Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:03:34 -0500 Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr http://middleschoolmatters.com Podcast Maker v1.4.0 - http://www.lemonzdream.com/podcastmaker Middle School News for Middle School Educators Middle School Matters is designed for Middle School Educators. We focus on the Middle School educators. Providing news, conversation on relevant topics, and links to other great sites, we want to reach out to other middle school educators. Join in the discussion at MiddleSchoolMatters.com en 2012 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Middle School Educators MiddleSchoolEducators@gmail.com http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSMLogo2_144.jpg http://middleschoolmatters.com 131 144 K-12 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory clean Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about Drive-in conferences, the Twitterverse and much more. Jokes You Can Use: There are only two ways of handling a woman - nobody knows either one. Girl: “Too bad you flunked the test. How far away were you from the right answers?” Boy: “About 2 seats.” Boy: “I just had a date with Siamese twins” Girl: “Did you have a good time?” Boy: “Yes and no”. On Our Mind: Why don’t teachers nominate colleagues for awards? Eileen Award: Dave Bydlowski Advisory: http://gullible.info/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about Nature Journaling. In the January, 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Janita Cormell and Toni Ivey wrote an article entitled, "Nature Journaling: Enhancing Students' Connections to the Environment Through Writing." Janita describes how she shared her passion for nature with her sixth-grade students through nature journaling and how her students gained a better understanding of the natural world. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. iBooks Author update News: Reed-Custer District seeks balance in 'friending' students Marney Simon - Staff writer So what is a school district to do when technology advances faster than school policy? Dr. Butts said that there may very well be educational value to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and other sites, the district has to find it and be able to encourage the use of it appropriately. School board members noted that finding a balance for how Facebook and other social media is used in relation to the schools is difficult. "Used appropriately it's an after hours reach-out, I don't want that to be taken away," Speed said. "I just want us to say, hey, if you're going to have it, it has to be maintained in a professional manner. Lead by example. That's why we're here." http://www.braidwoodjournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=143&ArticleID=8490 Resources: Going Paperless as a Teacher - Part 1 http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/01-2012/going-paperless-teacher-part-1 Web Spotlight: What’s Wrong with the Teenage Mind What happens when children reach puberty earlier and adulthood later? The answer is: a good deal of teenage weirdness. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577181351486558984.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5 The Amazing Educational Jargon Generator http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong By Garth Sundem Taking notes during class? Topic-focused study? A consistent learning environment? All are exactly opposite of the best strategies for learning. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/01/everything-about-learning/ This is What our Sun will Look Like When It Dies In a few billion years, our dear Sun will look like this, a beautiful glowing eye of spent starstuff trash in the shape of Sauron's Eye. http://gizmodo.com/5881048/this-is-how-our-sun-will-look-when-it-dies-yes-its-the-eye-of-sauron The Faculty Project The best Professors from the world's leading Universities are coming together to teach online FOR FREE! http://facultyproject.com/ Strategies: “WE PENALIZE KIDS FOR GETTING DISTRACTED FROM BORING STUFF AT SCHOOL” by DAVE CAOLO http://52tiger.net/we-penalize-kids-from-getting-distracted-from-boring-stuff-at-school/ http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-192_Diners_Drive-ins_and_Dives.mp3 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:02:32 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr @msmatters What do you think? tinyurl.com/6m4uzw4 - From Dr. Tatom. Eileen Award: Doc Tatom Donnielle Kota-Moore Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Metal Safety. This middle school science minute is about metal safety. In the December, 2011 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Ken Roy wrote an article entitled, "Test Your Metal (safety knowledge)." He investigates the safety issues involved in using metals with middle school students. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: Supreme Court Declines Cases on Student Internet Speech supreme_court_declines_cases_o.html?cmp=ENL-DD-NEWS1 Resources: 25 Audio Editors: Most Amazing High Definition Image of Earth - Blue Marble 2012 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/ 100 iPad Apps Perfect For Middle School http://edudemic.com/2011/11/ipad-middle-school/ http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/ Seinfeld Seinfeld teaches History: Think History, Saturday Night Live. http://cooperativelearning.nuvvo.com/lesson/9592-seinfeld-tea Alfie Kohn vs Dwight Schrute Classic Schrute Bucks episode. Good for talking about classroom management. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59KY7ek8Rk Web Spotlight: Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites 100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-best-youtube-videos-for-teachers/ http://t.co/V6EeeuLv Valentine's Day Teaching Resources http://www.squidoo.com/valentines-day-teaching-resources Strategies: Why Interactive White Boards are Used Ineffectively in Classrooms An interactive White Board (IWB) or SMART Board has the potential to deliver content better than traditional methods of teaching. Why? http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/2010/07/28/why-interactive-white-boards-are-used-ineffectively-in-classrooms/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: ISTE 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: The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference. OMLA Registration Form OMLA Presentation Proposal Form AMLE Affiliate Conferences: 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 North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012 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]]> Shawn & Troy talk about iBooks Author, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: Whilst escorting his wife to the concert, Jim asked his wife what they were seeing. “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony” she replied. “Good” Jim responded. His wife was surprised, she didn’t think that Jim really enjoyed going to the symphony. “Well, I’m glad that you’re looking forward to this. Where have you heard this before?, she asked. “Huh”, Jim responded. “I’m just happy that we missed the first four”. Whenever my wife needs money, she calls me handsome. “Hand some over”. On Our Mind: iBooks Author Listener question: Is Apple’s New Education Initiative Dangerous? ~ Interesting dialogue #fhuedu642 => @msmatters What do you think? tinyurl.com/6m4uzw4 - From Dr. Tatom. Eileen Award: Doc Tatom Donnielle Kota-Moore Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Metal Safety. This middle school science minute is about metal safety. In the December, 2011 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Ken Roy wrote an article entitled, "Test Your Metal (safety knowledge)." He investigates the safety issues involved in using metals with middle school students. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: Supreme Court Declines Cases on Student Internet Speech supreme_court_declines_cases_o.html?cmp=ENL-DD-NEWS1 Resources: 25 Audio Editors: Most Amazing High Definition Image of Earth - Blue Marble 2012 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/ 100 iPad Apps Perfect For Middle School http://edudemic.com/2011/11/ipad-middle-school/ http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/ Seinfeld Seinfeld teaches History: Think History, Saturday Night Live. http://cooperativelearning.nuvvo.com/lesson/9592-seinfeld-tea Alfie Kohn vs Dwight Schrute Classic Schrute Bucks episode. Good for talking about classroom management. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59KY7ek8Rk Web Spotlight: Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites 100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-best-youtube-videos-for-teachers/ http://t.co/V6EeeuLv Valentine's Day Teaching Resources http://www.squidoo.com/valentines-day-teaching-resources Strategies: Why Interactive White Boards are Used Ineffectively in Classrooms An interactive White Board (IWB) or SMART Board has the potential to deliver content better than traditional methods of teaching. Why? http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/2010/07/28/why-interactive-white-boards-are-used-ineffectively-in-classrooms/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: ISTE 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: The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference. OMLA Registration Form OMLA Presentation Proposal Form AMLE Affiliate Conferences: 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 North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012 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 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-191_Become_an_Authority.mp3 Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:13:15 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about a variety of audio resources, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: Ever notice: People who cough incessantly never seem to go to the doctor - they go to concerts, banquets, and church. People who have a concrete mind - permanently set and all mixed up. People who have a rare intelligence - as in they rarely show that they have intelligence. People who have a keen sense of rumor. On Our Mind: Last week’s interview with Dave Tucker on homework. Eileen Award: Justin Menard Advisory: 100 Things that we didn’t know last year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/100_things_we_didnt_know_last_6.shtml Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about cockroaches. In the December, 2011 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Ron Wagler wrote an article entitled, "Using Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches to Develop and Enhance the Scientific Inquiry Skill of Observation in Middle School Students." He shares activities that students can do to enhance their observational skills. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: A decade of No Child Left Behind: Lessons from a policy failure By Valerie Strauss http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-decade-of-no-child-left-behind-lessons-from-a-policy-failure/2012/01/05/gIQAeb19gP_blog.html?wprss=answer-sheet D.C. Lawmakers Propose Requiring Students to Apply to College Lawmakers in the nation's capital have floated a plan to require high school students to apply to college or trade school -- even if the students have no interest in attending. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/07/dc-lawmakers-propose-requiring-students-to-apply-to-college/ Resources: Learn Out Loud LearnOutLoud.com has scoured the Internet to bring you over 5000 free audio and video titles. This directory features free audio books, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and many other great free audio and video resources. Most audio titles can be downloaded in digital formats such as MP3 and most video titles are available to stream online. Enjoy! http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/History/Speeches American Rhetoric Database of and index to 5000+ full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/ Free Audio Books Download hundreds of free audio books, mostly classics, to your MP3 player or computer. You’ll find great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks Song of the Week Use the link to sign up for his Song of the Week. Also links to lots of information. Follow him on Facebook to hear his latest work with the students and classrooms he visits throughout the year. http://www.monteselby.com/ http://www.monteselby.com/Refrigerator.mp3 SchoolHouse Rocks! Relive my Saturday mornings! http://community.eflclassroom.com/page/schoolhouserock-1?xg_source=activity Web Spotlight: iPad in Education Tons of information, from soup to nuts of iPad implementation. http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/ GapMinder Gapminder is used in classrooms around the world to build a fact-based world view. On this page we feature quality examples & resources. Share your own ideas and learn from others in the new Gapminder Movement forum! http://www.gapminder.org/news/gapminder-desktop-launched/ http://www.gapminder.org/for-teachers/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-190_Hear_Ye_Hear_Ye.mp3 Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:08:54 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy let the Dave's do the talking. A great interview on homework and the Middle School Science Minute. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about the physics of curling. In the December, 2011 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication), there is an article entitled, "Swept Away: Exploring the Physics of Curling" by Liza Esser. In the article, Liza explains the game of curling, the physics of curling, and then she develops a 5E lesson that she uses in her unit on forces and motion. Interview with Mr. Dave Tucker School Improvement team effort What things would improve the learning of the students? Proficiency, meeting the needs of the students. Changing it from a policy group to a learning policy group. A strong indicator was the completion of homework. Started with research and reading. What should the policy be? Decided that existing ones were not the best to choose from or merge into a policy. Read stuff by Doug Reaves (sp?) (Wears a bow tie in the pictures in his research articles. Yes, it isn’t APA documentation, but will help you find it. :-) ) “No Missing Homework” policy wasn’t the best choice either. All homework would be accepted, late or not, and accepted for full credit. No Killer Zeros. A 0 is 10% below a D. Tiered intervention system. Homeroom/Advisory 30 mins. (Homework Club Time) Using Zangle, staff can pull the missing assignment list for each student. Provides a coaching role for the Advisory teacher. Level I: Student gets a pass to Homework Club from Advisory and they have to continue to go there until it is all completed. Level II: Students are pulled from an elective class of administration’s choosing and put into an elective class called Homework Club II. (Band seems to be an inoculation against Homework Club!) Level III: Intervention level that requires staying after school with the administrators (This unjustified border is driving you nuts, isn’t it?) What does homework mean? Why give it? It’s a good formative assessment. Good way to introduce a subject. Practice a skill that has been taught. We don’t want homework to be a test of academic stamina. It needed a systemic response with all of the teachers on board. It is so labor and detail intensive. Encore subjects are second to Core curriculum. Art & Science of Teaching by Marzano gischools.org Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: ISTE 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: The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference. OMLA Registration Form OMLA Presentation Proposal Form AMLE Affiliate Conferences: 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 North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012 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 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-189_Homework-Science_The_Daves_Show.mp3 Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:17:52 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss advisory ideas, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: Why are so few men with whiskers in heaven? Because most men get in by a close shave. What’s the definition of a financial genius? Someone who can make money faster than the rest of the family spends it. I know a woman who has cooked so many TV dinners that she thinks she’s in show business! On Our Mind: New Year’s Resolutions. Feedback PLN site - http://rmmade.com Eileen Award: Happy Birthday to Jeff LaRoux Nicole Woulfe Linda Neville Rachel C. Advisory: It has a name you know: http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/25-everyday-things-you-never-knew-had-names Honest Logo http://m.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/if-logos-were-honest Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about formaldehyde. In the November, 2011 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication), in the section on "Scope on Safety" a question was asked about what a teacher should do if they find specimens preserved in formaldehyde. Two very good options are provided. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: It's Time to Rethink the Hours America Spends Educating http://www.edutopia.org/time-out LearnCentral becomes Blackboard Collaborate http://www.wecollaborate.com/ Novo 7, DroPad A8i and the Aakaash . . . So you’re thinking about a cheap tablet . . . Resources: Documentary Tube http://www.documentarytube.com/ Old Television Themes A vast resource of audio. http://www.televisiontunes.com/ Sketch in 3D on the Web About Remember the old cartoons where hand drawn lines appeared to vibrate because of differences between frames? That's what this experiment simulates. It also adds a third to your drawings by allowing you to rotate the canvas. http://hakim.se/experiments/html5/sketch/ Web Spotlight: The 20% Solution I recently assigned a new project to my 11th grade English students: The 20% Project. Although it’s called a “project”, that term is merely for student understanding and lack of a better word. This project is based on the “20 percent time” Google employees have to work on something other than their job description. It has been well documented, and Google has exponentially grown as a company while giving this 20 percent time. http://educationismylife.com/the-20-project-like-google-in-my-class/ The Living Room Candidate Election video ads. Can be sorted by year, by type, or by issue. http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/ 10 Funniest Things http://educationismylife.com/top-10-funniest-things-ever-said-in-education/ MiddleWeb's New Resources (438) http://tln.typepad.com/middleweb/2011/12/middlewebs-new-resources-438.html Urgent call to a medieval Help Desk http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/cyberworld/urgent-call-to-a-medieval-help.html 30 Webtools to Transform a Classroom - LiveBinder http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=259021 Continuing to Learn with the iPad- Storytelling http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/12/28/continuing-to-learn-with-the-ipad/ Strategies: 5 Awesome Things you can do with an iPad and a projector http://www.classroominthecloud.net/2011/10/5-awesome-things-you-can-do-with-ipad.html Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool http://www.npr.org/2012/01/01/144550920/physicists-seek-to-lose-the-lecture-as-teaching-tool (Referenced in the Twitterverse: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/everybody-is-stupid-except-you/201201/lectures-suck) Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-188_20_Project_and_a_Plethora_of_words_and_resources.mp3 Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:06:26 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy catch up with the Twitterverse, AMLE conference and more. Jokes You Can Use: 1. What time of day was Adam born? A little before Eve. Why was Adam a famous runner? He was first in the human race. 2. On our way home from visiting family we stopped at a Culver’s to grab some breakfast. Sitting in the booth across the way was Santa. He had ordered the Eggs Benedict and when the nice Culver’s chap brought out his order he set down a hubcap in front of the jolly old elf. As he passed me I stopped him and asked about the hubcap. He said, “Oh, well, there’s no plate like chrome for the Hollondaise …” On Our Mind: Holidays. Eileen Award: Luke Rakoczy Craig Cadman Michael Palmer Lynda Gonzalez-Napier Advisory: Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This one is about using Gummi Bears in the Science Classroom. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: TED Presentation: On-line Charters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L_wfX3MzRE Can We Really Learn Online? Response to NYTimes on Wall Street's Digital Learning Enterprises http://hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2011/12/13/can-we-really-learn-online-response-nytimes-wall-streets-digital-lea Resources: Snag Films National Geographic Channel: *Thanks to Richard Byrne at Free Tech for Teachers - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/12/watch-75-full-length-national.html http://www.snagfilms.com/films/browse/category/national_geographic Web Spotlight: Overcoming the Divide Between Curriculum and Technology Leaders The digital revolution is changing how many U.S. school districts create ­engaging learning environments, with collaboration between the ­curriculum and technology ­departments slowly becoming the norm rather than the exception. By ­developing a common language around how students learn best, these leaders are fostering a shared vision for effective 21st century learning. Unfortunately, there remains a striking gap between this vision and the day-to-day strategic work these leaders are doing. http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2011/12/overcoming-divide-between-curriculum-and-technology-leaders iPad App listing by Dan Callahan on Pinterest iPad apps categorized by subject. http://pinterest.com/dancallahan/ Try these 10th-grade quizzes created from Florida’s standardized test We decided to do this because of the enormous popularity of a guest post I published last week by educator Marion Brady about a school board member in Florida who decided to take the state standardized test. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/try-these-10th-grade-quizzes-created-from-floridas-standardized-test/2011/12/13/gIQABBR6rO_blog.html?wprss=answer-sheet A superintendent calls school reformers’ bluff By John Kuhn As a public school administrator, I have been a steadfast critic of the legacy of No Child Left Behind. But I’ve recently figured out a way that school reformers can get me on their side. It’s very simple. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-superintendent-calls-school-reformers-bluff/2011/12/11/gIQABKBXoO_blog.html?wprss=answer-sheet Phishing Quiz Ever wonder how good you are at telling the difference between a legitimate website and one that's a phishing attempt? Take this quiz to find out. http://www.opendns.com/phishing-quiz/ Strategies: An Interactive Strategy for Reading Assignments in All Content Areas http://www.amle.org/Publications/MiddleLeveliNSIDER/Articles/ReadingAssignments/tabid/2532/Default.aspx AMLE 2011: Classroom Management & Student Motivation "The Keys to Raising Student Achievement" Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-187_Theres_No_Place_like_Chrome_for_the_Hollandaise.mp3 Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:26:11 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about the AMLE conference (Wormeli presentation), Eileen Award and more. Jokes You Can Use: Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. Three men were sitting on a bench in heaven discussing how they died. The first man said "I died of cancer." The second man said, "I died of tuberculosis". The third man said "I died of seenus". The first two men said, "No, you mean sinus." The third man said "No, I mean seenus. I was out with my best friend's wife and he seen us!" A recently hired nurse listened while the doctor was yelling, “Malaria! Chicken pox! Polio!” the nurse asked another nurse, “why is he going on like that?” The other nurse replied, “Oh, he just likes to call the shots around here.” On Our Mind: Holidays. Eileen Award: Stephanie Francis Advisory: The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011 *Warning, you need to review prior to showing live. You’ll probably want to download the ones that you want to share. http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011 or The year in 60 seconds http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/12/06/year-in-60-seconds?videoId=226168503 or Reuter’s Pictures http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: PE, Recess standards- more schools meet standards Schools are more likely to offer students 150 minutes of physical education per week if located in a state or district that mandates that level of P.E., according to a study published online today in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/schooled_in_sports/2011/12/study_phys_ed_recess_mandates_boost_school_physical_activity_time.html Friendly Advice For Teachers: Beware Of Facebook by NANCY SOLOMON The new and ever-changing world of social networking has blurred the lines between private and public, work and personal, friend and stranger. It's becoming a particular challenge for teachers who can quickly rile students and parents by posting comments or photos online. http://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143264921/friendly-advice-for-teachers-beware-of-facebook Resources: Online Conversion Take just about any format and convert it to another. Sections: Audio Image Ebook Hash Generator Video Document Archive http://www.online-convert.com/ Web Spotlight: Strategies: AMLE 2011: Thursday Sessions Keynote: Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education See Dept. of Education website. Rick Wormeli: Tiering Assignments and Assessments "Even a man on the right track will get run over if he just stands there" -Will Rogers. Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: ISTE 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: The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference. OMLA Registration Form OMLA Presentation Proposal Form AMLE Affiliate Conferences: 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 North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012 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 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-186-Yea-We_Promised_to_Get_to_Wormeli_and_We_did.mp3 Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:49:15 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy return to talk about the Twitterverse, Eileen Awards, feedback and more. Jokes You Can Use: My cat started his writing career by authoring a feline-oriented soap opera; he titled that project, "Nine Lives to Live." My cat's writing a feline-oriented Christmas movie script. He has titled this project: "It's A Wonderful Nine Lives." On Our Mind: Holidays. Feedback. Facebook/Google+ Eileen Award: Eric Runyan - He followed our advice about Rick Wormeli and was greatly pleased. Eric Stockmeyer - me too! (to several of his points) SteveParkerZ: New Twitter follower Dr. Monte Tatom: Cyberbully article suggestion Advisory: Museum of Obsolete Objects http://www.youtube.com/mooojvm We are the Solution The Pledge to Stop Bullying (with video) http://wearethesolution.net/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Dave is back with a podcast about Acrylic Nails in the Lab and the safety concerns that exist. Student safety - always a focus. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: What Kinds of Things DO Teachers Buy for Their Classrooms? By Bill Ferriter After swinging through Target and dropping another $10 bucks on supplies that I need for an upcoming science lab, I decided to pull out my envelope o' receipts and see how much I've spent on school purchases so far this year. http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/tempered-radical/11-2011/what-kinds-things-do-teachers-buy-their-classrooms Teachers’ newest online worry: ‘cyberbaiting’ 11 percent of teachers know a friend who has been 'cyberbaited,' or taunted by a student hoping to record an outburst, according to a new survey. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/11/27/teachers-newest-online-worry-cyberbaiting/ Resources: Using Wolfram|Alpha in the Classroom Wolfram|Alpha is a free online computational knowledge engine that generates answers to questions in real time by doing computations on its own vast internal knowledge base. Our long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. This can be valuable to educators in many ways. http://www.wolframalpha.com/educators/ HistoryWorld Timelines http://www.historyworld.net/timesearch/default.asp?&keywords= Themeefy Create, Curate, Share http://www.themeefy.com/landing Web Spotlight: Join.Me Instant screen sharing. Instant Aha! Get everybody on the same page, when they're not in the same room, instantly. Review documents and designs. Train staff. Demo products or just show off. join.me is a ridiculously simple screen sharing tool for meetings on the fly. join.me free screen sharing 250 viewers share control multi-monitor chat send files viewer: iPad/iPhone or Android Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: ISTE News: ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Ohio Middle Level Association: The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference. OMLA Registration Form OMLA Presentation Proposal Form AMLE Affiliate Conferences: 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 North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2012 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 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-185-Beechball-of-death.mp3 Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:05:00 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about AMLE Conference and much more. Jokes You Can Use: A skeleton once wanted to go to a party but then he realised he had NO-BODY to go with. On Our Mind: AMLE Attendance Flipped Classrooms Eileen Award: Vlad Gutkovich of Flowcabulary Use AMLE11 to get a free month of Flowcabulary for your classroom! Jack Berckemeyer Advisory: Google Fun http://geekbeat.tv/6-awesome-google-tricks-and-games/ (Correction: Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th . . . ) Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about nature artists. It is based on an article written by Ashley Campbell, entitled, "Avenues to Inspiration: Integrating the Life and Work of Nature Artists into Middle School Science." The article can be found in the October, 2011 edition of Science Scope, which is published by the National Science Teachers Association. The following nature artists are cited in this podcast: Marie Sibylla Merian John James Audubon Wilson A. Bentley Andy Goldsworthy From the Twitterverse: The former usually is just using tech to do the same as we've always done. #grumpytour Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: This American Life http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/449/middle-school http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/449/transcript Common Core Webinars http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/webinars/common-core-webinars.aspx Resources: BrainHoney BrainHoney is learning infrastructure hosted in the cloud. Use complete solutions today, like the BrainHoney LMS, or build cloud solutions using BrainHoney components. http://brainhoney.com/ Simple Science’s Video http://vimeo.com/user697789/videos MathChimp Welcome to Math Chimp! We collect free online math games and organize them by the common core standards. We're glad you've come to play cool math games here... they're free and always will be! http://www.mathchimp.com/ Pictures that bring the War home Draw a StickMan Fun, time waster. You draw, the story unfolds. http://www.drawastickman.com/ Web Spotlight: Strategies: How to Creatively Integrate Science and Math AMLE 2011: Thursday Sessions NMSA/AMLE Affiliate Meeting Thursday 7:30 am. Session Title: Advocating for AMLE Article passed out at registration: Mark of Leadership: If Not You, Then Who? by Tom Burton (p. 44 AMLE) (I get to sit next to Ross Burkhardt!) Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-184_Youd_think_that_we_had_plenty_to_talk_about.mp3 Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:40:01 -0500 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about testing, the Twitterverser, advisory and more. Jokes You Can Use: 1. Why are round pizzas put in square boxes? 2. If a deaf person must appear in court is it still called a hearing? 3. Why does the sign read, “Enter at your own risk" who else could you risk other than yourself? 4. If it's called "frying pan" is it OK to boil something in it? 5. Why doesn't every doughnut have nuts in it? Do you know what happens to quarterbacks when they reach the ends of their lives? They just pass away. Troy’s Backup Jokes: Test Question: Give a brief explanation of the meaning of the term “hard water.” Student Answer: Ice Test Question: What is methane? Student Answer: Methane is a smelly greenhouse gas that is produced when trees and/or cows are burned. (F in Exams by Richard Benson) On Our Mind: Week and a half to AMLE/NMSA 2011 in Louisville . . . Sessions Affiliate Sessions: Contact Doug Herlensky if you’re attending. Dinner Eileen Award: Kam Yousaf Advisory: What would it take to make a model look like Barbie? Here’s a breakdown of what she'd need done to be the kind of doll women aspire to: a brow lift, a jaw line shave, rhinoplasty, a cheek and neck reduction, a chin implant, scooped-out shoulders, a breast lift, liposuction on her arms, and tummy tuck, which would also have to be sculpted as if it were lined in whale-bone from the inside. And that’s just the half of her. http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/the-plastic-surgery-a-model-needs-to-look-like-barbie-2584798 Respect Respect Rap – I use this with grades 2 – 4 but it’s suitable through middle school. Just love the message, the instrumental track, the editing, the kids’ performances (and the Principal’s, too). The choreography is amazing, the scene setup, the dancing at the end … it’s just dripping with awesome. Congratulations, Fearless Lions at Frank Porter Graham Elementary in Chapel Hill, NC. YOU, QUITE LITERALLY, ROCK! http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=6844 Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) From the Twitterverse: News: Testing Costs As the nation endures its sputtering recovery, significant cuts to state and local education Will Richardson: Make It Stop. Please. http://willrichardson.com/post/11862306546/make-it-stop-please Resources: 60 Seconds http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/files/2011/06/internet-60-seconds-infographic.jpg Stitch.it Simply copy-and-paste a set of links in our text box and click 'Stich It'. We'll convert those links into one short URL for you to share. It's that easy! http://stich.it/ Good to Know Stay safe online Your data on the web Your data on Google Manage your data http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/ WhatFolio http://www.whatfolio.com/ Primary Sources: Documents from a variety of eras. From 4000bc - 21st Century. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp Welcome to the David Rumsey Map Collection Database and Blog. http://www.davidrumsey.com/ Royal Society http://royalsocietypublishing.org/search Music Primary Sources: Victrola Book of Opera http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/victor-book-of-the-opera Acoustic Recordings http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/about/acoustical-recording iPad Resources https://sites.google.com/site/iccarsproject/home/ipad-ios-resources Shift Happens . . . With Resources http://bigthink.com/ideas/39600 Now with PDF resources for group discussion: http://www.iowafuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IDYK-DIscussion-Guide.pdf Web Spotlight: Larry Ferlazzo Strategies: How YouTube Is Changing The Classroom Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-183_You_Vill.mp3 Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:10:06 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about iPads and lots of Science Resources. Jokes You Can Use: After dying in a car crash, three friends find themselves at an orientation to enter heaven. Each one was asked, “When you are in your casket, what would you like to hear your friends and family saying about you?” Sean says, “I would like to hear them say I was a great doctor and a great family man.” Karl says, “I would like to hear them say I was a wonderful husband and an excellent teacher who made a difference in children’s lives.” Juan says, “I would like to hear them say, ‘Look! He’s moving!’” Ladies and gentlemen, hobos and tramps, Bug-eyed mosquitoes and bowlegged ants! I’m about to tell you a story I’ve never heard before, So pull up a chair and sit on the floor. Admission is free, so pay at the door. One fine day, in the middle of the night, two, dead boys got up to fight. Back to back, they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise, and saved the lives of the two dead boys. If you don’t believe my lies are true, ask the blind man, he saw it too! On Our Mind: CMU CMLA meeting on Wednesday. Eileen Award: CMUCMLA From the Twitterverse: News: As minds get quicker, teens get smarter U.S. researchers say they have demonstrated for the first time that adolescents become smarter because their brains process information faster. http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/09/29/As-minds-get-quicker-teens-get-smarter/UPI-84711317352462 GlogsterEDU Dear Glogster EDUcators, We sincerely apologize for the site issues you’ve been experiencing lately. We can assure you that they are temporary, and Glogster EDU will be better as a result. Glogster (glogster.com) and Glogster EDU (edu.glogster.com) are currently sharing server infrastructure. Sometimes this results in capacity overload, which can lead to slow loading or unexpected errors. We are in the process of moving Glogster.com to a separate infrastructure so that Glogster EDU will be fast and reliable for you and your students. We will keep you updated on all known issues via Twitter and Facebook, so please follow Glogster EDU on either platform. We are committed to you, our valued educators, and are taking the necessary steps toward providing you with high quality service you can count on. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we complete the moving process. Resources: Science360 We gather news from wherever science is happening, including directly from scientists, college and university press offices, popular and peer-reviewed journals, dozens of National Science Foundation science and engineering centers, and funding sources that include government agencies, not-for-profit organizations and private industry. http://news.science360.gov/files Free EBooks http://www.free-ebooks.net/ Biology Warning, these are anatomically correct. http://www.zygotebody.com/# http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/ http://www.biodigitalhuman.com/default.html Password Generator Help students create better passwords. This is limited but easy to use. http://passwordbird.com/ Triptico http://www.triptico.co.uk/ Web Spotlight: Teacher Wall Scholastic, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and DonorsChoose.org bring you the Teacher Wall – a virtual teacher town square where America’s educators can share their stories, knowledge, and ideas on our nation’s schools. Strategies: ISTE 2011: Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina Dr. John Medina Crossing the brain is scientific bunk. Question and answer session. 20% to 110% boost with 150 minutes of aerobic exercise. Does the use of Google change the brain? Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-182_iPads_We_are_blinding_you_with_Science_Resources.mp3 Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:39:20 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy share some jokes, resources and discuss segregated schools. Jokes You Can Use: On Our Mind: Congratulations to Dr. Monte Tatom NMSA/AMLE early registration extended a week. Dr. Debbie Silver is rumored to have a new book out soon on motivating the hard to motivate student. Eileen Award: Sara Kaviar Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Part 4 of the podcasts on Lab Safety. It is about the 7 Standards for Maintaining a Safer Laboratory Environment. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: A Separate Peace http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2095385_2096859_2096805-1,00.html Resources: iPads in the Science Classroom Last year, around October 2010, I got 13 iPads for my Science students through a service-learning grant. This is the start of my second year using those iPads with my Science students. The summer before I got the iPads I was able to try one out myself and wrote about the possibilities here. I elaborated further on how I was going to use the iPads here. Once students started to use the iPads I used a Google form to see which apps they liked the best. Here are the results of that survey. http://www.educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/09/28/ipads-in-science-2/ Common Core Maps http://commoncore.org/maps/ National Geographic Xpeditions Geography lessons and free resources for your classroom: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/g68.html Better Lesson http://betterlesson.com/home Google Lit Trips The short version is simple. Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story. The focus is on creating engaging and relevant literary experiences for students. I like to say Google Lit Trips “3-dimensionalize” the reading experience by placing readers “inside the story” traveling alongside the characters; looking through the windshield of that old jalopy in The Grapes of Wrath or waddling alongside Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s duckling family in Make Way for Ducklings.” What Google Lit Trips AREN’T Google Lit Trips aren’t like sparknotes and other resources that can be used to circumvent the need to actually do the reading. They are designed to stimulate higher level thinking skills and to connect the story’s themes and messages to the issues of the real world in which students live. http://www.googlelittrips.org/ Web Spotlight: Welcome to the 21things4Students Site This site was created by a grant from the REMC Association of Michigan for the creation of an educational resource for students preparing for 21st century skills. Members of the REMC Instructional Technology Specialists in Michigan along with teachers from around the state have created this site to provide project-based activities which are aligned to the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S), and the Michigan Educational Technology Standards for students (METS) as well as the Framework for 21st Century Learning identified by the Partnership For 21st Century Skills. http://www.21things4students.net/ For Educators: http://www.21things4teachers.net/ For Administrators: http://www.21things4administrators.net/ Strategies: Deb’s Data Digest A wide variety of resources and strategies. http://datadeb.wordpress.com/ ScreenCasts as Assessment/Instruction Here are some examples. http://wwcsd.net/groups/screencasts/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2011 —Saturday, November 10, 2011 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-181_A_Separate_Peace.mp3 Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:08:08 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy share some jokes, Eileen Awards, the Twitterverse, Cheating scandals and more. Jokes You Can Use: Ruth_A_Buzzi 1. Why are hot dogs at Detroit Tigers’ stadium so much better than the ones sold by the Seattle Mariners? Because you can eat them in October. 2. Ultimately, my ex broke up with the blond chick and married a sweet little Native American lady. I hope they're one big Hopi family. On Our Mind: New “toys” for Shawn. https://www.sifteo.com/ Eileen Award: Kerry Derminer Noel Parish Kevin Upton Advisory:kkinstruction Kalysta How to Make a 1920s Flapper style Dress in only One Hour! Includes 4 Special Bonuses. http://j.mp/nDRXcO Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Part 3 of the 4 part series on lab safety. This podcast focuses in on standards on specific safety precautions involving chemicals and lab equipment. The importance of lab safety was pointed out last week in the Chicago area when a student suffered a serious injury while passing around dry ice and water in a plastic bottle and it exploded. The full article can be found at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-26/news/ct-met-science-class-20110926_1_chemistry-class-nsta-national-science-teachers-association From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: A bet on No Child Left Behind http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/who-won-a-2007-bet-on-no-child-left-behind/2011/09/26/gIQAwBBi0K_blog.html How Teacher Turnover Harms Student http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/advancing-teaching-profession/09-2011/how-teacher-turnover-harms-students http://www.nber.org/papers/w17176 How to fix this mess called middle school http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-to-fix-the-mess-we-call-middle-school/2011/09/25/gIQAjCx1yK_blog.html Resources: Dead Sea Scrolls Online http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html VizLingo Turn text into a video representation. http://www.vizlingo.com/ History Pin YouTube introductory video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdT3eKdto4w http://www.historypin.com/ SpeakIt! http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/speak-it-text-to-speech-in-google.html Web Spotlight: Cheating Here's an overview of some of the most shocking instances of teacher cheating, plus a few episodes that may have been overblown. http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-most-outrageous-teacher-cheating-scandals Students need to develop Grit http://edcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/09/teaching-character-strengths-and-values.html Teaching All Site has activities for Interactive Whiteboards (IWB’s), iPad Apps and much more. Tons of links! http://teachingall.blogspot.com/ Digital Promise Founded after more than a decade of effort, including a 2004 report to Congress, Digital Promise has been endorsed by virtually every major national association of educators and educational institutions, libraries, and museums. The project that gave rise to Digital Promise was launched by the Carnegie, Century, Knight, MacArthur, and Open Society foundations, sustained by the Federation of American Scientists, and championed by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, civic and business leaders, who came together on its behalf. http://www.digitalpromise.org/ Strategies: Read Ten Classic Books in Under a Minute http://flavorwire.com/213381/read-ten-classic-books-in-under-a-minute What Will Improve a Student’s Memory? By Daniel T. Willingham Question: I often have students tell me that they studied for a test, meaning that they reviewed their notes and the textbook, but they still did not do well. If they have reviewed the material, why don’t they remember it? Is there anything I can do to help them study more effectively? http://cdl.org/resource-library/pdf/What%20Will%20Improve%20a%20Students%20Memory.pdf Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-180_Last_Stand_Sifteo_Quick.mp3 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:49:35 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy share a bad baseball joke, advisory ideas, the Twitterverse, Common Core ideas and more. On Our Mind: Changing positions Start of the school year Eileen Award: Dr. Tatom: Thanks for the mention on Twitter! Advisory: Permanent Record http://www.slate.com/id/2301449/ The Secret to Success https://plus.google.com/117689362923608221663/posts/8v7RBNncmAJ How many really? http://howmanyreally.com/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Part two on lab safety and focuses in on personal safety of students. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: Beautiful Teenage Brains http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text Resources: Writing Prompts http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/ YouTube for Teachers http://www.youtube.com/teachers http://www.youtube.com/education iPad App Resources: In iTunes, go to the iTunes Store (sidebar on the left). Then select App Store on the bar along the top of the window. Then select the drop down Education under Categories on the right (OR-Just to the right of the word App Store on the top will be a small triangle- click that and select Education) This will reveal App categories for Teachers including: Apps for Teachers Special Education Education Volume Purchasing Mobile Learning http://www.eschoolnews.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2011/09/mobile_star.pdf Alternate Assessment Apps for Eighth Grade Eighth graders need to demonstrate their mastery of skills in English, math and science. http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3110 Web Spotlight: Implementing Common Core Standards Over the next year, the accomplished teachers I met at CTQ will face down these tough questions. They will design—and test-drive in their own classrooms, with their own students—lessons and assessments linked to the Common Core State Standards. http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/advancing-teaching-profession/09-2011/implementing-common-core-standards Cheating Here’s an overview of some of the most shocking instances of teacher cheating, plus a few episodes that may have been overblown. http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-most-outrageous-teacher-cheating-scandals Students need to develop Grit http://edcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/09/teaching-character-strengths-and-values.html Common Core Maps From the website: “Common Core has released a new, Second Edition of the K-12 Curriculum Maps in English Language Arts. The Maps are designed to help educators meet the expectations of the Common Core State Standards, which call for the standards to be “complemented by a well-developed, content-rich curriculum.” Our draft ELA Maps have received more than three million views since last August. We’ve listened to your advice and have added many new features, including: Nearly 200 new writing, grammar, and research activities Guidance for differentiated instruction Library of seventy digital resources More informational and contemporary texts throughout Map users can now: Rate and comment on each of the seventy-six unit Maps along with thousands of suggested works, activities, and resources Submit lesson plans Get preferred pricing on Maps services and tools that are under development Common Core has been inundated with requests for professional development services, more Maps-based curriculum tools, and more Maps, including math Maps. In order to generate the resources needed to respond to these requests, we are offering the opportunity to become contributing members of the Mapping Project for a nominal cost.” Strategies: Inside Story Flash Cards Combine visuals with vocabulary words to help increase retention. http://www.insidestoryflashcards.com/ Jokes You Can Use: Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-179_Common_Core_Bad_Baseball_iPad_Resources.mp3 Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:24:45 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about advisory activities, share some jokes, the Twitterverse, Confessions of a Bad Teacher and more. Jokes You Can Use: Ruth_A_Buzzi Ruth Buzzi If Catholic dogs go to Catechism, how can Catholic cats accept that dogma? (#HappyCaturday to @jwgagne) When choosing a cat, remember the striped ones make you look thinner. #happyCATurday An older cat, reclining on a psychiatrist's couch, said, "Sometimes I think I could have done so much more with my lives." #HappyCATURDAY Were you first hibited before you were inhibited, after which you could become uninhibited? If so, #yougottaberealspecial Eileen Award: Patty Riccardi Advisory: Don’t Laugh at Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTNVXlirF4Y (Book version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv9fN0-062k (This one includes the lyrics on screen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9xyIGCp7ss (Peter Yarbourgh) Lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/don't-laugh-at-me-lyrics-peter-paul-mary/3a0b58077c50623648256a22002cb23e What People Don't Get About My Job: From A(rmy Soldier) to Z(ookeeper) Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is the first in a series of four podcasts on lab safety in the middle school lab. You can download a copy of the Science Laboratory Rules and Regulations from the National Science Teachers Association, by visiting: http://www.nsta.org/middleschool In this podcast, we look at the 7 standards of student conduct in the laboratory and in the field. From the Twitterverse: News: The bait and switch of school "reform" http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/12/reformmoney What was Ron Clark Thinking? September 10th, 2011 by Larry Ferlazzo http://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/2011/09/10/jeez-what-was-ron-clark-thinking/ Middle School AP Posting: I am posting a Middle School Assistant Principal position today. If you know of anyone that may be a good fit, send them my way. It is a short posting. Deadline is next week Monday at 4:00pm you know of a good candidate that may be the right fit, pass it on to them. Thanks Mr. Ryan K. Pfahler Resources: The Likeable Constitution http://www.thelikeableconstitution.com/#state=EV&part=bor&order=mostliked FauxFlash Fauxflash is an online application that takes the hassle out of flash cards and lets you get right to studying. http://fauxflash.com/ Super Book of Web Tools http://www.docstoc.com/docs/66326425/The-Super-Book-of-Web-Tools-for-Educators Web Spotlight: Confessions of a bad teacher http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/08/29/confessions_of_a_bad_teacher/index.html Strategies: More on Teaching Innovation with the Curiosity Box Is REAL Formative Assessment Even Possible? http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/tempered-radical/09-2011/real-formative-assessment-even-possible Web Tools: Teacher 2.0 Steve Hargadon has created a place for teachers to do their own professional growth online. As you answer questions about your teaching, you get feedback from other participants and the chance to encourage others in their growth. http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-178_Confessions_Talking_is_Hard_Need_a_Job.mp3 Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:14:22 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about advisory activity, the Middle School Science Minute, the Twitterverse, what parents need to hear and more. On Our Mind: Is it fair to students to make personnel changes during the first few weeks of school? Eileen Award: To all our Diigo followers . . . group hug! Advisory: String Theory: Take a piece of twine and stick it under the student’s heel. Unwind it up to their head and cut. Take a piece of tape and label the string with the kid’s name. Hold onto the string and repeat the activity at the end of the year. Compare and contrast. NMSA/AMLE Video Contest: Taking the Lead Video Contest Open to middle grade students (5-9) Those working on the video must be 10 to15 year - olds, but teachers may submit the videos. Each video must be 3 minutes or less. Video(s) must be submitted via SchoolTube. See submission process below. Schools may enter as many videos as they would like. Deadline: Videos must be uploaded no later than October 24th, 2011, at 11:00 pm EST. Top 3 winners will be notified by November 7, 2011. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is the third in a three part series about the ELA common core standards in writing and their relationship to science. The four areas of writing include: text types and purposes; production and distribution of writing; research to build and present knowledge; and range of writing. In this podcast, we look at the writing standards that relate to science in grades 6 - 8 in the areas of production and distribution of writing; research to build and present knowledge, and range of writing. From the Twitterverse: News: Beyond Testing ...my Chinese colleagues didn't mention their test scores, nor did they inquire about mine. I quickly learned that we share a similar goal for our students: to promote innovation and foster independent thinking. Every Chinese teacher I spoke with expressed concern with their nation's emphasis on testing. One teacher explained that students spend their entire final year of high school preparing for national examinations at the expense of other educational opportunities that would enable them to acquire a broad range of skills. She described Chinese students as "unhappy" because they are "forced" to drill for high-stakes examinations. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-shearer/beyond-testing-a-lesson-f_b_954135.html What teachers really want to tell parents By Ron Clark, Special to CNN So, what can we do to stem the tide? What do teachers really need parents to understand? http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-parents/index.html Teaching Technology Resources: Ambrosia Releases Soundboard for iPad Ambrosia Software has released their sound effects software for iPad. You can now put sound effects in the iPad and control your soundboard with the touch of a finger. You don’t do drama? (You do if you’re a middle school teacher!) What about your ESL kids? What about attaching sounds to word combinations and when they have a hard time sounding things out, they tap the screen and get the correct sound? I can see this being a great resource for the Speech-Language Pathologist in your district. Comparison Search Two ways to look at search results. Could help with looking at the pro’s and con’s of a subject. http://www.gleancomparisonsearch.org/ Web Spotlight: Arizona Technology Integration Matrix http://azk12.org/tim/ Go Social Studies Go Looks really interesting. Includes a virtual book on Columbus. http://www.gosocialstudiesgo.com/ Using Film in any Class Web Tools: Are you funnier than Scott Adams? Create the text from a Dilbert cartoons. http://dilbert.com/mashups/ ISTE 2011: Teacher 2.0 with Steve Hargadon How do you use the tools of the web to get teachers recognized and get them involved? PDF: http://mrmcgirr.com/page20/downloads/files/ISTE%20Steve%20Hargadon.pdf Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-177_Group_Hugs_and_Parents_need_to_hear_this.mp3 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:39:05 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about iPads, video, the twitter verse and more. On Our Mind: iPads in Education Advisory: Quotations on Character Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind. —Robert G. Ingersoll http://josephsoninstitute.org/quotes/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This is the second in the three part series on the common core ELA and their relationship to science. Like the first in the series, it focuses on Text Types and Purposes, but this time focuses in on writing informative and explanatory texts. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: A Teacher Finds Good in Testing By Ama Nyamekye http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/31/02nyamekye_ep.h31.html?tkn=XTCFBe283Qrdff9t68CNVw5QPQU12ZEh0gb2&cmp=clp-sb-cec Resources: Video Time Machine $1.99 App for iPhone/iPad VIDEO CONTENT TOTALS: 2000′s = 1,521 videos 1990′s = 1,607 videos 1980′s = 1,874 videos 1970′s = 1,565 videos 1960′s = 1,848 videos 1950′s = 589 videos 1940′s = 256 videos 1930′s = 227 videos 1920′s = 196 videos 1910′s = 150 videos 1900′s = 140 videos 1860-1899 = 60 videos http://itunes.apple.com/app/video-time-machine/id438078438?ign-mpt=uo%3D5 iPad Hub http://www.macnews.com/2011/08/31/new-usb-hub-provides-large-scale-syncing-ipads-other-devices Movie Mount iPad Video Production http://www.makayama.com/moviemount.html Web Spotlight: Learn more about Geocaching Geocaching is a fun, educational, technology-infused activity that I have tried a couple of times. But I am by no means an expert (totally newbie would be the description) on the topic. Therefore, I asked Jen Deyenberg if she would write a guest post about geocaching. Jen has done extensive work developing geocaching activities with students and has a ton of knowledge to share. After reading this post I hope you will visit her blog to learn more about geocaching. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/learn-more-about-geocaching-great.html Two Nice Guides to Web 2.0 at School and Work http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/two-nice-guides-to-web-20-at-school-and.html Constitution Resources Federal legislation requires schools in the United States to offer lessons related to the U.S. Constitution on U.S. Constitution Day — September 17th of each year. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/08/10/the-best-sites-for-learning-about-the-constitution-of-the-united-states/ www.teachinghistory.org Jokes You Can Use: Recently the President of the United States received a call from a Yooper (someone from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). The Yooper told the President he and several of his friends had declared war on the United States. The President replied, “You know I have a million men in my army, are you sure you want to declare war?” The Yooper replied, “Let me check, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Sure enough, the President gets a call. The Yooper says, “Mr. President, the war is still on. We picked up some trucks and the guys down at the watering hole have joined up, so we’ve expanded our army too.” “Well,” says the President, “since I talked to you yesterday, I’ve added another half-million men to my army. Are you sure you still want this war?” The Yooper thought for a second, “Let me call you back tomorrow.” Sure enough, about the same time the next day the President gets a call. “Mr. President, we added the ultra-light group from the airport and we can now bomb you from above. The war is still on.” The President replied, “You do know I have an Air Force too of modern jets and since I talked to you yesterday, I’ve added another half million to the army for a total of 2 million men. Are you sure you still want this war?” “Let me call you tomorrow,” says the Yooper. The next day the President gets a phone call. “Mr. President, the war is off. We talked it over and we decided we don’t have any way of feeding 2 million prisoners.” Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-176_Video-iPads.mp3 Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:48:32 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss a wide range of topics, September 11th, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: I recently visited a Mental Asylum & I asked the director, "How can you know when a person needs to be institutionalized?" He said, "Well, we fill a bathtub with water & we offer them a Teaspoon,a Teacup and a Bucket & ask them to empty the tub." I said, "I see...A normal person would choose the bucket because it is bigger." He responded, "No. A normal person would pull the plug...would you like a bed by the window? Ruth_A_Buzzi Ruth Buzzi I knew the Washington Monument would develop a crack problem in that neighborhood. The U S Mail is considering dropping back to just 4 days a week next year. The other three days, mail will be carried by Jehovah's Witnesses. Have a heart, Col. Qadhafi, before you leave town; please send all that old clothing back to the estate of Ethel Merman. On Our Mind: Starting of the school year. Education and Election Reform Eileen Award: Ellizabeth S - iTunes comment (I bet Principal Beth ROCKS!!!) Advisory: The Mindset List http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about the ELA common core standards in Writing and their relationship to science. The four areas of writing include: text types and purposes; production and distribution of writing; research to build and present knowledge; and range of writing. In this podcast, we look at the five reading standards that relate to science in grades 6 - 8 in the area of text types and purposes, with a special focus on writing arguments focused on science content. From the Twitterverse: News: Chiquita Sweepstakes. Starting August 15th, Chiquita, in partnership with Rio the movie, will celebrate back to school and healthy eating by giving away up to $5,000 in prizes! The interactive site will give you and your students the tools to learn about healthy nutrition with FUN and original lesson plans, games, worksheets and more. The sweepstakes is open to all teachers from accredited schools in the U.S. Simply register your class at Chiquita.com/BananaBrain http://www.chiquita.com/bananabrain/ Resources: Monte Selby Free Song of the Week Check out the Monte Selby web site. This week is a free song about Matter. http://monteselby.com/Matter.mp3 Web Spotlight: Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive by Richard Byrne http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/08/understanding-911-television-news.html Which Rules Are Worth Circumventing? By Tina Barseghian Rules are important in any civilized society. Without them, chaos would ensue. But some rules are worth questioning, especially when the consequences negate their very purpose. http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/08/what-rules-are-worth-circumventing/ "What Would You Attempt to Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?" http://lifehacker.com/5827067/what-would-you-attempt-to-do-if-you-knew-you-could-not-fail Ten things every new teacher should know By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor 1. Focus on the positives, not the negatives. 2. Be clear in your student expectations. 3. Have a backup plan. 4. Students are not your BFFs. 5. Many times, you’ll find yourself alone. 6. Lashing out will get you nowhere. 7. Learn to put your foot down. 8. Teaching is often political. 9. Make friends with custodians and secretaries 10. Make sure your professors have experience with current instructional practices. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/08/19/10-things-to-know-before-teaching/ ISTE 2011: What are we doing for our leaders? PDF: http://mrmcgirr.com/page20/downloads/files/ISTE%20IT%20Leadership.pdf Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-175_Out_of_the_Bath_Water.mp3 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:55:12 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about ISTE 2011, the Twitterverse, and much more. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) It runs a little longer (2 minutes--but hey, I took off my watch and found I had all the time in the world). It is about the announcement of the new Science Framework that was released last week. From the framework will come the new science standards (late 2012). This will probably become the common core for science, just like ELA and Math--thus the National Curriculum in Science. So, it is a good heads up for people. If you want to mention it in the show notes, the audience can download the full 320 page report for free at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165 News: Beyond Seat Time: Advancing Proficiency-Based Learning Can we do without the traditional school year? Is it feasible to shift to a system of student advancement based solely on proficiency? iNacol's Susan Patrick shares her vision of what such a system would look like and what it will take to get there. (Hint: It's already underway in some states.) http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/08/10/beyond-seat-time-advancing-proficiency-based-learning.aspx NMSA becomes AMLE: Watch for the change during the months of August and September. Jeff LaRoux wins NMSA/AMLE election! Congrats! Resources: U.S. Debt clock http://usdebtclock.org/ Ten ideas for interactive teaching By Jenna Zwang, Assistant Editor http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/06/06/ten-ideas-for-interactive-teaching/?ast=42&astc=3032 http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/TeachingAndLearningResources/CourseDesign/Assessment/content/101_Tips.pdf Web Spotlight: Teenage Girls And Social Media: Tips For Parents From A Best-Selling Author Nearly 10 years ago, author Rachel Simmons wrote a best-selling book called Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls. Now she has updated her book to include the role of social media and technology. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2011/08/09/139176817/teenage-girls-and-social-media-tips-for-parents-from-a-best-selling-author?ft=1&f=1019 ISTE 2011: Professional Development led by Liz Davis Students did a screen cast for each of the Google products. Checkout Flipboard for the iPad. On Our Mind: Starting of the school year. Eileen Award: Linda Chapman Broderic Dave T. Debbie T. Advisory: http://usdebtclock.org/ From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. Jokes You Can Use: Events & Happenings: HTTP://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-174_Beyond_Seat_Time_and_Jeff_for_the_Win!.mp3 Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:48:34 -0400 Podcasting no 00:00:00 Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about Bring Your Own Devices, the Twitterverse, ISTE 2011 and more. Jokes You Can Use: On Our Mind: RIM buys JayCut for the PlayBook. Eileen Award: BuzzGarwood (twitter) Advisory: Visualization of the United States National Debt. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: Atlanta Cheating Resources: Bill McBride http://billmcbride.pbworks.com/w/page/14094960/Welcome-to-my-Wiki Timer Tab Online Timer, Alarm & Stopwatch. Keeps time on a tab in your browser. http://www.timer-tab.com/ Pic4Learning Web Spotlight: Lino Online stickies. http://en.linoit.com/ ISTE 2011: BYOD Bring Your Own Device Led by Scott Meech References: https://profiles.google.com/smeech.net/posts http://www.linkedin.com/in/smeech http://globaleducation.ning.com/profile/ScottMeech How Paul R. Woods got it in his district: Install wireless first. Students can bring in their own machines, but they must allow the school to put their proxies on their machines. If kids try to get around it, the network locks their screen and they have to see the building tech person to get it unlocked again. How did you get teachers on board? First year: bring your device in and allow our techs to look at it. Following years: pick an electronic textbook. The school bought the licensing for all the books on all the devices. The best way to get teachers involved is to let the kids use it and then let them ask the teachers that don't use it if they can use it in their classroom. BYOD is a better way to sustain a 1 to 1 program. District provided computers are an unsustainable way to provide tech. Find schools that are doing this successfully and then go to the IT department. Get administrators on your side before going to IT department. There is some risk going forward: 3-2-1 Rule: Save in 3 different spots. Create a safe place to fail in to create buy-in with your staff/admin/tech. www.schoolweblockers.com: Cloud storage for $1.00 per year. @paulrwood on Twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/paulrwood Website: http://whatisyouritvision.blogspot.com/ Related: Scott McLeod (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant) UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) ISTE 2011: Professional Development led by Liz Davis Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-173-BYOD_Solve_the_Debt.mp3 Sat, 30 Jul 2011 12:30:06 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy share some jokes, news of the Twitterverse, Brain research and more. Jokes You Can Use: While walking to the ninth hole, one psychiatrist said to his colleague, would you believe that yesterday I had a patient who claimed he heard music every time he put on his hat?” “Really? What did you do?” The psychiatrist answered, “I took it away and removed the band.” A man was on a beach when he discovered an old lamp in the sand. He rubbed it and a genie popped out. The genie said "I will grant you three wishes. The only condition is that you cannot wish for more wishes." "Alright," said the man, "I wish for more genies." A tribal farmer watching a Tarzan movie rushed out of the hall the moment a tiger appeared on screen, advancing menacingly towards the audience. The gatekeeper trying to stop him argued that it's only a movie, to which the tribal replied: “I know it’s a movie, you also know it is, but does the tiger know"? Q: How do Eskimos have babies? A: They keep on rubbing their noses together until the little boogers come out. On Our Mind: mthman Ron King Hey @MSMatters...do you remember the #NMSA session about HOTS question stems on colored paper in the teacher's line of sight? #midleved Eileen Award: Liz N. and Tim H. Thanks for the kind words. Advisory: Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Part 3: This middle school science minute is about the ELA common core standards in Reading and their relationship to science. The four areas of reading include: key ideas and details; craft and structure; integration of knowledge and ideas; and range of reading and level of text complexity. In this podcast, we look at the three reading standards that relate to science in grades 6 - 8 in the area of integration of knowledge and ideas, along with the range of reading and level of text complexity. From the Twittervse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: http://www.minddump.org/you-have-the-same-hours-per-day-as-helen-kell https://www.sifteo.com/product Coming this summer. Show & Tell These results suggest children are extremely sensitive to the subtleties of a teaching scenario, Schulz says: What matters is not if children are shown a function, but how they are shown that function. If they believe that an informed teacher has taught them everything, they will be less motivated to explore. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/06/30/if-students-believe-that-a-teacher-has-taught-them-everything-they-will-be-less-motivated-to-explore/ The original post: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/miot-dsd063011.php What should students be able to do with technology in grade school? http://www.edutopia.org/blog/elementary-technology-skills-mary-beth-hertz Resources: Fur.ly http://fur.ly/ Brain Rules http://www.brainrules.net/about-brain-rules Brightstorm Thousands of FREE video resources for Math & Science. One neat thing is that you can search by textbook. There is also Test Prep materials. Includes transcripts for the videos. http://brightstorm.com/ National Archives Document of the Day A different historical document every day. Includes support links. Also a mobile app is available. http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/ Knovio: Animaps Create and view beautifully informative animated maps, for free! http://www.animaps.com/#!home Kodu Kodu is a visual programming language made especially for creating games. Kodu’s language is entirely icon-based, fairly easy to learn, and aimed at kids 9 to 17. It works on PCs and on the Xbox. http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/students-create-games-that-focus-on-global-issues/ Show Me iPad app. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/showme-interactive-whiteboard/id445066279?mt=8 Web Spotlight: Snag Films: Red, White & Blue Voting. 35 minutes. http://learning.snagfilms.com/film/journeys-through-the-red-white-and-blue Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-172_Confused.mp3 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:13:36 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about ISTE2011, jokes, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: Eileen Award: Allen D. for the web site recommendation. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Part 2 on the relationship between the core standards for ELA and literacy in Science. I look at the three reading standards that relate to science in grades 6 - 8 in the area of craft and structure. From the TwittervISTE: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: The 7 Golden Rules of Using Technology in Schools http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/the-seven-golden-rules-of-using-technology-in-schools/ Resources: Be a Great Learner: Take Notes by Jeff Cobb Establishing a consistent habit of writing things down can be very powerful. A significant body of research supports the idea that simply writing something down contributes greatly to the process of moving it into long-term memory. http://www.missiontolearn.com/2011/06/note-taking/ Leveling the Playing Field: How to Make Standardized Test Preparation Accessible to All Students By Andrea Alexander http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-make-standardized-test-prep-available-to-all-students Desmos http://desmos.com/calculator/ http://desmos.com/ One Teacher's Three-Tiered Intervention Strategy Jean Laurance and Michael Laurance I had no sooner returned from Rick Wormeli's seminar on differentiated assessment and grading than my administrator walked into my office. Her face showed apprehension and a bit of weariness. My class sizes would be pushed to a staggering 37 students! "We don't have enough students to run separate classes, so they will be mixed, but about 10 percent are repeating the class." Having the tools required for differentiated instruction is one thing, but here I was faced with the task of truly implementing it. More than that, I would need to adjust differentiation to my teaching style, a diverse group of students, and a bulging class size. I quickly realized that manageability would be just as important as the instruction itself. http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/620-laurance.aspx Web Spotlight: What Does Successful Project Based Learning Looks Like? by Bob Lenz Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching approach, a mindset, and a framework for teaching skills and content. (Both our working definition and criteria are derived from our own work, as well as the work of, Adria Steinberg’s 6 A’s of PBL, The Buck Institute for Education, and Expeditionary Learning.) http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-definition-bob-lenz Stencil: http://stencil.sourceforge.net/ Make games. No need to understand programming. Can make iPhone Apps from this program. Allegedly Angry Birds was made using this program. Summer Reading List: Troy: The Watchman’s Rattle ( just finished) by Rebecca D. Costa What the Dog Saw by Malcom Gladwell Shawn: Toys to Tools, Safe Practice for Life Online & Web 2.0 How to for teachers The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood ✔ Our Listeners: @mthman: The Classroom of Choice, First Days of School (4th Ed), Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, & Great Ways to Diff Math Instr (I & II), Leading & Managing a Diff Class, Learning to Love Math, PBL Starter Kit (via Buck Institute), UbD Guide 2 HQ Units #midleved: @Waukeestudent: I plan on reading @johntspencer 's new book and maybe his two older books two. http://www.missiontolearn.com/2011/06/recommended-reading/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-171_TwittervISTE.mp3 Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:01:49 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about ISTE, Advisory activity, Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski, the Twitterverse, and more. Jokes You Can Use: What goes up and never comes down? Your age 1 egg takes 5 minutes to boil. How long do 10 eggs take to boil? The same 5 minutes. How many times does a tailor have to cut 100 yards of cloth to get 100 equal pieces? 99 times. You don’t cut the last piece, it is already there What side of the teacup is the handle on? I really don't know the answer Which is heavier? 1 pound of hay or 1pound of metal. They both weigh a pound Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers, Peter piper picked. If Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peckers, how many pickels did Peter piper picked? How many Ps are there in THAT? None...T..H...A...T.....there are NO P's in the word THAT What has 100 eyes and cannot see? A potato Two Indians standing on a bridge. One is the father of the other ones son. What is the relation between the two Indians? Mother and Father What has NO legs and CAN run? Water On Our Mind: ISTE 2011 (#iste11) The problems with skipping a show Eileen Award Gabe Walker & Michael Cohen Advisory: BBC - Witness http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/witness Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) In this podcast, I look at the ELA Reading Common core for grades 6-8 and see how they apply to science. This is the first in a three part series. It focuses in on Key Ideas and Details. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: University of the People http://www.uopeople.org/ What's the Best Way to Grade Teachers? By Kristina Rizga| Wed Jun. 29, 2011 11:35 AM PDT http://motherjones.com/contributor/2011/06/grading-teachers-evaluations First Digital Only Textbook: http://mashable.com/2011/06/27/iste-textbooks-k-12/ The many health perks of good handwriting http://www.healthkey.com/sc-health-0615-child-health-handwriti20110615,0,5764943.story Resources: ISTE Online: Free PD for you. What happens at ISTE . . . goes social: http://tumblr.com/xtl38xls1q http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/07/webcasts-and-keynotes-from-iste-2011.html Socrative: Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational games and exercises via smartphones and tablets. Our apps are super simple and take seconds to load and run. Teachers control the questions and games on their laptop, while students respond and interact through their smartphones/laptops. Run it as an app or on any web browser. Currently free. No mention of what prices will be once it is out of beta. http://www.socrative.com/ Weaving History Create 'factlets' — places, people, events — and string them together into 'threads' at the click of a button.Automatically visualize the results temporally and spatially, search by any attribute, automatically import Wikipedia articles and much more … Very bare bones currently. It’s reliance on Wikipedia could cause some problems for schools (but maybe not). Potential to be exciting and useful for students and teachers. http://www.weavinghistory.org/ Web Spotlight: Ujam You sing the lyrics, it figures out the tune. Even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, sing into the mic and it comes up with the music to go along with it. Anybody can become a musician with this app. Think of it as your answer to the kid who says, “You can’t make a song out of that!” Now you can. http://www.ujam.com/ ISTE 2011 Led by Scott Meech References: https://profiles.google.com/smeech.net/posts http://www.linkedin.com/in/smeech http://globaleducation.ning.com/profile/ScottMeech Related: Scott McLeod (http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant) UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-170_Football_Fields.mp3 Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:26:49 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about a ton of resources, the Twitterverse, summer and more. Jokes You Can Use: On Our Mind: Job changes. Week “off”. Eileen Award Monte Tatom Advisory: Belongings By SAM DOLNICK There are three million immigrants in New York City. When they left home, knowing it could be forever, they packed what they could not bear to leave behind: necessities, luxuries, memories. Here is a look at what some of them brought. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/nyregion/27belongings.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) GIS (Geographic Information Systems) with middle school students. (We attach the device to an area they can’t reach, that way if they wander off the floor we can find them! Oh, wait, that’s the mental ward . . .) From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. Resources: Multi-media in Education Report http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/multimediareport-2011/digitaledition-multimediareport2011.html?r=1130997812 77 Web Resouces to Explore this summer http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/06/77-web-resources-for-teacher-to-explore.html Stick Pick http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_wapp17.409d429.html or http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stick-pick/id436682059?mt=8 Succeeding with Science http://www.succeedingwithscience.com/ OKAPI Reading level and CBA (Curriculum Based Assessment) probes. http://www.lefthandlogic.com/htmdocs/tools/okapi/okapi.php Web Spotlight: Summer Reading List for new teachers: http://www.edutopia.org/groups/new-teacher-connections/52655 MichiganScience http://www.facebook.com/MichiganScience Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-169_I_got_you_a_cookie-Resource_Bonanza.mp3 Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:20:27 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about the Twitter fight between Duncan and Ravitch, ebooks and much more. Jokes You Can Use: Lady, this vacuum cleaner will cut your work in half. Good. I’ll take two of them. Two ROBINS were lying on their backs, BASKING in the sun. A mama cat and her kitten were walking by. The kitten complained, 'Mama, I'm so hungry, what can we eat?' To which the mama cat, spying the two robins, replied, How about some Baskin Robbins?' A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. As her dad donned his tuxedo she warned, “Daddy, you shouldn’t wear that suit.” “And why not, darling?” he asked. “You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.” On Our Mind: If you had $9,000 left in building PD, what would you choose to spend it on? - Must be spent before the end of July. - Must be approved by your building principal, School Improvement Committee, and perhaps Act of Congress. Eileen Award Janelle Rowe, newest member to the Diigo group. Advisory: What do you get when you combine Mythbusters, Tesla coils and Doctor Who? The answer is one charged-up performance. http://mashable.com/2011/05/25/adam-savage-doctor-who-tesla-coils/ Stats of the Union http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/29/stats-of-the-union-brings-american-demographic-data-to-the-ipad Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Middle School Science Minute - Dissections and Dissection Apps. From the Twitterverse: News: E-Book prices fuel outrage -- and innovation http://www.macworld.com/article/160120/2011/05/ebook_prices_outrage_innovation.html Resources: http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/essential-tools-using-easy-bib/ Merriam-Webster Dictionary now available on iPad for free Technology Integration Matrix http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php Zondle http://www.zondle.com/publicPages/welcome.aspx Books Should Be Free Free audio book in mp3, iPod and iTunes. http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/ Web Spotlight: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01ravitch.html TEDEd Calling for Submissions: Are you ready for TED? http://www.angelamaiers.com/2011/05/are-you-ready-for-ted-teded-calling-for-submissions.html Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: 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. Ohio Middle Level Association: 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 Michigan Association of Middle School Educators 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 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-168_Fight_Fight_Whos_On_twitter.mp3 Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:21:06 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about funding, the Twitterverse, advisory ideas and much more. Jokes You Can Use: Why was the cat afraid of the tree? Because of the tree bark. Guy: Haven’t I seen you someplace before? Girl: Yes, that’s why I don’t go there anymore. An Antartian ordered a pizza and the clerk asked if he should cut it in six or twelve pieces. The Antartian replies, "Six, please. I could never eat twelve pieces." Five doctors went to on a duck hunt: a GP, a pediatrician, a psychiatrist, a surgeon, and a pathologist. After a while a bird came winging overhead, the GP raised his shogun but didn’t shoot because he wasn’t sure if it was a duck or not. The pediatrician also raised his gun, but then he wasn’t sure if it was a male or female duck, so he didn’t shoot. The psychiatrist raised his gun and then thought, I know that’s a duck, but does the duck know it’s a duck?” The surgeon was the only one who shot. Boom!! He blew it away. Then he turned to the pathologist and said, “Go see if that was a duck.” Q. Why was the strawberry so sad? A. His parent’s were in a jam. On Our Mind: The nuttiness of the end of the year. Eileen Award Carol Brown. Thanks for the thoughts. Advisory: Turn o Phrase You can do a three before you sign in. This would be enough to show the students how it works. They could then create their own. http://turn-o-phrase.appspot.com/ Sixty Second Lectures Lectures in 60 seconds. (Warning: links to YouTube for videos). http://www.sas.upenn.edu/home/news/sixtysec_lectures_archive.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) You were both talking about measurement during the last podcast and then starting talking about units (thanks for the Bydlowski Unit). I got to thinking about measurement in middle school science and its connection to the math curriculum. In Michigan, we stop teaching measurement in grade 6 and it all becomes application. I think it is a good idea for middle school teachers to check out the math curriculum on measurement so that they have a solid understanding of the knowledge that students have, coming into their classrooms. Often, science teachers will say that their students can't measure, but math teachers know they have been teaching a lot about measurement. From the Twitterverse: News: Make My School a Prison http://bigthink.com/ideas/38573?lolamericanpriorities Film Depicts Hardships, Dedication of the 'American Teacher' http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2011/05/the_struggles_of_the_american_teacher.html?cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1 Strategy of the Week: Put the Directions to the Side, Make the Learning Central http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/put-directions-to-side-make-learning.html Resources: Flocabulary We provide a free song from each of our titles in Vocabulary, Literature, Social Studies, Math and Science. You can find these samples by clicking on the subject heading above. We've produced videos for some of these songs. We've also created a handful of free songs and videos that don't correspond to any particular album. http://www.flocabulary.com/teacher_free_songs_videos.html Tildee Quick and easy way to create step by step directions. Allows for editing. Email address is needed to edit and create accounts. Directions can include Google Maps, Videos, and Images (and text, of course). http://www.tildee.com/ Teach Handwriting http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy057.shtml Web Spotlight: Computer Desktop Clutter Reveals Your Personality http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1931 Myth of Bell to Bell teaching http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/bell-to-bell-instruction-vs-golden-rule-of-15-minutes.html Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-167_Fairly_Infinite.mp3 Sat, 28 May 2011 12:40:11 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about advisory ideas, the Twitterverse and much more. Jokes You Can Use: A man was checking into a hotel when he saw a golden retriever sitting on a rug near the hotel elevator. Talking to the man behind the desk, he asked, "Does your dog bite?" The attendant said, "No, he doesn't." But as the man let his hand down to pat the dog, it bit his hand and held on so tightly that the man had to throw him across the room. Returning to the desk, the man said, "I thought you said that your dog didn't bite." He directed the attendant's attention to the dog, who now had returned to the rug. The attendant simply answered, "My friend that is NOT my dog." TEACHER: Desmond, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his? DESMOND: No, teacher, it's the same dog! Q: What do you call a woman that knows where her husband is 24/7? A: A WIDOW!!!!! Eileen Award Tami Readinger, Thanks for the Twitter Follow! Advisory: Create a Unit of Measurement: “We recently discussed a few unusual units of measurement, including the Wheaton (500,000 Twitter followers) and the milliHelen (the quantity of beauty required to launch a single ship). On the chalkboard of made-up measurements, there’s still plenty of room. So let’s invent some new ones! Your fake units can measure anything: height, weight, time, the amount of energy required to do something, whatever. We’ll award a copy of Split Decision to the person who coins our favorite new unit, and we’ll have other prizes for three runners-up. We’ll also start casually using your term in conversation. This might take off.” http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/87272 Kinestic Challenge You don't have to be at a desk but you must be sitting. While sitting at your desk make clockwise circles with your right foot. While doing this, draw the number " 6 " in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) NASA Explorer School Program, since Shawn was asking about it on the last show. NASA has changed the way they do these NES Schools, so it is much easier to participate. Check it out at: explorerschools.nasa.gov From the Twitterverse: News: Textbook Pilot http://www.nature.com/nature_education/biology.html Strategy of the Week: Addressing Bullying http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sample-lesson Tips for Using Project Based Learning to Teach Math Standards http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-math-standards Resources: National Jukebox http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/ Anne Frank Virtual Tour http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Enter-the-3D-house/#/house/21/ Good Reads Makes Good Readers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/goodreads-makes-great-readers.html https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1qEV4Ht-aKZuYM8NF_bSLpKfSzMD41lPaLR6rLnHRAbg Yong Zhao Learning Famed Educational Expositor has a website with links to videos of his presentations on various educational topics. http://zhaolearning.com/ Web Spotlight: Book Writing http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1898 Across More Classes, Videos Make the Grade Film students aren't the only ones producing videos for homework these days. http://chronicle.com/article/Across-More-Classes-Videos/127422 20 Questions That Will Make You a Better Person Excellent students of life take the time to answer good questions. Sit down with a piece of paper and play twenty questions with yourself. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/05/20-questions-that-will-make-you-better.html Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-166_Tons_of_Advisory_Ideas-Measurement_and_more.mp3 Sat, 14 May 2011 13:17:25 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, k-12, advisory Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy give out an Eileen Award, share some jokes, the Twitterverse, news on civics and more. Jokes You Can Use: A married couple, both avid golfers, was discussing the future one night. "Honey", the wife said, "if I were to die and you were to remarry, would you two live in this house?" "I suppose so - it's paid for." "How about our car? Continued the woman. "Would the two of you keep that? "I suppose so - it's paid for." "What about my golf clubs? Would you let her use them too? "Heck, no," the husband blurted out. "She is left-handed." A French man nearly got away with stealing a number of paintings from the Louvre. However, after planning the robbery and getting in and out and past security, he was captured only three blocks away when his Econoline ran out of gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, “I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh.” This guy goes up to a bar located at the top of the Empire State Building in New York. It looks like a nice place, and he takes a seat at the bar. On Our Mind: Happy Birthday to Ron King! Eileen Award Camilla from Australia Peter Price the Math Guy: http://www.classroomprofessor.com Advisory: How much of an eight hour day does a person work, on average, to pay for taxes? http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/27256.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) NASA eClips. You can view them at: http://nasa.gov/eclips. It is a great video resource for middle school teachers and students. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join the conversation on MiddleTalk and Twitter at #midleved this Friday at 8:00 pm EST. News: Many high school seniors may be old enough to vote, but just one-quarter of them demonstrate at least a “proficient” level of civics knowledge and skills, based on the latest results from a prominent national exam. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/05/04/30naep.h30.html?tkn=RMPFOV3rVoDO%2FJcoQfhRKdSuqL0NUqmg9zNN&cmp=clp-sb-ascd District Administration http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pmg/da0511/#/0 Strategy of the Week: Using teaching as inquiry to guide an eLearning action plan http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/04/using-teaching-as-inquiry-to-guide.html Resources: Wifiiti: http://wiffiti.com/ Wiffiti publishes real time messages to screens in thousands of locations from jumbotrons to jukeboxes, bars to bowling alleys and cafes to colleges. Use it for brainstorming Put test questions up there for review … Visibile Vote: http://www.visiblevote.us Shadow a Congressman or Senator. Take a position on an issue or take theirs. Connect with legislators. Need the latest info on the legislator from your district? VisibileVote! Econ Stories Hayek vs Keynes in an economic showdown. http://econstories.tv/ Say It Visually Check out their portfolio. http://www.sayitvisually.com/portfolio Web 2.0 Tools for Math Educators http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/tools_technologies/web_2_0_tools_math_educators Web Spotlight: 20 Technology Skills that Every Educator Should Have 21 Things for Administrators. Have Schools Reached Their Limits? Have we reached the limits of our traditional school system’s capacity to deal with the diversity of learners that come into our schools today? http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/have-schools-reached-their-limits/ Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-165_Skype_is_our_friend-Peter_is_Math-Econ_Raps.mp3 Sat, 07 May 2011 15:45:20 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about education reform in Michigan, the Twitterverse and much more. Jokes You Can Use: TEACHER: What is the chemical formula for water? SARAH: "HIJKLMNO"! TEACHER: What are you talking about? SARAH: Yesterday you said its H to O! Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "why is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of happiness," her mother explained. "And today is the happiest day in her life." The child thought about this for a moment. "So why is the groom wearing black?" Confucius say: Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient. Two guys were riding in a car, arguing about how to say the name of the city that they were in. One said "Louieville" and the other "Louiseville." They went on arguing and arguing, until they came upon a fast-food restaurant. The one guy goes inside and says to the waitress, "Tell me the name of the place where I am right now really, really, really slowly." The waitress goes, "Bur-ger-King." On Our Mind: Gov. Snyder announces Michigan School Reform New certification level: Master Teacher New certification steps: Provisional - 5 years Pre-Professional - 3 years Master Teacher - National Certification or State Level Observations “Degrees Matter”: Anybody with a degree can teach in their area. (Except education degrees . . .) What does this do to “Highly Qualified”? Seniority: If your principal eliminates your position, the other buildings don’t have to let you bump into a position there. Advisory: Who Am I? http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/resources/whoami/whoami.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Science Scope, the National Science Teachers Association's middle school science journal. It comes with membership in NSTA. From the Twitterverse: News: Delicious has a new owner: Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS. To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy. What Educators Can Learn From Comedians: Talking Education: A Virtual Workshop for Innovations By Andrew Marcinek http://www.edutopia.org/blog/sharing-innovation-workshop-andrew-marcinek The Case for Cursive For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html?_r=1 Strategy of the Week: Using ‘Answer Cards’ to Identify Struggling Students Each student has at his desk a set of index cards. You will have distributed these at the beginning of class. Written on each card is a single response, such as A, B, C, D or YES or NO. You may want to add TRUE and FALSE or any others that you need. http://adhdsolution.com/using-answer-cards-to-identify-struggling-students/ Resources: OpenSource.com We want to shine a light on the places where the open source way is multiplying ideas and effort, even beyond technology. We believe that opensource.com will be a gathering place for many of the open source stories we'd like to share--through articles, audio, web presentations, video, or open discussion. http://opensource.com/education BEAUTIFUL WEB-BASED TIMELINE SOFTWARE Timelines can be Flash or Javascript. http://www.tiki-toki.com/ Web Spotlight: Need Children Read "Proficiently" by Grade 3 to Be Sure to Graduate From High School? Some Possible Misinterpretations of Hernandez by Stephen Krashen http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=412 Much Ado About Nothing http://weeklyreader.com/ado Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-164_Michigan_Reform_Cursive_and_Comedians.mp3 Sun, 01 May 2011 20:44:45 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy share some jokes, talk about the Twitterverse, the Middle School Science Minute and much more. Jokes You Can Use: 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: News: A Trial Run for School Standards That Encourage Deeper Thought The Common Core Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards Can a 9-Hour School Day Prevent Students from Dropping Out? 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 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 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 http://phet.colorado.edu/ Comic Book Maker http://www.digmo.co.uk/apps/teaching-with-comic-life-2-free-ebook/ Convofy Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-163_We'll_start_at_1.mp3 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:21:19 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss YapTime, Advisory Ideas, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: 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: 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. http://www.memidex.com/ SuperMaths A variety of math games. http://www.supermathsworld.com/ YapTime http://yaptime.com/ Web Spotlight: NASA releases sky-mapping archive By Alicia Chang, Associated Press 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 http://cast.org UDL Guidelines http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-162_Yap_Away.mp3 Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:42:30 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy share some bad jokes, advisory ideas,the Middle School Science Minute, the Twitterverse, Resources and more. 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) It is about the Middle School Chemistry Project which 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 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: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-161_Bad_Jokes_Abound_History_Updated_Football.mp3 Sat, 09 Apr 2011 13:28:53 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy interview Dr. Tatom about an iPad pilot program. Shawn & Troy talk about jokes, Museum Box, the Middle School Science Minute and more. On Our Mind: Museum Box Interview: Dr. Monte Tatom Advisory: Etch-A-Sketch http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504784_162-10007223-4.html?tag=img 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: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-160_iPad_Research_Interview.mp3 Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:37:53 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy overcome a Skype fail, talk about a bunch of resources, the Twitterverse, share a joke and more. 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: News: 'Curriculum' Definition Raises Red Flags (Crvena Zastava) By Catherine Gewertz 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 http://www.edistorm.com/ 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: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-159_Stuff_for_your_Classroom_Skype_Fail_Midleveled.mp3 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:35:01 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about MAMSE, Dropbox, an advisory activity, Facebook, the Twitterverse and more. 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 From our Listeners: Advisory: Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields - http://bit.ly/h44Be 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: 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: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-158_MAMSE_DropBox_Latin_and_Facebook.mp3 Sat, 19 Mar 2011 18:30:14 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss listener feedback, failure of merit pay, failure of schools, a bunch of tools and more. Jokes You Can Use: Bus Tour The Elevator 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: Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science From the Twitterverse: News: Pay Initiative does NOT Lead to Increased Student Performance: ISTE Voting is now open http://iste-listserver.iste.org/t/446353/2089440/2518/0/ 82% of schools could soon be labeled as “Failing” 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 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 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-157_Call_Nuts_Failures_Tools_and_More.mp3 Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:47:02 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about advisory ideas, bullying resources and free professional development. Jokes You Can Use: Rules of Life: From our Listeners: This is Eric in Chicago, I haven't commented in awhile but I still listen faithfully to the podcast and seems to find equal parts enjoyment and information. So thanks for keeping it going. On another note. I was thinking about attending the Michigan Middle school conference. I am 50/50 right now. It would be a nice time away learning and hanging with others who do this...so close the deal and talk me into it. :) Is it worth the drive from Chicago? What will I get from it? Talk with you soon. Peace. eric Eileen Award Karen Richmond (via iTunes). Advisory: The AIR Car, Common Good Forecaster, Read Across America, Internet “Privacy” , Middle School Science Minute - plus a bonus to make up for last week. From the Twitterverse: Resources: Walk a Mile in Their Shoes This is a great pdf document that spotlights bullying of special needs students. Parents should familiarize themselves with the different forms of bullying that a child with special needs may experience: MANIPULATIVE BULLYING: This form of bullying occurs when a child with special needs is actually being coerced and controlled by another student. CONDITIONAL FrIENDShIP: This form of bullying occurs when a child thinks that someone is being their friend, but the times of “friendship” are alternated with times of bullying. ExPLOITATIVE BULLYING: This form of bullying occurs when the features of the child’s condition are used to bully them either by other classmates or via technology and social media networks. http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/learning--schools/bullying/articles/walk-a-mile-in-their-shoes.pdf The Generation Project Web Spotlight: Diigo Group Diigo Group for Middle School Matters: http://groups.diigo.com/group/middle-school-matters Google Cloud Connect Flipbook Create an electronic flip book as a unit project. http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/ , Free On-line Professional Development, BIL Conference, Pecha Kucha, Book Club, TED Education, SocioClean, Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-156_Tons_of_Advisory_Ideas_Bullying_PD.mp3 Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:57:36 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about advisory activity, a double dose of Middle School Science Minute, the Twitterverse, tutoring for kindergarten placement and more. Jokes You Can Use: Definitions: BEAUTY PARLOR: A place where women curl up and dye. CANNIBAL: Someone who is fed up with people. CHICKENS: The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead. COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours. DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out. EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation. GOSSIP: Never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage. KLEENEX: Cold Storage. INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper. MOSQUITO: An insect that makes you like flies better. RAISIN: Grape with a sunburn. SECRET: Something you tell to one person at a time. SKELETON: A bunch of bones with the person scraped off. TOOTHACHE: The pain that drives you to extraction. TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor saving devices of today. YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed. WRINKLES: Something other people have. You have character lines. On Our Mind: Embracing the Wide Sky Daniel Tammet in audiobook format From our Listeners: No Eileen Award today Advisory: Free Rice * Click on the right answer in the middle of this page. * If you get it right, you get a harder question. If you get it wrong, you get an easier question. * For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance. http://freerice.com/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Bonus Day: * Science Songs * Plate Tectonics From the Twitterverse: News: Studies Find Language Is Key to Learning Math Wisconsin Prepping for Kindergarten Test Resources: Find out who is linked to your (or your school’s) web site: 1. Go to AltaVisa 2. Type in link:webaddressIwanttoknowlinks.com (um, after link: type the address of your web site or your school’s web site). 3. Change “Show Links” button to Except this domain - this will exclude your own posts. EmbedPlus as an educational tool for videos Our core features could help teachers focus students on relevant parts of existing videos and allow them to add extended material. http://www.embedplus.com/ Free Stuff from 3D Vinci Sketch-Up tutorials http://www.3dvinci.net/ccp0-display/freestuff.html Math Practice - Make 5 Practice using Addition/Subtraction/Multiplication. Students answer questions to get 5 in a row. http://www.fi.uu.nl/toepassingen/00091/toepassing_wisweb.en.html TutPup Welcome to Tutpup, where you can compete in fun, educational games against other kids from all over the World! Our aim is to provide simple, fun, competitive games that help children learn and gain confidence with Maths, English and other key skills and knowledge. http://tutpup.com/ Web Spotlight: TED Conversations A new platform for sharing ideas. 3 ways to engage: * Ideas * Questions * Debates Useful to find ideas for discussions. http://www.ted.com/conversations Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: Other News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-155_Rice_Rice_Baby.mp3 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:15:15 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about Cyberbullying, the Twitterverse, Advisory ideas, Web Resources and more. Jokes Languages A mother mouse and her three children crept out of their hole into the kitchen and began feasting on some delicious bits of food. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Mother Mouse saw a cat slinking toward them. The cat was between the mice and their hole. The mother muse puffed up her lungs and went, "Woof! Woof!" The cat turned tail and ran. With that, the mother quickly led her children back to safety in their hole. When they were settle and breathing normally, Mother Mouse said to her children. "Now, what's the lesson from that experience?" "We don't know," the baby mice squeaked. "It is this," said Mother Mouse. "It's always good to know a second language." On Our Mind: Snow Days - Part 2 http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/regional/s_721287.html From our Listeners: The Eileen Award: It’s a great hands-on project being sponsored by the International Year of Chemistry for all elementary school and high school students, and according to the IYC there is little to no cost to perform the experiments. They are trying to make it a World Record for largest chemistry experiment ever! I found more information about the experiment itself at http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2010/3205/3_wright.html . From my understanding teachers just go to the website and sign up if they want to participate, and they can get lesson plans/walkthroughs right there. -Alan Advisory: Jeopardy Archive Just place your mouse over the dollar value for the question to reveal the “answer”. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Check out Dave’s Science Explosion Channel on YouTube. From the Twitterverse: News: Schools Tackle Legal Twists and Turns of Cyberbullying High-profile incidents put legal, policy issues in the spotlight but lack of clarity remains By Michelle R. Davis Resources: DrawIsland Easy to use on-line drawing program. Nothing to download. You can download images once done. http://drawisland.com/ Science Animation Gallery http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=3637 http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animation.html Filibustery Welcome to Filibustery, a website devoted to making the filibuster — and the proposals in the U.S. Senate to reform it — more understandable. http://filibustery.com/ Reading Concepts 3 resources on teaching reading available to download.: * How to Generate Interest So Reading Comprehension Improves * Four-Ply Vocabulary Plan * LINKING THE LANGUAGE-A Cross-Disciplinary Vocabulary Approach http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/library_browse.php?type=author&id=75 Planet Foss Share pictures of science. http://www.fossweb.com/planetfoss/index.html TopicMarks Summary any text http://topicmarks.com/ SPENT If you were unemployed, what would you do? http://playspent.org/ Web Spotlight: Interdisciplinary Lessons in a Time of Testing By Anthony Colucci http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2011/02/09/tln_interdis.html?tkn=MMCCEsbljhQJM1zKm5tfb2BhoBNuDlL9x4+s&cmp=clp-sb-ascd SciTable Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2011 —Saturday, November 10, 2011 Louisville, Kentucky. o Promotional Materials: + Crossword Puzzle! (Maryland Conference) Other News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-154_Throwing_Cadbury_Eggs.mp3 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:24:00 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about Snow Day, Twitterverse, Project Based Learning and more. Jokes: Students The science graduate asks, "Why does it work?" The engineering graduate asks, "How does it work?" The accounting graduate asks, "How much does it cost?" The liberal arts graduate asks, "Would you like fries with that?" Jail Time A woman was arrested for shop lifting. When she went before the judge he asked her, "What did you steal?" She replied: "A can of peaches." The judge asked her why she had stolen them and she replied that she was hungry. The judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can. She replied 5. The judge then said, "I will give you 5 days in jail." Before the judge could actually pronounce the punishment, the woman's husband spoke up and asked the judge if he could say something. The judge said, "What is it?" The husband said, "She also stole a can of peas." Letters A man who was just married was flying to the Florida Keys for a business trip. His new bride was to accompany him the next day. When he got there he E-mailed his wife to let her know he made it there safely. When he sent the E-mail, he mistyped the address. In Boston, a grieving widow, whose husband has recently passed away, receives the E-mail. She reads it, screams, and faints. Hearing her grandmothers cry, the widow's 18-year-old granddaughter runs into the living room to see the computer on with a message. It reads: Dear love, Just got here. Preparing for your arrival tomorrow. Can't wait to see you. Love, Me P.S. Sure is hot down here. On Our Mind: Snow Days!!! From our Listeners: iTunes listener Eileen: Thanks for the iTunes comments and rating! We’re glad we’re part of your ride to school every day. Advisory: Half an idea: Belly Button Bacteria. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) From the Twitterverse: Resources: QuickLyst: http://www.quicklyst.com/ Brain Teasers, Riddles, Trivia, Brain Exercises, Games, Forums and more... With over 20,000 brain teasers, riddles, logic problems, quizzes and mind puzzles submitted and ranked by users like you, Braingle has the largest collection anywhere on the internet. Our large array of unique online multiplayer games will keep you entertained for hours, and if you want to improve your brain, check out the Mentalrobics section. If you crave a brain teaser, mind puzzle, riddle or game, we are the place to get it. Increase your creativity, boost learning and become a better person at Braingle. Get ready to have your brain tangled! http://www.braingle.com/ Web Spotlight: Project Based Learning: Welcome to PBL-Online, a one stop solution for Project Based Learning! You'll find all the resources you need to design and manage high quality projects for middle and high school students. http://pbl-online.org/ The Buck Institute for Education The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is dedicated to improving 21st Century teaching and learning throughout the world by creating and disseminating products, practices and knowledge for effective Project Based Learning. http://www.bie.org/index.php/site/PBL/overview_pbl/ 20 Technology Skills that Every Educator Should Have By Laura Turner http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/tools_technologies/20_technology_skills_every_educator_should_have Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-153_Snow_Day.mp3 Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:57:53 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about middle school resources, answer a listener question and more! Jokes: Knock, Knock! Who's there? Honey bee. Honey bee who? Honey bee a dear and get me a soda. Knock, Knock! Who's there? Hatch. Hatch who? Bless you and please cover your mouth next time. On Our Mind: PLAN and Explore! Tests: Elimination of Social Studies Tests to pay for Explore! and PLAN tests. From our Listeners: Here's the workflow: * I use Audio HiJack Pro to record our conversation (normally over Skype, but sometimes iChat) * I then move the audio files into GarageBand for Post Production (yeah, I actually do some post production). * I export the mp3 file from GarageBand. * I upload the show to our web site via Fetch (ftp program). * I copy the show notes from Google Docs into a blog post (wordpress blog). * I add the link to the end of the blog post using a Podcast plugin * I then add the link into Podcast Maker (this writes the xml file that I use). * I then use TextWrangler to open the xml file from the server at middleschoolmatters to update that file with the new information from Podcast Maker. (Had I not done some customizing early on, I could skip this step and just use Podcast Maker to upload the xml file). Thus, the short of it is this: I use GarageBand, then create an xml file for the web site. Advisory: Music Lovers: http://www.studiomultitracks.com/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Lab Safety Training Videos http://labsafety.flinnsci.com NIH Findings Magazine http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/findings From the Twitterverse: News: Study on Testing http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/01/27/boy-there-are-so-many-problems-with-this-times-article-or-the-study-its-about-or-both/ Common Core Resource http://commoncore.pearsoned.com/ Commentary Collection: The Future of Teaching This collection of Commentaries explores the future course of the teaching profession. http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/commentaries-the-future-of-teaching/index.html Parent Taken to Court for Falsifying Residency http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/114658564.html http://www.ohio.com/news/113828954.html Resources: Library Apps for iPhone/iPad http://mashable.com/2011/01/27/art-gallery-apps-iphone/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box707 Google Apps for Education The education technology space has seen an explosion of new offerings in the past few years. What has been missing is a centralized platform for schools and universities to easily evaluate and utilize web apps. Today we are excited to launch an education category in the Google Apps Marketplace designed specifically to help schools and universities easily discover and deploy new web applications that integrate with their existing Google Apps accounts. The new education category includes over 20 applications from 19 vendors ranging from learning management systems (LMS) to student tools and teaching aids – all of which integrate with Google Apps for Education. Each app can be accessed through single sign-on and the Google universal navigation bar and many offer deeper integrations that synchronize with Google Calendar and Documents. This new education category will make it easier for schools to have more web apps at their fingertips, including popular existing apps such as Aviary, Grockit, and LearnBoost as well as the new apps launching today. http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-apps-just-got-smarter.html Names http://www.whatalovelyname.com/ Easel iPad App http://www.easellearning.com/ Web Spotlight: Challenge.gov Challenge.gov is a place where the public and government can solve problems together. http://challenge.gov/ TED Talks http://kalinago.blogspot.com/2011/01/speaking-tips-for-teaching-english-with.html Murphy’s Teaching Law http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-teaching.html A Class Divided http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: Other News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-152_Knock_Knock.mp3 Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:56:04 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss listener feedback, the Twitterverse, advisory ideas, the Middle School Science Minute, Predictions for 2011 and more! Jokes: Pets While eating in an expensive restaurant, a patron overhead the gentleman at the next table ask the waitress to pack the leftovers for their dog. It was then that his young son exclaimed loudly, "Whoopee! We're going to get a dog." Signatures A preacher was standing at the pulpit giving his Sunday sermon when a note was passed to him. The only word written on the sheet was IDIOT. Looking up at the congregation, the preacher smiled and said: I have heard of men who write letters and forget to sign their names but this is the first time I will see a man sign his name and forget to write the letters. On Our Mind: Feedback from our Listeners. From our Listeners: Shawn & Troy This is a LONG OVERDUE note of appreciation for the fabulous job you do with your MSM podcast. I've been subscribed to it via iTunes since you started and wouldn't miss it. Congratulations to you both on 150 shows, wow that's a real achievement! I've listened to you getting better and better over the years until now you are very professional. The jokes are a fun touch. My limit is knock knock jokes. Why do I like your podcast so much? 1. It's a conversation between yourselves and us the listeners 2. It guides me to news items and sites I wouldn't otherwise get to but not only that, you explain their value and where they can be useful. 3. You have an opinion and are prepared to express it. 4. You discuss the professional literature, highlight reports and books you've read. This I really like. I'm presently ordering Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson 5. The feedback from Twitter is good. (I've found you and now follow you myself) 6. Love the app recommendations. 7. You finish up every podcast with all your contact details. So why did I take so long to get around to this email ............. that's why I'm ordering Rework! All the best from the land of fire and floods -- Australia. Hopefully the plague that has hit Texas in funding cuts this week will not come to you. Thank you again Camilla Advisory: Graphics programs aren’t simply for just editing your photos—they can have whatever fun application you can think of. For a fun, geeky project, here’s a simple papercraft toy you can make with a printer and simple household tools. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/40021/htg-projects-how-to-create-your-own-custom-papercraft-toy/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Clouds!!! From the Twitterverse: News: Success of College-Readiness Intervention Hard to Gauge Predictions for 2011 1. Textbooks are dead! For real this time! 2. Assessment will be comprehensive and constant! 3. 1:1 becomes BYOT! 4. Facebook will be encouraged! 5. Students will surf away (kind of)! 6. The end of testing is nigh! 7. Students forced to use phones in class! 8. Content will be free for all, all the time! 9. Students will learn outside of school! 10. All data become compatible—globally! http://techlearning.com/article/35406 Resources: Reform Symposium http://reformsymposium.com/ http://reformsymposium.com/july-2010-podcasts/ Web Spotlight: Doodle for Google: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/ Qwiki www.qwiki.com Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-151_Praecaveo_Probo_Magister.mp3 Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:16:18 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about NMSA 10, listener feedback, National Substitute Conference, Video and more. Jokes: Swimming An urgent call was put in for a plumber at noon but he didn't arrive until 5 hours later. "How is it?" he asked entering the house. "Not so bad," replied the home owner. "While we were waiting for you to arrive, I taught my wife how to swim." Spots "Doctor!" complained the patient, "I keep seeing spots before my eyes." The doctor scratched his head. "Why have you come to me? Have you seen an ophthalmologist?" "No," replied the patient, "just spots." On Our Mind: Robert Nay: Bubble Ball is the most popular free download for the Apple App Store. If he would have charged for it, he would have made 2 million dollars from it. He’s 14. From our Listeners: Happy new year my friends I'm not sure which of you are still active substitutes but i do hope all of you will do me the kindness of forwarding this to as many people and organizations who substitute or work with substitute teachers as you can. A Seattle venue is relatively close for California and "right next door" for Oregon. The Northwest is a nice location for a conference/vacation combination for anyone! Link to Flyer: http://www.nstasubs.org/2011Conference/Call%20to%20Conference%202011-%20Final.pdf Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Girls and Science http://www.braincake.org/ http://stemstories.org/ From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 6: He Says, She Says The Home School Connection Debbie Silver & Monte Shelby News: SnagFilms Tech Spotlight: British Library introduces first app for iOS, Android The British Library has launched its first-ever mobile app, Treasures. The title is available in three separate editions, for iPad, iPhone/iPod and Android. It so far provides access to a little over 100 items from the Library's collection, such as a 1215 copy of the Magna Carta, music manuscripts belonging to Handel, Purcell and Mozart, and Buddhist, Christian and Zoroastrian religious documents. The iPad app, Treasures HD, is priced at £2.39, and benefits from a higher-resolution native interface. The iPhone/iPod title is £1.19. While the former requires only iOS 3.2, the latter demands at least iOS 4; both are restricted to the UK App Store. http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/11/01/10/provides.access.to.rare.books/ Google Goggles gets faster, smarter and solves Sudoku http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-goggles-gets-faster-smarter-and.html GEL Conference Short for "Good Experience Live", Gel is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms - in art, business, technology, society, and life. Gel was founded by Mark Hurst in 2003 and has run a spring event in New York City each year since.Gel 2011 will be the 9th annual event. (Hurst has also run two spinoff events, Gel Health in 2009 and euroGel in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2006. See Past Gels.) Instead of focusing on just one thing - design, technology, user experience, business, etc. - like many conferences, Gel touches on many things. This challenges attendees to find, and learn from, the patterns that underlie good experience, even in disciplines vastly different from their own. The best way to understand the Gel experience is to attend. (Next event is Gel 2011.) You might also like to watch videos from Gel 2010 to get a sense of the caliber and range of speakers - though attendees have said that the videos don't fully describe the Gel experience. http://www.gelconference.com/ 99% http://the99percent.com/videos http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-150_Its_Because_of_You.mp3 Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:42:26 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about NMSA 2010, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes: Apples A man traveling through the country stopped at a small roadside fruit stand and bought some apples. When he mentioned they were awfully small, the farmer replied, "Yup." The man took a bite of one of the apples and exclaimed, "Not very flavorful, either." "That's right," said the farmer. "Lucky they're small, ain't it?" Accountants Did you hear about the accountant with insomnia? He decided to try counting sheep, but he made a mistake and was up all night trying to find it! Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Weather vs Climate - A Throw Down Advisory: Future Me: A letter to the future . . . from yourself. This Week in Rap From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 6: Session 3 10 ways to differentiate: News: Internet Gains on Television as Public's Main News Source The Test Chinese Schools Still Fail Webspotlight: 4 Promising Curation Tools That Help Make Sense of the Web and more... http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-149_Weather_Differentiation.mp3 Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:03:34 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss NMSA 2010 and the new year. Jokes: On a visit to Chicago On a visit to Chicago, a woman was eager to visit a posh department store a few blocks from her hotel. Her husband agreeably hailed a cab. "The lady wants to go to Neiman Marcus," he told the driver. The cabby looked over his shoulder at them. "And the gentleman?" he asked. "Does he want to go to the bank?" Marriage "Honey," said this husband to his wife, "I invited a friend home for supper." "What? Are you crazy? The house is a mess, I didn't go shopping, all the dishes are dirty, and I don't feel like cooking a fancy meal!" "I know all that." "Then, why did you invite a friend for supper?" "Because the poor guy is thinking about getting married." Blood Pressure When a doctor remarked on a new patient?s extraordinarily ruddy complexion, he said, "High blood pressure, Doc. It runs in my family." "Your mother's side or your father's?" the doctor asked. "Neither," the patient replied. "It's from my wife's family." "Oh, come now," said the doctor "How could your wife's family give you high blood pressure?" He sighed. "You oughta meet 'em sometime, Doc!" Marriage The wife saw her husband frustrated reading the Marriage Certificate from top to bottom, flip it over, and then read it again... She asked: "Honey, what are you looking for?" He answered: "Nothing dear, I'm just looking for the expiration date." On Our Mind: Happy New Year! Resolutions? Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Did you Know..... Ummmmm... Chemistry Advisory: 2011 Predictions: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1101/110101-happy_new_year.html From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 5: A five year multi-case study of middle level teachers 21st Century Skills for students News: Can Learning to Play the Violin Make you Smarter? Brenda Brenner, a music education professor at the IU Jacobs School of Music, developed the program after academic research showed students who played string instruments performed better academically than those who did not. http://www.indystar.com/article/20101224/NEWS04/12240324/1013/NEWS04/Attica-students-part-effort-see-music-improves-minds Webspotlight: Google Body Played with Google Earth? You know, that website the kids go to to look at their own homes via satellite? Here’s one for the human body: http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/ Math & Money Mint.com, the popular personal finance management service, in collaboration with Scholastic has launched a free personal finance curriculum for middle school use. Math and Money is a collection of four short lessons (2 primary lessons and two "bonus" lessons) about personal finance. Lesson one is designed to teach students about wages, taxes, and costs of living. Lesson two is designed to teach students the benefits of saving their money in a bank. The bonus lessons expand the first two lessons. Scholastic hosts printable materials that you can download and use to support the lessons. http://www.scholastic.com/mint/ Life on Minimum Wage http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/11/life-on-minimum-wage-lesson-in-personal.html Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-148_Happy_New_Year.mp3 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 14:40:23 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about Todd Williamson's NSMA 2010 Presentation and much, much more. Jokes: ABCs Little Freddy's second-grade teacher was quizzing them on the alphabet. "Freddy," she says, "what comes after 'O'?" Freddy says, "Yeah!" Mothers Miss Jones had been giving her second-grade students a lesson on science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron. Now it was question time, and she asked, "My name begins with the letter 'M' and I pick up things. What am I?" A little boy on the front row proudly said, "You're a mother!" On Our Mind: WOOT! It’s Christmas Break! (then 2 weeks ‘till exams after that . . . ) Australian schools got out this past week for their summer break … Edublog Awards: Congrats to all the winners! 2nd Runner up: EdTechCrew 1st Runner up: LearnEnglish The 2010 Winner: PortableRadio.ca Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Advisory: What kids can do http://whatkidscando.org/ Teaching Strategy: "Managing Students in the Computer Lab" From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 5: Getting the Most out of Your Networked World News: Put PISA in Perspective By Walt Gardner on December 8, 2010 7:05 AM NMSA on the Tube Taking Teacher Evaluation to Extremes By Kenneth Mitchell http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/12/17/15mitchell.h30.html?tkn=TLOFwiP0tsOnR6JT3k/eb9Op9p6gM3PcMctB&cmp=clp-edweek Webspotlight: New words of the Decade: Video is 2 minutes and 10 seconds. http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/12/time-video-new-words-born-this-decade.html Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2010 —Saturday, November 10, 2010 Louisville, Kentucky. o Need a letter to your administrator explaining the benefits of attending NMSA? How about this one? o 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. o 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. o OMLA Registration Form o OMLA Presentation Proposal Form * The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 17-18, 2011 in Coopersville, MI. Coopersville Middle School is a National Schools to Watch School. (Phone: (616) 997-3400) o MAMSE Exhibitor Form o MAMSE Registration Form o MAMSE Presentation Form (Presenter Deadline Extended!) * The North Carolina Middle School Association’s Annual Conference March 13-15, 2011 o Conference Brochure o Presenter’s Application o Who They Are . . . * Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar. o Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available. * Second Life: o 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. o Video: Educational Uses of Second Life http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-147_PISA_Sir_May_we_have_another.mp3 Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:18:38 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson This is a recording of our dinner conversation from NMSA 2010. This week's show is a recording of the dinner conversation we enjoyed during the National Middle School Annual Conference. There is a lot of background noise, but the audio is surprisingly decent considering. The conversation revolved largely around the Department of Education questions that Shawn was asked. We should be back with a "normal" show next week. http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-146_NMSA_2010_Dinner_Conversation.mp3 Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:58:39 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk NMSA 2010, including a conversation with the U.S Department of Ed. and Jack Berkemeyer, the Twitterverse, News and Web Spotlights. Jokes: Speed Versus Age A Policeman stops a speeding car and tells the woman driver; When I saw you driving down the road, I thought to myself, sixty-five at least. The woman replied: "I don't think that is quite fair. I think this hat makes me look younger." Hearing Aids Seems an elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased you can hear again." To which the gentleman said, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will five times!" On Our Mind: NMSA 2010 Conference Santa: North Pole Activities - Paid site, but you could gather some ideas. From the Audience: In response to Reid’s question on digital science resources, I thought I could share a few thoughts and ideas. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Pennies for the Planet! Penny Wars! Advisory: Secret Santa The Secret Santa gift exchange is a favorite Christmas season activity. Put a twist on it in your classroom by having students give each other acts of kindness rather than gifts. Remind students how Secret Santa works. Tell them that instead of giving gifts they will be giving acts of kindness. Supply them with a few examples, such as giving compliments, helping with homework or sharing a joke. Give students slips of paper to write their names on and place them in a bag. Students draw the name of their partner for Secret Santa. Remind students to keep their identity secret. Give the students pieces of A4 paper and have them decorate with Christmas borders so that they look like scrolls. Each day students write their acts of kindness on their scrolls. At the end of the week, everyone tries to guess who their Secret Santa is, and they turn their kindness scroll over to their partner. http://www.ehow.com/list_6567051_holiday-activities-middle-school-students.html From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 4: Session 4 April Tibbles is chief of staff. (I got to sit next to the lovely and talented April Tibbles!) Greg Darnieder is special advisor to Sec. Duncan. College Access Initiative. Leah Raphael, Patrick Desmond (Teacher fellows) (LaDezma? A little difficult to hear) Secondary planning group being developed. Think about this while we talk: If you had 60 seconds with the secretary, what would you say about middle school? Speed round: 1st word: Personalization 2nd word: Looping 3rd word: College and career readiness standards. 4th word: Rigor 5th word: Transitioning to high school. 6th word: Data Are the needs of middle school students distinct? What does a middle school look like? Reauthorization of Perkins is coming up next year. Should that program be revised to include middle grades? If you had 60 seconds with Arne Duncan . . . Secondary Schools Working Group Session 4 LA Strategies that Meet the needs of the Adolescents Jack Berckermeyer News: Scrapping Education Dept. Could Be Tough Task By Alyson Klein Webspotlight: A Closer Look at a Christmas Carol Free Audio version of A Christmas Carol The Power of Literature Circles Interactive White Boards Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * National Conference: Thursday, November 08, 2010 —Saturday, November 10, 2010 Louisville, Kentucky. o Need a letter to your administrator explaining the benefits of attending NMSA? How about this one? o Promotional Materials: + Crossword Puzzle! (Maryland Conference) Other News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-145_NMSA_Department_of_Ed_and_Jack_Berckemeyer.mp3 Sat, 04 Dec 2010 12:17:24 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy continue the discussion about NMSA 2010. We also answer a listener email and more. Jokes: Tuning The doorbell rang, and the lady of the house discovered a workman, complete with tool chest, at the front door. "Lady," he announced, "I'm the piano tuner." The lady exclaimed, "Why, I didn't send for a piano tuner." The man replied, "I know, but your neighbors did." Age A teacher said to her student, "Billy, if both of your parents were born in 1967, how old are they now?" After a few moments, Billy answered, "It depends." "It depends on what?" she asked. "It depends on whether you ask my father or my mother." Space When the Smith family moved into their new house, a visiting grandparent asked five-year-old Tommy how he liked the new place. "It's great," he said. "I have my own room, Alex has his own room, and Jamie has her own room. But poor mom is still in with dad." Painting Mary goes to her first show at an art gallery and is looking at the paintings. One is a huge canvas that has black with yellow blobs of paint splattered all over it. The next painting is a murky gray color that has drips of purple paint streaked across it. Mary walks over to the artist and says, "I don't understand your paintings." "I paint what I feel inside me," explains the artist. "Have you ever tried Alka-Seltzer?" On Our Mind: NMSA 2010 Conference From the Audience: Guys- I have just recently started to listen to your podcasts and follow you on Twitter. I am impressed and look forward to learning from the networking. I am a middle school principal in Lowell, Indiana. I need some help with a couple of things. First, it is a Science adoption year here in Indiana and I need help locating quality digital resources for adoption instead of textbooks. Do you guys know of any that I could research. Second, I am interested in Second Life and how you guys use this web tool. Reid Will Richardson’s Keynote California: Open Source Textbooks Second Life Curriki Udemy Science Sites Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Cell Phones, iPods and energy. What do your students need to know? Advisory: Have your students take a short quiz on World Hunger. You could have the students take the quiz collaboratively, or take it yourself first, then give it to the students. Good discussion topics. Plus a donation is made every time someone takes the quiz. http://gifts.wfp.org/quiz/ From the Twitterverse: This Part for Infamous40000 . . . : Waiting to hear back from Infamous40000 . . . NSMA 2010 Session 3: Session 3 Professional Learning Communities Making a School Great: Professional Learning Communities ************************************************************************************* NMSA 2010: Developing Adolescent Thinkers News: Students, Ownership and Creativity: 35 Resources Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-144_NMSA_2010_Part_3-PLCs_Listener_Question.mp3 Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:22:09 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy continue the discussion about NMSA 2010. We talk about Student Motivation and Summarizing - part 2. Jokes: Frogs A guy was walking beside a pond when a frog jumped out and told him that she was really a beautiful princess and if he were to kiss her, she would make him VERY happy! He picked up the frog and put it into his pocket. A few minutes later, the frog poked her head out and said, "Didn't you hear me?! I'm a beautiful princess and if you kiss me I will stay with you and do ANYTHING you want!" The guy took the frog out and said, "Look, I understand what you are saying, but I am a computer programmer and right now I don't have time for a girlfriend... but a talking FROG is REALLY, REALLY COOL!" Scotland Over a remote Scottish island a helicopter lost power and was forced to make an emergency landing. Luckily there was a small cottage nearby. The pilot walked over to it and knocked on the door. "Is there a mechanic in the area?" he asked the woman who answered the door. She scratched her head and thought for a few seconds. "No," she finally said, pointing down the road, "but we do have a McArdle and a McKay." On Our Mind: NMSA 2010 Conference Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) "Heliophysics." and more. From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 2: Session 2: 1267 Sharon Faber Ms. Sandra Dutemple Motivating Students Great Strategies that Increase Positive Behavior & Motivate Students "Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but children have the equal right to develop their talent, their ability and their motivation" John F. Kennedy NMSA 2010: Summarization in Any Subject Part Two: Rick Wormeli, 2010 (Handout provided) Summarization Strategies: News: Webspotlight: DisUnion One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans went to war with themselves. Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/ ViewChange Using the power of video to tell stories about real people and progress in global development. Varied length of videos. Videos can be downloaded. Some really great videos can be found. You can change the view from an interesting circle to a list view. Many different subject areas are represented. http://www.viewchange.org/ Google Lit Trips: http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html When Pictures Make History A timeline of image-makers who have shaped world history Excerpted from the book, TIME History's Greatest Events Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2031505,00.html#ixzz15pzqxYhq http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2031505,00.html Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: Other News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-143-NMSA10_Student_Motivation_Summarize_Part_2.mp3 Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:52:45 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss the NMSA 2010 Conference. Jokes: Women's Rights A girl involved with the women's libertarian group boarded a crowded bus and one man rose to his feet. "No, No, you must not give up your seat. I insist," she said. The man replied; "You may insist as much as you like, Lady. This is my street where I get off." Initials Mr. R.B. Jones applied for a position with the government and was accepted. On his first day, the personnel dept processed his records. When asked what the R.B. stood for, he informed the clerk that they stood for nothing. His parents had named him with the initials only. The clerk informed him that his records could not show initials only so they typed his name as R. (only) B. (only) Jones. He got his first paycheck made out to Ronly Bonly Jones! Barbershops The reading material at the barbershop consisted entirely of murder stories, mysteries, thrillers, and ghost tales. When Peter asked the barber if he wanted to terrify his customers, he replied, "No. Peter. These books make the customers' hair stand up and then it becomes easier to trim and cut." On Our Mind: NMSA 2010 Conference Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Chemistry Facts. Cool and useful. Did you know......? From the Twitterverse: NSMA 2010 Session 1: How to Implement a highly effective RTI Model NMSA 2010: Summarization in Any Subject http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-142-NMSA_2010_Follow_up_1-RTI_Summarization.mp3 Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:50:44 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy sit down with Dr. Monte Selby for an interview from NMSA 2010. Enjoy. Dr. Monte Selby granted an interview to Middle School Matters. We get his thoughts on a wide range of topics. http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-141-Interview_with_Dr_Monte_Selby.mp3 Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:52:02 -0500 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about NSMA 2010 the Twitterverse, news, tech tools and more. Jokes: On Our Mind: NMSA 2010 Conference (If you’re going, contact us. We have a great link for you). Keep in mind that new flight rules take effect on Nov. 1st. Middle School Science Minute From our Listeners: As far as the testing discussion goes, I am blown away by states that test the previous year's material at the beginning of the following year. That just doesn't make sense to me (not that I agree with all of NC's testing program either). Here in NC, we administer EOG (End-of-Grade) tests about 3 weeks before school is out for the summer. Admin get the scores back about 5 hours after the last test is finished, and teachers usually get scores the following day. Scores are released to students before going home for the summer. The past couple of years, we have had a retest program for students who did not score at proficient levels. Granted, there are issues with this system as well. Testing that far in advance of the end of school leads to a "Why are we still here?" attitude from some of the kids after the test. I think that makes much more sense than not being able to start the year covering relevant grade-level material. Todd Williamson Note: We’re hoping there will be a ton of folks at his presentation on Friday at 7:30 am in Baltimore this coming week. If you’re going to NMSA and willing, please consider his presentation in Room: 339 (Baltimore Convention Center) From the Twitterverse: This Part for Infamous40000 . . . : Hero Machine: Design your own superhero: http://tinyurl.com/olzc3a Uber-Mongo-Important assignment for operative Infamous40000: Design a superhero and share the experience with us. Call us at (262) 724-6653 and send us a copy of your superhero! Tech Tools: AlternativeTo: Wiggio Math Open Geometry Great geometry resources. http://www.mathopenref.com/index.html Microsoft Academic Search Looks to be technically oriented. Some good possibilities though. Conferences are included. http://journalogy.com/ One Word Interesting idea for a writing assignment. http://oneword.com/ News: Robots in the classroom? They’re here! http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teachers/index.html Political Peril for the Common Core? How to Assure Continued Progress By Michael D. Usdan Could the backlash against large governmental programs (like healthcare) effect the implementation of Common Core Standards? http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/27/09usdan_ep.h30.html?tkn=QMZFzckQpU3lROPtxOCXWM%2FnuCM2CsPo6oqD&cmp=clp-edweek Webspotlight: Google Search Tools “Secret” codes to make your google searching even better. http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html Big East Career Fair Could this be the start of a new way of finding a job? http://www.bigeastcareerfair.com/ Teacher Jotter Social Network for Teachers. Build professional relationships, share resources, exchange ideas and opportunities. http://www.teacherjotter.com/ Reading Slowly Interesting thoughts on reading. http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/0621/Should-your-child-be-learning-the-art-of-slow-reading Collaboration Video Does this look like collaboration at your school? http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2010/10/planning-collaboratively.html Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-140_NMSA_2010_Math_and_Reading_Resources.mp3 Sat, 30 Oct 2010 12:29:02 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about testing, conferences and many, many tools. Dave Bydlowski presents the Middle School Minute. We also discuss the Twitterverse, advisory ideas and more. Shawn & Troy talk about testing, conferences and many, many tools. Dave Bydlowski presents the Middle School Minute. We also discuss the Twitterverse, advisory ideas and more. Jokes: Ailments A man was feeling terribly out of sorts and decided to go to the doctor so he made an appointment and showed up the next day. After the doctor examined the man, the doctor invited him into his office for the consultation. The doctor came into the room with three different bottles of pills. The doctor told the man to take the red pill in the morning with a big glass of water, the blue pill in the afternoon with a big glass of water and the green pill in the evening with a big glass of water. The man, terribly shocked at the amount of pills he had to take, asked the doctor what in the world was wrong with him. The doctor replied, "You aren't getting enough water." On Our Mind: Testing Relief Conferences Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy’s Take on Conferences. Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Human Body Systems Facts From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Famous Partners Place the names of famous couples on index cards, mix them up, have students match up. (http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/List_of_famous_pairs/) Life Raft Students stand on top of shower curtain and flip it over without anyone stepping off. Life Skill Lessons How to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to do anything....celebrate success!! This Part for Infamous40000 . . . : Animation Chefs: Learn how to animate from these three chefs! Tech Tools: National Library of Virtual Manipulatives http://nlvm.usu.edu/ TestMoz http://testmoz.com/ Google Fusion Tables Google Fusion Tables is a modern data management and publishing web application that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online. http://www.google.com/fusiontables/public/tour/index.html News: Charter school first in county to switch to four-day week A Palm Beach County charter high school plans to switch to a four-day school week beginning in January. Students would be in school for a total of 902.4 hours this year, above the 900-hour minimum state requirement, according to a calculation received by the district, Edwards said. It's pitched as an opportunity for students to have more time for part-time jobs, school activities, and dual-enrollment programs that enable students to earn college credit. Daniel also described it as a way to decrease "discipline issues and student absences." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-four-day-school-week-20101021,0,6276565.story Moving Forward With the Common Core By Sarah Fine If there remains any doubt about the momentum of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, let it be abandoned once and for all. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, which collectively educate three-fourths of all school-age children in this country, have pledged to adopt the core. Intellectual gatekeepers have given the standards a resounding pass. Plans for implementation have begun. For better or worse, the boulder is on its way down the mountain, gathering strength and speed as it goes. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/20/08fine.h30.html?tkn=LYXFpDDbwWg77mw9AnpIQPhrrQpBWyZw4y%2Fk&cmp=clp-edweek Webspotlight: Virtual Pumpkin Carving A, um, virtual pumpkin to carve. http://www.ncs-tech.org/pub/carve_pumpkin.swf The Fisch Flip Colorado teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams were some of the first educators I learned about who are leveraging the power of podcasting, screencasting, and video sharing to "flip" the traditional model of lecture in class and homework at home which predominates in many schools today. http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/10/20/the-fisch-flip-in-michigan-dale-eizenga-on-flipping-traditional-lecture-and-homework-routines/ ISTE 2010: Google Apps in Education http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-139_Testing_Conferences_and_Tools.mp3 Sat, 23 Oct 2010 12:46:30 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Troy & Shawn talk about the upcoming NMSA 10 conference, tech tools, the twitterverse, and more. David Bydlowski provides us with the Middle School Science Minute. Jokes: Counting Skills A teacher asked little Johnny if he knows the numbers 1 to 10. "Yes! Of course! My pop taught me even more than 10." "Good. What comes after three? "Four," answers the boy. "What comes after six?" "Seven." "Very good," says the teacher. "Your dad did a good job. Now, what comes after ten?" "Jack." On Our Mind: NMSA 2010 Whither Wi-Fi? Will TodaysMeet be used? iTunes Rankings Helping others: Hello fellow middle school science teachers. This is a reminder to please complete this survey. My gratitude to the hundreds of teachers who have already done so. I am conducting a study of middle school science teachers and their teaching about the ocean. I need your help! Your answers to my survey questions will contribute to what we know about the current state of ocean literacy education in the United States. All other challenges to the world ocean aside, the intricacies of the current oil spill crisis are reason enough to ensure that our citizenry is ocean literate. If you have at least one year of experience teaching middle school science, would you please take my survey? It will take 15-20 minutes to complete and your answers are completely confidential and anonymous. The survey can be accessed by clicking on the following Internet link: https://purdue.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_87zwywgq8dNRqn2 Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science on Twitter Headrush - MythBusters for Kids Team America Rocket Contest From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Voki - Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. Inspirational Quotes - Here, I’ll share 20 of my favorite inspirational quotes. I won’t include any commentary because the quotes speak for themselves. I hope they resonate with you as much as they have with me :) University of Virginia’s Honor Code: Use this video in connection with the “Coat of Arms” materials from NMSA’s Treasure Book to build an Advisory activity! Tech Tools: Markup IO Draw on any webpage. Share your ideas. Mark. Share. Done. Draw on any webpage with MarkUp to quickly share your thoughts. Try it now by choosing a shape to trace. Get MarkUp to use it any time. http://markup.io/ Yudu “Read online publications and self publish digital magazines, eBooks and more.” Here’s one thing that I like about it - you can create your own library of books. I started with a couple of books by Richard Byrne (Free Tech for Teachers)- Google for Teachers and Google for Teachers II. 10 Sites to create Comics from Tech Learning “Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do with students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done with any number of applications, such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer a nice solution as well.” http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/33632 Webspotlight: School study sees benefits in economic integration "This study turns that wisdom on its head to some extent. It says, actually, it's who you are going to school with." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/14/AR2010101407051.html Effort Targets 'Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations' Researchers and policymakers agree that teachers’ expectations of what their students can do can become self-fulfilling prophecies for children’s academic performance. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/10/13/07nua_ep.h30.html?tkn=VVSFYFZRTFCluQuL2iUL74zLUE%2FrRBupwKqS&cmp=clp-edweek Edutopia Parent Guide Need to register to get the guide. http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-home-to-school-guide.pdf EdWeek focuses on Will Richardson http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?intc=fall_tsbem ISTE 2010: Crap Detection - Teaching Students to Research Presenter: Dr. Howard Rheingold Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-138-Whither_the_Wifi.mp3 Sat, 16 Oct 2010 12:56:46 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy discuss the twitterverse, Middle School Science Minute, Tech Tools and more. Jokes: Said the officer to the soldier, "Private, why did you salute that refrigerator?" The soldier replied, "Because it was General Electric." "And that jeep?" the officer asked. Replied the soldier, "Because it was General Motors." On Our Mind: Standardized Testing Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski 2 big events: Earth Science Week - Oct. 10th - 16th National Fossil Day - Oct. 13th From the Twitterverse: Advisory: How do people spend their money? http://www.creditloan.com/infographics/how-the-average-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/ Tera & Bella An elephant and a dog become best friends. We use it to talk about how people might be different, but can still get along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0TjfOKnF-c The follow up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljcfWFZaYzs Tech Tools: Visual Words Here are six visual dictionaries and thesauri that can help your students better understand the meanings of words. From Free Technology for Teachers. Snappy Words Visuwords Lexipedia Merriam Webster's Visual Dictionary Wordia Got Brainy http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/10/six-visual-dictionaries-and-thesauri.html Quiz Break What is QuizBreak!? QuizBreak! is a highly flexible program that allows teachers to create fun, Jeopardy©-like games for the language classroom. QuizBreak! allows you to: Write clues in any script (left-to-right, right-to-left, and non-Roman scripts will all work) Add images to clues Record or upload audio and/or video clues Program Features User-friendly editing interface for easy category-creation Prize amounts can be displayed using any currency symbol Multi-platform program works on PCs and Macs http://clear.msu.edu/quizbreak/ Webspotlight: BBC News: Faces of the U.S. Civil War http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11470304 OK, this one is just silly- but with a good cause behind it. The idea plays off of the talking baby meme. You can type in up to 600 characters, pick a baby and listen/watch the fun. The cause supports no baby born with HIV by the year 2015. Check it out. http://www.one.org/international/actnow/babyprotest/widget.html How to be a Good Commenter: Karen shared her Paper Blog activity with me a few months ago and I've used it with my students to get them ready to blog with the "real thing." My students have practiced writing and most of all commenting appropriately. http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-be-good-commenter.html 7 Delightfully Nerdy Apps for Math and Science Geeks Celestia Stellarium OSXplanet Smell-O-Mints GNU XaoS Eigenmath Magic Number Machine http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/7-delightfully-nerdy-apps-for-math-and-science-geeks/ ISTE 2010: Steve Hargadon’s “Birds of A Feather” Session Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-137_Better_Late_Than_Never.mp3 Sun, 10 Oct 2010 21:07:36 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy talk about Middle School, Google Forms and more. Jokes: Wrong Ends A contractor hired two brothers to install home siding. He demonstrated the process and sent them off to their first job. Things were going smoothly when the older brother saw that his younger brother was throwing nails away. He asked, "Why are you throwing those nails away?" The younger brother replied, "The heads are on the wrong end." The older brother laughed, "Those are for the other side of the house." Languages A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting. "Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen" he asks. The two Americans just stare at him. "Excusez-moi, parlez vous Fracais?" he tries. The two continue to stare. "Parlare Italiano?" No response. "Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing. The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. The first American turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language." "Why?" says the other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didnt do him any good." (If you liked that one . . . try this!) What did one math book say to the other? I have so many problems . . . On Our Mind: o Google Forms and Walkthroughs o http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1261-Daily-Walkthroughs-with-GoogleApps-and-the-iPad.html NMSA is a month away . . . Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Small Spaces What if everything that you needed had to fit through a small space? This would be a discussion centered around the trapped minors. The focus of the conversation could be around what it would be liked to be trapped for months. * What is the difference between a need and a want? * What can you “make do” with? The link has a visual of the size of the whole which everything must pass to get to the minors. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/13/back-story-think-of-the-miners.html Quadruple Amputee Swims Across English Channel Philippe Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrical accident, swam across the English Channel. Nice story about what determination can do. The video is 1 minute and 40 seconds long. It includes quotes from Philippe. (Could also discuss the difference between a quad amputee and a quadriplegic). http://www.newsy.com/videos/quadruple-amputee-swims-across-english-channel/ Tech Tools: Educate http://www.ikonstrukt.com/educate.php ManyEyes Data visualization. Great for those who see in pictures. http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/ Webspotlight: YouTube Channel: RobbWorld’s Channel DocsTeach Great site from the National Archives Experience. Includes both Activities and Primary Resources. http://docsteach.org/ 26 Keys to Student Engagement by Angela Maiers. http://www.scribd.com/doc/37782099/26-Keys-to-Student-Engagement WorldMapper Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 700 maps. Maps 1-366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above to find a map of interest. To learn a little more about this and other map projections read this: Worldmapper and map projections. We recently added a new series of maps of the world's population using a new mapping technique: Worldmapper Population Atlas http://www.worldmapper.org/ Schoolwork by Nicholas Lemann http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/09/27/100927taco_talk_lemann Creating self Graded Google Forms by Mark Wagner “For this video I cut right to the chase and did my best to explain the IF formula for beginners… while keeping under a 5 minute time limit. I hope it’s helpful for you and your colleagues and I hope you’ll let me know what you think.” http://edtechlife.com/?p=2600 Listener Question for Troy via Twitter: From @Mthman: @MSMatters Help me to understand a procedural Q...do the teachers in your building need guidance w/advisory lesson plans? Mine do!!! (Listen to the show for the answer!) News: http://www.middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-136-Making_Google_Work.mp3 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:34:46 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy interviewed Dr. Monte Tatom. The discussion centered around iPad use in education. We discussed iPad use at the college and middle school level. Lots of good tips. Special Thanks to Dr. Tatom for sharing his experience with us: * Links Mentioned: o Good Reader (.99 cents) + Update will allow highlighting and notetaking. o iAnnotate ($9.99) o iDemo Web ($1.99) o PaperDesk ($1.99) o SoundNote (formerly Sound Paper) ($4.99) o HistoryTools (free) o Free Books (public domain literature) + Wattpad (free) + Free Books (free) o Using iPads (http://esu3ipads.wikispaces.com/) The discussion centered around iPad use in education. We discussed iPad use at the college and middle school level. Lots of good tips. *The sound is less than perfect is some spots. However, the content is really good. http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-135-iPads_in_Education-An_Interview_with_Doctor_Tatom.mp3 Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:33:18 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about advisory ideas and lots of tools for teaching. Jokes: Best Signs Listeners: Dave Bydlowski: thanks for the email. Looking forward to hearing from you throughout the year! Go Science! (David’s Podcast) From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Making Hard Decisions: What would your students do if they discovered that they had broken a rule? http://www.pgatour.com/2010/r/09/02/teenager-disqualified.ap/index.html Career Path Discussion: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703466704575489773416987814.html Tech Tools: Basic Google Search that everyone should know: 10 Basics tips to make your google searching better and easier. http://www.techlearning.com/article/32300 Wordia http://www.wordia.com/ SnappyWords Free visual English dictionary. An online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words. You can easily see the meaning of each by simply placing the mouse cursor over it. http://www.snappywords.com/ DocDroid DocDroid is a completely free online document uploading, conversion and sharing tool. * Upload documents in nearly any format. * Share the document via eMail, Twitter or Facebook. * Fast HTML preview for readers. * Let the reader choose in which format he wants to download the document. * Multiple file upload is possible. * Password protection is possible. * Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, PAGES, RTF, OTT, XLS, XLSX, TXT, PPT, PPTX, ODP and more! * Documents can be deleted by you or are deleted after 60 days without view. http://www.docdroid.net/ Webspotlight: Free Teaching History Poster You can order a FREE historical thinking poster. They also have resources for elementary, middle and high school. http://teachinghistory.org/ Math Fun Facts This archive is designed as a resource for enriching your math courses and nurturing your interest and talent in mathematics! Each Math Fun Fact is a math puzzle or short article that contains a cool mathematics idea. You'll can learn about the mathematics of things like card shuffling to poker to computer vision to fractals to music, just to name a few. This makes great enrichment material for gifted math students or problem-solving groups. http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ Commonly misheard expressions From a friend Down Under. Still a great discussion. http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/09/ten-misheard-expressions-to-avoid-in-your-writing/ Classroom Secrets- Taking My Students on a Classroom Tour By Marsha Ratzel The first tour stop is the “Start of Class Procedure and Class Agenda,” projected on my interactive whiteboard. I’m not sure the procedures and routines of Room 66 are worth much, monetarily speaking. But collectively they maximize our learning time together by allowing us to accomplish the administrative tasks quickly, efficiently, and without trauma to students. I estimate that they give me an extra 4-5 minutes of class time every day – which means I’m able to squeeze out an extra day of instruction every 10 days. Since we are in school for 10 months, that means I’m creating nearly 18 extra class periods of instruction versus someone who doesn’t use these kinds of tricks. That’s almost a month of extra instructional time in each class. http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/09/15/tln_ratzel.html?tkn=ZRZF%2FCsty6RQ0ltMWceCfc%2B5%2FYBAcGhCp00l&cmp=clp-edweek News: Did Bill Gates waste billions of dollars over math errors? Did Bill Gates waste a billion dollars because he failed to understand the formula for the standard deviation of the mean? Howard Wainer makes the case in the entertaining Picturing the Uncertain World (first chapter with the Gates story free here). http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/09/the-small-schools-myth.html ISTE 2010 Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: Other News: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-134-Advisory_and_a_Way_with_Words.mp3 Sat, 18 Sep 2010 12:31:58 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about Constitution Day Resources, the Twitterverse and more. Title: It’s Constitution Day! Jokes: A beginner rider at the stables was trying to saddle a horse. "Excuse me," said the old hand, "but you are putting that saddle on backwards." "How do you know," snapped the student. "You do not know which way I'm going." On Our Mind: First week back to school . . . Constitution Day Resources . . . Cybrary Man: http://cybraryman.com/constitution.html Bill of Rights Institute Primary Resources Current Events & the Constitution Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Constitution Day Quiz Interactive Online Module: Madison’s Notes Are Missing Essay Contest Michigan Department of Education Resource: The Toledo War ConstitutionFacts.com: Constitution Quiz ConstitutionFacts.com: Founders Quiz Naturalization Test National Constitution Center: To Sign or Not to Sign? (VII Amendment focus) Interactive Constitution Town Hall (Debate) Activity Founders Biographies Use a Bio-Cube with the Founders Biographies. (requires online access) 10 Ways to Teach Biographies (Education World) Constitution Newswire: Connect current events to Constitutional Issues (relevance) United States National Archives Resources Biographies Constitutional Convention Simulation Teaching with Documents Lesson: Delaware’s Ratification of the Constitution Teaching the Constitution Lesson Packet (US Archives charges for this.) Teaching with Documents On-line Workshop (Note: There is a video conferencing component which requires students to be up to speed at the appointed time.) National Council for the Social Studies (membership required) It’s My Right: Card based activity teaching the Constitution. Frederick Douglass: The Constitution and Slavery; a classroom debate. Internet Guide to Teaching the Constitution. Listeners: Thanks to @Mthman & @rushtheiceberg for the recommendation on Twitter! Best wishes to Kevin at Honey Grove on his new blog! From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Tech Tools: ThoughtAudio: http://www.thoughtaudio.com/ Reading Logs http://www.readinglogs.com/ How Safe is your password? http://howsecureismypassword.net/ Voki: Animated avatars Webspotlight: 47+ Alternatives to YouTube: Some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, many teachers cannot access YouTube in their classrooms. That is why I originally wrote what became one of the most popular posts to ever appear on Free Technology for Teachers, 30+ Alternatives to YouTube. That post is now fourteen months old and I've come across more alternatives in that time. Also in that time span some of the resources on the list have shut down. So it's time to update the list. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/47-alternatives-to-using-youtube-in.html News: California testing iPads as Algebra Textbook Replacements A pilot project in four California school districts will replace 400 students' eighth-grade algebra textbooks with Apple iPads in an attempt to prove the advantages of interactive digital technologies over traditional teaching methods. http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/117625-california-testing-ipads-as-algebra-textbooks http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-133-It's_Constitution_Day.mp3 Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:22:33 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy discuss the Twitterverse, iPads, advisory ideas and more. On Our Mind: iWork ‘09 Update- ePub creation is now possible. Listeners: From the Twitterverse: Advisory: My kids like the 'snowball fight'. Everyone writes something about themselves on a piece of white paper but they don't name it. Then they scrunch the paper into a ball and on the teacher's signal a snowball fight ensues. After everyone's had the chance to throw a lot of paper around ( a few minutes) another signal announces the end of the 'fight'. Each student picks up the snowball closest to them and takes turns to read out the info and maybe guess who it belongs to. Anne De Manser ( http://twitter.com/Aaannne ) Tech Tools: RubiStar Want to make exemplary rubrics in a short amount of time? Try RubiStar out! Registered users can save and edit rubrics online. You can access them from home, school, or on the road. Registration and use of this tool is free, so click the Register link in the login area to the right to get started now. http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php Webspotlight: Science YouTube Videos from Mashable Do you ever stare off into the cosmos, wondering about all the matter and particles swirling about in the universe? Or gaze into the spiraling petals of a rose and contemplate the Golden Ratio and all it connotes? No? Well, take some time out from your weekend of quietly quaffing to think, really think, about why, oh why the forces of nature chose to forge us within this mighty smithy we call life. Strain your mind, dear reader, and test the mettle of your brain fibers ruminating on the fact that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy… Or, you could just watch this week’s YouTube ( roundup, the theme of which is science! Take a look down below and get yourselves some education, you desk set daredevils. http://mashable.com/2010/08/27/youtube-roundup-science/ News: Reshirting the Little Ones By PAMELA PAUL Sitting out Kindergarten to gain an advantage. “Redshirting” of kindergartners — the term comes from the practice of postponing the participation of college athletes in competitive games — became increasingly widespread in the 1990s, and shows no signs of waning. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/fashion/22Cultural.html?_r=2 Common Core Standards By Stephen Sawchuk More than two-thirds of the states—including Massachusetts, a state long famed for excellent academic-content standards—have adopted common grade-level expectations, as the movement to align nationwide what students are learning continues to gain steam. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/06/37standards.h29.html?tkn=LYQFx%2FKcK6NQoGyVPUaQ1jxL%2BVGTKhbLgyMt&cmp=clp-edweek Class Size. Does it Matter? By Tamara Henry Conventional wisdom says the smaller the classes, the better the education, because teachers can pay more attention to each child. But while smaller classes are popular, decades of research has found that the relationship between class size and student outcomes is murky. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-26-classsize26_ST_N.htm ISTE 2010 http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-132_Advisory_Snowball.mp3 Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:19:11 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about middle school strategies for your classroom. On Our Mind: More iTunes Ratings. (Thanks Eric!) Listeners: “I recently compiled a list of the Top 40 podcasts for teachers, and I just wanted to let you know that you made the list! It is published online at http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-40-podcasts-for-teachers/“ From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Ice Breakers http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2010/08/breaking-ice.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AGeekymommasBlog+%28A+GeekyMomma%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Tech Tools: UDL Book Builder Welcome to Book Builder! Use this site to create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills. http://bookbuilder.cast.org/ Webspotlight: Strategies Gallore: A bunch of different categories. Many, many different strategies for each category. http://franklincountyschools.k12tn.net/Show%20Me%20the%20Strategies.htm Earth Calendar The Earth Calendar is a daybook of holidays and celebrations around the world.For the purpose of this web site a "holiday" is any day that recognizes a cultural event. http://www.earthcalendar.net//index.php News: Putting Teachers to the Test: By Carl Bialik “My print column this week examines the debate over so-called value-added measures for teachers, which evaluate their performance based on how much they improve their students’ standardized test scores.” http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/putting-teachers-to-the-test-982/ MiJEC 2010 Rogers City Schools What they did: Created a template on Word Basic tech is needed. http://mijec.org/attendees/2010program/wozinak/ Directions for the Fakebook Project http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-131_Strategies_for_the_Classroom.mp3 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:20:11 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy talk about OpenText Books, how the iPad could be used in education and much, much, much more. Title: Super Sized, Open Textbooks and the iPad! Jokes: Business Plans Two women were comparing notes on the difficulties of running a small business. "I started a new practice last year," the first one said. "I insist that each of my employees take at least a week off every three months." "Why in the world would you do that?" the other asked. She responded, "It's the best way I can learn which ones I can do without." Friends Pete and Larry had not seen each other in many years. They had a long talk trying to fill in the gap of those years by talking about their lives. Finally, Pete invited Larry to visit him in his new apartment. "I got a wife and three kids and I'd love to have you visit us." "Great. Where do you live?" "Here's the address. And there's plenty of parking behind the apartment. Park and come around to the front door, kick it open with your foot, go to the elevator and press the button with your left elbow, then enter! When you reach the sixth floor, go down the hall until you see my name on the door. Then press the doorbell with your right elbow and I'll let you in." "Good. But tell me, what is all this business of kicking the front door open, then pressing elevator buttons with my right, then my left elbow?" "Surely, you're not coming empty-handed." Mosquitoes Two young men were camping out in the forest one night. But the mosquitoes were so fierce that the boys had to hide under their blankets to keep from getting bitten. Then one of the boys saw some lightning bugs. "We may as well give up," he told his friend. "Now they are coming at us with flashlights." On Our Mind: Gearing up for the school year. iPads in the classroom. Eric’s Shirt. Listeners: Guys, I hope you are having a super fantastic summer. Yes, during my 6 days in the States, I picked up an iPad. I was very skeptical at first, but WOW! This thing is amazing. My question is about the practical use of the iPad in the class. I see that Apple just upgraded iBooks to allow videos and audio within the epub format. This means that textbooks could have audio/video boxes that support the main text or apply material in a cross curricular presentation. My question is this - who is creating the open source etexts that we can use in class, and how can I help? Robert Sent from my iPad Related links we sent Robert: http://open-education.org/ http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000027.html http://www.opentextbook.org/about/ http://web.me.com/mcgirr/Summer_PD_Notes__ISTE__MiJEC____MSC_/pages/20.html From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Is “What you see, What you get?” Here are 5 optical illusions that you could share with your students (or class). Good lead in to discussion about perception, point of view, etc. http://mashable.com/2010/08/01/optical-illusions-videos/ Stats on Soft Drinks http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/softdrinks/ TED Talk: The Art of Choosing: http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html Tech Tools: Teacher’s First TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. We offer our own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus. http://teachersfirst.com/index.cfm Vanilla Forums Vanilla Forums is an open-source, standards-compliant, customizable, modern, community-building discussion forum. http://vanillaforums.org/ KnoteBooks http://knotebooks.com/ Webspotlight: Teacher inspires students to work through adversity http://www.southtownstar.com/lifestyles/vickroy/2551488,080110vickroy.article Tiering Lessons http://help4teachers.com/samples2.htm http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-130-Super_Sized-Open_textbooks_and_iPad.mp3 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:39:08 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy discuss middle school topics, advisory ideas, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes: On Our Mind: PLNs enforced by administration. http://thetechnorateteacher.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/great-pln-backlash-of-2010/ From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Library of Congress: The Exquisite Corpse . . . http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-library-congress-the-exquisite/id374009707 Tech Tools: Gradebook: LearnBoost’s product allows teachers to manage their classroom by offering an amazing gradebook and software for managing and creating lesson plans, tracking attendance, maintaining schedules, integrating calendars including Google calendars, seamless tagging of Common Core State Standards, and so much more. Manage your gradebook, lesson plans, calendars, scheduling, and more from one place: LearnBoost. Once you switch, you'll wonder what life was like before LearnBoost. Sign up for your free account! Standards Supported The majority of states have announced support for the Common Core Standards. We're the first to fully support and integrate these leading standards across our gradebook and lesson plan software. You'll love how we let you "tag" standards to your lesson plans, gradebook, and more. http://www.learnboost.com/ LearnPort A National Online Library of Professional Development Resources Compiled to Help Bridge Research, Policy and Practice. Across states, national organizations and technical assistance investments, an extensive amount of professional development material is available. This library provides local educators with easy access to an array of resources that can be used or customized to meet their needs. http://www.learningport.us/ Survey Tools: Free Tech 4 Teachers: A wonderful write up of 9 tools that you can use to create surveys. Interesting. The list does NOT include Google Forms, which is most commonly used survey tool. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/07/nine-survey-tools-for-teachers-and.html Webspotlight: Schoolwide Videos useful for Professional Development. The Schoolwide Network was created in response to the lack of quality video (and print) resources available on the Internet today. With all of the rich media now available via the Internet and mobile technologies, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information being pushed toward us and our children every day. ISTE 2010 ISTE 2010: Virtual Schools Virtual School Initiative: 21st Century Learning and Teaching Dr. Kathy Hayden: Assistant Professor of Educational Technology, California State University, San Marcos khayden@csusm.edu Stacey Campo via Skype (teacher): Poway Unified School District Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-129-The_Exquisite_Corpse.mp3 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:00:58 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn and Troy catch up after a week off. We discuss listener's feedback and much more. Jokes: Counting A man rushed into a doctor's office, jumped on his back, and started screaming, "One! Two! Three! Four!" "Wait a minute!" yelled the doctor, trying to get free. "What do you think you're doing?" The man said, "Well doctor, they did say I could count on you!" On Our Mind: ISTE 2010 Swag! Listeners: Letter 1: “Hi guys, I listened to the June 26 podcast today while driving to my summer job, (a teacher with a summer job?!). Thanks for the moderation of the the theme music. I enjoyed the discussion and your thoughts. I teach at a fairly small rural school and our cell phone policy is pretty simple. You can have it. You can use it with permission in class, it sits on the desktop, off, no ringer, no vibrate. I find that you are using it, without permission, you have lost it for 24 hours, or until the next time class meets, (don't get caught on a Friday!) you can use it at passing times and at lunch. The high school was pretty good with this policy, it was a group of HS students that convinced our principal to adopt this policy. The MS kids had a harder time with it, there were a small number that just could not follow these simple rules. I am not sure where we will be with this policy next year. We are going to 1 to 1 computers (MacBook) in 6-12 next year so there will be a lot of changes in the next school year. Keep up the good work, summer is about over, argh!!! ;)” Craig Letter 2: Shawn and Troy~~ I wanted to share how much I enjoy your podcasts. They actually make me look forward to my daily exercise when I have to opportunity to listen. I have just started listening and I am catching up on old ones. Your topics and enthusiasm give me a refreshed outlook for the school year. I have been spending the last 2 hours reviewing your webpage and found so many interesting links. In a time that can be very negative toward education, you have given me a reason to continue my positive outlook and remind me each time I listen why I got into teaching. Thanks so much~~ Kerry Letter 3: From AK Jenny: http://www.conquercollegewithld.com/ Letter 4: Dear Shawn & Troy, On behalf of the stakeholder and partner organizations of the Michigan Joint Education Conference (MIJEC), I want to express my appreciation to you for sharing your expertise with the attendees of last month's conference at Thurston High School in South Redford. By sharing your best practices with other educators, you enhanced our conference and helped to further the professional development of our attendees. I hope that you will consider presenting next year's Michigan Joint Education Conference, which will be held on Wednesday, June 22. Watch the MIJEC website for announcements concerning our call for presenters. Thanks again for your participation in the 2010 Michigan Joint Education Conference. Sincerely, Ric Wiltse, MACUL From the Twitterverse: Advisory: 8 Ways to get to know a new class: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_650dvtj3dgk Tech Tools: SnagIt for Mac (beta) http://www.techsmith.com/snagitmac/ Book Suggestion engine Uses Amazon and LibraryThing http://bookseer.com/ SlideSix Allows voiceover of uploaded powerpoint, keynote, OpenOffice presentations. http://slidesix.com/ ISock www.guppiesinthedark.com http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/isock-de-pratende-sok/id346782860?mt=8 Webspotlight: http://middleschoolmatters.com http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-128-Pirate_T-Shirts_for_every_listener.mp3 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:41:41 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Shawn McGirr & Troy Patterson Shawn & Troy discuss ISTE 2010, Twitterverse, "Boy Crisis" and more. Jokes: Serious Questions A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?" He said: "Call for backup." Great News While eating in an expensive restaurant, a patron overheard the gentleman at the next table ask the waitress to pack the leftovers for their dog. It was then that his young son exclaimed loudly, "Whoopee! We're going to get a dog." Lord Send Me A Hundred A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to the Lord, USA, they decided to send it to the President. The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill, as this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00, and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord. It said: Dear Lord, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington, DC and as usual, those jerks deducted $95. On Our Mind: ISTE 2010 and Back Channels . . . What do you get when you mash up a former VP of the World Bank, a PowerPoint, and a bunch of tech savvy educators? Conference Survival Gear Maxpedition Mongo Bag Soundpaper Listeners: Teachers in Illinois use iPod Touch to customize lessons One Illinois school district will have teachers and students using iPod Touch devices in classrooms this fall. District staff received 15 hours of training on using the devices for individualizing lessons and helping students improve reading fluency by listening to their recorded voices reading aloud. "This is the way students are wired to learn, and we are looking at every method to make learning more engaging and stimulating for our students and teaching more exciting for our staff," the district's superintendent said. David Bydlowski Science Consultant Hey Guys -- I still need to respond to your response to my response to the UDL article! I came a cross this link today - and thought you might be interested --http://atcubed.blogspot.com/2010/06/thinking-about-relationships.html -- it does go with the UDL topic. later - jen From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Xtranormal: Go Play! Report back here what you learned. We’ll talk about it on the show. Tech Tools: WordPress Now Lets You Phone in Your Blog Posts You can already write and publish WordPress blog posts from your iPhone, iPad, Android, e-mail and desktop, but now you can also post audio via your phone. http://mashable.com/2010/07/01/wordpress-phone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 Aviary in Education: A safe, private environment to use Aviary tools with your students * Create private student accounts * Manage assignments and projects * Use the image editor, vector editor, audio editor & music creator * All content and images are 100% school safe http://www.aviaryeducation.com/ Webspotlight: Putting the “Boy Crisis” in Context Finding solutions to boys’ reading problems may require looking beyond gender By MICHAEL SADOWSKI “The Boys Have Fallen Behind.” “Girls Lead the Nation in Reading Scores.” “Are Teachers Failing Our Sons?” http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/473 Word Games http://www.wordgames.com/ Google Apps Education Training Center Welcome to the Google Apps Education Training Center. This is an online learning environment dedicated for educators and students to learn how to effectively use Google Apps in an educational context. Access to a Google Apps Education account is strongly recommended so that you can experiment and apply what you learn. http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home Shout out: Thanks to InFocus for the shout out on Twitter and for the USB drive at the conference! News: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE 2010) http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-127_Back_Channel_and_Boy_Crisis.mp3 Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:29:11 -0400 K-12 clean 00:00:00 middle school, professional development, junior high, Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn and Troy talk about education in China vs America, KIPP and more. Jokes: Waiters A man walks into a restaurant and is shown to his seat by the hostess. The waiter approaches and asks, "Would you like to try our house special? The man replies, "No, just bring me a steak, and make it lean". The waiter, somewhat puzzled, looks at him and replies, "which way?" Important Tasks A doctor got a phone call from one of his colleagues. "We need a fourth for poker," the voice on the phone said. "I'll be right over," replied the doctor. As he was putting on his overcoat, his wife asked, "Is it serious?" "Oh yes, quite serious," he said gravely. "They've had to call in three other doctors as well." On Our Mind: Catching Up or Leading the Way Yong Zhao Listeners: Comment: Thank you for keeping us updated. I incredibly enjoy it and discover all the information really useful. Krav Maga Hi guys, I am at the Technology Integration and Instruction for the 21st Century Learner conference in Storm Lake, Iowa at Buena Vista University. I listen to your podcasts (and have given you the 4 stars on i-Tunes). Love the links, discussion and your thoughts. It gives me time to reflect, something we do not do enough of. I do have a suggestion, and this is on the technical side of the the podcast production. Please moderate the theme music, it is so loud that it drowns out the voice and is much louder than the volume of the spoken word. I have to quick reach for the volume on my i-pod, or computer so it does not wake my daughter or wife in the next rooms as I listen to you late at night when everyone is in bed. I know through using garage band that the volumes can be adjusted. It is way worse than the increase in volume of commercials on TV. Thanks again for your great work, Craig Cadman Middle School Science From ASCD: Middle-school students create podcasts as part of place-based learning Middle-school students at an Oregon charter school created podcasts as part of their study of a local streetcar line that used to operate near their school. Educators say the streetcar project and the podcasts are a form of place-based learning, which includes studying the history of neighborhoods, communities and buildings under the umbrella of environmental education. The student recordings are posted on the website of the regional transportation planning agency, which is considering reviving the original line. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/06/southwest_charter_school_stude.html David Bydlowski From the Twitterverse: Tech Tools: Doodle - Collaborative Scheduling http://doodle.com/ DabbleBoard - http://dabbleboard.com/ Free Web Pages http://pageeasy.com/ Webspotlight: Interesting world view: http://timemaps.com/history/ Top 100 technology blogs for teachers Posted on Jun. 17th 2010 6:23 PM by alexis (This article is a continuation and combination of two previous lists: “The Top 25 eLearning Blogs,” and “The Top 20 Teacher Blogs“) http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers/ News: Report finds KIPP students outscore public school peers Prince George's bans student cellphone use during school day Carpe Data: In Defense of Common Standards Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-126_China_Test_and_Kipp.mp3 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:05:59 -0400 K-12 clean 00:52:30 middle school, professional development, junior high, Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy discuss the Twitterverse, Tech Tools, WebSpotlight and more. Jokes: Obedience A father of five won a large stuffed animal in a raffle. All the way home he agonized about which child should receive the toy. When he arrived, he called the kids together. "I have decided this gift should go to the most deserving," he said. "Who is the most obedient?" he asked. "Who never talks back to mommy? Who does everything she says?" Five small voices cried in unison. "You do, Daddy!" On Our Mind: The "Reply All" button The Michigan Joint Education Conference: www.mijec.org Shawn presents at the 8:00 and 10:00 sessions. You've got to be there! From the Twitterverse: Listeners: Hey guys, Hope you are enjoying your summer. We still have another full week of school. Ran across this the other day and thought you might be interested: http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/ It is a free product from Microsoft. Since most students learn how to use powerpoint in computer class, this would be a fun tool for student presentations. Robert PS Still not on Twitter. -- Robert Jackson Kyiv, Ukraine Model Schools Conference, Orlando HUGE thanks to Dr. John Harrison for recommending Middle School Matters to his session attenders at the Model Schools Conference in Orlando, Florida this week. We really appreciate the recommendation, though it cost us the last of our business cards. Tech Tools: Teen Chat Decoder http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/ Create Short Animations at Fuzzwich http://www.fuzzwich.com/ Free Quizzes that you can play right in your browser! Welcome to Quiz-Tree.com! Who said that learning has to be boring? Everybody learns better when they are having fun! Here at Quiz-Tree.com you will find educational games and quizzes on many subjects, including Math, Reading, Spanish, Geography, SAT, Spelling, Music and more. All activities come with animated interface, fun sounds and other cool features that make learning more enjoyable. To find an activity, start by clicking on the general subject that you are interested in. http://www.quiz-tree.com/index.html Webspotlight: Your Next Read http://www.yournextread.com/us/ Forbes Map Interactive Feature Map: Where Americans Are Moving Jon Bruner More than 10 million Americans moved from one county to another during 2008. The map below visualizes those moves. Click on any county to see comings and goings: black lines indicate net inward movement, red lines net outward movement. http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html Understanding Genetics http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/ugenetics/ Are Good Teachers Always Good, No Matter Where They Go? The more we fixate on the "good teacher," the less we seem to concern ourselves with good teaching. But the story also drove home how seldom we hear about the conditions that foster good teaching. Most news stories on ed reform leave the impression that a good teacher is a good teacher is a good teacher, no matter where he teaches, no matter what challenges he faces, no matter how toxic the climate in his school is. Good teachers, it seems, are widgets to be deployed to all manner of schools, where they'll climb every mountain and ford every stream. http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/are-good-teachers-always-good-no-matter-where-they-go?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LFA+%28Public+School+Insights%3A+What+is+WORKING+in+our+Public+Schools%29 News: Middle Schools Conference Notes http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-125_Twitter_is_our_Friend.mp3 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:43:07 -0400 K-12 clean 01:01:50 middle school, professional development, junior high, Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn and Troy talk about listener feedback and more. Title: Summer Blues? We're still talking. Jokes: "In making a sermon, think up a good beginning, then think up a good ending and finally bring these two as close together as you possibly can." - Frederick Temple Graduation Day: It's graduation day, and everybody's going to get their diploma but Josh. At the assembly, the entire senior class stands up and shouts "Let Josh graduate, let Josh graduate!" The principal agrees to give Josh one last chance. "If I have five apples in my right hand and five in my left hand, Josh, how many apples do I have?" he asked. Josh thought long and hard and then said: "Ten." And the entire senior class stood up and shouted, "Give Josh another chance. Give Josh another chance!" New Principal: A new school principal was checking over his school the day before the first school class day. Passing the stockroom, he was startled to see the door wide open and teachers bustling in and out, carrying off books and supplies in preparation for the arrival of students the next day. The school where he had been a principal the previous year had used a check-out system only slightly less elaborate than that at Fort Knox. Cautiously, he asked the school's long time custodian, "Do you think it's wise to keep the stockroom unlocked and to let the teachers take things without requisitions?" The custodian looked at him gravely and said, "We trust them with the children, don't we?" On Our Mind: From the Twitterverse: Listeners: Response to podcast #123 - UDL article Tech Tools: MicroMobs: Micro Mobs is a free service that allows anyone to create their own public or private micromessaging network. To get started just name your mob (network) pick a URL then register for an account. You can register for a Micro Mobs account or use your Twitter or Facebook account to login into Micro Mobs. Once you've created your Micro Mobs network you can invite others by email, Twitter, or Facebook message. If you choose to make your Micro Mobs network private it can only be accessed by the people you have invited. Micro Mobs could be a good private platform for hosting a backchannel chat in your classroom. Micro Mobs might also be a good platform for keeping in contact with parents or colleagues. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/06/micro-mobs-realtime-group-messaging.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29 http://micromobs.com/ Weebly Easy website creation is our passion. When we say easy, we mean it! Weebly was named one of TIME’s 50 Best Websites of the year in 2007 and we’ve since made our service even more powerful, while keeping it simple. We have 3 million customers who would likely agree that there’s really no better place to create a website online – here’s why: * Create a free website & blog * Easy drag and drop interface * No technical skills required * Dozens of professional designs * Free domain hosting http://www.weebly.com/ Webspotlight: NCLB damages US education by narrowing the curriculum No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to harm the formal educational experiences of millions of students and teachers in the United States. In her recent book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," Diane Ravitch explains why. In her chapter titled, "Hijacked!" on page 29, Ravitch writes: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/06/05/nclb-damages-us-education-by-narrowing-the-curriculum/ Educational Leadership Archives: Now available for FREE http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/archived-issues.aspx http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/WebBased/WebBased.htm News: Teacher Evaluation http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-124_Summer_Blues%3f_We_are_still_talking.mp3 Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:20:52 -0400 K-12 clean 01:01:02 middle school, professional development, junior high, Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy discuss "Graduation", Advisory, HippoCampus and more. Jokes: The Book Lunching with a friend in a fast food restaurant, I was telling her about a teenager who had rear-ended my car. The teen blamed me for the accident. "She called me every name in the book!" I said. Just then I looked over to the next table where two nine-year-old boys had apparently been paying close attention to my story. One said to the other, "There's a book?" A Birthday Number A couple phoned a neighbor to extend birthday greetings. They dialed the number and then sang "Happy Birthday" to him. But when they finished their off-key rendition, they discovered that they had dialed the wrong number. "Don't let it bother you," said a strange but amused voice. "You folks need all the practice you can get." On Our Mind: Gifted Bias: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/nyregion/01gifted.html?ref=education "Graduation" Summer Time From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Bullying Awareness Project Teacher Page: http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/rpt/RPT_Zero_Tolerance/teacher.html Student Page: http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/rpt/RPT_Zero_Tolerance/student.html Listeners: Robert sent along the web site: http://www.hippocampus.org/ Tech Tools: Notalon http://bitbucket.org/saketh/notalon/overview Webspotlight: UDL Discussion http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-wont-more-teachers-set-up-udl.html?spref=fb Rethinking Schools As a special introduction to our new website, the text of the entire summer issue of Rethinking Schools is accessible here, free of charge. If you aren’t already a member of Rethinking Schools, we hope a look at the exciting and thought-provoking articles in this issue will inspire you to join. http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml Will the iPad make kids smarter? http://www.examiner.com/x-46117-Long-Island-iPad-Examiner~y2010m6d5-Will-the-Apple-iPad-make-kids-smarter?cid=channel-rss-Gadgets_and_Tech News: Districts' Financial Crisis Is Not the Time to Talk Reform By Harold J. Kwalwasser Financial chaos does not promote positive change. When districts’ funding is uncertain, administrators and school boards have no time to worry about innovation and transformation. All life is sucked from discussions of reform. The nitty-gritty of how to balance the budget, whether it is how many teachers to fire or which programs to cut, drowns out any consideration of real, long-term improvement. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/03/33kwalwasser.h29.html?tkn=XQQF13b3BxIwIjwm%2FHgRJ0uyoj6rmBYizVXS&cmp=clp-edweek 4 Day Weeks gain popularity During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma's house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center. Don't bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/04/358869usfourdayschoolweek_ap.html?tkn=WVTFdqIRlkDrbw0wXdYDRUmFzEFsRwCKamBh&cmp=clp-edweek States' Fiscal Condition Still Dismal, New Report Finds By Alyson Klein on June 3, 2010 10:30 AM State finances remain as bad as they have been in decades, and the fiscal picture isn't likely to clear up anytime soon, according to a report released this morning by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/06/states_are_still_in_terrible_f.html Events & Happenings: http://middleschoolmatters.com/podcasts/MSM-123-Easy_as_123.mp3 Sun, 06 Jun 2010 08:41:33 -0400 K-12 clean 01:00:20 middle school, professional development, junior high, Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr Shawn & Troy talk about some amazing people, the end of the school year and more. We discuss advisory ideas, the Twitterverse, tech tools and news. Jokes: On Our Mind: Memorial Day Weekend Red Skelton - Pledge of Allegiance From the Twitterverse: Advisory: 1. 10 YouTube Videos of People Doing Amazing Things *Note- turn the sound off for the breakdance video http://mashable.com/2010/05/24/youtube-amazing-people/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 2. Time to revisit one of your Advisory activities from the Fall! Remember measuring your Advisory students' height this past fall? We talked about an activity to help your students see their growth over the course of the year. In case you missed that podcast, you take a length of twine and have the student put one end at their heel and the other end at their head. Try to get as exact as you can (you'll be off by a little, don't worry about it) and then label each students' string for June. When the last week of school comes around do the activity again and have the students compare strings. Some will be dramatically different, some not so much. Listeners: From Dave Bydlowski, RESA Science Specialist: 10a. You Be the Chemist on TV This Week 9a. Introduce Your Students to Nanoscale Science 9c. New Science Teacher Academy 9d. Spark Interest in STEM Careers MWM’s inquiry- and design-based STEM program trains teachers on what are called Materials World Modules, teaching units focused on matter and its applications. The idea is to give teachers the lessons and tools to increase student interest and achievement in STEM subjects and careers. The program pairs teachers with scientists and engineers, who will also serve as mentors and resources after the program is completed. Just visit: http://www.materialsworldmodules.org/ From the website: 1. Todd Williamson Says: May 27th, 2010 at 9:35 pm Hey Troy, thanks for your thoughts on the iPad. I’m still holding out (though barely) for the 2nd Generation as I think there will be some significant changes between the 1st and 2nd. I know during one of my MLE sessions someone mentioned having a class set of iPod Touches and that they were able to sync them all to a single iTunes account. I’d love some clarification on that from a legal standpoint, but it seems like that is likely what has happened so far with the Touch. That would mean that Apps purchased for the account were available to all Touch/iPads connected to that account. Seems like a loophole Apple would want to clarify one way or the other. I really think we’re going to see a significant price drop or production drop on the eReaders from Amazon and B&N now that apps exist for both companies for the iPad. Overall, those two companies are focused on selling books, both digital and dead tree. Why stay in a market you aren’t built for (eReader hardware design) when there is a platform available that you can pump money into the software side, and still sell your books? Time will tell… Thanks again! Tech Tools: Online Stickies: (similar to WallWisher). http://en.linoit.com/ FedFlix: http://www.archive.org/details/FedFlix Technology Assessment A plethora of links to evaluate technology planning, web resources, technology impact, and evaluations & reports. http://www.4teachers.org/inttech/index.php?inttechid=ta GradePad iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app that lets you take grades in a rubric format while you circle the room. Webspotlight: Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_pink_shirky/all/1 Videos: Making Data Matter http://www.edweek.org