grading-essays-chapter.html

Why Even Try if You Have A.I.?

https://archive.md/DaoUj

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Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about AI, middle school students who are not lazy, and more. Dave goes to the birds. 

Jokes:  

To stay in shape my grandma started walking five miles a day when she was 60.

• She’s 97 today and we don’t know where she is

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No matter how kind you are, German children are kinder.

---

I was told that exercise helps with your decision-making.

It’s true…

After going to the gym earlier I’ve decided I’m never going again.

---

chopping cheese, but I think that I may have a grater problem

---

It’s alright if you don’t know what “prefix” means.

• It’s not the end of the word.

One shouldn’t throw sodium chloride at people.

• That’s a salt.

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Frazz by Jef Mallet

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Bird Count History

I was recently reading the March – April 2025 issue of “The Science Teacher”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Right to the Source,” written by Jessica Fries-Gaither  She wrote an article entitled, “‘The 1900 Christmas Bird Census: Introducing a New Annual Tradition and Citizen Science Project.

This “historical” podcast provides an entry point for students in the Christmas Bird Count’s history and current applications in ornithology.  Students use data from the Count’s history to help construct their scientific understanding.

http://k12science.net/bird-count-history/ 

Bonus: 

https://birdcast.info/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Vacation
• AI Thoughts
  • Teacher’s Need to Know
  • Students and Digital Citizenship
  • ISTE
  • Nobel Winner – https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/press-release/ 
• AEIOU
• PBIS
  • PickleBall Tournament

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Soubhiye, from Lebanese Arabic, is the enjoyment of a quiet moment of peace in the early morning, before everyone else is awake. Gökotta is a Swedish term for waking up early to enjoy the birdsong.

Kit Bashir@Unixbigot@aus.social

Via Mx 17 (final year of high school):  “One of the kids in my class called a landline a ‘table cellphone'”

MiddleWeb‬ ‪@middleweb.bsky.social‬

NEW: Vision Boards Can Help Us Reignite Our Career Goals. If you know your ‘why,’ parlay it into a set of directions that will motivate your daily work. Educator Kelly Owens shows how vision boards help both teachers and their students. #edusky #mschat #educoach www.middleweb.com/51732/vision…

Michael Taylor‬ ‪@teacherrunner42.bsky.social‬

One of my FAVORITE parts of the old place was #MSChat – a place where middle school educators could come together – I haven’t seen much here yet want to restart #MSChat in 2025 – Please join us on January 9th at 8:00 PM Eastern! @blocht574.bsky.social  #edusky #booksky #mathsky #elasky

Strategies:  

“I Got Nothin…”

https://bsky.app/profile/tcea.org/post/3lnpqnt6cmr2e

Resources:  

AXIS The Culture Translator

Ice Breaker

What it is: The Ice Bucket Challenge is back, this time to raise awareness for mental health.

Why it’s resonating: The University of South Carolina’s MIND (Mental Illness Needs Discussion) Club is bringing back the social media trend under the new name #SpeakYourMIND. In the videos, a teen stands somewhere outside, they say a few words about mental health, they tag three friends to keep the trend going, and then someone drenches them with a bucket filled with ice water. The movement began at USC in honor of two students who died by suicide, and it has since raised nearly $300,000 for the mental health non-profit Active Minds. It’s personal, it’s performative, and it’s everywhere—especially on TikTok and Instagram. Gen Z is embracing this new version of the challenge not just because it’s going viral, but because mental health issues have affected so many members of their generation.  

Harvard X

https://www.edx.org/school/harvardx

EZ Gif

Ezgif.com is a simple, free online GIF maker and toolset for basic animated image editing.

Here you can create, edit and convert GIF, APNG, WebP, MNG and AVIF animations.

https://ezgif.com

Google Learn About

Discover how Learn About can enhance your learning experience. Learn About is a generative AI learning companion that brings Google Search, Gemini, and teaching principles to provide interactive learning experiences.

https://learning.google.com/experiments/learn-about

Learn About Learn About

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/15662709?visit_id=638812767833106988-560311743&p=learn_about&rd=1

Web Spotlight: 

COPPA Update

https://natlawreview.com/article/ftc-publishes-final-coppa-rule-amendments

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/22/2025-05904/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule

The Professional Development Paradox: Why Good Intentions Go Astray in Schools

PD is the cornerstone of district and school culture. The idea is sound: equip educators with new skills, knowledge, and strategies to better serve their students. Yet, for many teachers and administrators, the mention of PD evokes a sigh rather than excitement. Why does this crucial investment so often fall short of its potential? The answer lies in several common pitfalls that plague PD initiatives in schools.

https://esheninger.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-professional-development-paradox.html

10 factors to consider when lesson planning with AI 

https://ditchthattextbook.com/learning-genie

Yes, Middle Schoolers Are Hard To Teach, and Nobody Is Really Lazy

I taught 39 years, and I never met a lazy student in my entire life. What I met were students who were making choices about their own agency.

https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2025/04/yes-middle-schoolers-are-hard-to-teach.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/02/disengaged-teens-parents-nagging-school/681834

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

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Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about testing, spaced practice, trusting students, and more. Dave balances negative and positive, discusses polarity, and well, isn’t all wet. 

Jokes:

Why do nurses carry around red crayons? 

• Sometimes they need to draw blood.

Albert Einstein is a real person.

• I thought he was a theoretical physicist.

---

I passed all my courses except for Greek mythology.

• That has always been my Achilles’ elbow.

---

Choices over escalators or elevators reflect a difference in upbringing.

---

“I’d like to sit by the window, please. 

• I’m here for a light breakfast.”

The tobacconist was replaced by an apparel shop.

• Clothes, but no cigar.

---

What was a more important invention than the first telephone? 

• The second one.

---

I walked down a street where the houses were numbered 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K and 1MB.

• That was a trip down memory lane!

---

Do you think Neil Young still sings “Old man” ? 

• And if so, who is he singing to?

Tub of hummus: serves ten

• Me: challenge accepted

---

What do you call a really fast escalator? 

• – An escasooner…

---

I went to a specialist shop the other day and bought some binoculars, but they cost a fortune.

• I think they saw me coming.

---

I’ve often heard that icy is the easiest word to spell.

• Looking at it now…

I
see
why.

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Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Water for Life

I was recently reading the March – April 2025 issue of “Science Scope”, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read the section, “Scope on the Skies,” written by Bob Riddle.  He wrote an article entitled, “‘Water Bound: Part I”

Space missions that search for water are important because they could add to our understanding of the origin and evolution of life on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system and beyond.  Finding the presence of water is an important aspect of the search for life beyond the confines of our planet.

http://k12science.net/water-for-life/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Testing Season
  • PSAT
• Data Structure

The Social Web

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

I’m not sure what was going on in the 16th-century imagination, but this is at least a reminder that ‘to steal someone’s thunder’ originated with an event in 1709, when one theatre company nicked a thunder-making machine from another to use in their own play, leading the wounded

Quote:  

The OED  @OED

OED #WordOfTheDay: rounce robble hobble, n. The sound of a clap of thunder; a sound 

resembling this. View the entry: https://oxford.ly/4cmZztu

Dublin City University‬ ‪@dublincityuni.bsky.social‬

Crisis in the classroom: burnout and stress amongst Irish teachers. Piece by DCU’s Dr Sabrina Fitzsimons, Dr Pia O’Farrell and Professor Catherine Furlong @dcucreate.bsky.social, for @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social. Read here: launch.dcu.ie/43Iojdm #RTEBrainstorm

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0410/1506656-ireland-teachers-schools-burnout-stress-mental-health-dcu-survey

‪DCU Library‬ ‪@dculibrary.bsky.social‬

How noisy is it in the library today? Look out for our noise thermometers at the entrance of each library. Play your part to keep the library nice and quiet! Noise monitors will update the scale depending on noise levels, which library will be the quietest space?!

@dublincityuni.bsky.social

‪Kane Murdoch‬ ‪@ccguerilla.bsky.social‬

Seen on campus today. They seem like a real go getter, an entrepreneurial type.

Strategies:  

Hexagonal thinking: Creating connections in the classroom

Hexagonal thinking is all about creating connections. Imagine each idea, concept, or term as a hexagon on a board. As students arrange these hexagons, they’re essentially building a web of interconnected thoughts. The beauty of this method lies in the discussions it fosters because students must explain and justify their connections, which leads to deeper understanding and critical thinking.

https://ditchthattextbook.com/hexagonal-thinking

Spaced Retrieval Made Easy

On day one, I prepare three questions; two either multiple choice or fill in the blank questions and one short answer question. I will task my classes with answering these three questions from the first lesson of this unit before we even begin the first lesson. It may seem somewhat odd to ask students questions about a topic we haven’t covered, but there is growing evidence that pretesting has beneficial effects on student learning.

The next day (day two), instead of just answering three questions at the beginning of class, they will now answer six; the same three from the previous day (so now they’ve attempted to answer those questions three times) and three new questions from today’s lesson.

At the end of day two, depending on how much time we have, I may have them answer just that day’s three questions again or I may have them attempt all six again. 

On day three, I drop the three questions from day one and students attempt the three questions from day two (spacing out that retrieval) and then pretest them on the questions for day three…and this pattern continues for the entirety of the unit. 

Now, the real magic in this is that they are seeing the very concepts and terms they will be tested on during the unit summative assessment several times before they even consider studying for that test. 

https://theeffortfuleducator.com/2025/04/09/spaced-retrieval-made-easy/

Resources:  

AXIS The Culture Translator

On the Scent

What it is: For teenagers, the hottest trends in fragrance smell like bakery items and spice rack staples.

Why they’re selling so well: In a piece for Vox, Kyndall Cunningham outlines some basic reasons why sugary scents are selling out. First, since a lot of fragrance purchasing now happens online, a scent with notes of marshmallow, brown sugar, or vanilla is easy enough to imagine. There’s also the TikTok factor: influencers and celebrities, most of whom are being paid to shill these scents, make hefty claims about how much passers-by love the smell of these perfumes.

A Minecraft Movie

What it is: Teens are clapping and cheering so enthusiastically during A Minecraft Movie that theaters are requiring chaperones and/or calling the police.

Why it’s not what the internet predicted: When trailers for A Minecraft Movie first started coming out in 2024, people were horrified at the movie’s CGI renderings of sheep, villagers, and other game elements. (Plus, why was Minecraft’s main character, Steve, rendered as a human, but other game characters weren’t?) And yet between audience nostalgia (and/or an ongoing love of the game), Jack Black’s sheer ridiculousness, and so many inside jokes about game mechanics, the movie has been a big hit—at least with teen boys. In fact, the movie made more money on its opening weekend than any Warner Bros. movie since 2023.

YouTube AI Music Rollout

Got the students making videos?  Wish they had some Intro/outro or underlying music?  YouTube is rolling out an AI that will generate that very thing.  Check out the TechCrunch article for details:  https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/10/youtube-rolls-out-a-free-ai-music-making-tool-for-creators/  

Web Spotlight: 

Hard work feels worth it, but only after it’s done – new research on how people value effort

When deciding if something is worth the effort, whether you’ve already exerted yourself or face the prospect of work changes your calculus. When you consider a future effort, more work makes the outcome less appealing. But once you’ve completed the work, more effort makes the outcome seem more valuable. 

Not everyone responds to effort the same way. Our study also uncovered striking individual differences. Four distinct patterns emerged:

1. For some people, extra effort always subtracted value.
2. Others consistently preferred items with more work.
3. Many showed mixed patterns, where moderate effort increased value but excessive effort decreased it.
4. Some experienced the opposite: initially disliking effort, then finding greater value at higher levels.

…people, and even animals, often prize things that require hard work for no additional payoff?

In health care, starting an exercise regimen feels overwhelming when focusing on upcoming workouts, but after establishing the habit, those same exercises become a source of accomplishment. 

https://theconversation.com/hard-work-feels-worth-it-but-only-after-its-done-new-research-on-how-people-value-effort-252684

The average college student today

https://archive.md/XBbk2

Bouncy Balls

Control noisy classrooms with bouncing balls!

A fun and free noise management tool.

https://bouncyballs.org

https://help.classroomscreen.com/article/31-sound-level

https://www.hmhco.com/blog/free-online-noise-meters-for-classroom

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