Middle School Matters (with AMLE)
By Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr
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Podcast Description
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
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CleanMSM-206 Dry Hands Warm Heart | Jokes You Can Use: Auntie Matilta won’t kiss you with that dirty face! That’s what I’m hoping. Girl: I need a new dress Dad: Why? Girl: The girl in my class has the same one. Dad: Why does that mean you need a new dress. Girl: It’s cheaper than switching colleges. On Our Mind: ISTE Noob-ness! Wrapping up the year yet? Eileen Award: Jeffry Prickett - Facebook & Twitter Pamela Schneider - Facebook Advisory: How to Use a Paper Towel: http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_smith_how_to_use_a_paper_towel.html and http://creativewealthprinciples.com/archives/285 The Other Side of the World http://www.antipodemap.com/ Olympic Torch Relay Route http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/route/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Drying Hands in the Lab. In the March, 2012 issue of Science Scope, a publication of the National Science Teachers Association, the safety question of the month was "Are there any alternatives to paper towels for students to wash and dry their hands with at the end of lab?" Ken Roy, director of environmental health and safety for Glastonbury Public Schools in Glastonbury, Connecticut provides a great answer. If you would like more information on science safety, you can purchase Ken's book, "The NSTA Ready-Reference Guide to Safer Science," through the NSTA bookstore. Please visit: http://www.nsta.org/store/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/9781933531281 From the Twitterverse: News: Homeschool Is The Future http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2012/03/09/homeschool-is-the-future/ Dartmouth Researchers Are Learning How Exercise Affects the Brain http://now.dartmouth.edu/2012/05/dartmouth-researchers-are-learning-how-exercise-affects-the-brain/ Are today's students truly 'tech savvy'? It is difficult to prove that the Generation Y and young people today are not more technologically adapted than their older counterparts. They may sometimes display an unhealthy level of dependence on their mobile phone, become bored easily when taught in school how to use basic commands in Microsoft Word and be called upon often to fix the problem with the printer, but are all members of this age bracket clued-up and comfortable with technology? According to the research, there was little evidence that today’s students demand modern technology when entering university that the academic institution cannot provide. Technological integration is expanding, however in terms of study, students may not be as reliant on it to learn as we stereotype them to be. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/are-todays-students-truly-tech-savvy/16147 Congrats to Mike Muir, AMLE President-Elect! Resources: iPad Resource Links http://www.21innovate.com/ipadipod.html Documentaries On-Line Watch free documentaries online! Full videos are available. Educate yourself with thousands of good documentaries about diverse subjects. The newest, latest, best and greatest top documentaries online can be watched here for free. http://www.documentaryz.com/ A Twenty-One Protest Song Salute [Warning to parents and teachers: Some songs contain profanity. Also, Moyers & Company and Public Affairs Television do not endorse any advertisements or promotional links contained within the embedded videos.] http://billmoyers.com/content/a-twenty-one-protest-song-salute/ Web Spotlight: iWitness IWitness is an online application that gives educators and students access to search, watch, and learn from more than 1,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/Default.aspx Graduation Speeches http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/06/10/best-commencement-graduation-speeches/ http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/18/commencement-speeches-2/ Strategies: The Graphic Classroom http://www.graphicclassroom.org/ Events & Happenings: | 5/19/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-205 Split or Steal | Jokes You Can Use: “I haven’t slept for days.” How come? I only sleep at night. On Our Mind: ESL objectives, Professional Development & How to Win Friends and Influence People. #PLNfail Congrats to all the EMU students who were dismissed today . . . Eileen Award: Jeffry Prickett (Facebook & Twitter) Eleanor Ricardo Advisory: Food http://twentytwowords.com/2012/04/25/chart-showing-the-10-companies-that-own-most-of-the-food-products-we-buy/ Split or Steal Here’s the deal. £13,600 are on the line. Each contestant must choose Split or Steal. If they both choose Split, they each get half of the money. If one chooses Split and the other Steal, the one who chose Steal gets all the money. And if they both choose Steal, nobody gets any money. Before they choose, they are allowed to discuss their plan together. It is a battle of wits, combining both logic and the ability to read and manipulate one’s opponent. Check out how one ingenious contestant chose to let this scenario play out… http://twentytwowords.com/2012/04/28/split-or-steal-a-creative-and-kind-use-of-logic-and-manipulation/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) The topic is Reading Ladders and Science. "Climb on up and enjoy the podcast." From the Twitterverse: News: Change the World Parents who sued school over son's punishment for cheating receive hate messages http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_20493867/parents-who-sued-school-over-sons-punishment-cheating and the follow up: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-school-cheat-20120427,0,1656872.story Evaluate Me, Please http://teachfromtheheart.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/evaluate-me-please/ Resources: KANEX Pro- AirPlay® Mirroring For VGA Projector http://www.kanexlive.com/atvpro Technology Integration Matrix Grade Level Index This page provides a breakdown of videos within the Technology Integration Matrix by grade level. Although you may be primarily interested in a particular level, we encourage you to view the ways in which technology is used in other grade levels. For example, you will find videos of high school classrooms in which the technology tools could be used in the same way with middle school or elementary level students. Some videos involve students from both middle and high school grades and some involve students from both middle and elementary grades. These videos appear in both lists below. http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/gradelevel.php TED-Ed - Insults by Shakespeare Watch Quick Quiz Think Dig Deeper If you sign in, you can make adjustments on most sections of the page. For example, you can deselect Quick Quiz questions, add Think questions, and add links to the Dig Deeper section. http://ed.ted.com/lessons/insults-by-shakespeare Google Education On-Air https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/home Virtual 4T Conference The Virtual Conference will be held May19th through May 22nd. It is a 24/7 conference and is free and open to any educator. *Disclosure- I’m presenting a session. http://4tvirtualcon.soe.umich.edu/ Conference Sessions: http://4tvirtualcon.soe.umich.edu/?page_id=54 or https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Amyg3kn2ZRP0dC1yMGxfVV9xTzkwYVIzVDhhbUtfUGc&output=html Web Spotlight: Broomstick I'm Sebastian, a 14 year old Kiwi innovator, Mac app developer, student and tech enthusiast from New Zealand, currently living in Paris. http://www.zibity.com/broomstick Dangerously Irrelevant: Web videos educators should see http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2010/11/12-videos-to-spark-educators-thinking.html Strategies: TinkerCad Design in 3D what you've always dreamed of, but never thought possible. Until now. Join the Tinkercad community and learn how to create your first real things in just a few minutes. https://tinkercad.com/home/ or 3D Tin Create 3D models in your browser. http://www.3dtin.com/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 5/5/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-204 Make Yourself Smarter | Jokes You Can Use: Johnny Depp is making another Pirates of the Carribean. It’s “Arrrrgh” Rated . . . RUTH BUZZI @Ruth_A_Buzzi My cat can hardly wait until his favorite holiday comes around next week: "Cinco de Meowo." #HappyCaturday (w/ thanks to @Liedertafel_pdx!) On Our Mind: Bad Pirate Jokes . . . Eileen Award: Dave Brown Mary Alise Herrera Craig Malkin Advisory: Thou Shall Not Commit Logical Fallacies A logical fallacy is usually what has happened when someone is wrong about something. It's a flaw in reasoning. They're like tricks or illusions of thought, and they're often very sneakily used by politicians and the media to fool people. Don't be fooled! This website and poster have been designed to help you identify and call out dodgy logic wherever it may raise its ugly, incoherent head. If you see someone committing a logical fallacy, link them to the relevant fallacy to school them in thinky awesomeness and win the intellectual affections of those who happen across your comment by appearing clever and interesting e.g. yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman (rollover/click icons above). http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) The National Science Teachers Association has recently announce its Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12. In this podcast we look at three more of the books which are very appropriate for students in grades 6 - 8. They are: Baby Mammoth Mummy Frozen in Time! A Prehistoric Animal's Journey into the 21st Century by Christopher Sloan The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M. Jackson Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication by Ann Downer From the Twitterverse: News: Can You Make Yourself Smarter? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-smarter.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=magazine Resources: CorePlanner CorePlanner: Resource tool for teachers planning their lessons around the Common Core Standards. http://coreplanner.com/ ???? http://www.mylessonplanner.com/ PBS Kids Cyberchase - Dozens of Math Activities http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/04/pbs-kids-cyberchase-dozens-of-math.html 3D Toad http://www.3dtoad.com/ Taylor Mali http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/get-fracas/04-2012/taylor-malis-what-teachers-make-book-winner YouTube Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU Web Spotlight: 33 Animals Who Are Extremely Disappointed In You Not angry, just disappointed http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/animals-who-are-extremely-disappointed-in-you The 5 Worst Things a Teacher Can Say to Students By Dan Brown 5. “I know this may seem pointless but we have to get through it…” 4. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” 3. “The other class did well with this. What’s wrong with you guys?” 2. “You will never be able to (fill in the blank).” 1. “I get paid whether you (fill in the blank) or not.” http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/get-fracas/04-2012/5-worst-things-teacher-can-say-students Test Scores and Housing Costs http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/test-scores-and-housing-costs/ A Child’s Helping Hand on Portions http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/dining/a-child-offers-plan-on-portion-control-for-dieters.html Events & Happenings: | 4/28/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-203 Crazy after 45 minutes | Jokes You Can Use: “Doctor, will I be able to read with these new glasses?” “Of course, perfectly. Why?” “Because, I couldn’t read before”. When I got a bill for an operation, I found out why they wear masks. On Our Mind: Eileen Award: Gr8t Lakes Teacher: Thanks for the feedback on iTunes! Advisory: Book Spine Poetry Stack books up so that the Titles on the spine form a poem. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/tag/book-spine-poetry/ Odd Advertisements NSFW: Prescreening required http://oddstuffmagazine.com/funniest-advertisements-ever.html 11 “Modern Antiques” Today’s Kids Have Probably Never Seen http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/122762 Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) The National Science Teachers Association has recently announced its Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12. In this podcast we look at three of the books which are very appropriate for students in grades 6 - 8. They are: Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships by Catherine Thimmesh Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans Bug Shots: The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly by Alexandra Siy From the Twitterverse: News: Student “Learning Styles” Theory Is Bunk (Daniel Willingham) http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/student-learning-styles-theory-is-bunk-daniel-willingham/ The Pineapple Story Tests Us: Have Test Publishers become Unquestionable Authorities? http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/04/the_pineapple_story_questions.html http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/04/20/151044647/the-pineapple-and-the-hare-can-you-answer-two-bizarre-state-exam-questions?sc=tw Professional Development Sweating my way through a workout the other day, I stumbled across an article titledGetting Principals to Think Like Managers in the Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Considering that nearly every expert on the 21st Century principalship would argue that leading schools is about WAY more than "managing," the title caught my eye. http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/tempered-radical/04-2012/will-75000-really-change-your-principals-leadership-skills Earth's quietest place http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2124581/The-worlds-quietest-place-chamber-Orfield-Laboratories.html Resources: Block Print Create any size poster from any size picture. http://www.blockposters.com/ iSLCollective Free, printable ESL worksheets by teachers for teachers. Allows a variety of criteria: Level, Student Type, Grammar Focus, Vocabulary Focus, Skill, Material Type, Solution. http://en.islcollective.com/ WorkFlowy Easy ToDo list manager. https://workflowy.com/ National Parks Tour Provides a virtual tour of various parks: Grand Canyon, Great Smokies, YellowStone. http://naturevalleytrailview.com/ Positive Thoughts You might recall a charming antidote: Everything Is Going to Be OK, the lovely pocket-sized anthology of positive artwork. Now, it’s available as equally lovely 20 different note cards, featuring artists like Gemma Correll,Jessica Swift, Danna Ray, and Amy Borrell. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/19/everything-is-going-to-be-ok-cards/ KiKuText Kikutext is all about parent engagement. We truly believe that an increase in parent engagement will mean an increase in student achievement. Every part of our application is designed to help you easily and quickly communicate with parents more regularly. Parents can sign up for text messages. Teachers get a proxy phone number - no need to give out your personal cell phone number. http://kikutext.com/ Web Spotlight: 5 Historical Misconceptions Warning: Lady Godiva and bare bottom is included. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sYzfKiIWN4g Strategies: Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 4/21/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-202 String this Sounds Motion SAT | Jokes You Can Use: A little boy was starting to dig into his dinner. His father gently reminded him that they hadn’t said a prayer yet. “It’s OK, we don’t have to. Mommy is a good cook”. On Our Mind: The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow 8 weeks to go. ISTE Eileen Award: ●PivotalEllie Ellie Dix ●Ron Peck: Thanks for the Twitter answer. Advisory: How to Listen to Music Music has a powerful grip on our emotional brain. It can breathe new life into seemingly lifeless minds. But if there is indeed no music instinct, music — not just its creation, but also its consumption — must be an acquired skill. How, then, do we “learn” music? Even more curiously, how do we “learn” to “listen” to music, something that seems so fundamental we take it for granted? http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/12/elliott-schwartz-music-ways-of-listening/ Body Language Decoder http://lifehacker.com/5901468/use-this-body-language-cheat-sheet-to-decode-common-non+verbal-cue s Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This is a three part feature on outstanding science tradebooks for students in Grades 6 - 8. Part 1: The National Science Teachers Association has recently announced its Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12. In this podcast we look at two of the books which are very appropriate for students in grades 6 - 8. They are: Biomimicry: Inventions Inspired by Nature by Dora Lee Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 feet Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson From the Twitterverse: Watch for middle level tweets on Twitter with the hashtag #midleved. Resources: An Open Letter to Educators http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-P2PGGeTOA4 TED offers free video lessons for high school and college students By Lyndsey Layton, Published: March 12 Imagine you’re a high school biology teacher searching for the most vivid way to explain electrical activity in the brain. How about inserting metal wires into a cockroach’s severed leg and making that leg dance to music? Starting Monday, that eye-popping lesson, performed in a six-minute video by neuroscientist and engineer Greg Gage, is available free online. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/ted-offers-free-video-lessons-for-high-school-and-colle ge-students/2012/03/09/gIQAuw5O6R_story.html http://www.youtube.com/tededucation Web Spotlight: Sound Maps Use the interactive maps to find recordings of regional accents and dialects, wildlife and environmental sounds, and selected world and traditional music. Includes dialects, and the Millenium Memory Bank. Also includes Holocaust survivors. http://sounds.bl.uk/sound-maps Ultra Slow Motion http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/13/ultra-slow-motion/ What Happens When A 35-Year-Old Man Retakes The SAT? *Warning - Not Safe for Work language is used. Shockingly, little about the SAT has changed since I set foot in that classroom. Most students still have to take the test using bubble sheets and a No. 2 pencil, which is insane to me. They've managed to digitize VOTING http://deadspin.com/5893189/what-happens-when-a-35+year+old-man-retakes-the-sat Strategies: Seussisms http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/11/seuss-isms/ How Long Is a Piece of String? BBC and Comedian Alan Davies Explore Quantum Mechanics by Maria Popova In How Long is a Piece of String?, they enlist standup-comic-turned-physics-enthusiast Alan Davies in answering the seemingly simple question of the film’s title, only to find in it a lens — a very blurry lens — on the very fabric of reality. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/09/how-long-is-a-piece-of-string-bbc/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 4/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-201 Retention Thats Awkward Post | Jokes You Can Use: On Our Mind: Happy Birthday Rick Wormeli Eileen Award: Jennifer Applebaum Liz Kolb: Twitter Paul Steele Advisory: How important is it to be at school, on time? http://twentytwowords.com/2012/04/06/lady-carries-her-disabled-granddaughter-2-hours-to-school-every-day/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Tough Climate for Teachers This middle school science minute is about the difficult situation that teachers face today in the teaching of climate change. In the March 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Inez Lifttig, editor of Science Scope wrote in the Editor's Roundtable: "A Tough Climate for Teachers." In the editorial she discusses the hurdles that teachers have today and relates them to the problems that Biology teachers have had in the teaching of evolution. She also points out that the teaching of climate change should not be a cautious approach because the Framework for K-12 Science Education, does not support a cautious approach and in fact emphasizes strongly that human activities impact climate change. From the Twitterverse: News: More States Retaining Struggling 3rd Graders By Erik W. Robelen http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/28/26retention_ep.h31.html?tkn=PQYF7PMVJobJVLws0eMfYkGfp3CJqc4i5cfx&cmp=ENL-CM-NEWS1 Common-Core-Test Group Gives Higher Ed. Voting Rights By Catherine Gewertz http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/04/05/28parcc.h31.html?tkn=WNTF3nLXUTQZIM4Er2IcBitwRjDIyvbqq2He&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2 Resources: The homework trap and what to do about it By Valerie Strauss http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-homework-trap-and-what-to-do-about-it/2012/04/05/gIQAJt9YyS_blog.html My Ten Most Used Apps to Become Fluent on the iPad http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=4046 Web Spotlight: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/ff_aiclass/all/1 Strategies: The Dreaded F Word: Fractions By David Ginsburg on April 1, 2012 7:00 PM http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2012/04/the_dreaded_f_word_fractions.html Do Students Know Enough Smart Learning Strategies? http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/03/do-students-know-enough-smart-learning-strategies/ Fun Failure: How to Make Learning Irresistible Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: 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. | 4/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-200 In Conjunction With AMLE | Jokes You Can Use: Overheard: Husband: Janice, when I see you in that hat, I laugh. Wife: Good, I’ll put it on when the bill comes. Person 1: “You are the slowest person I’ve ever seen. Do you do anything quickly!” Person 2: “I get tired real fast”. Person 1: “Have any big men been born in this town?” Person 2: “Nope. Just babies.” On Our Mind: This episode is brought to you in conjunction with AMLE. We need your feedback. What would you like us to focus on in conjunction with AMLE? Please send us suggestions and feedback. Pick any of the contact methods to the right on the web page. Eileen Award: Tim Purcell Natasha Kardos Janet Herr Marchelle Lynn Ron King: AMLE suggestions Advisory: Advice to Girls by Kate Elizabeth Conner http://kateelizabethconner.com/ten-things-i-want-to-tell-teenage-girls/ and the counter-point for boys http://juntoboys.blogspot.com/2012/03/ten-things-i-wish-i-could-tell-every.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about rocketry safety. In the February 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Ken Roy wrote an article entitled: "Question of the Month - Rocket Safety." In the article you will learn about the safety expectations when using model rockets and how you can learn more about the National Association of Rocketry's Model Rocket Safety Code at: http://www.nar.org/NARmrsc.html From the Twitterverse: News: 5 Vimeo Videos Every School Leader Should Bookmark Vimeo is chock full of fun, artistic, and inspiring videos. Below are five videos that anyone leading professional development could find inspiring. http://edreach.us/2012/03/29/5-vimeo-videos-every-school-leader-should-bookmark/ Resources: 35 Useful and Free E-books for Web Designers These could be useful resources for some students. http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2012/01/free-e-books-for-web-designers.html Wild Animals Smithsonian Wild Animals http://siwild.si.edu/ Web Spotlight: If The Test Wasn't Coming... Instead of allowing students to build sound evidence-based arguments on real issues, I am giving them practice choosing the best of someone else's answers to someone else's questions on a text with no context. http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/shoulders_of_giants/2012/03/if-the-test-wasnt-coming.html Fear And Self-Loathing In The Classroom by William Johnson, at 12:43 pm http://gothamschools.org/2012/03/19/fear-and-self-loathing-in-the-classroom/#more-79685 Events & Happenings: | 3/31/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-199 MAMSE Can You Hear Us-Major Announcement | Jokes You Can Use: What do you get when you cross a porcupine with a sheep? An animal that knits it’s own sweaters. What do you get when you cross a chicken with an elephant? I don’t know, but Colonel Sanders would have trouble dipping it in batter. If a dog loses his tail, where does he go? To the retail store. On Our Mind: MAMSE Major Announcement Eileen Award: John Bernia Todd Bloch Jeff Pelich Advisory: Even Disney Makes Mistakes: http://www.slashfilm.com/watch-rare-disney-documentary-called-the-sweatbox/ Paper Toys All kinds of paper projects. You could have the kids make a “scene” or use it http://papertoys.com/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about the misconceptions that middle school students have about light. In the February 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Amber Haslag and James P. Concannon wrote an article entitled: "Reflecting on students' misconceptions about light: Using research to guide assessment and instruction" They begin by sharing data on a study done through Michigan State University, which identifies the misconceptions that students have about light. They then developed a two-day 5E lesson that helps students to clarify their misunderstandings. After the lesson, they evaluate the students on their understanding of light. From the Twitterverse: MAMSE 2012 Formative Assessment Formative assessment. Fowlerville and Flatrock have also implemented this. MDE and Measured Progress Self reflection Goal Setting Prior Knowledge Formative Assessment Toolbox ( A really thick binder - 4", I do believe) Non-negotiables Rationale Explanation Ways to Incorporate Grading Scale - How do we grade? Why? Chose a 13 point scale. ZAP - Zero's Aren't Permitted Students are ZAPPED for lunch and after school. 3 Zaps in a week=after school. Principal is heavily involved. Counselors are used to follow up with the student. The counselor does the scheduling of the student with the parent for after school ZAP. This is also combined with the after school programs for support for students who are struggling. This is more immediate than Saturday school. The issue with Saturday school was the delay. They use Advisory for communication. They rely on the relationship development through Advisory to support the ZAP. Collaborative Team work Touch the numbers in order. 30 seconds to touch them in order. Then pair up. One person touches, the other helps. Shows that you are more effective in a group. They usually get farther. Wordles: Group works together. Combine different groups. When done, give out the answers, then process. Teacher takes notes on what happens: groups talk things out. The teacher role is to observe and then help the students process. Trying these out, the students respond genuinely. IZZI: 8x8. Resources: Zopler Zopler is a social network where writers, authors and students can easily collaborate on writing stories together as a group. http://zopler.com/ Contact Info: Anne Thorp: www.oaisd.org athorp@oaisd.org PeterArashiro: www.learnport.org parashiro@mivu.org Events & Happenings: | 3/24/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-198 Advisory Abolition and the War on Teachers in 53 hours | Jokes You Can Use: Boy: Will you marry me? Girl: No, but I’ll always admire your good taste. Girl: I’m telling you for the last time- you can’t kiss me. Boy: I knew that you’d weaken! Girl: Do you love me? Boy: Yes, dear. Girl: Would you die for me? Boy: Um....mine is an undying love. Ask me what I had for lunch on March 15th. Go ahead, ask me. On Our Mind: MAMSE Conference Eileen Award: Debbie Silver - Happy Birthday Ashley Kurth Diigo Groupees: Karen Chopra & G2One Networking Diigo Posters: Steve Davis & Ron King Advisory: Are you a risk taker? National Geographic has an article on why teens take risks. Worth a read but I think the picture essay that goes with it is more valuable for the discussion it could generate around the classroom. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/risk-quiz Viewing Teens Positively: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/teenagers-video Pictures: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/cahana-photography#/10-getting-tongue-pierced-670.jpg Should I raise my hand? http://twentytwowords.com/2012/03/15/should-you-raise-your-hand-in-class-a-flowchart/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about the topic of what drives public opinion. In the March 2012 issue of Science Scope, within the Scope's Scoops section, there is a news article entitled "What drives public opinion on climate change?" The article cites a study by Robert Bruelle and colleagues from Drexel University who set out to identify the informational, cultural and political processes that influence public concern about climate change. Their conclusion was that the driving factor that most influences public opinion on climate change is the mobilizing efforts of advocacy groups and elites. It seems that that information-based science advocacy has had only a minor effect on public concern. From the Twitterverse: News: Why the Ed Department should be reconceived — or abolished http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-the-ed-department-should-be-reconceived--or-abolished/2012/03/09/gIQAHfdB5R_blog.html The war on teachers: Why the public is watching it happen http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-war-on-teachers-why-the-public-is-watching-it-happen/2012/03/11/gIQAD3XH6R_blog.html Survey: Teachers work 53 hours per week on average gIQAqGxYGS_blog.html A South Carolina Teacher’s Been Suspended for Reading ‘Ender’s Game’ to His Class http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/03/16/446431/a-south-carolina-teachers-been-suspended-for-reading-enders-game-to-his-class/?mobile=nc Resources: AudioViator Web Spotlight: 11 Peculiar Meetings Between Famous People http://www.worldsstrangest.com/mental-floss/11-peculiar-meetings-between-famous-people/ Strategies: Failure Is an Option http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/03/13/for-better-learning-failure-is-an-option/35920.html Little Free Library http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/index.html The Challenge of Challenging Text http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar12/vol69/num06/The-Challenge-of-Challenging-Text.aspx Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 3/17/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-197 Online Hugs are Value added | On Our Mind: MACUL State wide on-line testing Eileen Award: Liz Kolb Carol Hix of Science Six: Recommendations: lulu.com and Edmodo.com, Google Docs, Twiddla, www.mixedink.com. Advisory: National Geographic @NatGeo Daylight savings time: Why and when does it begin? on.natgeo.com/yr6p1P Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about the collaboration that can take place between math and science teachers. In the February 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Karen Charles, J.D. Canales, Angela Smith and Natalie Zimmerman wrote an article entitled: "Exploring the Solar System:? Let the Math Teachers Help!" They explain how attending a week long academy offered by NASA in their school district encouraged math and science teachers to consider how using models and simulations could expand their repertoire of classroom strategies and engage students more fully in their own context-rich learning. From the Twitterverse: News: American Dropouts: Part I http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/03-2012/american-dropouts-part-i A Lesson in Teaching to the Test, From E.B. White http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/03/07/a-lesson-in-teaching-to-the-test-from-e-b-white School Communities Wrecked by "Value-Added": Two Must-Reads http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/get-fracas/03-2012/school-communities-wrecked-value-added-two-must-reads Resources: Mixed Ink http://www.mixedink.com/ K20Alt - Authentic Teaching and Learning http://k20alt.ou.edu/ 10 Open Education Resources You May Not Know About (But Should) http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/05/10-open-education-resources-you-may-not-know-about-but-should/ CloudFTP http://www.hypershop.com/CloudFTP-p/cftp-black.htm Web Spotlight: Stop Taking Pictures of the Whiteboard http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2012/02/stop-taking-pictures-of-the-whiteboard/ GenoChoice Good for web site evaluation. http://genochoice.com/ Inside-Out Your Mind http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/03/02/147825237/inside-out-your-mind?ft=1&f=1130 The Civil War, Part 1: The Places http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/02/the-civil-war-part-1-the-places/100241 Old Maps Online http://www.oldmapsonline.org/#bbox=-110.3125,-51.774806,119.609375,72.104237&q=&datefrom=1000&dateto=2010 Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 3/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-196 iPads Too much good stuff and Paper | Shawn & Troy talk about iPads, apps, advisory ideas, the Twitterverse and more. Jokes You Can Use: Some people think that movies would be better if less film were shot and more actors. On Our Mind: New MSM Newspaper: http://paper.li/MSMatters/1330791685 Update on EtherPad Eileen Award: @ClareFroggatt for following us on Twitter! Advisory: Languages http://ourmothertongues.org/Home.aspx Paper AirPlanes http://twentytwowords.com/2012/02/29/new-world-record-distance-for-a-paper-airplane-flight/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about life jackets, engineering, volume and density. In the February 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Richard Moyer and Susan Everett wrote an article entitled: "Increase your v to lower your D." They developed a 5E lesson that can easily be used by teachers. The lesson integrates all of the STEM disciplines, while focusing on the core ideas of criteria and constraints in engineering and the practice of engineering design. It also is focused on the concepts of density and volume. BTW, Dick Moyer, in this article, teaches over at UM-Dearborn. Pretty well known in the area. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget #midleved on Friday, 8:00 EST on Twitter! News: ISTE Virtual Presence ISTE opens a site on EduIsland9 to replace the four islands it once maintained in Second Life. The Middle School Plunge http://educationnext.org/the-middle-school-plunge/ Resources: iPad Resources for Administrators From: Eric Sheninger http://pinterest.com/esheninger/ipad-apps-for-administrators/ HelloSlide http://www.helloslide.com/ Canvas LMS Learning enriches living. Discover how major universities and K-12 school districts are boosting teacher effectiveness, student success and parental engagement with the Canvas learning management system. Learn more about canva http://www.instructure.com/ 1,000 Educational Apps http://adecardy.visibli.com/share/C46fkd *Tip: You can access the Google Doc below. Select Make a Copy. You can then filter the document to items that you want. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvFbfb1mWoNwdGlweWtkZkFRS1gzUDMtTUtoTEw0MkE#gid=0 Web Spotlight: “Bully” gets rated R The MPAA rated the movie R on the basis of language used in the film -- language that young teens hurled at a 13-year-old. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/weinstein-company-considers-leaving-mpaa-over-bully-rating-35681 Cognitive Neuroscience Tools FreeEDUCATIONAL TOOLS FOR COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE http://gocognitive.net/ Stop Selling Dreams http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams Socrates Fails his Teacher Evaluation The results were posted in the Agora for all to see the quality and performance of their teacher. Socrates failed. He simply spent too much time asking them to think. A walk- through evaluation by his supervisor (undisclosed), determined that “ sometimes Socrates’s students meander through endless dialogues examining challenging questions that do not have one right answer.” Hopefully, he will be replaced or perhaps go through an intensive summer professional development program in Sparta. http://edge.ascd.org/_SOCRATES-FAILS-TEACHER-EVALUATION/blog/5822005/127586.html Students Engaged http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-definition-ben-johnson 12 Must See Teacher Movies http://www.teachhub.com/top-12-must-see-teacher-movies Strategies: AMLE 2011: Events & Happenings: | 3/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-195 Conversion Collaborate and Smell | Jokes You Can Use: Fred met a friend that he hadn’t seen a while. They exchanged some pleasantries. Fred then inquired about the old friend’s wife. “She’s in heaven now”. “Oh, I’m so sorry”, said Fred. He immediately realized that this was not the best possible answer and could be misconstrued. “I mean, I’m glad” he stammered. Then he realized that might be even worse. He tried again. “Well, what I really mean is, I’m surprised”. Paraprosdokians I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure. You're never too old to learn something stupid. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public. I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness. If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why do some people have more than one child? Hospitality: making your guests feel like they’re at home, even if you wish they were. Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go. Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back. “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” — Groucho Marx I can read minds, but I’m illiterate. “I haven’t slept for ten days, because that would be too long.” — Mitch Hedberg The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. On Our Mind: Zamzar vs Convert-online Eileen Award: Ron King: Diigo contributions. Advisory: Jason Eifling @jeifling What School Lunches Look Like In 20 Countries Around The World buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-sc… via @BuzzFeed Building Relationships Through Tools of Communication http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dupabkw46Qk Pictures from Around the World Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Eww, that smell. Can’t you smell that smell?! From the Twitterverse: News: Why don’t top private schools adopt corporate-driven reforms? By Valerie Strauss Resources: Looking for an image? http://jpg.to/ Collaborative Whiteboard http://www.twiddla.com/ The iPad as..... http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/mobile-technology-apps/ipad-as Transforming Education http://www.ctnexted.org/pdfs/CAPSS_0101-FullReport.pdf Web Spotlight: Woolly Mammoth Video Last week, a new video surfaced claiming to show a live woolly mammoth — an animal scientists think has been extinct for at least four millennia — crossing a river in Russia. The video became an Internet sensation, making headlines around the world. Some Bigfoot believers and Loch Ness Monster lovers murmured their tentative approval, hoping it proved that large unknown (or assumed extinct) animals still exist in Earth's remote wilds. Good opportunity to show hoaxes. This site includes both videos (the “woolly mammoth” and the original). http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0213/Shocker-Video-of-live-woolly-mammoth-not-entirely-authentic-videos Science & YouTube From: Richard Byrne (Free Tech for Teachers) The Spangler Effect is a new YouTube channel from Steve Spangler Science. Unlike his popular Sick Science videos which are no more than short demonstrations of science experiments students and parents can do at home, The Spangler Effect videos offer longer (15 minutes or so) explanations of science experiments. The Spangler Effect videos explain the science of do-it-yourself experiments and how you can recreate those experiments at home or in your classroom. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/02/spangler-effect-experiments-and.html Bullying Strategies That Don’t Work Via: Scott McLeod Events & Happenings: | 2/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-194 Para What | Jokes You Can Use: Customer: This food isn’t fit for a pig. Waiter: I’m sorry. I’ll bring you some that is. PARAPROSDOKIANS: (Winston Churchill loved them.) Here is the definition: "Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation." "Where there's a will, I want to be in it," is a type of Paraprosdokian. - A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station. - Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.' - You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice. On Our Mind: “The ‘Good’ Kids Are Compliant, The ‘Bad’ Kids Are Defiant, And Nobody Is Engaged” (Daniel Pink via http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/superintendent/bookclub.aspx ) Eileen Award: Anabelle Maillard Morgan Jamie Cruikshank Congrats to Todd Williamson on his new position as Head Techie in his school district! Advisory: Touching “Arigato” (Thank You) Video From Japan (via Larry Ferlazzo) http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/02/12/touching-arigato-thank-you-video-from-japan/ YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SS-sWdAQsYg MistakeVille Try the Job Interviews gone wrong. http://www.mistakeville.com/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Transforming Field Trips This middle school science minute is about transforming field trips. In the January, 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Rebecca Morris wrote an article entitled, "Transforming a Field Trip Into an Expedition: Supporting Active Research and Science Content Through a Museum Visit.” Rebecca shares the methods that she used with her 6th grade students. She developed the museum field trip into a short-term, active research project assignment. From the Twitterverse: Don’t forget to join #midleved chat on Twitter at 8:00 pm EST! News: Common Core Standards and Impact on Achievement http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2012/0216_brown_education_loveless/0216_brown_education_loveless.pdf The Opportunity Cost in Education What does “paperwork” cost to a school district? http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2012/02/count-opportunity-cost-of-teacher-tasks.html Resources: Quadratic Equations - The Main Ideas Mission US Mission US is a multimedia project that immerses players in U.S. history content through free interactive games. Other missions are planned for release in 2013 and 2014. Join the conversation and get updates about Mission US on Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit the Help page. To share your feedback, email us via the contact form on this site. Thanks for playing! http://www.mission-us.org/ Web Spotlight: Microsoft Partners in Learning Apply today US Forum https://www.facebook.com/partnersinlearning?sk=app_368381589844161 Strategies: What’s Your Story Content: Your video must address one of these topics: Take action against bullying Keep a good rep online Be cell smart Eligibility: All residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) and the US, 13 years of age and older. http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com/internet-safety/Home.do National Archives Digital Experience Create Posters, Videos and/or Pathways revolving around the material in the National Archives. Easy to use. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/02/create-videos-and-posters-on-us.html http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/create/ Events & Happenings: | 2/18/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-193 A Whole Latte Stuff | Jokes You Can Use: Mom: Were you a good boy today? Son: Yep. You can’t get in too much trouble standing in the corner. I wouldn’t say the restaurant was suspicious, but there were 3 shakers on the table: Salt, pepper and alka-seltzer. Eileen Award: Jamie Cruikshank Steve Collis Advisory: Best Ad Campaigns of All Time. http://www.englishblog.com/2012/02/infographic-best-ad-campaigns-of-all-time.html A Short History of Calendars http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kzprsR2SvrQ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) This middle school science minute is about writing lab reports. In the January, 2012 issue of Science Scope (NSTA publication) Fred Enge wrote an article entitled, "Not Another Lab Report." Fred shares his ideas on helping his 8th grade students improve on their lab reports. Two important factors came into play: 1. Relevance 2. Guidance From the Twitterverse: News: ISTE Island ISTE Island has been a resource for many educators over the years. February 28th the Island goes into LOST mode (vanishes completely) as ISTE will no longer make payments to Linden Labs to maintain the island. There’s a party on the 27th and all are invited to attend. Resources: Algebra in the Real World Movies http://www.thefutureschannel.com/algebra/algebra_real_world_movies.php Latte http://olivierlabs.com/latte/index.html Text to Speech Mac Only. Extends the functionality of the built-in Text to Speech. http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/10/daily-mac-app-text2speech-lets-hear-what-you-write-in-record-ti Web Spotlight: English Slang http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/02/10/nice-pbs-news-hour-story-on-teaching-english-slang/ Solve for X A forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork. Somewhat similar to TED. http://www.wesolveforx.com/ Strategies: AMLE 2011: Mastery and How to Assess It Rick Wormeli This is based on Fair is Not Always Equal. Has a discussion guide, participant study guide, and videos Define Mastery Can use it and apply it in another context? Must incorporate it later in the year . . . Final exams given over last 2-3 weeks and never for a long period of time/sitting. What evidence will you tolerate? Sit down with your team/department and decide. What exemplars? What are teachers putting on their tests? "Agree on a commonly accepted definition of mastery." What is the difference between proficient in the standard/outcome and mastery of the standard/outcome? What does exceeding the standard mean? Common Assessments Written by local teachers Given when the kids are ready to take them. Do a variety of them. They don't count a huge amount on the report card. Ask him for the article on Clarifying the Curriculum. Feedback vs. Assessment Feedback: holding up a mirror to students, showing them what they did and comparing it to what they should have done - There's no evaluative component! Assessment: Gathering data so we can make a decision. Greatest impact: Formative Assessment. Be clear: We mark and grade against standards/outcomes, not the routes students take or techniques teachers use to achieve those standards/outcomes. Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: 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. | 2/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-192 Diners Drive-ins and Dives | 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/ | 2/5/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-191 Become an Authority | 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 | 1/28/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-190 Hear Ye Hear Ye | 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: | 1/21/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-189 Homework-Science The Daves Show | 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 | 1/14/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-188 20 Project and a Plethora of words and resources | 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: | 1/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-187 Theres No Place like Chrome for the Hollandaise | 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: | 12/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-186-Yea-We Promised to Get to Wormeli and We did | 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 | 12/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-185-Beechball-of-death | 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 | 12/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-184 Youd think that we had plenty to talk about | 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: | 11/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-183 You Vill | 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: | 10/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-182 iPads We are blinding you with 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: | 10/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-181 A Separate Peace | 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 | 10/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-180 Last Stand Sifteo Quick | 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: | 10/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-179 Common Core Bad Baseball iPad Resources | 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: | 9/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-178 Confessions Talking is Hard Need a Job | 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. | 9/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-177 Group Hugs and Parents need to hear this | 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: | 9/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-176 Video-iPads | 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 priso | 9/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-175 Out of the Bath Water | 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: | 8/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-174 Beyond Seat Time and Jeff for the Win! | 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: | 8/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-173-BYOD Solve the Debt | 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: | 7/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-172 Confused | 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: | 7/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-171 TwittervISTE | 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: | 7/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-170 Football Fields | 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: | 7/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-169 I got you a cookie-Resource Bonanza | 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: | 6/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-168 Fight Fight Whos On twitter | 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 | 6/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-167 Fairly Infinite | 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: | 5/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-166 Tons of Advisory Ideas-Measurement and 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: | 5/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-165 Skype is our friend-Peter is Math-Econ Raps | 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: | 5/7/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-164 Michigan Reform Cursive and Comedians | 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 E | 5/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-163 We'll start at 1 | 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: | 4/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-162 Yap Away | 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: | 4/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-161 Bad Jokes Abound History Updated Football | Jokes You Can Use: A teacher sees a lad entering the classroom – his hands were dirty. She stopped him and said, “John, please wash your hands. My goodness, what would you say if I came into the room with hands like that?” Smiling the boy replied, “I think I’d be too polite to mention it.” Two explorers, camped in the heart of the African jungle, were discussing their expedition. “I came here,” said one, “because the urge to travel was in my blood. City life bored me, and the smell of exhaust fumes on the highways made me sick. I wanted to see the sunrise over new horizons and hear the flutter of birds that never had been seen by man. I wanted to leave my footprints on sand unmarked before I came. In short, I wanted to see nature in the raw. What about you?” “I came,” the second man replied, “because my son was taking saxophone lessons.” So the bus driver said to the string, "Are you a string?" and the string said, "No, I'm afraid not". (A frayed knot). On Our Mind: NMSA Executive Director Search NMSA Elections: Vote Early, Vote Often Eileen Award Eileen! We heard from Eileen this week! The free hugs are on! Advisory: Overcoming Challenges: The true story of the Panyee Football Club. Video is 5 minutes and 15 seconds long- subtitles in English. *Notes (explain football (soccer), pitch (field), boots (shoes). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU& Get Your Day off to a better Start http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110404151353.htm Daily Pictures Pictures from around the world. http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2011/04/images-of-daily-life-around-th.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) 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: | 4/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-160 iPad Research Interview | 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: | 4/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-159 Stuff for your Classroom Skype Fail Midleveled | 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: | 3/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-158 MAMSE DropBox Latin and Facebook | Jokes You Can Use: A man wrote a letter to the IRS: “I have been unable to sleep knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. I understated my taxable income and have enclosed a check for $200.00. If I still can’t sleep, I will send the rest.” THE CAT: One day, a cat dies of natural causes and goes to heaven, where he meets the Lord Himself. The Lord says to the cat, "You lived a good life, and if there is any way I can make your stay in heaven more comfortable, please let me know." The cat thinks for a moment and says, "Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor." The Lord stops the cat and says, "Say no more," and a wonderful, fluffy pillow appears. A few days later, six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident, and all of them go to heaven. Again, the Lord is there to greet them with the same offer. The mice answer, "All our lives we have been chased. We have had to run from cats, dogs, and even women with brooms. Running, running, running; we're tired of running. Do you think we could have roller skates so that we don't have to run anymore?" The Lord says, "Say no more" and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates. Week later, the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing on the pillow. The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, "How are things since you got here?" The cat stretches and yawns, then replies, "It is wonderful here. Better than I could have ever expected. And those 'Meals On Wheels' you've been sending by are the best!" On Our Mind: MAMSE Troy gets an Award and a Surprise! Competition with MACUL Great folks at Coopersville Middle School Congrats on being recognized as a National Schools to Watch school. Eileen Award Robert Jackson 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: | 3/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-157 Call Nuts Failures 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 | 3/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-156 Tons of Advisory Ideas Bullying PD | 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: | 3/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-155 Rice Rice Baby | 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: | 2/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-154 Throwing Cadbury Eggs | 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: | 2/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-153 Snow Day | 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: | 2/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-152 Knock Knock | 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: | 1/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-151 Praecaveo Probo Magister | 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: | 1/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-150 Its Because of You | 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 | 1/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-149 Weather Differentiation | 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... | 1/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-148 Happy 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: | 1/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-147 PISA Sir May we have another | 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 | 12/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-146 NMSA 2010 Dinner Conversation | 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. | 12/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-145 NMSA Department of Ed and Jack Berckemeyer | 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: | 12/4/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-144 NMSA 2010 Part 3-PLCs Listener Question | 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: | 11/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-143-NMSA10 Student Motivation Summarize 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: | 11/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-142-NMSA 2010 Follow up 1-RTI Summarization | 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 | 11/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-141-Interview with Dr Monte Selby | Dr. Monte Selby granted an interview to Middle School Matters. We get his thoughts on a wide range of topics. | 11/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-140 NMSA 2010 Math and Reading Resources | 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: | 10/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-139 Testing Conferences and Tools | 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 | 10/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-138-Whither the Wifi | 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: | 10/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-137 Better Late Than Never | Jokes: Said the officer to the soldier, "Private, why did you salute that refrigerator?" The soldier replied, "Because it was General Electric." "And that jeep?" the officer asked. Replied the soldier, "Because it was General Motors." On Our Mind: Standardized Testing Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski 2 big events: Earth Science Week - Oct. 10th - 16th National Fossil Day - Oct. 13th From the Twitterverse: 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: | 10/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-136-Making Google Work | 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 | 10/1/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-135-iPads in Education-An Interview with Doctor Tatom | 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. | 9/25/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-134-Advisory and a Way with Words | 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: | 9/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-133-It's Constitution Day | 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 | 9/11/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-132 Advisory Snowball | 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 | 8/28/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-131 Strategies for the 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 | 8/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-130-Super Sized-Open textbooks and iPad | 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 | 8/4/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-129-The Exquisite Corpse | 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: | 7/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-128-Pirate T-Shirts for every listener | 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: | 7/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-127 Back Channel and Boy Crisis | 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 2 | 7/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-126 China Test and Kipp | 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: | 6/26/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-125 Twitter is our friend | 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 | 6/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-124 Summer Blues? We're still talking | 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 | 6/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-123-Easy as 123 | 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: | 6/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-122 Amazing People, School's Out | 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/ew/section/video-galleries/april10-event-data.html News: Banking Giant Offers Financing for Charter Schools http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/28/33jpmorgan.h29.html?tkn=PPYFbNdxAuarBPKe2qcSOmnhI+20xtqZ+oV6&cmp=clp-edweek School's out, but should it be? But experts say extended school year would avoid "summer slide" http://www.denverpost.com/education/ci_15178799 Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 5/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-121-Common Core Motivation | Jokes: Ugly Suits When the store manager returned from lunch, he noticed his clerk's hand was bandaged, but before he could ask about the bandage, the clerk had some very good news for him. "Guess what, sir?" the clerk said. "I finally sold that terrible, ugly suit we've had so long!" "Do you mean that repulsive pink-and-blue double-breasted thing?!" the manager asked. "That's the one!" "That's great!" the manager cried, "I thought we'd never get rid of that monstrosity! That had to be the ugliest suit we've ever had! But tell me, why is your hand bandaged?" "Oh," the clerk replied, "after I sold the guy that suit, his seeing-eye dog bit me." On Our Mind: Thanks for the ratings. We've added to the iTunes rating and really appreciate that. School year is coming to a close. From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Ad Hoc idea: Info Please/ChaCha - Here's an idea to let your kids use those smart phones in school. Grab some worksheets from your teammates and hold a surprise review quiz in Advisory. They can use two resources to help them find the answers: Info Please and ChaCha. Info Please is a reference site put together by Pearson. Tons of resources at the ready. Not enough computers in your Advisory classroom? Fine. Let the kiddos pull out their cell phones and get the answers from ChaCha, a cell phone based search engine. Tech Tools: Gpanion: Gives you an online dashboard to your Google Apps and life. http://gpanion.com/ Timeline tools: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/05/five-ways-for-students-to-build.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29 XTimeline TimeGlider Time Toast TimeRime Dipity Facebook search engine: Openbook draws attention to the information Facebook makes public about its users via its search API. Facebook exposed this service on April 21st, 2010. Our goal is to get Facebook to restore the privacy of this information, so that this website and others like it no longer work. Anybody can search, even if they don't have a Facebook account. However, if you are logged into your Facebook account, you'll see full profile pages when you click on a user. http://youropenbook.org/ AutoMotivator AutoMotivator is for making printable motivational posters or parody demotivational posters. You choose the picture, colors, and text, and we make your poster. You can put the poster on your website, or even get a print for just $9.95. A giant, 36" wide print is just $19.95! http://wigflip.com/automotivator/ e.g.: Mistakes Poster http://site.despair.com/images/dpage/mistakes03.jpg Webspotlight: Net Generation: Downloadable information revolving around the Federal Government and its IT capabilities. Also has sections on Net Generation, use of web 2.0 tools, etc. http://www.slideshare.net/DepartmentofDefense/net-generation?from=embed News: Common-Standards Draft Excludes ELL Proficiency By Mary Ann Zehr http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/20/33common-ell.h29.html?tkn=MQOFnULgtF%2Fgh5hnaIt1UWPBxqDYo516eELj&cmp=clp-edweek Education officials may scrap MCAS test http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2010/05/20/education_officials_may_scrap_mcas_test/ Are We Really Teaching Them How To Fish (by Jennifer Wagner) Teaching teachers to fish instead of simply relying on PLN's for all the answers. http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/29850 Opportunity: Knowledge For Teaching Study http://www.ets.org/Media/Campaign/13700/ What makes a good teacher? Here's a study to find out and a chance for you to participate in a study that is designed to find out those very things. Events & Happenings: | 5/22/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-120-Sneaky Science Achievement | Title: Sneaky Science Achievement . . . Jokes: How do you keep a parrot on its perch? Polly Grip. On Our Mind: NMSA hires new Executive Director: Dr. Drew Allbritten NMSA hires new Research Journal Editor: Dr. Karen Weller Swanson NMSA announces new Voucher Program. * Minimum amount $250/No Maximum. * Expires two years from date of issue. * Valid on membership, book purchases, event registrations, on-site professional development, and Middle Grades Assessment. * No refunds or cash back. * Voucher may be redeemed via mail, fax, phone, or online. Limitations apply to online redemption and cannot be used for on-site purchases. * Member discounts apply upon usage of voucher. From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Origami Projects: http://en.origami-club.com//index.html http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/supplies/b21b/: Sticky Notes Book version: Sticky Note Origami Don't Buy It - Consumer Awareness: http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/ http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/buyingsmart/ Tech Tools: GeoGebra GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package. It has received several educational software awards in Europe and the USA. http://www.geogebra.org/cms/ MeetingWords: MeetingWords is a simple text editor for the web. Your text is saved on the web, and more than one person can edit the same document at the same time. Everybody's changes are instantly reflected on all screens. Work together on meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, homework, team programming and more! http://meetingwords.com/ Webspotlight: Scitable A free science library and personal learning tool brought to you by Nature Publishing Group, the world's leading publisher of science. Scitable currently concentrates on genetics, the study of evolution, variation, and the rich complexity of living organisms. http://www.nature.com/scitable Udemy Udemy is a website that enables anyone to create an online course. Our goal is to provide our teachers with everything they could possibly need to create a great learning experience over the internet. We've worked hard to build this site and we hope you like it. Everything is completely free, because we believe nobody should have to pay for Udemy unless they are making money themselves. http://udemy.com/ Physics Central: Learn how your world works. Includes Physics Quest: PhysicsQuest is a story-based activity that exposes middle school students to the fun and relevance of science. APS provides a free PhysicsQuest kit to registered 6-9th grade physical science classes, home school groups, science clubs, and after-school programs. The kit includes a user's manual and materials for four physics experiments. Also: Ask a Physicist http://www.physicscentral.com/ News: Educational Attainment Rises Among All Americans Demographic Shift Could Pose Challenges for Schools By Erik W. Robelen College for all? Experts say not necessarily By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER (AP) http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gFJnsnt6zUOz2LwZnZgsoBxUQC6QD9FM535G0 An Idea to Consider: The Purpose Is the Point By Phillip Harris & Bruce Smith http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/05/12/31harris.h29.html?tkn=WYVFhdem88gTCb5WD1xyQ%2B1JQ8ZRGaX2lOUF&cmp=clp-edweek Events & Happenings: | 5/15/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Clean119-Teaching Secrets that we just gave away | Title: Teaching Secrets that we just gave away! Jokes: Technology The world's first fully computerized airliner was ready for its maiden flight without pilots or crew. The plane taxied to the loading area automatically, its doors opened automatically, the steps came out automatically. The passengers boarded the plane and took their seats. The steps retreated automatically, the doors closed, and the airplane taxied toward the runway. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," a voice intoned. "Welcome to the debut of the world's first fully computerized airliner. Everything on this aircraft is run electronically. Just sit back and relax. Nothing can go wrong ... Nothing can go wrong...nothing can go wrong...." Homework Assignments A father came home from work one night to find his little boy sitting on the cat, with a pen and paper in his hand. "Why are you sitting on Felix?" he asked. "Well, teacher told us to write an essay on the family pet." On Our Mind: Happy Belated Birthday to Ron King! Transitions Elementary to Middle http://www.nea.org/tools/16657.htm http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-2/middle.htm http://learningtogive.org/lessons/unit32/ http://www.lpcsc.k12.in.us/kesling/docs/Survival_Tips.pdf Middle to High http://www.ldaofmichigan.org/articles/Mizelle3-06.htm http://www.kidsource.com/education/middlehigh.html From Our Listeners: I was listening to the podcast ... As we talked, it was obvious that there was a lot of confusion between formative and summative, especially when it came to grades. I shared your example of the students who both learned the content, but started their learning at different levels. As you talked about you, it was clear that if a student had more prior knowledge they would probably get a better grade. But a student who learned the same things, yet had less prior knowledge would probably not get as good a grade. This was a striking example for the participants in the workshop. All of a sudden, people got a much better understanding of formative assessment, summative assessment and its impact on grading. I think it is a great example and it had a great impact on 40 science teachers. Keep up the good work, Dave Bydlowski resa.net/science k12science.net Twitter: k12science Facebook: k12science From the Twitterverse: Advisory: The Learners Profile http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/techknowpark/kiosk/Profile_Teachers.html Webspotlight: Teens & Mobile Phone Infographic: http://www.flowtown.com/blog/teens-and-their-mobile-phones?display=wide Timelines: Create your own timelines: http://www.xtimeline.com/ Students Provide Feedback on Teachers: Teaching Secrets: 10 To-Dos for New Teachers 1. Find your curriculum and read through it several times. 2. Find all your supporting materials, both student and teacher copies. 3. Ask to look over last year’s yearbook. 4. Create a birthday list for each class (celebrate half-birthdays for summer birthdays, six months from the actual date). 5. Develop some sort of impartial method for calling on students during class. 6. Figure out how you will capture students on the first day of school. 7. Design some method to manage and keep track of daily paperwork, especially for absent students. 8. Make an appointment to sit down with important building specialists. 9. Introduce yourself to the school secretaries, the nurse, the bookkeepers and the paraprofessionals. 10. Decide where and when you will fight your battles with the kids. http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/05/05/tln_ratzel_newteachertodos.html?tkn=WOYCT4%2FR0wxIx1HwBu%2Bs1%2FE2wCPYug9wyhjq&cmp=clp-sb-ascd Reading Programs Yield Few Gains in Comprehension Events & Happenings: | 5/8/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-118-And Now a Word from our Listeners | Jokes: Phones After the telephone was installed in her home, the lady called the operator. My telephone cord is too long, she said. Would you please pull it a little from your end? Daughters A certain little girl, when asked her name, would reply, "I'm Mr. Sugarbrown's daughter." Her mother told her this was wrong, she must say, "I'm Jane Sugarbrown." The Vicar spoke to her in Sunday school, and said, "Aren't you Mr. Sugarbrown's daughter?" She replied, "I thought I was, but mother says I'm not." Positive Attributes A doctor examining a woman who had been rushed to the Emergency Room took the husband aside, and said, "I don't like the looks of your wife at all. "Me neither doc," said the husband. "But she's a great cook and really good with the kids." On Our Mind: Google Apps for All in Oregon From Our Listeners: Thanks to Michael DePass for the podcast requests. We hope that you enjoy them. Gentlemen, Just listened to ep 114 (sorry I'm a little behind) and enjoyed your discussion about allowing students to text the teacher an answer to a problem in class. One question: What phone # should the students be given to text to? I for one, would not give my cell phone # to the class. Keep up the good work! Mike Cohen This weekend I attended WAMLE10 and had the opportunity to listen to Christian Moore present on his program Why Try? Listening to him present, he reminded me of so many of my "at risk" kids. He talked about how many of "them" are visual learners, yet many teachers predominately use auditory ways to present information. His program is built around visual metaphors and music and I thought it was right on target. He said something surprising during his breakout session though. He mentioned presenting at NMSA this year and there being an absence of dropout prevention presenters. While I was not able to attend, do you recall that being true? Do you know anything about his program? Did either of you attend his session this year? I have included some to links in case you aren't too familiar with him. It sounds to me like a great advisory or enrichment program for schools to look into. What do you think? Ron From Doc. Tatom: The 2010 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is for students grades 5-8. Ten finalists will be selected to receive an all-expense paid trip to New York City to compete in the final challenge in October. The winner will receive $50,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds ($25,000 cash value), a tour of 3M's Innovation Center in St. Paul Minnesota given by the world's top scientists, and the title of "America's Top Young Scientist." Competition Details: 1. Middle school students in the U.S. are challenged to create a 1-2 minute video communicating the science behind the danger of one of the following safety and security issues that are present in everyday life, and offer a possible solution: a. Preventing the spread of germs and diseases b. Food safety c. Sun protection d. Wind resistant structures 2. All video entries must be submitted online at www.youngscientistchallenge.com by May 27, 2010. 3. Videos will be evaluated by a panel of judges based on creativity, persuasiveness, classroom suitability, and overall presentation. Students can learn how to craft a winning video by checking out Entry Video Tips at www.youngscientistchallenge.com/about/entry_video_tips.html, which features advice from previous winners. 4. The official submission rules can be found at www.youngscientistchallenge.com . From Dave Bydlowski: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Middle School Science Teachers From the Twitterverse: | 5/1/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-117-Tales from the Web | Jokes: Qualifications for Presidency An eighth grade teacher was leading a discussion on the qualifications for being president of the United States. After the teacher commented that a person must be a natural-born citizen, one of the students raised her hand. Does that mean that if you were born by Caesarean section that you can't be president? From the Twitterverse: * Monte Tatom drmmtatom 5 Trends in Education Technology Leadership -- THE Journal http://tinyurl.com/2a2f9l5 * Glen Westbroek gardenglen Solar observation spacecraft delivers stunning close-ups of sun http://usat.me?89018 * OH Science Teachers OCESS State Board of Ed agrees teachers' address, phone, e-mail shouldn't be released to public http://ow.ly/1B8z7 * russeltarr russeltarr Stupeflix: Video creation made easy (does this have an edge over Animoto?) http://tinyurl.com/mw5xta * Casey Mayfield mayfieldc Manual to begin using Twitter for social networking; http://bit.ly/a0pUpj * Casey Mayfield mayfieldc Wallwisher in a science classroom, ideas for use: http://bit.ly/aJ79Yy o Concept Wall o Interactive KWL o Interactive Science Games o Project Based Learning * russeltarr russeltarr iPhone Apps for Education: A particularly well organised list: http://tinyurl.com/y8hm6ok * russeltarr russeltarr World Clock - nice for to have up on the Whiteboard between lessons - http://tinyurl.com/nlmm37 * Debra Lee debralee7 Are You A Teacher or a Babysitter?: http://ow.ly/1BDT6 #edchat (via @Aaron_Eyler) * Scott McLeod mcleod Grading "formative" assessments? http://goo.gl/qW2Q Superb post by @mctownsley * Miguel Guhlin mguhlin Graphs: Digital Tool Use in Middle and High School http://ff.im/-iW3n1 * Patrick Larkin bhsprincipal RT @snbeach: New Prof Development for teachers-- Don't teach them; Help them learn by enabling them to build a global network. * Twilliamson15 #MLE2010 Webspotlight: Wacky Web Tales http://www.educationplace.biz/tales/ Relaxed Minds Learn better http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62N4VJ20100324 Difference Between: http://www.differencebetween.net/ Tagxedo: http://www.tagxedo.com/ America on the Move: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/ Hear Names: http://www.hearnames.com/index.php Video Science http://www.sciencehouse.com/videoscience-experiments.html Virtual Owl Pellet: http://www.kidwings.com/index.htm MiddleTalk: This We Believe http://www.nmsa.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/MiddleTalkListserve/tabid/1212/Default.aspx Siftables: http://sifteo.com/ Etherpad Alternatives http://tech4teaching.org/wpblog/?p=929 Ning Ends Free Service: (See TechCrunch's Article) Alternatives: -Cubetree -Jabbster -Shoutem Texas' Textbook Influence http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/22/30texts_ep.h29.html?tkn=ROMFSqn2MnKy5KlKQ6xol0G2%2BkVr2NP6ZRwL&cmp=clp-edweek Math Curriculum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvKWEvKSi8 Events & Happenings: | 4/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-116-Show Me the Money (or Next Week is done too) | Title: Show Me The Money! (Next week's show is done too.) Jokes: Drill Sergeants A drill sergeant had just chewed out one of his cadets, and as he was walking away, he turned to the cadet and said, "I guess when I die you'll come and dance on my grave." The cadet replied, "Not me, Sarge...no sir! I promised myself that when I got out of the Army I'd never stand in another line!" During a recent password audit, it was found that a young woman was using the following password: "MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento" When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital. On Our Mind: Class Size http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/class-size-really-irrelevant?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feedutm_campaign=Feed%3A+LFA+%28Public+School+Insights%3A+What+is+WORKING+in+our+Public+Schools%29 What can you do with an iPhone (or 4)? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QD5Mj_wC-I&feature=related New Directions for Music Programs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QD5Mj_wC-I&feature=related (There are other videos of this lady performing other pop songs without the OMG cat.) From our Listeners: Troy & Shawn, Thanks for all that you do! I've attached a 4 minute comment on your current podcast. (Any chance on sharing what apps the University puts on those iPads/iPhones/iPod Touches?) (FHU's iKnow + FHU) Rationale, Applications, Research structure, Paradigm, Hey guys, interesting article about paying for performance in schools. If this catches on, then I will write my former middle school, asking for my "back pay" from when I was a student there. Robert (Mr. Jackson to some of us. ;-) ) PS What is a good book for advisory about study skills? Carol Josel 1. Other-wise and School-wise could be a resource (http://www.schoolwisebooks.com/html/owsw.html) 2. The Parenting School-wise Tips book certainly could be used to teach kids study skills. 3. I'd sign up for the newsletter also. That and the cooking ideas at the end of the newsletter are rather tasty! Susan Krueger Haven't tried it, but: SOAR Curriculum. 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens, Sean Covey Have tried it. You can also get it in audio format and use with the kids. Make sure you have money committed to the program over time. The Middle School Student's Guide to Ruling the World! by Susan Mulcaire We've reviewed this work in a previous podcast. Should Kids be Bribed: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100409/us_time/08599197858900 http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1978589,00.html From listener Dave Bydlowski From the Twitterverse: | 4/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-115-iPad-iPad-iPad | Advisory: Online Personal Finance Game from the Council on Economic Education: http://www.genirevolution.org/index.php Set up in a popular game format, students work their way through challenges answering key questions to earn points to advance through the game. If you've been to the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. you'll be familiar with the "cloak and dagger" feel of the mission briefings, information gathering, and operative training incorporated in the game. http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/ On Our Mind: Thanks to all of our Facebook Fans! Looking for some more iTunes reviews. Samsung Grant: Digital Presenter Contest http://www.samsunggrants.com/ From The Twitterverse: * web20classroom RT @jackiegerstein: Wired's Colleges Dream of Paperless, iPad-Centric Education http://bit.ly/cOkwz1 * andreacshaw RT @PFoundation: It's the last week to apply for the Pearson Prize for Higher Edu. Spread the word to college students http://bit.ly/bAP9FP * mayfieldc Personal finance game for kids: http://bit.ly/7xoOLc (Mentioned in the Advisory section of the podcast.) * bhsprincipal RT @blairteach: RT @ryanbretag: Show faculty this video; it is full of relevant, important ideas for discussion w/edus http://bit.ly/aFGwKL * mikeroberts1973 RT: @BarackObama Tomorrow, Arne Duncan will be answering your questions on education reform. Ask a question here: http://j.mp/cTzX6i * drmmtatom Virtual Field Trip Planning Kit http://tinyurl.com/yabxdbp * terryfreedman RT @GrahamBM: The opening morning videos of Game Based Learning 2010 are now online http://bit.ly/aApOuy * DonorsChoose KnowHow2GO – Helping *middle* school students prepare for college http://bit.ly/c5Ca3e * markgammon How to Set Up a Mail Merge in Gmail for Personalized Mass Emails http://bit.ly/a48ISc /via Lifehacker * Twilliamson15 http://bit.ly/c1zTzu Notes from IMPACT Staff Development using K12Online Conference Sessions. * Alfonso Gonzalez educatoral RT @NMHS_Principal: Our Children Are Telling Us How They Want to Learn http://bit.ly/dadsri #edtech * Steven W. Anderson web20classroom RT @rww: You Are Not a Gadget: The Continuing Case Against Web 2.0 http://bit.ly/acAJn6 * Alfonso Gonzalez educatoral RT @englishteach8: RT @delicious50: 11 Great Hidden Things Google Can Do That You Should Know @ SmashingApps http://bit.ly/kS73n * Keisa Williams keisawilliams Teaching Literary Devices with Comics http://bit.ly/cA0wnd * matthewktabor matthewktabor The Creepiest Children's Books Ever (with pictures): http://twurl.nl/vnicrq From our Listeners: Hi Guys, I have been enjoying the podcast, but I get lazy about sending out science information. I hope you don't mind if I continue to send it along to you. I hope these work out for you. Enjoy your Spring Break!! Dave Bydlowski Podcast Site: k12science.net In the iTunes store, just do a search for: k12science Twitter: twitter.com/k12science Letter from Mr. Jackson Webspotlight: Social Media Explained in 4 minutes: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/social-media-explained-visually.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29 Four Day Week? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-4day-20100330,0,1138284.story Video Editing: http://jaycut.com/ Freeology http://freeology.com/ Google For Teachers Guide http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/free-33-page-guide-google-for-teachers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29 Events & Happenings: | 4/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-114-Ukraine Fan Club and more | Jokes: Suits My wife and I were at my high school reunion. As I looked around, I noticed the other men in their expensive suits with their bulging stomachs. Proud of the fact that I weighed just five pounds more than I did when I was in high school, the result of trying to beat a living out of a rocky hillside farm, I said to my wife, "I'm the only guy here who can wear the suit he graduated in." She glanced at the prosperous crowd. "You're the only one here who has to." Charity A devastated-looking man knocks on the door of a woman known for her charity. "Please, ma'am," he says when she opens up, "can you help this poor, tragic family down the block? The father just lost his job, and his wife is too ill to work. They're about to be turned out into the cold streets unless someone can pay their rent." "That's the worst thing I've ever heard in my life!" says the woman. "May I ask who you are?" "Their landlord." Advisory: What's Your Story $10,000 Student Video contest is looking for your original work. Create a video on internet safety and you could win $10,000 in prize money. Must be 13+ to participate. http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com/internet-safety/Home.do On Our Mind: Mindless Entertainment to get you through this week: Muppets Humor 1. Ode to Joy 2. Classical Chicken 3. Beaker's Ballad * Tip- don't move on when the big play button shows up, wait a minute. From The Twitterverse: From our Listeners: Howdy gents! I enjoyed seeing the article about using smart phones in Algebra class. Last year I tried another approach to meet students with their own technologies. I had my “ticket to leave” problem on the board and students had to send me a text message with the answer before they were excused for lunch. I tried it for a couple of weeks to shake things up and students really enjoyed it. Your Ukrainian fanclub President, Robert Jackson Kyiv International School http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSsvt8LBEV4 MAMSE: http://middleschoolmatters.com/Conference_Notes/MAMSE_2010.pdf Webspotlight: Amazing Web 2.0 Projects http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/web2_2010/Amazing%20Web%202%20Projects.pdf Girls and Boys on Achievement http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=304 DocsPal http://www.docspal.com/ Create printable PDFs and eBooks from any online content. Use zinepal.com to create your own magazines and eBooks from any online content. You can select content from blogs, Atom/RSS feeds and other websites. zinepal.com reformats the content into a printable PDF and eBooks for use with eBook readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes&Noble Nook or Sony PRS. It is the easiest way to repurpose online content for other distribution mediums. http://www.zinepal.com/ Remove pdf password protections: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200512231728165 Youblisher: http://www.youblisher.com/ Chartle: Make online charts and tables that can be exported or shared via the web. http://www.chartle.net/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * NMSA is looking for both an Executive Director and an Assistant Executive Director. You can apply here. Good luck! Other News: | 3/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-113-Phone The Algebra In | Jokes: In Medical Terms Advisory: NCMSA Want to send a message from your school to outer space? Send it on two lightsail missions. http://bit.ly/8ZQBqO On Our Mind: Gender Equity: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/17/national/main6307774.shtml From The Twitterverse: From our Listeners: Thank you to Language Arts Teacher for the iTunes post. We greatly appreciate it! To all of those who are now our fans on Facebook - Thank you! (You know who you are!) MAMSE: http://middleschoolmatters.com/Conference_Notes/MAMSE_2010.pdf Service Learning Students take leadership roles. They develop the activities. Webspotlight: Solving Algebra on Smartphones Research shows that a project to use the devices as teaching tools in some N.C. districts has had a measurable impact on student achievement in math. By Michelle R. Davis Students, some initially skeptical that a phone would help them do better in math, have been quick to embrace the idea of using the mobile device to learn, says Denton, who attends Dixon High School in the 24,000-student Onslow County, N.C., schools. For some math classes, particularly Algebra 1, Project K-Nect had mathematicians at Drexel University in Philadelphia develop short animated video math problems that teachers can assign to students as homework or classwork. Some students have taken the technology a step further and created movies with graphics, student actors, and stories highlighting math. Particularly popular are student-created movies with a “CSI” theme in which the drama uses math to solve a crime. One student produced and posted a rap song on polynomials, which was ultimately posted to YouTube and spawned thousands of imitators, says Gross of Digital Millennial Consulting. Learning Science: http://learningscience.org/index.htm Slum Dog Millionaire and Education: "Having watched hundreds of Indian children learning without teachers at the Hole In The Wall computers, it became obvious that all children can work by themselves, if they want to," Mitra says. "Most British children grow up with the internet and have the means to learn what they want in minutes, and this challenges the traditional idea of school being about learning things that will come in handy in the future. They become disengaged." Mitra is not alone in noticing this problem. John Dunford, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, last week told the group's annual conference that computer games and websites have made children impatient and harder to motivate. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/16/slumdog-millionaire-education-online-independent NCMSA10 Conference Notes (Todd Williamson) http://thetechnorateteacher.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/ncmsa10-education-in-japan/#comment-285 MAMSE10 Conference session notes hosted by Dexter Public Schools. http://www.dexterschools.org/~millcreek/mamse2010/MCMAMSE/Resources_Pg1.html Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: | 3/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-112-Wimp_Yourself | Podcast #112: Wimp Yourself into Middle school Jokes: Rabbits The LAPD, The FBI, and the CIA are all trying to prove that they are the best at apprehending criminals. The President decides to give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it. First the CIA goes in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist. Next the FBI goes in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and they make no apologies. The rabbit had it coming. Finally the LAPD goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!" Advisory: http://www.wimpyourself.com/ On Our Mind: You can now sign up to receive updates via email. The Michigan Joint Education Conference is coming up June 23, 2010. Presentation proposals are due April 2, 2010. $79.00 for non-members and $49.00 for members of the member organizations sponsoring the event. This is a great way to pick up some PD this summer and you won't have to sell your soul to your administrator . . . From the Twitterverse: * web20classroom Flixtime-Similar To Animoto: http://is.gd/aJ4CV (via @Lifehacker & @gastondigital) * Frideswidel Lots of neat stuff from @Twilliamson15 at #ncmsa10 * russeltarr 10 most creative resumes: To stress to students the importance of "going the extra mile": http://tinyurl.com/yetnrj2 * Lilylauren Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations? * drmmtatom Teachers say in survey that good leadership is more important than pay http://tinyurl.com/yguoy3o * Twilliamson15 Just Posted: Making Videoconferencing Easy and Cheap to Use http://bit.ly/a5eS2L #ncmsa10 * zmanrdz Rethink what your school looks like?... http://tinyurl.com/ylqactg via www.diigo.com/~zmanrdz * JohnHarrison1 How cool is that? RT @techtipsPRMS: Totally weirded out to realize I'm @ a session of someone I follow on Twitter! #ncmsa10 * sharon_elin "No Teacher Left Behind" blog by newly-laid off teacher, creating a voice 4 many educators, aka sacrificial budget lambs. http://is.gd/aBvJG * colonelb Compilation of Michigan's MACUL Conference Tweets for 3/10-3/12/10 | http://tinyurl.com/MACUL10Tweets #edchat #edtech #macul10 From our Listeners: Kitty Holman: Google Earth for Educators: 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom Ideas for all ages. http://www.associatesdegree.com/2010/03/14/google-earth-for-educators-50-exciting-ideas-for-the-classroom/ MCSS: Super Social Studies Saturday! (3-13-2010) Link to the conference notes including the ones mentioned in the podcast: http://web.me.com/mcgirr/MCSS_Super_Saturday_3_13_2010/ Lots of great stuff presented integrating middle school geography and World History. MAMSE: http://middleschoolmatters.com/Conference_Notes/MAMSE_2010.pdf Webspotlight: Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 3/15/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-111-Dr Silvers MAMSE Moment | On Our Mind: You can now sign up to receive updates via email. From the Twitterverse: * stevefarber Friend: "Someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you've forgotten the words." -Jim Warner * mjsamberg Resources from "Linux in the Classroom": http://www.tinyurl.com/nctieslinux #ncties * zeitz Who's pushing Emerging Technologies in higher education? students . . . http://is.gd/9Niwi * DanielPink Fascinating NPR interview with NCLB supporter-turned-critic Diane Ravitch....http://bit.ly/c8Lfvi * russeltarr Using Edmodo in the classroom: http://tinyurl.com/l2nvsb * Lilylauren Oh the irony- my predictive text doesn't know how to spell Nostradamus * DeronDurflinger RT @NMHS_Principal: Worst thing to do when moving towards change/successful implementation is to "mandate" #GTAdmin Agreed! * drmmtatom Jeopardy Labs: Make Your Own Online Jeopardy Game http://tinyurl.com/yaeha54 * rmbyrne It's Not All Flowers and Sausages: Why The Superintendent Firing All the Teachers in One School Should Be Ashamed... http://ff.im/-gEkyv Twitter MAMSE Special: * Griffbuddy #MAMSE http://www.strengtheningfamiliesprogram.org/ Parents train parents. #mamse10 * Frideswidel #mamse making rainsticks and using the design as a prompt for writing. * Griffbuddy #MAMSE One out of every three middle school students are obsese or in danger of being obese! #MAMSE10 * Smhearty School worked with a court system. Saved the court $64,000 a year. #mamse * Griffbuddy #MAMSE majority of parents are not PITAS (pain in the a**es). We want them involved. #MAMSE10 * Frideswidel #mamse Candy Writing Assignment: Using the senses to create an advertisement for the candy (then they can eat it). * Frideswidel RT @Griffbuddy: #MAMSE Dr. Santo Pino, NMSA, and Dean Hook, presentation: Securing Parent Involvement In Your School. * Frideswidel #mamse Art teacher talking about incorporating Art with writing (6+1 Traits). www.marymillerart.com * Frideswidel #mamse demo of Stratalogica. * dexgeek Technology is only one of the tools that teachers use to engage students. I'm glad I can arm them with the tools and skills. #MAMSE * Smhearty We train kids not to think but how to get an A. #mamse * Smhearty Got a great compliment today - "Aren't you guys presenting today? We have other teachers here today." #mamse * Griffbuddy #MAMSE Be there. Choose your attitude. Make their day. Play. Fish philosophy in schools (choose your attitude when you come to work). * Griffbuddy #MAMSE Advisory is necessary because strong relationships help teachers become adept @ diagnosing student needs. #MAMSE10 * tanyaov #mamse Wow. MAMSE conference is excellent. I LOVE learning new things. Finger Wag: The State of Michigan put out a memo with a bitly link. Advisory: Blame Darwin: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081613327728110.html#articleTabs%3Dinteractive MAMSE: Dr. Debbie Silver: www.debbiesilver.com Keynotes: http://www.debbiesilver.com/keynotes/ New Favorite Conference Software: Skim Webspotlight: Google Docs for Administrators: Sarah Rolle, Director of Technology for Elisabeth Morrow School, shared tips on GoogleDocs Tips for Administrators. http://www.mguhlin.org/2010/03/googledocs-tips-for-administrators.html Stratalogica: http://www.stratalogica.com/NystromDigital/home/login.html;jsessionid=501B5A5D36B68C44263525336DA8C718.StrataLogica1 Mary Miller: Artist, Teacher, Integrator of Curriculum http://www.marymillerart.com/ | 3/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-110-The Master Teacher Knows Next Week | Title: Your Master Teacher knows that next week will be even better ... Jokes: A Fisherman's Tale Two guys are fishing in a boat under a bridge. One looks up and sees a funeral procession starting across the bridge. He stands up, takes off his cap, and bows his head. The procession crosses the bridge and the man puts on his cap, picks up his rod and reel, and continues fishing. The other guy says, "That was touching. I didn't know you had it in you." The first guy responds, "Well, I guess it was the thing to do - after all, I was married to her for 40 years." Animal Talk A mother is reading a book to her 3 year old daughter. Mother: "What does the cow say?" Child: "Moo!" Mother: "Great! What does the cat say?" Child: "Meow." Mother: "Oh, you're so smart! What does the frog say?" The wide-eyed little 3 year-old looks up at her mother and in her deepest voice replies, "Bud." On Our Mind: Code Organ: http://www.codeorgan.com/ From our Listeners: Thanks for all of your efforts to try to keep me up to speed. At my age (23) ... I need all the help I can get! My middle school uses Dropbox to track student discipline and parent contacts by team using Excel. We have found this to be an excellent way to keep track. Thanks! Linda Hi guys, Here are a couple more middle school science items you might like to use. On a side note, I did a recent podcast on a one day science institute I went to and did a summation of each of the sessions I went to, similar to what you do with the NMSA sessions you attend. I like the idea of summarizing things we attend--good idea, thanks! It is the "Power of Technology" and can be heard at: http://k12science.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- From the Twitterverse: * wfryer old school, new school is one of the best video clips I've seen yet from PBS digital_nation http://bit.ly/bsVI2z (Old School, New School:Chatham High School students, like many nationwide, are increasingly surrounded by screens. Their teachers debate how to handle their split focus.) * hshawjr RT @irasocol: You have PowerTalk for spoken PowerPoints, right? http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/ * irasocol All your school computers have Firefox with Click-Speak, right? http://clickspeak.clcworld.net/ * irasocol You do have a bunch of Flash Drives in your school loaded with Free AccessApps, right? http://is.gd/9jKdz * Curriki Dear Middle School Science Teachers, Stop, Drop and Click! Fab resources to follow: http://ow.ly/1bduO * NMSAnews RT @Scholastic and @gatesfoundation announce the largest-ever survey of America's public school teachers: http://bit.ly/9VOBh3 * WebGalPat What does a 3 yr old digital native want from her library?: http://bit.ly/clycvt * principalspage Questions About Google? I've Got Answers. http://post.ly/Po35 * drmmtatom Big, Huge, Free US Presidents Timeline Poster http://tinyurl.com/ykv5z2w #fhuedu508 * eduinnovation "Creativity is not an escape from disciplined thinking. It is an escape with disciplined thinking." Jerry Hirschberg #creativity * jonbecker All public employees should pay attention to this case. The 1st Amendment is tricky: http://is.gd/9i12p Advisory: You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School http://www.walkthetalk.com/pages/inspirational-movies.htm Webspotlight: What Your Master Teacher Knows Marge Scherer "Teaching is the most difficult profession of them all," educator Lee Shulman recently told a group of teachers and psychologists. The only time a physician comes close to doing what a teacher does is when the doctor faces an emergency room of multiple patients with multiple conditions, all of whom need immediate attention. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/What_Your_Master_Teacher_Knows.aspx Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: | 2/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-109-Q & the Mysterious | Title: Q & the Mysterious! Jokes: Wedding Woes At a friend's wedding, everything went smoothly until it was time for the flower girl and her young escort to come down the aisle. The boy stopped at every pew, growling at the guests. When asked afterward why he behaved so badly, he explained, "I was just trying to be a good ring bear." Sacrifice Eleven people were hanging on a rope under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope was not strong enough to carry them all, so they decided that one has to drop off, otherwise they are all going to fall. They were not able to choose that person, but then the woman made a very touching speech. She said that she would voluntarily let go of the rope, because as a woman she was used to giving up everything for her husband and kids, and for men in general, without ever getting anything in return. As soon as she finished her speech, all the men started clapping their hands. On Our Mind: Retirement plans change for State of Michigan employees and teachers. (Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals) New retirement rules for Michigan * Retirement years cap at 30 years of earned time. Purchased years do not count. o If you continue beyond 30 years, your employer will contribute 4% to a defined contribution account and the employee will contribute 3% and may contribute up to an additional 3% for a total of 10% cap. * If this goes through there will be an incentive for districts to retain teachers with 30 or more years. Retirement contributions will go from 19% to about 10%. Thanks to Dave Bydlowski for the feedback: Check out his podcast here: http://k12science.net/Podcast/Podcast/Podcast.html Here is some information from my February 11 -- 24 Michigan Science Matters eBlast: MathCounts From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Be Lucky (Richard Wiseman): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html Webspotlight: 'Algebra-for-All' Push Found to Yield Poor Results By Debra Viadero http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/10/21algebra_ep.h29.html?r=327944615 Blue Ribbon Middle School Math comes to YouTube at Palmyra Area Middle School http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/02/math_comes_to_youtube_at_palmy.html Q-Matrix Get your kids to generate questions with a Q-Matrix. http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/assessment/files/pages/strategies/Question_Matrix.pdf Marble http://edu.kde.org/marble/ FCC Expands Broadband Access at Schools http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CTECH/ntechnologyNews_uUSTRE61H6ZR20100219 Essentially, the bandwidth not being used by schools during school hours will be open to the community. Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 2/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-108-Interview with Dr. M. Monte Tatom | Dr. Tatom provides great views on technology, middle school and more. | 2/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-107-I'm a WallWisher | Shawn and Troy talk the twitterverse, Prezi, advisory ideas, webspotlights and more. Advisory: Project Implicit Discover the bias within. Stupid Inventions: http://students.ou.edu/R/Basil.G.Rayan-1/ Webspotlight: Word Clouds, Student Writing and Ownership http://www.mguhlin.org/2010/02/word-clouds-student-writing-and.html Doodle for Google http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/doodle-4-google-tell-us-what-you-would.html Example: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/2009/images/us_doodle4google2009.gif Competition http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html World Maths Day This year features an exciting new format with multi-levels for all age groups. Teachers, parents and media are invited to participate for the first time. Can we beat last year’s world record of 2 million students from 204 countries correctly answering 452,681,681 questions? http://www.worldmathsday.com/2010/Default.aspx? Interview Of The Month: Marvin Marshall On Positive Classroom Management from Larry Felazzo: Marvin Marshall, author of the influential education book “Discipline Without Stress, Punishment or Rewards” and the newer book “Parenting Without Stress.” http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/02/02/interview-of-the-month-marvin-marshall-on-positive-classroom-management/ See also: Responsible Thinking Process by Ed Ford. 16 Ways to Use WallWisher http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_436f8kscmdc | 2/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-106- iPad-Do You? | Title: iPad, Do You? Jokes: Most problems can be Ignored. The more difficult Ones can be slept through. I don't mind being Teased, any more than you mind A skin graft or two. My brain: walnut-sized. Yours: largest among primates. Yet, who leaves for work? Your mouth is moving; Up and down, emitting noise. I've lost interest. There's no dignity In being sick - which is why I don't tell you where. On Our Mind: Dropbox: 1. Free 2. Backup no matter where you are 3. Constant access (Computer always has a copy, Access from anywhere with web connection) 4. Sync 5. No Flashdrives 6. Sharing 7. Cross Platform Apple's iPad Net Safety http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/net-cetera.aspx From the Twitterverse: * shareski most schools have a few interested and able to post content. Classroom teachers struggle to find time to post * ChristianLong @shareski Tell 'great stories' - period. Anything else is trendy (at best). Tell stories. Tell stories. And then tell stories. * cookp prezi is offering some pretty sweet (and free) educator accounts. http://prezi.com/profile/signup/edu/ * shareski Multiple video for Skype users. http://bit.ly/58nzQr * drmmtatom RT @FocusLeadership: "The boss depends on authority - the Leader depends on good will." Anonymous #fhuedu610 * drmmtatom RT @lclandfield: Six things we always say as teachers - new blog post up at http://bit.ly/a5qeXo * bhsprincipal RT @tomwhitby: It has never been a question of Teaching in the 21st Cent. It is more about Accepting the 21st Cent. Attitudes. #educon * Aaron_Eyler "Flipping" Curriculum and how it can revitalize our schools: http://bit.ly/8X5zDC #education #teacher #edchat * skipz Why don’t more teachers integrate technology more effectively?- http://snipurl.com/u64ku * bhsprincipal RT @ShellTerrell: Transform the instructors first? http://bit.ly/5zGoM3 via @mcleod * jimconn Wow. RT @msprincipal62: "Our schools are not failing. They are obsolete--even the ones that score best on standardized tests." Tony Wagner * gardenglen Interesting Blog read "Motivating the Unmotivated" http://bit.ly/99GCJS via @educationweek Advisory: Tongue Twister: Mr. See owned a saw. And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw. Now See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw Before Soar saw See, Which made Soar sore. Had Soar seen See's saw Before See sawed Soar's seesaw, See's saw would not have sawed Soar's seesaw. So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw. But it was sad to see Soar so sore Just because See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw! Webspotlight: Multiple Intelligences Survey http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm Scribble Maps: http://scribblemaps.com/# Origins http://www.originsonline.org/dd_classroom.php?resource_type=148 Seven Places to find Free e-books: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/01/seven-places-to-find-free-ebooks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29 Dance Rules: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0126102dance1.html Graph paper: http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/ Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: | 1/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-105-The Revolution in the Classroom | Title: The Revolution in the Classroom Jokes: On Our Mind: Head on over to iTunes. We're looking for some feedback. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=261383649 From the Twitterverse: * willrich45 Reading: "Quality of Questions on Common Tests at Issue" http://j.mp/77l7Hi We'll get the assessments we can pay for. Sigh. * tom_peters "Do one thing every day that scares you"-Eleanor Roosevelt. May be best business [and personal] advice ever. * readtoday Excellent discussion on merit pay and Race to Nowhere http://bit.ly/5oIhdQ #edchat * mcleod The bumpy road to student-centered instruction http://post.ly/Jt3J #education #learning #teaching * novemberMonster If you haven't seen Khan Academy (http://bit.ly/tumDj) for #math make sure to check it out. Awesome. Video: http://bit.ly/4XHb2i #edchat * jdthomas7 "2¢ Worth » Applying PLN — A Continuing Question for Me" ( http://bit.ly/5Zo3NH ) #edchat #edtech * Russsauntry Why didn't anyone tell me about this genius? http://bit.ly/64SUsn google tips for teachers. Any more for Twitter? #edchat #edreform * educatoral RT @msmithpds: make an online game more relevant for your students by using classtools.net #edchat * UT_CoE 25 Ways to Motivate Teachers. http://bit.ly/8CPPkE #edchat #teachers #education (via @morsmal) * NMSAnews NMSA is seeking 12-15 members with an interest in reviewing session proposals for its upcoming Annual Conference http://bit.ly/8K3Dof * NMSAnews It’s not too late to submit to present at NMSA2010. Deadline for concurrent sessions: January 31, 2010 http://bit.ly/8mBslV * web20classroom Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Places to Find Free eBooks http://bit.ly/64b6AM * netbook_news VIDEO: Sharper Image LCD Projector only $149 http://tmogul.com/tweet/m_XbV * chickensaltash All we need is Radio Saltash - Doing a radio show in your lessons: http://bit.ly/4CXIxC #edchat #teaching Advisory: MultiTask Webspotlight: Sweet Search Dabble Board- Cosketch- Google Resources for Education Revolution in the Classroom Putting New Standards Into Practice a Tough Job Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: | 1/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-104 The Terrible Twos | The Terrible 2's (There are 52 weeks in a year . . . well, you get it.) Jokes: Buddaist Monk walks into a restaurant. What can I get you? Make me one with everything. Thanks Steven On Our Mind: Thanks to you, we're a Top 20 podcast in K-12 education. Please help us by voting on iTunes. From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Masters of Disaster: http://www.redcross.org/preparedness/educatorsmodule/ed-cd-6-8-main-menu-1.html Try this with your Advisory: Webspotlight: A National Yardstick for Gauging Math Progress States Show Uneven Performance; Even Top Achievers Fall Short By Christopher B. Swanson http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17math.h29.html?tkn=R[MF4Qzo6orsW67cZxBzNGAHZdia9LvSag4Z http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2010/17overview.h29.math.pdf Debunking the Case for National Standards By Alfie Kohn I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does. A decade ago, many of us thought we had hit bottom—until the floor gave way and we found ourselves in a basement we didn’t know existed. Now every state had to test every student every year in grades 3-8, judging them (and their schools) almost exclusively by test scores and hurting the schools that needed the most help. Ludicrously unrealistic proficiency targets suggested that the federal law responsible was intended to sabotage rather than improve public education. * Let’s be clear about this latest initiative, which is being spearheaded by politicians, corporate CEOs, and companies that produce standardized tests. First, what they’re trying to sell us are national standards. They carefully point out that the effort isn’t driven by the federal government. But if all, or nearly all, states end up adopting identical mandates, that distinction doesn’t amount to much. * Second, these standards will inevitably be accompanied by a national standardized test. * Third, a relatively small group of experts—far from classrooms—will be designing standards, test questions, and curricula for the rest of us. Advocates of national standards say they want all (American) students to attain excellence, no matter where they happen to live. The problem is that excellence is being confused with entirely different attributes, such as uniformity, rigor, specificity, and victory. ...common-core-standards Web site, don’t bother looking for words like “exploration,” “intrinsic motivation,” “developmentally appropriate,” or “democracy.” Instead, the very first sentence contains the phrase “success in the global economy,” followed immediately by “America’s competitive edge.” Yes, we want excellent teaching and learning for all—although our emphasis should be less on achievement (read: test scores) than on students’ achievements. Offered a list of standards, we should scrutinize each one, but also ask who came up with them and for what purpose. Is there room for discussion and disagreement—and not just by experts—regarding what, and how, we’re teaching and how authentic our criteria are for judging success? Or is this a matter of “obey or else,” with tests to enforce compliance? http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17kohn-comm.h29.html?tkn=WXUFzMageZQH55f62llSx04pEy9h1dTAV7g0 Epson has new "short throw" data projectors. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2009/11/04/epson-introduces-two-ultra-short-throw-projectors-designed-with-k-12-education-in-mind/ NMSA09: Teaching in 4-D: Rick Wormeli Closing Keynote Expertise Creativity Collaboration Events & Happenings: | 1/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-103 Lesson Planning Made Easy | Podcast 103: #SkypeFail and Lesson Planning Made Easy Jokes: Shout out: LindaB23 Answer to our Palindromic question from Doc Tatum: "Concerning last podcast - Feb. palindrome: Australia, they do day then month (01-02-2010) Keep up Gr8 work w/ podcast!! Monte" I produce the Michigan Science Matters Network on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. If you like this information, I can try to send it on a regular basis. You can hear the podcast at: k12science.net and you can view the hyperlinked eBlast at: msta-mich.org/smn Keep up the good work, Dave Bydlowski, Wayne RESA National Lab Day For more information, please visit: http://nationallabday.org On Our Mind: Race to the Top $$ Through Race to the Top, we are asking States to advance reforms around four specific areas: * Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy; * Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction; * Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and * Turning around our lowest-achieving schools. From the Twitterverse: Webspotlight: Lesson Writer: www.lessonwriter.com Create comprehensive literacy lesson plans and student materials from any content in minutes. There are some things that I would like teachers to know, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to bring them to your attention and feel free to include or leave out according to what you think your audience is interested in. GirlTalk Radio: Girls are talking. You should listen. http://www.braincake.org/girltalk/ TRAILS: TRAILS is a knowledge assessment with multiple-choice questions targeting a variety of information literacy skills based on sixth and ninth grade standards. This Web-based system was developed to provide an easily accessible and flexible tool for library media specialists and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students. http://www.trails-9.org/ Word Warriors: Here's the Word Warriors' 2010 list of sadly underused or overlooked but eminently useful words that should be brought back to enrich our language: http://wordwarriors.wayne.edu/2010/ The opposite of this site: Lake Superior State University's Unicorn Hunters NMSA09: Got Student Leadership? Session Description: Can you imagine a positive, contagious, and exciting cultural change in your school? This presentation introduces a vibrant/dynamic school wide student leadership program that develops life skills, enhances student voice, increases student spirit/ participation, and much more. In addition to participants walking away with fun, hands-on activities that teach life skills to their students, they will also leave inspired and motivated to initiate a culture changing leadership program in their school. Events & Happenings: | 1/9/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-102-Happy New Year! Skype Frustrations (Skype is soooo 2009) | Jokes: Things Not To Do During Exams For your classroom: http://www.mathteacherstore.com/middle/midlpost/5-8/155101main.htm Letter: Mr. TB: Thanks for letting us know we've been out of contact. We had an issue with the xml file which is now fixed. From the Twitterverse: * phsprincipal They may not listen to what you say but they always see what you do! http://post.ly/GTSK * crafty184 RT @loonyhiker: just found out that "today's date 01-02-2010 is a palindrome" * GameClassroom Schoolhouse Rock...great way to learn about Adjectives: http://bit.ly/5uwcql * drmmtatom RT @NMHS_Principal: Pre-Algebra thru Calculus resources (tutorials, sample problems, quizzes) http://bit.ly/6MzuKF * elemenous Friday 5: Best of 2009 http://www.lucygray.org/weblog/2010/01/friday-5-best-of-2009.html * bjnichols Project/problem-based learning..8 Innovative Schools Provide Ideas & Inspiration for 21st Century Education http://bit.ly/21vGS9 #edchat * dianadell Large collection of iPhone/ iPod Touch Apps for (Special) Education http://ow.ly/P6QU * drmmtatom RT @web20classroom: @TechnologyToday: 59 FREE Websites offering Interactive Educational Gaming Resources: http://bit.ly/7s3kQg * bhsprincipal Why merit pay will not work - Read drive by @danielpink. What's Arne Duncan's Twitter name? * Dumb Arguments for Stupid Ideas: http://gothamschools.org/2009/12/24/dumb-arguments-for-stupid-ideas/ Advisory: Things that happen in one minute: http://www.insurance-quotes-for-you.com/20_Things_That_Happen_In_One_Minute.html Webspotlight: Free Books: This collection features free e-books, mostly classics, that you can read on your computer, smart phone, or Kindle. It includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To learn how to download these ebooks to your computer/mobile device, please visit our eBook Primer. http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks LoudLit: Literature for your eyes and ears. http://www.loudlit.org/ Top Documentary Films- Free An aggregation site for documentary films. They don't host them. Well organized and easy to use. You'll probably need to download the films. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ Newspaper Headline Create the banner and lead article for your own newspaper. http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp 15 TED Talks for Teachers to Watch Before 2010 by Free Tech 4 Teachers (Richard Byrne) OK so we're a little late- you can still watch them. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/12/10-ted-talks-for-teachers-to-watch.html NMSA09: Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * NMSA is looking for both an Executive Director and an Assistant Executive Director. 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 Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting. o OMLA Registration Form o OMLA Presentation Form * The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary! o MAMSE Exhibitor Form o MAMSE Registration Form o MAMSE Presentation Form (Presenter Deadline Extended!) * 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. o Video: Educational Uses of Second Life * Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: "For more information, please check out: http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html OR Apply before midnight, January 25th here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA " | 1/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-101-NMSA09 Wrap Up 6-The Start of a New Century! | On Our Mind: Interim Executive Director Named: Dr. Pino Get your tax deduction on school supplies. (IRS website) Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott From the Twitterverse: * rmbyrne Free Technology for Teachers: Week in Review - My Trip to GTA http://ff.im/-cOg0Q * AldridgeDuff "Brain gym" for students is pointless - no basis in science http://bit.ly/7TJ9dy * B_A_Bookworm Change your hubs name in your Blackberry or IPhone to Santa Claus and email him pics of your children misbehaving. Works!RT @kidswap <-LOL! * pcmike Windows Mobile on Life Support, Drops Behind iPhone (PC World) | PC Mike - Tech News and Reviews http://ow.ly/NxUw * netbook_news Using Google Apps? 5 Ways to Avoid Getting Hacked http://ow.ly/NCC5 * principalspage Salvation Army Bell ringers. You'll Never Look at Them the Same. http://post.ly/FZ02 * Pags21 RT @judiehaynes: RT @NMHS_Principal: Differentiate your lessons w/the Differentiator http://bit.ly/qAkId * jswiatek Star Wars Weather - enter your zip code and see the weather explained in Star Wars terms - http://www.tomscott.com/weather/starwars/ * markgammon I'm doing this now w/ someone | RT @Minervity: How to collaboratively write a blog post using Google Wave - http://bit.ly/5H6888 * smeech @mjmontagne ... came across Harvard professor from http://bit.ly/7ga2mk entry on "Great Teachers". Advisory: Advisory Coat of Arms: russeltarr Latin motto generator: My younger students had great fun with this when designing Medieval Shields - http://tinyurl.com/m2jdfr Webspotlight: Interactives "Interactives" provides educators and students with strategies, content, and activities that can enhance and improve students' skills in a variety of curricular areas. http://www.learner.org/interactives/ Money Soap It pays to get 'em to shower after PE ... Letters What's the best way to share documents like in DropBox? Is there a better program than DropBox? DropBox Screencast DropBox Wiki Eight (or more) Tech Tools to Blend into your Classroom Todd Williamson Session Description: This session will focus on web-based tools that allow your students to collaborate, communicate, and create. Join us for a fast-paced (possibly lightening fast) look at eight (or more) tech tools that you can use to enhance your teaching and student learning. Oh, and they're free too! Create multiple tabs on one web site. This means that the teacher need only send the students to one URL to see all of the sites. Great tool to solve the problem of students writing down multiple web sites. No registration needed. Stickies on a wall. Useful as graphic organizer. Students can move the notes around. Chatzy: Edmodo Animoto XtraNormal: Make Beliefs Comix Wallwisher Netvibes ShareTabs: http://www.sharetabs.com/?8techtools Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * NMSA is looking for both an Executive Director and an Assistant Executive Director. Other News: * ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. * The Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. * The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. * 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. o Video: Educational Uses of Second Life * Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA " | 12/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-100-NMSA09 Wrap Up 5 - Betaland | Shawn & Troy continue the NMSA09 wrap up. On Our Mind: NMSA Director Search! From the Twitterverse: * rmbyrne Free Technology for Teachers: Week in Review - My Trip to GTA http://ff.im/-cOg0Q * JohnMikulsk Furious about new privacy changes on Facebook. I have 2 requests from students now that they can easily search for me and see profile pic. * scottmerrick Looks like the Tue. night ISTE Speaker Session will be SIGVE folks at table at the Skypark or the Campfires. Speedchatting here we come! * chickensaltash Please show your support for the Edublogs Awards http://bit.ly/5X19J1 #edtech * eduinnovation Enjoying Ommwriter on my Mac. The gang at @ommwriter have found a way to make technology used for writing soothing and inspiring. (It has to be better than Google Wave!) * InstructorG 50 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers http://bit.ly/6c9nX3 * drmmtatom RT @MSMatters: RT @NMSAnews: NMSA Executive Director Resigns http://bit.ly/5MLr7D * cfanch so, educators, what books should I add to my amazon wish list? -or- to my books to download to ipod? (no kindle yet...) * simfin iPhone and iPod Touch Apps for Education http://ow.ly/LfoS (via @russeltarr ) (via @dianadell) Advisory: Conversation Starter: Today's episode of CNN Student News has a short segment in which there is a discussion about the differences in the ways in which male and female students learn. The segment talks about the idea of all male or all female middle schools. This segment could be a good prompt for getting students to reflect and discuss the ways in which they learn. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/12/student-conversation-starter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29 Webspotlight: Proprofs - Online Game Creation Practicing new skills and learning new facts is often presented as less than exciting, but education does not have to be this way. Good teachers have always known that puzzle games are some of the best ways to get old and young alike well on their way towards mastering a subject area. ProProfs is dedicated to the mission of combining education and entertainment, providing free online puzzles, brain games, and other fun resources to get people actively involved in the learning process. http://www.proprofs.com/ Free Audio Book: A Christmas Carol (http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Literature/European-Classics/A-Christmas-Carol/29311) Footnote: Footnote helps you find and share historic documents. We are able to bring you many never-before-seen historic documents through our unique partnerships with The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions. http://www.footnote.com/ Reading Practice Can Strengthen Brain 'Highways' by Jon Hamilton Intensive reading programs can produce measurable changes in the structure of a child's brain, according to a study in the journal Neuron. The study found that several different programs improved the integrity of fibers that carry information from one part of the brain to another. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121253104 NMSA09: Getting School Wise: Carol Josel www.Schoolwisebooks.com http://www.schoolwisebooks.com/blog mailto://carol.schoolwisebooks.com "Helen Ladd: "One theory of action seems to be that holding teachers accountable for their student's scores . . ." "The Pretty Good Student . . . " by Charles Osgood. Time activity | 12/13/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-99-NMSA09 Wrap UP 4- SimplyBox It! | Jokes: Always wanted to be a procrastinator, but never got around to it. ~~~~~ My friend has kleptomania, but when it gets bad, he takes something for it. ~~~~~ Did you hear about the big fight that Madonna, Cher, Jewel, and Fabio had? They're no longer on a first-name basis. ~~~~~ It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost and blamed it on the cost of living. ~~~~~ Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film. ~~~~~ I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder. ~~~~~ How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink? http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Neighbors-Ditto-Display-Looks-Like-a-Bright-Idea-78523157.html?yhp=1 From the Twitterverse: * lthumann - Wow! I'm looking at Free Technology for Teachers: 30+ Alternatives to YouTube http://bit.ly/UfEkv --> Great list! #edchat * Glengarden - RT @nharm: http://www.animatedexplanations.com/ Full of animated movies, interactive tutorials & instructional videos, all free * KammieK - RT @LarisaBelliveau: In The Age Of Realtime, Twitter Is Walter Cronkite http://bit.ly/7vpvEm * RT @web20classroom 10 Technologies to Use in A Laptop/Tablet Classroom | Digital Learning Environments http://bit.ly/5JnkCz * tombarret - 10 Digital Writing Opportunities You Probably Know and 10 You Probably Don't http://bit.ly/7Ryqaj * Orrin_Woodward - Every uncomfortable experience in life gives you the choice of growing bitter or better. * web20classroom Collaborative drawing with Flockdraw http://j.mp/6tJpiI * web20classroom RT @AldridgeDuff: Amen to that, Russ. RT @RussGoerend: I think students and teachers could live without grades. Parents on the other hand... * jimknight99 #1 reason kids don't engage is they don't see the relevance of the learning--Bonnie Davis #NSDC * AngelaMaiers 10 Unique Gifts You Can Make with Help from the Web http://ow.ly/Ic3P * brasst @plivings I plan PD w/middle school teachers like I do for students - lots of mini-activities; movement time, etc. No one wants boring PD! MAMSE: Contact your local MAMSE board member and volunteer to be a Regional Coordinator! Webspotlight: A Closer Look at "A Christmas Carol" Primary Source: take a look at the editing that Dicken's did when writing "A Christmas Carol". (Warning- it's written in cursive, which may be a strange language to some middle schoolers). http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/30/nyregion/dickens-christmas-carol-pages.html SimplyBox A neat way to save and share web sites, and parts of web sites, graphically. This can also share bookmarks with Delicious- thus, when you dropped something in a box, it would also put a bookmark in Delicious for you. Here's how they say that teachers can use SimplyBox: I am a teacher, how do I create accounts for my students? a) You, as the teacher, can create a second account with SimplyBox in the name of the entire class. Then you would need to give the kids the user name and password you created for the account. By the way, the account then is only accessible by people that have the user name and password for the account. The students then will be able to see the content of the boxes in the account and add comments - from any computer. Now, if they need to add content to the account, they would need the SimplyBox toolbar (the one with the "Box It" button) downloaded on whatever computer they are using. b) You can simply use Public Boxes (you create them under the Sharing menu option). Each Public Box has a URL. So, students can access the URL and see the content of the box and their comments to the different items. And the creator of the Public Box can delete the box at any time. Since this is a Public Box, students will not be able to add content to the Public Box, only comments. NMSA09: Roadblock to Success: I AM STUPID! Classroom Management Todd Johnson Assertive discipline tried and found not to work. | 12/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-98-NMSA Wrap Up - Get Your Wave ON | Podcast 98 NMSA09 Follow up 3 Get Your Wave ON! From the Twitterverse: * lthumann - Wow! I'm looking at Free Technology for Teachers: 30+ Alternatives to YouTube http://bit.ly/UfEkv --> Great list! #edchat * KevG How To Quickly Fix A Phone or MP3 Player With Water Damage http://bit.ly/6sMfzi/ * unklar Empowering Principal Leadership Behaviors - http://shar.es/aic38 I shared this w/ my principal and I hope he's not mad. * web20classroom RT @tomwhitby: Educator Guide for integrating Social Media http://bit.ly/5RuTwM <--Awesome stuff! * Worldclass52 RT @dianadell: Teachers begin using cell phones for class lessons class lessons http://ow.ly/Gs1c * netbook_news NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on http://ow.ly/GqpJ * kjarrett : Spent the last hour or so exploring @diannekrause's INCREDIBLE tech integration wiki http://ow.ly/EizF & trading emails w/her. So inspiring! * DanielPink: Why yawning "brings you into a heightened state of cognitive awareness. " http://bit.ly/2V0zyZ * Advisory: Pictures of our World. Have students take pictures of "their world". Have the students narrow down their choices to 1 picture. Discuss why the picture is important. On Our Mind: MAMSE: Contact your local MAMSE board member and volunteer to be a Regional Coordinator! Charter Colleges: Marvin Olasky proposes charter colleges to further democratize education. Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott Webspotlight: Students live in a Digital World. Are schools ready to join them? http://www.nea.org/home/35939.htm FastPencil: Turn your blog posts into a book. http://ow.ly/E8z3 What happened to Second Life? BBC questions current model of marketing in virtual environment. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8367957.stm ANKI: Spaced Repetition Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS). It helps you remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards, so that you can learn a lot of information with a minimum amount of effort. (Available for Mac/Linux/iPhone-iPod Touch/Windows) http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html NMSA09: Strategies That Motivate Students Notes: Ross Burkhardt on Writing for Real Reasons Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events: NMSA News: * NMSA Annual Conference: Baltimore 2010. 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 Ohio Middle Level Association will hold their annual conference February 18 & 19, 2010. Jack Berckemeyer will be keynoting. * OMLA Registration Form * OMLA Presentation Form * The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary! * MAMSE Exhibitor Form * MAMSE Registration Form * MAMSE Presentation Form * Theater Education Opportunity: Eastern Michigan University's Quirk-Sponberg Theater has announced their Fall 2009 Season. "The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird" By Jackson Lacey Directed by Pam Cardell December 4, 5, 10, 11 at 7PM December 5, 6, 12 at 3PM School Matinees: December 9 and 10 at 10:00 am. Tickets $4.00 for students and every 15 students gets a chaparone in for free. * Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar. * Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: Archived content is available. * Second Life: * No Events specified. Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details. * Video: Educational Uses of Second Life | 11/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-97-NMSA09_Wrap_UP_2 | Jokes: I'm a 7th grade life science teacher, so we often use microscopes. My room is a retro-fitted science classroom, so I don't have big lab benches for microscopes - instead I bring in my power cords from Christmas lights. The first time any class uses microscopes, we spend a good ten minutes of class going over the procedure for plugging in and turning on the microscopes. One particular fifth period I had just instructed the students to plug in the microscope and turn them on - and after sufficient wait time announced "At this point, everybody should be turned on." This is when I got some very strange looks from a group of boys in the corner, and all I could do was laugh. Earlier this year, I was reviewing Celsius/Fahrenheit conversions. I was explaining to the kids that there was a messy mathematical formula we could use to do these conversions, but for our purposes I helped them out and gave them a side-by-side picture of the two thermometers that they could draw lines across to make the conversions. "This way you all can avoid the getting your hands dirt with all the math for now." To which one of my smartalic boys blurted out "But what if we want to do it the dirty way?" As the rest of the class burst into laughter, I chuckled inwardly and then explained that we'll have plenty of chances to get our hands dirty in science this year, but this won't be one of those times. Kate K. From the Twitterverse: * Ransomtech "If a podcast can capture everything you do in class, you deserve to have nobody coming." http://bit.ly/3LGs2N * SimpleK12: Don't miss this: Exclusive4 Admins/Tech Coords The importance of ur teachers using Virtual Field Trips in the classroom http://bit.ly/2KQIe3 * blairteach: RT@colonelb Do we need a new high school model? Will our K-12 culture even allow us? http://bit.ly/VJQCS * zoe1971: RT @web20classroom: An Interesting Graphic from #edchat on Information Overload....http://is.gd/4YQzQ * kate_k: Best example I've seen of using Facebook for course-management! The teacher even uses 'events' for due dates. http://bit.ly/gpDrh * TWilliamson15: Just Posted:http://bit.ly/1suaS4 We're Talking...But Who's Listening? A rambling piece generated from numerous conversations today... * web20classroom RT @kelleygarbero: RT @MATH_IS_IT: Great Algebra activities to reinforce learning, http://bit.ly/p2ETB * kjarrett: Love this too - @mcleod's Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please? - Dangerously Irrelevant http://ow.ly/CrGQ * russeltarr Mathematics in Movies: Nice list for Maths teachers building up a DVD collection!: http://tinyurl.com/mahrna * web20classroom RT @stevejmoore: #ncte everyone follow my colleague @kristinlhoward ! She just joined Twitter and needs your connections! * drmmtatom Education Week: Bill Would Replace Key Federal Literacy Programs: http://bit.ly/7r4EQI via @addthis * AngelaMaiers What Does Learning Mean 2 U? New 30 sec. vid/post http://bit.ly/8WvVcG Would love to hear/see your response #WDLM2U * web20classroom Yep...Santa Claus is following me...I hope I get coal this year...with the price of fuel going up and up and everything.... NMSA09: Taking the Challenge Out of Challenging Students – Unlocking the Mystery of Hard-to-Manage Kids Diana Day Dr. Debbie Silver: Helping Teachers Find the “Beat of Their Different Marchers” Website: www.debbiesilver.com password: iamateacher | 11/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-96-NMSA09_Wrap_Up_1 | -- | 11/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-95-NMSA | -- | 11/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-94-Faygo | Shawn & Troy discuss advisory ideas, share some shout outs, spotlight a few web sites, and look forward to the NMSA09 conference. From the Twitterverse: * canyonsdave So true. @Edu4U: RT @baded: If you think you don't like change, wait and see how you like irrelevance. #otf09 * web20classroom RT @joycevalenza: Classroom 2.0 today: New diigo features w/MaggieTsai 12:00pm Eastern In Elluminate at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live * web20classroom RT @stevejmoore: Google Wave Wiki for Educators http://j.mp/2goA7h * schoolwise "...Every dollar spent on a teacher=more valuable that a dollar spent on a variety of other ed reforms." ~ Z. Vanderhoek * Lilylauren So I just rulked (run/walked) this http://www.gmap-pedometer.c... and I am going to brag cos I can - stab me if you don't like it * gardenglen Great resources 4 teaching about soil: http://url.ie/2qxt * gardenglen RT @jenwagner: http://twitpic.com/nlway - @gardenglen I bet we see this used a lot at upcoming conferences. (grins) * schoolwise Info 101 - School Bus Safety and Stopping Laws: http://EzineArticles.com/?i... * math2go Robert Marzano & interactive whiteboards: http://bit.ly/14CFgC * funnelbrain Happy to annouce that we have just launched the Academic Decathlon Online Srimmage with our partners from the... http://bit.ly/Xzin6 * Advisory: One Letter off Movies: #oneletteroffmovies * Urbane Cowboy * A Streetcar Named Desirex * Where the Mild Things Are * Sat VI * Boy Story Longer Temper: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/10/22/i-like-this-lesson-because-it-make-me-have-a-longer-temper-part-one/ On Our Mind: Shout out to March Wells III: Still on dial up....2 hours to download our Podcast. The Dedicated Listener Award goes to . . . Shout out to L.C.: Thanks for the idea- Snag jokes from Reader's Digest (so you know they're funny) and then put them into cartoon form. Should the National Middle School Association change its name? This was brought up an annual conference or two ago . . . Oscar the 3 legged wonder dog. Webspotlight: Comparison of cell sizes: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/ Schoology https://www.schoology.com/home.php WatchKnow: http://www.watchknow.org/ Stress, Control, and the Deprofessionalizing of Teaching: By Thomas Newkirk http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08newkirk.h29.html?tkn=SLXFVNI0pzgQlNmS03dWjNd3b5GbnRR0ra9D What Ted Sizer Meant to Us By Patrick J. McQuillan http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/29/10mcquillan.h29.html?tkn=PPLF+9RZuGGEuUfRwqevXDYZDDbIdJzHfqkX | 10/31/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-93-The_Show_Name_in_140_Characters_or_Less_-_-_-_or_Your_Money_Back | From the Twitterverse: * KD9SR Participating in DEN Virtual Conference (Discovery Educator Network) http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/virtcon09/ #DEN * JohnMikulski Blog Post: Intro to Podcasting for Teachers http://trunc.it/2r1va * willrich45 "For U.S. college students, Internet technologies have become so ubiquitous as to seem invisible." http://bit.ly/2pg53 What about educators? * willrich45 EduCon 2.2 -- Call For Conversations and Registration" http://j.mp/9Y5Bh Don't Forget to submit proposals by Nov 1!!! * MrsPendergest Ghosts and Legends http://tinyurl.com/yjmuyxf is an extension of http://tinyurl.com/ylocf87 with this http://tinyurl.com/ygwdtys (Local History) * cfanch Key Curriculum Press is having a good sale on books for $7.50. We're stocking up! http://keypress.com/x24726.xml * math2go Instructional coaching: http://instructionalcoach.org/articles.html * rmbyrne Free Technology for Teachers: Week In Review - The Most Popular Items http://ff.im/-aoUeM * cshirky --hope-this-works (hackintoshing my HP Mini...) * paulallison Favorite thing that Ted Sizer used to say: "You should be able to have dinner with the people who set standards for your children." * tonitones Apple: we can find engineers - but we can't find engineers who will work in a group #adecamp09 * tonitones is the mindset in your school built around a culture of creativity and a strive for innovation? #adecamp09 * http://twitter.com/search?q=%23ADEcamp09 * NMSANMSAnews Start your conference experience now. Join NMSA09 Conference Connections http://nmsa09.ning.com/ * schoolwise NCLB cheats gifted kids says http://tinyurl.com/yhw59l3. Agree? Me, too. Advisory: What's My Line? Cartoon Edition: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16000 Take the cartoon, erase the text and let students then create text to fit a scene. It doesn't have to relate On Our Mind: One of the biggest classroom management mistakes teachers make is that they take disrespectful behavior personally. http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2009/07/31/how-to-handle-disrespectful-students/ Webspotlight: Create easy flow charts (for Free): http://www.slickplan.com/ Google Apps for Education Lesson Plans: http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/lesson_plans.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=educators_newsletter&utm_medium=email Museum Virtual 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. http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php The CU On-line Handbook: So while online is not a cure-all or “magic bullet”, it does have the potential to revolutionize how we think about, and deliver education. https://www.cudenver.edu/Academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/Handbook/Documents/2009/CU_Online_Handbook_2009.pdf#page=50 News: Stress, Control, and the Deprofessionalizing of Teaching: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08newkirk.h29.html?tkn=SLXFVNI0pzgQlNmS03dWjNd3b5GbnRR0ra9D Twitter Lessons in 140 Characters or Less By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08twitter_ep.h29.html?tkn=XTSF0PfbwZav1%2BekG07b5iRl6u4Y9q5vJbpA Nearly half of Dallas 5th-graders not ready for middle school As Dallas schools focus on getting all students ready for college, they face a daunting challenge uncovered by a new district tracking system: Almost half of fifth-graders are not even ready for middle school. To be considered ready for middle school, fifth-graders had to pass the state TAKS exams in reading, math and science, and could not fail more than one core academic class, according to the district's formula. "You don't just get on the college track in high school. You're really on the college track well before that," Dahlander said. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102209dnmetfifthgrade.3d3bdd1.html | 10/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-92-Advisory_Cartoons | Districts ban Facebook & social networking: Chicago Public Schools: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/district-299/2009/08/school-board-bans-facebook-twitter-for-teachers.html http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6639197.html?nid=2413&source=title&rid=140246606 Cyberbullying: http://cyberbullying.us/blog/teachers-prohibited-from-using-facebook-to-communicate-with-students.html Should districts ban teachers from social networking?: http://ow.ly/oEXp Dallas-Fort Worth area district bans then unbans Social Networking: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/McKinney-ISD-May-Pull-Plug-on-Teacher-Student-E-Mail-Text-Ban-61266222.html AND http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/McKinney-ISD-Backs-off-Teacher-Student-E-Mail-Text-Ban-62679187.html Two Mississippi districts ban social networking: http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/doh-school-districts-ban-texting-between-teachers-and-students/ Podcast Awards Nominations due October 18th. http://podcastawards.com/ Advisory: Body Image: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1130618347958&ref=mf (Alternate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqlzBKFPxyE) (Submitted by AK Jenny) This idea is simple enough to implement in any size advisory group, in any amount of time, and in any way that best suits the needs of the students and teacher in the group. Students can be asked to list 5, 10, 20, or 25 random things about themselves. Students can create written or verbal lists or both. Lists can be kept private or volunteers can be asked to share them. Students can be asked to tally how many things they have in common with other students if the lists are shared. Students can be asked to choose their 3 most random things to be explored at a later date, possibly as an assignment in another class. Depending upon how often advisory groups meet and how long each advisory class lasts, the “25 Random Things” can be done in one day or spread out over one week. http://middle-school-lesson-plans.suite101.com/article.cfm/found_on_facebook_an_advisory_activity Chad Fry: Illustration Guy: http://www.chadfrye.com/ Monster a day for a month. Not so much an idea as a resource for an advisory . . . http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/notes.php?id=66977838632 . Webspotlight: Comic Creation Online: http://www.wittycomics.com/ http://www.toondoo.com/ (Demo) http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/ | 10/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-91-Math,_Technology_and_Oops,_Gotta_Go! | From the Twitterverse: * karlyb WOW! - 5th grade math resources by unit: http://www1.center.k12.mo.u... * karlyb Promethian giveaway contest at The Henry Ford: http://thehenryford.promo.e... * paulallison Download Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 2 of 3 - Exploring Author's Craft - TTT171- 10... http://bit.ly/1a4Zq0 * rmbyrne Free Technology for Teachers: Musopen - Free Recordings and Sheet Music http://ff.im/-9yQW0 or http://www.musopen.com/ * cliotech New blog post: Sharing Best Practices is OK! http://bit.ly/GtCzo * vtdeacon RT @DeborahMersino RT @russeltarr: Great 'classic' stories in comic form, awesome : http://tinyurl.com/okjoyc * Twilliamson15 @paulbogush we have more in common now...I'm quoted in Rick Wormeli's new book :) ...preview at http://snipurl.com/wormelibk * gardenglen Now available: CALL FOR BETA TESTERS OF NETS DRAFT RUBRIC http://url.ie/2m63 * vtdeacon this looks like a pretty cool lesson on using excel in math class- plus connection to halloween:) http://tinyurl.com/yl9susr * web20classroom RT @ejulez: by end of 2013, 70% of businesses will have behavior/dress code policies for employees online avatars. http://ow.ly/tEZV * schoolwise Children's Good Manners Month and Thank You Notes: http://EzineArticles.com/?i... * JoHart RT @coletteamber: Laughing at: "pencil metaphor - Leading a Digital School" ( http://bit.ly/EtSFT ) * ambermac OK, I'm moving to Sweden if this keeps up! RT @jeff_andersen Tune in to another invention by the Swedes: http://bit.ly/e8Eoe * web20classroom Good Advice for School Leaders- Decisions You Can Live With...http://is.gd/4765z On Our Mind: Technology: Project RED http://projectred.org/ Netbook News (from Twitter) Larry Ellison's take on Cloud Computer (think netbooks) Advisory: National Children's Good Manners Month: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=3016989 Middle School Advisory 101 http://middleschooladvisory101.blogspot.com/ Webspotlight: ClassTools: Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge! http://classtools.net/ See an example: http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=78798&title=Classtools_net Timeline Creators: XTimeline xtimeline is a free web-based timeline. Easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos. http://www.xtimeline.com/ TimeGlider There is a time traveler in each of us. Whether you are a litigator or an 8th grader, TimeGlider can quickly enhance your experience of the past, present, and future. Once you’ve explored a TimeGlider timeline, you’ll wonder why you’ve never seen information organized like this before. http://timeglider.com/index.php Mind42.com - Mind Mapping software that fits in a browser: http://ow.ly/truL Seven Free software Apps (6 for Mac users): http://www.digmo.co.uk/news/software/7-free-apps-for-education/ News: More Time on Task: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091006/OPINION01/910060315/Editorial++Give+kids+time+to+wrap+heads+around+learning Netbooks: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?&i=61122 | 10/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-90-Digital Learning-Get_those_1's_and_0's_in_order! | Jokes: I’m failing geometry because I refuse to believe that pie are squared. The school board decided to remove speech and debate from the course schedule; there was no argument. Today in Art class we were going to paint a nude model, but the teacher sent her to the office for violating dress code. How does a blind skydiver know they're nearing the ground? The leash goes slack . . . From the Twitterverse: * DigMo Anyone interested in the competition, slow to get started this one :( very easy too iStopMotion 2http://bit.ly/pKhvd would appreciate it * kentmanning Just blogged about one of those "teacher moments" in a busy week. http://tinyurl.com/yesbxvb We've all had them. Looking forward to more. * bruingeek No, Honey. With the GPS we don't have to ask directions. And NO, GPS is not the acronym for General Purpose Shopping. *blondejoke* * zemote RT @tvanderark How will digital learning replace print? Here's 7 (sic) change forces http://bit.ly/15Fe6p * russeltarr How to Green Screen Using iMovie '09: http://tinyurl.com/rdvzkn * stevehargadon New Weebly for education is awesome. Great for both teachers & students to building their own web presence. http://education.weebly.com * russeltarr Creativity in the Classroom, Innovation in the Workplace (by @sirkenrobinson): http://tinyurl.com/q45hfy * russeltarr 70 Authors to Follow on Twitter (good for literature students?): http://tinyurl.com/plkkrj (Note: mostly for you, some for your students.) * eduinnovation PLC that confuses talk for action, confuses meeting for getting results, confuses time together for benefiting students.....just confused. * russeltarr Formal Education will make you a living; Self education will make you a fortune. Jim Rohn. * jonbecker Standby efforts failed. Gonna be at JFK for a few hours. Keep me company? * stevehargadon RT @jonmott Great summary of DoE meta-study concluding that online learners perform better than others. http://bit.ly/2WEWmq * AngelaMaiers "Habitudes" of Professional Learning Communities http://digg.com/u1DX4W Great stuff from @eduinnovation On Our Mind: Clocks. Is it necessary to know how to read an analog clock? MEAPs coming up, state mandated testing. Do you put the pressure on or do you soft-shoe it into the testing period? DropBox http://www.getdropbox.com/iphoneapp Advisory: Return to the overview: During the first month of school have every student take a piece of string and place one end under their shoe then stretch the string so it reaches the top of their head. Cut the string and fold it up. Place a piece of masking tape with the student’s name around the folded piece of string. Put all of the strings into a bag and do not open it until the last week of school. Then have them take their string and see how much they have grown over the last year. Many of your students will be amazed at how much they have grown. A way to show what adolescents stand for is to have them outline their foot and then list all of the things they believe in inside the outline. http://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/On_Target/advisory/advisory_8.pdf October is MOYA! www.nmsa.org/moya Webspotlight: Educon 21 at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. http://educon21.wikispaces.com/ Stumbleupon http://www.stumbleupon.com (or in Troy's universe: stumbleupon.com) VUE 3.0- The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information. http://vue.tufts.edu/ News: Govt talks about teacher effectiveness. Online learning expanding but slowing down. | 10/3/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-89-"Whatta We Gonna Do Brain? Same thing we always do Pinky" . . . Middle Schoolers take over the World! | Shawn and Troy discuss getting Middle Schoolers organized, happenings around the Twitterverse, some advisory ideas, web spotlights and more. Susan Mulcaire - The Middle School Student's Guide to Ruling the World www.middleschoolguide.com From the Twitterverse: * bhsprincipal Great overview on how to create your own PLN RT @tweetmeme Thank You PLN | Teacher Reboot Camp http://bit.ly/3WIMB * mayfieldc I remember when stage 4 scared me, but I managed. "Stages of PLN adoption" http://bit.ly/hI7p2 * mayfieldc Curriculum and lessons to teach copyright: http://bit.ly/Z1WdX * mayfieldc The ultimate GoogleMap scavenger hunt: http://bit.ly/fvbZm * mayfieldc Let your students run for congress: http://bit.ly/1uJQQ * MsCLanger Thank you all for such a warm welcome... and lovin the excellent resources - Keep it up! @bbarreda - Let's talk curriculum! (Note: She's a new user, feel free to follow.) * hickstro Prepping for three upcoming episodes of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Up this week, student choice and inquiry: http://bit.ly/OOsdG (This is Troy Hicks of CMU.) * mguhlin Over 800 Videos in Core Content Area Instruction http://ff.im/-8Ojqq * johnharrison1 Twitter is changing how ed nonprofits raise funds for good causes. @donorschoose in Fast Company http://bit.ly/1aDtqT * lthumann "Just Google" - a parody of "Beat It" by Michael Jackson http://tinyurl.com/2am3r4 (considering using this at the NJEA convention) * brasst http://twitdraw.com/jr3tss @chamada Thinking this could be very useful for tutoring and homework questions in math #twitdraw * plivings RT Chris Lehmann's call for participation in EduCon http://bit.ly/boSO1 thinking of attending/presenting this year ... Advisory: Advisory idea: 1. The Middle School Student's Guide to Ruling the World!* by Susan Mulcaire 2. Video – Silent Beats Video on Prejudice. Interesting point of views. If we don't teach kids literacy beyond the printed word, we are doing them a disservice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76BboyrEl48 Webspotlight: A Three Story Intellect! BLOOM’S TAXONOMY and Costa’s Levels of Questioning http://wwwstatic.kern.org/gems/AVID/NoelleCombsInquiryLesson.pdf Molecular Workbench http://mw.concord.org/modeler/ Awesome Highligter: http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/ News: National Subject-Matter Standards? Be Careful What You Wish For By Marion Brady “American education,” said Buckminster Fuller, “has evolved in such a way that it will be the undoing of the society.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/23/04brady.h29.html?tkn=QQQF7DtpOD4Av9Mp%2FladSCvhRcONy4acLzJG The promise of technology and change, so far, has fallen short at Philadelphia’s School of the Future. By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/30/05future_ep.h29.html?tkn=Z[OFt1k7urdzHekhD%2FWbBZWenSpHHAb%2Ftq2C | 9/27/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-88-It's "Talk Like a Pirate, Teach Like a Pro" Day | What’s a pirate’s favorite TV show? E ARRRRRRRrrrrrrgghhhh! 3.14159% of sailors are Pi Rates … September 19th is also National Cheeseburger Day. (All the pirates will be at HAarrrdee’s.) Pirate Name Generator Shawn’s pirate name: Frownin’ Tad Hacke Troy’s pirate name: Cowerin’ Joe Smythe From the Twitterverse: * Frideswidel Starting to feel the excitement of first day back with kids. Anybody else not get any sleep the night before “The First Day”? * goSmithsonianEdSmithsonian Weekend Events: Nighttime Artworks and a Fiesta! http://bit.ly/2WzmgR via @AddToAny * sharon_elinMath teachers: check out 3Divinci w/Google SketchUp for teaching geometry etc.: http://is.gd/3recV via @rmbyrne‘ s rich & loaded blog * sharon_elinDigital Cheating page from the The Parent Summit 2009 in San Antonio: http://bit.ly/11HUOt * mguhlin GoogleApps Changes Web Publishing Policy http://ff.im/-8lZ1O * Webspotlight: Ten Totally Random Tips for Teachers: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2009/09/ten-totally-random-tips-for-teachers.html Online Conference: Smithsonian http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/professional_development/conference/2009/climate_change/index.html (From AK Jenny) Lesson Plans for Literacy: http://www.readwritethink.org/ What’s on our Mind: Mindset by Carol Dweck http://www.mindsetonline.com/ Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink http://www.danpink.com/ Start of school: Advisory: Advisory idea: 1. Pirate Name Generator Shawn’s pirate name: Frownin’ Tad Hacke Troy’s pirate name: Cowerin’ Joe Smythe 2. Video – Silent Beats Video on Prejudice. Interesting point of views. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76BboyrEl48 3. Word Teasers: Idioms The Word Teasers idiom edition has a “skit” activity that could make for a quick energy game to get kids ready for the day. Visit them at http://www.wordteasers.com/. News: Bait & Switch – Vouchers For almost two decades, Milwaukee has been home to the country’s oldest and largest voucher program—a beacon of hope for voucher supporters who want to use public dollars to fund private schools. But Milwaukee has now become the latest in a string of setbacks for vouchers. The Milwaukee study reaffirmed what public school supporters had argued for years: that the problems afflicting urban schools are grounded in economic and racial segregation and the power structure’s willingness to abandon central cities because they are disproportionately populated by low-income people of color.The Milwaukee study follows a number of disheartening developments for voucher advocates. There is little evidence that voucher or choice programs have succeeded in fostering the emergence of high-quality options.” Similarly, it is only common sense that voucher students take the same standardized tests as public school and charter students, and that each voucher school release its results, just as public schools provide a school-by-school breakdown. Regardless of the shortcomings of the test, and there are many, such a requirement is essential if all schools that receive public dollars are to be treated equitably. While private voucher schools cannot discriminate in admitting students with special needs, they are only required to give students those services that can be provided with minor adjustments. As a result, voucher schools have few special ed students. http://rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_04/bait234.shtml Blocking Facebook – Balance Last week, we made a conscious decision to block Facebook from being accessed on our network. …while arguably brimming with educational potential, is most often used for nothing more than recreational interaction among participants. Rather, it’s a matter of fighting for balance and the cognitive attention of our students. http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/23300 The Dragon of Chaos (and How to Slay it) Tips for getting the school year off on the organized foot. http://cossondra.blogspot.com | 9/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-87-Back to School Special | From the Twitterverse: * Frideswidel Starting to feel the excitement of first day back with kids. Anybody else not get any sleep the night before "The First Day"? * JohnMikulski The best part of another school year is getting new shoes. * mrichme If anyone is looking for an ASUS netbook woot.com has an excellent deal today $149.99. http://bit.ly/nrheW * annemareemoore come see our students experience Indigenous Culture http://bit.ly/JM9Zl. Feel free to add your comment at http://bit.ly/xqtZL * russeltarr The 7 Most Impressive Libraries Throughout History: http://tinyurl.com/mkbl44 * rrmurry "Teaching Naked" at 7th grade level -- it works and is great. End class one day w/video to discuss next day. http://e4z2m.tk * AngelaMaiers: Soungle.com - Royalty Free Sound Effects (FX) Library for Download http://ow.ly/oWMc * AngelaMaiers: 100 Mobile Tools for Teachers - Tips - Mobile Maven http://ow.ly/oDRA * gardenglen intriguing idea why 2 not teach fractions from Penn State 60 sec. Lectures: http://url.ie/2exj * deangroom and finally today "Smart learners will find teachers who speak their own language" - go with honour ppl * http://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2009/09/free-medieval-history-courses.html NMSA Goal Setting Webspotlight: Book Suggestions: http://www.toreadnext.com/ Middle School "Dos and Don'ts" http://www.teachersfirst.com/20/getsource.cfm?id=7594 http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/08/three-student-planners-organization.html National Library of Virtual Manipulatives: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vLibrary.html What's on our Mind: Mindset: By Carol Dweck The Graphing Calculator Story: http://www.pacifict.com/Story/ Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567# 1. How do your regional coordinators stay in contact with you? 2. Are you a member of your state's middle school association? 3. Have you ever attended another state's middle school association annual conference? 4. What did you do to survive the first day of school? 5. Reading a book called "Readicide" at the moment. | 9/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-86-Set the Standard, Pass the Test, Crush the Opposition! - We're a Toddler Now!band | Podcast 86: "No! I will not read the intro:" Set the Standard, Pass the Test, Crush the Opposition! - We're a Toddler Now! From the Twitterverse: * sharon_elin Creating graffiti type w/ http://www.graffiticreator.... -- takes a little playing around to figure out how to manipulate colors/patterns * gardenglen Today's Zits illustrates the multitasking of today's teens: http://url.ie/2aty * zmanrdz linux-for-education.org = a huge resource | Education IT | ZDNet.com http://tinyurl.com/mp32z5 via www.diigo.com/~zmanrdz * zmanrdz Are digital textbooks the money-saving wave of the future? http://tinyurl.com/lqk5pa via www.diigo.com/~zmanrdz * teachercookie72 Great geography gamemaker: http://www.umapper.com/blog... * teromakotero Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation | Video on TED.com http://bit.ly/1558Hq #twine Webspotlight: Have text read out loud: http://www.readthewords.com/ Fair Use Copyright Chart: http://www.irvingisd.net/one2one/Cloning/fair_use_copyright_chart.pdf Idea Finder: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/index.html News: Should students be paid to perform on tests: http://education.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/should-students-be-paid-to-lea.php Ohio high school tightens computer security after cheating scandal Posted by Andrew Welsh-Huggins/Associated Press August 05, 2009 22:48PM More than half of the seniors at a top Ohio high school who took world studies tests last spring were involved in a cheating scheme that prompted school officials to cancel graduation ceremonies. School officials traced the cheating to a tech-savvy student who figured out a school computer password, and the district has tightened its computer security in the wake of the scandal. The school also will emphasize ethics to all students in the school year beginning Aug. 26. That includes updating the student handbook. But Holden acknowledged that the ethics message might not be enough to stop some students from cheating and others from turning a blind eye. All of society is becoming more accepting "of a degree of dishonesty," she said. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/08/ohio_high_school_tightens_comp.html Cheating Survey: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=6532050 Wisconsin does away with standardized test http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/27/wisconsin-dumps-standardized-test/ City schools increase training for substitutes: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09239/993542-53.stm Crowd Source Grading: http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-it-crowdsourcing-or-shirking.html http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/how-crowdsource-grading Events & Happenings: | 8/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-85-Taken_to_Task | Shout outs: 1. Todd Williamson: Audio response. (Visit Todd at http://thetechnorateteacher.wordpress.com ) 2. Dr. Debra Franciosi: From the Twitterverse: * cthumphreys these make me laugh as a huge grammar geek-Humorous Grammar Rules: http://ow.ly/iM8X (via @barbsaka @carolrainbow ) (via @dianadell) * liteNup http://twitpic.com/cdt3m - This is the 4th one in 5 days! This one right in my back yard. Almost got struck by lightning looking 4 the rainbow. * leolaporte We launch a new TWiT show @ 3p today: TWig - This Week in google - with Jeff Jarvis and Gina Trapani. Google… [pic] http://ff.im/-61IaM * web20classroom RT @jgvanides: What is “eLearning”? How I explain variations in online learning http://bit.ly/mJ1u1 #edtech #eLearning #highered #edu * annemareemoore RT @heyjudeonline: great introduction video for students in science getting into blogging. http://bit.ly/16Dwxq * russeltarr Audioboo: Using IPhones as an audio blogging tool with students (e.g. poetry?): http://tinyurl.com/o6ooux FeedBack: I came across this podcast for the first time today, and while significant time has passed, I cannot let this go without comment. While some parts of your program were interesting, I was disappointed in your lack of critical analysis of the reading research. (Yes, I am in a biased position on this, being employed by one of the study treatment companies, but my doctoral work in ed and research came before my latest venture with CRISS, and there is injustice in this!) You (along with an Ed Week reporter, etc) shared that “none of them [treatments] are effective”. The fact is, a null effect or no positive effect in statistical research does NOT mean a treatment is ineffective. It means they didn’t find results — and that can be for a variety of reasons, including faulty research design. Having read the research report and talked to teachers and trainers (for CRISS), I know that the design was flawed, as was the way the researchers grouped the info. CRISS is the only one of the treatments that is a professional development program, NOT a canned curriculum. All four were treated as the same thing. Even if the design wasn’t flawed, the researchers themselves stated that the study demonstrates likely outcomes in a “typical” implementation. In the case of many of the sites CRISS worked with, teachers had NO input into their participation and therefore NO BUY-IN. Some teachers did not show up for the trainings, but the test data was kept in the mix anyway. It makes no sense. Before I started working for CRISS last September, I taught middle school for 9 years and was the 6-12 Literacy Specialist for 3. We implemented CRISS at the high school and the teachers that participated loved it and used what they learned — and saw positive results. But it takes time (3 years to get teachers fully implementing, with regular support); changing pedagogy isn’t easy. That said, gentlemen, I ask that you revisit adolescent literacy again — maybe after looking at the report that came out last spring(Ed Week March or April?)that noted that random control/treatment studies done by the IES are consistently coming out with null effects. It appears that education does not fit into that paradigm of research design. Kids aren’t widgets, and you can’t control for all the chaos that human subjects bring to public schools. There ARE concrete things educators can do to improve students’ literacy. No canned program (or professional development, for that matter) required. Thanks! Dr. Debra Franciosi California should fund Music: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/30/EDQ01910HK.DTL | 8/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-84-Interview_with Jeff_LaRoux | Mr. Jeff LaRoux is an expert in middle school. He is a National Middle School Board Member. He graciously sat down with us and chatted about advisory and middle school fundamentals. Great information from a true leader and practitioner in the field of middle school. | 7/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-83_Fine_Me_Already! | Shawn & Troy discuss a listeners view of Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0. We take a look at the Twitterverse and some sparkly moments. We also discuss Woodlawn Elementary school's strategies over moving from a D to B. A new Texas law hits students with a $15 fee for confiscated cell phones. Finally, we discuss Parental Involvement. | 7/23/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-82-Interview_with_Teresa_Sutherland | -- | 7/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-81-MIJEC,_National_Standards_&_the_IRS | Michigan Joint Education Conference Traverse City Special Education Visual Guide HyperStudio 5 For Michigan Educators: http://mel.org/SPT--BrowseResourcesNewMeL.php Shout Outs: Jeff LaRoux & Teresa Sutherland: Thanks for the Interview! Kevin Galbraith: Thanks for the mention in your session on Podcasting at MI Champs! From the Twitterverse: * russeltarr PhotoPeach: Create movies from photos (simpler than Animoto - for younger students?): http://tinyurl.com/mn3zqm * pcmikeXigaware » Intersection of Search and Social Media http://u.mavrev.com/eqkr * rmbyrneChecking out http://Playlist.com mentioned by Steve Hargadon http://ff.im/-4viul * russeltarr100 Best iPhone Apps for Serious Self-Learners: http://tinyurl.com/r8jj7k * suewatersNew blog post: Here’s My Top Five Mistakes Made By New Bloggers — What Are Yours? http://bit.ly/3WaUaT * russeltarrCombine Powerpoint, webpages, photos and voice with this presentation tool - http://tinyurl.com/r9yk83 * russeltarrScribble Maps - Draw on google maps with scribblings and more! http://tinyurl.com/d2opwv * rbastienRT @tweetmeme Free Set of Glossy Icons - Volume 1 | Minervity http://bit.ly/13FawD * pcmikeToo much time online strains marriages | PC Mike - Tech News and Reviews http://ow.ly/fXQE * kchichesterJust joined the NECC Ning http://necc2008.ning.com/ & NECC Unplugged Ning http://neccunplugged.ning.com/ so I can attend virtually. #necc09 * russeltarrSecond Life Worlds created for classroom use: http://tinyurl.com/l82jvl * russeltarrGet new book suggestions based on what you've just read - great for student research (RT @nharm): http://tinyurl.com/ksrk7x News: Texas shuns common standards for schools By LINDSAY KASTNER SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Texas has always been known for its independent streak. Now the state is one of four that is sitting out an effort to create voluntary national standards for what students are expected to learn in school. Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are on board with the project, which is spearheaded by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a backer. Sunday he sweetened his support with $350 million in federal stimulus money to be used for the creation of national tests. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6491086.html House barely agrees, 58-57, to send the bill to Perdue BY LYNN BONNER, JENNIFER KLAHRE AND LUCI CHAVEZ - STAFF WRITERS Students and administrators might as well be living on different planets when it comes to school bullying. Students say it is common for bullies to taunt and hit them or their classmates, and for teachers to do little to stop it. Superintendents and principals say that bullying is a small problem and that policies to discourage it work well. The bill requires that teachers, students and volunteers report any incidents of bullying, but it leaves the details of reporting procedures and punishments up to the school districts. http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1581091.html | 7/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #80- Departmentalization of School- Twitter, Cell phones, and Content! | From the Twitterverse: * russeltarr PhotoPeach: Create movies from photos (simpler than Animoto - for younger students?): http://tinyurl.com/mn3zqm * sharon_elinI'm not ADD, but I'm attitudinally paralyzed, focus-challenged & facing a severe motivation drought, just when there is imp. wrk 2 get done. * russeltarriPods in Education: http://tinyurl.com/p9bcgf * lthumannSMARTBoard presenter needed 6/22 or 6/23 in PA 4 this conference http://bit.ly/6gYGT The coordinator contacted me, but I can't help, can u? * rrmurryRT @ShiftParadigm: RT @LeeRebels Hey teacher, can you give me a Tweet? http://tinyurl.com/lwcbb3 Planning on this next school year. * NMSA is now on Twitter "For everyone who uses Twitter, you can now follow NMSA News and Headlines @Twitter." http://twitter.com/NMSAnews * lthumannhttp://bit.ly/F5U1u Nine Reasons Teachers Should Use Twitter * DanielPinkEureka!: "Our brain may be most actively engaged when our mind is wandering." http://bit.ly/gnrm3 (via Wall St Journal) * willrich45Interesting how the first thing I check in the morning is my Twitter feed. * russeltarrLoving these digitised flip-books - if only I'd had access to all this info as easily at uni! - http://tinyurl.com/kkjvma * debrennersmithPersonal Narrative Unit by Jessica Meachum http://networkedblogs.com/p... Units of Study personal narrative idea * pcmikeClay Shirky Explains How Twitter & Facebook Have Changed Geopolitics http://u.mavrev.com/ckc0 * pcmikeSocial Media Give Educators Options http://u.mavrev.com/cjx0 * plivingsWooHoo - holding copy of 2nd ed "1-to-1Learning: Laptop Pgms That Work" http://www.iste.org/lapto2 * AngelaMaiersRT@SuzanneWhisler How to use Twitter in your classroom. http://bit.ly/7wqJP Video * AlohaArleenOnce U "get" FriendFeed it's like a breath of fresh air cleaning out the moth balls of your social media closet! @blm03 (How to be prolific in social media . . . ) * russeltarrMagic Tricks using Maths - Great for lesson starters! #mathteacher: http://tinyurl.com/p89qy3 * lthumannMy first life is stressing me out - I'm gonna head into SL to see if that one is any better - it's gotta be * stribsDo not use Twitter to proclaim yourself a "guru." Or I shall strike down mightily upon thee. Sparkly Moments: Marzano & Smartboards: http://www.edutopia.org/interactive-whiteboards-technology-success News: Palm Beach County elementary school changes face opposition Students in grades 3 through 5 will switch classes By Marc Freeman |South Florida Sun Sentinel6:54 PM EDT, June 8, 2009 Parents at A-rated Boca Raton area elementary schools are raising the threat level over a mandatory plan to drop the traditional one-teacher model in grades 3 through 5. The plan is called departmentalization, in which students have different teachers for reading/language arts, math, science and social studies, similar to middle school. Principals are free to use this model for first and second grades and even kindergarten. Students who are eligible for gifted classes will continue to receive the same amount of specialized instruction, Hernandez said. At the Del Prado meeting, parents asked for research or some proof that student performance improves under departmentalization. Some parents also opposed the change on the grounds that their schools are already performing at high levels and should stay the course. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-palm-elementary-classes-p060809,0,4191006.story Survey: Many teens use phones in class to text or cheat One-fourth of teens' cellphone text messages are sent during class, a new survey finds, despite widespread classroom bans on cellphones at school. The survey of 1,013 teens — 84% of whom have cellphones — also shows that a significant number have stored information on a cellphone to look at during a test or have texted friends about answers. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-17-cellphones-in-class_N | 6/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #79- The Rube Goldberg Show! | Podcast #79: The Rube Goldberg Show! Advisory! Advisory! Advisory! Tinker Toys...create exact same structure while seated back to back Machines...place name of machines on index cards, distribute to groups, have them act them out From the Twitterverse: * russeltarr PhotoPeach: Create movies from photos (simpler than Animoto - for younger students?): http://tinyurl.com/mn3zqm * vtdeacon Two of my students made this animoto of stuff we did this school year. Check it!: http://animoto.com/play/fKS... * russeltarr New iPhone App Lets You Write in Thin Air: http://tinyurl.com/lvkxcu * Educator Doing it wrong. "Teachers banned from Twitter after principal constantly criticises students" (Telegraph) http://ow.ly/dN9f * michelledoddRT @kjarrett: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive « http://bit.ly/10ESlj Shout Outs: Ric Wiltse, Executive Director-Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning- for accepting Troy's proposal for Shawn to present. 3:30 - 4:30pm Professional Learning Networks Shawn McGirr, Troy Patterson Content: M/SC/SS Level: GENERAL Room: W104 "Networking is a basic tenet of education. Come and learn how you can create your own Personal Learning Network. Learn which tools you can use to develop a network that meets YOUR needs. Learn the continuum of professional learning network development. Learn how to use podcasts, wikis, social networking (facebook, et. al.), social bookmarking (delicious, et. al), webinars, blogs, microblogs (Twitter), and more. This stuff isn't just for your students anymore." News: Schwarzenegger: Printed texts are old school Analysis: As a budget-cutting strategy, California's digital textbook initiative could have national implications In the state that gave the world Facebook, Google, and the iPod, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says forcing California's students to rely on printed textbooks is so yesterday. The governor recently launched an initiative to see if the state's 6 million public school students could use more online learning materials, including open courseware--perhaps saving millions of dollars a year in textbook purchases. The governor is starting with math and sciences and has asked providers to submit their online postings to state officials by next week. The materials that survive state review will be made available to school districts by Aug. 10. "We expect the first science and math books to be digital by this fall," Schwarzenegger said. "If we expand this to more textbooks, schools could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and that's hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to hire more teachers and to reduce class sizes." http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=59180 Events & Happenings: 2. NMSA's Annual Conference: NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video: Indianapolis, IN Conference November 5-7, 2009. Individual Registration is now open. 3. ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall. 4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection: Stay connected before, during, and after the conference! Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com! 5. Keynote speakers for NMSA '09 have been announced: Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes. 6. NMSA has a new publication on the role of middle grades in drop-out prevention. You can download it as a pdf file. 7. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C. Conference registration info. 8. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event. 10. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary! | 6/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-78 The Importance of Being Earnest- Getting the Girl, Doing the Math, and Graduating on Time! | Advisory! Advisory! Advisory! Spread the Word to Stop the Word: Special Olympics is campaigning to get the r-word out of student's vocabulary. They can take the pledge to not use the word on their website. From the Twitterverse: * russeltarr Convert text to a mindmap: http://tinyurl.com/n8nsax * barbs1 Just found. My story maker. Looks like fun http://tinyurl.com/plhpbp * russeltarr EdHeads: Great animations/activities for biology lessons (RT @pwhyte): http://tinyurl.com/qdep4a * russeltarr Fantastic Contraption Game - any use in physics lessons?: http://tinyurl.com/rabl8f (Warning: Can be memory intensive. And addictive . . . :-) ) * kchichester Charter schools hires 8 teachers at $125,000 a year http://bit.ly/97jnl My question is how can they afford to expand? Also, little/no tech? * Griffbuddy RT @shareski: If you ever need an article to send to someone to explain/justify twitter, this might be the one. http://tinyurl.com/pr9qg5 * SimpleK12 Web 2.0 for low-income @ minority students: http://tinyurl.com/aljhy8 * funnelbrain Student generated video flashcards for Environmental Science on FunnelBrain - http://bit.ly/KBxG1 - A cool way to collaborate. * cindybrock I HATE when I cry over Accelerated Reader. Really hoping Tech Support can help me copy classes from last year & not have to do it all by hand * AngelaMaiers 11 yr old difference maker - http://twentyfivedays.wordp... Girls can do just as well at math as boys -- even at the genius level -- if they are given the same opportunities and encouragement, researchers reported on Monday. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts studies showing girls can do as well as boys on average in math -- but cannot excel in the way males can. "We conclude that gender inequality, not lack of innate ability or 'intrinsic aptitude' But at the top levels, disparities persist and some experts have said this is do to the "greater male variability" theory -- the idea that males in general are more likely to score both extremely high and extremely poorly on tests than girls are. http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/06/01/girls_worse_at_math_no_way_new_analysis_shows/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Education+news Putting Middle Grades Students on the Graduation Path A Policy and Practice Brief Robert Balfanz Everyone Graduates Center and Talent Development Middle Grades Program | 6/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-77_Wasting Money, Effective Teachers and Google Docs Fu | Advisory! Advisory! Advisory! A New Zealand man fled with his girlfriend after receiving millions of dollars in a banking error. http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2009/05/its-not-often-that-new-zealand-gets-a-mention-on-the-english-blog-but-heres-a-story-from-the-times-which-would-make-a-good-s.html From the Twitterverse: * AngelaMaiers RT@cristama...this year has transformed me (and my teaching) in so many ways. (I feel the same- so much I owe to PLN!) * shareski Kramer on Openness and Transparency. @courosa you should use this in a presentation http://bit.ly/lV1Bo * AngelaMaiers RT @Zweibz7 @problogger: if there's one lesson I've learned this week it is - 'build your network before you need it'. * paulallison Looking for stories about resilient students in your classroom: First a request, then an invitation. (If you’ve .. http://tinyurl.com/nmvh8f * AngelaMaiers RT @education_com @BNBuzz - giving free book 2 kids who complete summer reading program http://bit.ly/bU2pj Shout Outs: Thanks to our Robert Jackson in Kiev for the link to the Aspire One as Kindle. News: Report: Costly plan failed to improve schools A $100 million investment in Miami-Dade County's lowest performing public schools failed to boost student achievement, according to the school district's final report on the program. The School Improvement Zone was a three-year push at 39 elementary, middle and senior high schools throughout the county. Students participated in a specialized reading program and had a longer school day than students at other schools. They also had a longer school year. ''The zone program exhibited at best an inconsistent impact that was limited to the elementary grades,'' program evaluators wrote. The report also noted that the extended school year -- starting a week early and tacking extra days onto the end -- was ineffective. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1049341.html New CEO: Gates Foundation learns from experiments The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent billions of dollars exploring the idea that smaller high schools might result in higher graduation rates and better test scores. Instead, it found that the key to better education is not necessarily smaller schools but more effective teachers. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBfu1Zu7aIsLeH_NGiMaHbc4AEnQD98F58R80 Senate bill supports 21st-century skills Shelley Pasnik, director of the Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology, said she is pleased to see the bill addresses more than simply putting more technology into schools. "Students need to go beyond just learning today's academic context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, communications skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills, and information and media literacy skills," the bill reads. http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58949 Not all higher education costs a pretty penny. You can peek into some college classrooms around the world, experience lectures in text, audio, or video at any time, and, in some cases, take the final, all without leaving home -- and all for free. Teaching Ideas: Using Google Docs Spreadsheet for Education: 1. Flash Cards 2. Word Study 3. Word Search Twenty Interesting Ways* to use Google Docs in the Classroom(*and Tips) | 5/30/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-76_Reading_&_iPods | Advisory! Advisory! Advisory! 1. Duct tape a kid to the wall . . . 2. What's in a cigarette? http://middleschooladvisory101.blogspot.com/ 3. The Quiz: http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/Quotation-Quizzes/h/Humorous-Quotations-Quiz.asp From the Twitterverse: * dianadell Check out this concept of a MID with a three tier screen: http://tinyurl.com/o3lldu Replacement for minis? (MID= Mobile Internet Device) * olltwit Making more of my ed software programs freeware. I am crazy http://go-education.com * russeltarr 100 brainstorming ideas to help you think outside the box- http://bit.ly/V7fqd (RT @skipz) * russeltarr UMapper / Home Excellent tool for creating map quizzes #geographyteacher http://tinyurl.com/otzkz3 (RT @iusher) * digmo Moodle 1.9.5 is out with new grade book features http://bit.ly/17W6DA * russeltarr Second Life ideas for the classroom: 3D Immersive War Room http://twurl.nl/0gb3k1 * historynews [History: 1900-2000]: Woman Gets Degree 60 Yrs After WWII Halted Studies http://tinyurl.com/pc8rpf * shareski Today's big fail http://www.todaysbigfail.co... (Just for laughs) * shareski The Best Teacher I Ever Had http://bit.ly/skKkp #medialiteracy (Just for serious) A CRITICAL MISSION: Making Adolescent Reading an Immediate Priority in SREB States Across the country, states have an obligation to take immediate action to improve students’ reading and writing skills. Accordingly, the Committee recommends that each state set policies that will lead to improved practices at the state, district and school levels. These policies should call for each state to: * define the specific reading skills students need in order to master each key subject. * identify the best teaching strategies to help middle grades and high school students develop their reading comprehension skills in each subject. * ensure that these strategies are applied statewide in all public schools by including them in professional development for current teachers and in preparation and licensure for new teachers. * provide the extra help that struggling readers need, so that all students read at grade level in the middle grades and high school. Reading Programs Found Ineffective A federal study intended to provide insight on the effectiveness of programs for reading comprehension has found that three such programs had no positive impact, while a fourth had a negative effect on student achievement. In other words, the conclusion is that none of the four programs studied—Project CRISS, ReadAbout, Read for Real, and Reading for Knowledge—is effective. They concluded that Project CRISS, developed by Creating Independence Through Student-Owned Strategies; Read About, produced by Scholastic Inc.; and Read for Real, created by Chapman University and Zaner-Bloser, had no effect on reading comprehension. In addition, they found that Reading for Knowledge, created by the Success for All Foundation, had a negative impact on the composite test scores and the science-comprehension test scores for students using that curriculum. http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/education/selectsupplreading.pdf | 5/16/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 75 Coercive Science of the Twitter! | iTunes: We're at 10 comments, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 15 comments. From the Twitterverse: Advisory Idea: 1. StickK.com: Here's a tech based way to help your students modify their behavior. StickK.com is a website that helps you establish a goal you want to achieve, develop a plan to get there, and provide some motivation along the way. Students can put in a goal, establish a person as a Referee that monitors their progress toward that goal and inputs that information into the StickK.com website. The student can designate other StickK members as their friends to help them along the way with encouragement and co-participation. There is a second part to the site as well, but only for credit card holders. You can make it a financial motivation by inputting your credit card, designating an amount, and if you don't reach your incremental goal, $10 is charged to your credit card that week. At the end of the challenge the money is sent to a charity you have designated in your name from the StickK site. The contract/financial motivation is optional. 2. Build self-confidence and help students get to know each other: Paper Bag Self. The students decorate the outside of a paper bag with pictures and words that represent their “outer selves,” such as favorite color, sport, food, etc. Then, they put a word or picture inside their bag that reflects a personal concern, such as health, divorce, peer problems, grades, etc. As a way of introducing themselves to the class, students share the outside of their bag. If they feel comfortable, they are welcome to share the inside of their bag privately with their peers or advisor. 3. Another advisory group activity that creates the feeling of “family” and focuses on the individual as part of a whole is a puzzle activity. Each member of the class, including the advisor, is given a large cardboard puzzle piece to decorate. The puzzle piece features their name and artwork that reflects their uniqueness. When the pieces are complete, they are joined together to form a puzzle that represents a united advisory group. Letters: From: Jenny McAvoy-Anteau: (Lots & Lots of information, here's just a snippet): Western Michigan University (WMU)_ researchers have discovered no significant advantage to teaching students through experimenting instead of teaching them through direct instruction. www.physorg.com/news153990337.html (the summary includes this -- "The data, while marginally favoring inquiry, really show that as long as the instruction is good either way, the two approaches (inquiry vs direct instruction) lead to no significant difference- at least as far as science content understanding is concerned" William Cobern of WMU's Mallinson Institute for Science Education). News: My Coercive Classroom By Cossondra George | 5/9/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-74 - You Swine & The Mighty-Morphing Middle School! | Events and Happenings, plus: From the Twitterverse: * michelledodd Have you seen Twitter Handbook for Teachers by @lasic? http://bit.ly/Z8a70 (via @elemtech)@suewaters * suewaters @AngelaMaiers here is archive from yesterday online session http://is.gd/vZm9 * AngelaMaiers RT @coolcatteacher @suewaters: students talking how blogging impacted them http://is.gd/w6oW * chadratliff Just read the article, 'Putting Leadership Back Into Strategy' by Cynthia Montgomery. Excellent. * clifmims Animated Map of Reports of Swine Flu Cases in the U.S. http://ping.fm/0P4vC * willrich45 RT @steveediger Students as "Free Agent Learners" http://bit.ly/S5fjQ Interesting research. Are we prepping our students for this? * willrich45 Do a Twitter search for "earthquake" right now. News as it happens. * smhamilton Glogster now offers a site for teachers--http://www.glogster.com/edu/ Easy-to-set-up, private classroom accounts. * LadyParadis Shadows surround me / I wear them like a warm cloak / another day sleeps #Haiku Listener's Letters: Gents, Again, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your show. Once a week, I get up early with the birds, make a cup of coffee and listen to your podcast in silent reverence. Actually, scratch that. I get up with my two little ones, plug in my headphones as I run around trying to get ready for the day…but your show does have a Zen quality that calms me down and gives me confidence to face the day with my MS students. I do have a question…next year, I am implementing a 1:1 notebook program with our middle school students. What resources would you recommend as I start staff training in using moodle and notebooks in the classroom? I know this is a huge question…but to whom else can I turn in my time of need? Thanks guys and keep up the good work. We also discuss New Tech High Schools. | 5/2/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #73 - Award Award Assembly Conundrum! | All of this and more! From the Twitterverse: * michelledodd Have you seen Twitter Handbook for Teachers by @lasic? http://bit.ly/Z8a70 (via @elemtech)@suewaters * russeltarr A must watch on How Moodle can change a school http://bit.ly/RE0fk (RT @Ariellah) * AngelaMaiers RT @ChrisCree A wise person learns from all others. This is why I LOVE Twitter- 24/7 "wiseness" training! :-)) * russeltarr Glogster tutorial on Youtube (RT @Batesy70) http://twurl.nl/ywiouj * schoolwise Now in Boston & writing an examiner.com piece on local Science in the Summer program for elementary kids. * davemcquaid going on right now - community yard sale in Ashby Park neighborhood. Great deals! map - http://tinyurl.com/c5b8js * michelledodd RT @jennyann24 Tom Barretts Teachers on Twitter "Twenty-Two Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom" - http://bit.ly/7pX0 * annemareemoore Ted Talks wiki - searchable google spreadsheet of Ted Talks http://www.ted.com/index.ph... * jessrisser We had Anzac cookies at our JASCD conference! Happy Anzac Day!!! * annemareemoore secrets of success in 3 minutes http://www.ted.com/index.ph... * sarahhanawald If Edison had tried to develop light bulb in school, he wld have been labeled a failure after first 50 filament failures http://bit.ly/4i4Ke * ChiefCatalyst RT @amp451: Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time. - M. Morgan #quote * scottmerrick Life is good. I am sooooo thankful for my PLN folks, and I want to say so. So there. * cfanch good night PLN. Learned a lot tonight and had fun. See you tomorrow. Observation #1: At an awards assembly in a 5-8 middle school, the principal asked the 300+ student body to hold up and wave any awards they had received during the presentation. As I glanced around the bleachers, it seemed that everyone had something to show for their accomplishments. But I wonder if this is too much. If everyone is rewarded, how effective an incentive can recognition be? At college graduation ceremonies, academic excellence awards such as Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude are marked individually with sashes or cords of various colors. And you don't tend to see the entire graduating body displaying this accomplishment. And yet, they have all met the undeniably outstanding goal of a college education. They are beaming with self-esteem regardless of whether they were displaying the adornments of high academic success. If we are truly preparing students with authentic content and experiences, shouldn't we be clear on the reality that everyone does not earn honors, an award, or a certificate for doing what is already expected of them as students? Every single child is a winner just by virtue of them learning both academic content and life skills as they attend school each and every day throughout the school year. Shouldn't we be stressing self-management and recognition of worth instead of tying it so heavily to extrinsic displays of pomp and circumstance? Observation #2: Following streams of students receiving one certificate after another, I would have expected to see recognition for a teacher's success as well. From the students' view, one would believe that teachers are neither striving for nor attaining success on a regular basis in their own lives. Yet, how many teachers during a marking period or school year attend seminars and workshops or pursue ongoing academic fulfillment in graduate courses? If we are acting as role models to our students, don't we need to do a better job reflecting our commitment to ongoing education and love of learning? What role does our school administration have in this process? | 4/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #72- The_Twitterverse,_Jail???_ and_Free_Stuff | Shawn and Troy talk about information gleaned from the Twitterverse, whether extending the school days and times are putting kids in "jail" and free stuff. iTunes Reviews: We're at 8, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 10. From the Twitterverse: * michelledodd Have you seen Twitter Handbook for Teachers by @lasic? http://bit.ly/Z8a70 (via @elemtech)@suewaters * michelledodd Nat Geo Infinite Photograph will be cool http://tinyurl.com/clpyvr (via @mmkrill) * rrmurry RT @jerridkruse: Curriculum demands hinder effective teaching - kinda like missing the forest for the trees: http://bit.ly/4pSVZ * KevG The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde http://is.gd/sQLW * SirKenRobinson At Milwaukee airport. Official wall sign after security searches reads Recombobulation Area. Great that someone sees the joke in all this. * netsupport Retweeting @ErikaSays: Create your own Picasso: http://www.mrpicassohead.co... - cool! * netsupport RT @cchater: RT @mrdatahs: If a teacher had designed Twitter: .. http://tinyurl.com/c73n7y - this looks great! Anyone used it so far? (This is Edmodo which we've talked about before on the podcast.) * cindybrock http://www.readwritethink.org some great reading activities for students. * Humor: AndreaWeiss I love this post on @dudeman718 blog http://is.gd/rVSJ - heard men's choir do it a month ago, laughing nearly caused aneurysm. (Very creative. Way too much time on this guy's hands. Jackson-Dawson needs to hire this guy.) * librarycongress Shakespeare's Birthday Reading: William Shakespeare’s 445th birthday will be celebrated at the Library of Congress ... http://tinyurl.com/dhqrr7 * librarycongress Lincoln Exhibit Closing Date and Hours Extended: Because of overwhelming demand, the Library of Congress is extending ... http://tinyurl.com/cq94u4 * AngelaMaiers How Twitter makes you a better writer. http://TwitPWR.com/9Pl/ * russeltarr #englishteacher Simile of the Day Generator! http://tinyurl.com/dbq6r2 (RT @dianadell @ChristaAllan) * Music, Art, and Science intersecting: AngelaMaiers RT@tedtalks- Demo AlloSphere, a stunning new way to see and hear complex scientific data http://is.gd/syYk * AngelaMaiers Free ebook from ASCD: Educating the Whole Child (limited time download) http://blog.genyes.com (check to see if membership required). * russeltarr Amaztype: Enter a topic, get a fantastic graphic made up of Amazon book links - http://twurl.nl/e5vxen * netsupport Retweeting @gurnage: Good morning! I just sent my mom and dad "what's your NPR name?" - funny: http://is.gd/sCyl (thanks @jacksonCJ1) * edupreneur Alexandria, VA Schools Superintendent Offers Plan to Revamp Middle Schools: http://bit.ly/ygIlC --@PostSchools * LeoLaporte Unfollowing anyone who mentions Kutcher, Oprah, or uses the word Internets. Satisfying. #unfollowfriday * cookp RT @russeltarr Moodle Tutorials - Educating Educators http://tinyurl.com/dlcz33 * bethanyvsmith So I'm thinking we need some edtech Nerd Merit badges http://nerdmeritbadges.com/ * Looking for software to make better use of Twitter? Try Nambu (Mac OS X only) or Tweetdeck (cross platform - built on Adobe Air). Web Sitings: * Google Earth Overlays- http://www.gearthhacks.com/userfiles.php?user=1698 * Creative Commons - http://creativecommons.org/ Licensing information Letters: "Troy and Shawn, Great show this week. I liked the idea about decorating classroom doorways. I think we'll try it this September as an ice breaking activity. Two questions: 1) I am trying to come up with an all school middle school read for the summer. My school is mainly boys. Any suggestions? 2) I would like to assign a book to the teachers for the summer as well. Any suggestions for us teachers? Keep up the great work! Maybe I'll have all the teachers listen to all 70 some-odd MSM podcasts over the summer. It's worth it." http://davidwarlick.com/2cen | 4/17/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_71-Grading,_Bad_Segues,_and_Advisory | Shawn and Troy talk about Plano, Texas' plan to do away with homework counting. Things wouldn't have to be turned in on time. Non-behavior issues would not be part of grades. We also congratulate David Virtue, editor of Middle School Journal. Ukraine is home of some smart educators as they put in an iTunes rating for us. [Thanks much!] We also discuss some advisory ideas and resources. We point out a few wonderful web sites as well. | 4/10/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_70-Advisory,_Water,_and_Getting_FIT! | Shawn & Troy talk about current events, advisory ideas, water in the classroom and a bill to require kids to get fit. From our Listeners: "This is Jack from BrainyFlix . If I hadn't done so already, I wanted to thank you for letting your visitors know about our video contest. We received about 800 video submissions (way more than we had expected!) and you were a big part of that. Much appreciated. :] We built this new feature called lolcabulary, which lets kids make a flashcard that has a word attached to an image and sentence. We'll be running weekly contests to get kids to make flashcards by giving away iTunes to the winners. We're thinking we'll do themes like "make lolcabulary flashcards about ninjas" and then get teachers we've met to pick their favorites made that week." Web sightings: http://www.factmonster.com/ http://mrssmoke.onsugar.com/ http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html Advisory Ideas: Life Skill Lessons...how to tie a tie, how to set the table, how to do anything....celebrate success!! Q:C:Q: - Quote, Comment, Question...analyze a famous quote, old or new News: Structure More Effective In High School Science Classes, Study Reveals http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326114415.htm Do you allow water bottles in the classroom? http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_086010229.html Student fitness bill raises questions http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58065 | 4/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-69_Current_Cursive,_Current Events,_&_Leftovers_from_Last_Week | Podcast 69 - Current Cursive, Current Events, & Leftovers from Last Week. Events and Happenings: Shout-outs: iTunes shoutouts: AK Jenny, Tsutherland, and Wirededucator! Thanks for posting reviews on iTunes for us. WeFollow: Thanks to all the folks following us on Twitter & WeFollow. We're number one in the middle school category. From our Listeners: Web Sightings: 1. www.zombo.com Absurd, but fun. Just sit, watch, and enjoy. 2. http://www.nextvista.org/ - An online library of free videos for learners everywhere - find resources to help you learn just about anything, meet people who make a difference in their communities, and even discover new parts of the world. And Next Vista for Learning wants to post your educational videos online, too. Everyone has an insight to share and yours may be just what some student or teacher somewhere needs! Advisory Ideas: News: | 3/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_68_Stars...Sparkly Moments...Social Networking...Sitings! | Current Events Shout-outs: Those who visited iTunes to get our stars back: TWilliamson15 MikeTeacher SherrieR ... and the three others who remain nameless. (Their choice, not ours. No witness protection programs involved because the know us. Really.) Web Sightings: Shawn's New Favorite Website: Let Me Google That For You. Ever have that colleague that pops into your room asking you a question they could have gone to Google for themselves? This website is your new best friend. Faux Smoking: The New Smarties Fad! (Here's an example of a Tiny Url: http://tinyurl.com/de7lhu) Missed the MACUL conference? See the keynotes online. Here's one: Friday Keynote. From MACUL: Steve Dembo has a great presentation on Social Networking Policies . His presentation is posted on the Discovery Educators Network site. http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/storymap/ http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm Because Shawn can't remember what he tells Troy to try: www.evernote.com. | 3/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_#67-Cursing_the_Cursive? | The Middle School Matters Calendar: Vote on iTunes! Letters from our Listeners: News: High schools may be in for big change Algebra-for-All Policy Found to Raise Rates Of Failure in Chicago Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success NMSA08: Motivating Underachieving Students Instruction in Support of Success with Every Child Mike Muir | 3/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-66_Sorry_Jack,_National_Standards_and_a_New_Route_to_Depth_of_Understanding | Podcast #66 Sorry Jack, National Standards and a "New" Route to Depths of Understanding. Shout out to everyone who chatted up Jack and Apologies to Jack. Middle School Matters Calendar: Media Literacy Test Advisory Activities: News: National Standards Gain Steam Students Benefit From Depth, Rather Than Breadth, In High School Science Courses NMSA08: Web 2.0: Navigating the new web Jonathan Edquid | 3/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 65 Somewhere a Place for Us-What grade are you? | Items, Events, and Other: Websites: 1. Twiddla : Its like Elluminate, just without all the expense. (Thanks to Jenny for the heads up on this one!) 2. Forward Thinking Museum : A virtual museum worth checking out. "Letters from our Listeners": Shawn and Troy I've spent some time in 5-8, 6-8 and K-8 school environments. Sometimes 5th graders were self-contained while older students moved from teacher to teacher. In other circumstances, 5th grade was used as a transition with single-teacher classrooms and locker access during passing time. I'm currently in a New Jersey K-8 school with no passing time, no lockers and 6-8th graders changing classes. Knowing all too well the challenges of adolescent behavior and academic performance, I wonder what thoughts you had on the appropriate breakdown of grade levels for elementary vs. middle school. At what grade level should middle school begin (beside the legal requirements for teacher certifications)? Can a single administrator effectively manage a staff who work with students from kindergarten age to their teens, or should different principals handle different grade ranges? What impact does the proximity of 7th and 8th graders to elementary aged students have on academics and/or behavior? How about 5th and 6th graders? In my search for answers on this topic, I found a study done by Duke University in 2007 entitled "Should Sixth Grade be in Elementary or Middle School? An Analysis of Grade Configuration and Student Behavior." Is there such a thing as either an elementary or middle school mentality? Can a teacher have both? Can a principal? What are your thoughts on this topic? News: Public Schools Outperform Private Schools in Math Instruction In another “Freakonomics”-style study that turns conventional wisdom about public- versus private-school education on its head, a team of University of Illinois education professors has found that public-school students outperform their private-school classmates on standardized math tests, thanks to two key factors: certified math teachers, and a modern, reform-oriented math curriculum.“According to our results, schools that hired more certified teachers and had a curriculum that de-emphasized learning by rote tended to do better on standardized math tests,” Lubienski said. “And public schools had more of both.” Of the five factors, school size and parental involvement “didn’t seem to matter all that much,” Lubienski said, citing a weak correlation between the two factors as “mixed or marginally significant predictors” of student achievement. They also discovered that smaller class sizes, which are more prevalent in private schools than in public schools, significantly correlate with achievement. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226093423.htm Bridging the Character Education Achievement Gap Throughout his now-famous "Last Lecture," the late Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science Randy Pausch talked about what he called the "head fake." It is the idea that learning and education work best when they work on the personal and general levels simultaneously. We miss one of the most important aspects of character education, the cognitive head fake, when our obsession with advanced coursework becomes myopic and overshadows the strength both areas could have if working to complement each other in high schools. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/02/26/23sutton-com.h28.html?tmp=804479676 | 2/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 64-We're_excited_about_reviews,_advisory_and_NMSA08! | Shawn & Troy discuss Advisory ideas, Why I didn't turn in my homework, Shout-outs, Graduation, and Debbie Silver's Lion Taming 101. Why I didn't turn in my homework... * I lost it fighting this kid you said you weren't the best teacher in the school. * I was mugged on the way to school and the mugger took everything I had. * Our furnace stopped working and we had to burn it to stop ourselves from freezing. * I didn't do it because I didn't want to add to your already heavy workload. * My father had a nervous breakdown and he cut it up to make paper dolls. * I didn't do it, because I didn't want the other kids in the class to look bad. * ET stopped by my house and he accidentally took it home with him. Shout outs: 1. C-O Connections bloggers . 2. Will Richardson 3. Jenny from Facebook Webspotlight: History Before and After Humans Shows an overview of the development of Homosapiens and the potential future of humans. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7348103/ Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle The Dropout Crisis It is a guidebook that provides a road map to help communities tackle the dropout crisis. It is designed to help communities develop tailored plans for keeping students on track to graduate from high school, prepared for college, work and life. Grad Nation is a natural outgrowth of our local summit work to ensure that solutions are developed to put our youth on a path to success. Grad Nation also includes ready-to-print tools and links to additional online resources, in addition to research-based guidance. It provides information and tools for developing and implementing a customized program that’s right for individual communities. News: Project Management Keeps Learning on Track Like other teachers spearheading ambitious collaborative units, Smith's two-pronged approach to managing the Monster Project -- developing his students into self-directed learners while also harnessing technology tools to help keep things on track -- has allowed him to smoothly complete complex projects while maximizing student learning opportunities. "Teachers are only successful if they understand how to manage the project cycle," notes Bernie Trilling, global director for education strategy and partnerships for the Oracle Education Foundation, which emphasizes project learning. San Jose dad in jail — and mom's on the way — for 13-year-old girl's chronic truancy It started back in third grade with polite letters from the school principal to the East San Jose couple: Your daughter has had a series of unexcused absences; please contact us. Back then, Carol Reynoso and Jayvee Geronimo's youngest attended school about 80 percent of the time. Now, Vanessa said she's willing to do anything if only the court would spare her mother from jail, including face her worst fear — school. "I'm willing to really try this time, to go to school,'' said Vanessa, whose family says she was mercilessly teased about her weight. "I know I've said that before, but I mean it.'' http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_11743743?source=rss Why All Teachers Must Learn How to Teach Online Patrick says that public education has struggled to incorporate technology into schools and just adding computers piecemeal is not enough to engage students. Educators properly trained to use the Internet and digital tools can teach in a traditional manner and have unlimited resources at their fingertips. Online learning can also help create more personalized learning plans for each student. http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/patrick-speaker-spotlight.html NMSA '08 Conference Sessions Lion Taming 101 by Dr. Debbie Silver | 2/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_62_Twitter_This!_Once_Upon_A_Podcast | Our new Twitter feed (MSMatters), we discuss events: # NMSA's Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009. Robert Balfanz will be keynoting. He has done a bunch of research on 6th grade transition factors that has been cited by NMSA. # NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video # Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township. Mr. Ron Clark will be keynoting. Approximately 20 days left for the early registration discount. # Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be February 19-20 in Sandusky, OH. Keynote speakers this year include Mr. Mark McLeod and Mr. Ty Sells. # North Carolina Middle School Association's Annual Conference will be March 16-17 in Pinehurst, NC. Keynote speakers include Bill McBride and Rick Wormeli. Ron Williamson from Eastern Michigan University will also be speaking at the conference this year. # The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June. See the flyer at their website for details. # Teacher Preparation Symposium information at NMSA. # NMSA is accepting presentation proposals to their Annual Conference in Indianapolis next year. The deadline has been extended to February 8, 2009. Applications can be made online. # Interested in a Science Quiz show online and in a virtual game show environment? Try The Second Question. # NECC is coming this summer! Here's an excuse to travel to Washington D.C. # If Mr. Berckemeyer dawdles on getting us the Kindles, soon we'll want these from Plastic Logic. "Did you bring pencil, eraser, and epaper with you to class today?" # Classroom 2.0's Ning Blog: "The topic this Saturday (January 31) is "Classroom Blogging" with guest speaker Kathy Cassidy, author of blog "Primary Preoccupation". Kathy will discuss classroom blogging platforms, the pros/cons of blogging platforms and how she uses her classroom blog with her students. Our Newbie Question of the Week will be: "What is a blog and how do I find good blogs to read?" Information on how to watch or join in at http://live.classroom20.com. # Second Life notices: * 1/31 Basic Skills Workshop: Appearance (ISTE Island 3) * 2/3 ISTE Speaker Series (TBA) * Video: Educational Uses of Second Life Shout outs: 1. Paul Nichols, thanks for letting us know you're listening! 2. Ron Miller, thanks for the email. 3. Jenny McAvoy-Anteau, congrats on your SL presentation! Web spotlight: http://www.onceuponaschool.org/ News: Online Safety Technology and Learning Gates Foundation Listener Letter | 1/31/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_61_Middle_School_Good_News_Weeks! | Items, Events, Calendar, Eclectic Stuff (truc et chose) 1. NMSA's Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009. Robert Balfanz will be keynoting. He has done a bunch of research on 6th grade transition factors that has been cited by NMSA. 2. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video 3. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference March 12 & 13 at White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township. Mr. Ron Clark will be keynoting. Approximately 20 days left for the early registration discount. 4. Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference will be February 19-20 in Sandusky, OH. Keynote speakers this year include Mr. Mark McLeod and Mr. Ty Sells. 5. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform will be holding their annual conference in June. See the flyer at their website for details. 6. Teacher Preparation Symposium information at NMSA. 7. NMSA is accepting presentation proposals to their Annual Conference in Indianapolis next year. 8. Interested in a Science Quiz show online and in a virtual game show environment? Try The Second Question. 9. NECC is coming this summer! Here's an excuse to travel to Washington D.C. 10. If Mr. Berckemeyer dawdles on getting us the Kindles, soon we'll want these from Plastic Logic. "Did you bring pencil, eraser, and epaper with you to class today?" 11. Thing To Try This Week: Create a flash mob of faculty at the corner of one of your hallways. Ideas for the flash mob can be posted here at www.middleschoolmatters.com. 12. From Steve Hargadon's Classroom 2.0: "Looking for Lincoln: Changing Views of History, Changing Views of Race" with speaker Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 13. 14. Second Life notices: * 1/25 ISTE Island Tours * 1/27 ISTE Seminar: Virtual Renaissance & Education - Virtual Harlem's role as a learning community. * 1/29 Data Visualization around the Campfire on ISTE island. * 1/31 Basic Skills Workshop: Appearance (ISTE Island 3) * 2/3 ISTE Speaker Series (TBA) Webspotlight- http://www.studystack.com/ • Hernando School Board says administrators should get raise, despite what they say • Suit filed over longer middle school day • Standards Help Minn. Vie With Top Nations • An Early Warning System: by promptly reacting to student distress signals, schools can redirect potential dropouts onto the path to graduation. * A final grade of F in mathematics. * A final grade of F in English. * Attendance below 80 percent for the year. * A final “unsatisfactory” behavior mark in at least one class. Solutions: * Whole-school interventions: Weekly or monthly attendance parties, one individual who intervenes at the first absence, placing or creating a school culture that rewards intrinsically or extrinsically good attendance. * Targeted interventions * Intensive interventions | 1/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_60_Team_Building_Online_and_Socrate_Circles | News: Pasco schools say virtual ed's a real budget breaker As Pasco schools look to the future of education, online courses for kindergarten through eighth grade rate high on the priority list. "I'm not being funded to do it. I'm just being told I have to do it," said Fiorentino, who is leading a statewide effort to get a reprieve. "We just can't afford doing it this year." She said her staff has estimated the startup costs for the program — including such things as curriculum development and infrastructure — could run as high as $1-million. Although over time it would be expected to become self-sufficient, the school's initial price tag looks too steep when the district can't even afford employee raises, she added. http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article967362.ece Hard times cut state cyber school enrollments The state's 11 cyber charter schools -- online, at-home alternatives to traditional public schools -- are the latest victims of the recession. Facing the threat of layoffs or mortgage foreclosures, some parents are sending their children back to brick-and-mortar public schools because a stay-at-home spouse had to get a job, said Joe Lyons, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School in Norristown, second-largest in the state. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_606700.html Davis sixth-grader's science experiment breaks new ground By Niesha Lofing University of California, Davis, scientists are redirecting their research after a professor's son discovered that a major agricultural pest prefers pistachios over other nuts. The sixth-grader's experiment showed that female navel orangeworms preferred to lay their eggs in pistachios rather than almonds or walnuts, and researchers now are trying to use the information to better control the pests, according to the California Farm Bureau. http://www.sacbee.com/education/story/1530953.html Economy brings reprieve to teacher shortage http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_11408218?source=rss Fair Isn't Always Equal http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=8982&r=sb090112b&REFERER= First Chapter Free Socratic Circles presentation (Ballroom 3) Mary Dooms, Marge Strand of Lake Zurich Middle School South, Lake Zurich, Illinois email: marge.strand@lz95.org and mary.dooms@lz95.org Book: Socratic Circles by Matt Copeland Overview Rooted in Socrates' philosophy that critical thinking and reason skills ar enhanced when the learneer begins to question. Questioning continues the though process while answers stop it. | 1/17/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #59 Carol Josel's Revision Presentation @ NMSA 08 and Social Networking in Schools | Items, Events, Calendar, Eclectic Stuff (truc et chose) Discussion of Social Networking and Education: 1. Use by Teachers for professional development 2. Use by classrooms 3. Use by students Web Spotlight: Animoto: Grab all those pictures you took in Advisory (you did take some, didn't you?) and throw them into Animoto. Let groups of students pull together music they'd like to set the pictures to and let Animoto do the rest. Thousands of possible combinations let each group's work turn out different with the same base material. What a great way to motivate the kids through the dark winter months. The Art of Revision (702) Board Quotes: Writing makes our thinking visible for ourselves and others. - unknown Feed your brain with words. Read till your eyeballs fall out - Wilson Rowls A writer takes a sentence, cuts it within an inch of its life, adds a clause, tucks in a few adjectives and then - when it can hardly stand up - hacks away at it again. It's hard work and don't let anyone tell you its' not - Helen F. Brassel The writer is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know. - Annie Dillard You have to do a lot of bad writing to get the good writing. - Don Murray Writing is long periods of thinking and short periods of writing. - Ernest Hemingway It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly. Until you have something down on paper, even if its terrible, there's nothing to work with, nothing you can improve - C.J. Cherryh Use as many words as you need and not one you can live without. R. Jordan The best stories are not written, but rewritten. - Scott Willis Show, don't tell. Writing and reading are acts of discovery. 'Telling' robs a story of the feel of discovery - Rick Jones Regard your writing as literature - unknown Poetry is fewer words that say more. - unknown Carol A. Josel Bio: Has a smart big sister. Valerie went to Yale, Cornell, and Penn. Valerie is also an artist. Two things I could do: Swing by my head and get nose drops on the green velvet sofa. Good advice: You need to find something that you're good at. University of Maine started as a nursing student. Didn't do well in Organic Chemistry. She has a free e-newsletter. Please sign up for one. She has a blog! Carol's ideas for making writing an everyday expected activity: 1. Message each other frequently by leaving notes on pillows, desks, mirrors, wherever. 2. Make letter writing a habit for all, sending them to friends, relatives, even Santa. 3. Write your autobiography as a gift to your child. 4. Have your child write an annual “Year in Review”--an ongoing record of your lives. 5. On birthdays, give written gifts of family stories and recalled moments. 6. Send postcards to each other—without going anywhere. We all love mail. 7. Make the sending of thank you notes a must for everyone. 8. Keep a family journal, a record of your lives over time—and include captioned photos. 9. Writing letters to the editor keeps the juices flowing. 10. Promote journal writing—and respect privacy. 11. Encourage your child to write and perform skits or puppet shows. Think Popsicle sticks. 12. Contact Student Letter Exchange for pen pals: 516-887-8628; www.pen-pa.com | 1/10/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_58_Natives_are_Restless,_Immigrants_are_Coming,_and_Scholars_are_To-Be-Defined! | Events and more: Web Spotlight: Created for middle school teachers: A direct path to selective online resources for instruction and professional development from the National Science Digital Library. Enter each subject pathway below to browse a list of topics and take an in-depth look at teachable concepts in science and mathematics. http://msteacher.org/ Letters from our listeners: Happy New Year to you both I'd like to consider a differing perspective on the terminology "digital native" vs. "digital immigrant." I feel that these categories are as restrictive as other stereotypes which we as educators battle to abolish. We make assumptions that children who grow up with technology are native to it. Yes, they do experience the use of computers, cell phones, DVD's, wide-screen TV's with cable and digital downloads, the internet, SMS and AIM at a very young age. But the connotation is that they somehow have an advantage over those of us who as children had B&W television with VHF/UHF-only programming, dial phones hard-wired to the wall, LED calculators, VHS tapes, cassettes, and even computers with a whopping 128k of RAM. Children are native to whatever they experience as they age. They will embrace the ubiquitous technology with as much fervor as some of us did with our 8-track tapes and AM radios. Does this make them more likely to be successful in its use? Perhaps it gives them a better start. But they are using things that have no context. As teachers, we are well aware of how important context is to what kids learn. We, the so called "immigrants" are not really immigrants at all. If anything, we are the philosophers and archivists of knowledge. We have the context that kids lack because we lived the technology as it changed and grew. For example, ask the average middle school student today about how the Macintosh OS relates to Windows in a historical perspective. They have little clue and don't even see its relevance. But wasn't WW I relevant to WW II? Are the military personnel who didn't grow up with the option of Cruise missiles considered immigrants? I'm not saying that kids today don't have a different perspective than many of us in our 30's, 40's, or even 50's. But if anything, we are perhaps the true natives. We lived off the land of tubes to transistors and circuit boards. We evolved in our usage of computers and microwaves, and we had keen perspective to evaluate, compare and contrast, and contribute to further development. It seems that, at the very least, we need one other category to better describe the generational rift. Consider the title "digital scholar." Many of us are walking encyclopedias and history books of technology. We felt, tasted, and touched the evolution, the revolution, and the contribution. We have an altogether different appreciation for what the digital age has given us, and as scholars, we have an obligation to share as much as we can with today's youth. Because only armed with this context can they bring things forward and make the tough decisions ahead. These digital natives will need to determine the difference between "can we" and "should we." Let us hope they choose wisely. Thanks for all your hard work with this podcast. News: Culturally relevant, technology inservice, art of cursive, kids ready to start school, and California education cuts. | 1/3/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 57- Arne Duncan Doughnuts in the Teacher's Lounge! | -- | 12/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 56 Teaching the Middle School Brain, Facebook issues, and Disrupting Class! | -- | 12/20/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 55 Disrupting, NMSA 08, This Changes Everything! | Shawn & Troy continue the NMSA08 conference summary, discuss Disrupting Class and more. ... SchoolTube has videos are posted from NMSA08 for you to either relive the experience or get a taste of the convention from the folks who attended. ...YouTube is perhaps best known for its cavalcade of homemade performances and TV clips, but many people like Nissim are turning to it for free tutoring in math, science and other complicated subjects. ...The Big Shift is coming in access to this technology and how it is being used to engage students, either for good or evil. ...Think about this as building networks and not just a transfer of what we did on paper to now doing it on the web. | 12/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 54 Families and Media Ecology, What is the Future of Education? NMSA08 Wrap Up | -- | 12/6/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 53 Getting on the Bus with Jim Collins and the Gang at NMSA08 | -- | 11/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 52 Snowed Under! NMSA08 Wrap up continued | 2. The Ohio Middle School Association's Annual Conference will be held at Kalahari February 19-20. 3. The National Middle School Association's Annual Conference will be November 5-7 in Indianapolis, IN. The theme will center around globalization and service learning. 4. The Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held at the Red Rocks in Nevada April 23-34. Tell your high school colleagues about the special "conference in a conference" on ninth grade teams. 5. Crime does not pay! Worried teaching tech skills might open doors to nefarious activities? This creative internetter used Craigslist to create a caper outside a bank in Washington. A suspect is in custody. Bonus points for creativity, not so much for community service content. Considering the recent economy let me also add this: Don't do this at home. 6. We've compared education and technology to the RIAA and piracy laws. Here's another take on that conversation for your perusal. 7. The MacArthur Foundation is spending $50 million dollars on a 5 year study seeking to understand digital life and youth. Three years of the study are reported out in Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of the Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Read about the study here in the New York Times article. We might pull this for discussion in a future podcast. 8. What if we thought of internet access like water, gas, electricity and other utilities? Will Richardson has found an interesting quote from a future Obama official concerning the regulation of the internet and increasing availability in communities across the country. As proposed, the deregulation would increase competition and lower price making it more available to households. 9. Quote for the week: "In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm? i=56127 Wagner said the problem is that you can have all the equipment and technology you want, but "if you don't teach kids how to think, how to think beyond multiple choice, you've got a problem." "I realize education is a very risk-averse sector," said Wagner, "but assessments either drive instruction for the better or for the worse, and right now in the U.S., it's for the worse. If our assessments measured performance and 21st-century skills, like the European PISA assessment, that would be another story." "They're multi-taskers, they are drawn to graphics, they like instant gratification, they use Web 2.0 tools to create, and they love collaboration," he said. "If we can figure out how to grab their interest in learning, they'll become great thinkers and be eager to learn the basics." Wagner presented a list of seven "survival skills" that students need to succeed in today's information-age world, taken from his book The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--And What We Can do About It. It's a school's job to make sure students have these skills before graduating, he said: 1. Problem-solving and critical thinking; 2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence; 3. Agility and adaptability; 5. Effective written and oral communication; "We are making [Adequate Yearly Progress] at the expense of failing our kids at life. Something has to change," he concluded. Elements of a staff recognition program: Motivating Behaviors: Manager personally congratulates 8 • Book: Here comes everybody! by Sharkey | 11/23/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 51 News, Kagan Structures, and NMSA '08 Part Deux | A look at educational news: Obama's lessons, Teachers & Facebook, Tenure (how much is it worth to you), and Wisconsin's potential $200 million loss. We also look at some events and happenings. Our wrap up discussion of NMSA08 centers around our first break out sessions. | 11/16/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_Dr_Silver_Interview | This is a special interview recorded live at NMSA08 with Dr. Debbie Silver. | 11/10/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 50 NMSA08 Annual Conference Wrap Up Part 1 | Our wrap up of the National Middle School Association's Annual Conference for 2008. This episode sets the stage by providing an overview of the conference. | 11/8/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 49 NMSA08 The Conference | -- | 10/25/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 48 Field Tripping, NMSA08 & Student Research | -- | 10/22/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #47 Gaming & Grading - Keeping the Clean Tag | -- | 10/11/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 46 Izzit Enough? Bailouts, Evaluations and Co-Teaching | -- | 10/6/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 44 News, Mucus, Saliva and Articles | -- | 9/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 45 Next More Substitute Adventures | A lot of news and events. Specifically, we focus on substitute teachers. | 9/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 43 - Now More Stuff on Advisory | An overview of Advisory and why. | 9/7/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 42 NMSA08 | -- | 8/20/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 41 Free Kindle, Free iTunes and Free Second Life | Free Kindle!, (please Jack and/or Jeff!), Free iTunes (U), and Free Second Life! News & Events 1. Start planning for October's Month of the Young Adolescent! 2. Ohio Middle School Association's Annual Conference, February 19-20, 2009 in Sandusky, OH. 3. Institute for Middle Level Leadership. July 20-23 4. Best Practices for Student Success. July 28 & August 6 5. NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 - November 1 (Video sample) 6. Summer Teacher-to-Teacher professional development program registration is open. (free) 7. Canadian National Middle Years Conference, November 5, 6, & 7 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 8. Rick Stiggins has a new Balanced Assessment Manifesto posted at NMSA's website. 9. NMSA is looking for a new journal editor. Applications due August 1, 2008. 10. Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Elections are posted: PRESIDENT-ELECT: Alice Seppanen TREASURER: Charlene Pike Suzanne Lappin, Member-At-Large Nic Cooper, Region 2 David Feldman, Region 4 Mary Ann Schmedlen, Region 8 Sherry Lambertson, Region 11 David Baldus, Region 12 Joe Somerville, Region 13 11. Looking for news from Ontario Middle Level Educators Association. If you have any, drop us a line. 12. Wisconsin Association of Middle Level Educators annual conference is coming up October 9-10, 2008. 13. The New England League of Middle Schools has a whole bevy of professional development planned for the 2008-2009 school year and you can access it here. 14. ADVISORY IDEAS NEEDED: NELMS is putting together an Advisory Resource page with lessons for you to use. They are asking for submissions here by January 1, 2009. If your entry is used, you will be entered in a raffle for a 3 day NELMS conference ticket. 15. Second Life Education Community Conference (SLEDcc) Announcement: (From the webpage...) "The Second Life Education Community Conference 2008 will take place in conjunction with the Official Second Life Community Convention 2008 in Tampa, Florida (US) and in the virtual world of Second Life on September 5 - 7th, 2008. All members of the Second Life educational community and anyone with an interest in the use of virtual worlds technology in education is invited to attend! Please note: Registration fees cover both the SLEDcc and SLCC events! Conference registration and fees only apply to those going to SLEDcc/SLCC in Tampa, in-world only participants do not need to register or pay any fees." Here's your chance to attend a free conference during the first week of school. The conference schedule can be found here. Shout outs: 1. Jeff Bezos, we'd love to put a free Kindle through its paces at NMSA '08 ... 2. Ron in New Jersey, thanks for the email. 3. The lake trout at 140 feet down who saw my lure at 100 feet down and took it last week, you were delicious ... 4. Our international friends - even the Spammers! Copyright Fight looms over College Textbooks http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=54684;_hbguid=1a943a6a-3bb8-4f98-9bd7-ab945e14b76c The high cost of college textbooks has spawned a new battleground in the fight to keep students from downloading copyright-protected materials over the internet: textbook file sharing. Court upholds Teacher firing for looking at porn http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=54693;_hbguid=80f259df-0ff1-423f-8e9c-c0b047174269 iTunesU (K-12) | 7/30/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #40 Google, Wisdom in Group Learning, and More Technology in Education | News and information about Middle School. | 7/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #39 Book Talk, Hacking, & Transformation | -- | 6/30/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #38 Mailbag-Grab bag | Podcast #38 The Mail Bag Grab Bag: Eclectic discussions this week on Middle Level Education! News & Events 1. Start planning for October's Month of the Young Adolescent! 2. Innovative Practices Across the Curriculum, June 24 in Minnesota. 3. Institute for Middle Level Leadership. July 13-16 & 20-23 4. Best Practices for Student Success. July 28 & August 6 5. NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 - November 1 6. Summer Teacher-to-Teacher professional development program registration is open. (free) 7. Michigan Joint Education Conference, June 25 in Holt, MI. Integrated Education Conference. Reader/Listener Mailbag: | 6/22/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #37 Advisory Resources and Tape | -- | 6/7/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 36 Plagarize This! | Topics include news (YouTube, Plagarism, and Google Cell phone OS), events and Web 2.0. Specifically, we talk about social bookmarking and using video in the classroom. | 6/1/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 35 - Wikis, Gaming and Instruction | News and Information NMSA Annual Conference, October 30 - November 1, 2008 Housing and Transportation updated on website. Make housing arrangements via their website for discounts on hotel rooms. 1. Students want more use of gaming technology in their learning. 64% of students report that they are gamers and consider that a must have in their schools. Only 15% of teachers see that as a means of effective teaching. Source: eSchool News. 2. DimensionM: Learn Algebra through a Second Life style interface and solve problems in the game that teach algebraic concepts. 3. Recommended game resources: * Create a graphic novel from a traditional novel using Comic Life or spice up your notes with creative visuals using the Comic Life software to mix up your notes and presentations. * Restaurant Empire: Create a restaurant, choose your recipes, hire your chefs and manage your empire in either a free limited version or a full pay version. More simulation games from this group here. (NMSA) * Oil Tycoon: start with a small plot of land, some cash and build your empire to rule the world! * Civilization: Take on the attributes of a past civilization and guide it through time. The always entertaining version of "what if" in History. Barzun, Graff, and Breisach (Historiographers and researchers) might take issue with it to a degree, but it gives the student a way to investigate what happened vs. what might have happened if they knew then what you know now. All that without worrying about messing up the space/timeline thingy and figuring out a Heisenberg Principle Compensator device . . . * Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom: Online simulation of China's Middle Kingdom. * Health Care simulators. Online Insight: Challenges beat Cheerleading Simply providing online discussion forums is not enough to keep students engaged in virtual courses, according to educators who are well-versed in online instruction: For real learning to occur in an online setting, virtual-school educators must establish clear rubrics and enforce rules for participation. Check out the article for more information. Wikis Learn about Wikis and discover ways they're being used. (Wiki-Waki-Woo!) Wikis have great potential as an educational tool for both teachers and students because they encourage collaborative learning and resource sharing. Among the things they can be used for are: - Collaborative writing - Brainstorming - Creation and organization of content and study guides - Lesson summaries - Group notetaking - Dissemination of classroom information - Literature circles - Collaborative textbooks - Resource collections - Vocabulary study Comparing Hemispheres - project between schools in NY and Australia Westwood Schools Wiki - online space for Camilla, GA students Welker's Wikinomics - AP Economics class at Shanghai American School Hanalee Book Wiki - 5th graders study of the novel, Turn Homeward, Hannalee Arbor Heights Elementary School Wiki - wiki as a school web site Flat Planet Wikispace - students in Canada and UK examine environmental issues Photosharing with Flickr Workshop - wiki to provide resources for workshop wikiHow - collaborative project to build world's largest how-to manual Create a wiki at WikiSpaces. Good spot to find more information about a variety of technologies. Common Craft. | 5/11/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM #33 Blogging, RSS, Photos | Blogging 2. Learn about blogs and create your own - you will use your blog throughout this project. 3. Explore how educators are using blogs to support teaching and learning. RSS 4. Learn about RSS and create your own Bloglines account. 5. Subscribe to blogs in order to keep up with new posts. Photos and Images 6. Learn about online photo sharing and explore Flickr. 7. Share photos of your own on Flickr. 8. Have some Flickr fun with mash-ups. 9. Use an online image generator to create classroom resources. Comic Life- A great little program that does a lot with pictures, graphics and words. | 5/3/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 32 Integrating Web 2.0 | -- | 4/30/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 31 Middle School Blogs and You | Shawn and I take a look at some of the upcoming conferences that one could attend. We also talk about the advantages of being a middle school teacher. Finally, we discuss some middle school blogs with a variety of points of view. | 4/20/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 30 - Student Factors, Advisory & Mailbag | News & Information, Student Level Factors: The biggest question for educators is whether factors outside our control are determinate or can we, as educators, make a difference in the lives of children regardless of those issues? Links and more.... | 4/12/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 29 What Works Part2 | We talk about the news, a new way to search and spend most of our time talking about Marzano's work on What Works in schools. | 4/6/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 28 Middle School Instructional Strategies | Marzano - What works in schools: School wide: 1. Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum- 1. Opportunity to Learn 2. Time 2. Challenging Goals & Effective Feedback - 1. Monitoring 2. Pressure to Achieve 3. Parental & Community Involvement 4. Safe & Orderly Environment 5. Collegiality & Professionalism Teacher Level: * Note that individual teachers have a great impact on student achievement 1. Instructional Strategies 1. Identifying similarities & differences (resource, lesson planner, Venn Diagram and Comparison Matrix, Frayer Model, ) 2. Summarizing & Note taking (graphic organizer resource, note taking resource, SQ3R (not "leet speak"), Sticky Note Strategy, THIEVES+) 3. Reinforcing and providing recognition (post card home, Weekly logs of learning, reflections, Grade tracking) 4. Homework & practice (Podcast #5, Homework is your Friend ...) 5. Nonlinguistic representation (alternative assessment pieces, Foldables, step-by-step to a Flip Book creation) 6. Cooperative learning (resource, 7. Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback (Timely and specific, Rubrics ) 8. Generating & testing hypothesis (simulations 9. Questions, cues and advance organizers (Q Tasks, Graphic Organizers or Graphic Organizers ) | 3/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 27 Enthusiastically wrapping our brains around the News and Reeves' Research! | Middle School News & Information, Why do students lose enthusiasm?, Reeves Research, Long-Term Memory are all discussed. | 3/22/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-26 MAMSE Redeux and You | -- | 3/19/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-25-Backward Design & You | -- | 3/1/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-24 Free, Tech and Class Size | -- | 2/24/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-23-Special NCLB Innovation | -- | 2/16/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-22- Advisory, News and You | Teaching Ambassador Fellowship, Teams that Make a Difference Award - NMSA, Advisory Idea: Teaching Moments - Educational Ownership - Homework Help (http://www.teachingmoments.com/), Transitions: Smoothing the Way for Students and Parents and Wisconsin moves to Avert Court Shutdown of Virtual Schools. | 2/9/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-21 Professional Practice | We take a look at how professional practice has changed. This includes looking at the Medical Model, data, collaboration, expectation and the concept of the Edutainer. | 2/3/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-20 Advisory Activities | Advisory Activities: Side-by-Side (team level activity), Walk The Line (individual Advisory activity), Who are You?, Teacher Appreciation, TP Shuffle (individual Advisory activity, higher level of challenge for both the advisory teacher and the students involved), Origami, Take a Stand, CopyCat, Take a Side. | 1/26/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-19-Advisory Advice | According to NMSA: Advisory programs are designed to deal directly with the affective needs of [young adolescents]. Activities may range from non-formal interactions to use of systematically developed units whose organizing center are drawn from the common problems, needs, interests, or concerns of [young adolescents], such as "getting along with peers," "living in the school," or "developing self-concept." In the best of these programs, [young adolescents] have an opportunity to get to know one adult really well, to find a point of security in the institution, and to learn about what it means to be a healthy human being. | 1/24/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_18-CSI | We discuss the education systems of China, the States, and India. Our conversation centers around a new video called, Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination. The video spotlights six high school students, two each from China, the United States and India. The video makes the case that students in China and India work harder, spend more time working on school work and take school much more seriously than their American counterparts. The video “sounds an alarm” about the educational system in America according to its producers. The video has its critics and supporters. | 1/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM 17 | Podcast #17 12-22-08 How much "truth" do we tell kids? Are "myths, fables, and other good story constructs important? Horodotus vs. Thucydides Just the facts or don't let the facts get in the way of a good story? How do we teach kids to be good critical thinkers whilst still keeping up good stories? With the advent of YouTube, and other web pages, how do we teach kids to think critically and still keep alive "fables"? - The use of allagory in teaching? General Guidelines for Teaching with Folk Tales: http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/studyg/studygfolk.htm Advantages of using Allegory (Folk Tale) in Education Pitfalls of using Allegory (Folk Tale) in Education 1. Length 2. Fun! 3. They are memorable. 4. Many variations make them easy to compare. 5. Universal themes 6. Because they use universal themes, they have many interpretations and are meaningful. 7. Links to the oral and written literatures of the world. 8. Links to popular culture and many academic subjects and skills. 9. Enhance transitions from childhood to adult life. 10. Builds connections between children and adults. 1. Break the habit of referring to the "writer" as an original source or the "real " or "correct" version. 2. Students may react negatively to other cultural norms and will need them explained before going too far into the folk tale. 3. Beware that the folk tale doesn't establish a stereotype by generalizing the culture of a region or a people. 4. Some have a hard time analyzing stories they love from their youth. 5. Not all folk tale lore is intended for entertaining children. Some contain adult themes. 6. Because there are many different versions, details from one can "transfer" to another version of the same tale and potentially confuse students. 7. Students will need additional instruction in documenting oral, audio, visual, and unpublished sources. Authority- how does this fit in to the picture? Allegory - J.R.R. Tolkein & The Lord Of The Rings series - C.S. Lewis & The Chronicles of Narnia series - Aesop and "Fables" - Bill Bennett and his series on American Tales - Davy Crocket Folk Tale - Dr. Jan Brunvand: Urban Legends Media Literacy: http://www.medialit.org/ TRY YAHOO FOR TEACHERS (BETA) http://beta.teachers.yahoo.com We mentioned Yahoo's upcoming social network for teachers in September - and we've been checking back from time to time to see what progress, if any, might have been made. We were intrigued, frankly, by the idea of a professionally supported social network by and for teachers. Yahoo has now posted its "beta" version (meaning "we haven't worked out all the kinks but would love for you to try it out"). So try it! One cool feature - any posted lesson plans or teaching ideas can be rated by users and you can see the items with the highest ratings (and the most downloads) easily. There's no cost. To get into the beta edition, you'll need this info: username - yhallpass / password - g0bbler (that's a zero, not the letter "oh). Check out all the features and tell them what you think. - Source: John Norton MiddleWeb email newsletter. Note: This is a beta project. Many areas are under development and navigating is still a little clunky. There are a lack of people on the site yet and so the social networking side of things hasn't quite taken off yet, it appears. | 12/30/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_16-Schedule | First up, we take a look at scheduling: Need to involve stakeholders for input: * Administrators * Counselors * Teachers * Students Some questions to ponder: * Should each course receive equal time? * Do core subjects (especially those tested) receive more time? * Is literacy something different? * How many subjects should students deal with? * Block Schedule vs Daily schedule * How long can kids attend? * Are staff trained in different time use strategies? * What about “disruptions”? (Assemblies, testing, special presentations). There are two things which drive all schedules: 1. Lunch 2. Buses Don’t forget about them but work around them. Remember the systematic structure: * Provide Common planning * Promote Professional Learning Communities * Promote Flexibility for teams * Special needs students (ELL, RR) Understand that there are options: * Rotating schedules * Alternate Day schedules * Mixed schedules Additional Resource: Ohio Middle School Association Pre-Conference session on scheduling: http://www.ohiomsa.org/Documents/Annual%20State%20Conference/2008_Scheduling_Workshop_Registration_Form.pdf Contact Information: Charlie Beard cbeard@lourdes.edu and 1 (419) 824-3718 Planning 6th Grade Survivor Camp 1. Create Schedule/Rotation 2. Create Student/Parent Group Session 3. Create Student Session Topics 4. Handouts!!!! 5. 6th Grade Handbook 6. Sign-in Sheets for Students & Parents 7. Advertise! Advertise! Advertise! 8. Acquire Sponsors: $100 for a slot on the shirt. 9. Prepare Snacks 10. Prepare Receipt books for sale of Items! 11. Parent Resource Center Supporting Reasons for Middle School Transitional Programs 1. Meets Title I requirements for providing plans for transitions. 2. Meets Title I requirements for parent involvement. 3. Fulfills several indicators for accreditation standards. 4. Provides for healthy, safe, and supportive school climate. 5. Supports middle school philosophy. 6. Contributes to cohesive staff. 7. Makes first day of school easier. 8. Eases fear of unknown/anxiety for parents and students. 9. Diminishes locker anxiety for parents and students. 10. Informs and explains rules and procedures. 11. Provides information about tutoring opportunities. 12. Produces fewer discipline referrals. 13. Provides opportunity to identify possible “issues.” 14. Provides positive first impressions and dispel rumors. 15. Trains pupils to implement rules/procedures on the first day. 16. Diminishes first day fears and “ailments” for students. 17. Provides relaxed, first meeting atmosphere for stakeholders. 18. Curtails “hovering” parents on the first morning of school. | 12/16/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-15-PD_on_the_Cheap | In Podcast #15 (PD on the Cheap), we continue our discussion of NMSA07 Conference sessions. Shawn takes a look at Project LEAD which is centered around Pre-service and service teachers. However, the ideas can be used in a variety of settings. We also discuss some of strategies to improve literacy skills. As usual, there are some good links included. (Note: due to some personal time constraints, this podcast is available only as an mp3). | 12/9/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-14_Totally_Teacher_Tech | Some places to help teachers: Youtube comparable: Teacher Tube - Kind of like Youtube but focused on education. Has a variety of teacher generated videos. Has a lot of videos done by educators. These can be imbedded on a blog or a web site. Youth Created Media - Video created by youths. Good for examples of what kids can do. Video Lessons from around the web. Not directly educational. Rather this site promotes learning. United Streaming: This is a for pay site. Includes a lot of videos that are short and tied to standards. Many school districts have an account with them. Web offerings: * Teacher Resources: - Teacher Resources and Professional Development (This is a great site with lots of useful videos. Also check out their free newsletter.) o Interactives: www.learner.org/interactives/ o Art: http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html?discipline=1 * 4 teachers: - Wide variety of sites for teachers: o QuizStar (pay) - allows you to make quizes o RubiStar (free) - allows you to make and save rubrics. Has some guides to start you out. * Quizlets: - Vocubulary learning help. * Kerpoof: This site looks like it has a lot of potential. Kids can network and create stuff here. * Virtual Field Trips: Just what it says. Some science field trips as well. * Discovery Educators Network of teachers () * Math Videos Online: A bunch of videos that can help explain of re-enforce math concepts. * Geography that’s Juicy. * Grammar * Science We didn’t get a chance to talk about all of them. However, there are some sites here. I would really recommend starting with the Teacher Resources link above. | 12/2/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-13- NMSA07-Silver_&_Gold | This was a fascinating presentation. Debbie Silver is a very dynamic presenter who grabs the audience. She is one of those rare speakers from whom you get a natural “high”. She focused on the little things that teachers can do that make a big difference for kids. She was one of the presenters that pointed out how much of an influence that teachers have on children. Many of the things that she pointed out are subconscious things - little things that we just don’t teach as educators. However, lots of these things have subtle effects which can lead to a “tipping point” to change student achievement. | 11/25/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM-12NMSA-Connectwork | Join us as we get specific about the NMSA 2007 Conference. It’s amazing how much excellent material we picked up there. In this episode, we discuss a couple of the presentations that we attended. Rick DuFour’s presentation was fantastic. I really do hope that NMSA will be able to broadcast it at some point. I then discuss Walt Grebring’s Presentation “Effective Leadership Equals Successful Schools” Shawn also discusses one of the sessions that he went to on RTI (Response to Intervention). Response to Intervention Through Middle School Electives www.eps.n-cook.k12.il.us | 11/17/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNMSA07Wrapup | Shawn and I sat down for a few minutes to discuss our impressions of the NMSA conference. We recorded this "live" from the media area. We’ll go into more detail about the individual sessions in up coming shows. | 11/13/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMSM_10-NMSA07 | Our excitement over the upcoming NMSA Conference can't be contained. In this episode, we discuss conference attendence strategies and our picks for breakout sessions. Be forewarned, this is our longest podcast yet. We also announce our first ever give away - you could win an iPod. Listen to discover how. | 11/4/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTLC_of_PLC_9 | Values: One method, create a representative task force and challenge its members to: 1. Carefully review the school’s vision statement 2. Identify attitudes, behaviors and committments that must be demonstrated by the group in order to move the school closer to the vision. 3. Develop a draft of a statement of these attitudes, behaviors and committments (limited to no more than 10 statements) 4. Arrange small-group meetings with collegues to present task force findings, solicit feedback and answer questions. 5. Revise initial draft 6. Small group meetings until there is strong consensus for the statements. 7. Present findings to the entire staff to obtain endorsement of the final product. One of the big keys is to remember to involve Parents, Support Staff and Community members. Mature vs. Immature PLCs-development of values/vision and implementation. Some keys: * Keep them few in number * Link the statements directly to the vision statement * Be direct * Focus on behavior, not beliefs * Focus on self, not others Fourth Building Block: Goals: Which steps will we take first, and when? Need to create some small victories. Thus, some short-term wins are necessary. In order to accomplish that, design some goals that are: 1. Visible - large numbers of people can see for themselves whether the result is real or just hype. 2. Unambiguous - There can be little argument over the results. 3. Clearly related to the change effort. Things to avoid: * Taking on too many initiatives at once. (Some schools have started 10 different task force intitiatives) * Identifying goals that are too general. Goals must be specific and measurable if they are to be effective. Effective goals will specify: o Exactly what is to be accomplished. o Specific steps that will be taken o Individual or group responsible for intiating/sustaining each step toward achieving the goal o timeline for each phase o Criteria in evaluating progress. | 10/28/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMission_Possible_8 | Podcast #8 continues our conversation about Professional Learning Communities. Specifically, we address two of the foundations of PLC’s- Mission and Vision. PLC’s are currently the happening movement in education. One of the best parts of PLC’s is that they are based around the classroom. They also call for all teachers to be involved and part of the process. The first topic of discussion is the Mission. Mission is the first building block: Basically, this asks the important question: Why do we exist? All schools currently have mission states. All of them sound very similar, this is OK. Next we take on the All kids can learn conumdrum. This is based upon everyone agreeing that All kids can learn. However, we may have different definitions of what that means. DuFour points out four different possibilities: All kids can learn …..based upon their ability. Learning is fixed and educators have little effect. Educators create multiple tracks (pathways) to address the differences in learning. Future is predetemined. …….if they take advantage of the opportunities. Educators must present things in clear and engaging ways. In the end, it is up to the students though. …….and we will accept responsibility for ensuring their growth. Educators are responsible to help students grow but the extent of that growth is determined by the student. ……..we will establish high standards of learning that we expect all students to achieve. We create work that results in high level of achievement. We are prepared to work collaboratively with colleagues, students and parents to achieve this shared educational purpose. The second Building Block: Vision What do we hope to become? | 10/21/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanA_Little_PLC_7 | One of our most serious shows, we start the discussion of Professional Learning Communities (PLC's). Specifically, we use DuFour and Eaker's Book (Professional Learning Communities at Work - Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement) as a starting point. Previous School Reform: * 1983 -National Commission of Excellence Movement - Consistent direction- schools just needed to do more! * Goals 2000 o All Children will start school ready to learn o HS graduation rate will increase to at least 90% o American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated compentecy in challenging subject matter (including English, math, science, history, and geography) o US students will be first in the world in math & science o Every adult American will be literate o Every school in America will be free of drugs & violence and will offer a disciplined environment that is conducive to learning * Restructuring Movement o site-based management o bottom up change o too vague * According to a recent report, most teachers believe that schools are doing as well as possible given societal problems and parental involvement. This would mean that school improvement must be made outside of school. This argument assumes that what happens in school is largely irrelevant. Why has school reform failed: * The complexity of the task * Misplaced focus * Lack of clarity of intended results * Lack of perserverance * Failure to appreciate and attend to the change process Next we discuss the characteristics of a PLC: * Shared mission, vision, values * Collective inquiry * Collaborative teams * Action Orientation & experimentation * Continuous improvement * Results orientation Change is difficult: 1. Allowing too much complacency 2. Failing to create sufficiently powerful guiding coalition 3. Underestimating the power of vision 4. Undercommunicating the vision by a power of 10 5. Permitting structural and cultural obstacles to block the change process 6. Failing to create short-term wins 7. Declaring victory too soon 8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the culture | 10/14/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDuFour_Common_Assessments_6 | Join us for an overview of common assessments. | 10/7/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanNo_Place_Like_Homework_5 | A whole podcast about homework. Get ideas for homework efficiency. | 10/1/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanZero_Tolerance_Policy_4 | A conversation revolving around Douglas Reeves and Rick Wormeli's work on grading and the effect of giving zeros for work not turned in. We also take a look at a couple of methods of addressing tardiness. Finally, we look at least one way to increase the amount of homework turned in. | 9/22/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 202 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Required Listening for All Middle School Teachers and Administration
These guys are great! If you are a middle school teacher, you NEED to listen to these guys. Very varied topics (from technology to advisory ideas) and light-hearted banter between the two make this show entertaining and informative.
A Must Have
This is an exceptional podcast show that ranges from funny to serious. They discuss everything from technology to advisory, research and recent articles. This is a good way to stay up-to-date in the field.
Great Resource for Middle Level Educators
This is a great podcast for middle level practitioners. Shawn and Troy are a lot of fun, give out great information and are very open to suggestions from their listeners. Couple this one with NMSA's Today's Middle Level Educator and you've got some great middle grades resources to enjoy. Thanks guys!
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