MSM 166: Tons of Advisory ideas, Measuring and more.
Jokes You Can Use:
A man was checking into a hotel when he saw a golden retriever sitting on a rug near the hotel elevator. Talking to the man behind the desk, he asked, “Does your dog bite?” The attendant said, “No, he doesn’t.” But as the man let his hand down to pat the dog, it bit his hand and held on so tightly that the man had to throw him across the room.
Returning to the desk, the man said, “I thought you said that your dog didn’t bite.” He directed the attendant’s attention to the dog, who now had returned to the rug. The attendant simply answered, “My friend that is NOT my dog.”
TEACHER: Desmond, your composition on “My Dog” is exactly the same as your brother’s. Did you copy his?
DESMOND: No, teacher, it’s the same dog!
Q: What do you call a woman that knows where her husband is 24/7?
A: A WIDOW!!!!!
Eileen Award
Tami Readinger, Thanks for the Twitter Follow!
Advisory:
Create a Unit of Measurement: “We recently discussed a few unusual units of measurement, including the Wheaton (500,000 Twitter followers) and the milliHelen (the quantity of beauty required to launch a single ship). On the chalkboard of made-up measurements, there’s still plenty of room. So let’s invent some new ones!
Your fake units can measure anything: height, weight, time, the amount of energy required to do something, whatever. We’ll award a copy of Split Decision to the person who coins our favorite new unit, and we’ll have other prizes for three runners-up. We’ll also start casually using your term in conversation. This might take off.”
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/87272
Kinestic Challenge
- You don’t have to be at a desk but you must be sitting.
- While sitting at your desk make clockwise circles with your right foot.
- While doing this, draw the number ” 6 ” in the air with your right hand.
- Your foot will change direction.
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
NASA Explorer School Program, since Shawn was asking about it on the last show. NASA has changed the way they do these NES Schools, so it is much easier to participate. Check it out at: explorerschools.nasa.gov
From the Twitterverse:
 *camlecolorado “Many parents failing to supervise kids on Facebook” SF Chronicle bit.ly/lS1ri9 via @Larryferlazzo |
 *jsmummert History sleuths, what the heck is this? |
 *Larryferlazzo Larry Ferlazzo”Artificial Grammar Reveals Inborn Language Sense, Study Shows” |
 *bivey MT @SOSMarch: RT@EdReformPR “I teach, therefore I’ve lost sleep worrying about other people’s kids. <Man, that’s the truth! |
 *LogicalChoice Individualized Technology Plan Helps Student with Autism Achieve Learning Goals freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/indivi… #autism #edchat |
 *OCESS Did you know @NASA is giving space shuttle tiles to U.S. schools & universities until 5/23? http://go.nasa.gov/gpkYzD #edcampplano |
 *ColoradoHowe Please help contribute to a GDoc on World History online video clips at Great start so far! #sschat |
 *tombarrett One Question Surveys – Simple Surveys Chunky Results :: 1000+ Responses Each |
| Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. |
News:
Textbook Pilot
We are pleased to announce that Nature Publishing Group will shortly be releasing Principles of Biology, an evidence-based textbook solution for today’s biology classrooms.
Principles of Biology is a high quality reinvention of the textbook, drawing on Nature Publishing Group’s ties into science research and reflecting the values of the education community.
- More than 200 customizable peer-reviewed mini-chapters created by dozens of scientists, instructors, and editors
- 75+ online interactive exercises to give students a hands-on way to apply their knowledge
- 40+ Bioskills units teaching students real scientific skills, including data analysis
- 2000+ assessment questions
- Synopses and links to milestone research papers from Nature and other journals
- Accessible on laptop, smartphone, or tablet
- Affordably priced for all students
Principles of Biology covers all of the topics taught in majors introductory biology courses including chemistry, cells, genetics, evolution, biodiversity, plant physiology, animal physiology, and ecology.
We are looking for a small number of pilot partners to help us field test this resource during the 2011 fall semester.
http://www.nature.com/nature_education/biology.html
Walden University has expanded its MobileLearn service by releasing content through Apple’s iTunes U. The university’s new iTunes U page provides students with course content, experiential videos, highlights of Walden students, and a number of other resources for enhancing the student experience. When partaking in MobileLearn-enabled courses, students can access video and audio content from the classroom through iTunes, as well as save the content for offline access. In addition, the university also offers an iOS application that provides access to online classrooms, university messages, a Walden e-mail account, and student support services.
http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/11/05/12/ledet.updates.courses.for.ipad.integration
Strategy of the Week:
Addressing Bullying
Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.
We exist because our nation’s children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development . As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sample-lesson
Tips for Using Project Based Learning to Teach Math Standards
Let’s be honest. Designing PBL for Math can be a different beast. With the pressure of high-stakes testing and a packed curriculum, I often coach teachers who are nervous about giving time to a robust PBL project. In addition, because of the plethora of math standards, it can be difficult to choose the right learning target(s) for the project. Here are some tips for teachers designing individual Math PBL projects.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-math-standards
Resources:
National Jukebox
The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/
Anne Frank Virtual Tour
http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Enter-the-3D-house/#/house/21/
Good Reads Makes Good Readers
So if you are here you read blogs, but do you read books too? Do your students? Mine didn’t. Not much anyway. Then about a month ago I read a book for teachers called The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/goodreads-makes-great-readers.html
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1qEV4Ht-aKZuYM8NF_bSLpKfSzMD41lPaLR6rLnHRAbg
Yong Zhao Learning
Famed Educational Expositor has a website with links to videos of his presentations on various educational topics.
http://zhaolearning.com/
Web Spotlight:
Book Writing
So you want to write a book. Well, why not? So does about 80 percent of the United States population according to a survey by the Jenkins Group.
- 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
- 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
- 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
- 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
- 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
- 70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.
- 70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.
(Source: Jerold Jenkins, www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)
- 53 percent read fiction, 43 percent read nonfiction. The favorite fiction category is mystery and suspense, at 19 percent.
- 55 percent of fiction is bought by women, 45 percent by men.
- (Source: Publishers Weekly)
- About 120,000 books are published each year in the U.S.
- (Source: www.bookwire.com)
- A successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies.
- A successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies.
- (Source: Authors Guild, www.authorsguild.org)
- On average, a bookstore browser spends 8 seconds looking at a book’s front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover.
- (Source: Para Publishing, www.parapub.com)
- Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
- (Source: Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment banker)
http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1898
Across More Classes, Videos Make the Grade
Film students aren’t the only ones producing videos for homework these days.
http://chronicle.com/article/Across-More-Classes-Videos/127422
20 Questions That Will Make You a Better Person
Excellent students of life take the time to answer good questions.
Sit down with a piece of paper and play twenty questions with yourself.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/05/20-questions-that-will-make-you-better.html
Events & Happenings:
Calendar of Events:
NMSA News:
- National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2011 —Saturday, November 10, 2011 Louisville, Kentucky.
- Promotional Materials:
- Crossword Puzzle! (Maryland Conference)
- Promotional Materials:
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- Other News:
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- 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 ISTE Special Interest Group: Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
Ohio Middle Level Association:
- The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
Michigan Association of Middle School Educators
- The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 2012 in Warren Woods, MI.
- The National Substitute Teacher Association’s Annual Conference July 22-24.
- The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2011
- Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
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- Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
- Second Life:
- Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details. Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
- Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
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