MSM 699: Not Just Visiting
Summary:
Shawn and Troy talk about AI, AJ Juliani, Conferences, note-taking, getting “Clipped”, and more. Dave is out of this world this week.
Jokes:
Imagine if you walked into a room and there was a long line of people waiting to take a swing at you. – That’s the punch line.
Cleaning windows is a pane.
Last night a cinema near me was robbed of over $1,000.
- The thieves took one large bag of popcorn, two large drinks and a pack of Skittles.
Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda? He was lucky it was a soft drink.
When I was 6, my dad took me into his workshop and said, ‘Son, someday, this awl will be yours.’
My grandfather invented the cold air balloon.
- It never really got off the ground.
And the award for best neckwear goes to…
Well, would you look at that! It’s a tie!
People make such a big deal about vegans, but I don’t get it. I’ve never had beef with one.
Light travels faster than sound.
- This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
A quarter-acre of undeveloped land may not seem like much to some people, but to me, it’s a lot.
I bought a new pair of gloves today, but they’re both lefts.
- Which, on one hand, is great, but on the other, it’s just not right.
I was 16 minutes late for my first math lecture, 8 minutes late for the second, and 4 minutes late for the third.
- At this rate, I’ll never be on time.
A friend of mine has a bank account purely for buying raisins.
- It’s a current account.
What’s the difference between a literalist and a kleptomaniac?
- A literalist takes things literally. A kleptomaniac takes things, literally.
Middle School Science Minute
by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
K12Science Podcast: Artemis II
I was recently reading the April 2, 2026, NSTA Blog, a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.
In this blog I read an article written by Christine Anne Royce. She wrote an article entitled “A New Dawn on the Lunar Horizon: #WeAreGoing.”
On April 1, 2026, the Space Launch System engines ignited, lift off occurred, and Artemis II headed to the moon. It carried the first four humans to venture into the deep-space proving ground in over a half century.
https://k12science.net/artemis-ii/
Reports from the Front Lines
- A.J. Juliani
- Conference Notes
The Social Web
Eric Curts @ericcurts.bsky.social
EdTech Links for the Week of 4-6-26 – www.controlaltachieve.com/2026/04/LOTW… 📓 NotebookLM Webinar 🗯️ Graphic Novels Webinar 🎲 AI Games & Activities Webinar 📜 Poetry Projects 💎 New EduGems 🚦 Traffic Lite 🏫 SchoolAI Extension ⚛️ Atomency 🚨 Factile
💎 New EduGem: www.edugems.ai/gem/gallery-… 🏛️ Gallery Walk Activity – Design engaging, interactive Gallery Walk activities where students move around the classroom to explore bite-sized texts, images, and primary sources
💎 New EduGem: www.edugems.ai/gem/reading-… 🎚️ Reading Level Analyzer – Determine the reading level of a text and help adapt the material as needed to make it appropriate for your students
💎 New EduGem: www.edugems.ai/gem/pbl-gene… 💡 PBL Generator – Design Project-Based Learning (PBL) units that prioritize student agency, sustained inquiry, and real-world connections
🎲 Upcoming Webinar: AI Games, Interviews & Activities for Student Learning www.controlaltachieve.com/2026/04/webi… 🔠 Games, interviews, debates, CYOA, more! 🧒 Whole class or individual 🏫 Any grade or subject 🗓️ Apr 21 @ 3pm ET ▶️ Live-streamed & recorded ✅ Register at link above
Ron King @mthman.bsky.social
Good morning from the #PNW #pnwonderland
Dive into AMLE’s SMS Course! The series lets you explore foundational, research-supported middle grades best practice in a flexible, self-paced, virtual format. Get real results with exercises & reflections throughout to help you embed these principles into your daily practice: amle.org/smsonline
Resources:
The Reason You Study Wrong (and why the system never told you)
The strategies that produce the strongest feeling of knowing are frequently the strategies that produce the weakest actual retention.
https://www.ajjuliani.com/blog/the-reason-you-study-wrong-and-why-the-system-never-told-you
AXIS The Culture Translator
Slang of the Week: Clipped
Getting “clipped” has a few definitions, but we’re going to focus on the idea of someone candidly taking a bad photo of you. With the ubiquity of camera-equipped smartphones, there’s always the threat of someone snapping a picture when you’re mid-hamburger bite, with bad posture, or asleep on an airport bench. “Clipping” is often a harmless way to lovingly poke fun at each other, especially in a world with a “camera-ready” veneer, but, of course, it could also be used to bully someone.
I’m not a Regular Pimple, I’m a Cool Pimple
What it is: Pimples, a longstanding and infamous insecurity for young people, have evolved into an unexpected opportunity for accessorizing.
Why people are putting stickers on their faces: Pimples are par for the course for teens. Now, instead of crossing their fingers, hoping nobody would notice their blemishes, young people are decorating them. Brands like Starface and Hero Cosmetics rose to popularity during the pandemic, but when in-person rhythms resumed, the patches remained— perhaps because it is easier to resist picking at your skin when you have a nice little sticker on it. And it’s not just teens—adults at the airport, grocery store, or even at work will rock them. While the trend has its haters, it also has influencers cashing in, including Hailey Bieber. Her brand’s newly-announced hydrocolloid patches, debuting next week, come in fun shapes like mushrooms, jelly beans, and bubbles, and retail for $16.
Z.ai GLM 5.1 Open Source LLM
GLM-5.1 is our next-generation flagship model for agentic engineering, with significantly stronger coding capabilities than its predecessor. It achieves state-of-the-art performance on SWE-Bench Pro and leads GLM-5 by a wide margin on NL2Repo (repo generation) and Terminal-Bench 2.0 (real-world terminal tasks).
Download at Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/zai-org/GLM-5.1
Web Spotlight:
Charcuterie
A visual explorer for Unicode. Browse the character set, discover related glyphs, and learn more about the scripts, symbols, and shapes that make up the standard.
https://charcuterie.elastiq.ch/#1D4E6
How to Deal With Teacher Burnout (Without Quitting Right Away)
https://truthforteachers.com/how-to-deal-with-teacher-burnout-without-quitting-right-away
Random Thoughts . . .
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