Middle School Matters

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:

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:

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:

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

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:

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:

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:

Jokes You Can Use: TEACHER: What is the chemical formula for water? SARAH: "HIJKLMNO"! TEACHER: What are you talking about? SARAH: Yesterday you said its H to O! Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "why is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of happiness," her mother explained. "And today is the happiest day in her life." The child thought about this for a moment. "So why is the groom wearing black?" Confucius say: Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient. Two guys were riding in a car, arguing about how to say the name of the city that they were in. One said "Louieville" and the other "Louiseville." They went on arguing and arguing, until they came upon a fast-food restaurant. The one guy goes inside and says to the waitress, "Tell me the name of the place where I am right now really, really, really slowly." The waitress goes, "Bur-ger-King." On Our Mind: Gov. Snyder announces Michigan School Reform New certification level: Master Teacher New certification steps: Provisional - 5 years Pre-Professional - 3 years Master Teacher - National Certification or State Level Observations “Degrees Matter”: Anybody with a degree can teach in their area. (Except education degrees . . .) What does this do to “Highly Qualified”? Seniority: If your principal eliminates your position, the other buildings don’t have to let you bump into a position there. Advisory: Who Am I? http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/resources/whoami/whoami.html Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Science Scope, the National Science Teachers Association's middle school science journal. It comes with membership in NSTA. From the Twitterverse: News: Delicious has a new owner: Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS. To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy. What Educators Can Learn From Comedians: Talking Education: A Virtual Workshop for Innovations By Andrew Marcinek http://www.edutopia.org/blog/sharing-innovation-workshop-andrew-marcinek The Case for Cursive For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html?_r=1 Strategy of the Week: Using ‘Answer Cards’ to Identify Struggling Students Each student has at his desk a set of index cards. You will have distributed these at the beginning of class. Written on each card is a single response, such as A, B, C, D or YES or NO. You may want to add TRUE and FALSE or any others that you need. http://adhdsolution.com/using-answer-cards-to-identify-struggling-students/ Resources: OpenSource.com We want to shine a light on the places where the open source way is multiplying ideas and effort, even beyond technology. We believe that opensource.com will be a gathering place for many of the open source stories we'd like to share--through articles, audio, web presentations, video, or open discussion. http://opensource.com/education BEAUTIFUL WEB-BASED TIMELINE SOFTWARE Timelines can be Flash or Javascript. http://www.tiki-toki.com/ Web Spotlight: Need Children Read "Proficiently" by Grade 3 to Be Sure to Graduate From High School? Some Possible Misinterpretations of Hernandez by Stephen Krashen http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=412 Much Ado About Nothing http://weeklyreader.com/ado Events & Happenings: Calendar of Events:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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