Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about the impact of COVID on students, executive function, and more. Dave shares time management tips in Science.

Jokes:  

Thank you for explaining “going against the grain” to me.

• But it really rubbed me the wrong way.

---

I misplaced Dwayne Johnson’s cutting tool for the origami workshop!

• I can’t believe I lost the Rock’s Paper Scissors!

---

Our hero’s second adventure had him learning how to calm the ocean’s waves.

• It was a sea quell.

---

My friend David lost his ID in Prague

• Now we just call him Dav

---

I hate cliffhangers

• They’re just so…

---

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  Time Management

I was recently reading the March/April 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Practical Research” column, written by Alison Betz Seymour.  She wrote an article entitled, ““But, I’m Not Done Yet!” Time Management in the Science Classroom.”  

Here are some practical, simple suggestions to develop time management skills:

1.  Explicitly talk about time management.

2.  Prompts such as “Check in with your time, there are about 10 minutes left for this task.”

3.  Scaffold students’ ability to visualize time by using an analog clock with time intervals marked with dry-erase pens.

http://k12science.net/time-management/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Budget Season
• ‘Tis the Assessment Season
• Word Count

The Social Web  

Terrible Maps  @TerribleMaps

Bill Ivey  @bivey

“What’s Love Got to Do With It? – Creating Connections in the Classroom”

Quote Tweet:  

  Michael McCullough  @ME_McCullough

Stop using pop culture references as the first half of the title of your journal article.

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘battologise’ (17th century): to needlessly and annoyingly repeat the same thing, over and over.

alexlindsay@alexlindsay

I spend a lot of time with ChatGPT. My impression… It’s just really book smart. It has no life experience except what it’s read. It’s as inaccurate and as sure of itself as people I meet in real life that have read a lot about a subject but have no operational knowledge.

Michelle Wagner  @wagnerlearning

If you’re looking for professional learning – find free, high-quality, asynchronous, professional learning at https://literacyessentials.org! From PreK to Disciplinary Literacy, there’s something for every teacher! #MichiganLiteracy

Erin Scholes  @ScholesE15

Fantastic #AprilFoolsDay #PedagoguePride

Quote Tweet:  

Illinois State  @IllinoisStateU

BREAKING NEWS  Illinois State is retiring its 100-year-old official nickname of “Redbirds” and will henceforth be known as the “Fighting Pedagogues.” #PedagoguePride

BREAKING NEWS 🚨 Illinois State is retiring its 100-year-old official nickname of “Redbirds” and will henceforth be known as the “Fighting Pedagogues." #PedagoguePride pic.twitter.com/zeM9R7MwYB

— Illinois State (@IllinoisStateU) April 1, 2023

Doug Holton @dougholton

Article on the current state of #AI text-to-video generators https://www.wired.com/story/text-to-video-ai-generators-filmmaking-hollywood/  A comparison of 5 tools for creating talking avatars https://youtu.be/U0HNdsxC8YU  And a tutorial on how to make your own #balenciaga meme style videos https://youtu.be/IFszI_wUhzQ #ChatGPT #video #midjourney

History Hit 

drpontSseolc2tt2u02l4838l96ui68fhtghca2mt5125u169h2l29l6h6tt

Mario Fabbrini, owner of Papa Fabbrini Pizzas, watches the ceremonial burial of 29,188 frozen pizzas on 5 March, 1973. He had been ordered to recall the pizzas by the Food and Drug Administration. To demonstrate his accountability, Fabbrini organized a public disposal of the pizzas, later dubbed the “Great Michigan Pizza Funeral”.

Resources:  

Simon

https://www.factmonster.com/games/simonsays#annotations:GXOmBtVIEe2FJxfAFa8eAg

Six Things Educators Must Know About Neurodivergent People

Six Things Educators Must Know About Neurodivergent People

Above The Noise

ABOVE THE NOISE is a show that cuts through the hype and takes a deeper look at the research and facts behind controversial and trending topics in the news. Hosted by Myles Bess.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4K10PNjqgGLKA3lo5V8KdQ

Capitalize My Title

Choose your style: 

• APA: Capitalize using the APA style guide.
• Chicago: Capitalize using the Chicago Manual of Style capitalization rules.
• AP: Use the Associated Press Stylebook capitalization guidelines.
• MLA: Use the MLA Handbook title capitalization rules.
• BB: Use the Bluebook title capitalization rules.
• AMA: Use the AMA Manual of Style capitalization rules.
• NY Times: Use the NY Times style guidelines.
• Wikipedia: Use Wikipedia’s capitalization rules.
• Email: Use proper capitalization rules for email.

Choose your case options: 

• Title Case: Capitalize only the words that should be capitalized according to the top tab style guide.
• Sentence Case: Capitalize only the first word of each sentence.
• Uppercase: Convert your title from lowercase to uppercase.
• Lowercase: Convert your title from uppercase to lowercase.
• First Letter: Capitalize the first letter of every word.
• Alt Case: Capitalize every other letter of your text starting with the first letter being capitalized.
• Toggle Case: Change the case of every letter in your string. Similar to the Microsoft Word feature.

Other Options

• Straight quotes: Curly quotes (“,”,‘,’) are used in good typography. If you need to use straight quotes, enable this feature.
• Get Headline Score/Get Email Subject Score: Find out how strong your headline or email subject is by using our convenient tools.

https://capitalizemytitle.com/#annotations:E-0-btL-Ee2Hul8Yre00hg

Introduction to Earth Science 

The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce a newly-adapted work by Dr. Laura Neser. Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses.

Announcing open textbook: Introduction to Earth Science

Deep Time

https://ncse.ngo/deep-time-really-really-deep-man#annotations:CgKTNNPNEe2w19dxbNldMA

AXIS – The Culture Translator

Work vs. Worship

What it is: The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson charts the rise of “workism,” a cultural phenomenon that positions work as the thing that provides what people used to expect from organized religion.  

#CollegeAdmissions TikTok

What it is: TikTok posts detail the pressure, excitement, and heartbreak of the college admission process.  

Pitch

Pitch keeps your team’s work on-brand, on message, and on time. Innovative features make creating and sharing your work feel effortless.

https://pitch.com/product-tour

Web Spotlight:  

Chasing rainbows

Apparently, the very idea of colorblindness is hard to visualize. Take a shot at looking through my eyes.

Living with colorblindness feels like you’re constantly being pranked by the world in subtle, irritating ways.

https://www.theverge.com/23650428/colorblindness-design-ui-accessibility-wordle#annotations:ZsTYKtVnEe2Qi9OL0pBQfQ

Rainbows are a Full Circle

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/rainbow-full-circle/#annotations:tmNUutPXEe2-9n9c7XLVIw

The Massive ESSER Experiment: Here’s what we’re learning.

The Massive ESSER Experiment: Here’s what we’re learning.

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about break, books, student perspectives of a trip, and more. Dave gets salty with kids participating. 

Jokes:  

Yesterday I changed a lightbulb. Then I crossed the street and walked into a bar.

• I’m starting to think my whole life is a joke.

---

When my wife said that quilts are better than duvets, I told her…

• …to be careful making blanket statements like that!

---

Why is everyone so exhausted on April 1st?

• They just finished a 31 day March

---

If Wile E. Coyote has enough money to buy all that stuff from ACME, why doesn’t he just buy himself dinner?

---

It’s nice to live in a small town, because if you don’t know what you are doing, someone else does.

---

I remember how we used to roll around in tires in my neighborhood.

Good years …

---

What is actually more useful when broken? 

• An egg

---

The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they? 

• Footprints

---

Does anyone at Grey Poupon, Gulden’s, French’s etc. actually CUT the mustard?

ANCHOR MOORING BREAKS FREE, ISLAND SHIFTS 6 FEET

Officials have said that one of the 4 main anchor moorings that keep Mackinac Island in place was severed sometime late last fall. The moorings, which were installed around 1910, are tethered to bedrock and are in place to keep the Island from further shifting on a northern trajectory. The faulty cable was from the mooring near British Landing on the Island’s northwest side.

It’s unclear how the untethered cable on the beach (see photo) went undetected for so long, however other folks had noticed a slight change in navigation nuances. Chris Shepler, Manager of Shepler Ferry said that several of his Ferry Captains indicated that they thought the west break-wall appeared to be slightly closer to the Round Island Light House. Syd Hawkins, Captain for Star Line Mackinac Island Ferry said, “All fall, when utilizing GPS, we kept coming in 2 to 3 feet off course at the dock, I figured the GPS needed a reset or re-calibration. I never would have thought the Island could shift.” Jason St. Onge, Proprietor of the Cannonball Oasis at British Landing which is very near the break said, “Never noticed a thing, and if there were any changes, it certainly didn’t affect the perfect cylindrical swirl on the soft serve ice cream cones!”

It is unclear at this time when the cable will be re-attached to the mooring and the Island reset to its plotted position, but folks close to the issue indicated it will probably happen before Memorial Day Weekend. In the odd event that a second of the four moorings breaks, a tugboat style ship will be brought in for stabilization efforts. Some quick research indicated that there hasn’t been a separation of the cables from a mooring in almost 61 years. The Army Corp of Engineers, which is responsible for the cables and moorings, inspects them for wear and fray every two years.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

Become a Salt Watcher

I was recently reading the March/April 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Citizen Science” column, written by Jill Nugent.  She wrote an article entitled, “Become a Salt Watcher in Your Community.”  

When students think of salt, they typically think of table salt, which is sodium chloride.  Road salt, also known as rock salt, is often sodium chloride or magnesium chloride.  The goal of the Izaak Walton League of America Salt Watch project is to monitor chloride levels in local streams and creeks.  For more information, please visit:

http://iwla.org

http://k12science.net/become-a-salt-watcher/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Maine Education Funding Correction – Math Error – Spreadsheet
• Principal Fill In
• Shawn’s “Break”
  • Biography of Robert E. Lee
  • Troy’s Recommendation: Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause – by Ty Seidule
  • The Winner’s – Fredrik Backman 

The Social Web

Darren E. Draper  @ddraper

“Let him serve as a reminder… that even the best teachers can’t teach if students aren’t prepared to learn. And that no one — not children, not teachers, not society — is well served when parents consider discipline a relic of the past.”  https://t.co/bVjoUARIhv  

Denise Ball  @DeniseBall_EDU

Thank you for sharing the classroom rotation station ideas and resources for elementary, middle and high school classrooms.  

    Want to get started with station rotation or level up your stations? Look no further! Our post includes  Videos Examples Ideas a FREE collection of station rotation task cards you can use with your class! https://ditchthattextbook.com/station-rotation/ #Ditchbook  

Jonny Hemphill  @worcesterjonny

If you’d like a copy of these ‘get them thinking’ medicine cards, please click on the link. There are 60 cards with a brief description on the back of who or what is on the front. The cards cover many aspects of the history of medicine https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cyHYb8xuZ3JKua9Z2jajTMJFKbXufnAU

#gcsehistory  

Here is a quick retrieval task I’ve been working on about the cause of disease across the historical periods. I’ve used a traffic light system to illustrate when an idea starts, if it continues into later periods and when it is no longer used.  #historyteacher  https://twitter.com/worcesterjonny/status/1642092574537138177/photo/1  

Merriam-Webster  @MerriamWebster

The #WordOfTheDay is ‘shenanigans.’ Be careful out there today. https://merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-da

Senator Dayna Polehanki  @SenPolehanki

“[Michigan’s teacher] evaluation system contains too many categories, with too much reliance on M-STEP, an exam that was never built for teacher performance metrics in the first place.” —

@joshcowenMSU    https://t.co/yeG0mYgBK1  

Amy W Pento  @amypento

I stumbled upon The Noun Project, a collection of free icons and stock photos that are simple and clear. It’s a great resource to reduce visual clutter on teaching materials and save teacher time. https://thenounproject.com

Bob Harrison @bharrisonEDU

We can learn about learning from the way kids play video games: The Nintendo Effect. https://a.co/iN88JYY

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Etymology of the day: the ‘desert’ in ‘just deserts’ (not ‘just desserts’) is an old past tense of the French ‘deservir’, to ‘deserve’. Someone’s just deserts are their ‘comeuppance’, which rests on the idea of ‘coming up’ before a judge.

Math Lady Hazel   @mathladyhazel

The simplest way to visualize the set of numbers. Utterly useful diagram! []

Duuk Baten @duuk@mastodon.green

Colleague Vivian did a short (technical) analysis of ‘ChatGPT’ detection tools.

It seems to confirm my intuition, these tools don’t really work reliably…

https://communities.surf.nl/en/ai-in-e   (See further down in the show notes.)  

Resources:  

AI-generated text detectors: Do they work?

Ever since the release of ChatGPT, people have been amazed and have been using it to help them with all sorts of tasks, such as content creation. However, the model has faced criticism: some are raising concerns about plagiarism for example. AI-generated content detectors claim to distinguish between text that was written by a human and text that was written by an AI. How well do these tools really work?  

https://communities.surf.nl/en/ai-in-education/article/ai-generated-text-detectors-do-they-work

Real World Math

These Concept lessons are designed to target specific math concepts, often in real world settings and situations.  You’ll solve proportions, estimate area, and calculate volume in unique locations around the world.

http://www.realworldmath.org/concept-lessons.html#annotations:HGGnoszHEe2o6L8YtSrWCQ 

Say Yes To Life

Eleven months after he was liberated from the Nazi concentration camps, Viktor E. Frankl held a series of public lectures in Vienna. The psychiatrist, who would soon become world famous, explained his central thoughts on meaning, resilience, and the importance of embracing life even in the face of great adversity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yRbZAaqPCU

Camtasia 

https://www.techsmith.com/store/camtasia

Web Spotlight:  

How a 100-Year-Old Animated Film Is Restored!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOgaMnwRrQ

Preserving our local Taranaki Stories

The Taranaki Media Archive started life as the Audio History Trust back in 2008. A group of like-minded people got together with the aim to preserve our Taranaki stories and make them into enjoyable audio documentaries in CD form that would be freely available for people to access.

The combined libraries of the South Taranaki District Council agreed to put them on their shelves and since then they have all been borrowed and enjoyed frequently.

The founding trust board members were Selwyn Metcalfe, Lyn Walker, Marlene Stevenson, and Hamish Guthrie.

Since the Audio Trust’s inception over 45 audio documentaries have been made – quite a few with people who have now passed on, which emphasises the importance of gathering these stories before the are lost forever.

In 2008 the most accessible format was a CD. Time and technology has moved on, and these days many people probably don’t have a viable CD player to access our collection. The trust was then faced with the predicament “what to do with the collection?”

It was decided to reform the Trust and build a website to house the sound collection, but to also extend the parameters of the trust to include our history on film/video as well. With that in mind the trust decided that a change of name would better reflect its mission … and the Taranaki Media Archive was born.

https://taranakimediaarchive.co.nz/#annotations:MO6ojtArEe2H42NuMJwpjg

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy discuss AI Art, Competencies, break, and more. Dave populates our Science brain.

Jokes:  

How do you tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?

• By paying attention to whether they see you later, or in a while.

---

The other day my son said he’s only happy when he’s near the ocean or up in the mountains.

• I said, “you need an ALTITUDE adjustment.”

---

What form of transportation spreads allergies?

• Achoo-choo train.

---

How many Bitcoin miners does it take to change a light bulb?

• A million – one to do it and the rest to verify he/she did it.

---

An elderly couple rushed onto the platform just as the train was pulling out of the station.

“If you hadn’t dawdled with your shopping,” said the husband, “we’d have caught the train.”

• “And if you hadn’t run so fast,” said the wife, “we wouldn’t have to wait so long for the next one.”

---

Who was King Arthur’s spiciest knight?

• Sir Racha.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  8 Billion Humans

I was recently reading the March/April 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “From the Editor’s Desk” column, written by Patty McGinnis.  She wrote an article entitled, “8 Billion and Counting.” 

Human population is increasing rapidly.  More humans on the planet equates to more stress on the planet and its resources.

2022 — 8 Billion Humans

2010 — 7 Billion Humans

1950 — 2.5 Billion Humans

1804 — 1 Billion Humans

http://k12science.net/8-billion-humans/  

Reports from the Front Lines

• AI Art with 8th Graders
  • Chindogu
• Physical Security Event
  • CISA
• Break
  • Moodle Competencies
• “New” School

The Social Web  

Erik M. Francis ,@Maverikedu12

Replying to @Beyond_the_Desk and @AMLE Have them put “How could you” in front of every #NGSS standard. You’ll create a #STEM question that personalizes inquiry, promotes expertise, & demands learn at the deepest #DOK levels. #goodquestions @solutiontree

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the evening is the Finnish invention ‘hyppytyynytyydytys’: the act of falling with a contented sigh onto the nearest available sofa. Literal translation: ‘bouncy cushion satisfaction’.

I’m told the pronunciation is ‘hoop-uh-tu-uh-nuh-uh-duh-tis’. 

Word of the day is ‘circumbendibus’ (17th century): anything that deliberately goes round and round without ever getting to the point.  

Phyllis Fagell, LCPC  @Pfagell

Middle school girl: “My mom says popular kids are like fire. When they’re warm, you want to sit near them, but sometimes they can burn you.” 

*more wisdom from this mom:  

Me: “You can’t make someone stop gossiping, but you can tell them you don’t want to hear it.” Middle school girl: “My mom says gossip is like poop. You really don’t want to get it on your hands, but if you do, the last thing you want to do is spread it.”  

Michelle Wagner  @wagnerlearning

Replying to @courosa and @AndreaZellner  My daughter cut and pasted her essay into ChatGPT and asked for feedback as if from a 7th grade teacher.

Strategies:  

The Trick That Solves Rubik’s Cubes and Breaks Ciphers (Meet in the Middle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL3uWO-KLUE

Inventive History Teacher

High school teacher, Sean Miller, has invented his own creative approach to teaching history. Through various forms of art, he brings historical events and figures to life for his students. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFoJ7DEHsHw

Resources:  

Projection Wizard

About this Tool

Projection Wizard is a web application that helps cartographers select an appropriate projection for their map. Depending on the extent and the distortion property of the map, the application returns a list of proposed map projections with additional projection parameters if necessary. There are PROJ and WKT links next to each projection that open a popup window with a PROJ or Well-Known Text string available for copying to the clipboard. Both strings are used in many cartographic and GIS applications. Projection Wizard displays a map preview on the right side of the list with a suggested projection. The preview shows how the projected data will look using D3.

This tool is based on John P. Snyder’s selection guideline and on the extension to this guideline for world and hemisphere maps written by the Cartography and Geovisualization Group at Oregon State University. Projection Wizard v2.0 also takes into account the results of a study published by Šavrič et al. in 2015. All publications related to Projection Wizard are listed at the bottom of this page.

When you publish a scholarly article that uses Projection Wizard or discusses its functionality, you are kindly asked to cite the following article: Šavrič, B., Jenny, B. and Jenny, H. (2016). Projection Wizard – An online map projection selection tool. The Cartographic Journal, 53–2, p. 177–185. Doi: 10.1080/00087041.2015.1131938.

How to Use this Tool?

Using Projection Wizard is easy and requires only two steps:

1 From the radio button list, select the distortion property of the map.

2 Select the geographic extent by using the input boxes on the left side of the map or by changing the rectangle on the map.

The anchors at the corners of the rectangle allow it to be resized. The rectangle can also be dragged around the map. Any change to the rectangle is reflected in the input boxes and vice versa. Changes to the rectangle or distortion property interactively update the list of proposed map projections and the map preview below the web map.

https://projectionwizard.org/

Canva

A few days ago, we dropped some very special wrapped gifts onto the homepages of more than 125 million people across the globe. It’s been so much fun seeing everyone guess what might be inside the boxes, but today the wait is over.

https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-create-brand-new-era-2023/

Foundation for Teaching Economics – fte.org

Economics and the Environment – https://www.fte.org/teachers/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/eelessons/  

Established in 1975, the Foundation for Teaching Economics’ mission is to introduce young individuals to an economic way of thinking about national and international issues, and to promote excellence in economic education by helping teachers of economics become more effective educators.  FTE focuses its efforts on the secondary education level and provides programs and teaching resources which target primarily, but not exclusively, the social studies curriculum.

Web Spotlight:  

Adrian College teacher education students offer literacy night for Addison Elementary

ADDISON — From phonics to fluency, to nonfiction comprehension and interactive writing, elementary students and parents from Addison Community Schools learned quite a bit about the building blocks of reading, writing and spelling during a literacy night event last week, hosted at Addison Middle/High School and conducted by Adrian College teacher education students. 

“These are all great, motivating activities that parents and kids can do at home,” said Addison Superintendent Dan Patterson, who attended the literacy night.

https://www.lenconnect.com/story/news/education/2023/03/20/adrian-college-students-bring-literacy-event-to-addison-schools/70022506007/#annotations:_EX54McdEe2ss3uz9BylQA

Makayla Noble

Makayla Noble is a senior at Prosper High School in Texas. On September 20, 2021, she was injured in a backyard tumbling accident which resulted in a severe spinal cord injury (SCI). 

https://makaylanoble.com/about/

Youtube Day in the Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H1QeQU9yCo#annotations:bZkUksi4Ee21estUJlww1w

AXIS – The Culture Translator

Subtitled

What it is: A YouGov study of over 3600 adults in Great Britain showed that 61 percent of young people (18-25) prefer to watch television with the subtitles on—even when the material was in their native language.

Who Wants to Be a Shillionaire

What it is: Male influencers in their twenties are making a fortune on YouTube telling other young men how to, well, make a fortune. But watching videos like these won’t help young people develop comprehensive financial literacy because, to put it simply, that’s not what they’re designed to do.  

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about Moodle, Presentations, and more. Dave reviews the Pandemic Impact on Students. 

Jokes:  

A man once tried to sell me a broken protractor.

• I never could figure out what his angle was.

---

The key to a great joke is not delivery…

• it’s Digiorno.

---

Did you hear about the dog that went to the flea circus?

• It stole the show.

---

Fun fact: ancient teachers, when discussing a very important idea, would repeatedly dip the sharpened end of their stylus in honey.

• They felt it was necessary to belabor the point.

---

Why did the duck decide not to have plastic surgery?

• He thought the bill would be too large.

---

What did the linebacker say to the flight attendant?

• “Put me in coach!”

---

Anytime someone says “I can’t even”

• it seems a little odd.

---

Once I did think I was wrong.

• It turns out I was mistaken.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Pandemic Impact on Students

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “The Science Teacher” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Editor’s Corner” column, written by Ann Haley MacKenzie.  She wrote an article entitled, “Did the Pandemic Impact the Brains of Our Science Students?”  

A recent study in the Journal, “Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science,” found that teen brains aged prematurely during the pandemic.  The paper states that teenagers’ brains aged several years in just a few months during the isolation and stress of the pandemic lockdown.  For more information on this study, please visit:

www.bpsgos.org/article/S2667-1743(22)00142-2/fulltext

http://k12science.net/pandemic-impact-on-students/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Crossword Puzzle for Video (and why you should use Restricted Access)
• Vocabulary, Chrome, and Kids 

The Social Web  

 Help A Teacher  @HelpATeacher

Adorable! 

Success Bound  @successboundorg

@successboundorg

is MIDDLE SCHOOL STRONG!  Celebrate Middle Level Education this month. This year’s theme is #Empowered #Student and @AMLE is centering the voices of students. Learn how you can amplify the voices of your students, click here https://amle.org/middle-level-e

Alexlindsay  @alexlindsay

Replying to @technologylaura I’ve built 100s of presentations on 3 platforms over the last 20 years. Scores: Keynote – 9/10 Power Point – 4/10 Slides – 3/10 Once you build decks in Keynote, going to other platforms is like going from First Class to Economy. You still get from point A to B but style is gone

MiddleWeb  @middleweb

REVIEW: Add SEL to Your Class with Movie Magic. #mschat @AMLE #engchat #elachat  @MsAmberChandler’s feel-good Movie Magic in the Classroom prepares any teacher to guide students through 10 films that address a range of SEL topics, writes @sarahjcooper01. https://middleweb.com/48607/add-movi  

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘vertumnal‘ (17th century): spring-like or giving a foretaste of spring, as in the early buds in the garden or the swelling of birdsong. A nod to Vertumnus, god of the changing seasons.

Word of the day is ‘apanthropy’ (18th century: the desire to be away from other people.   

Kara Priest Bullock

Fat Boy Natural BBQ

Resources:  

Handmade Holograms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv-38lwV6vc

Teen girls are struggling. They need our help

Nancy Jo Sales

Girls and young women report rising rates of suicide, depression and sexual violence in North America – and a lot of it has to do with social media.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/28/teen-girls-are-struggling-social-media-tiktok-instagram#annotations:TPuEMrduEe2qpE8U6mSAmw

Under The Sana’a Skyline

Belquis lives in Old Sana’a, an ancient city in Yemen. An exciting writing competition is announced for her class but there’s just one problem: the story is to inspire the world. Belquis is surrounded by the hardships of war and and struggle. What has she seen that is inspirational?

Under the Sana’a Skyline is a story for children and adults alike that beautifully weaves community and history with one girl’s search for humanity.

How will AI change the world?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkD_rTEBYs&t=2s

Web Spotlight:  

Boeing Engineers Set a New Record for Paper Plane Flight Distance

Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen, two engineers working at Boeing, broke a record in December that had only a little to do with their day jobs: They set a new world record for farthest flight by a paper aircraft, sending a sheet of paper 88.318 meters, or almost 290 feet.

Ruble and Jensen studied origami and aerodynamics for months, putting in 400 to 500 hours of creating different prototypes to try to design a plane that could fly higher and longer.

https://jalopnik.com/boeing-engineers-set-a-new-record-for-paper-plane-fligh-1850157043#annotations:TBLKArilEe2JkUPgcwGpdA

Teachers Pay Teachers Bought Out by IXL Learning

https://thejournal.com/articles/2023/03/02/teachers-pay-teachers-bought-out-by-ixl-learning.aspx#annotations:FO5v4rnjEe24UV-wJuNz5Q

AXIS The Culture Translator

TikTok Time Out

What it is: TikTok announced it will institute a limit of 60 minutes per day for users under 18.

Instagore 

What it is: The Washington Post reports that Instagram Reels featuring disturbing and violent content are being reposted to large meme accounts that have hundreds of thousands of teen followers.

“In C.S. Lewis’ book The Magician’s Nephew, the children Polly and Diggory are met with a choice to ring a bell and “bide the danger,” or ignore it and forever wonder what might have happened if they did. Diggory rings the bell, justifying his actions with the words: “We can’t get out of it now. We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck the bell. I’m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that.” The result of his actions is the arrival of the White Witch in Narnia, and a regret that Diggory carries with him for the rest of his life.”

National Geographic’s “Greeking Out!” Podcast Series for Kids

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/greeking-out

Most Popular Slang by State

https://crossword-solver.io/most-popular-slang-by-state-map/

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

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Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about the week “off”, middle schoolers being middle schoolers, and more. Dave heats up. 

Jokes:  

Mountains aren’t just funny…

• They’re hill areas.

---

Do pots and pans talk about the news in the drying rack?

• No; moistly they just dish on each other.

---

So i’ve finally completed a PhD in palindromes…

• You can now call me Dr Awkward.

---

How do monsters like their eggs?

• Terrorfried

---

“Had to give up my career due to fallen arches.”

“You were a pro athlete?”

“No. Architect.”

---

Man. Every time I ask what the lowest Army rank is, people say that’s private.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: The Sun’s Heat

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “Science & Children” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Science 101” column, written by Matthew Bobrowsky.  He wrote a Q and A article entitled, “How Does the Sun’s Heat Get to Us Here on Earth?”  

Heat is the flow of energy from one object to another object because of their difference in temperature.  That energy, thermal energy, results from the random motion of atoms and molecules.  The molecules move around, bouncing off of each other and bouncing off anything with which the object comes into contact.  The hotter the object, the faster the molecules are moving.

http://k12science.net/the-suns-heat/

Reports from the Front Lines

• School’s Out
  • Social Media is wrong about something
  • Kids stayed home
• LOC Browser Extension

The Social Web  

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘pertolerate’ (17th century): to endure steadfastly to the end.

PUNS  @ThePunnyWorld

My mom was a radiologist. She met my dad when he came in for an x-ray. I wonder what she saw in him.

Police have arrested the World Tongue-Twister Champion. They said he’ll be given a tough sentence.  

TeacherGoals  @teachergoals

Get it? 

Fixing Education  @FixingEducation

On Tuesday, 2/21/23, this student violently attacked his teacher aide at Matanzas HS. When deputies spoke with the student, he explained that he was upset because the aide took his Nintendo Switch away during class. Student was described as 6’6”, 270 lbs.  Video:  https://twitter.com/i/status/1629129801087713282  

The Ghost of Ernie   @ErnieHarwell1

The voice of the turtle is heard in our land today! #playball #DetroitRoots #LetsGoTigers

The voice of the turtle is heard in our land today! #playball #DetroitRoots #LetsGoTigers pic.twitter.com/2W3WgFxnmd

— The Ghost of Ernie 🎙⚾️ (@ErnieHarwell1) February 25, 2023

Strategies:

Eliminate Off-Task Behavior During Group Work

https://www.trevormuir.com/blog/off-task-behavior#annotations:PX6MgLOjEe2JrlfL93lwwQ

Who Benefits From Attending Effective High Schools?

All students benefit from attending effective schools, but the least advantaged students experience larger improvements in high-school graduation, college going, and school-based arrests.

Commonly used test-score value-added understates the long-run importance of effective schools, particularly for less-advantaged populations.

Click to access Who_Benefits_JOLE_r1_clean.pdf

Taboo.AI

https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2023/02/25/this-online-taboo-game-using-artificial-intelligence-is-fun-can-be-a-language-learning-tool-for-ells/

https://taboo-ai.vercel.app/

Resources:  

AXIS:  The Culture Translator

Rise and Shine

What it is: TikTok’s #5to9 club and #morningroutine videos are inspiring some young people to start their days earlier for maximum productivity.

American Battlefield Trust:  Augmented Reality

Get up close to Abraham Lincoln as he recites his famous Gettysburg Address. Wander around Brandy Station’s historic St. James Church and see what the interior may have looked like. Examine an excavated Spanish piece of eight up close. Bring history to life in your space with the American Battlefield Trust’s collection of Augmented Reality (AR) experiences and your smartphone.  https://www.battlefields.org/learn/augmented-reality  

TEACHING “THE OCKY WAY”

Prepackaged lessons do serve a purpose in education. They give educators a starting point, helping save time. Teachers don’t need to be reinventing lessons every time they teach something new. 

It makes me think of “The Ocky Way” channel found on YouTube/TikTok and Instagram. Where a small deli in Red Hook, NY makes common foods come to life prepared by owner Mohamed. Mohamed has risen to internet fame by taking standard meals, then adds his own touch to them to make them unique for the consumer. Sometimes customers bring in fast food orders from nieghboring stories to have the meal done “The Ocky Way”.

Teaching “the Ocky Way”

STEALTHGPT

Unleash the power of undetectable AI writing

https://stealthgpt.ai/#annotations:JpLEnrE0Ee2TrsPIrD7nAw

Ben Collins Spreadsheet Tips Archives

Ben Collins does a wonderful FREE weekly newsletter. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRjLOmw2lfxvRnyYBqDB3YT_CUmQn337cIoYp8d2bnTxHe3SaVsduZXkbiDS_6HF84CL5eBdfYuzYT_/pubhtml

A Framework for Learning Through the Purposeful Use of Technology

https://esheninger.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-framework-for-learning-through.html

Web Spotlight:  

Becorns

Becorns are little people I make out of acorns and sticks. Then I photograph them in nature with real animals. In this video, I share my process for taking photos with some Eastern Bluebirds. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3auU2OIe_gA#annotations:dDeyrLRMEe28oV_DsHYdzg

https://www.davidmbird.com/

What Is Going On With This Andrew Tate Hand Gesture?

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were seen using the sign during their arrest in Romania, and teachers in the UK say teenage boys are copying it.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34dgy/andrew-tate-hand-gesture#annotations:8Ikh3rB8Ee2_IsOG8gVz8Q

Little Known Punctuation Marks

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12710/13-little-known-punctuation-marks-we-should-be-using

Random Thoughts . . .  

The Persona Spectrum

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/xamarin/the-journey-to-accessible-apps/

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about break, creating your own computers, interesting words and more. Dave tells us how kids can get involved with Marine Iguanas. 

Jokes:  

Anyone who can spell the word drawer backwards…

• Will get a reward.

---

I have a friend named David. He had boy and named him Harley. Now, when he introduces himself, he does so

• “I’m Harley, David’s son.”

---

“How much do you charge?” a man asks a lawyer.

“For $100 I answer three questions,” the lawyer answers.

“That’s awfully steep isn’t it?” says the man.

“Yes it is,” replies the lawyer. “Now what’s your final question?”

---

What type of lunch do you get at an air show?

• A plain one.

---

My dog hates holograms.

• They make no scents!

---

Here’s my list of friends who love Palindromes:

Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Marine Iguanas

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Citizen Science” column, written by Jill Nugent.  She wrote an article entitled, “Iguanas from Above.”  

“Iguanas from Above’ is a citizen science project designed to answer questions about marine iguanas, their population, and their habitat.  The project will help to determine the current population size of marine iguanas and their locations within the archipelagos.  For more information, visit:

http://k12science.net/marine-iguanas/ 

https://www.iguanasfromabove.com

Reports from the Front Lines

• Break
• Lock Down Browser
  • Exam.net
  • Moodle
• Spreadsheets
• COVID and schools

The Social Web  

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is a reminder of ‘ipsedixitism’ (16th century): the assertion that something is ‘fact’ because someone else said so.  

Word of the day is ‘gadwaddick’: old Norfolk dialect for going on a jaunt or a head-clearing pootle.  

benteh @benteh@mastodon.social

Word of the day, a yiddish slang word:

farpotshket (https://forvo.com/word/farpotshket/ )

broken, because someone tried to fix it

This word doesn’t just describe something that is broken, but something that is broken specifically because someone else tried to fix it, making it worse. It is used most commonly today to describe software engineering projects.

Paul Thomas  @plthomasEdD

Pronunciation requires context

Paul Couretas  @MrCouretasPE

“Mr. C, why aren’t you in the Olympics, or the circus? I think you would be great in the circus. Probably not Olympics, but definitely the circus!” Might be the best thing a student has ever said to me.. #physed #education #movement #sports #olympics #circus #clown

Help A Teacher  @HelpATeacher

This is pretty awesome!   Unknown

Jennifer Zimny  @jzimnycricket

Finally set up my Would You Rather station! I loved hearing students reactions to it once I put it up. Templates coming soon.

Deborah Farmer Kris  @dfkris

Middle schoolers are my *favorite* — and I’m delighted CNN let me explain why. With insight (and positive tween vibes) from  @Pfagell & @LDamour.  https://t.co/S3B5lMFvFU  

Strategies:  

Design Fiction Daily

Lots of resources of things that don’t exist. 

*warning, swears on the “About” page. 

https://www.designfictiondaily.com/p/martian-domesteading

Resources:  

There’s an AI for That

https://theresanaiforthat.com/#annotations:3l02vK-WEe2EoHuVQdv1Zw

10 things to know about how social media affects teens’ brains

“Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia. … Within the last 20 years, the advent of portable technology and social media platforms [has been] changing what took 60,000 years to evolve,” Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer at the American Psychological Association (APA)

Humans are social creatures, and we learn through social interaction. In fact, said Prinstein, “numerous studies have revealed that children’s interactions with peers have enduring effects on their occupational status, salary, relationship success, emotional development, mental health, and even on physical health and mortality over 40 years later. These effects are stronger than the effects of children’s IQ, socioeconomic status and educational attainment.”

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/16/1157180971/10-things-to-know-about-how-social-media-affects-teens-brains#annotations:kFCH0q7gEe2gecvaJNFTsA

How Can I Support My Child in Learning Maths?

https://tommaths.blogspot.com/2023/02/how-can-i-support-my-children-learning.html#annotations:JdBapq4WEe2Z8T-xlPqdKA

AXIS:  The Culture Translator

A Somber Report

What it is: This Monday, the CDC released its 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey report. Out of 17,000 US high school students surveyed in late 2021, nearly 60 percent of teen girls reported persistent sadness or hopelessness.

Losing Their Drive

What it is: Fewer teens seem interested in obtaining a driver’s license than in years past, with only 45 percent of 17-year-olds getting them in 2020—a drop of 17 percentage points compared to 1997.

Web Spotlight:  

 O Kai Sauliūtė Tekėjo – Lithuanian Folk Song

A folk song for the 105th Anniversary of Lithuanian Independence.  Turn on the closed captions and do a “Notice & Wonder” as you listen and watch the video.  

What a conductor actually does on stage

f you’ve ever seen an orchestra perform you’ve probably had a difficult time looking away from the person dead center on the stage – the conductor. It’s hard to miss someone as they swing their arms around pointing at the musicians that seem to be focused instead on their music stands. So what exactly is the conductor doing? 

We decided to ask James Gaffigan – a conductor who recently guest conducted the New York Philharmonic in Central Park – just what it is that makes a conductor so necessary and how their actions shape the performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_yIn8V3UcU

Student Solar Project Bridges Digital Divide in Rural Virginia

To bridge this digital divide during the pandemic, the school district set up 32 of these WOW stations throughout the county in parking lots at churches, grocery stores and any other businesses willing to share their parking lots. 

High school students enrolled in both construction and energy and power classes helped build the WOW units.

https://www.gettingsmart.com/2023/02/16/student-solar-project-bridges-digital-divide-in-rural-virginia/#annotations:BOdESq4QEe2QKEN-wM4XoQ

Black History Month For Teachers

Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids.

https://blackhistorymonth.gov/for-teachers/#annotations:pFlPxK4PEe2KnDd_zq9AlA

The Science of Measurement | Metrology Matters

Nothing to do with weather, this is about measuring. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q4UWZqNVBk#annotations:4asBCK4NEe27st_-pdzQ0g

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy discuss defenestration, AI, and more. Dave is statistically correct. 

Jokes:  

My Daughter turned 18 last weekend, so I bought her a locket with a picture of herself inside. Thankfully, she’s now finally..

• Independent..

---

I took an elevator up to the eleventh floor for a meeting. As I got out, the operator said “Have a good day, son.”

“Don’t call me son,” I said. “You’re not my dad.”

He scratched his head, “No, but I brought you up, didn’t I?”

After my meeting, I got back on the elevator to go back down, and the same operator was there. I said nothing to him, but when we got to the ground floor, he said to me, “I’m sorry.”

“Because you thought you were my dad?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No, son, because I let you down.”

---

What do you call a line of people waiting to get their hair cut?

• A barber Queue

---

Pancake jokes? 

• I’ve got a stack of ‘em.

---

Furniture Salesman: “This sofa will seat five without any problems.”

Customer: “Where am I going to find five people with no problems?”

---

One day, I hope to be able to install an indoor soccer pitch in my attic. I know what you’re thinking…lofty goals.

---

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Statistical Thinking

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “Interdisciplinary Ideas” column, written by Kristin Hunter-Thomson.  She wrote an article entitled, “Why Should We All Embrace Statistical Thinking?”  

Statistical thinking is the mindset that we use when doing anything with data.  The mindset is based on the following three criteria:

1.  Any work with data involves interconnected processes.

2.  All processes and data have variability.

3.  Understanding variability and these processes is key to making sense of data.

http://k12science.net/statistical-thinking/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Lock Down browsers
• Spreadsheets
  • Assessment Tracking 

The Social Web  

Alexlindsay  @alexlindsay

You can read 100 books on baking bread but you won’t actually know how to bake bread until you’ve baked 100 loaves yourself. This applies to many things in life.

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘stiff-rumped’ (18th century): obstinate, unbending, and accustomed to taking everyone else for fools.

I have only just discovered that the original meaning of ‘prime time’, in the 16th century, was Spring.  

John R. Sowash  @jrsowash

Unleash the power of reading with this simple Google Form reading log! it’s the perfect tool to kickstart your next reading challenge. https://chrmbook.com/google-forms-reading-log/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=jrsowash&utm_content=edtechposts

#teachertwitter #GoogleEdu

Jonny Hemphill  @worcesterjonny

Cause of disease and treatment across the historical periods all on one page. Trying to help year 11 with their revision with this thinking quilt. Color coding the historical periods and the themes #historyteacher

NBR, Nordic Baltic Region of FIPLV & Egle Sleinotiene  

Resources:  

Our 10th Annual 15-Second Vocabulary Video Challenge

We invite students to create a short video that defines or teaches any of the words in our Word of the Day collection. Contest dates: Feb. 15-March 15, 2023.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/learning/our-10th-annual-15-second-vocabulary-video-challenge.html#annotations:kFHnzKcjEe2ZMTv9wIKFeA

Student Vocabulary Challenge: Invent a Word

Come up with your own addition to the English language. Suggest a new word by Feb. 28, and it could become our April Fools’ Word of the Day.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/learning/student-vocabulary-challenge-invent-a-word.html#annotations:hamkrqcjEe2ORtuJMgChGQ 

Project Look Sharp

Inspire and enrich your teaching by engaging all students in rigorous and reflective analysis of rich media documents.

In today’s media-saturated world, we need to teach our students the habits of critical thinking needed for their academic, career and civic lives. They need consistent practice in asking the right questions and in reflecting on their own meaning-making. Project Look Sharp’s approach integrates materials and methodologies that teach both core subject-area learning with these media literacy skills.

https://projectlooksharp.org/#annotations:QSHLgKloEe2UDZMLXUlVSg

AMLE Book Spotlight – Middle School Superpowers – Raising Resilient Teens in Turbulent Times – Phyllis Fagell

Are you concerned that middle school will wreak havoc on your tween’s well-being and sense of self? Wondering how you can ward off the decline in confidence research shows kids experience during these vulnerable years? Seeking strategies that will help your child emerge from middle school with even more resilience than when they started?   

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0306829754/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Geography Bee!

1200 questions for your Geography Bee at your school!  Downloadable as a Moodle Course and ready to make usable in your school.  

https://moodle.net/resource/4olx2f65uf6u-geography-bee

Web Spotlight:  

On the Road: Middle school football players execute life-changing play

As part of our continuing series “On the Road,” Steve Hartman meets the Olivet Eagles, a middle school football team who took a fledgling player under their wing and executed what may be the most successful play of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ejh_hb15Fc#annotations:bbKRtKYnEe2csQcPYuLe2A

We’ve always been distracted

Worried that technology is ‘breaking your brain’? Fears about attention spans and focus are as old as writing itself

https://aeon.co/essays/weve-always-been-distracted-or-at-least-worried-that-we-are#annotations:zL8KgKVyEe2iYn-bq0nsJA

WRBH

WRBH’s mission is to turn the printed word into the spoken word so that the blind and print impaired can receive the same ease of access to current information as their sighted peers.

WRBH’s target audience includes the blind and illiterate as well as individuals who are unable to read due to illness, spinal cord injuries, eye muscle damage, learning disabilities, lack of access to print media, and loss of vision due to age. While the majority of reading services for the blind use mechanized voice software, WRBH is the only organization providing this variety of programming via the human voice thanks to over 150 volunteers who donate nearly 5,000 hours annually to read printed information. 

https://www.wrbh.org/about-us/who-we-are/#annotations:edKTbqY1Ee2bXR8OXyqQVw

AXIS:  The Culture Translator

Defining the Situationship

What it is: With Valentine’s Day approaching, many young people are defining their relationships as “situationships,” according to Tinder’s “Year in Swipe” data report for 2022.

The Broom Method

In order to fuel its rockets, NASA scientists must take two of the most basic elements, hydrogen and oxygen, and cool them down hundreds of degrees into their liquid states. In this more efficient form, a rocket’s tank volume can be maximized, providing the needed fuel to achieve lift. This process is a potentially dangerous one, as hydrogen is highly combustible. If at any point during storage, fueling, or flight the liquid form evaporates back into gas, a leak could mean a massive explosion.

During the Apollo missions, scientists and engineers would simply walk through the facilities with a long broom held out in front of them. When the broom touched the invisible burning hydrogen, the end would suddenly combust and they could mark another area which had dangerous gas within it. It was low-tech — but it worked.

https://shop.minimuseum.com/blogs/cool-things/the-broom-method#annotations:5I8QSKZNEe2nnYdCmsV8eQ

Dispositional Realignment

Two Lithuanian films make it onto Netflix and HBO Max

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1887252/two-lithuanian-films-make-it-onto-netflix-and-hbo-max?fbclid=IwAR1CYSTB5QpGFys8Gl0OQYu0O4gf1UODG6Eel0BCeXgDNdGVzm7lo6O0DJw

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Summary:

Shawn and Troy talk about Parent Conferences, Moodle Flow, AI and more. Dave is trading in some books.

Jokes:  

Why did the dachshund sit in the shade? 

• It was a hot dog.

---

I ran into a lamppost yesterday. 

• Luckily, I only sustained light injuries.

---

Why were the middle ages also called the dark ages? 

• There were too many knights.

---

Why were police called to a daycare center? 

• A 3-year-old was resisting a rest.

---

Why are long fairy tales boring? 

• They tend to dragon.

---

Nobody has seen the zamboni driver lately. 

• I’m sure he’ll resurface eventually.

---

Why did I buy a boat? 

• It was for sail.

---

Cowboys used to hang lanterns off each side off their saddles, to help find their way whilst riding at night..

• This is believed to be the earliest form of saddle light navigation.. 🤔

---

I was debating with my friend about who the greatest vampire was.

I said, “The one from Sesame Street”

He said, “He doesn’t count!”

To which I replied, “Oh yes, he certainly does”

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast:  2023 Outstanding Science Trade Books for Middle School Students

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.

In this issue, I read an article on the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students in 2023. 

Here are the 7 books selected as outstanding for middle school students:

• Antarctica: A Melting Continent
• Oceanarium: Welcome to the Museum
• Salmon: Swimming for Survival
• The Code Breaker — Young Readers Edition: Jennifer Doudna and the Race to Understand Our Genetic Code
• Animal Allies: 15 Amazing Women in Wildlife Research
• How to Build a Human: In Seven Evolutionary Steps
• The Woman Who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner

http://k12science.net/2023-outstanding-science-trade-books-for-middle-school-students/ 

Reports from the Front Lines

• Parent Conferences
  • In person
  • Remote
  • In the Round, Scheduled
• Moodle Flow
• Webinar

The Social Web  

ChatGPT 2049 @ChatGPT2049

Automated

Holy cow has @OpenAI gimped the ChatGPT tech. It’s almost useless for any sort of creative writing now. I mean, come on.

Peter Forister  @forecaster25

INSANE conditions on Mt Washington, NH. 120mph+ winds and -95°F wind chill. It is above the tropopause, meaning that these are stratospheric winds. Footage from the summit live stream 2:30-2:40pm. #nhwx  https://twitter.com/i/status/1621598650022363142  

Monica Roach  @MonicaRoach15

Hey #vbits ! Did you know that @MergeVR now works with the forward facing camera on Chromebooks?!? Thanks for the info, @lesliefisher!

Susie Dent @susie_dent

Word of the Day (again) is ‘quiddling’ (18th century): busying oneself with trivial tasks as a way of avoiding the important ones.

PUNS @ThePunnyWorld

A shark can swim faster than me, but I can run faster than a shark. So in a triathlon, it would all come down to who is the better cyclist

Sardonicus @Sardonicus@mastodon.social

A cement truck crashed near Winganon, Oklahoma in the 1950s and the mixer was too heavy to move. It’s still there; locals have painted it to look like an abandoned NASAcapsule.  https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/10/the-

MrBerard@MrBerard@pilote.me

#EduGlow telling 12 year old that Instagram runs on Python, the same language they are using. Also telling them Instagram stands for “Instant Telegram”, the name the company was founded under in Victorian times.

Dr. Sean Munger @seanmunger@metalhead.club

Here are all the paper airplanes I confiscated during the course of *one* 8th grade class yesterday. Why did my Ph.D. program not prepare me for this? 

Strategies:  

Creating a Collection of 101 Creative Ideas to Use AI in Education

https://creativehecommunity.wordpress.com/2023/02/02/creating-a-collection-of-101-creative-ideas-to-use-ai-in-education/#annotations:sdWeRKM1Ee2J2Te4-WiB3g

The Art of Self-Pacing: How to Build Playlists that Keep Students on Track

The playlist, or individual rotation model, is a highly effective blended learning model that empowers students to take ownership of their learning by giving them control over the pace and path of their learning. This model presents a sequence of carefully curated learning activities tailored to each student’s unique needs and abilities, allowing them to progress toward specific learning objectives at their own pace.

https://catlintucker.com/2023/01/self-pacing-playlists/#annotations:O4dLUJ9yEe2WJgeQ7nWPjw

this is why we should stop giving homework

The United States must examine the underlying inequities of peoples’ lives, rather than focus on increasing schools’ workloads and lessening children’s free time for mythical academic gains that lead to little change.

At Human Restoration Project, one of the core systemic changes we suggest is the elimination of homework. Throughout this piece, I will outline several research studies and reports that demonstrate how the negative impact of homework is so evident that any mandated homework, outside of some minor catching up or for incredibly niche cases, simply does more harm than good.

I’ll summarize four main reasons why homework just flat out doesn’t make sense.

• Achievement, whether that be measured through standardized tests or general academic knowledge, isn’t correlated to assigning or completing homework.
• Homework is an inequitable practice that harms certain individuals more than others, to the detriment of those with less resources and to minor, if any, improvement for those with resources.
• It contributes to negative impacts at home with one’s family, peer relationships, and just general school-life balance, which causes far more problems than homework is meant to solve.
• And finally, it highlights and exacerbates our obsession with ultra-competitive college admissions and job opportunities, and other detrimental faults of making everything about getting ahead.

https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/this-is-why-we-should-stop-giving-homework#annotations:KyBGWp8hEe2fg2-d8-VHiQ

Resources:  

ONE STRATEGY FOR COMBATTING PSEUDOSCIENCE

written by Miguel Guhlin 

Are you a critical thinker? I am not…yet. The gap between knowing what’s possible and where I’m at spurs me to learn more.

And, wow, what an amazing set of resources I have found!

One Strategy for Combatting Pseudoscience

MacWhisper

Quickly and easily transcribe audio files into text with OpenAI’s state-of-the-art transcription technology Whisper. Whether you’re recording a meeting, lecture, or other important audio, MacWhisper quickly and accurately transcribes your audio files into text.

https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper#annotations:CdFMyKKcEe26GVfusJc_lw

GifCap

Create animated GIFs from a screen recording.

Client-side only, no data is uploaded. Modern browser required.

https://gifcap.dev/#annotations:O7r7WqGWEe2EgTP7XuKyEQ

PEN America Index of Educational Gag Orders

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tj5WQVBmB6SQg-zP_M8uZsQQGH09TxmBY73v23zpyr0/edit#gid=1505554870

Graphic Organizers

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFMyLVL8e0/VFXNoPFq27ppbHjVlnRYtg/view

Info Wall – H5P

A free H5P content type that allows users to present simple structured lists of information that can be filtered in publishing systems like Canvas, Brightspace, Blackboard, Moodle and WordPress. 

Web Spotlight:  

AXIS:  The Culture Translator

Duped

What it is: Products that are “dupes”—less costly alternatives to brand name options—are taking over TikTok and Instagram.

We’ve Lost the Plot

What it is: An article in the Atlantic questions if the line between entertainment and real life has become blurred beyond recognition, suggesting that we already live in a sort of socially-conditioned metaverse.

The Hangout House

What it is: A parent went viral on TikTok for sharing his tips for making his house the house where his teenagers and their friends want to spend time together.

Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback

Chatham-Kent County Renames Snowplows

Random Thoughts . . .  

Jack Berckemeyer – Nuts & Bolts Conference  

“I sent an update to all the Nuts and Bolts Consultants that I am working on a five year plan to work my butt off then slow my roll. By then I will be 60 (damn Jack you looo great) Traveling is wearing me out, I am beat up and tired. I need to work on some personal self care and start to wind down my 30 year career in education.

So what does this mean, nothing changes in the next 5 years I will still be working with schools, still keynoting and doing whatever I can to help struggling schools and educators. However, by 2025 I will be selling Nuts and Bolts – The Never Boring Conference – if you’re interested let’s chat. NB changed my life and brought me so much joy. All stays the same for this summer, great locations and outstanding speakers. I am just looking for some to either take it on or partner with me.”  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

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Summary:

Shawn and Troy discuss AI in education, PD, and more. Dave has Ecosystem Dynamics.

Jokes:  

My friend told me he’s going on a trip to Spain, but he doesn’t understand a word of Spanish

• So I told him the most important thing you need to remember is to say Mucho as much as possible, because to the Spanish people that means a lot…

---

While admiring some dinosaur bones in the Museum of Natural History, a tourist asks the guard, “How old are they?”

The guard replies, “They are 73 million, four years, and six months old.”

“That’s a rather exact number,” says the tourist. “How do you know their age so precisely?”

“Well,” answers the guard, “The dinosaur bones were seventy three million years old when I started working here, and that was four and a half years ago.”

---

I seem to be developing an irrational fear of German Sausages.

• I fear the würst.

---

I was having dinner with Garry Kasporov  ..

• and on the table was a checkered tablecloth. It took him 20 minutes to pass me the salt.
• At the end of the meal he offered to pay, and said, “Pass me the check, mate.”

---

Three tons of hair was stolen from a wig factory.

• Police are combing the area.

---

How did the hacker get away from the police?

• She ransomware.

Middle School Science Minute  

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

K12Science Podcast: Ecosystem Dynamics

I was recently reading the January/February 2023 issue of “Science Scope” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  

In this issue, I read the “From the Editor’s Desk” column, written by Patti McGinnis.  She wrote an article entitled, “Ecosystem Dynamics.”  

A healthy ecosystem can be defined as one that “has the ability to maintain its structure and function over time in the face of external stress.”  Managing ecosystems in a manner that creates resilience and long-term sustainability is more crucial than ever.

http://k12science.net/ecosystem-dynamics/

Reports from the Front Lines

• Remote Work
• PD Day
• Science Teachers
• Moving Buildings
• Spear Phishing
• NOLEJ
  • Experience
  • Iran
  • Google Classroom

The Social Web  

Susie Dent  @susie_dent

Word of the day is ‘bayard’ (16th century): one who shuts their eyes to reality and has all the confidence of ignorance.

PUNS  @ThePunnyWorld

I hurt my knee slipping on ice in front of the police station. I went inside to complain but they charged me with a felony

MuhsinBashir( #GPT insider )  @muhsinbashir_ai

10 Best alternatives to #ChatGPT #AI  1. GPT-3 by OpenAl 2. BERT by Google 3. XLNet by Google 4. RoBERTa by Facebook 5. ALBERT by Google 6. T5 by Google 7. CTRL by Salesforce 8. Transformer-XL by Google 9. XLM by Facebook 10. Megatron by NVIDIA

Biosension  @norrad

https://lnkd.in/e7HVUA8D “First up, we’ve got Chinchilla – the GPT-3 killer developed by DeepMind. With 70 billion parameters and four times the data as Gopher, this bad boy is sure to impress. But beware, it’s not quite ready for p…https://lnkd.in/ehQJBEFs

Dissident Teacher  @edudissenter

I’ve been teaching for 25 years. I’m tired of building my own curriculum.

NOLEJ  @nolej_app

Autogenerate eLearning interactives in minutes! 1 – Upload or copy URL to any content 2 – Nolej AI will analyze the semantic meaning 3 – It will generate a plug-and-play ready library of interactives

MrBerard  @MrBerard@pilote.me #EduGlow : getting to send a pupil on their way by quoting #Discworld‘s Lord #Vetinari:
“Do not let me detain you.”

MrBerard  @MrBerard@pilote.me #EduGlow: when an eight grader unpacks for you why he thinks “negative numbers aren’t real” and you gotta admit he’s onto something.

Strategies: 

Tired of the Same Old Professional Development? Let Students Lead.

I formed an after-school student activism and leadership club with a small group of seventh grade students. I wanted this club to be youth-led, so I relied heavily on student conversations to guide our work. One thread that quickly emerged from our initial discussions was teacher practice. Students felt frustrated by their teachers’ lack of focus on building classroom community and supporting students’ self-confidence.

After these discussions, I posed a question to my students: “Do you all want to lead a training for us–your teachers–focused on how we could do better?”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-01-25-tired-of-the-same-old-professional-development-let-students-lead#annotations:26Tp1pzOEe2eZQsbj8SBdQ

Resources:  

Chrono Photo Game

See a picture, guess the year. Five rounds per game. 

Great to have students develop context clues. 

https://www.chronophoto.app/game.html

The Science of Well-Being for Teens

A recent survey found that 37% of teens say they have poor mental health. This 6-week course aims to curb this mental health crisis by bringing together the best insights from Dr. Laurie Santos’ popular Yale course Psychology and the Good Life. In this course, you will explore what the field of psychology teaches us about how to be happier, how to feel less stressed, and how to thrive in high school and beyond. The lessons along with short weekly ‘happiness homework’ assignments will ultimately prepare you to put these scientific findings into practice. The ultimate goal is for you to feel better and build healthier habits. Parents, teachers, and other professionals supporting teenagers may also find the course beneficial.

Note: This course does not confer Yale University grade, credit or student status.

THE SCIENCE OF WELL-BEING FOR TEENS WAS PRODUCED IN PART DUE TO THE GENEROUS FUNDING OF THE ARTHUR M. BLANK FAMILY FOUNDATION AND THE JOHN TEMPLETON FOUNDATION.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being-for-teens#annotations:FS-5Fp53Ee2eUb9Yh6btdw

Looking Behind the Screen: Critical Media Literacy Gives Us Tools to Understand How Media Shapes Our Perception of Others and the World

https://www.gettingsmart.com/2023/01/19/looking-behind-the-screen-critical-media-literacy-gives-us-tools-to-understand-how-media-shapes-our-perception-of-others-and-the-world/#annotations:d34LLJzTEe2y–9Fk0Rg9g

Free Bingo Cards

The fastest and most popular Bingo Card Generator in the world!

• Create randomized bingo cards for free in seconds with our Bingo Card Generator.
• Print your bingo cards at home to play in‑person, or send out links to play a Virtual Bingo Game – we even provide a bingo caller!
• Choose from ready-made Number Bingo Cards or browse through bingo ideas for all occasions.
• All our bingo cards can be customized (edit the title, background, content). Make the perfect bingo cards for your party or event.

https://myfreebingocards.com/#annotations:ncYHuJzSEe2BGoP_9LxU8A

Letters on our national struggle

by Meagher, Thomas Francis, 1823-1867

https://archive.org/details/lettersonournati00meag/mode/2up

Stephen King’s 20 Rules for Writers

https://www.openculture.com/2023/01/stephen-kings-20-rules-for-writers.html#annotations:z_KBdpwKEe2v2zeGYfNvug

Web Spotlight:  

Geometric Primes

Geometric Primes is a series of posters visualizing the complete set of three-digit prime numbers in a series of styles and only using basic geometric shapes based on squares, circles, and triangles.

Each print contains all 143 prime numbers with 3 digits. Each is represented by an image composed of simple geometric shapes based on its digital root and colors based on its digits. Arranging these images sequentially creates colorful collages of prime numbers based on simple rules.

For each poster, a unique shape was assigned to the digital root of each prime number which is calculated by iteratively summing its digits until one remains. (All known prime numbers greater than 3 have digital roots of 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, or 8.)

https://www.c82.net/work/?id=392#annotations:kLyMvp5_Ee2POwtLDd3sXA

Suzanne Ciani Creates The Soundtrack For A Pinball Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r28i-k3mL3o

MINK! — My Mom Fought For Title IX, but It Almost Didn’t Happen | Op-Docs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faL6ERtj5oM#annotations:N959ppwNEe2Oci_m0w17JA

ChatGPT Isn’t the Only Way to Use AI in Education

AI can be a tool to create meaningful connections and learning experiences for children—and may help foster more equitable outcomes.

https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-education-networks/

My perspective on ChatGPT (and creativity and teaching)

http://tjkendon.ucalgaryblogs.ca/my-perspective-on-chatgpt-and-creativity-and-teaching/ 

AXIS:  The Culture Translator

YouTube U

What it is: Individuals can now earn college credit through Arizona State University by watching YouTube videos through a newly-launched program called Study Hall.

Application fees are $25 per course, and once coursework is complete, students can opt to pay around $400 for transferable college credits from the course.  

Random Thoughts . . .  

Click the Play button below to listen to the show!

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