Category: MSM

Middle School Matters podcast related information

advisory, MSM, Podcast, StrategyBy Troy Patterson

MSM 266: Shawn’s had enough, enough I tell you! And most of this you can use for Advisory, Advisory, Advisory!!!- Patent Pending.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

Why is it called a ‘Picnic’?

Betty Sue wanted to eat outside on a hot summer day with her boyfriend. Problem: she had two boyfriends, Fred and Nick. Considering she knew she wouldn’t have a very happy lunch if the two boys were arguing, she decided just to choose one boy to have the meal.

She Picked Nick.

 

If a cat won an Oscar, what would he get?

An a-cat-emy award.

A mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the motor of a Harley

motorcycle when he spotted a well-known heart surgeon in his shop.

The surgeon was there, waiting for the service manager to come and take a look at his bike.

The mechanic shouted across the garage, “Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?”

 

The surgeon a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic working on the motorcycle. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, “So Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take valves out, fix ’em, put ’em back in, and when I finish, it works just like new. So how come I get such a small salary and you get the really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?”

 

The surgeon paused, smiled and leaned over, and whispered to the mechanic…

“Try doing it with the engine running.”

Bubba and Johnny Ray, two good ole boys from North Carolina, were sitting’ on the front porch when a large truck hauling rolls and rolls of sod went by.

“I’m gonna do that when I win the lottery,” said Bubba.

“Do what?” asked Johnny Ray.

“Send my grass out to be mowed,” answered Bubba.

 

Somehow we always think we are aging at a slower rate than everyone else, this was true of this older woman who is seeing a doctor for the first time.

She was taken into a room and told to “make herself comfortable.” While reading the doctor’s diploma on the wall, she realizes that she went to high school with him many years ago.

The doctor enters the room; he is very gray, and slightly bent over from old age, and says “hello, how can I help you?”

The woman asks; “Did you attend Roosevelt High School?”

“Yes I did”, the doctor answered.

She asks: “Class of 79?” “Yes I was”, was the answered.

The woman was delighted, and said: “You were in my class!”

The doctor responded: “What did you teach?”

Eileen Award:

 

Advisory:

Best City to Visit

London is on track to being the most popular tourist destination in the world, beating Paris and New York, with latest numbers showing visitors to the UK capital up 20 per cent. The rivalry between ‘The Big Smoke’ (London) and ‘The City of Love’ (Paris) comes amid another media-based spat between Britain and France over the economy.

http://www.englishblog.com/2014/01/reuters-video-london-eyed-as-best-tourist-city-.html#.UtqRsGQo4_U

Trending Words

Kind of like Word of the day,

http://www.merriam-webster.com/trend-watch/2014/01/17/

Middle School Science Minute

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

 

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-SAFETY IN VIDEOS

 

I was recently reading the November, 2013 issue of Science Scope, a magazine written for Middle School Science Teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  In this issue, I came upon an article entitled, “Safety in Videos,” written by Ken Roy, Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Glastonbury Public Schools.

Ken shares his advice on how teachers should always review media with an eye toward appropriate safety practices.

 

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/12/20_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Safety_In_Videos.html

 

From the Twitterverse:

* Vicki Davis ‏@coolcatteacher

How To Install Chromecast and Listen to Podcasts on Your TV http://shrd.by/fkEPMB  via @Ileane
* Derek McCoy ‏@mccoyderek

7 Creative Apps That Allow Students To Show What They Know http://feedly.com/k/1dcBmlW
* Marygrove College ‏@MGCollegeMAT

“Why won’t my students engage?!” Here are 5 quick strategies to increase student engagement: pic.twitter.com/0VTPy5XeoM
* Nicholas Provenzano ‏@thenerdyteacher

Excellent Classroom Poster on How to Cite Information from Internet http://zite.to/1cDRycx
* Mike Muir ‏@mmuir

Interesting exploration of making tough choices in Ed Tech, and “settling” due to financial concerns… http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2014/01/the-digital-equity-concerns-of-good-enough.html
* Diane Ravitch ‏@DianeRavitch

Maryland: Common Core Testing Will Codt $100 Million http://wp.me/p2odLa-6UC
* TAKS to STAAR ‏@STAARtest

Your input requested: Educators have until Jan. 28 to comment on new standards that will impact appraisals. http://ow.ly/sHNuh  #txed
* pammoran ‏@pammoran

Tchrs use SM in their personal lives but avoid in class due 2 possible repercussions via Ed Week #satchat http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?DISPATCHED=true&cid=25983841&item=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.edweek.org%2Fedweek%2FDigitalEducation%2F2014%2F01%2Fsuvey_teachers_shy_away_from_e.html%3Fcmp%3DENL-CM-NEWS2 …
* Judy O’Connell ‏@heyjudeonline

Engaging with Ebooks Can Aid Children’s Literacy, Study Finds http://fb.me/6zHLgVUf5
* Hemanshu Nigam ‏@HemanshuNigam

Trolls Force Olympian to Quit Twitter Until Games Are Over http://ow.ly/sGZG9
* AMLE ‏@AMLE

We’re reading: Middle School: Not So Bad – Hilary Conklin – The Atlantic http://ow.ly/sGme2  #mschat #midleved

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

Strategies:

True Grit: The Best Measure of Success and How to Teach It

Can you predict academic success or whether a child will graduate? You can, but not how you might think.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/true-grit-measure-teach-success-vicki-davis

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/12-item%20Grit%20Scale.05312011.pdf

Resources:

This scientist has three patents pending. He also happens to be 12.

http://blog.ted.com/2014/01/13/this-scientist-has-three-patents-pending-he-also-happens-to-be-12/

Web Spotlight:

 

40 more maps that explain the world

Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. You might consider this, then, a collection of maps meant to inspire your inner map nerd. I’ve searched far and wide for maps that can reveal and surprise and inform in ways that the daily headlines might not, with a careful eye for sourcing and detail. I’ve included a link for more information on just about every one. Enjoy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/13/40-more-maps-that-explain-the-world/

Rag Linen

Rag Linen, named for the heavy-duty paper on which pre-19th century news was printed, is an online museum of rare and historic newspapers, which serve as the first drafts of history and the critical primary source material for historians, authors and educators. Curator and publisher Todd Andrlik has built one of the most significant and comprehensive private collections of Revolutionary War era newspapers. Glimpses of the newspapers can be found on RagLinen.com, but the full archive of American Revolution newspaper coverage will be made public for the first time in the forthcoming book, Reporting the Revolutionary War: Before It Was History, It Was News (Sourcebooks, November 2012).

Before 1870, newspapers were printed on a sturdy paper made by pulping linen rags, often from clothes or ship sails. Thanks to the durability of rag linen paper and Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, history’s most important events from the 16th through the 19th centuries are often well preserved in printed form.

http://raglinen.com/

Rick Rolled my physics teacher…

https://twitter.com/sairamg3/status/422906182152757248

History Picz

https://twitter.com/HistoryPicz

advisory, MSM, Podcast, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 265: Two things are inevitable. . .

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

Before going to Europe on business, a man drives his Rolls-Royce to a downtown New York City bank and asks for an immediate loan of $5,000. The loan officer, taken aback, requests collateral. “Well then, here are the keys to my Rolls-Royce,” the man says. The loan officer promptly has the car driven into the bank’s underground parking for safe keeping and gives the man the $5,000. Two weeks later, the man walks through the bank’s doors and asks to settle up his loan and get his car back. “That will be $5,000 in principal, and $15.40 in interest,” the loan officer says. The man writes out a check and starts to walk away. “Wait, sir,” the loan officer says. “You are a millionaire. Why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000?” The man smiles, “Where else could I find a safer place to park my Rolls-Royce in Manhattan for two weeks and pay only $15.40?”

 

A man goes on a 2-month business trip to Europe and leaves his cat with his brother. Three days before his return he calls his brother.

Brother 1: So how is my cat doing?

Brother 2: He’s Dead

Brother 1: He’s Dead! What do you mean He’s Dead! I loved that cat. Couldn’t you think of a nicer way to tell me! I’m leaving in 3 days. You could of broke me to the news easier. You could of told me today that she got out of the house or something. Then when I called before I left you could of told me, Well, we found her but she is up on the roof and we’re having trouble getting her down. Then when I call you from the airport you could of told me, The Fire Department was there and scared her off the roof and the cat died when it hit the ground.

Brother 2: I’m sorry…you’re right…that was insensitive I won’t let it happen again.

Brother 1: Alright, alright, forget about it. Anyway, how is Mom doing?

Brother 2: She’s up on the roof and we’re having trouble getting her down.

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

“House” for instance, is feminine: “la casa.”

“Pencil,” however, is masculine: “el lapiz.”

A student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?”

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

 

The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the feminine gender (“la computadora”) because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine (“el computador”) because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.

2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves.

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time, they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

A man was walking along a California beach and stumbled across an old lamp. He picked it up and rubbed it and out popped a genie. The genie said, “OK. You released me from the lamp, blah blah blah. This is the fourth time this month and I’m getting a little sick of these wishes so you can forget about three. You only get one wish!” The man sat and thought about it for a while and said, “I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii but I’m scared to fly and I get very seasick. Could you build me a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over there to visit?” The genie laughed and said, “That’s impossible. Think of the logistics of that! How would the supports ever reach the bottom of the Pacific? Think of how much concrete…how much steel!! No, think of another wish.” The man said OK and tried to think of a really good wish. Finally, he said, “I’ve been married and divorced four times. My wives always said that I don’t care and that I’m insensitive. So, I wish that I could understand women….know how they feel inside and what they’re thinking when they give me the silent treatment….know why they’re crying, know what they really want when they say ‘nothing’….know how to make them truly happy….”

The genie asked, “Do you want that bridge two lanes or four?”

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter:  Chris Gore, Rolli, Ali Spagnola

 

Advisory:

The Train that never stops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeRrU4_M3Q#t=18

 

19 Saying Fixed

http://thedoghousediaries.com/5574

 

Middle School Science Minute

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

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-CLASSROOM ZOO

I was recently reading the November, 2013 issue of Science Scope, a magazine written for Middle School Science Teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  In this issue, I came upon an article entitled, “Classroom Zoo: Practicing Ethical Research on Animals,” written by June Poling from Portland, OR.

She developed a classroom invertebrate zoo project where students take on the role of zookeepers.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/12/13_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Classroom_Zoo.html

From the Twitterverse:

* Allison M. White ‏@allionthemove

State Ed storing student data on ‘cloud’ delayed http://www.newsday.com/long-island/state-education-project-storing-student-data-on-cloud-delayed-1.6774923 … @Newsday Heed petition @NYSA_Majority
* Todd ‏@ToddWhitaker

Should principals stop visiting classrooms? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/08/should-principals-stop-visiting-classrooms/ …
* Secondary Principals ‏@massp

Is your staff drowning under the waves of change? Steps to save them: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct11/vol69/num02/Not-Waving,-But-Drowning.aspx … #MichED
* Dean J. Fusto ‏@DJFTLL

A6 – LInkedIn effective when one is interactive w/ specific affinity groups such as @DruTomlin_AMLE @ASCD @TABSorg @isteconnects #satchat
* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod

Zombie-Based (Geography) Learning

DI: Data resisters aren’t Chicken Littles #edtech

http://atthechalkface.com/2014/01/03/johnkuhntx-the-tyranny-of-the-datum/
* Theresa Reagan ‏@tee62

Finally, an Alternative to the Much-Hated QR Code http://mashable.com/2014/01/09/qr-code-clickable-paper/#lead-image:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfODcxdHhrcjB2NTlpenp1eDJveHp0MHZlaXBfIn0 … via @mashable
* Karen Bosch ‏@karlyb

How to create AR Scavenger Hunts using KlikaKlu app:
* Mike Muir ‏@mmuir

What teachers, parents, & students need to know about cyber bullying. http://www.edudemic.com/cyberbullying/
* Ryan Bretag ‏@ryanbretag

Wolfram releases Problem Generator to create practice problems http://zite.to/1gC9g57
* Arne Duncan ‏@arneduncan

Redesign of school discipline practices long overdue. Too many schools resort too quickly to exclusionary disciplinehttp://go.usa.gov/ZdxC  
* Diane Ravitch ‏@DianeRavitch

Study: NYC Charters Lose 80% of Students with Disabilities by Third Grade http://wp.me/p2odLa-6QL

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

Strategies:

5 Special Strategies for Teaching Tweens

Strategy 1: Teach to Developmental Needs

Strategy 2: Treat Academic Struggle as Strength

Strategy 3: Provide Multiple Pathways to Standards

Strategy 4: Give Formative Feedback

Strategy 5: Dare to Be Unconventional

http://www.middleweb.com/6641/5-strategies-for-tween-teachers/

 

Resources:

 

What Happens on the Internet in a Minute?

http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Internet-minute.jpg

The Principal: The Most Misunderstood Person in All of Education

A few years ago when I walked the hallways of a high school with my five-year-old niece Evie, she remarked, without prompting: “There’s the principal’s office: you only go there if you are in trouble.”

Most remarkably, those very people who did not understand what a principal did were often the first to argue for the abolition of the role.

In American public schools, the principal is the most complex and contradictory figure in the pantheon of educational leadership.

The history of the principal offers even more contradictions. Contemporary principals work in the midst of unique modern challenges of ever-changing fiscal supports, school law and policy, community values, and youth culture.

The complex role of the principal is not an accidental by-product of history; rather, the principal’s position at the nexus of educational policy and practice was an intentional component of the role when it was originally conceived.

Like other middle managers, the principal had a “dual personality,” standing “on the middle ground between management and employee,” as both a loyal sergeant to a distant supervisor and a local administrator who had to negotiate with workers in order to get the job done properly.

Through the mid-20th century, the principalship was an inconsistently defined position, as often a teacher with administrative responsibilities as an administrator who supervised teachers.

As the principalship evolved away from the classroom to the administrative office, the principal became less connected with student learning, and yet more responsible for it.

Modern principals came to have less to do with student learning and more to do with upholding administrative structures and responding to public pressures.

For all those efforts, however, the history of the principalship is marked by an increasing discrepancy between the popular image and the actual work of the position. Ironic too, is the dominant image of the principalship with an office, given the great variety, mobility, human interactions, and community relations of principals’ work.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/the-principal-the-most-misunderstood-person-in-all-of-education/281223/

 

Common Core and the Food Pyramid

By Rick Hess on December 16, 2013 7:33 AM

 

Unlike a lot of folks, it’s because I thought (and continue to think) that the Common Core itself just doesn’t matter that much.

Standards are just a bunch of words on paper.

I always think of the food pyramid (the one that the feds unveiled decades ago, only to decide that it was offering families bad advice and needed to be revised and replaced by “food plate” that Michelle Obama has championed. Whoops.).  When the pyramid was unveiled, I’m sure some amped-up nutritionists excitedly thought it would make a huge difference when it came to health and obesity.  Turned out: not so much. Most people have never paid a whole lot of attention; after all, it’s just a bunch of suggestions assembled through a bureaucratic process. (And did I mention it was questionable advice?)

In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).

But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do.  And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind.

Common Core boosters seem to suggest they’re just proposing a food pyramid. This, of course, infuriates the critics, who think (fairly enough) that what the Common Core’ites are really after is to reorder schooling, soup to nuts.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2013/12/common_core_and_the_food_pyramid.html

Fighting in Teenagers Lowers Their IQ

Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice found that injuries sustained in fighting as a teenager lead to a significant loss of intelligence (IQ).

The study, “Serious Fighting-Related Injuries Produce a Significant Reduction in Intelligence,” was conducted by doctoral student Joseph A. Schwartz under the guidance of Professor Kevin Beaver and was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The study found that adolescent boys who are hurt in just two physical fights suffer a loss of IQ that is roughly equivalent to missing an entire year of school. Girls experience a similar loss of IQ after only a single fighting-related injury.

The study used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, known as Add Health. Add Health began in 1994 with a sample of 20,000 middle and high school students who were then followed through 2002 with a series of data collections. These subjects supplied information about personality traits, social relationships and the frequency of specific behaviors.

http://calorielab.com/news/2013/08/12/fighting-in-teenagers-lowers-their-iq/

Web Spotlight:

 

How flipping saved a teacher’s career

Four years into his fifth grade teaching career in a small rural district in Texas, Todd Nesloney felt burned out and ready to quit.

“I was tired of worksheets, tired of teaching to the test. I wanted to do something different,” he said. “At the end of my fifth year, I was anticipating leaving.”

“I was dead set on proving my kids could be just as successful by not focusing on the tests or being taught a standardized question in class. We had the highest scores in the district. Most of my students passed on the first try. It really helped solidify in my district’s mind that I could continue this.”

“I could see a passion building in my students. I could see them love learning. Before, I was just preparing them to pass the test.”

Flipping his classroom allowed Nesloney to make the time, and he now regularly scours Pinterest for inventive projects that not only relate to what he’s teaching but allow students to create a tangible end product or engage with the material in a real-life application.

http://blog.iste.org/flipping-saved-teachers-career/

advisory, MSM, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 264: Suffixes matter & Sunshine on the Soap Bubbles . . . Then there was a ding.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

 

Q. What do you call a person who goes on talking when nobody listens?

A. A teacher!

Did you hear about the thief who moved into an apartment over the Police Station?

 

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening windows.

 

Why was the glowworm unhappy?

Because her children were not very bright!

The drunken defendant appears yet again before the tired judge, who says, “You have been constantly appearing before me for the past twenty years.” Replied the drunk: “Can I help it if you can’t get promoted?”

 

“An abstract noun,” the teacher said, “is something you can think of, but you can’t touch it.

Can you give me an example of one?”

“Sure,” a teenage boy replied. “My father’s new car.”

An Antartian boy and his father were visiting a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again.

The boy asked his father, “What is this, Father?” The father [never having seen an elevator] responded “Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is.”

While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room.

The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.

The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, “Go get your mother.”

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter:  Jodi Stewart, Coach Burk, Michael Carton

 

Advisory:

T-Rex

I’ve included a link for you to print out your own. The trick looks best through a camera. If you close one eye and move back and forth it works pretty good too.

 

GreenT-Rex image

http://i.imgur.com/vBDV8o5.jpg

Red T-rex

http://i.imgur.com/80DDCYy.jpg

Blue T-rex

http://i.imgur.com/Z8lZnoK.jpg

Winter Soap Bubbles

When the weather forecast announced about the unexpected cold from -9°C to -12°C last week, Washington-based photographer Angela Kelly decided to take an advantage of it in one truly creative way. Together with her 7-year-old son, Kelly combined the home-based remedies – dish soap, karo syrup, and water – and went out to blow bubbles and take pictures as they freeze and melt.

http://www.boredpanda.com/frozen-bubbles-winter-photography-angela-kelly/

Middle School Science Minute

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

 

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-POWERPOINT FLASHCARDS

 

I was recently reading the November, 2013 issue of Science Scope, a magazine for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  I then read the article “Increasing Science Vocabulary Using PowerPoint Flash Cards.”

In order to help improve science vocabulary in the school, they did the following:

1. Explored Science-Vocabulary Acquisition

2. Implemented Vocabulary Instructional Practices

3. Implemented PowerPoint Flash Cards

4. Integrated Science Vocabulary as a School-Wide, Universal Support System.

 

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/12/4_Middle_School_Science_Minute-PowerPoint_Flashcards.html

From the Twitterverse:

* Laura Gilchrist ‏@LauraGilchrist4

How a book really can change your life: Brain function improves for DAYS after rding a novel http://buff.ly/JyM4bK  via @VictoriaL_Day
* Larry Ferlazzo ‏@Larryferlazzo

Two Days Left To Share The Best Education-Related Book You Read This Year! http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/12/27/two-days-left-to-share-the-best-education-related-book-you-read-this-year/#.Ur7ixvWaDqs.twitter …
* Lockie Chapman ‏@lockiechapman

Turns out there is a word for the indescribable— 38 Wonderful Foreign Words We Could Use in English http://shar.es/91dgl  via @ShareThis
* John Bernia ‏@MrBernia

Are you starting to think about your return to work? Time to step back and think “keep, stop, do.” http://mrbernia.com/2012/12/23/keep-stop-do/ …
* Wendy Lecker ‏@Wlecker

Pearson, Microsoft, and Barnes & Noble Join Forces to Form an “Online Education Dream Team”http://www.technapex.com/2013/01/pearson-microsoft-and-barnes-noble-join-forces-to-form-an-online-education-dream-team/
* Seth Berg ‏@BergsEyeView

Some quality ideas for engaging middle school readershttp://www.edutopia.org/blog/projects-engage-middle-school-readers-beth-holland
* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod

“We want our schools to be more like those in the East, who, in turn, want to be more like us” #edreform #iaedfuture
* Maria Popova ‏@brainpicker

Judge rules Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain http://j.mp/1jRWwMm  Celebrate with how to think like Holmes http://j.mp/1hL1k1H
* Erin Klein ‏@KleinErin

20 Ways to Bring Your Textbook to Life! http://zite.to/19miVKR

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

Resources:

Open Library

One web page for every book ever published. It’s a lofty but achievable goal.

To build Open Library, we need hundreds of millions of book records, a wiki interface, and lots of people who are willing to contribute their time and effort to building the site.

To date, we have gathered over 20 million records from a variety of large catalogs as well as single contributions, with more on the way.

Open Library is an open project: the software is open, the data are open, the documentation is open, and we welcome your contribution. Whether you fix a typo, add a book, or write a widget–it’s all welcome. We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can’t do it alone!

 

https://openlibrary.org/

 

 

Web Spotlight:

Turn 0 Phrase

Identify colloquial phrases.

http://turn-o-phrase.appspot.com/

‘Small typo’ casts big doubt on teacher evaluations

 

A single missing suffix among thousands of lines of programming code led a public school teacher in Washington, D.C., to be erroneously fired for incompetence, three teachers to miss out on $15,000 bonuses and 40 others to receive inaccurate job evaluations.

Devaney said the firm employs stringent quality control, which in this case included 40 hours of meetings to review the updated model and an analysis by independent programmers paid to comb through the code line by line. Yet no one noticed the missing suffix until yet another routine quality review took place this November — after the district had already distributed bonuses, layoff notices and evaluation scores based on the value-added data for the 2012-13 school year, Devaney said.

The recalculations produced “very small differences” in individual teachers’ scores, Devaney said. “But small differences can sometimes have big implications,” she added.

But some critics noted that it may be impossible for the district to “hold harmless” all teachers affected by the error, as Kamras intends. A study released earlier this year found that getting a poor rating prompted many teachers to leave the district or quit the profession, even though they were not fired. It’s unclear whether any of the affected teachers may have altered their career plans after receiving scores that were lower than they actually deserved.

A study that Mathematica conducted for the Department of Education in 2010 found that value-added estimates “are likely to be quite noisy.” Indeed, the study concluded that even when three years of student test data are used, as many as 50 percent of teachers will be misidentified — deemed average when they’re actually better or worse than their peers, or singled out for praise or condemnation when they’re actually average.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/small-typo-casts-big-doubt-on-teacher-evaluations-education-101517.html#.UrnmXe55TWk.twitter

 

5 Ideas To Bring Parents Into The Learning Process

by George Couros • December 26, 2013

 

Here are some ways that we can build strong connections with the parents in our school communities:

  1. Use what the kids use

  2. Have an open mind

  3. Tap into parent leadership

  4. Focus on open communication

  5. Create learning opportunities

http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/9881

Why All Students Should Write: A Neurological Explanation

by Judy Willis M.D., M.Ed., radteach.com

 

Writing promotes the brain’s attentive focus to classwork and homework, promotes long-term memory, illuminates patterns (possibly even “aha” moment insight!), includes all students as participants, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.

There is an involuntary information intake filter that determines what sensory input is accepted into the brain. Input must also pass through an emotional filter, the amygdala, where the destination of that information. When stress is high, the intake filter favors information selectively admits information related to perceived threat, virtually ignoring other sensory input.

Writing can include individual journaling, formal research-style formatted reports of student experimentation and data analysis, newspaper editorials about the evidence for environmental problems and a plan for intervention. Writing can be shared with varying degrees of scaffolding for students who need to build confidence, such as class blogs or wikis with code names known only by the teacher.

http://www.teachthought.com/literacy-2/why-all-students-should-write-a-neurological-explanation-for-literacy/

advisory, AMLE, MSM, StrategyBy Troy Patterson

MSM 263: How do I love thee? Let me calculate the snow days . . .

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

 

Jokes You Can Use:

The local sheriff was looking for a deputy, so Gomer, who was not exactly the sharpest nail in the bucket, went in to try out for the job.

“Okay,” the sheriff drawled, “Gomer, what is 1 and 1?”

“11” he replied.

The sheriff thought to himself, “That’s not what I meant, but he’s right. What two days of the week start with the letter ‘T’?”

“Today and tomorrow.”

The sheriff was again surprised that Gomer supplied a correct answer that he had never thought of himself.

“Now Gomer, listen carefully: Who killed Abraham Lincoln?”

Gomer looked a little surprised himself, then thought really hard for a minute and finally admitted, “I don’t know.”

“Well, why don’t you go home and work on that one for a while?”

So, Gomer wandered over to the barbershop where his pals were waiting to hear the results of the interview. Gomer was exultant. “It went great! First day on the job and I’m already working on a murder case!”

 

At school one morning the teacher asked little Johnny what he had for breakfast. Little Johnny said, well, on my way to school I come cross this Apple tree, so I climbed up there and started eating apples. I guess I eat about six, said little Johnny. No, said the teacher, it’s ate! Little Johnny said well it could’ve been eight I don’t remember.

 

Q. What did the traffic light say to the other traffic light?

A. Don’t look now am changing!

 

Q: What kind of insects to you find on the Moon.

A: Lunar Ticks (Lunatics)

 

Q. Why did the kid eat his homework?

A. His teacher said it was a piece of cake.

 

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter:  Shawn Davids, Middle Grades Ed UGA,

  • Google+: Jaguar Ed,

Advisory:

One Job

Have students write a story about one of the pictures.

http://hadonejob.com/

 

Middle School Science Minute

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

 

Science Literacy

I was recently reading the November, 2013 issue of Science Scope, a magazine for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  I then read the article “Building Science Literacy by Reading: Science News” written by Kent Schielke, a 7th-8th grade science teacher in Naperville, IL.

Every year, she challenges her 8th graders with the question, “Where will you get your information about new science after you take your last science class.”  She then shares the assignment that she uses to help her students answer this question.

 

From the Twitterverse:

* Dean Shareski ‏@shareski

Want to impress Canadians? Use one of these terms in a sentence. http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/06/20/11-more-canadian-words-phrases-or-slang-most-americans-wouldnt-understand/ …
* Todd Bloch ‏@blocht574

#miched Metro Detroit Tweet-up for Jan 3. Here is the RSVP form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18f3g6-04TCpfyfeSTjhMLkKrBXEniXvNUTN68_vyC-g/viewform … CC: @MR_ABUD @thenerdyteacher @StanleyTeach
* MichaelSmithSupt ‏@principalspage

Smart people surround themselves with smarter people.
* Dr. Jeff Butts ‏@WayneTwpSuper

If the purpose for learning is to score well on a test, we’ve lost sight of the real reason for learning. pic.twitter.com/B1TLTPy25K

Retweeted by Marzano Research Lab
* Scholastic Teachers ‏@ScholasticTeach

“A mug from SeaWorld that said NICEST NIECE.” —Seema B. #TeacherGifts
* Mr. Jordan ‏@jkltraveler

@awit19 has kids that make reindeer food. #Christmas #TeacherGifts pic.twitter.com/XFIGjJ32A2
* shirely grohmann ‏@ShirelyG

@ShirelyG: @ScholasticTeach An engagement ring a 6th grader gave to me. It belonged to his mom. I returned it.#TeacherGifts
* Scholastic Teachers ‏@ScholasticTeach

“A heartfelt letter in which the student told me I was her second-favorite teacher. I don’t know who number one is.” —Becky G. #TeacherGifts
* McKenzieBrannen ‏@Bran96Mck

#CraftyChristmas #teachergifts made the Christmas tree things around the soap out of old box springs from a bed

 

Strategies:

Club Academia

Mission: Club Academia strives to organize existing knowledge in ways that make learning easily accessible while simultaneously inspiring people to discover and innovate.

 

Since its founding, Club Academia has provided supplemental instruction to students who are struggling with a particular concept and are looking for further explanation. We recognize that often fellow students can most easily help peers understand difficult classroom material. Starting with only four high schoolers uploading videos to a YouTube account, Club Academia has expanded nearly exponentially, currently with 17 video makers and over 300 videos on our website. With the help of the $20,000 Westly Prize grant, we are able to provide equipment for our video-makers and thus create a strong video base. As a result, we are able to expand into more schools and recruit more volunteers to make high-quality videos for our learners!

 

http://clubacademia.org/

Five Tools That Help Students Plan Stories

As a student the importance of planning a story before writing it was driven into my head. Then when I became a teacher, I drove that same message home to my students. Here are five free tools that students can use to plan and outline their stories.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/12/five-tools-that-help-students-plan.html#.UrW-a2RDu8s

Resources:

Snow Day Calculator

http://www.snowdaycalculator.com/calculator.php

 

Free Images from the British Library

 

We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.

http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/british-library-puts-1000000-images-into-public-domain.html

 

AMLE 2013 Annual Conference

Flipped Classrooms in the Middle Level

Nichole Carter (@MrsCarterHLA)

Conferene handout:  http://goo.gl/r/VnTg  (Note:  the page is down at the time of this podcast.)

Back Channel:  http://goo.gl/f3VaKN

(Note:  The audience was very not back channel savvy and the presenter didn’t incorporate it in their presentation.)

Video Scribe app:  Sparkol Videoscribe is a cheap app for her video presenting.

What is the Flipped Model?

   At it’s core the idea is to take out direct instruction from the classroom and to move the application of the knowledge back in.  It also asks that you rethink the valuable face to face time with students.

   Rethink your face-to-face time with the kids.

   Discussion

   Collaboration

   Project Based Instruction

   Video:  Flipped Classroom G. Johnson from Canada

   nathjohnson.com

Think Feasible!

   If it isn’t something you can maintain, you won’t do it!

   All flipped models are different, that is okay!  Find what works for you and your population of students.

Think about your options:

   Do you want to create your own material?

   TED Ed

   Do you want to use previously made videos?

Can you deliver the content with videos, articles, podcasts?

Delivering the content:

   In a proficiency based program use backwards design linked to the standards.

   Once you know the ending summative assessment you can better breakdown how to deliver the content.

   Jon Bergman says to keep the videos to 15 minutes per grade level.  (For sure 15 minutes or less,)

   2-3 videos per week.  (Max)

   Routine is important.

   Think about what you want to do with them while they are watching these videos.

Do the WSQ!  Flipping with Kirch (look this up)

   Watch and take notes

   Summarize the content

   Question

Think HOT!

   Higher

   Order

   Thinking question

   (See the website for the details.)

The Power of the Pause Button

   It’s important to train students on how to use the videos.

   Teach the students the proper behavior for watching these vidoes.

   They should watch on their own.

   Go at their own pace, teach the  power of the pause button.

   This style of teaching is great for ALL students, they can rewind, pause for their own pace and note taking and rewatch!

First few days of school

   It’s a good idea to model these ideas in class before unleashing the students on their own.

   I like to watch a video that I made explaining these concepts in class. (It’s five minutes long.)

   I have a student come up to my SMART board and control the video, and pause it when they need to.

How to make a video

   Research and create the content.

   Stick with a presentation medium you are comfortable with.

   Do a screencast of the video.

   Recommended:  Screencastomatic.com (Free) limited to 15 mins.

   Sophia.org

   You could use Quicktime on a Mac.

To Face or Not to Face?

   My videos generally are a prezi, or a powerpoint and a voiceover

   Feedback from students last year was that they were fine with a disembodied voice!  This year that might change!

   NO SCRIPT!  DON’T BE A ROBOT!

Guided Notes or Not?

   I started with guided notes last year and ended up dropping them due to keeping my sanity!

Going Digital with Google Forms

   Did a template.

   It saved her sanity!  Grading is now a breeze!

   Name

   Class period

   Type out their summary

   Answer some questions

   Learning target:

   This is an excellent idea!

   Time stamped, sort by name, hour, etc.

   Example:  Summarize, Define 2 terms, What is your question?

Flipping with Sophia.org

   One place to embed your videos, google forms and additional links and resources.

   Track student usage.

   Provide short formative assessment in small quizzes on the content.

   Organize tutorials into playlists.

   Tutorial is one lesson

   Playlist is a unit of content.

Learning Management Systems & Google Sites

   Edmodo and Schoology

   Used in the classroom to push stuff out to the students in a blended learning environment.

   Also a great place for students at home for a central log in and contact with the teacher

   Google Sites.

   One place for parents to go to for information on class.

Accessibility

   Create a google form and find out what students have at home:  technology

   Viewing Parties

   I provide, at least once a week, essentially office hours for students to come in and catch up on their homework.

   Sometimes snacks are provided.

   Videos in class?

   Other Interventions?

Face to face time, how does that change?

   Discussion in class on nightly homework

   Activities and application in class.

   In her class specifically:

   Proficiencies worked out together.

   Reading and discussion time

   Essays done together in class where help can happen whenever a question appears.

   One on one intervention for those students that need help.

Develop your PLN!

   Twitter

   Monday 8-10 pm EST follow #flipclass

   Flipped Learning Network Ning:  http://flippedclassroom.org/

   Google+

   Use the LMS systems too!

Now it’s time for exploration!

   On the conference handout site she has provided a symbaloo full of links that might be helpful to get you started.

email:  ncarter@fgsd.k12.or.us

CEU Code:  ZH-36

 

Random Thoughts . . .

Moodle https://moodle.org/

 

advisory, AMLE, Conferences, MSM, PodcastBy Troy Patterson

MSM 262: MODEMS Are a Pain, but necessary… The Musical.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

Q.  What kind of monster is safe to put in the washing machine?-

A.   A wash and wear wolf

 

Q.  What does a cow make when the sun comes out?

A.  A shadow

 

Top 10 signs your presidential candidate is under-qualified

10. Promises to improve foreign relations with Hawaii.

9. Runs a series of attack ads against Martin Sheen’s character on “The West Wing.”

8. His #1 choice to work on his cabinet is “That Bob Vila guy.”

7. Outstanding record as Governor of Rhode Island nullified by the fact that no one really cares.

6. Got his degree in Political Economics by bribing Sally Struthers with a chocolate donut.

5. Anybody mentions Washington, he asks, “The state or the DC thingie?”

4. At the debates, answers every question with a snarled, “You wanna wrestle?!?”

3. Vows to put an end to the war in Pokemon and free the Pikachu refugees once and for all.

2. Says the Pledge of Allegiance as quickly as possible, then shouts, “I win!”

….. and the Number 1 Sign Your Presidential Candidate Is Under-Qualified..

1. On the very first question of the debate, he attempts to use a LIFELINE.

 

The Old Man and the Sea

A seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns to tell their adventures on the seas. The seaman notes that the pirate has a peg leg, hook, and an eye patch. Curious, the seaman asks “So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?”

The pirate replies “I was swept overboard into a school of sharks. Just as my men were pulling me out, a shark bit my leg off”.

“Wow!” said the seaman. “What about the hook”?

“Well…”, replied the pirate, “We were boarding an enemy ship and were battling the other sailors with swords. One of the enemy cut my hand clean off.”

“Incredible!” remarked the seaman. “How did you get the eye patch”?

“A seagull dropping fell into my eye”, replied the pirate.

“You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?” the sailor asked.

“Well…” said the pirate, “That was my first day with the hook.”

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter:  Raul Santiago

 

Advisory:

 

Dialects:

What’s your general term for a sweetened carbonated beverage? What word or words do you use to address a group of two or more people? What do you call it when the rain falls while the sun is shining?

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/11/soda-vs-pop-vs-coke-mapping-how-americans-talk/281808/

http://vimeo.com/80310253

Histagrams

What if Instragram had been available throughout history?

http://histagrams.com/

Telepathwords

Yep, MicroSoft. Predicts passwords.

https://telepathwords.research.microsoft.com/

 

Right or Left Brained?

If you’re not sure whether you’re left- or right-brained, here’s a quiz to give you an idea.

A quick review:

• Right-brain types are visually oriented. They tend to think in images rather than words, focus on the big picture rather than the details, and go through life in a somewhat seat-of-the-pants (a.k.a. scattered) way.

• Left-brainers are those who think in words (attention, list makers!), do a lot of advance planning, and approach challenges in a rational, linear way.

* Note that this is targeted at Home Organizing.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/07/09/rs.organizing.for.your.personality/

 

Middle School Science Minute

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

 

Changing Grades

 

I was recently reading the October, 2013 issue of NSTA Reports, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  In this issue, they reported on a survey that was given to teachers, asking whether they were ever asked to change a student grade that they had given at the end of the semester or school year.  The results of the survey are included in the podcast.  Five middle school science teachers also shared their comments on why this is or is not a reasonable practice.

 

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/10/31_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Changing_Grades.html

 

From the Twitterverse:

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 7m

International test scores: Getting the data straight http://wapo.st/1ftQqPs
* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 37m

Twenty Ideas for Engaging Projects | @edutopia
Rurik-Rory Nackerud ‏@ruriknackerud 32m

Write about your work because NOBODY ELSE is going to do it for you. #pdkel13
* Kevin Honeycutt ‏@kevinhoneycutt 35m

We need the some pig principle from Charlotte’s Web, brag about it or you will be bacon. Same concept for public education. #Brag
* Russel Tarr ‏@historynews 2h

First World War project to tell little-known stories of the artist  #historyteacher
* Monte Tatom ‏@drmmtatom 6 Dec

QuizBean – Quickly Create & Distribute Quizzes to Students Even If They Don’t Have Email Addresses http://feedly.com/k/ISNZse  ~ #fhuedu320
Hemanshu Nigam ‏@HemanshuNigam 26m

Viral photo teaches 5th graders in Tennessee important internet safety lesson http://ow.ly/rxpRi

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Resources:

 

How Competency Based Grading Has NOT Changed Our School’s Transcript

by Brian Stack • December 6, 2013

My school district implemented a K-12 competency-based grading and reporting system four years ago.

 

They are surprised to learn, in fact, that little has changed about our transcript.

 

The purpose of our high school transcript, just like any other high school transcript, is to provide a final record of a student’s performance at our school.

 

Other information, such as:  Class Rank; Grade Point Average (weighted or non-weighted); Attendance Information, and Diploma Type are optional features that can also be printed on a transcript as needed.

 

Our transcript explains to the reader what the final grades of E (Exceeding), M (Meeting), IP (In-Progress), and LP (Limited Progress) mean. It also explains what it means for a student to get a code of NYC (Not Yet Competent) or IWS (Insufficient Work Shown), both of which result in no credit awarded for the course.

 

At one point last year a team of administrators from my school had the opportunity to address an audience of admissions representatives – one from every single public and private college and university in the State of New Hampshire.

 

Then, they began to talk about how the differences between our transcript and the tradition school’s transcript are not in the grades themselves but what the grades represent.

 

The message for the college admissions representatives that day was that our transcript, just like any other high school transcript, is just a snapshot of data on a student.

http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/9789

 

Varsity Tutors

Our mission is to improve the academic achievement of all students by providing high quality individualized tutoring services that foster intellectual and personal development in a positive learning atmosphere.

Service has real tutors that are available for hire.

They also have a variety of tutorials available on-line for free. Additionally, you can create flashcards and organize them by class.

http://www.varsitytutors.com/practice-tests

AMLE 2013 Annual Conference

Rick Wormeli & Formative Assessment

Videos:  The Piano Guys and the Nowegian Technology Problem.  The Inner Net

Formative vs. Summative Assessment and questions conventional practice.

 

Opening Video:  Corner Gas (?), Mr. D.  Grading Essays in the Bar: http://www.mostwatchedtoday.com/mr-d-how-teachers-grade-tests/

Follow up conversation:

   rwormeli@cox.net

   Electronic download available on the AMLE website.

What’s the difference between formative assessments and summative judgements?

   Let’s change the name from homework to Social Studies practice and tests are performances.

   Formative gives them feedback.

Soooooo . . . What if we put the standard in the Zangle and then put in the grade for a Project Based Learning grade?

Game changing tenets for Formative Assessment

   Fair isn’t always equal

   We grade against students, not the routes we take to get to standards,

   Descriptive feedback and the power to revise in response to feedback are paramount.

   All summatives can be turned into formative assessments.

Common Core is a foundation of basics and the local school district determines the details they want included.

“Tim was so learned, that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant, that he bought a cow to ride on.”  -Ben Franklin

The better question is not, “What is the Standard?”  The better question is, “What is the evidence?”

“The student understands fact versus opinion.”

   Identify

   Create

   Revise

   Manipulate

 

Wormeli’s definition of mastery:

   Students have mastered content when they demonstrate a thorough understanding as evidenced by doing something substantive with the content beyond merely echoing it.  Any one . . . .

Consider graduations of understanding and performance from introductory to sophisticated.

Article:  “How do you know what to teach?”

Larry Ainsworth:  See his articles for the most practical stuff.

Mindset:

   1.  The way you see the world.

   2.  Decide every year if it still works.

   3.  Can you minimize your hypocracy.

Operating Mindsets

   Grading isn’t a “gotcha” enterprise

   We strive to be criterion – evidenced based, not norm-referenced in classroom grading.

   It’s what students carry forward, not what they demonstrated during the unit of learning, that is most indicative of true proficiency.

Grading Mindsets

   1.  Accuracy increases with sample size, use clear and consistent evidence over time.

   2.  Disaggregate:  The more curriculum we report with one symbol, the less useful is the report.

   3.  Grading evolution is a journey of ethics.

Grading Mindsets C

   Just because it’s mathematically easy to calculate doesn’t mean it’s pedagogically correct.

   The symbols we use for garding (A-F, 4-0, %’s) mean nothing.  They are shorthand for much longer descriptions of evidence.

   We can learn without grades, we can’t learn without descriptive feedback.

Grading Mindsets D

   Anything that diffuses the accuracy of a grade is removed from our grading practice.

   The best grading ocmes only when subject like colleagues have vetted what evidence of standards they will tolerate

   Se cannot conflate reports of compliance with evidence of mastery.

Grading Mindsets D

Grades are NOT compensation.  Grades are communication:  They are an accurate report of what happened.

Gold mine of short videos:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmtowns  Recent uploads

www.sbgvideos.org

Feedback is where you hold up a mirror to the students, showing them what they did and comparing it what they should have done – There’s no evaluative component!

Assessment:  Gathering data so we can make a decision.

   Greatest impact on Student Success:  FORMATIVE feedback.

Two ways to begin using descriptive feedback:

   1.  “Point and Describe”

   2.  “Goal, status, and Plan for the Goal”

   Identify the objective/goal/standard/outcome

   Identify where the student is in relation to the goal (Status)

   Identify what needs to happen in order to close the gap.

Formative Feedback Suggestions:

   Question #, Topic or proficiency, Right, Wrong, Simple mistake?, Really don’t understand it.

November 20th Ed Leadership:  Wormeli’s article.

CEU Code:  UL-34

Article:  Inside the Black Box.

Random Thoughts . . .

Conference notes. Native Apps vs Generic Conference apps.

AMLE, Conferences, MSM, Podcast, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 260: Hey IronMan, my shirt is still wrinkled!

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

Q: Did you hear about the person who forgot to pay their exorcist?

A: They were repossessed.

“Frank, if you have 20 dollars and Bill takes away 14. What would you have?” said the teacher.

“A fight!” answers Frank.

 

Four best friends met at the hospital since their wives were giving births to their babies. The nurse comes up to the first man and says, “Congratulations, you got twins.” The man said “How strange, I’m the manager of Minnesota Twins.” After awhile the nurse comes up to the second man and says, “Congratulations, you got triplets.” Man was like “Hmmm, strange I worked as a director for the “3 musketeers.” Finally, the nurse comes up to the third man and says

“Congratulations, you got twins x2.” Man is happy and says, “Ironic, I work for the hotel “4 Seasons.” All three of them are happy until they see their last buddy jumping all over the place, cursing God and banging his head on the wall. They asked him what’s wrong and he answered, “What’s wrong? I work for 7up”!

 

A court jester is thrown into jail for telling terrible jokes.

~What did he say after the guard locked him up?

O-PUN the door!

 

A man walks into the psychiatrist’s office with a zucchini up his nose, a cucumber in his left ear, and a breadstick in his right ear. He says, “What is wrong with me?

The psychiatrist replies, “You are not eating properly.”

Why was the glowworm unhappy?

Because her children were not very bright!

 

Q:Why did the football coach go to the bank?

A:He wanted to get his quarter-back!!!

 

Why did the author write his novel in the basement?

He wanted to write a best cellar.

 

A family was having dinner and the little boy said,”Dad I don’t like the

holes in the cheese!” Well son, eat the cheese and leave the holes on the

side of the plate.

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter: Ben Kuhlman, Lauren Martin, Colleen Skiles, Danielle Davis-Cripe, Lou Ann Gvist

  • Happy Birthday:  Todd Whitaker

 

Advisory:

Ashton Kutcher Acceptance Speech – Teen Choice Awards 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuBSRC1zpHw

What If Superheroes Had Part-Time Jobs

Have students pick a SuperHero (or create one). Then have them decide upon a part time job (or alternate) job. Students could draw or write the story about the SuperHero.

http://laughingsquid.com/what-if-superheroes-had-part-time-jobs/

Middle School Science Minute

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

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-SCIENCE SONGS

 

I was recently reading the September, 2013 issue of Science Scope, a magazine written for Middle School Science Teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  In this issue, I came upon an article entitled, “Songs in Service of Science,” written by Kathryn Hoffman.  Within the article, she explains how science songs can be beneficial to students.  At the end of the podcast, I sing two of the songs from the article.  They are:

  • The Linnaean Levels of Classification

  • Cellular Respiration.

 

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/10/18_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Science_Songs.html

 

From the Twitterverse:

Faculty meetings need less direct instruction and more “play time” and facilitation. Make it a maker/creator time. #satchat

* edutopia ‏@edutopia 26m

Get outside this weekend! Check out 50+ resources for active learning: http://edut.to/17zA70Q  #PEchat #edchat

* Maggie ‏@march4teachers 1h

Common Core Standards: Ten Colossal Errors http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/11/common_core_standards_ten_colo.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW … via @educationweek

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 2h

New York’s Teacher of the Year Is Not Rated “Highly Effective” #edreform #iaedfuture #ialegis

* Larry Ferlazzo ‏@Larryferlazzo 2h

Microsoft Eliminates Its Own Destructive VAM Rankings; However, Gates Still Seems Focused On Using It For Us http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/11/16/microsoft-eliminates-its-own-destructive-vam-rankings-however-gates-still-seems-focused-on-using-it-for-us/#.Uod5-drGHPQ.twitter …

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 3h

Kahoot! | Game-based blended learning & classroom response system

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

Strategies:

Learn the Address

 

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, documentarian Ken Burns, along with numerous partners, has launched a national effort to encourage everyone in America to video record themselves reading or reciting the speech.The collection of recordings housed on this site will continue to grow as more and more people are inspired by the power of history and take the challenge to LEARN THE ADDRESS.

 

Share Your Gettysburg Address

How to Participate

It’s easy! Just follow these three simple steps:

  1. Download or print the words to the Gettysburg Address located here and practice reading it out loud. Or if you are up for the whole challenge – memorize!

  2. Record yourself (have a friend record you) reading the speech using your computer, laptop, tablet, mobile device or digital video recorder.

  3. Upload your video to YouTube and use the form below to send us your link!

That’s it! Your video will be included among presidents, politicians, entertainers, journalists, and hundreds of others who have taken the challenge to LEARN THE ADDRESS.

 

http://www.learntheaddress.org/

Grade Table

http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2013/11/everything-thats-wrong-with-traditional-grading-in-one-table.html?utm_source=feedburner&IP=10.38.97.3&CAT=WEBLOG&USER=IPGROUP&CE=0

Bruno: Achievement Gaps Have Closed More Than You Think

One of the subtlest pitfalls, however, concerns the apparent persistence of achievement gaps between different groups of students.

To see why rising achievement matters, we can consider 8th grade reading scores. According to last week’s report, the difference between the average score for black students and the average score for white students has remained exactly the same since 1998 at 26 points.

This is the very definition of a “persistent achievement gap”. (The NAEP tweaked its methodology in 1998, so I’m omitting prior years’ scores for simplicity.)

At the same time, though, the average reading score white 8th graders has increased from 270 points to 276 points. As a result, that 26 point gap represents a (slightly) smaller fraction of white students’ overall achievement. Specifically, it means that black 8th graders have gone from scoring 90.4% as high as their white peers (on average) to scoring 90.6% as high.

In other words, the “stagnant” 26-point gap between black and white students is obscuring the fact the gap – expressed as a fraction of white student achievement – has narrowed.

http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2013/11/bruno-achievement-gaps-are-closing-faster-than-you-think.html

 

Resources:

History in Color

Take black and white photographs from the past and add a splash of color. The impact is different.

https://www.facebook.com/HistoryInColor

 

Similar:

Some Lincoln and WWII pictures.  Click through the slider at the top of the page.

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/25/a-vibrant-past-colorizing-the-archives-of-history/#3

Optical Illusions

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelJZG_bF98#t=19

 

eQuiz Show

Why study with eQuizShow?

  1. Creating your own quiz show takes only seconds

  2. Your quiz show will always be available

  3. No registration required

  4. Our quiz show format is ideal for reinforcing and studying topics

Really easy to use. Great if you have an Interactive Board or Projector. You can also preprint the questions and answers.

 

Terms and Conditions:

By using our website, you agree to these Terms & Conditions as well as our Privacy Policy.

1. eQuizShow content ownership rights

By creating and putting information into a template on our site, you acknowledge that eQuizShow.com has absolute content rights.

We may edit, delete, or redistribute your template for any reason. For instance, we may delete templates that are inactive for a period of time and/or other reasons that we see fit.

2. User content ownership rights

A user who creates a template never has the right to ask for a copy of all of the information in that template, even if eQuizShow.com decides to delete or alter the template.

A user does not have the right to delete his/her template. A user can ask eQuizShow to delete a template from our system, but eQuizShow might not comply, depending on our opinion, for any reason.

3. Private information

If a user includes private information in one or more of his/her templates, the user can ask for the entire template or templates to be removed from our system. eQuizShow can decide if they think information is considered private.

4. Spam or inappropriate content

If eQuizShow feels that a template contains sexual, gruesome, inappropriate, or spam containing material, eQuizShow will delete that template immediately.

Privacy Policy

eQuizShow will not publish user feedback without the user’s permission. Additionally, eQuizShow will not give out your email, name, or Google Profile for any reason.

 

eQuizShow retains all rights to user submitted content. eQuizShow can do as it wishes with this content.

http://equizshow.com/

How to participate in a Twitter Chat

http://www.coolcatteacher.com/videos/participate-twitter-chat-txeduchat/

 

Web Spotlight:

 

Rewrite of E-Rate Program Could Cover Technology Outside Schools

With the final public comment period on proposed changes to the E-rate having come to a close, one of the most intruging questions to emerge is whether the federal program should cover the costs of paying for students’ web access outside of school.

With the final public comment period on proposed changes to the E-rate having come to a close, one of the most intruging questions to emerge is whether the federal program should cover the costs of paying for students’ web access outside of school.

Sprint Corporation, the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., also called for the FCC to include support for off-campus access. Both companies agreed that firewall restrictions should be kept in place for publically funded projects, limiting internet use to only authorized sites.

“The E-Rate fund is already stretched and network construction is expensive,” Verizon said in its comments.  “Using E-rate to fund construction by schools or libraries—which are not best suited to building telecommunications networks in any event—will unnecessarily divert funds that other schools and libraries could use to obtain high-capacity connections. “

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/11/as_the_final_public_comment.html

 

8 Universal Secrets of Motivated Learners

Deceptively simple, their advice boils down to 8 universal secrets of powerful, personalized learning. Taken together, they give us a critical lens through which we can analyze what’s going wrong—and what’s going right—as we teach and as we learn.

  1. We feel OK. Creating well-being in a learning environment is the crucial first step, according to both kids and scientists. Threats to our physical or emotional safety—from hunger to humiliation—shut down learning as we respond to more primal signals.

  2. It matters. A personal connection or a real-world issue can make all the difference to whether we care about an academic task. Offering a choice on some aspect of the work also sends its value up, and so does the chance to work on things with friends.

  3. It’s active. From constructing a model to collaborating on a puzzle, we start to “own” new information when our hands and minds engage our thinking processes more fully.

  4. It stretches us. Extreme frustration can shut down learning, but a stretch that’s both challenging and achievable gives the learner a buzz of excitement. (Don’t forget to notice small successes along the way!)

  5. We have a coach. We do much better with someone around who will help us make sure we’re getting it right—watching us practice and giving us tips, with plenty of time to learn from our mistakes.

  6. We have to use it. Doing something with information not only shows that we know it but also makes it stick in our minds. The most fun is to perform what we’ve learned or teach it to others—but even a pop quiz will do the trick.

  7. We think back on it. What did I learn? What would I do differently next time? How have I grown and changed? Making time for us to reflect on questions like these has a huge effect on deepening our learning—yet it’s the easiest thing to skip.

  8. We plan our next steps. Planning any venture—an argument, a project, even what we’re going to say next—is a creative adventure. It forces us to remember information in order to develop an idea or solve a problem. Hand us the keys to our learning and watch us take those intellectual risks!

– See more at: http://www.personalizelearning.com/2013/11/8-universal-secrets-of-motivated.html#!

http://www.personalizelearning.com/2013/11/8-universal-secrets-of-motivated.html#!

UDACITY’S SEBASTIAN THRUN, GODFATHER OF FREE ONLINE EDUCATION, CHANGES COURSE

 

http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb

AMLE 2013 Annual Conference

Executive Director’s Meeting:

  • Membership focused on Teachers and resources for educators, backburner Administrators and Universities.

  • Free membership option has been a HUGE hit:  10,000 new members in the first month.

Half-Baked Ideas . . .

On the go recording.

 

AMLE, MSM, Podcast, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 259: Think Rich, Think Candy Corn, Think Petri Dishes … Shucks, Just Think.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

SICK DAYS:

We will no longer accept a doctor statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

 

SURGERY:

Operations are now banned. As long as you are an employee here, you need all your organs. You should not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To have something removed constitutes a breach of employment.

 

PERSONAL DAYS:

Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturday and Sunday.

 

VACATION DAYS:

All employees will take their vacation at the same time every year. The vacation days are as follows: Jan. 1, July 4 & Dec. 25

 

BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:

This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or coworkers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend to the arrangements. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early, provided your share of the work is done enough.

 

OUT FROM YOUR OWN DEATH:

This will be accepted as an excuse. However, we require at least two weeks notice, as it is your duty to train your own replacement.

 

RESTROOM USE:

Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. In the future, we will follow the practice of going in alphabetical order. For instance, all employees whose names begin with ‘A’ will go from 8:00 to 8:20, employees whose names begin with ‘B’ will go from 8:20 to 8:40 and so on. If you’re unable to go at your allotted time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your turn comes again. In extreme emergencies employees may swap their time with a coworker. Both employees’ supervisors in writing must approve this exchange. In addition, there is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, and the stall door will open.

 

LUNCH BREAK:

Skinny people get an hour for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy, normal size people get 30 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain the average figure. Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch because that’s all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast and take a diet pill. Sondra gets none.

 

DRESS CODE:

It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary, if we see you wearing $350 Prada sneakers and carrying a $600 Gucci bag we assume you are doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise.

 

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternations or input should be directed elsewhere. Have a nice week.

 

— Management

 

Eileen Award:

 

Advisory:

 

Myers-Briggs

Introduction to the Cognitive Style Inventory

This modest self-scoring inventory is Not a substitute for taking an MBTI ®. It is simply an introduction to personality type or psychological type. We hope it whets your appetite for learning more about the Myers and Briggs model of personality development and its message of increased human understanding.

 

The Style Inventory will allow you to approximate what are your MBTI Type preferences. After determining your 4 Type letters, you can jump to a number of links we have provided to help you get acquainted with the characteristics and indicators of the 16 types and verify if your type, as determined by this “unscientific” survey, seems to “fit” or not.

http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html

 

Does Being Rich make you Different?

Science can explain a lot of things that I’ve always wondered about (go, science!). In this case, it explains what I’ve known for a long time but been unable to quite understand: Why do some folks who have a lot more money than others seem to be less nice and more evil to everyone around them? At 0:50, someone actually takes candy from babies. No, really. At 3:00, we start to see the science unfold before our eyes. Entire management courses could — and should — be taught with the bit starting at 4:40. http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/07/take-two-normal-people-add-money-to-just-one-of-them-and-watch-what-happens-next.html

Middle School Science Minute

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

Petri Plate Disposal

 

I was recently reading “The NSTA Ready Reference Guide to Safer Science,” written by Ken Roy of the Glastonbury Public Schools.  In this book, Key answers questions that have been submitted by middle school science teachers.  In this podcast, Ken answers the following question:

“What is a safe way to dispose of Petri Plates used to grow mold and bacteria?”

If you would like to order Ken’s book, please visit the NSTA bookstore at:

http://nsta.org/store

 

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/10/11_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Petri_Plate_Disposal.html

From the Twitterverse:

Any frmr teachers looking for a cool job? http://www.brainsonfire.com/blog/2013/11/01/hiring-community-manager/ …

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 15m

Bizarrely Improbable Objects That Make You Think

* Wesley Fryer, Ph.D. ‏@wfryer 1h

I just watched commented on the amazing #k12online13 presentation by @fuglefun “Making and Sharing Fugleflicks” http://j.mp/1bMsmSf

* Vicki Davis ‏@coolcatteacher

BLOGGED: Student time management: a powerful demo [Video] http://shrd.by/cXT2LL  #education

* Richard Byrne ‏@rmbyrne

New post: iloggo – Another Simple iGoogle Alternative http://goo.gl/fb/oPBRT

* American History TV ‏@cspanhistory

Pres. Truman defeats Republican challenger Thomas Dewey for the presidency #onthisday 1948 in major upset. SEEN HERE: pic.twitter.com/Z6BJxGQci6

* Larry Ferlazzo ‏@Larryferlazzo 1h

RT @donalynbooks: Lexile levels as censorship? Talk among yourselves. pic.twitter.com/IeEV7q2Ski

* First Kentucky Trust ‏@FirstKYTrust 1 Nov

5 things you didn’t know about candy corn http://usat.ly/1bGsyT5  via @usatoday

* Larry Ferlazzo ‏@Larryferlazzo 2h

RT @GuardianEdu: Secret Teacher: bribing students to learn is bad education http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/nov/02/schools-bribing-students-work-bad-education … pic.twitter.com/WsZvoNTjCI

* Sue Gorman ‏@sjgorman

Vocabulary Lessons: Flipped, Collaborative & Student Centered http://p.ost.im/dhAU85  via @CTuckerEnglish #edtech #mlearning

* Matt Wachel ‏@mattwachel

It Might Be Hard To Find A Better Short Video Than This One To Portray Grit- http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/11/01/it-might-be-hard-to-find-a-better-short-video-than-this-one-to-portray-grit/#.UnS694yvOdg.twitter … #colchat @MicheleCorbat @RodneyHetherton

* Monte Tatom ‏@drmmtatom 1 Nov

#CE13: 20 Teacher Treats http://feedly.com/k/HvZTYt  ~ #sigadm #fhuedu642 #fhuedu320 #tn_teta #edwebchat

* Monte Tatom ‏@drmmtatom 30 Oct

The Mind of a Middle Schooler: How Brains Learn http://feedly.com/k/1aF4gZC  ~ #fhupsy306 #sigadm #fhuedu508

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

  

Resources:

10 things I learned about productivity watching 70 hours of TED talks last week

  • 10. Caffeine can significantly improve your focus and energy levels, but only if you use it right.

  • 9. Seek out opinions that contradict your own.

  • 8. One of the best ways to connect with people is through humor.

  • 7. Meditation gives you perspective, allows you to process information easier, and calms you down.

  • 6. It’s worth it to be very defensive of your time.

  • 5. Listening to a TED talk, podcast, or audiobook takes about 50-75% of your attention.

  • 4. Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own.

  • 3. Step back and enjoy your successes.

  • 2. Breaks make you a lot more productive than you think.

  • 1. If you want to become inspired, surround yourself with inspiring people.

http://ayearofproductivity.com/10-things-learned-productivity-watching-70-hours-ted-talks-last-week/

SwipeSpeare

Shakespeare has all the ingredients of a big budget movie—if you can understand him.

 

SwipeSpeare puts the words of the Bard into plain and simple English with a Swipe of a finger!

 

Unlike other apps that put the original and modern side-by-side in a way that is distracting and hard to read, SwipeSpeare only shows you the modern text when you want to see it. Simply swipe your finger over the text, and the text will change; swipe it again and it will change back.

 

Romeo & Juliet is free.

http://www.swipespeare.com/features.html

Web Spotlight:

What poor children need in school

Most educational policy elites, whether in government or in the nonprofit sector, mean well.

Yet policymakers tend to come from a relatively privileged slice of American society.  And they tend to possess a set of beliefs and assumptions distinct to their background.

But in most cases, the fact that decision-makers inhabit a different world from students—and particularly, poor students—is a matter of great significance.

Poverty limits opportunity in all senses.  It restricts career paths, as policymakers recognize.  But it also denies young people equal time, resources, and exposure to discover their interests and foster their passions.  It constrains lives.

Schools, of course, did not create this problem.  But they do exacerbate it.  Over the past decade, well-intended policymakers concerned with closing the achievement gap have promoted policies and practices that reduce learning to something easily quantified.

Our best schools are places where children gain confidence in themselves, build healthy relationships, and develop values congruent with their own self-interest.  They are places of play and laughter and discovery.

Concerned only with the cultivation of ostensibly job-oriented knowledge and skills, they have neglected everything else that makes schools great.

Reformers need to understand that their narrow efforts to close the quantifiable “achievement gap” are creating another kind of educational inequity.  In other words, as they seek to close one gap they are opening up another.

For contemporary education reformers, improving test scores is the only measure of school quality that matters.  And they have had some modest successes in this regard.  Yet they have merely reshuffled the deck.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/18/what-poor-children-need-in-school/

Half-Baked Ideas . . .

If you’re at AMLE, say, “Hi!”

A couple of observations about AMLE this year.  1.  It’s going to be colder than usual.  2.  No conference App this year.  Yea, verily.  There is much sadness . . .   3.  If you see a person wearing a Middle School Matters podcast shirt, be sure to say hello.  Hope to see you there!  (If I have MSM pencils, you can have one for free!)

MSM, Podcast, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 257: From NanoTech to Space – Be Safe

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

This past fall semester, at Duke University, there were two sophomores who were taking Organic Chemistry and who did pretty well on all of the quizzes, midterms, labs, etc. Going into the final exam, they had solid “A’s.”

These two friends were so confident going into the final that the weekend before finals week (even though the Chem. final was on Monday), they decided to go up to University of Virginia to a party with some friends.

So they did this and had a great time. However, they ended up staying longer than they planned, and they didn’t make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final then, they found Professor Aldric after the final and explained to him why they missed it. They told him that they went up to Virginia for the weekend, and had planned to come back in time to study, but that they had a flat tire on the way back and didn’t have a spare and couldn’t get help for a long time. So they were late getting back to campus.

Aldric thought this over and agreed that they could make up the final on the following day. The two guys were elated and relieved. So, they studied that night and went in the next day at the time that Aldric had told them.

He placed them in separate rooms, handed each of them a test booklet and told them to begin. They looked at the first problem, which was something simple about free radical formation and was worth 5 points. “Cool” they thought, “this is going to be easy.” They did that problem and then turned the page.

They were unprepared, however, for what they saw on the next page.

It said: (95 points) “Which tire?”

 

A guy was in a cave, looking for treasure. He found an old lamp, rubbed it, and a genie came out. The genie said “I will grant you three wishes, but your ex-wife will get double.” The man agreed, and said “I wish I had a mansion.” The genie granted it, and his ex-wife got two mansions. The man said “I would like a million dollars.” The genie again granted it and his ex-wife got two million dollars. Then the man said, “Scare me half to death.”

 

A distraught older woman is looking at herself in the mirror and crying. Her voice shakes as she says to her husband, “I’m so old. I’m so fat. I look horrible. I really need a compliment.”

Her husband, determined to quickly give his beloved the comfort she needs, exclaims, “Well, you have great eyesight!”

“Well, I finally retired my old car”, said the old man. His pal ask, “Did you junk it or trade it in?” “Naw nothing like that, I put four new Michelins on it.”

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter:  David Katz, NAESP, Student Linkup, BJ Piel, Mark Denham (Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Detroit Mercy)

 

Advisory:

 

15 Ways of the Successful Self-Directed Learner

by Jeff Cobb

 

1. Takes initiative

2. Is comfortable with independence

3. Is persistent

4. Accepts responsibility

5. Views problems as challenges, not obstacles

6. Is capable of self-discipline

7. Has a high degree of curiosity

8. Has a strong desire to learn or change

9. Is self-confident

10. Is able to use basic study skills

11. Organizes his or her time

12. Sets an appropriate pace for learning

13. Develops a plan for completing work

14. Has a tendency to be goal-oriented

15. Enjoys learning

 

http://www.missiontolearn.com/2013/10/self-directed-learning-success/

Malala Yousafzai

The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and Malala Yousafzai, the youngest nominee ever, is considered by many to be the frontrunner.

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/10/09/the-best-resources-on-malala-yousafzai/

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-october-8-2013-malala-yousafzai

 

Middle School Science Minute

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

 

Nanotechnology Basics

 

I was recently reading the Summer, 2013 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  Within this issue is the monthly column, “Green Science,” written by Jessica Palliser.  This month, Jessica writes about the nanoscale and provides a basic understanding of nanotechnology basics.

From the Twitterverse:

* Daniel Pink ‏@DanielPink

Dilbert creator Scott Adams: “To put it bluntly, goals are for losers.” . . . http://on.wsj.com/165QwEb  (via @WSJ)
* Kari Catanzaro ‏@catanhistory

“@mrg_3: #ICE13 Smackdown: Check out Songify! http://ow.ly/pHR2w  Turn speech into music!” Can’t wait to try with students! #tlap #edchat
* Manan Shah ‏@shahlock

@edrethink #rechat without being creative it’s not obvious if one has actually learned something
* Todd Van Horn ‏@tvanhorn39

11 Tips on Teaching Common Core Critical Vocabulary http://edut.to/1dpj5l4  via @edutopia
* Todd Van Horn ‏@tvanhorn39 17m

Using QR Codes to Differentiate Instruction http://edut.to/1bcqNS1  via @edutopia
* jake duncan ‏@duncanbilingual 42m

Here is the doc from the Tech Slam #RSCON4 session with @markbarnes19: #ce13
* Derek McCoy ‏@mccoyderek 38m

Handwriting vs. Typing: Which Skill Do Students Need Most? http://ow.ly/24VP73
* Todd Van Horn ‏@tvanhorn39 53m

25 Things Successful Educators Do Differently http://shar.es/E5bBW  via @sharethis
* Ryan Bretag ‏@ryanbretag 1h

How the iPad can turn teaching special ed ‘on its head’ http://zite.to/GScBjQ
* Lisa Neale ‏@lisaneale 3h

RT @s_bearden: RT @TeachThought: 5 Strategies For Creating A Genius Mindset In Students http://www.teachthought.com/learning/5-strategies-creating-genius-mindset-students/ … #hwdsb #plpnetwork #OntCL
* Maria Popova ‏@brainpicker 1h

The odd day jobs of famous poets, illustrated http://j.mp/GVbmzs

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

 

Resources:

The Civil War Trust

The Civil War Trust is America’s largest non-profit organization (501-C3) devoted to the preservation of our nation’s endangered Civil War battlefields. The Trust also promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public of the war’s history and the fundamental conflicts that sparked it.

http://www.civilwar.org/

9 Out Of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind-Blowing Fact

This pretty much speaks for itself. At 1:05, I get a rude awakening. At 1:41, he starts talking about you. At 2:24, he says a “bad” word. At 3:50, he kind of breaks my brain. At 4:50, he lets you know how broke you really are. At 5:20, he rubs it in. And at 5:50, he points out that reality isn’t close to what we think it is.

http://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact-2?g=6

Web Spotlight:

Beware of the Internet Safety Industrial Complex

Larry Magid

 

I got a call recently from a woman who works for a company that makes an app designed to “keep kids safe” by enabling parents to monitor their texts and social media activities. The pitch included some dire statistics such as “70 percent of kids are cyberbullied”

And it’s not just companies. Some non-profit organizations, government agencies, politicians and police departments have also exaggerated problems, presumably to attract media attention or possibly help justify their budgets. One non-profit organization has repeatedly claimed that 85 percent of teens have been cyberbullied — a number that flies in the face of all reputable research reports.

Be especially wary when you hear statements like “a disturbing trend” or a “growing problem” that aren’t accompanied by any research data. What many of these reports fail to say is that victimization of children has been on a steady decline for years.

Fake numbers

Even though I knew it was completely false, it didn’t surprise me to hear the spokesperson for the monitoring app claim that 70 percent of kids had been cyberbullied. Though not all are guilty of this, it’s not uncommon to hear such exaggerations from companies (and some agencies and non-profits) in the Internet safety space.

While any case of cyberbullying is bad, the fact is that the statistics are nowhere near as dire. The numbers vary a lot. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 6 percent of students in grades 6-12 experienced cyberbullying. The Centers for Disease Control found in 2011 that 16.2 percent of students had been bullied via email, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites or texting — compared to 20.1 percent who had been bullied on school property (traditional bullying) — during the 12 months prior to the survey. The Cyberbullying Research Center reports that “on average, about 24 percent of the students who have been a part of our last six studies have said they have been the victim of cyberbullying at some point in their lifetime.” Dan Olweus, who the editor of the European Journal of Development Psychology referred to as the “father of bullying research” wrote a 2012 article for that journal where he said that “claims about cyberbullying made in the media and elsewhere are greatly exaggerated and have little empirical scientific support.” Based on a three-year survey of more than 440,000 U.S. children (between 3rd and 12th grade), 4.5 percent of kids had been cyberbullied compared to 17.6 percent from that same sample who had experienced traditional bullying. An even more interesting statistic from that study is that only 2.8 percent of kids had bullied others.

There have also been a lot of false reports about the incidences of kids being sexually solicited online. During that recent pitch about the monitoring app, I was told that the woman’s own son encountered creeps online but — when I asked what happened — she said that he ignored them. It turns out that’s common. Unless kids are looking to hook up with strangers online, that’s exactly what most teens do. Parents can freak out all they want, but kids generally know how to avoid getting entangled in unwanted online relationships.

The problem — as articulated by researchers — is that some kids take extraordinary risks and the kids who take risks online are the same ones that make bad decisions in their offline lives.

Whatever the numbers are, they’re still too high but they represent a small minority of kids which is why a one-size-fits-all approach, including monitoring and filtering, doesn’t make sense.

Olweus is also concerned that fixating on cyberbullying could encourage “an unfortunate shift in the focus of anti-bullying work if digital bullying is seen as the key bullying problem in the schools.”

He worries about funneling resources in the wrong direction, while “traditional bullying — which is clearly the most prevalent and most serious problem — would be correspondingly downgraded.”

I worry about something else. One of the best ways to counter negative behavior is to show that it’s not the norm. Exaggerating cyberbullying makes it look common — in some cases we’ve seen numbers that make it look as if the majority of kids are engaged in it. If it’s common it must be normal and if it’s normal — so goes the reasoning — it must be OK.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/beware-of-the-internet-safety_b_4066956.html

The Six Best YouTube URL Tricks

 

  • Repeat All or Part of a Video

  • Download Any Video

  • Bypass Regional Restrictions

  • Jump to a Specific Time

  • Disable Related Videos

  • Skip to the Good Parts With the Wadsworth Constant

 

http://lifehacker.com/the-six-best-youtube-url-tricks-1422544868

 

The myth of NASA’s expensive space pens

During the space race back in the 1960’s, NASA was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space. NASA went to work. At a cost of $1.5 million they developed the “Astronaut Pen”. Some of you may remember. It enjoyed minor success on the commercial market.

The Russians were faced with the same dilemma.

They used a pencil.

Fantastic story, right? Except that’s not what happened. NASA originally used pencils in space but pencils tend to give off things that float in zero-g (broken leads, graphite dust, shavings) and are flammable.

After testing, NASA ordered 400 Fisher pens for use on space missions at a cost of under $1000. Russia switched to using the pens a year later.

 

http://kottke.org/13/10/the-myth-of-nasas-expensive-space-pens

AMLE, MSM, News, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 255: Swivl me timbers, Pirate day is over.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

Q.how do you make seven an even number?

A.take the s out!

 

Question: Why are ghosts bad liars?

Answer: Because you can see right through them

 

What dog can jump higher than a building?

Any dog, buildings can’t jump!

 

Q:How do you make a fruit punch?

A:Give it boxing lessons.

 

Q:why did the sheep go to the movies

A: to get some snaaahcks

 

Q. What has four legs but can’t walk?

A. a chair!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Q.Why was Rita carrying a ladder?

A.Because she was going to high school

 

Q:What is a witches favorite subject in school?

A:Spelling LOL!!!

 

Q: Where does a rabbit learn how to fly?

A: in the hare force.

Eileen Award:

 

Advisory:

 

Produce Flops

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/13-of-the-worst-product-flops-of-all-time

 

The Prudential Spirit

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program is the United States’ largest youth recognition program based exclusively on volunteer community service. The program was created in 1995 by Prudential in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) to honor middle level and high school students for outstanding service to others at the local, state, and national level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCysiSAefsw

http://spirit.prudential.com/view/page/soc

 

What We Are: Shattering Stereotypes

 

The “I Am” wall originally started as a language arts class project for individual students to shatter the stereotypes that they felt have been placed on them. Before starting on the project, we personally felt confused and unenthusiastic towards this prompt, because it seemed awkward projecting our personal struggles in front of teachers and peers.

http://www.middleweb.com/7776/students-reject-stereotypes/

Middle School Science Minute

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

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-FIRST-AID

 

I was recently reading the April/May, 2013 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  Within this issue is the monthly column, “Scope on Safety,” written by Ken Roy of the Glastonbury Public Schools.  In his column for the month, he answers a question posed by a middle school science teacher.  The question is:

“Should I know first-aid procedures in case one of my students has an accident in the lab?”

 

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/8/8_Middle_School_Science_Minute-First-Aid.html

From the Twitterverse:

“10 Powerful Screencasting Apps For Mobile Devices” http://feedly.com/k/1aoiiih  #edchat #edtech #BYOD

* Valia Reinsalu ‏@trulygreenfish 35m

Become an Inquiry-Based Teacher in 10 Steps http://shar.es/K4MXe  via @sharethis #edchat #funFriday reading

* Richard Byrne ‏@rmbyrne 39m

New post: Seven Alternatives to iGoogle http://goo.gl/fb/SaisM

* edutopia ‏@edutopia 45m

Witty answers to “Why do we have to write today?” http://edut.to/1fsNh33  #writing #nwp #engchat

* Motivational Quotes ‏@DavidRoads 1h

You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. -Henry Ford

* Kelly Dumont ‏@kdumont 58m

11 Sites and Apps Kids Are Heading to After Facebook http://zite.to/1b9Va8h

* Tony Vincent ‏@tonyvincent 1h

Kids’ Journal for iPad is now a free app! Write daily reflections with photos & export as PDF: http://tonyv.me/kidsjournal  #iosedapp #kinderchat

* Susie Highley ‏@shighley 1h

Everybody says we need more rigor in education, but what is it?? Suggestions for any lesson via @TeachThought http://www.teachthought.com/learning/how-to-add-rigor-to-anything/ … …

* Kim Flintoff ‏@kimbowa 2h

5 Great Augmented Reality iPad Apps – EdTechReview™ (ETR) | @scoopit via @PekkaPuhakka

http://edtechreview.in/news/news/products-apps-tools/483-5-great-augmented-reality-ipad-apps

* edutopia ‏@edutopia 4h

Educators & parents share their favorite strategies to build bridges btwn home & school: http://edut.to/1fDqZZZ  #edchat #edu

* Michelle Baldwin ‏@michellek107 25 Sep

Dear people who create products for Education – talk to educators before you create your interface. #kthxbai

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 4h

The Dictator’s Practical Guide to Education

* Monte Tatom ‏@drmmtatom 4h

Integrating Rubrics into Your Assessment Strategy ~ #fhucid http://www.fhu.edu/BLOGS/MTATOM/post/Integrating-Rubrics-into-Your-Assessment-Strategy.aspx …

* Monte Tatom ‏@drmmtatom 5h

Five-Minute Film Festival: Vine & Instagram Video in the Classroom ~ #fhuedu320 #edwebchat #tetaita2013 http://feedly.com/k/19MmkyJ

* Michelle Nebel ‏@mnebel 5h

US Dept. of ED declares October Connected Educator Month. | All October. All online. All free. Hundreds of even… http://essd40pd.weebly.com/1/post/2013/09/us-dept-of-ed-declares-october-connected-educator-month-all-october-all-online-all-free-hundreds-of-events-activities-to-expand-extend-your-classroom.html …

* Kelly Dumont ‏@kdumont 6h

Self-evaluation Rubrics for Admin Tech Use, 2013 – 1-5

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

News:

Khan Academy: The hype and the reality

In a new profile in Time magazine, Sal Khan, founder of the popular Khan Academy, explains how he prepares for each of his video lessons. He doesn’t use a script. In fact, he admits, “I don’t know what I’m going to say half the time.”

The highest ranking official in American education says that effective teaching requires training and planning, and then holds up as his archetype someone who openly admits to showing up to class every day unprepared. If a teacher said that, they’d be fired.

Khan Academy boasts almost 3,300 videos that have been viewed over 160 million times. That’s a heroic achievement.

But there’s a problem: the videos aren’t very good.

When asked why so many teachers have such adverse reactions to Khan Academy, Khan suggests it’s because they’re jealous. “It’d piss me off, too, if I had been teaching for 30 years and suddenly this ex-hedge-fund guy is hailed as the world’s teacher.”

Of course, teachers aren’t “pissed off” because Sal Khan is the world’s teacher. They’re concerned that he’s a bad teacher who people think is great; that the guy who’s delivered over 170 million lessons to students around the world openly brags about being unprepared and considers the precise explanation of mathematical concepts to be mere “nitpicking.”

Because the truth is that there’s nothing revolutionary about Khan Academy at all. In fact, Khan’s style of instruction is identical to what students have seen for generations: a do this then do this approach to teaching that presents mathematics as a meaningless series of steps.

Sal Khan has done something remarkable in creating such a vast and varied library, and he deserves to be recognized. His commitment to making the site free is a rare and selfless act, and he deserves to be praised. Sal Khan is a good guy with a good mission. What he’s not, though, is a good teacher.

As Arne Duncan said, we need to invest in professional development, and provide teachers with the support and resources they need to be successful. We need to give them time to collaborate, and create relevant content that engages students and develops not just rote skills but also conceptual understanding. We have to help new teachers figure out classroom management – to reach the student who shows up late to class every day and never brings a pencil – and free up veteran teachers to mentor younger colleagues.

We have to recognize the good, and then cultivate it.

Before we can do that, though, we have to agree on what “good” is. I don’t know what I’m going to say half the time isn’t good enough, and we have to stop pretending that it is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/khan-academy-the-hype-and-the-reality/2012/07/22/gJQAuw4J3W_blog.html#pagebreak

 

Resources:

 

30 Classic Books That May Change Your Life

A classic novel need not be one that was penned a hundred years ago: rather, some of the traits that define the classic genre are timelessness, universality, truthfulness. Will this work remain relevant as time goes by? Can the reader learn something heartfelt from the story? Does the narrative flow beautifully? Does it resonate with the reader?

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/classic-books-that-will-change-your-life.html

25 Things You Had No Idea There Were Words For

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/things-you-had-no-idea-there-were-words-for

Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP)

The Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP) is directed by Zachary Elkins (University of Texas, Department of Government), Tom Ginsburg (University of Chicago, Law School), and James Melton (University College London), in cooperation with the Cline Center for Democracy at the University of Illinois. The project is supported by the National Science Foundation (SES 0648288).

The intent of the project is to investigate the sources and consequences of constitutional choices. Towards this end, the investigators are collecting data on the formal characteristics of written constitutions, both current and historical, for most independent states since 1789.

http://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/

TedEd

Looking for a new way to engage students, or an exciting way to teach a difficult concept? Wish you could take your students on an impossible field trip? Checkout TEDEd: Lessons Worth Sharing for access to an innovative lesson planning tool. TedEd is linked to YouTube videos appropriate for school-age students and searchable by subject area and content. Use the search feature to find a video; add short answer or multiple choice questions, discussion points, and further references throughout the video. Hit the exclude option to hide any of these options. If you would like to see an already completed lesson search their library of “flipped videos” and modify them to fit your needs. This is an easy-to-use, free resource with limitless possibilities for educators.

http://instructify.com/2013/09/23/teded/

Swivl

The perfect solution for professional applications. Includes the complete featureset for a great video experience with enhanced audio. See the full list of specs here.

(Model #SW1721)

$199 per unit. Free cont. US ground. International fees may apply.

http://www.swivl.com/

http://www.swivl.com/store/

Web Spotlight:

 

Connected Educator Month Is Coming – What Will You Do?

The United States Department of Education has designated the month of October as “Connected Educator Month.” The description below comes from the Connected Educator Month District Toolkit created by Powerful Learning Practice:

Connected Educator Month (CEM) is a month-long celebration of community, with educators at all levels, from all disciplines, moving toward a fully connected and collaborative profession.

The goals of Connected Educator Month include:

  • Helping more districts promote and integrate online social learning into their formal professional development

  • Stimulating and supporting collaboration and innovation in professional development

  • Getting more educators connected (to each other)

  • Deepening and sustaining the learning of those already connected

So, what will you do? How will you promote the power of Connected Learning for others? Whatever its is, be sure to share your ideas here! That’s what being connected is all about!

http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/8994

575 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.

Where to watch free movies online? Let’s get you started. We have listed here 575 quality films that you can watch online. The collection is divided into the following categories: Comedy & Drama; Film Noir, Horror & Hitchcock; Westerns & John Wayne; Silent Films; Documentaries, and Animation.

http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline

 

 

advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, Podcast, Strategy, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 254: Close reading, Misdirection and Misconceptions.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

 

Jokes You Can Use:

An executive was interviewing a young woman for a position in his company. He wanted to learn something about her personality, so he asked, “if you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?”

 

She quickly responded, “The living one.”

 

What did Mrs. Claus say to Santa as they were looking out their front window?

“Looks like rein dear”

 

Did you know that “verb” is a noun?

If two mouses are mice and two louses are lice, why aren’t two houses hice?

Why is the plural of goose-geese, and not the plural of moose-meese?

Q: Why is the Dalmatian always found when playing hide and go seek?

A: Because his is spotted!

“Last Christmas I got a new rifle for my wife. Good trade, don’t you think?”

On the first day of school, the kindergarten teacher said, “If anyone has to go to the bathroom, hold up two fingers.” A little voice from the back of the classroom asked, “How will that help?”

 

There were three pigs. The biggest pig went to the market and asked for the largest soda. He gulped it up and asked where the bathroom is. “Right over there,” says the store clerk. Then, the middle pig went to the market and asked for the largest soda. He gulped it down and asked where the bathroom was too. “Right over there,” said the store clerk. Finally, the littlest pig came in the market and asked for the largest soda. He gulped it all down. The store clerk asked,” Aren’t you gonna ask where the bathroom is?” “Nope,” said the little pig,” Don’t you remember I’m the one that wee wees all the way home.”

 

Eileen Award:

  • Twitter: Samantha Jenkin, Michelle Cordy,

  • Facebook: Dennis McCall, Susan Rona Stein

 

Advisory:

 

The Art of Misdirection

Have the students watch the video. Ask them some questions about the video. Then ask them if they would be fooled by him. (If possible, pause at the 8:00 minute mark – this is where he reveals that he has adjusted his outfit).

http://www.ted.com/talks/apollo_robbins_the_art_of_misdirection.html

What every teacher ought to do… before it is too late

Posted by Vicki Davis

Many of you have been sharing on Twitter how you’ve had students create cards and do things to say “thank you.” Wherever you live, whoever you are, if you teach – make sure you’ve scheduled one day and one activity this year to thank these heroes of our community.

Yesterday as my students delivered and set up an appreciation for local law enforcement, they were met with gratitude. In two separate places they were told:

“People don’t really want to come down here for good things, it is always the tough things we deal with.”

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2013/09/what-every-teacher-ought-to-do-before.html

 

Alice Eve explains fitting in….

Good for a discussion about fitting in versus not.

http://twentytwowords.com/2013/09/18/english-actress-discusses-faking-an-american-accent-as-a-child-at-school-in-california/

Middle School Science Minute

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

 

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE MINUTE-SCIENCE MEETS THE ARTS

I was recently reading the April/May, 2013 issue of “Science Scope,” an magazine for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association.  Within this issue is an article entitled “Science Meets the Arts” written by Lawrence Perretto.  “Science Meets the Arts” is a program that engages students in scientific inquiry by having students create their own realistic wildlife art.  Embedded in this artistic/scientific process are key content connections that meet the Next Generation Life Science Standards.

http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Entries/2013/7/19_Middle_School_Science_Minute-Science_Meets_the_Arts.html

From the Twitterverse:

Bloom’s Taxonomy for iPads. pic.twitter.com/XIbZyVHdGZ #ukedchat #edchat #edtech #ipadchat #iPad #ipaded

* Scott S. Floyd ‏@woscholar 34m

OH: “I didn’t choose to do homeschooling. Why are you sending 2 or 3 hours of homework home with my child?” #GoodPoint

#mschat this week was co-hosted by @amle on the topic of homework.  Here’s a resource they shared:  http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/ArticleID/332/Value-of-Homework.aspx

* Tami Brass ‏@brasst 34m

“How to Make School Better for Boys” – Boys are born tinkerers… http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-to-make-school-better-for-boys/279635/ …

* Tami Brass ‏@brasst 44m

“6 ChromeOS Tips to Make Chromebook Sparkle” – Although I’m not a diehard Chromebook user, do love the speed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gottabemobile/~3/yq441h1APgY/ …

* Jon Samuelson ‏@ipadSammy 58m

Here is the link to the @LiveBinders for @wfryer session on Classroom 2.0 http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=966172 … #edcampatl #edcampps

* Larry Ferlazzo ‏@Larryferlazzo 1h

“Parents: 19 Meaningful Questions You Should Ask Your Child’s Teacher” http://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/2013/09/14/parents-19-meaningful-questions-you-should-ask-your-childs-teacher/#.UjSCNXUiCM0.twitter …

* edutopia ‏@edutopia 12 Sep

6 Free Online Resources for Primary Source Documents: http://edut.to/19LsYYa

* Mark Dunk ‏@unklar 2h

How to Close the Achievement Gap: Arts Education http://edut.to/15kqHDA  via @edutopia

* Alec Couros ‏@courosa 2h

To my #ecmp355 preservice teachers – you may want to read this: http://mgraffin.edublogs.org/2013/09/14/meeting-my-first-year-self/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AReliefTeachersJourney+(A+Relief+Teacher’s+Journey)#.UjR4rGRFxjE … (You have a great opportunity before you right now)

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 12m

#Reading logs aren’t learning, they’re obedience | @lisamorguess HT @raybake #edchat

* Scott McLeod ‏@mcleod 49m

“In education, bad ideas are timeless & good ones are incredibly fragile” | @garystager #edreform #iaedfuture #plaea

* TechSmith ‏@TechSmith 17 Sep

Looking for a better screen recorder? Get a deal on Camtasia for Mac for a limited time! https://stacksocial.com/sales/the-name-your-own-price-mac-bundle-3-0?aid=a-be2zqtey …

* Class Tech Tips ‏@ClassTechTips 1h

iPad QR Scavenger Hunts! Check these out! #edtech #ipaded #edapp #freeapp http://wp.me/p2qsME-5M

* Kevin Cummins ‏@edgalaxy_com 1h

Looking for new ideas to Teach History and Geography – Look no Further than here http://brev.is/h8j2

* MrAspinall ‏@mraspinall 2h

Five obsolete teaching practices. I appreciate #3 http://the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.ca/2013/09/5-obsolete-practices-and-ways-of-doing.html?m=1 …

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

Strategies:

Some Common Alternative Conceptions (Misconceptions)

 

Assign students a misconception that they will teach to the class. Assign can be done via student interest (ie. self-select, random picking or teacher assigned). Have the students work in groups. Their assignment will be to teach the class the misconception and the correct version.

 

  • Science

    • Seasonal Change

    • Knowledge about the Earth

    • Day/Night Cycle

    • Plants

    • Path of blood flow in circulation

    • Categories of Misconceptions (Erroneous Ideas) (See Pelaez, Boyd, Rojas, & Hoover, 2005)

    • Force and Motion of Objects

    • Gravity

    • Ontological Misconceptions

    • Other Misconceptions in Science

    • Epistemological Misconceptions about the Domain of Science Itself (its objectives, methods, and purposes)

  • Mathematics

    • Money

    • Subtraction

    • Multiplication

    • Division

    • Negative Numbers

    • Fractions

    • Decimal/Place-Value

    • Overgeneralization of Conceptions Developed for “Whole Numbers” (cited in Williams & Ryan, 2000)

    • Algebra

  • Language Arts

    • Poetry

    • Language

http://www.apa.org/education/k12/alternative-conceptions.aspx

Resources:

EditMinion

A Web-based companion to Write or Die, EditMinion is similar to After the Deadline. This writer’s companion doesn’t track your work, though. Rather, it provides an editing box for you to cut and paste work for immediate analysis and grading.

Adverbs, clichés, weak phrasing, repetitive usage and more are all laid bare for the author to see, making initial edit passes quick, if not painless.

EditMinion is also free, so the only thing you have to lose is your dignity when a beloved scene fails to make the grade. At least there are no witnesses.

http://editminion.com/

North Jersey schools offering yoga as part of curriculum

 

Many schools in the region offer yoga as part of the curriculum, either in physical education courses or in the classroom setting. In the Fort Lee school system, yoga is incorporated into part of the traditional gym curriculum for grades 9 to 12.

Yoga originates from Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, but many schools incorporate the physical poses and relaxation without the spiritual aspect.

“A lot of yoga is about being mindful of your space, and that can be a big thing in the classroom,” she said. “Or if kids are having a hard time in class, a teacher might say, ‘OK, let’s refocus and work on our breathing.’ “

“We’ve taken physical education out of many schools and also lost recess in many places,” she said. “At the same time we have an increase in technology, more sitting in one place. I think the increase in popularity of yoga in schools has also come about because of the general interest in mind-body medicine.”

“I talk to them about quieting the mind,” she said. “It’s hard for teenagers to just close their eyes and breathe, but once they get into it, it can be so helpful. I remind them that when they are anxious about a test to use their yoga breathing.”

http://k-12yoga.org/index.php

http://www.northjersey.com/community/224184921_Schools_offering_yoga_as_part_of_curriculum.html

Web Spotlight:

Will an emphasis on ‘close reading’ kill the joy of reading?

 

As most educators know by now, the new Common Core standards emphasize ‘close reading.’ It’s hard to argue with that as a necessary skill for understanding complex writing.

 

BUT… I keep thinking back to some quotes from Kelly Gallagher’s phenomenal book,  Readicide:

 

So I’m torn. I want students to be able to critically analyze what they’re reading but even more importantly I want them to love to read.

 

http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2013/09/will-an-emphasis-on-close-reading-kill-the-joy-of-reading.html

 

Half-Baked Ideas . . .

 

David Knox and screen capture.

  • Screenflow
  • Screeny
  • Camtasia
  • Swivl