MSM 215 This We Believe: Characteristics and Going for a Walk with Dave.
Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.
AMLE Feature:
Characteristics
To comprehend their breadth and focus, the characteristics are grouped in three general categories:
Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Characteristics
●Educators value young adolescents and are prepared to teach them.
●Students and teachers are engaged in active, purposeful learning.
●Curriculum is challenging, exploratory, integrative, and relevant.
●Educators use multiple learning and teaching approaches.
●Varied and ongoing assessments advance learning as well as measure it.
Leadership and Organization Characteristics
●A shared vision developed by all stakeholders guides every decision.
●Leaders are committed to and knowledgeable about this age group, educational research, and
best practices.
●Leaders demonstrate courage and collaboration.
●Ongoing professional development reflects best educational practices.
●Organizational structures foster purposeful learning and meaningful relationships.
Culture and Community Characteristics
●The school environment is inviting, safe, inclusive, and supportive of all.
●Every student’s academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate.
●Comprehensive guidance and support services meet the needs of young adolescents.
●Health and wellness are supported in curricula, school-wide programs, and related policies.
●The school actively involves families in the education of their children.
●The school includes community and business partners.
You can find the This We Believe
Jokes You Can Use:
A famous lawyer, who had been a public defender for years, dies. He finds himself standing at the back
of an enormous queue outside the gates of Heaven. The queue before him is enormous. The number of
people who die in a single day appalls him. He can barely see St. Peter sitting up on a podium outside the
gates with a large book. Every now and then St. Peter glances down the queue to see how he is going.
Suddenly he catches the eye of the lawyer. He looks very surprised. He jumps down from the podium
and comes running along the line until slightly out of breath he arrives beside the lawyer. He embraces
him. He pulls him out of the queue and motions for him to come to the front of the queue. Another person
questions what is happening and another angel speaks to the person. Word is passed along the queue
and the lawyer is surprised, as people start nodding and clapping. He becomes embarrassed by all the
attention and asks St. Peter why he is getting the special attention.
St. Peter stops suddenly and looks concerned.
“You are a lawyer aren’t you?’
“Yes” the lawyer replies. “Does this happen to all lawyers in heaven?”
“Oh, no, “Said St. Peter. “It’s just you are the first one to ever get here.”
Eileen Award:
●Charles G. Timm
●Jennifer Johnson
●Marianne Mangels
●Jenifer Fox
●Mark Wills
Advisory:
Ten Rules for Class
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Josh Fullan wrote an article entitled, “Pedestrian City,” for the magazine Green Teacher, summer edition
2012. The purpose of the article was to present a way that middle school students could investigate the
walkability of their urban neighborhoods. He presented three activities:
Learning Activity 1: Introduction to walking as a mode of transportation.
Learning Activity 2: Experiential lesson on walking in which the teacher leads the students on a
neighborhood walk.
Learning Activity 3: Culminates the unit with a creative hands-on activity on walking in which students
create a hand-drawn map of a walk they do regularly.
For more information, please visit:
From the Twitterverse:
 Russel Tarr @historynews [History: 1066-1500]: ‘Medieval village’ remains found http://bbc.in/NMuaju
#historyteacher
|
 Scott McLeod @mcleod RT @ransomtech: School leaders, pls read. MT @mcleod: 26 Internet safety
talking points! #edtech #cpchat #edchat
|
 Rich Kiker @rkiker Your Deleted Facebook Photos Will Now Be Gone Forever
|
 Terie Engelbrecht @mrsebiology Schoolnotes http://goo.gl/IVaUu Place where teachers can make pages for parent
& student viewing #edchat #edtech
|
 Sandy Kendell @EdTechSandyK iPad Classroom Next Term? – 10 Things to Consider | #mlearning #edtech
@scoopit http://sco.lt/56ZC2z
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 Sue Waters @suewaters 50 things to do during Connected Educators Month
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 russeltarr @russeltarr Geographers! New on iBooks – great new book by @richardallaway and @GeoBlogs http://j.mp/NtRcel #geographyteacher
|
 russeltarr @russeltarr How to Address Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom: http://tinyurl.com/3jdczxt
|
 Britt Michaelian @MamaBritt 🙂 “@awakeningaimee: Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the
doorbell”
|
 russeltarr @russeltarr Why study History? How to do it? How to write for History? http://tinyurl.com/3tmysml
|
 Kyle Calderwood @kcalderw 5 Edmodo Activities for the First Day of School http://zite.to/RXDnIv #mlearning
#edtech #njed
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Join #mschat on Fridays at 8:00 pm EST on Twitter!
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Resources:
5 Video Projects to Try With Your Students
Richard Byrne
Here are five ideas and tools for video projects that you can try with your students this year.
ISTE:
Digital Historians
Making History Local, Digital, and Relevant: The GeoHistorian Project
Kent State University affliated project.
Mark van’t Hooft and Thomas McNeal
The GeoHistorian Project
QR Codes and a Mobile Phone
Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
Origins
We started investigating the use of cell phones for video conferencing in 2005 as an alternative to
something . . .
The Geo Historian Project
Give students the opportunity to become local historians and create digital resources for their
communities;
Demonstrate how resource sites near and far (in this case a local historical society and historical sites)
can be valuable learning resources;
Investigate cell phones as an educational tool outside of the classroom;
Demonstrate how digital content can be used to amplify learning on location.
Partnerships
Kent Historical Society
Research Center for Educational Technology
Kent City Schools
Kent State Honors College
National Endowment for the Humanities
Kent Parks and Recreation
Creating Digital Stories about Local History
4 week project, one week for each item listed below:
1. The Importance of Stories
2. Historical Research
3. Story Writing
Storyboard their research.
4. Audio/Video Editing
Photostory used for story production
Videos uploaded to YouTube
5. Take their digital stories and then create the QR codes for each site.
The QR codes are machined in aluminum markers.
Website: http://www.rcet.org/geohistorian
Setup as a blog.
Curriculum Page
Online and free, but do let them know if you use it. They’d like to know.
QR or 2D Code is a matrix barcode with embedded information such as text, an email address or phone
number, or a URL (multimedia!!). The codes can be read by camera phones with a camera
Bar codes come in many shapes and sizes:
Aztec, QR Code, Sema Code (data matrix), EZ code
They can come in pictures.
Mickey mouse, Zebra shape,
QR code generator
Digital content and a place to upload it to somewhere.
Digital Content Considerations
Link to existing content or make your own.
Smart phones from different carries all have different operating systems and require different videos
and audio formats
Formats for video and audio clips
Windows mobile
iPhone/Quicktime
Android MPeg4
QR Code Generators
delivr
3GVision
snap.vu www.snap.vu Requires a registration, but you can track how many views.
Try it Out!
Any of the QR codes you see here can be scanned.
Download a QR Code Reader to your phone if you haven’t done so yet:
Go to www.i-nigma.mobi on your mobile phone.
i-nigma will automatically identify your handset type.
Use your phone or iPod Touch to scan the codes to see the embedded content.
The Historical Society made a coloring book of each place and put the QR Code in the book with the
picture for the kids to color.
There are times that audio is better than video for upload/download. They can make the QR code for text
only/audio only so that it doesn’t require internet access.
Events & Happenings:
Calendar of Events:
Ohio Middle Level Association:
●The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference.
○OMLA Registration Form
○OMLA Presentation Proposal Form
AMLE Affiliate Conferences:
●The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March
2012 in Warren Woods, MI.
○MAMSE Exhibitor Form
○MAMSE Registration Form
○MAMSE Presentation Form
○MAMSE Conference Program Book (2011)
●The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012
○Conference Brochure
○Presenter’s Application
○Who They Are . . .
○This year’s sessions . . .
Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
○Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
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