Category: Podcast

MSM, News, NMSA, NMSA10, PodcastBy Troy Patterson

MSM 142 NMSA 2010 Follow up 1, RTI, Summarizing and More….

Jokes:

Women’s Rights
A girl involved with the women’s libertarian group boarded a crowded bus and one man rose to his feet. “No, No, you must not give up your seat. I insist,” she said. The man replied; “You may insist as much as you like, Lady. This is my street where I get off.”

Initials
Mr. R.B. Jones applied for a position with the government and was accepted. On his first day, the personnel dept processed his records. When asked what the R.B. stood for, he informed the clerk that they stood for nothing. His parents had named him with the initials only. The clerk informed him that his records could not show initials only so they typed his name as R. (only) B. (only) Jones. He got his first paycheck made out to Ronly Bonly Jones!

Barbershops
The reading material at the barbershop consisted entirely of murder stories, mysteries, thrillers, and ghost tales. When Peter asked the barber if he wanted to terrify his customers, he replied, “No. Peter. These books make the customers’ hair stand up and then it becomes easier to trim and cut.”

On Our Mind:

NMSA 2010 Conference

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)
Chemistry Facts. Cool and useful. Did you know……?

From the Twitterverse:

*gcouros Let Them Speak – Why Student Led Conferences are the Right Choice
*coolcatteacher Vicki Davis
“Education ranks 55th out of 55 industries surveyed in the US” in the use of technology. Bob Wise
*web20classroom Steven W. Anderson
Using Wikis To Strengthen Vocabulary:
*francesblo Fran Lo
How To Get Early Access To ‘Skype Education’ Right Now edudemic.com/2010/11/how-to… via @edudemic #midleved #elearning
*
elemenous Learning: Is there an app for that? http://ow.ly/37Uit
*
shannonmmiller The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness…Great Math Resources http://ow.ly/329S9 #vanmeter
*
shannonmmiller Glogster and Gloster.edu as an alternative to PowerPoint http://ow.ly/329re
*
Larryferlazzo Elect.io is an easy way to find candidate positions in any US election http://www.elect.io/

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :
Waiting to hear back from Infamous40000 . . .

NSMA 2010 Session 1:

How to Implement a highly effective RTI Model

Kristin Heckt
Sara Malinoski
Jennifer Webb

Timothy Edwards in Connecticut
1100 kids. 30 kids on Tier 3.

SRBI- Scientifically Researched Based Interventions

Must be Multi-Tiered.

  • Tier 1 is 80% of students – this applies to all students.
  • Tier 2 is 20% of 6th grade. Becomes less in 7th & 8th grade.
  • 74% of kids coming at “Goal”
  • 95% at goal at the end of 7th grade.

Highly successful model. By 8th grade, no students are below basic.

Focus on academic interventions.

  • Vision
  • Clarity
  • Coherence
  • Courage

See “What Needs to be in Place?” –

  • Curriculum
  • Standarts-based
  • Understanding by Design

Data

  • Universal Screens
  • CFA’s
  • Diagnostic
  • Progress Monitoring
  • Use for Tier identification

PD
Embedded- into the course of the day. Team meeting everyday.  Moved from compliance issues to PLC practice.

  • Literacy
  • Technology
  • Research based Instructional design
  • Instructional coaches do PD weekly

Communication
DDDM at grade level
Students & Families – students monitor their own progress.

Support
Schedule – Flexible block schedule – kinda. Music is crucial to the district. Tier 2 or 3 comes out of encore periods. Needed flexibility from teachers as the kids would come and go throughout the year. Some kids would come out of Social Studies or Unified Arts (life skills, tech ed).
Administration
Personnel – 4 teams at each grade level. Down to 3 grade by grade level. 108 teachers for 1100 students.  Reorganized teachers to include some interventionists as well as the core areas. 6 Intervention Teachers.
Reallocated Resources

Programming
3 Tier Approach
Research based programs
Interdisciplinary teams
PLC’s

Special Education referrals have dropped considerably. Data shows that progress is being made. This leads to fewer students being identified. They went from a discrepancy model to the RTI model.

Including special education teachers now. They were just using interventionists. Special education and regular education teachers are both included into the intervention classes.

45 kids in Tier 2 & 16 in Tier 3 per grade level – approximate.

Email Kristin for her schedule. Teachers cover lunch. kheckt@swindler.k12.ct.us

Topics for embedded PD
Understanding by Design
Literacy
Technology
PLC
Data Driven Decision Making & Data Teams
High Yield Instructional Strategies
Common formative & Summative Assessments
Differentiation
Standards Based Grading

Book study. Change in culture.
Instructional Rounds is next. They want teachers to do the instructional rounds.

PLC/Data Team Structure
Interdisciplinary Teams – includes encores. 6 teachers per team level. Unified Art is “core class”. Encore is PE, music and health.

Tier 1:

  • Universal assessments
  • Comprehensive & differentiated instruction informed by scientific research.
  • Ongoing, embedded PD
  • Instructional & Human resources.
  • PLC’s / Data Teams
  • Material and instruction at instructional levels.

The Assessment Process:

  • Screening – identifies students for targeted intervention – 3x a year.
  • Diagnostic – Pinpoint instructional needs
  • Progress monitoring – Shows whether the instruction is effective and impacting student skill development.

Tier 1 Assesment Questions:
Why is the student not performing at the expected level?
What skills does the student need to learn to be a skilled reader?

See Tier 1 Literacy Intervention Plan

Tier 2

  • Small group instruction – never more than 8 kids at a time.
  • Additional support (4x out of the 6 day rotation – 45 minutes)
  • Homogenous grouping. (Use Read Naturally).
  • Interventions are short term.

Literacy Example:
Work Your Way Back: (See handout).

AIMS web norms.

Keeping students aware is a big part of the process.

Tier 3: Customized and Intense.

Programs:

  • Word warm ups
  • rewards
  • Let’s Read

Individual or small group (4 or less).
Homogenous groups.
Interventions require a high degree of expertise on the part of the teacher.

Fidelity of the Program:

  • Master teachers
  • Scientifically researched-based programs
  • Adherence to protocols:
  • Time
  • Setting
  • Grouping
  • Progress Monitoring
  • Communication

LW5

NMSA 2010:  Summarization in Any Subject
Part One:
Rick Wormeli, 2010  (Handout provided)
email him if we want the Powerpoint presentation of this if we want it.
Break at 10:00 am and the water is behind him.
Housekeeping done
Summarization
College websites have pages and pages of advice that should have been taught in elementary and middle school.
He started teaching in 1981.
Real learning has little to do with instruction.
Learning happens two ways:
They have to use it outside your classroom.

They need to summarize their learning in the middle and at the end of their learning.

Summarizing and debriefing.
What you teach is irrelevant.  It’s what the kids carry forward that matters.
Lectures chunked with summarization increases learning.
It’s revitalizing to do summarizing.
Summarize the brown slide article selection:
Text from the presentation (Courtesy Rick Wormeli):
Take a look at the NMSA’s This We Believe materials, Turning Points 2000, or the on-line research at www.nmsa.org: middle level students are in prime exploration mode.  They require ample opportunities to wrestle with ideas, not have those ideas spoon fed to them.  They should feel safe and invited to experiment and fail in the middle of class or at home as they learn new material.  Unfortunately, the way we’ve set things up in many middle schools, students consider academic struggle as being weak when it could be used as a launching pad for more effective learning instead.
Let’s make it okay to fail in the pursuit of learning.  One of the most vivid ways we can do this is to model it.  We set up real situations in which we do not know answers or how to solve problems – ‘really not know something, not just faking it — then find the answer or solve the problem constructively in front of students so they see what it looks like to not know something, to handle it wisely, and to remain a respected individual in the community.  Many middle school students do not push themselves to explore different talents or new thinking because they are focused on protecting their reputations as the persons who always get the right answers.  What potential is lost because a student needs to protect his personal status quo?
My summarization:
Prime exploration mode for middle school students.
They need opportunities to wrestle with ideas of their choosing.
They need to feel safe to experiment as they learn.  (Free to fail.)
Schools are not set up that way unfortunately.
Policy:  make it ok.
Model it for them.

Construct sandboxes to experiment it.  It helps protect them in the social of transescent learning.

“Share deodorant zones” and tell your neighbor why it is a good summarization.
Person listening:  agree or disagree, but tell why you agree or disagree.
Most of probably did well.  Most kids haven’t done it and so they struggle with it.
What makes a summarization good?
Is it comfortable to share under the scrutiny of others?
Problem/solution structure
Using one’s own words.
Give them a chance to language play to build vocab to summarize.
Jeremy ate pizza.
Embellish as needed.  Give me 10 ways to say a sentence.

Writing process terms:  they have to describe what they are doing/have done with the clay.

“Great books are rewritten.”
It captures the text accurately.
Could our neighbors get all the information in the topic from our summarization?
1.  Read it.
2.  Read it again.
3.  Look for key terms that are critical for understanding.
4.  Find key terms:
Nouns & Verbs
Words that without them, the sentence or passage wouldn’t make sense.
Topic sentence
Things that answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Chris Tovani, “I read it but I don’t get it.”
How was it to give advice on how well someone did on their summarization?
When we defend our thinking, we move into our internal editor.
They’ll remember it for much longer.
Kids will have to be taught on how to critique each other’s summarizations.
Gettysburg Address example
1.  Go sentence by sentence.
2.  Do a compressed poem.
3.  Guided reading.
4.  Visualization:  Draw a picture.
5.  Provide context to the document.
6.  Ask students what their experience is with death and cemeteries.
7.  Read aloud.
Yes, but by someone who knows the context and background.  Don’t read it cold.
8.  Define difficult words.
Rick’s method:
Pull out some phrases and then add them back in to reduce overloading.
Highlight contrast words:  Now/ago for example
One strategy won’t work:  You need 5 or 6 together to make it work.
Poetry Example:  “With hocked gems financing him . . . ”  (Dooling and Lachman, 1971)
•    With hocked gems financing him our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme
•    Your eyes deceive, he had said, an egg, not a table, correctly typifies this unexplored planet
•    Now three sturdy sisters sought proof, forging along sometimes through calm vastness, yet more often over turbulent peaks and valleys
•    Days become weeks, as many doubters spread fearful rumors about the edge
•    At last from nowhere, welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying momentous success
-Christopher Columbus
Students must have a frame of reference to understand the metaphor:  “He flozzled his website.”
Is this a good or a bad thing?  Add more context information to add clarity and creating background where there is none.
Tell the story of the Code of Hammurabi before discussing the Magna Carta.
Before studying the detailed rules of baseball, play baseball.
Before reading about how microscopes work, play with microscopes.
“In terms of standards, maybe  a standard for exposure to exploring…”  -A summarization of Bill Ivey and Rick Wormeli.
Before reading the Gettysburg Address, inform students that Lincoln was dedicating a cemetery.
Before reading a book about a military campaign or a murder mystery with references to chess, play Chess with a student in front of the class, or teach them the basic rules, get enough boards, and ask the class to play.
Primary-Recency Effect
See Graph:    (Courtesy Rick Wormeli)
Frontload and backload the hour.
Makes a difference
The bell work is always related to the stuff we’re doing that day.
Stop 7 minutes early and have them summarize what they learned in the hour.  (Gotta do this one!)
Make these cycles with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Free fact:  If you’re not a good student, put your paper under a poorer student’s paper and you’ll get a better grade.
Definition:  Summarization is restating the essence of text or an experience in as few words as possible or in a new, yet efficient, manner.
Sprenger’s Suggestions for Long Term Retention  (How to Teach So Students Remember, ASCD, 2005)  (Preview of the inside of the book:  http://books.google.com/books?id=z5ipcWRLCPYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22How+to+teach+so+students+remember%22&source=bl&ots=fyqpgsXxJ8&sig=VOVU5LOBWF4-gZPA9CNtyzf0o_o&hl=en&ei=swTeTIfEHsbPnAe4_YSvDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false )
Reach:  on an emotional level.
Reflect:
Recode:  put it in terms of their own life
Reinforce:  graphic organizer
Rehearse:
Review:
Retrieve:
Remember who’s doing the learning.
Break Here for Next Show:
Whomever responds to the students/classmates is doing the learning.  Make sure the majority of the time it’s the students responding and summarizing, not the teacher.
Teachers ask 80 questions each hour on average, while students ask only two during that same hour.  (Betty Hollas)  Students learn more when they ask questions.  Find ways to make question-asking so compelling and habitual they can’t escape it.
Have a conversation (with Wormeli) using only nouns.
First one to utter a verb loses.
Prime the brain prior to asking students to do any learning experience.
Priming means we show students:
1.  What they will get out of the experience (the objectives).
2.  What they will encounter as they go through the experience (itinerary, structure)
Avoid Confabulation
The Brain seeks wholeness.  It will fill in the holes in partial learning with made-up learning and experiences and it will convince itself that this was the original learning all along.  To prevent this:
Deal with misconceptions:  Students should summarize material they already understand, not material they are coming to know.
Recall success with individual, unrelated items:

Age of Student
# of Unconnected, Individual Items Successfully Recalled
(plus or minus 2, Wolfe, 2001)

5    2

7    3

11    5

15+    7
Courtesy Rick Wormeli’s PowerPoint.
Summarization tips:
Create or activate personal background.
Prime the brain.
Plan according to the Primacy-Recency Effect.
Use varied summary formats – written, artistic, oral, physical, musical.
Use summary experiences before, during, and after lessons.
Teach students to recognize familiar text structures .
Teach students to recognize familiar writing structures.
Use analogies.
Chunk text and experiences.

Courtesy Rick Wormel’s PowerPoint.
Reading Math

Math books have more concepts per sentence and paragraph than any other type of text.

There is little redundancy in math text.
Words as well as numbers and other symbols are used throughout the text.
Eyes travel in different patterns than traditional left-to-right.
They often have distracting sidebars.

In most text there’s a topic sentence or key idea followed by detailed supports.  In math, we get the details first then the topic sentence – the key idea is given in the form of a question or a task at the end.  Students ahve to read the text agian after seeing this key idea and figure out what material in the text is important and unimportant.

Word Morphology
Teach prefixes, roots and suffixes!
See the list in his handout.
Kids who know their roots and suffixes, can summarize.
Latin is Fun!  – Book example.
Break
Part Two
Summarization Strategies:
Reading Notations
Annotated text is one of the best things we can teach according to research.
(Check Mark)           I agree with this.
X                I disagree with this.
??                I don’t understand this.
!!                Wow!  (‘Elicits a strong emotion)
CL                General Claim
EV                Evidence for the Claim
(These can be numbered to indicate their sequence, too:  EV1, EV2, EV3…)

News:

Oregon School Addresses English Language Learners

http://portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=128942579843364600

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
MSM, News, NMSA10, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 140 NMSA 2010, Math & Reading Resources!

Jokes:

Proper Grammar
The teacher wrote on the blackboard, “I ain’t had no fun all summer.” “Now Paul,” she said. “What shall I do to correct this?” “Get a boyfriend.” Paul replied.

Dressing Rooms
A lady walked into a boutique and asked the sales lady, “May I try on that cute dress in the window?” The sales lady replied; “Sure, but wouldn’t you be more comfortable in a dressing room?”

Birthday Presents
The parents of a difficult boy were discussing what to give him for a birthday present. The mother said, “Let’s buy him a bicycle.” “Well,” said the father, “maybe but do you think it will improve his behavior?” “Probably not,” said the mother, “but it will spread it over a wider area.”

On Our Mind:

NMSA 2010 Conference (If you’re going, contact us. We have a great link for you).
Keep in mind that new flight rules take effect on Nov. 1st.

Middle School Science Minute

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

Dave is looking for an excellent Earth Science Middle School Teacher.

From our Listeners:

As far as the testing discussion goes, I am blown away by states that test the previous year’s material at the beginning of the following year. That just doesn’t make sense to me (not that I agree with all of NC’s testing program either). Here in NC, we administer EOG (End-of-Grade) tests about 3 weeks before school is out for the summer. Admin get the scores back about 5 hours after the last test is finished, and teachers usually get scores the following day. Scores are released to students before going home for the summer. The past couple of years, we have had a retest program for students who did not score at proficient levels.

Granted, there are issues with this system as well. Testing that far in advance of the end of school leads to a “Why are we still here?” attitude from some of the kids after the test. I think that makes much more sense than not being able to start the year covering relevant grade-level material.
Todd Williamson
Note:  We’re hoping there will be a ton of folks at his presentation on Friday at 7:30 am in Baltimore this coming week.  If you’re going to NMSA and willing, please consider his presentation in Room: 339 (Baltimore Convention Center)
Audience: Community Leaders, Media Specialists/Librarians, Pre-service teachers, Teachers, Technical Coordinators
Presentation Level: Intermediate
Presentation Description:  Students today live in a highly networked world—from email to text messaging to online gaming and social networking. Teachers, meanwhile, often express concerns about staying one step ahead of technology savvy students. Learn about the rationale for using social media in the classroom along with strategies for navigating the new media landscape with your students. Also featured will be the SMARTR portal, a STEM portal of youth- focused Math and Science virtual learning experiences developed for and by students!

From the Twitterverse:

*BernajeanPorter by ipadeducatorsRT @cnansen: @BernajeanPorter One of the most useful sites I have run across in the last month-Dot Voting http://www.dotvoting.org/ #edchat
*AngelaMaiers The Complete Facebook For Educators! | Tech the Plunge http://ow.ly/2ZYRd
*CBrannon In a meeting. They gave me a laptop and want me to pay attention….I will…In a minute….
*kylepace 100 incredibly useful YouTube channels for teachers: #edtech
*jybuell How Allies Used Math Against German Tanks | Autopia | Wired.com wired.com/autopia/2010/1…
*Curriki “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore…” and nevermore will you be without great Halloween lesson plans! http://ow.ly/2ZlIX #english #history
*stevehargadon Recording posted of interview with Diane Ravitch on How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education http://icio.us/z3fkbn
*DanielPink Memory decline accompanies earlier retirement, study finds . . . http://nyti.ms/9efpih (via NY Times)
*drmmtatom My Brainshark – Easily Narrate and Share Presentations #fhuedu508 http://tinyurl.com/39n6csk

This Part for Infamous40000 . . . :

Hero Machine: Design your own superhero: http://tinyurl.com/olzc3a
Uber-Mongo-Important assignment for operative Infamous40000:  Design a superhero and share the experience with us.  Call us at (262) 724-6653 and send us a copy of your superhero!

Tech Tools:

AlternativeTo:

Great way to find new software.
http://alternativeto.net/software

Wiggio

Set up your group in under a minute.
Add people to your group by pulling them in from your email or Facebook contacts. They never need to sign up. As soon as you add, you can start communicating.
Each feature is designed to be straightforward and self-explanatory. No training. No learning curve.
Keep up with your group on-the-go. You can text message and email into your group, and receive group communications to your cell phone, email and Facebook.
All the tools you need packaged together.

http://wiggio.com/

Math Open Geometry

Great geometry resources.
http://www.mathopenref.com/index.html

Microsoft Academic Search

Looks to be technically oriented. Some good possibilities though. Conferences are included.
http://journalogy.com/

One Word

Interesting idea for a writing assignment.
http://oneword.com/

News:

Robots in the classroom?  They’re here!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teachers/index.html

Political Peril for the Common Core?

How to Assure Continued Progress

By Michael D. Usdan
Could the backlash against large governmental programs (like healthcare) effect the implementation of Common Core Standards?
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/27/09usdan_ep.h30.html?tkn=QMZFzckQpU3lROPtxOCXWM%2FnuCM2CsPo6oqD&cmp=clp-edweek

Webspotlight:

Google Search Tools

“Secret” codes to make your google searching even better.
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html

Big East Career Fair

Could this be the start of a new way of finding a job?
http://www.bigeastcareerfair.com/

Teacher Jotter

Social Network for Teachers.
Build professional relationships, share resources, exchange ideas and opportunities.
http://www.teacherjotter.com/

Reading Slowly

Interesting thoughts on reading.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/0621/Should-your-child-be-learning-the-art-of-slow-reading

Collaboration Video

Does this look like collaboration at your school?
http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2010/10/planning-collaboratively.html

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, Conferences, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM-138 Whither the Wi-Fi?

Jokes:

Counting Skills
A teacher asked little Johnny if he knows the numbers 1 to 10. “Yes! Of course! My pop taught me even more than 10.” “Good. What comes after three? “Four,” answers the boy. “What comes after six?” “Seven.” “Very good,” says the teacher. “Your dad did a good job. Now, what comes after ten?” “Jack.”

On Our Mind:

  • NMSA 2010
  • Whither Wi-Fi?
  • Will TodaysMeet be used?
  • iTunes Rankings
  • Helping others:

Hello fellow middle school science teachers.  This is a reminder to please complete this survey. My gratitude to the hundreds of teachers who have already done so. I am conducting a study of middle school science teachers and their teaching about the ocean.  I need your help!  Your answers to my survey questions will contribute to what we know about the current state of ocean literacy education in the United States.  All other challenges to the world ocean aside, the intricacies of the current oil spill crisis are reason enough to ensure that our citizenry is ocean literate.
If you have at least one year of experience teaching middle school science, would you please take my survey?  It will take 15-20 minutes to complete and your answers are completely confidential and anonymous.  The survey can be accessed by clicking on the following Internet link: https://purdue.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_87zwywgq8dNRqn2

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science on Twitter
Headrush – MythBusters for Kids
Team America Rocket Contest

From the Twitterverse:

*kevcreutz Kevin Creutz Questions for schools to truly assess how technology is being used.
*
kevcreutz Kevin Creutz  Remove boredom by teaching naked
*
Katjewave Katje Lehrman @smartinez One local middle school just got 140 students “returned” because the charters didn’t want them. #educationnation
*
NMHS_Principal Eric Sheninger  by tfulk523 RT @cpoole27: Writing Fix: prompts. lessons, and resources for writing classrooms!
*web20classroom Steven W. Anderson RT by tfulk523 Technology Integration Matrix:
*msbearce Ms. Bearce:  this is what we did in my advisory today. woot! http://twitpic.com/2ww8u9
*andreacarr1 Andrea Carr
What does Britain sound like? British Library is creating the first crowd-sourced, nationwide sound map.

Advisory:

Voki – Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.

Inspirational Quotes – Here, I’ll share 20 of my favorite inspirational quotes. I won’t include any commentary because the quotes speak for themselves. I hope they resonate with you as much as they have with me 🙂

University of Virginia’s Honor Code:  Use this video in connection with the “Coat of Arms” materials from NMSA’s Treasure Book to build an Advisory activity!

Tech Tools:

Markup IO

Draw on any webpage. Share your ideas. Mark. Share. Done.
Draw on any webpage with MarkUp to quickly share your thoughts. Try it now by choosing a shape to trace. Get MarkUp to use it any time.
http://markup.io/

Yudu
“Read online publications and self publish digital magazines, eBooks and more.” Here’s one thing that I like about it – you can create your own library of books. I started with a couple of books by Richard Byrne (Free Tech for Teachers)- Google for Teachers and Google for Teachers II.

10 Sites to create Comics from Tech Learning

“Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do with students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done with any number of applications, such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer a nice solution as well.”
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/33632

Webspotlight:

School study sees benefits in economic integration

“This study turns that wisdom on its head to some extent. It says, actually, it’s who you are going to school with.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/14/AR2010101407051.html

Effort Targets ‘Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations’

Researchers and policymakers agree that teachers’ expectations of what their students can do can become self-fulfilling prophecies for children’s academic performance.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/13/07nua_ep.h30.html?tkn=VVSFYFZRTFCluQuL2iUL74zLUE%2FrRBupwKqS&cmp=clp-edweek

Edutopia Parent Guide

Need to register to get the guide.
http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-home-to-school-guide.pdf

EdWeek focuses on Will Richardson

http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?intc=fall_tsbem

ISTE 2010:  Crap Detection – Teaching Students to Research

Presenter:  Dr. Howard Rheingold
www.vlog.rheingold.com
www.rheingold.com
www.twitter.com/hrheingold
How can you pluck the answer to any question out of the air?
How do you know that what you find is accurate?
They seem to be a set of literacies.
Attention as a literacy
Participation as a literacy
Collaboration
Critical consumption
The Literacies
Attention
Critical consumption
“Crap Detection” came from Ernest Hemmingway.
There’s a lot of crap on the web and it is up to us to be good consumers of information.
1996/1997 he began to think about this stuff.
His daughter began to look up things on the web.
Example:  Martin Luther King, Jr. An Historical …
The site doesn’t have a good opinion of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Do a whois on the site and it tells you who the owner is.
Stormfront owns it.  (White Supremacy)
This is a cloaked website.
Example:  Hitler Historical Museum
Showing these sites to students is the first step to understanding that what is out there isn’t always real.
There are all kinds of actors out there purchasing URLs.
BP bought a ton of search terms from Google.
Example:  First Genetics:  genetically mapping a better future.
It isn’t a legit site.
Example:  Free Online Pregnancy Test
Example:  Faisal Shahzad Facebook mixup highlights hazards of Web journalism.
Example:  Help save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
Article:  SFGate:  Howard Rheingold
http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/
Looking for teaching stories there.
There are many spam and port sites that are now looking like legit sites and teachers and students need to be able to detect the difference.
Online is the greatest source of one’s disease as well as some totally bogus information.
The one thing that we can do is to improve the commons is to convince people that the things that are in error are in error.
Other Literacies
Attention:
Example:  Student has the ability to look at other subjects and do well at the main course topic.
Multitasking isn’t effective.
Participation:
Collaboration
Media production is unlike other areas of production.
Look Penguin Revolution
Network Awareness
Networked Individualism
Professional Learning Networks
Trust Network
Find people you can learn from.
Long tail, small worlds, power law.
Presentation of self and a networked world.
There’s a great need for this in institutions today.
Call to Action!
The best we can do is work together and for each other.
http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/
http://socialmediaclassroom.com
www.twitter.com/hrheingold
howard@rheingold.com
Additional Resource
Daniel Poynter Hand Out – Crap Detection  (See below)
Please note:  Clicking on the document should bring up a dialog box to switch between each page of the PDF.

Author Information:  Daniel Scott Poynter
Direct link to Crap Detection 101:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/detail?blogid=108&entry_id=42805#ixzz0rdqUmHft
CLEAR Model for Critical Reading:  http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~rparis/critical.html
Diigo Resources from ISTE and Howard Rheingold’s “Crap Detection”:  http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/Diigo+Resources
Video associated with this presentation:  http://critical-thinking.iste.wikispaces.net/

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM- 137 Title: Better late than never …

Jokes:

Said the officer to the soldier, “Private, why did you salute that refrigerator?” The soldier replied, “Because it was General Electric.” “And that jeep?” the officer asked. Replied the soldier, “Because it was General Motors.”

On Our Mind:

Standardized Testing

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski
2 big events:
Earth Science Week – Oct. 10th – 16th
National Fossil Day – Oct. 13th

From the Twitterverse:

*colwar Colin Warren
twitter’s like being at a parade & catching s(t)weets thrown into the crowd. Some we pick up, some we miss, but there’s always more. #yam
*phsprincipal Dave Meister
RT @bhsprincipal: RT @web20classroom: Some Cool Lesson Plans Using Various Google Apps: Nice! #PCHS
*RichWhite Rich White
Design Blocks is a lot like MIT Scratch but in the browser … http://www.designblocks.net … Dan Green shared with me today #Scratch
*phsprincipal Dave Meister
RT @bjnichols: Challenge/Competition Resources… 21 Century Skills and PBL For All Subjects… Part One #PCHS
* iPads replacing paper for German parliament (schools too!): http://www.9to5mac.com/29571/ipads-replacing-paper-for-german-parliament
* mbteach  @chrislehmann @BeckyFisher73 I wonder why they don’t hold themslves accountable 4 not hiring these ‘amazing’ teachers they want in 1st place.
* mischakrilov  Warning, puns can cause physical damage: “England doesn’t have a kidney bank; but it has a Liverpool.”
* jutecht  What Administrators Need? I Need Teachers Who Think like Distance Runners

Advisory:

How do people spend their money?
http://www.creditloan.com/infographics/how-the-average-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/

Tera & Bella

An elephant and a dog become best friends. We use it to talk about how people might be different, but can still get along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0TjfOKnF-c
The follow up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljcfWFZaYzs

Tech Tools:

Visual Words

Here are six visual dictionaries and thesauri that can help your students better understand the meanings of words.
From Free Technology for Teachers.

  1. Snappy Words
  2. Visuwords
  3. Lexipedia
  4. Merriam Webster’s Visual Dictionary
  5. Wordia
  6. Got Brainy

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/10/six-visual-dictionaries-and-thesauri.html

Quiz Break

What is QuizBreak!?
QuizBreak! is a highly flexible program that allows teachers to create fun, Jeopardy©-like games for the language classroom.
QuizBreak! allows you to:

  • Write clues in any script (left-to-right, right-to-left, and non-Roman scripts will all work)
  • Add images to clues
  • Record or upload audio and/or video clues

Program Features

  • User-friendly editing interface for easy category-creation
  • Prize amounts can be displayed using any currency symbol
  • Multi-platform program works on PCs and Macs

http://clear.msu.edu/quizbreak/

Webspotlight:

BBC News: Faces of the U.S. Civil War

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11470304

OK, this one is just silly- but with a good cause behind it. The idea plays off of the talking baby meme. You can type in up to 600 characters, pick a baby and listen/watch the fun. The cause supports no baby born with HIV by the year 2015. Check it out.
http://www.one.org/international/actnow/babyprotest/widget.html

How to be a Good Commenter:

Karen shared her Paper Blog activity with me a few months ago and I’ve used it with my students to get them ready to blog with the “real thing.” My students have practiced writing and most of all commenting appropriately.
http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-be-good-commenter.html

7 Delightfully Nerdy Apps for Math and Science Geeks

  1. Celestia
  2. Stellarium
  3. OSXplanet
  4. Smell-O-Mints
  5. GNU XaoS
  6. Eigenmath
  7. Magic Number Machine

http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/7-delightfully-nerdy-apps-for-math-and-science-geeks/

ISTE 2010:  Steve Hargadon’s “Birds of A Feather” Session

Website for this session:  www.tinyurl.com/iste10crb and http://tinyurl.com/isteclassrom2-0
Note:  It looks like the links are broken …
Format:
Ask a question, take two or three answers from the audience.
Show a site or something online that you like.
Posterous will upload anything for free.
Pearson will sponsor a NING, but it’s limited and you’re tied to the vendor.
Topos will transition stuff from NING to another site.
Site Show Off:
Scientists Space (NING)
Click on members
Kids took on the persona of a scientist and they worked on the project in groups of three.
They could use any number of Web 2.0 tools to show their understanding of the content.
Wordle
Graphics
Music
Kid who posted it is below grade reading level.
These were SPED kids who put together the Mendeleev page.
Question:  For the scientist site:  They’re using a gmail hack (cheat).  Use a gmail account with a + but all the email account escheats+(scientist name)@gmail.com
Web demo:  TypeWithMe  (www.typewith.me)
Web demo:  WallWisher
Post a question and get responses.
Is there a way to merge the stickies?
It’s designed to be strictly online.
Software:  Microsoft Mouse Mischief
Instead of the wall wisher website.
Does work with wired mice.
Highest number mentioned so far has been six mice at a time.
Site Show Off:  www.historyplace.com/speeches
Use with www.wordle.net
Tagxedo is a Wordle in a picture/art work form.
Note:  Tagxedo is a pay site.
Just for fun:  Copy and paste a school policy into Wordle …
Jen Wagner is posting a puzzle called “Guess the Wordle”
jenuinetech.com/gtw
Put people’s tweets in there to see what their interests are.
General Question:  How do you avoid teacher burnout?
Look at what you are teaching first and then look to apply the tool.
Quizlet.com
General Question:  How do you define Web 2.0?
Ask Todd Williamson
Website:  www.voki.com
Create characters that talk.  Speaking avatar for everyone (free).
Site Show Off:  National Lab Day
Scientists commit to help out for a day.
e.g. Civil war Sally
e.g. Madame Curious (Madam Curie) and sent her around the world to different scientists and had them use the “doll” like Flat Stanley.
Site Show Off:  Adobe Connect Now
Polling system.
Twitucate:  designed for classrooms.
Edmodo
Global Education Conference.com   www.globaleducationconference.com

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, MSM, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM- 136 Making Google Stuff Work For You.

Jokes:

Wrong Ends
A contractor hired two brothers to install home siding. He demonstrated the process and sent them off to their first job. Things were going smoothly when the older brother saw that his younger brother was throwing nails away. He asked, “Why are you throwing those nails away?” The younger brother replied, “The heads are on the wrong end.” The older brother laughed, “Those are for the other side of the house.”

Languages
A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting. “Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen” he asks. The two Americans just stare at him. “Excusez-moi, parlez vous Fracais?” he tries. The two continue to stare. “Parlare Italiano?” No response. “Hablan ustedes Espanol?” Still nothing. The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. The first American turns to the second and says, “Y’know, maybe we should learn a foreign language.” “Why?” says the other. “That guy knew four languages, and it didnt do him any good.”  (If you liked that one . . . try this!)

What did one math book say to the other?  I have so many problems . . .

On Our Mind:

NMSA is a month away . . .

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski

From the Twitterverse:

** shannonmmiller  Need inspiration for your career? icould includes 1000 films of personal career stories, across all occupations. http://ow.ly/2JFYR
** willrich45  Need examples…schools/teachers that intentionally help students publish online with full names to prepare for global interaction. Anyone?
** paulawhite  RT @mikecrain: Want to teach your students about plagiarism? Here’s a Youtube video: http://youtu.be/Mwbw9KF-ACY
** kevcreutz  Resources for teachers who are new to twitter
** brasst  Math teachers – great Order of Operations shirt on Woot® today – shirt.woot.com – especially if you like smores 🙂
** shannonmmiller  Super Teacher Tools http://ow.ly/2JLmq #vanmeter
** shannonmmiller  Make your own magazine – OpenZine.com http://ow.ly/2JLeb
** kellyhines  RT @joevans: 20 Google Doc Templates for use in Science and Math Classrooms http://ow.ly/2JLnb
** web20classroom  The Teacher’s Guide To Everything Google Sketch Up:
**web20classroom Blogging With Middle Schoolers-First Steps and Frontloading: <-Good tips for any level
* appleplaza  Report: Slimmer Apple iPad with Mini USB, Camera in 2011 http://sns.ly/stZ53
* gtoppo  RT @MarcusLeaver: Today is the 568th anniversary of the first printed book. Thanks Mr. Gutenberg.

Advisory:

Small Spaces

What if everything that you needed had to fit through a small space?

This would be a discussion centered around the trapped minors. The focus of the conversation could be around what it would be liked to be trapped for months.

  • What is the difference between a need and a want?
  • What can you “make do” with?

The link has a visual of the size of the whole which everything must pass to get to the minors.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/13/back-story-think-of-the-miners.html

Quadruple Amputee Swims Across English Channel

Philippe Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrical accident, swam across the English Channel. Nice story about what determination can do. The video is 1 minute and 40 seconds long. It includes quotes from Philippe. (Could also discuss the difference between a quad amputee and a quadriplegic).
http://www.newsy.com/videos/quadruple-amputee-swims-across-english-channel/

Tech Tools:

Educate
Educate helps you keep track of student data on your iPad.
http://www.ikonstrukt.com/educate.php

ManyEyes

Data visualization. Great for those who see in pictures.
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/

Webspotlight:

YouTube Channel: RobbWorld’s Channel

Many people are unaware that YouTube has “channels”. Channels are essentially the videos from a particular user. At least one trick is that these can be subscribed to. That means that you’ll get notification when a new video is uploaded.
Mr. Robb’s Math Videos is all about, well, math. Most of the videos are around 5 minutes.

DocsTeach

Great site from the National Archives Experience. Includes both Activities and Primary Resources.
http://docsteach.org/

26 Keys to Student Engagement

by Angela Maiers.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/37782099/26-Keys-to-Student-Engagement

WorldMapper

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
There are now nearly 700 maps. Maps 1-366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above to find a map of interest. To learn a little more about this and other map projections read this: Worldmapper and map projections.
We recently added a new series of maps of the world’s population using a new mapping technique: Worldmapper Population Atlas
http://www.worldmapper.org/

Schoolwork

by Nicholas Lemann
An interesting article about education. A different perception than we are used to.
“We have a lot of recent experience with breaking apart large, old, unlovely systems in the confidence of gaining great benefits at low cost. We deregulated the banking system. We tried to remake Iraq. In education, we would do well to appreciate what our country has built, and to try to fix what is undeniably wrong without declaring the entire system to be broken. We have a moral obligation to be precise about what the problems in American education are—like subpar schools for poor and minority children—and to resist heroic ideas about what would solve them, if those ideas don’t demonstrably do that.”
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/09/27/100927taco_talk_lemann

Creating self Graded Google Forms

by Mark Wagner
“For this video I cut right to the chase and did my best to explain the IF formula for beginners… while keeping under a 5 minute time limit. I hope it’s helpful for you and your colleagues and I hope you’ll let me know what you think.”
http://edtechlife.com/?p=2600

Listener Question for Troy via Twitter:  From @Mthman: @MSMatters Help me to understand a procedural Q…do the teachers in your building need guidance w/advisory lesson plans? Mine do!!!  (Listen to the show for the answer!)

News:

MAMSE 2011

2011 Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Presenter’s Application now online.  Propose early!  Propose often!

Other presentation opportunities:
North Carolina Middle School Association:  Presenter Application

ISTE 2010:  Steve Hargadon’s “Birds of A Feather” Session

Website for this session:  www.tinyurl.com/iste10crb and http://tinyurl.com/isteclassrom2-0
Note:  It looks like the links are broken …
Format:
Ask a question, take two or three answers from the audience.
Show a site or something online that you like.
Posterous will upload anything for free.
Pearson will sponsor a NING, but it’s limited and you’re tied to the vendor.
Topos will transition stuff from NING to another site.
Site Show Off:
Scientists Space (NING)
Click on members
Kids took on the persona of a scientist and they worked on the project in groups of three.
They could use any number of Web 2.0 tools to show their understanding of the content.
Wordle
Graphics
Music
Kid who posted it is below grade reading level.
These were SPED kids who put together the Mendeleev page.
Question:  For the scientist site:  They’re using a gmail hack (cheat).  Use a gmail account with a + but all the email account escheats+(scientist name)@gmail.com
Web demo:  TypeWithMe  (www.typewith.me)

Web demo:  WallWisher
Post a question and get responses.
Is there a way to merge the stickies?
It’s designed to be strictly online.
Software:  Microsoft Mouse Mischief
Instead of the wall wisher website.
Does work with wired mice.
Highest number mentioned so far has been six mice at a time.
Site Show Off:  www.historyplace.com/speeches
Use with www.wordle.net
Tagxedo is a Wordle in a picture/art work form.
Note:  Tagxedo is a pay site.
Just for fun:  Copy and paste a school policy into Wordle …
Jen Wagner is posting a puzzle called “Guess the Wordle”
jenuinetech.com/gtw
Put people’s tweets in there to see what their interests are.
General Question:  How do you avoid teacher burnout?
Look at what you are teaching first and then look to apply the tool.
Quizlet.com
General Question:  How do you define Web 2.0?
Ask Todd Williamson
Website:  www.voki.com
Create characters that talk.  Speaking avatar for everyone (free).
Site Show Off:  National Lab Day
Scientists commit to help out for a day.
e.g. Civil war Sally
e.g. Madame Curious (Madam Curie) and sent her around the world to different scientists and had them use the “doll” like Flat Stanley.
Site Show Off:  Adobe Connect Now
Polling system.
Twitucate:  designed for classrooms.
Edmodo
Global Education Conference.com   www.globaleducationconference.com

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, Conferences, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 134- Advisory and a Way with Words.

Jokes:

Best Signs
Sign on company bulletin board: “This firm requires no physical-fitness program. Everyone gets enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying of the handle, running down the boss, flogging dead horses, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility, and pushing their luck.”

Listeners:

Dave Bydlowski:  thanks for the email.  Looking forward to hearing from you throughout the year!  Go Science!  (David’s Podcast)

From the Twitterverse:

  • * paulbogush @msstewart You can lead kids..don’t give tool, ask what do you need to be successful, they will give Ans, you suggest tool …
  • * Larryferlazzo Good Parent Engagement Video
  • * teach42 An to anyone I may have wronged without realizing it this year, I apologize. #Twitonment
  • * tombarrett I’d be grateful of you visited Class 9’s Blog + comment to encourage them as they begin their blogging journey :-
  • * msstewart Anyone ever given opt-in group work? Students have option to work either independently or in a group for different parts of project
  • * web20classroom Lessons in the Absence of Teachers « Cooperative Catalyst
  • * phsprincipal Whew… someone else RT @micwalker: RT @garystager: Ladies & gentlemen, I give you the worst principal in the world –
  • * web20classroom From @TeachPaperless-Increasing Student Engagement By Getting Rid Of Textbooks:

Advisory:

Making Hard Decisions:

What would your students do if they discovered that they had broken a rule?
http://www.pgatour.com/2010/r/09/02/teenager-disqualified.ap/index.html

Career Path Discussion:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703466704575489773416987814.html

Tech Tools:

Basic Google Search that everyone should know:

10 Basics tips to make your google searching better and easier.
http://www.techlearning.com/article/32300

Wordia

From their About page:
Wordia.com is a high-quality online dictionary: a professional authoritative textual dictionary but with one big difference…
Like a traditional dictionary, Wordia allows users to search for the spelling, meaning and etymology of a word but what makes Wordia unique is the ability for users to explore the personal connotation of word through video.
My Take:
Videos vary in quality. However, look beyond just the video. There are also definitions, etymologies and more. It is a great idea though. You could do something similar with your class. Or your class could contribute.
http://www.wordia.com/

SnappyWords

Free visual English dictionary.  An online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words. You can easily see the meaning of each by simply placing the mouse cursor over it.
http://www.snappywords.com/

DocDroid

DocDroid is a completely free online document uploading, conversion and sharing tool.

  • Upload documents in nearly any format.
  • Share the document via eMail, Twitter or Facebook.
  • Fast HTML preview for readers.
  • Let the reader choose in which format he wants to download the document.
  • Multiple file upload is possible.
  • Password protection is possible.
  • Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, PAGES, RTF, OTT, XLS, XLSX, TXT, PPT, PPTX, ODP and more!
  • Documents can be deleted by you or are deleted after 60 days without view.

http://www.docdroid.net/

Webspotlight:

Free Teaching History Poster

You can order a FREE historical thinking poster. They also have resources for elementary, middle and high school.
http://teachinghistory.org/

Math Fun Facts

This archive is designed as a resource for enriching your math courses and nurturing your interest and talent in mathematics! Each Math Fun Fact is a math puzzle or short article that contains a cool mathematics idea. You’ll can learn about the mathematics of things like card shuffling to poker to computer vision to fractals to music, just to name a few. This makes great enrichment material for gifted math students or problem-solving groups.
http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/

Commonly misheard expressions

From a friend Down Under. Still a great discussion.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/09/ten-misheard-expressions-to-avoid-in-your-writing/

Classroom Secrets- Taking My Students on a Classroom Tour

By Marsha Ratzel
The first tour stop is the “Start of Class Procedure and Class Agenda,” projected on my interactive whiteboard.
I’m not sure the procedures and routines of Room 66 are worth much, monetarily speaking. But collectively they maximize our learning time together by allowing us to accomplish the administrative tasks quickly, efficiently, and without trauma to students. I estimate that they give me an extra 4-5 minutes of class time every day – which means I’m able to squeeze out an extra day of instruction every 10 days. Since we are in school for 10 months, that means I’m creating nearly 18 extra class periods of instruction versus someone who doesn’t use these kinds of tricks. That’s almost a month of extra instructional time in each class.
http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/09/15/tln_ratzel.html?tkn=ZRZF%2FCsty6RQ0ltMWceCfc%2B5%2FYBAcGhCp00l&cmp=clp-edweek

News:

Did Bill Gates waste billions of dollars over math errors?

Did Bill Gates waste a billion dollars because he failed to understand the formula for the standard deviation of the mean?  Howard Wainer makes the case in the entertaining Picturing the Uncertain World (first chapter with the Gates story free here).

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/09/the-small-schools-myth.html

ISTE 2010

Kathleen Blake Yancey:  kyancey@fsu.edu
National Council of Teachers of English
Former President of said organization.
Online Resourcing and Researching
Two large parts
1.  What it was to research and what it means to research now.
2.  How can we help them research online now.
Assumptions
1.  Sources = Materials
2.  Materials = Verbal, Visual, and Multimedia
3.  Use of the Materials of Others
4.  Creation of Materials
One:  An Historical Document
The Victorian Albert Museum of London
Anybody can access the library . . . when they’re open.
Banker’s Hours
7 slips in order to get the material you want to view.
If they’re still open, you get to read it.
The Seattle Public Library
$15.00 cost if you’re not a citizen of Seattle.
Very recently were we allowed to access it ourselves.
Victorian Albert Museum Library has open shelves.
The amount of material that is accessible is very new and very recent.
Two:  Web -> Print Upload
Libraries are getting rid of duplicate copies and divesting themselves of print materials because of space.
JSTOR is a research device that will let students archive material to read, i.e. make their own collection.
Example:  Visual Search ability
Think of it as a MindMap research context.
Three:  Ecology!
Genetics?
New England Journal of Medicine
Wired Science
LA Times Online
DNA Talk – off topic source
Genetics and Health
The Medical Quack
The Classroom (STEDMAN/YANCEY)
Ethics
Knows how information/knowledge is created, historically and currently.
Knows academic conventions
Knows IP/copyright law (including fair use)
Composes ethically with the materials of others.
Knowledgeable
Finds appropriate information
Contextualizes information
Evaluates information
Creates new meanings with information
Searching Text/Context
Focused and systematic (Card Catalogues/Search Engines)
Stumbling -> Physical context as search instrument (Principle of Proximity:  What’s next door?)
Breadcrumbing/Linking -> Electronic, hypertextual context as search instrument (principle of conceptual proximity:  What’s related?)
The first two are direct, the last is indirect.
Sam Wineberg’s Three Moves That Make History
Corroboration:  Walther Fisher’s “Fidelity”
Convergency begets competence.
Sourcing
Contextualization
His book:  How Knowledge Is Made
Case Study I:  How do they compare?
1.  Analysis of an Encyclopedia entry and a Wikipedia entry – an opportunity to consider how a given term is defined in two spaces purporting to provide information of the same quality; intended to help us understand how they are alike and different and what one might do in creating a Wikipedia entry.
Case Study II:  Answering a question using online resources.
1.  Is Bright Star accurate?  http://www.rc.mud.edu
2.  Patients Like Me  www.patientslikeme.com
Shows the patient’s symptoms through the view of the patient.
3.  New York Times:  State of the Union Addresses Search Tool.
4.  Weather/Climate Events
Which sources of information do you trust and why?
Convergence Begets Confidence
1.  What sources did you find?
2.  How do they compare?
3.  Can you map them?
4.  How credible are they?
5.  How did you know?
And just the other day ….
Beth:  A lot of it begins with medical/pharmaceutical research and then considers research in other areas.  At a quick glance, really just a quick Google search [if you want a more complete bibliography, I have one in my office …]
Case Study III:  What’s the Story Behind Copenhagen?
The New York Times:  Times Topics
Case Study IV:  How Would You Document the Decade?
The New York Times:  Documenting the Decade.
How would you document the decade and you get one image to represent the decade.
Each picture comes with student written text, so it doesn’t stand alone.
The Learning Network (NYT)
Student challenge:  Create a New York Times ‘Found Poem’.  (example given)
National Gallery of Writing Website
www.galleryofwriting.org
Create a profile
Search/contribute
writing
audio
scanable images
Teachers can create their own gallery and have the ability to approve/disapprove pieces.

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
MSM, PodcastBy Troy Patterson

MSM- 133 It’s Constitution Day!

Jokes:

A beginner rider at the stables was trying to saddle a horse. “Excuse me,” said the old hand, “but you are putting that saddle on backwards.” “How do you know,” snapped the student. “You do not know which way I’m going.”

On Our Mind:

First week back to school . . .
Constitution Day Resources . . .
Cybrary Man:  http://cybraryman.com/constitution.html

Listeners:

Thanks to @Mthman & @rushtheiceberg for the recommendation on Twitter!
Best wishes to Kevin at Honey Grove on his new blog!

From the Twitterverse:

  • * topedutweets  Teachers to take online professional development courses – study says improves instruction & student achievement http://ow.ly/2yAwX
  • * math2go   Survival Kit for New Teachers:
  • * Twilliamson15  have done podcasting with my students to cover the hundreds of human body systems topics we can’t fit into class. #scichat
  • * gcouros  Focus on results can make children do worse, study finds
  • * Larryferlazzo  Oxford English Dictionary May Never Be Published Again
  • * cybraryman1  Have students do a What if? and then have them make a map. For example if Americans lost Am Revol. #sschat
  • * drmmtatom  RT @NMHS_Principal: How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Professional Development? by @snbeach
  • * shareski  Great story about integrity and sports from this teen from Wisconsin via@rmcdonald17
  • * ipadeducators  An interesting discssion of iPad project in eighth grade classrooms – what do you think?:
  • * cybraryman1  My Constitution page (Constitution Day – Sept 17th):
  • * DoTheMathBooks The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. John Wooden #quote

Advisory:

NMSA Video Contest

“Showcase your students’ video production talent as they share how they are making a difference!
NMSA is accepting video submissions to be played at its 37th Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, November 4-6, 2010. More than 7,000 educators from around the world will view the winning videos and see them recognized on the conference website, SchoolTube, and the conference program book.
Challenge your students to use their 21st century technology and communication skills to showcase how they, their class, or school have been innovative, creative, or inspiring.”
http://www.nmsa.org/annual/AbouttheConference/VideoContest/tabid/2264/Default.aspx

Tech Tools:

ThoughtAudio:

As the world moves toward more complex interactions, one of the most fundamental aspects of humanity is to enjoy its thoughts and its great works. Our journey has always been one of making classic literature available to anyone willing to listen, and now in this next phase, to expand our scope to include more thinkers, writers and essayists. Although thinking may not seem as relevant today, with advancing technology providing alternative vehicles of entertainment, we are committed to bringing a small part of intellectual enjoyment to the globe.
http://www.thoughtaudio.com/

Reading Logs
Reading Logs gives students a better way to track reading, create vocabulary cards and practice spelling. Learning material is uploaded by teachers and is accessed online by students in their class.
http://www.readinglogs.com/

How Safe is your password?
http://howsecureismypassword.net/

Voki:  Animated avatars
Education application form for the animated avatar app.
From the website:  “Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.”

Webspotlight:

TheApple is a diverse community of aspiring and current educators that want to support each other and advance their careers. Think of it as social networking with great career resources. We have a very active group of members from the veteran teacher, career changer, and even the pre-college student. Mentoring and career building is a good part of what we do. Let me be the first to invite you to become an active part of TheApple

http://theapple.monster.com/

47+ Alternatives to YouTube:
Some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, many teachers cannot access YouTube in their classrooms. That is why I originally wrote what became one of the most popular posts to ever appear on Free Technology for Teachers, 30+ Alternatives to YouTube. That post is now fourteen months old and I’ve come across more alternatives in that time. Also in that time span some of the resources on the list have shut down. So it’s time to update the list.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/47-alternatives-to-using-youtube-in.html

News:

California testing iPads as Algebra Textbook Replacements

A pilot project in four California school districts will replace 400 students’ eighth-grade algebra textbooks with Apple iPads in an attempt to prove the advantages of interactive digital technologies over traditional teaching methods.
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/117625-california-testing-ipads-as-algebra-textbooks

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 132 Advisory Snowballs

Jokes:

Customer Service
“I’m not saying that the customer service in my bank is bad, but when I went in the other day and asked the clerk to check my balance … she leaned over and pushed me.”

Job Application
Employer: “In this job we need someone who is responsible.” Applicant: “I’m the one you want. On my last job, every time anything went wrong, they said I was responsible.”

The Blame Game
This is the story of four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. Consequently, it wound up that Nobody told Anybody, so Everybody blamed Somebody.

Laughing
The boss returned from lunch in a good mood and called the whole staff in to listen to a couple of jokes he had picked up. Everybody, but one girl laughed uproariously. “What’s the matter?” grumbled the boss. “Haven’t you got a sense of humor?” “I don’t have to laugh,” she replied. “I’m leaving Friday.”

On Our Mind:

iWork ‘09 Update- ePub creation is now possible.

Listeners:

Hi,
I’ve been a fan of your blog for awhile, after stumbling upon it a few months ago. Thanks for the great content! We here at oedb.org take good content seriously, and we recently published an article “100 Ways Google Can Make You a Better Educator” that you may be interested in sharing with your readers. For your convenience, here’s the link: (http://oedb.org/library/features/100_ways_google_make_you_better_educator ) if you’d like, you can also find the story on our blog home page.
I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your time and take care!
Julia Watson

Like the show, but you should also put info on the podcast for the kids that also like the show. Please give me a shoutout.
infamous40000

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

My kids like the ‘snowball fight’. Everyone writes something about themselves on a piece of white paper but they don’t name it. Then they scrunch the paper into a ball and on the teacher’s signal a snowball fight ensues. After everyone’s had the chance to throw a lot of paper around ( a few minutes) another signal announces the end of the ‘fight’. Each student picks up the snowball closest to them and takes turns to read out the info and maybe guess who it belongs to.

Anne De Manser ( http://twitter.com/Aaannne )

Tech Tools:

RubiStar

Want to make exemplary rubrics in a short amount of time? Try RubiStar out! Registered users can save and edit rubrics online. You can access them from home, school, or on the road. Registration and use of this tool is free, so click the Register link in the login area to the right to get started now.
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Webspotlight:

Science YouTube Videos from Mashable

Do you ever stare off into the cosmos, wondering about all the matter and particles swirling about in the universe? Or gaze into the spiraling petals of a rose and contemplate the Golden Ratio and all it connotes?
No? Well, take some time out from your weekend of quietly quaffing to think, really think, about why, oh why the forces of nature chose to forge us within this mighty smithy we call life. Strain your mind, dear reader, and test the mettle of your brain fibers ruminating on the fact that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy…
Or, you could just watch this week’s YouTube ( roundup, the theme of which is science!
Take a look down below and get yourselves some education, you desk set daredevils.
http://mashable.com/2010/08/27/youtube-roundup-science/

News:

Reshirting the Little Ones

By PAMELA PAUL
Sitting out Kindergarten to gain an advantage. “Redshirting” of kindergartners — the term comes from the practice of postponing the participation of college athletes in competitive games — became increasingly widespread in the 1990s, and shows no signs of waning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/fashion/22Cultural.html?_r=2

Common Core Standards

By Stephen Sawchuk
More than two-thirds of the states—including Massachusetts, a state long famed for excellent academic-content standards—have adopted common grade-level expectations, as the movement to align nationwide what students are learning continues to gain steam.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/06/37standards.h29.html?tkn=LYQFx%2FKcK6NQoGyVPUaQ1jxL%2BVGTKhbLgyMt&cmp=clp-edweek

Class Size. Does it Matter?

By Tamara Henry
Conventional wisdom says the smaller the classes, the better the education, because teachers can pay more attention to each child. But while smaller classes are popular, decades of research has found that the relationship between class size and student outcomes is murky.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-26-classsize26_ST_N.htm

ISTE 2010

Mindy Johnson, Dr. Boris Goldowsky, and Ge Vue.
Overview
What is the problem?
Why smart content?
What does it look like?
Reframing Literacy
Learners are diverse.
Sustain desired difficulties.
Reduce undesired difficulties.
Universal Design for Learning
What?
Provide multiple means of representation.
How?
Provide multiple means of action and expression.
Why?
Provide multiple means of engagement.
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines
(See the video on the index page.)  
Smart Content
Is accessible
Contains learning supports
Has opportunities
The world is moving in a different direction from books.
UDL Editions:  Free on the Web.
Integrated with Google Maps
How can teachers build it?
Standard Open formats
Smart Content is time intensive and repurposable
HTML
ePub
aim.cast.org
DAISY
This is the CAST format of choice.
www.daisy.org
NIMAS format is the government standard.
Presentation will be on the ISTE website.
You can save a document as DAISY format in Word and Open Office.
www.openlibrary.org
Xmlmind XML editor
Daisy players
Gives the reader control over content.
nimbus2html
National Educational Technology Plan:  It’s a Smart Document
http://cast.org
UDL Inquiry Science Project
University of Michigan’s iQuest project for middle schools.
Kids can upload “other literacy” type of responses.
Ultimately we will be able to do this.
What is the impact?
Being able to read text at grade level.
Unlocking student understanding.
The teacher becomes the innovator.

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM- 131 Strategies for your Classroom!

Jokes:

Learn from your elders…

A lawyer and a senior citizen are sitting next to each other on a long flight. The lawyer is thinking that seniors are so dumb that he could get one over on them easy. So the lawyer asks if the senior would like to play a fun game.

The senior is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.  The lawyer persists, saying that the game is a lot of fun.  I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me only $5.  Then you ask me one, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $500, he says.

This catches the senior’s attention and to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.  The lawyer asks the first question. ‘What’s the distance from the Earth to the Moon?’  The senior doesn’t say a word, but reaches into his pocket, pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.

Now it’s the senior’s turn.  He asks the lawyer, ‘What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?’  The lawyer uses his laptop and searches all references he could find on the Net.  He sends e-mails to all the smart friends he knows; all to no avail.  After an hour of searching, he finally gives up.  He wakes the senior and hands him $500.  The senior pockets the $500 and goes right back to sleep.

The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer.  He wakes the senior up and asks, ‘Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?’  The senior reaches into his pocket, hands the lawyer $5 and goes back to sleep.

On Our Mind:

More iTunes Ratings.  (Thanks Eric!)

Listeners:

“I recently compiled a list of the Top 40 podcasts for teachers, and I just wanted to let you know that you made the list! It is published online at http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-40-podcasts-for-teachers/“

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Ice Breakers

http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2010/08/breaking-ice.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AGeekymommasBlog+%28A+GeekyMomma%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Tech Tools:

UDL Book Builder

Welcome to Book Builder! Use this site to create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.
http://bookbuilder.cast.org/

Webspotlight:

Strategies Gallore:

A bunch of different categories. Many, many different strategies for each category.
http://franklincountyschools.k12tn.net/Show%20Me%20the%20Strategies.htm

Earth Calendar

The Earth Calendar is a daybook of holidays and celebrations around the world.For the purpose of this web site a “holiday” is any day that recognizes a cultural event.
http://www.earthcalendar.net//index.php

News:

Putting Teachers to the Test:

By Carl Bialik
“My print column this week examines the debate over so-called value-added measures for teachers, which evaluate their performance based on how much they improve their students’ standardized test scores.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/putting-teachers-to-the-test-982/

ISTE 2010
Next week folks.  🙂

MiJEC 2010

Rogers City Schools
What they did:
Created a template on Word
Basic tech is needed.
http://mijec.org/attendees/2010program/wozinak/
Directions for the Fakebook Project
BE CREATIVE
You must choose a “REAL” historical figure that lived …
The project is modifiable.
Sample:  FAKEBOOK.US
Have their characters dialoguing with other people’s characters and there’s another type of lesson.
Template is on the website.
Fakebook It!
Author:  Melissa Wozniak
missywozniak@hotmail.com
Presenter (in absentia)
Katy Xanakis-Makowski
kmakowski@rcas.k12.mi.us
Rogers City Area Schools
Links and Documents:
Directions for Fakebook project. – BE CREATIVE

You must choose a “REAL” historical figure that lived in or influenced the United States between the years of 1960 – 1978.  They may be, anyone that you would like to know more about.

Follow the Template that is saved.  You must scour the internet/books in order to find out the Historical information, anything that you can not find out, feel free to embellish as long as it could be historically accurate and APPROPRIATE.

The “general information”, “education” and “favorites” – find the info that you can.  For the “favorites” section, see what you can come up with as you learn about the person. – these can be humorous or serious – which ever you choose.

The “status update” – should have a historical fact of which the person was involved – be it a “fun” update.

The “groups” section – think about what the person you chose would be into – and create 2 groups that they would have been a part of.  (1 must be serious, and 1 can be humorous)

For the “friends” section – as you do your research, find 6 individuals that they would have been “friends” with.   They could be co-workers, other people that did what they did etc. You must put their photo with their name.

For the “about me section – again research your person and place accurate information in the section
.
The “Wall” posts.  Find 6 events that your person was involved in or a part of, and then find 6 individuals that would have talked with them about those events, and make them your wall posts.  Each post must be in a separate text box and have a photo of the person making the statement and the “date” of the statement.

For the “we’re related” section – you must have 3 photos of people they are related to and how they are related.

**This is meant to be both a fun and learning project.  These will be printed off and put into a binder so that they can be shared with other students.  You have three days to finish these, which is why I want them to be “ACCURATE” and FUN!!!.***

Fakebook Example

Template:  http://www.mijec.org/downloads/mijec_2010/facebook_template.doc

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, MSM, Podcast, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM-130 Super Sized, Open Textbooks and the iPad!

Jokes:

Business Plans
Two women were comparing notes on the difficulties of running a small business. “I started a new practice last year,” the first one said. “I insist that each of my employees take at least a week off every three months.” “Why in the world would you do that?” the other asked. She responded, “It’s the best way I can learn which ones I can do without.”

Friends
Pete and Larry had not seen each other in many years. They had a long talk trying to fill in the gap of those years by talking about their lives. Finally, Pete invited Larry to visit him in his new apartment. “I got a wife and three kids and I’d love to have you visit us.” “Great. Where do you live?” “Here’s the address. And there’s plenty of parking behind the apartment. Park and come around to the front door, kick it open with your foot, go to the elevator and press the button with your left elbow, then enter! When you reach the sixth floor, go down the hall until you see my name on the door. Then press the doorbell with your right elbow and I’ll let you in.” “Good. But tell me, what is all this business of kicking the front door open, then pressing elevator buttons with my right, then my left elbow?” “Surely, you’re not coming empty-handed.”

Mosquitoes
Two young men were camping out in the forest one night. But the mosquitoes were so fierce that the boys had to hide under their blankets to keep from getting bitten. Then one of the boys saw some lightning bugs. “We may as well give up,” he told his friend. “Now they are coming at us with flashlights.”

On Our Mind:

Gearing up for the school year.
iPads in the classroom.
Eric’s Shirt.

Listeners:

Guys,

I hope you are having a super fantastic summer.  Yes, during my 6 days in the States, I picked up an iPad. I was very skeptical at first, but WOW!  This thing is amazing.

My question is about the practical use of the iPad in the class. I see that Apple just upgraded iBooks to allow videos and audio within the epub format. This means that textbooks could have audio/video boxes that support the main text or apply material in a cross curricular presentation. My question is this – who is creating the open source etexts that we can use in class, and how can I help?

Robert

Sent from my iPad

Related links we sent Robert:
http://open-education.org/
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000027.html
http://www.opentextbook.org/about/
http://web.me.com/mcgirr/Summer_PD_Notes__ISTE__MiJEC____MSC_/pages/20.html

From the Twitterverse:

  • courosa OpenScholar looks like a useful (and free) tool for academics. http://is.gd/dZcsi
  • drmmtatom Technology Tools for Learninghttp://tinyurl.com/2wv463s
  • willrich45 Open source textbooks a viable option? Der. http://nyti.ms/97f6GB
  • akipta Copyrights for Educators: Everything you wanted to know, but didn’t ask. http://goo.gl/fb/kiQyo
  • marynabadenhors Very cool Numeracy teaching notes (downloadable) http://billsteachingnotes.wikispaces.com/Numeracy+Teaching+Notes #kedu #elemchat #vicpln
  • NMHS_Principal Vodcasting: Education of the Future #edtech
  • kellyhines RT @kcollazo: Several Google Form templates so I didn’t have to figure out the formulas to auto grade! Yes! http://trunc.it/9zp6w
  • kiwicarol 15 Mind Blowing Thins [sic] about the Internet via Jane Hart
  • samharrelson This is up there with “we didn’t land on the moon” craziness for me. 8th grade is still “hard” folks. No worries 🙂
  • Larryferlazzo  US Dept. of Ed prepares to launch “2010 National Education Technology Plan 1.0”
  • GuyKawasaki  The blurry rules of plagiarism for college students http://idek.net/2uW5
  • kusdiva  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder & it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid/misinformed beholder a black eye. ~Miss Piggy
  • eduinnovation  Teacher- “Stop networking, searching, creating with your cell phones now. Put them away. I am going to teach U the skills for future!”
  • web20classroom   RT @gcouros: 70 Ways to Keep Students Engaged Some great ideas here!

Advisory:

Is “What you see, What you get?”
Here are 5 optical illusions that you could share with your students (or class). Good lead in to discussion about perception, point of view, etc.
http://mashable.com/2010/08/01/optical-illusions-videos/

Stats on Soft Drinks
http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/softdrinks/  (Link removed at the request of www.onlineschools.org.  Search their site for update link.)

TED Talk:  The Art of Choosing:  http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html

Tech Tools:

Teacher’s First

TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. We offer our own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus.
http://teachersfirst.com/index.cfm

Vanilla Forums

Vanilla Forums is an open-source, standards-compliant, customizable, modern, community-building discussion forum.
http://vanillaforums.org/

KnoteBooks

http://knotebooks.com/

Webspotlight:

Firing the Wrong Teachers?

http://hechingered.org/content/firing-the-wrong-teachers_1801/

Teacher inspires students to work through adversity

By Donna Vickroy
Juanita Lopez understands adversity – and the rewards of overcoming it.
“Believe it or not, the kids seem to work harder, to have more respect when they see you as a real person, with real struggles,” she said. “I have fewer discipline problems in the classroom because of it, too.”

http://www.southtownstar.com/lifestyles/vickroy/2551488,080110vickroy.article

Tiering Lessons
http://help4teachers.com/samples2.htm

News:

Minnesota rejects National Standards

The U.S. Education Department is offering about $350 million to help develop tests — but only for states that adopt the national standards by the end of 2011.
http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_15655121?nclick_check=1

5 Developing Themes at ISTE ‘10

By Henry Thiele
I attended EduBloggerCon, the Constructivist Consortium, the opening events, and more at ISTE ’10, and through my interactions there, I have begun to see some themes developing in the conference:
1 It has been a rough year. Between budget cuts, leadership challenges, and the increasing responsibilities associated with technology in schools, everyone was mentally exhausted heading into the conference. Excitement about changing practices and adding resources to schools has been tempered by budget concerns.
2 We have some pretty big decisions looming about how we are going to handle an influx of personal mobile computing devices into our society. With the iPad, the new iPhone, Android devices, and the continued growth of netbooks, there are a lot more discussions of how we are going to respond to this trend as schools. These conversations center on network infrastructure, policy, instructional strategies, and preparing teachers for this change.
3 Digital divide. The changes described in number 2 are starting to show how ugly the digital divide is becoming. The gap between those able to have the world’s information in their hands and those unable to is a growing social problem. When connectivity is factored in along with access to hardware, the difficulty becomes greater and more complex.
4 Assessment: Many educators are struggling more with assessment and its design. It seems that most agree with attaching some form of accountability to assessment. But nobody has quite figured out how to do it. It is becoming apparent, however, that technology will have to be involved in whatever solution does present itself, if for efficiency if nothing else.
5 Personalizing education: More people are talking about making teaching and learning more personal, saying that education has to be tailored to each individual. There is a lot of frustration and confusion about how to make this happen when we are still working in an environment designed to “press out parts” rather than create individual masterpieces.
http://www.techlearning.com/article/31550

ISTE 2010

CEO’s presentation.
Panel discussion begins at 18:08
Three agendas
New global citizenship
Global citizenship first and national citizenship second.
New skills agenda
New learning teaching and education technology agenda.
– Jean Francois Rischard
21st Century Learning in the new global classroom.
This is an activist agenda.
Table
See pic
21st cent skills
Karen C.
We need to change the focus and flip the conversation in the classroom.
Shaun Koh
Standardized testing kills dreams.
Use technology to inspire the dream in each student.
The teacher is more of a shepherd. (paraklete principle).
He wishes he had been taught interdisciplinarily and how subjects interact.
Jennifer is a nut.
Look up Tony Wagner as an author.
Karen Cantor says outright that national assessments are worthless.
But we’re on the train and can’t stop to fix the wheels.
We’re asking schools to make three changes taw once and the curriculum doesn’t give much leeway.
“Dictatorship of the Curriculum”.
Why don’t schools do “FedEx” days?
How do we learn to learn?
Denmark lets seniors use Google on their Senior exams.
How to grow a global citizen?
Stop teaching US History.
Teach problem solving.
Think multiculturally.
“Raised in Singapore, grew up on the Internet”
Get your culture from TV and the Internet.
National technology plan.
Need to download.
Why are educational systems so slow to change?
The Charles TED Talk.
It’s not enough
Side Notes:
The hostess was perky and covering for JFR’s shortcomings.
Jennifer was way to much of an advocate for “one world government” as was the other Canadian and JFR.
The University of Michigan kid has learned his subject, but hasn’t learned how to live.  He’s rudderless and lacks a grounding philosophy.
Tony Wagner Books:
Global Achievement Gap:  Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Kids Need.
http://www.amazon.com/Global-Achievement-Gap-Survival-Need/dp/B003P2VC02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278627763&sr=8-1

Reinventing Americas Schools

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Grade-Reinventing-Americas-Schools/dp/0415927625/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278627763&sr=8-4

Events & Happenings:

Calendar of Events:

NMSA News:

Other News:

  • ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
    • The ISTE Special Interest Group:  Virtual Environments is holding meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm (SLT) on ISTE Island.
  • The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 17 – 18, 2011.
  • Second Life:
    • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.  Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
    • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life