Middle School Matters

Dr. Monte Selby granted an interview to Middle School Matters. We get his thoughts on a wide range of topics.

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:

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

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:

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:

Jokes: Wrong Ends A contractor hired two brothers to install home siding. He demonstrated the process and sent them off to their first job. Things were going smoothly when the older brother saw that his younger brother was throwing nails away. He asked, "Why are you throwing those nails away?" The younger brother replied, "The heads are on the wrong end." The older brother laughed, "Those are for the other side of the house." Languages A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting. "Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen" he asks. The two Americans just stare at him. "Excusez-moi, parlez vous Fracais?" he tries. The two continue to stare. "Parlare Italiano?" No response. "Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing. The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. The first American turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language." "Why?" says the other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didnt do him any good." (If you liked that one . . . try this!) What did one math book say to the other? I have so many problems . . . On Our Mind: o Google Forms and Walkthroughs o http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1261-Daily-Walkthroughs-with-GoogleApps-and-the-iPad.html NMSA is a month away . . . Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Small Spaces What if everything that you needed had to fit through a small space? This would be a discussion centered around the trapped minors. The focus of the conversation could be around what it would be liked to be trapped for months. * What is the difference between a need and a want? * What can you “make do” with? The link has a visual of the size of the whole which everything must pass to get to the minors. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/13/back-story-think-of-the-miners.html Quadruple Amputee Swims Across English Channel Philippe Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrical accident, swam across the English Channel. Nice story about what determination can do. The video is 1 minute and 40 seconds long. It includes quotes from Philippe. (Could also discuss the difference between a quad amputee and a quadriplegic). http://www.newsy.com/videos/quadruple-amputee-swims-across-english-channel/ Tech Tools: Educate http://www.ikonstrukt.com/educate.php ManyEyes Data visualization. Great for those who see in pictures. http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/ Webspotlight: YouTube Channel: RobbWorld’s Channel DocsTeach Great site from the National Archives Experience. Includes both Activities and Primary Resources. http://docsteach.org/ 26 Keys to Student Engagement by Angela Maiers. http://www.scribd.com/doc/37782099/26-Keys-to-Student-Engagement WorldMapper Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 700 maps. Maps 1-366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above to find a map of interest. To learn a little more about this and other map projections read this: Worldmapper and map projections. We recently added a new series of maps of the world's population using a new mapping technique: Worldmapper Population Atlas http://www.worldmapper.org/ Schoolwork by Nicholas Lemann http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/09/27/100927taco_talk_lemann Creating self Graded Google Forms by Mark Wagner “For this video I cut right to the chase and did my best to explain the IF formula for beginners… while keeping under a 5 minute time limit. I hope it’s helpful for you and your colleagues and I hope you’ll let me know what you think.” http://edtechlife.com/?p=2600 Listener Question for Troy via Twitter: From @Mthman: @MSMatters Help me to understand a procedural Q...do the teachers in your building need guidance w/advisory lesson plans? Mine do!!! (Listen to the show for the answer!) News:

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.

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:

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

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

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

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

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:

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:

Jokes: Serious Questions A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?" He said: "Call for backup." Great News While eating in an expensive restaurant, a patron overheard the gentleman at the next table ask the waitress to pack the leftovers for their dog. It was then that his young son exclaimed loudly, "Whoopee! We're going to get a dog." Lord Send Me A Hundred A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to the Lord, USA, they decided to send it to the President. The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill, as this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00, and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord. It said: Dear Lord, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington, DC and as usual, those jerks deducted $95. On Our Mind: ISTE 2010 and Back Channels . . . What do you get when you mash up a former VP of the World Bank, a PowerPoint, and a bunch of tech savvy educators? Conference Survival Gear Maxpedition Mongo Bag Soundpaper Listeners: Teachers in Illinois use iPod Touch to customize lessons One Illinois school district will have teachers and students using iPod Touch devices in classrooms this fall. District staff received 15 hours of training on using the devices for individualizing lessons and helping students improve reading fluency by listening to their recorded voices reading aloud. "This is the way students are wired to learn, and we are looking at every method to make learning more engaging and stimulating for our students and teaching more exciting for our staff," the district's superintendent said. David Bydlowski Science Consultant Hey Guys -- I still need to respond to your response to my response to the UDL article! I came a cross this link today - and thought you might be interested --http://atcubed.blogspot.com/2010/06/thinking-about-relationships.html -- it does go with the UDL topic. later - jen From the Twitterverse: Advisory: Xtranormal: Go Play! Report back here what you learned. We’ll talk about it on the show. Tech Tools: WordPress Now Lets You Phone in Your Blog Posts You can already write and publish WordPress blog posts from your iPhone, iPad, Android, e-mail and desktop, but now you can also post audio via your phone. http://mashable.com/2010/07/01/wordpress-phone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 Aviary in Education: A safe, private environment to use Aviary tools with your students * Create private student accounts * Manage assignments and projects * Use the image editor, vector editor, audio editor & music creator * All content and images are 100% school safe http://www.aviaryeducation.com/ Webspotlight: Putting the “Boy Crisis” in Context Finding solutions to boys’ reading problems may require looking beyond gender By MICHAEL SADOWSKI “The Boys Have Fallen Behind.” “Girls Lead the Nation in Reading Scores.” “Are Teachers Failing Our Sons?” http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/473 Word Games http://www.wordgames.com/ Google Apps Education Training Center Welcome to the Google Apps Education Training Center. This is an online learning environment dedicated for educators and students to learn how to effectively use Google Apps in an educational context. Access to a Google Apps Education account is strongly recommended so that you can experiment and apply what you learn. http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home Shout out: Thanks to InFocus for the shout out on Twitter and for the USB drive at the conference! News: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE 2010)