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

MSM 163 We’ll start at 1:38:26.98765432221 pm. Maybe. (And finish after cursing out Skype).

Jokes You Can Use:
One reason the Military Services have trouble operating jointly is that they don’t speak the same language. For example, if you told Navy personnel to “secure a building,” they would turn off the lights and lock the doors. The Army would occupy the building so no one could enter. Marines would assault the building, capture it, and defend it with suppressive fire and close combat. The Air Force, on the other hand, would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy. 

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Because if they flew over the bay, they’d be baygulls (bagels, get it?).

At a Catholic school, there was a “meet the teacher” open house for the 2nd graders. After the meeting, a Nun announced that there would be a small reception afterwards in the cafeteria. All the children and parents filed in, and saw on a table a plate of apples, a plate of cookies, and some water bottles and juice. As the children went through the line, one boy saw that there was a sign on the plate of apples that said, “Take only one. God is watching.” So, the boy took an apple and moved on to the cookies. He helped himself, and then took a small piece of paper, and wrote: “Take all you want”. God is watching the apples.”

Q: What did the green grape say to the purple grape?
A: “BREATHE YOU IDIOT, BREATHE!”

On Our Mind:

What do you mean by learning?
http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/and-what-do-you-mean-by-learning/

Eileen Award

Erin. Thanks for the link.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/a-better-way-to-teach-math/

Advisory:

Taxes:
Where do taxes go?
http://datavizchallenge.org/viz/56

Middle School Science Minute

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

Foresenics: CSI for Middle School students. forensics.rice.edu

From the Twitterverse:

*shannonmmiller Thanks for sharing RT @gwynethjones: Design QR Code Social Mini Cards| With Colours! ventipix.com/vpx_qrcode_mst… #vanmeterbpchs LOVE this
*drmmtatom Learnable – Teach or Take a Course Online #ccstech http://tinyurl.com/69s8gcr 

Show Me – Create & Share Lessons on an #iPad #ccstech http://tinyurl.com/3jka9kp

Free Documentary TV – Find & Watch Free Documentaries #fhuedu508 http://tinyurl.com/3op2ghj

iPad apps to improve your executive functioning skills #ccstech #fhucid http://tinyurl.com/43jkq3v
*Inspire_Us You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. -John Wooden
*DianeRavitch Indiana passes sweeping voucher bill, ending 160 years of public-funded public education: http://tinyurl.com/3ozf8mg
*missnoor28 13 Websites That Converts Photo Into a Cartoon Character #edtech #edchat #esl #efl
*mthman A new #midleved poll is out! http://j.mp/gGYuc5 #elemchat #cpchat #ntchat #gtchat #mathchat #scichat #sschat #engchat #edchat #edreform
*francesblo Tonight’s chat archive #midleved at
Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST.

News:

A Trial Run for School Standards That Encourage Deeper Thought

In three years, instruction in most of the country could look a lot like what is going on at Hillcrest, one of 100 schools in New York City experimenting with new curriculum standards known as the common core.
At a training session last month, teams representing several schools in the pilot were asked to list lessons they had learned. Teachers from the Forward School of Creative Writing, a middle school in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, wrote on a piece of cardboard: “Visuals help students make meaning” and “Many students are reading far below grade level.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/nyregion/100-new-york-schools-try-common-core-approach.html?_r=1
The Common Core Standards:  http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Can a 9-Hour School Day Prevent Students from Dropping Out?

That means that every student stays an extra three hours per day, four days a week, working on everything from language arts and math to art and P.E. in project-based groups. (Fridays are used for staff development.)
Students spend time in enrichment programs, in P.E. classes, social studies, science and other areas.  And through the apprenticeship programs, they learn about careers in science, business, journalism, even photography and art.
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/can-a-9-hour-school-day-prevent-students-from-dropping-out/

Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet—It’s Higher Education

Instead, for Thiel, the bubble that has taken the place of housing is the higher education bubble. “A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”
But Thiel’s issues with education run even deeper. He thinks it’s fundamentally wrong for a society to pin people’s best hope for a better life on something that is by definition exclusionary. “If Harvard were really the best education, if it makes that much of a difference, why not franchise it so more people can attend? Why not create 100 Harvard affiliates?” he says. “It’s something about the scarcity and the status. In education your value depends on other people failing. Whenever Darwinism is invoked it’s usually a justification for doing something mean. It’s a way to ignore that people are falling through the cracks, because you pretend that if they could just go to Harvard, they’d be fine. Maybe that’s not true.”
http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1860

IPS is meeting the challenge of teaching kids who don’t speak English

Within five to seven years, they become “academically literate” — not just able to get by linguistically but also able to navigate the language in more complicated school subjects.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110417/NEWS1003/104170395/IPS-meeting-challenge-teaching-kids-who-don-t-speak-English?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com

Pay Teachers for Performance?

By Bill Schechter
President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are also parents who naturally want the best for their kids. Obama enrolled his two children at Sidwell Friends, a private Quaker school in Washington, D.C., and Duncan enrolled his two children in the Arlington, Va., public schools, respectively.
Do these excellent schools evaluate or pay teachers on the basis of student standardized test scores?
The answers recently arrived in two emails:
• Arlington school district teacher, March 31, 2011::
“We do not tie teacher evaluations to scores in the Arlington public school system.”
• Sidwell Friends faculty member, April 1, 2011:
“We don’t tie teacher pay to test scores because we don’t believe them to be a reliable indicator of teacher effectiveness.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/performance-pay-at-schools-obama-duncan-picked-for-their-children/2011/04/12/AFNBuPTD_blog.html

Resources:

Free Documentaries Site.

Please preview first. You might be best using this for find videos and downloading rather than watching “live”. Many of the videos are hosted through YouTube. However, this can help with discovery.
http://www.freedocumentary.tv/

CinchCast

Cinch is a free and easy way to create and share audio, text and photo updates using your phone or computer. Cinch enables you to capture and report on your experiences in a way that simple text just can’t do. Using a simple interface, you can make and broadcast your content creations through Facebook, Twitter, CinchCast.com and more.
Getting started is easy.
Step 1: Login to Cinch

  • Register for a Cinch account, or just login using your current Facebook or Twitter account, to begin creating content.

Step 2: Record and share

  • Create and share audio, text and photo updates all in one place using CinchCast.com, the Cinch iPhone App or by calling 1-646-200-0000.

Step 3: Organize and save

  • Organize and save all your favorite cinches in albums that people can easily follow.

Step 4: Search, find and connect

  • Find and follow your family, friends and colleagues, and albums on specific topics interest on CinchCast.com.

Step 5: Invite your friends to join

  • Can’t find all the people you want to hear from? Invite them to join the conversation here.

http://www.cinchcast.com/

Online Physics Simulations

Click on the “Play the sims…” button. There are lots of simulations, including:

  • Balancing Chemical Equations
  • Membrane Channels
  • Molecules and Light
  • Gravity and Orbits
  • Buoyancy
  • Acid-based Solutions
  • Density
  • Nuclear Fission
  • and much more

http://phet.colorado.edu/

Comic Book Maker

http://www.digmo.co.uk/apps/teaching-with-comic-life-2-free-ebook/

Convofy

The Private Social Network for your Company
Enabling conversations at your workplace. Convofy connects your team like no app has ever done. It connects people to people, people to content, and people to discussions.

http://convofy.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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 162-Yap away, yap away, yap away, Twitterland . . . o.O

Jokes You Can Use:
Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.
Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.
‘What in bag?’ asked the old woman. Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, ‘It’s a bottle of sweet smelling cologne. I got it for my husband.’
The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said, ‘Good trade.’

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That’s amore.
When an eel bites your hand and that’s not what you planned
That’s a moray.
When our habits are strange and our customs deranged
That’s our mores.
When your horse munches straw and the bales total four
That’s some more hay.
When Othello’s poor wife, she gets stabbed with a knife
That’s a Moor, eh?
When a Japanese knight used a sword in a fight
That’s Sa…mur…ai.

One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweat-shirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, “What setting do I use on the washing machine?”
“It depends,” I replied. “What does it say on your shirt?”
He yelled back, “University of Oklahoma.”

A man and his wife, now in their 60’s, were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. On their special day a good fairy came to them and said that because they had been so good that each one of them could have one wish.
The wife wished for a trip around the world with her husband. Whoosh! Immediately she had airline/cruise tickets in her hands.
The man wished for a female companion 30 years younger…
Whoosh…immediately he turned ninety!!!
Gotta love that fairy!

On Our Mind:

What have you gotten better at this year?
What do you still need to figure out or work on?
What’s keeping your kids from making big time gains (that are within our control)?
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/03/30/three-good-questions-for-teachers-to-ask-themselves-answer-them-here-if-you-feel-like-it/

Eileen Award

Yvonne. Good luck with the interviews.

Advisory:

Create Claymation Public Service Announcements (Digmo)
If at first you don’t succeed . . .

Middle School Science Minute

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

The World Traveler Dave is unavailable this week. We have hopes that he will return with his uber valuable contributions next week.

From the Twitterverse:

* shannonmmiller MapMaker Interactive – National Geographic Education http://ow.ly/4BEFX
* SuzanneWhisler RT @shannonmmiller Internet Safety Hangman….great review after internet safety lesson http://ow.ly/4BEAa (Free Tech for Teachers site)
* theresawhite RT @kylepace Apps for high school writing (PDF): #edtech #edapp
* web20classroom The Complete Educators Guide To Using Skype From @suewaters:
*DigMo Easy Claymation Animation Techniques: iStopmotion is one of the best (and easiest) animation application.. #edtech
*markbarnes19 Teachers nationwide criticized for Facebook usage http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/535315/T… (cont) http://deck.ly/~Q2Mbs
*classblogs Twitter for #Teachers – Support Videos (via @tonnet)
*hasai 5 Failures Who Overcame the Odds digg.com/d361zob
*mguhlin Debunking 6 GoogleApps for Education Myths http://goo.gl/fb/pB4iB
*camlecolorado “@mountainteacher: The Complete Educator’s Guide to Using Skype effectively in the classroom bit.ly/ibcUTT”
*adamgolub @DianeRavitch Slogan: “You watch Channel One. We’ll clean up the scantron sheet.”
*BethRitterGuth RT @plugusin: Myths and Facts About the Impact of Technology on the Lives of American Teens. http://ow.ly/4yK41 #engchat
*lthumann Five Steps for Implementing a Successful 1:1 Environment | Edutopia diigo.com/0gmvm via @andycinek
*CarolJago Why metaphors matter http://tinyurl.com/3ppdddm by David Brooks.
*coolcatteacher MacdonaldTechForTeachers – iPad Apps for Education …cdonaldtechforteachers.wikispaces.com/iPad+Apps+for+…
11 Apr
*drmmtatom Brainstorming – Google Across the Curriculum #fhucid http://tinyurl.com/455ak6g

The Art and Science of Teaching #fhuedu610 http://tinyurl.com/3nc2en5

Some good reasons to go to school #fhuedu610 http://tinyurl.com/66kgha7
*Larryferlazzo “Microsoft Word Now Includes Squiggly Blue Line To Alert Writer When Word Is Too Advanced For Mainstream Audience” http://onion.com/h9W3eW
*bivey MT @ncarroll24 What Kids Say is the Biggest Obstacle 2 Tech @ Schl rww.to/eSeLzQ via @JenniferBarnett <They c mobile device potential.
*blairteach Nicely done. RT @SuzanneWhisler: Teaching with Technology in the Middle: Diigo for Digital Writing Reflection
#midleved Middle Level Ed Chat takes place in the Twitterverse on Fridays at 8:00 pm EST.  Please join in the conversation.

News:

Federal Budget’s Approval Sets Stage for Future Battles

By Alyson Klein
Education advocates are already bracing for protracted budget battles in the coming year, even as they sort the winners and losers in the bill approved by Congress on Thursday financing the U.S. Department of Education and the rest of the federal government through September.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/14/28fedbudget.html?tkn=VTVFVlNU5PF7n5xlYXH4CSTsWTmv5Wgw15mr&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

Resources:

Memidex

Memidex is a free online dictionary and thesaurus with a simple interface, complete inflections, auto-suggest, adult-filtering, frequent updates, a browsable index, support for mobile devices, and millions of external reference links for definitions, audio, and etymology. It’s fast too. Use the Find box for exact matching or browse using the complete index.
http://www.memidex.com/

SuperMaths

A variety of math games.
http://www.supermathsworld.com/

YapTime

A simple way to connect.
Teens don’t email. Grandparents don’t text. To keep connected simply create a group, invite members, post private messages, photos, videos, files and calendars — all one safe place.

http://yaptime.com/

Web Spotlight:

NASA releases sky-mapping archive

By Alicia Chang, Associated Press

NASA has released a trove of data from its sky-mapping mission, allowing scientists and anyone with access to the Internet to peruse millions of galaxies, stars, asteroids and other hard-to-see objects.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-04-15-nasa-sky-mapping-spacecraft.htm

Idioms 4 You

Idioms, um, for you.
http://www.idioms4you.com/index.html

CAST

A nonprofit leader in education, CAST works to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning. Explore this website to find out more about our research and development, innovative learning tools, and professional services.
http://cast.org

UDL Guidelines

The goal of education in the 21st century is not simply the mastery of content knowledge or use of new technologies. It is the mastery of the learning process. Education should help turn novice learners into expert learners—individuals who want to learn, who know how to learn strategically, and who, in their own highly individual and flexible ways, are well prepared for a lifetime of learning. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) helps educators meet this goal by providing a framework for understanding how to create curricula that meets the needs of all learners from the start.
The UDL Guidelines, an articulation of the UDL framework, can assist anyone who plans lessons/units of study or develops curricula (goals, methods, materials, and assessments) to reduce barriers, as well as optimize levels of challenge and support, to meet the needs of all learners from the start. They can also help educators identify the barriers found in existing curricula. However, to fully understand these Guidelines one must first understand what UDL is.
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines

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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 161 Bad Jokes Abound, Update History, and Football!

Jokes You Can Use:

A teacher sees a lad entering the classroom – his hands were dirty.
She stopped him and said, “John, please wash your hands. My goodness, what would you say if I came into the room with hands like that?”
Smiling the boy replied, “I think I’d be too polite to mention it.”

Two explorers, camped in the heart of the African jungle, were discussing their expedition. “I came here,” said one, “because the urge to travel was in my blood. City life bored me, and the smell of exhaust fumes on the highways made me sick. I wanted to see the sunrise over new horizons and hear the flutter of birds that never had been seen by man. I wanted to leave my footprints on sand unmarked before I came. In short, I wanted to see nature in the raw. What about you?” “I came,” the second man replied, “because my son was taking saxophone lessons.”

So the bus driver said to the string, “Are you a string?” and the string said, “No, I’m afraid not”. (A frayed knot).

On Our Mind:

NMSA Executive Director Search
NMSA Elections:  Vote Early, Vote Often

Eileen Award

Eileen!

We heard from Eileen this week!  The free hugs are on!

Advisory:

Overcoming Challenges:

The true story of the Panyee Football Club. Video is 5 minutes and 15 seconds long- subtitles in English.
*Notes (explain football (soccer), pitch (field), boots (shoes).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU&

Get Your Day off to a better Start

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110404151353.htm

Daily Pictures

Pictures from around the world.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2011/04/images-of-daily-life-around-th.html

Middle School Science Minute

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

The Middle School Chemistry Project can be found at middleschoolscience.com.  By the way, did it on the iPad again.  First time I used three tracks.  One for voice, one for guitar and one for stand up bass.  Good show this week, as always.  I enjoyed the interview with Doc Tatom.

From the Twitterverse:

**kelalford Web 2.0 Tools That Will Inspire via DEN Blog Network – Spring has Arrived!! Let’s talk about some Web 2.0 … http://tinyurl.com/3e47zkq
* bivey MT @ncarroll24 What Kids Say is the Biggest Obstacle 2 Tech @ Schl rww.to/eSeLzQ via @JenniferBarnett <They c mobile device potential.
*middleweb CoSN and NEA Foundation offering $1000 prizes for best ideas about “teaching with mobiles”. Thru 5/13.
*ckeech RT“@web20classroom: Using QR Codes In Student Projects: bit.ly/i2SbrE”@dremmy7431
*drmmtatom “First iPad Magazine For Kids” Makes Its Debut [VIDEO] http://on.mash.to/e4pt0Y #ccstech
**russeltarr Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up: http://tinyurl.com/ye3lc6h
*
DianeRavitch Diane Ravitch
Why not rate doctors by how many patients die? That way, no one would practice critical care or become cardiac surgeons. Lesson for ed eval.

How about if we close down Fire Departments if there are too many fires in their neighborhood?

I have suggested Congress should pass a law that within 12 years every city should be crime-free. Close down Police Dept if they are not.
**SpeechTechie Ending @GlogsterEDU week with Gaggle of Glog examples, ideas for SLP applications!! Glogs for PD, social, cplx categ
**MyMathCloud Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more. Albert Einstein
**Ron_Peck Office Templates for Teachers ~ #edtech
**jybuell The CST for 8th grade social studies appears to copied entirely from Trivial Pursuit cards. U should get pie pieces instead of a score.
**RigorRelevance RT @jimwarford: Skype launches social network for teachers worldwide http://sbne.ws/r/78hR
**hrheingold My blog/video of @angelamaiers on new media literacies now up at DMLcentral! http://goo.gl/5XVX5
**russeltarr Back to School: Top 10 iPhone Apps for Students: http://tinyurl.com/kojx2q
**DanielPink This month’s Sunday Telegraph column: Don’t incentivize teachers. Overpay them. (No, really.) telegraph.co.uk/finance/busine…
**drmmtatom RT @nancyrubin: Screencasting: A 21st Century Teaching Tool community.learningobjects.com/Users/Nancy.Ru… via @AddThis #fhucid



News:

No Dentist Left Behind

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/no-dentist.html

Cell Phones and Privacy Risks

http://dearbornschools.org/dtube?v=949NN4oT8MmHj&Itemid=333

Resources:

Google Bloomin’

Google Tools to support the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
http://kathyschrock.net/googleblooms/
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Anw3Hl3DL4wfdG9WR3JQZjJXNFZFcE5pLWhrZEVNU1E&hl=en&authkey=CIf9_uoC# ‘

Civil War Timeline

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/10/29/opinion/20101029-civil-war.html

Civil War 150 years later

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/civil-war-anniversary/index.html?SITE=AP

Rolls Off the Tongue

http://rollsoffthetongue.tumblr.com/

GeoGames

http://reachtheworld.org/geogames/index.html

Wicked Science Interactives

http://www.wicked.org.nz/r/wick_ed/interactives/science.php

Web Spotlight:

Demographic Chart Book

Provides a wide-ranging audience of persons interested in American history – including historians, other social scientists, teachers, and students – with graphics portraying the demographic history of the United States, as shown by the decennial census of population.
http://www.demographicchartbook.com/Chartbook/

Story Boarding

The more we podcast and have our students create video clips or other digital storytelling projects, the more we need to teach storyboarding as part of the process. Being able to pre-visualize how your story will unfold is becoming a vital skill to have for storytellers.
http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/04/03/storyboarding-pre-writing-activity/

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.

Ohio Middle Level Association:

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators

  • 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, Teaching Tip, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 160 iPad Reseach Interview

Call Us at (262) 724-6653 (Google Voice)
Diigo Group: http://groups.diigo.com/group/middle-school-matters
email: middleschooleducators@gmail.com
Twitter: @MSMatters
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Middle-School-Matters/348279537549

Jokes You Can Use:

Two iPads walk into a classroom . . .

Two husbands were discussing their married lives. Although happily married, they admitted that there were arguments sometimes. The Chad said, “I’ve made one great discovery. I know how to always have the last word.”
“Wow!’ said Sherman, “how did you manage that?”
“It’s easy,” replied Chad. “My last word is always ‘Yes, Dear.’”

What’s this daily charge for ‘fruit’? The hotel guess asked the manager. “We didn’t eat any.” “But the fruit was place in your room every day. It isn’t our fault you didn’t take advantage of it.” “I see,” said the man as he subtracted $150.00 from the bill
“What are you doing”? Sputtered the manager.
“I’m subtracting 50 dollars a day for your kissing my wife.”
“What? I didn’t kiss your wife.”
“Ah,” replied the man, “but she was there.”

On Our Mind:

Museum Box

Interview: Dr. Monte Tatom

iPad research: http://www.fhu.edu/blogs/mtatom/post/2011-ACU-Connected-Summit.aspx
Contact info:
731-989-6088
School E-mail: mtatom@fhu.edu
Twitter – http://twitter.com/drmmtatom

Classes – small class sizes. Interesting mix: science, theater, special education prep, photography, Organizational Behavior, and Human Resource.
Students had to turn the iPads back in.
Did the teachers change teaching methodology or use the iPad to do the same things?

  • Interactive textbooks are desired. Professors want them.
  • Inkling.
  • iPad as a replacement vs an extension.
  • Still early on in the App development process.

How do you think the iPad 2 will solve issues?

  • 85%-90% of frustrations will be solved. The ability to connect to projector is huge. Most of the negatives have been addressed, either during the time of the first project or what is now available.
  • Individual use vs multiple users:
  • Would limit the use if shared by multiple users. Preference is to put them into every student’s hands. Very personal machine. College students would’ve used them differently if they knew that they could keep them. The teachers used them much more and differently because they knew they would have them for a long time.
  • Doceri. Valuable teacher tool.

Apps that were useful:

  • Penultimate- notetaking app
  • Sundry notes – notetaking & LCD connection
  • DropBox – (We have codes!)
  • Box.net
  • Goodreader
  • iAnnotate
  • Mobile Learn – Blackboard connection
  • ESV Bible
  • Kindle, iBooks, Zinio, Google Books
  • iDemo Web – Web site sharing
  • Documents to Go Premium

Breakage:

  • Not an issue.

Next Steps:

  • Bringing in Tech to general education classes to see how it impacts student learning. Looking at the iPad2 and Inkling to see how useful it will be for students. Specifically looking at textbooks and the cost.
  • Software Cost?
  • Put the tools in the hands of the teachers first. Have them explore that tools (free especially).

Middle School?
A school to the north of Freed-Hardeman has been in communication.

Quote from Scott McLeod:

We have never learned how to use instructional media in our schools in any predictable or systematic way. An even greater problem is that we have not learned how to deal with the educational effects of modern technology outside the classroom. We live in a society in which school is one place to learn, but not the only place to learn. Machine-aided tasks are increasing at an exponential rate, and modern technology has much to contribute to the management of the classroom, as well as to the substance of learning. Nevertheless, schools and teachers act as spectators to the passing trends, while technology leaps forward, leaving the onlookers behind.
Allen, D. W. (1992). Schools for a new century: A conservative approach to radical school reform (p. 126). New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/31769

Randy Thompson the “Edugator”: MiddleTalk announcement

 

Advisory:

Etch-A-Sketch

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504784_162-10007223-4.html?tag=img

Middle School Science Minute

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

The topic is what should the MS Science Curriculum look like if it is aligned to the Position Paper of the National Science Teachers Association.

From the Twitterverse:

*kelalford Web 2.0 Tools That Will Inspire via DEN Blog Network – Spring has Arrived!! Let’s talk about some Web 2.0 … http://tinyurl.com/3e47zkq
*cybraryman1 To peak everyone’s interest hold a mini Smackdown at a faculty conference. My Smackdown page: http://tinyurl.com/4by2uxk #midleved
*AncientProverbs Good habits formed at youth make all the difference. -Aristotle
*kconners09 #sschat RT @lovegeography: Five reasons to visit our NEW beta Education website: NatGeoEd.org: More teaching resourcesWhen we asked…
*notebookscoop Buying Mac refurbished laptops – Refurbished Macs
*russeltarr Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up: http://tinyurl.com/ye3lc6h
*Peter_Price Why become a teacher? Check the Job Description from @stumpteacher http://ow.ly/4qSFu
*SpeechTechie Ending @GlogsterEDU week with Gaggle of Glog examples, ideas for SLP applications!! Glogs for PD, social, cplx categ
*MyMathCloud Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more. Albert Einstein
*Ron_Peck Office Templates for Teachers ~ #edtech
*jybuell The CST for 8th grade social studies appears to copied entirely from Trivial Pursuit cards. U should get pie pieces instead of a score.
*RigorRelevance RT @jimwarford: Skype launches social network for teachers worldwide http://sbne.ws/r/78hR
*hrheingold My blog/video of @angelamaiers on new media literacies now up at DMLcentral! http://goo.gl/5XVX5
*russeltarr Back to School: Top 10 iPhone Apps for Students: http://tinyurl.com/kojx2q
*DanielPink This month’s Sunday Telegraph column: Don’t incentivize teachers. Overpay them. (No, really.) telegraph.co.uk/finance/busine…
*drmmtatom RT @nancyrubin: Screencasting: A 21st Century Teaching Tool community.learningobjects.com/Users/Nancy.Ru… via @AddThis #fhucid

 

News:

When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?

On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm

Resources:

Scumblr

Online index cards on a corkboard.
http://scrumblr.ca/

Zen.do

Still in BETA, but an interesting concept. The site turns notes into Flashcards.
From the site:
Students are asked to learn an extraordinary amount of information in a short period of time. When it comes time to review, we have to sort through book and lecture notes to determine what really matters and review it effectively.
As a result, we spend a lot of our study time figuring out what to learn and reviewing stuff we already know.
Start by doing what you’re doing. Yes, that’s right. Take notes in class (on your laptop) as you do normally.
Just one difference: Whenever you are writing down a concept, name, important date, etc. add a hyphen between a term and definition.
Now you’re ready to dramatically optimize your studying. Study you’re notes as flashcards. Indicate what you know and how important it is to you and that’s all there is to it.
You learn. We optimize your time.

http://zen.do/

Web Spotlight:

Our educational system emphasizes spoonfeeding us knowledge rather than teaching us how to create knowledge

http://www.minddump.org/our-educational-system-emphasizes-spoonfeedin

NMSA News:

  • National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2011 —Saturday, November 10, 2011 Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Promotional Materials:
  • Crossword Puzzle! (Maryland Conference)
  • 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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
  • OMLA Registration Form
  • OMLA Presentation Proposal Form
  • The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 2012 in Warren Woods, MI.
    • MAMSE Exhibitor Form
    • MAMSE Registration Form
    • MAMSE Presentation Form
    • MAMSE Conference Program Book (2011)
  • The National Substitute Teacher Association’s Annual Conference July 22-24.
  • The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2011
    • Conference Brochure
    • Presenter’s Application
    • Who They Are . . .
    • This year’s sessions . . .
  • Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
  • Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available.
  • Second Life:
  • Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details. Check frequently this week as the ISTE Annual Convention is this week.
  • Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
advisory, Lesson Plan, MSM, Podcast, Strategy, Teaching Tip, TechBy Troy Patterson

MSM 159 Stuff For Your Classroom!, #SKYPE FAIL!, #midleved this week on Middle School Matters!

Call Us at (262) 724-6653 (Google Voice)
Diigo Group:  http://groups.diigo.com/group/middle-school-matters

email:  middleschooleducators@gmail.com

Twitter:  @MSMatters

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Middle-School-Matters/348279537549

Jokes You Can Use:

How did the Vikings send secret messages?
By norse code!

Why were the early days of history called the dark ages?
Because there were so many knights!

Teacher: Where is your homework?
Pupil: I lost it fighting this kid who said you weren’t the best teacher in the school

When a teacher closes his eyes, why should it remind him of an empty classroom?
Because there are no pupils to see!

Teacher: How much is half of 8?
Pupil: Up and down or across?
Teacher: What do you mean?
Pupil: Well, up and down makes a 3 or across the middle leaves a 0!

Q. Your riding a horse at full speed, a giraffe is beside you, an elephant in front of you and a lion behind you! What do you do???
A. You get off of the carousel !!!

Bill and Bob, two children, were sitting outside a clinic. Bill happened to be crying very loudly.
“Why are you crying?” Bob asked.
“I came here for a blood test,” sobbed Bill.
“So? Are you afraid?”
“No. For the blood test, they cut my finger.
As Bob heard this, he immediately began crying profusely.
Astonished, Bill stopped his tears and asked Bob, “Why are you crying now?”
To which Bob replied, “I came for a urine test!”

On Our Mind:

21st Century School vs 20th Century Assessment
MAMSE 2011
#edchat, #midleved Fridays at 8:00pm.
Next week:  iPads with Dr. Monte Tatom

Eileen Award

Eric from Chicago

Advisory:

Rock Paper Scissors

On the computer. With thoughts why the computer picks…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/rock-paper-scissors.html?hp

Middle School Science Minute

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

I just did my first podcast, completely recorded on the iPad, using GarageBand.  It was a lot of fun.  Just attached my SnowBall mic and played a few chords on the Smart Guitar and out came the podcast.
The importance of Science…

From the Twitterverse:

*drmmtatom What’s Popular This Week on The Innovative Educator #fhuedu610 #ccstech @msmatters http://tinyurl.com/4zluxxj 

85+ Resources: Educator Guide for Integrating Social Media http://t.co/wtFP3XD via @ziteapp #ccstech @msmatters

Tips for Conducting PLN Professional Development bridgemiddle.blogspot.com/2011/03/tips-f… via @ziteapp #fhuedu610
*TeacherSabrina 5 myths about #teachers that are distracting policymakers http://ow.ly/4lRJQ YES!!! Must-read. #edreform #edchat
*NMSAnews Fundamentals for Student Success in the Middle Grades
*gardenglen Ever wonder what teaching Middle School is like? “Toro Pink” http://youtu.be/TVvEd4LV6HM #ilovemyjob
*garystager @gdahlby I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again. I can be either the dancing monkey or the crew, but not both.
*lkolb Made video calls from your smartphone…Free! http://www.tango.me/
*AncientProverbs A Jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated. -Chinese Proverb
*cybraryman1 RT @LiteracyNetwork: Give your child a digital camera & tell them to document 1 day. …y but they are learning to tell stories #ptchat
*francesblo @mthman @MSMatters @rushtheiceberg @tdeacon Lots of interest in what’s allowed, cell phones. How about dealing with tech policies nxt week?
*ipadnewsdigest Emerging iPhone, iPad 2 App Enables Remote Surveillance: A new iPad app aims to give soldiers on the street a bi…
*hrheingold Mediactive by @dangillmor great (free!) resource on crap detection, active participation in media creation http://goo.gl/wr6kV
*cybraryman1 My How to Take Part in an Educational Chat on Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/4utvwpd #edchat
*mthman Join us! We’re talking MIDDLE SCHOOL this Friday (3/25) 8 pm EST. Topic: How can tech improve learning? #engchat #mathchat #cpchat #elemchat
*karlyb #macul11 – My blog post with list of iPhone Teacher Toolbox apps from my presentation. http://tinyurl.com/iphoneteacher
*lkolb Turn your iPhone into a high-powered scientific Microscope http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope
Note:  #midleved on Twitter is happening at a new day and time!  Join #midleved on Fridays at 8:00 pm EST.  Hope to see you there! 

This week the topic centered around using Technology in the Classroom.  Several resources were mentioned including Xtranormal, Edmodo, Glogster, Notaland and cell phone use.  It was interesting to read the conversations about cell phone use.  Many students have them evidently, but families are not turning on the data plan.  Next week the conversation starts out with Acceptable Use Polices, but just like the middle schoolers we love to teach, the conversation could go anywhere

 

News:

‘Curriculum’ Definition Raises Red Flags (Crvena Zastava)

By Catherine Gewertz
Calls for shared curriculum for the common standards have triggered renewed debates about who decides what students learn, and even about varied meanings of the word “curriculum,” adding layers of complexity to the job of translating the broad learning goals into classroom teaching.
Some of the debate about common curriculum for the standards is driven, observers say, by the multiple meanings of the word “curriculum.”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/23/26curriculum.h30.html?tkn=XQZF8Ew7XPeRb9TDOhxfZzkTiWf%2FZYw5ZU9f&cmp=clp-edweek

What if?

http://bigthink.com/ideas/31604

Resources:

The Noun Project

Simple Graphical Images. Could be used as story starters.
http://www.thenounproject.com/

Thought Boxes

Organize everything you do.
Thoughtboxes is a simple tool that helps to organize your thoughts so you can make things happen.
Keep track of almost anything, and share your thoughts with friends.
http://thoughtbox.es/

PuzzleMaker

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/?CFID=10757332&CFTOKEN=39482384

EdiStorm

Edistorm takes the metaphor of sticky notes on a boardroom wall and brings it online allowing anyone – anywhere to brainstorm with only a web browser.
Each user picks their favorite ideas and Edistorm brings the best ones forward.
http://www.edistorm.com/

Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a free tool that helps you quickly grade multiple-choice or fill-in-blank assignments. I designed it for my own classroom, and want to share it with other teachers… for free!

* Flubaroo works with Google docs. Click if you need an introduction to Google docs.

More than just a grading tool, Flubaroo also:

  • Computes average assignment score.
  • Computes average score per question, and flags low-scoring questions.
  • Shows you a grade distribution graph.
  • Gives you the option to email each student their grade, and an answer key.

Read the overview below, or jump straight to Step 5 to see what Flubaroo creates.

The instructions below walk you through creating an assignment, and grading it with Flubaroo:

http://www.flubaroo.com/

66 Ways to Use Google Forms

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzc5Y25zc201Zzc&hl=en_GB&pli=1

Toasted Cheese

Writing prompts.
http://www.toasted-cheese.com/webcal/webcal.cgi

Web Spotlight:

The Civil War:

PBS first episode available for free.
http://www.macnews.com/2011/03/23/psb-stream-civil-war-ios-devices

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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
  • 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
UncategorizedBy Shawn McGirr

Back channel chat from MAMSE 2011

We ran a back channel during our sessions at MAMSE 2011 this year and promised folks we’d post it here on the website. Thanks everyone for participating during the sessions and for contributing to the back channel.

mamseE107.
Welcome to the back channel folks! You are now an ad hoc PLN (which is a TLA for Professional Learning Network). Shawn at 14:18 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
How many of you use Twitter? Shawn at 14:20 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I have thought about it, but don’t yet. Macy at 14:21 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
He color codes it to show me how much I have to talk about! LOL Shawn at 14:22 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Please don’t lurk in here. 🙂 Shawn at 14:23 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Got it Tom at 14:47 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Jump to your Twitter Don at 14:47 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
If you’re interested in following the presenters, we’re at @MSMatters and @frideswidel on Twitter. Shawn at 14:51 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
We’re using #mamse2011 for our Tweets on Twitter. Join us! Shawn at 14:55 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Did you have anything else you wanted Troy to talk about concerning Twitter? Shawn at 14:58 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Sounds like a 21 Things class. Cool stuff. Dean at 15:01 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Troy has done the 21 things thing through Wayne RESA. When I get some time (ha!) I’ll give it a go too. Shawn at 15:02 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Imagine you had TodaysMeet for your classroom. Would you use it? Shawn at 15:03 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Is Today’sMeet free? Macy at 15:03 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
This is a first by the way. I usually can’t get Troy to talk this much. 🙂 Yes, TodaysMeet is free. Shawn at 15:04 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Is there a place to look for good education blogs to follow? Jessica at 15:09 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I’d use a RSS feed. Shawn at 15:17 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Feel free to talk to us through here. If there’s something you’d like us to spend more time on, let us know. Shawn at 15:18 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I like Twitter, Troy doesn’t. Shawn at 15:19 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Holy Cow, I’m on… Soooo cool! Mariacg at 15:23 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Woot! Shawn at 15:23 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Ask him if Pitt will win the NCAA tournament . . . Shawn at 15:24 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Does everyone know what a hash tag is? Shawn at 15:26 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
One has to be a bit ADD to teach middle school Mariacg at 15:26 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
And to present…. Shawn at 15:26 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Some of you have seen this stuff before. How much time do you want us to spend on this? Shawn at 15:29 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
i just tweeted about learning about twitter. #mamse2011 Danielle at 15:30 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
I don’t Tweet Jason at 15:30 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Yes, how do we find links to, say other teacher tweets? Mariacg at 15:31 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Also, which organizer you’d use, nambu, twitterific, etc. Mariacg at 15:32 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
#edchat, #engchat, #mathchat are some tweets you can follow. Pete at 15:34 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
any hashtags for spanish teachers? Danielle at 15:35 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Not sure, I would start with #edu Shawn at 15:36 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Tweetdeck seems to have the most legs. It is also crossplatform. It runs on AIR, so all versions are the same. Shawn at 15:37 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
You can also use Lists to find others. Shawn at 15:37 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Edmoto is a twitter alternative for education. Shawn at 15:38 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
where is edmoto? Jason at 15:39 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
http://www.edmodo.com/ Shawn at 15:40 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Glogster EDU is a cool resource too. http://edu.glogster.com/ Shawn at 15:41 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Twibes http://www.twibes.com/ Shawn at 15:44 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Twitter Packs http://twitterpacks.pbworks.com/w/page/22555521/FrontPage Shawn at 15:48 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Middle School Matters is my favorite podcast! Shawn at 15:54 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
www.middleschoolmatters.com Shawn at 15:54 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
There’s a great video on creating podcasts with students to study Shakespeare. Shawn at 16:05 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
any privacy issues with putting up kids podcasts? do we need to check with parents for permission? Mariacg at 16:06 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Good question. Check your district’s policy. We tend to have the kids not put their last names on the ‘cast. Shawn at 16:07 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
We have a check box on the Emerg. Care Form that says we can use it for “educational purposes” and if left unchecked, we can’t use. Shawn at 16:07 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
troy, is tech tools for the classroom different info? Tom at 16:12 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Excellent session guys! tanya at 16:19 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Thanks! Shawn at 16:28 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
This starts the Web X.0 Section of the TodaysMeet discussion. Previous to this was PLNs. Thanks. 🙂 Shawn at 16:50 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
What about text from a book? Christina at 18:16 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
great job Christina at 18:48 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web
Thanks so much for coming to our sessions today! See you tomorrow! Shawn at 19:06 PM, 17 Mar 2011 via web

advisory, Conferences, Lesson Plan, MSM, News, Podcast, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 158 MAMSE, DropBox, Latin, and Facebook!

Jokes You Can Use:

A man wrote a letter to the IRS: “I have been unable to sleep knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. I understated my taxable income and have enclosed a check for $200.00. If I still can’t sleep, I will send the rest.”

THE CAT:
One day, a cat dies of natural causes and goes to heaven, where he meets the Lord Himself.
The Lord says to the cat, “You lived a good life, and if there is any way I can make your stay in heaven more comfortable, please let me know.”
The cat thinks for a moment and says, “Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor.”
The Lord stops the cat and says, “Say no more,” and a wonderful, fluffy pillow appears.
A few days later, six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident, and all of them go to heaven.
Again, the Lord is there to greet them with the same offer.
The mice answer, “All our lives we have been chased.
We have had to run from cats, dogs, and even women with brooms.
Running, running, running; we’re tired of running.
Do you think we could have roller skates so that we don’t have to run anymore?”
The Lord says, “Say no more” and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates.
Week later, the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing on the pillow.
The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, “How are things since you got here?”
The cat stretches and yawns, then replies, “It is wonderful here.
Better than I could have ever expected. And those ‘Meals On Wheels’ you’ve been sending by are the best!”

On Our Mind:

MAMSE

Troy gets an Award and a Surprise!
Competition with MACUL
Great folks at Coopersville Middle School
Congrats on being recognized as a National Schools to Watch school.

Eileen Award

Robert Jackson

Advisory:

Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields –

Middle School Science Minute

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

April EarthKAM project for MS students utilizing the International Space Station.  Pretty cool 🙂

From the Twitterverse:

*russeltarr Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields –
*Frankwspencer Why Arguing Improves Students’ Reasoning Skills healthland.time.com/2011/03/17/why… via @TIMEHealthland
*OCESS Applications for Stanford’s Middle School Teachers’ Summer Program in Nanotechnology (July 19-23) due 5/1. http://cot.ag/cHlFKr @egfi
*theresawhite RT @local4news: This just in! judge has given Emergency Financial Manager academic control of #Detroit Public Schools:
*willrich45 Donate your 1G iPad to a school in need: Nice idea.
*rmbyrne RT @shannonmmiller: How to create a Digital Publishing Culture…creating ePubs with students http://ow.ly/4hOVH
*kconners09 Why #geography education matters. http://ow.ly/1scl8R #sschat #edchat Amazing short vid on population.
*missnoor28 RT @kbkonnected: FaxZero – free internet faxing http://goo.gl/fb/UHDSe by @daveandcori #edtech #edchat
*DianeRavitch Is subjectivity a problem in evaluation? http://shankerblog.org/?p=2170
*kevcreutz Ice Breaker Tags – Creative Name Tags via @rmbyrne #edtech
*marinmacteacher SnipSnip.it – Share a clip of a Youtube Video by start/end time:
*ktenkely ktenkely
I’ve come to realize that standardized tests serve mostly to make dreadful forms of teaching appear successful. -Kohn http://j.mp/hvTMCf
*CoachB0066 10 Great websites for principals via ISTE #cpchat
*NCMSA Over 45 presentations now posted on the wiki!!! Still plenty of time to have your #NCMSA11 posted. Directions at .

News:

 

Feds requiring principals to monitor students’ Facebook and other social media during lunch times and after school.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/16/fed-instructs-teachers-to-facebook-creep-students/

“Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.”

School of One

“The School of One is based on the premise that, in a regular school, … there are basically three or four math classes that are going on in any given period,” explains Christopher Rush, the program’s co-founder and chief product officer, who is in charge of the project’s analytics. “So why don’t we take all the kids from those math classes, and all of the teachers from those math classes, and try to use those resources more strategically?”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/17/25schoolofone.h30.html

Resources:

TimeToast

Easy to create timelines. Free
http://www.timetoast.com/

Urli.st

Create and share a list of links.
http://urli.st/

Web Spotlight:

Adults with college degrees.
http://chronicle.com/article/Adults-With-College-Degrees-in/125995

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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
  • 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

Contact Us:

Call Us at (262) 724-6653 (Google Voice)

Diigo Group:  http://groups.diigo.com/group/middle-school-matters

email:  middleschooleducators@gmail.com

Twitter:  @MSMatters

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Middle-School-Matters/348279537549

ConferencesBy Shawn McGirr

Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference 2011

We hope you’re able to attend the MAMSE conference this year no matter what state or province you hail from.  Here’s a list of the sessions Troy and I are doing:

Thursday:

10:05 – 11:05  Troy & Shawn:  Location: E107; “Professional Learning Networks: Social Networks, Internet Resources, and Blogs”

11:10 – 12:10  Troy & Shawn:  Location: E107; “Professional Learning Networks: Micro-blogging, Virtual Environments, and Podcasts”

1:50 – 2:50  Shawn:  Location: E107; “Web X.0 Smackdown!”

2:55 – 3:55 Troy:  Location:  E107; “Tech Tools for the Classroom”

 

Friday:

8:00 – 9:00 Shawn:  Location: E107; “Web X.0 Smackdown!”

9:05 – 10-05  Shawn:  Location: E107; “Making the Transition to Middle School”

1:50 – 2:50  Troy:  Location: E107; “Google Docs”

Stop us and introduce yourself.  We’d love to chat with you!

 

 

advisory, MSM, News, Podcast, Teaching Tip, Tech, Web SpotlightBy Troy Patterson

MSM 157 Call, Nuts, Failures, Tools and More!

Jokes You Can Use:

Bus Tour

A tour bus driver drives with a bus full of seniors down a highway, when a little old lady taps him on his shoulder. She offers him a handful of almonds, which he gratefully munches up.
After approx.15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of almonds. She repeats this gesture about eight times.
At the ninth time he asks the little old lady why they don’t eat the almonds themselves, whereupon she replies that it is not possible because of their old teeth, they are not able to chew them. “Why do you buy them then?” he asks puzzled. Whereupon the old lady Answers, “We just love the chocolate around them.”

The Elevator

An Antartian boy and his father were visiting a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again.
The boy asked his father, “What is this, Father?” The father [never having seen an elevator] responded “Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is.”
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room.
The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.
The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, “Go get your mother.”

On Our Mind:

Google Phone:  A Call from Dr. Tatom

Eileen Award

To Robert in Ukraine

From our Listeners:
Hey guys,

I saw on this week’s podcast notes that someone was talking about screenjelly.  I love using screen casts to communicate with staff and parents, so I am always on the look out for the next best thing.  However, if your school is like mine, then the firewall might prevent using screentoaster or screenjelly.  I did, however, find a great java based site called screencast-o-matic.

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

It works well even through the firewalls.

Robert in Ukraine

Advisory:

Share childhood differences:
For the fun of it, I also listed in my notes some of the elements of my own pre-Internet childhood that I suspect most children today are not experiencing because of the Internet, video games, texting, etc. I decided to post some of them here for your enjoyment.

  • Remember when childhood happened almost exclusively outside?
  • Remember when a child’s most important resource was a saw, hammer, and bag straightened nails?
  • Remember when we daydreamed about building a raft, putting a propeller & wings on our bicycle, or exploring a wilderness with a musket and bowie knife?
  • Remember when there was more you could do with a pair of skates than just strap them on your feet and skate?
  • Remember when we use to pretend — out loud?
  • Remember when every tree was scrutinized for its treehouse suitability?
  • Remember when playing house was done with chairs and blankets (not with simulation software)?

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2943

Middle School Science Minute

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

Celebrating 20 years:
National Middle Level Science Teachers Association

From the Twitterverse:

*KentManning RT @mgmitchell: Boys can’t write? Just give them a forum
*bhsprincipal RT @gcouros: RT @snbeach: Common Core disconnect: #bhsc hat #edchat
*ddoherty24 Educate students on deleting cyber-bullying www.onguardonline.gov
*ctrlzee The problem with buying a used iPad is that you know it’s spent as much time in the bathroom as the person you’re buying it from.
*gazelle_com Those upgrading to iPad 2, are you going online or in line? Sell your used iPad and other gadgets to offset costs http://ow.ly/4cxYN #ipad2
*elemenous Excellent school project that utilized iPads and shows the potential of mobile learning. http://tinyurl.com/6f9cfd6 Hat tip to @westleyf!
*Ron_Peck Free Map Tools ~ #geography #sschat #historyteacher
*DianeRavitch Required reading http://zhaolearning.com/
*drmmtatom RT @elenischool: Great resources for teachers. #ccstech #fhuedu610 @MSMatters
*vbek Woz to educators: “be brave, use the new technology”
*CoSN Access educational content from #CoSN11 online with Live Learning Center; learn more: http://ow.ly/49snn
*tombarrett Twitter Dots – Beautiful map rendering of realtime #Twitter tweets #maps #mashups
*rmbyrne Google A-Z – Google Docs – http://goo.gl/Yp8g

News:

Pay Initiative does NOT Lead to Increased Student Performance:

New York City’s heralded $75 million experiment in teacher incentive pay — deemed “transcendent” when it was announced in 2007 — did not increase student achievement at all, a new study by the Harvard economist Roland Fryer concludes.
“If anything,” Fryer writes of schools that participated in the program, “student achievement declined.” Fryer and his team used state math and English test scores as the main indicator of academic achievement.
http://gothamschools.org/2011/03/07/study-75m-teacher-pay-initiative-did-not-improve-achievement/

ISTE Voting is now open

http://iste-listserver.iste.org/t/446353/2089440/2518/0/

82% of schools could soon be labeled as “Failing”
More than three-quarters of the nation’s public schools could soon be labeled “failing” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the Obama administration said Wednesday as it increased efforts to revamp the signature education initiative of President George W. Bush.
“This law is fundamentally broken, and we need to fix it, and fix it this year,” Duncan told the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “The law has created dozens of ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible and focused on the schools and students most at risk.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030903089.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Resources:

Diagramly

Easy to use web based diagraming. Just drag the element (shape, text, image, etc) into the working area. Click on the triangle on an image to add text. Clicking save will allow you to download the image in a number of formats (the default is .xml, but you can also use .jpg or more).
http://www.diagram.ly/

Museum Box

Welcome to Museum Box, This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others.
http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php

Molecular Workbench

The Molecular Workbench™ (MW) is a free, open-source tool that creates and             delivers visual, interactive simulations for teaching and learning science and engineering.
http://mw.concord.org/modeler/index.html

Corkboard ME

Welcome to your own personal cork board. You’ve been given a special link — bookmark this page.  Click to write a note, click-and-hold to move around. Paste an image link and see what happens? Enjoy!
http://corkboard.me/

Pilot Handwriting

Interesting way to create a font of your handwriting. However, you send email through them.
http://pilothandwriting.com/en/

Comic Strip Generator

Use to use and flexible. The tutorial gives a good overview and tips.
http://stripgenerator.com/strip/create/
Tutorial: http://stripgenerator.com/video/show/1/ (5 minute, 36 seconds)

Web Spotlight:

Code for America

Working with city managers, we help to identify projects that can benefit from web-based solutions. Code for America recruits both the development teams and the participating cities through competitive application processes. Once identified and funded, each city project is connected with a web development team that can further scope the project, develop an action plan, and deliver an appropriate solution over an 11-month development cycle. Throughout the development cycle, CFA mentors, trains, and coordinates the teams and facilitates their relationships with their city management clients.
The applications that Code for America fellows build fit a certain model: 1) They are web applications – think Facebook, Yelp, Zillow, or Picnik; 2) They will enable cities to connect with their constituents in ways that reduce administrative costs and engage citizens more effectively; 3) They support the move toward transparency and collaboration; 4) and finally, they are shareable – which means that an application built for one city can be used by any other city.
Fundamentally, it’s all about helping American cities use web technology to do a better job of providing services to citizens.
As the program continues, we will host a suite of web applications all cities can use, fostering the adoption of CFA and outside open source projects by cities across the country and around the world.

Code for America isn’t just a way to offer city governments technical talent at less than market rates. Beyond just the projects our fellows build, the program is designed to:
Cultivate the next generation of public sector technology leaders.
Up to 60% of the municipal workforce in many cities will retire in the next five years. This represents not only a crisis of talent, but also a huge opportunity. Think how much can change if we fill those positions with people who have a native understanding of how technology can work in modern urban life.
Inject a culture virus into city government.
We recruit fellows who demonstrate a networked, web-centric and open approach to problem-solving. Attaching the fellows to the city for the year and helping them build relationships with a wide variety of city workers is an effective way to introduce this kind of thinking and help it spread
Encourage experimentation.
The fellows will be available for side projects in the city that would be difficult to move forward through standard channels. The city leadership and the fellows can function as an ad hoc innovation team, collaborating on a series of interesting experiments throughout the year, all of which will be shared with the other cities.
Change the tool set.
Part of the job of the fellows will be to help introduce lightweight, simple technology that can help with internal functions. These small changes can have large lasting effects.
Facilitate collaboration with other cities.
Code for America is building a network of city leaders who believe there is a better way of doing things, and the program involves both formal and informal channels to share ideas and lessons learned. We’re also working more robust channels for sharing applications and setting technology standards across cities.
http://codeforamerica.org

TED Talk – Khan Academy

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

Tech Opportunity
Glogster is looking for “ambassadors”.  You get additional resources and a full Glogster account in exchange for your time and use of the Glogster accounts.
http://edu.glogster.com/ambassadors/#newAmbassadorEmail

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 at The Easton in Columbus, OH.
  • 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