Middle School Matters

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 [email protected]

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)

Jokes:

Waiters

A man walks into a restaurant and is shown to his seat by the hostess. The waiter approaches and asks, "Would you like to try our house special? The man replies, "No, just bring me a steak, and make it lean". The waiter, somewhat puzzled, looks at him and replies, "which way?"

Important Tasks

A doctor got a phone call from one of his colleagues. "We need a fourth for poker," the voice on the phone said. "I'll be right over," replied the doctor. As he was putting on his overcoat, his wife asked, "Is it serious?" "Oh yes, quite serious," he said gravely. "They've had to call in three other doctors as well."

On Our Mind:

Catching Up or Leading the Way

Yong Zhao

Listeners:

Comment:

Thank you for keeping us updated. I incredibly enjoy it and discover all the information really useful.

Krav Maga

Hi guys,

I am at the Technology Integration and Instruction for the 21st Century Learner conference in Storm Lake, Iowa at Buena Vista University. I listen to your podcasts (and have given you the 4 stars on i-Tunes). Love the links, discussion and your thoughts. It gives me time to reflect, something we do not do enough of. I do have a suggestion, and this is on the technical side of the the podcast production. Please moderate the theme music, it is so loud that it drowns out the voice and is much louder than the volume of the spoken word. I have to quick reach for the volume on my i-pod, or computer so it does not wake my daughter or wife in the next rooms as I listen to you late at night when everyone is in bed. I know through using garage band that the volumes can be adjusted. It is way worse than the increase in volume of commercials on TV.

Thanks again for your great work,

Craig Cadman

Middle School Science

From ASCD:

Middle-school students create podcasts as part of place-based learning

Middle-school students at an Oregon charter school created podcasts as part of their study of a local streetcar line that used to operate near their school. Educators say the streetcar project and the podcasts are a form of place-based learning, which includes studying the history of neighborhoods, communities and buildings under the umbrella of environmental education. The student recordings are posted on the website of the regional transportation planning agency, which is considering reviving the original line.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/06/southwest_charter_school_stude.html

David Bydlowski

From the Twitterverse:

Tech Tools:

Doodle - Collaborative Scheduling

http://doodle.com/

DabbleBoard -

http://dabbleboard.com/

Free Web Pages

http://pageeasy.com/

Webspotlight:

Interesting world view:

http://timemaps.com/history/

Top 100 technology blogs for teachers

Posted on Jun. 17th 2010 6:23 PM by alexis

(This article is a continuation and combination of two previous lists: “The Top 25 eLearning Blogs,” and “The Top 20 Teacher Blogs“)

http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers/

News:

Report finds KIPP students outscore public school peers

Prince George's bans student cellphone use during school day

Carpe Data: In Defense of Common Standards

Events & Happenings:

Jokes:

Obedience

A father of five won a large stuffed animal in a raffle. All the way home he agonized about which child should receive the toy. When he arrived, he called the kids together. "I have decided this gift should go to the most deserving," he said. "Who is the most obedient?" he asked. "Who never talks back to mommy? Who does everything she says?" Five small voices cried in unison. "You do, Daddy!"

On Our Mind:

The "Reply All" button

The Michigan Joint Education Conference: www.mijec.org

Shawn presents at the 8:00 and 10:00 sessions. You've got to be there!

From the Twitterverse:

Listeners:

Hey guys,

Hope you are enjoying your summer. We still have another full week of school.

Ran across this the other day and thought you might be interested:

http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/

It is a free product from Microsoft. Since most students learn how to use powerpoint in computer class, this would be a fun tool for student presentations.

Robert

PS Still not on Twitter.

--

Robert Jackson

Kyiv, Ukraine

Model Schools Conference, Orlando

HUGE thanks to Dr. John Harrison for recommending Middle School Matters to his session attenders at the Model Schools Conference in Orlando, Florida this week. We really appreciate the recommendation, though it cost us the last of our business cards.

Tech Tools:

Teen Chat Decoder

http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/

Create Short Animations at Fuzzwich

http://www.fuzzwich.com/

Free Quizzes that you can play right in your browser!

Welcome to Quiz-Tree.com! Who said that learning has to be boring? Everybody learns better when they are having fun! Here at Quiz-Tree.com you will find educational games and quizzes on many subjects, including Math, Reading, Spanish, Geography, SAT, Spelling, Music and more. All activities come with animated interface, fun sounds and other cool features that make learning more enjoyable.

To find an activity, start by clicking on the general subject that you are interested in.

http://www.quiz-tree.com/index.html

Webspotlight:

Your Next Read

http://www.yournextread.com/us/

Forbes Map

Interactive Feature Map: Where Americans Are Moving Jon Bruner

More than 10 million Americans moved from one county to another during 2008. The map below visualizes those moves. Click on any county to see comings and goings: black lines indicate net inward movement, red lines net outward movement.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html

Understanding Genetics

http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/ugenetics/

Are Good Teachers Always Good, No Matter Where They Go?

The more we fixate on the "good teacher," the less we seem to concern ourselves with good teaching.

But the story also drove home how seldom we hear about the conditions that foster good teaching. Most news stories on ed reform leave the impression that a good teacher is a good teacher is a good teacher, no matter where he teaches, no matter what challenges he faces, no matter how toxic the climate in his school is. Good teachers, it seems, are widgets to be deployed to all manner of schools, where they'll climb every mountain and ford every stream.

http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/are-good-teachers-always-good-no-matter-where-they-go?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LFA+%28Public+School+Insights%3A+What+is+WORKING+in+our+Public+Schools%29

News:

Middle Schools Conference Notes

Title: Summer Blues? We're still talking.

Jokes:

"In making a sermon, think up a good beginning, then think up a good ending and finally bring these two as close together as you possibly can."

- Frederick Temple

Graduation Day:

It's graduation day, and everybody's going to get their diploma but Josh. At the assembly, the entire senior class stands up and shouts "Let Josh graduate, let Josh graduate!"

The principal agrees to give Josh one last chance. "If I have five apples in my right hand and five in my left hand, Josh, how many apples do I have?" he asked.

Josh thought long and hard and then said: "Ten."

And the entire senior class stood up and shouted, "Give Josh another chance. Give Josh another chance!"

New Principal:

A new school principal was checking over his school the day before the first school class day. Passing the stockroom, he was startled to see the door wide open and teachers bustling in and out, carrying off books and supplies in preparation for the arrival of students the next day.

The school where he had been a principal the previous year had used a check-out system only slightly less elaborate than that at Fort Knox.

Cautiously, he asked the school's long time custodian, "Do you think it's wise to keep the stockroom unlocked and to let the teachers take things without requisitions?"

The custodian looked at him gravely and said, "We trust them with the children, don't we?"

On Our Mind:

From the Twitterverse:

Listeners:

Response to podcast #123 - UDL article

Tech Tools:

MicroMobs:

Micro Mobs is a free service that allows anyone to create their own public or private micromessaging network. To get started just name your mob (network) pick a URL then register for an account. You can register for a Micro Mobs account or use your Twitter or Facebook account to login into Micro Mobs. Once you've created your Micro Mobs network you can invite others by email, Twitter, or Facebook message. If you choose to make your Micro Mobs network private it can only be accessed by the people you have invited.

Micro Mobs could be a good private platform for hosting a backchannel chat in your classroom. Micro Mobs might also be a good platform for keeping in contact with parents or colleagues.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/06/micro-mobs-realtime-group-messaging.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

http://micromobs.com/

Weebly

Easy website creation is our passion.

When we say easy, we mean it! Weebly was named one of TIME’s 50 Best Websites of the year in 2007 and we’ve since made our service even more powerful, while keeping it simple. We have 3 million customers who would likely agree that there’s really no better place to create a website online – here’s why:

* Create a free website & blog

* Easy drag and drop interface

* No technical skills required

* Dozens of professional designs

* Free domain hosting

http://www.weebly.com/

Webspotlight:

NCLB damages US education by narrowing the curriculum

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to harm the formal educational experiences of millions of students and teachers in the United States. In her recent book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," Diane Ravitch explains why. In her chapter titled, "Hijacked!" on page 29, Ravitch writes:

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/06/05/nclb-damages-us-education-by-narrowing-the-curriculum/

Educational Leadership Archives:

Now available for FREE

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/archived-issues.aspx

http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/WebBased/WebBased.htm

News:

Teacher Evaluation

Jokes:

The Book

Lunching with a friend in a fast food restaurant, I was telling her about a teenager who had rear-ended my car. The teen blamed me for the accident. "She called me every name in the book!" I said. Just then I looked over to the next table where two nine-year-old boys had apparently been paying close attention to my story. One said to the other, "There's a book?"

A Birthday Number

A couple phoned a neighbor to extend birthday greetings. They dialed the number and then sang "Happy Birthday" to him. But when they finished their off-key rendition, they discovered that they had dialed the wrong number. "Don't let it bother you," said a strange but amused voice. "You folks need all the practice you can get."

On Our Mind:

Gifted Bias:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/nyregion/01gifted.html?ref=education

"Graduation"

Summer Time

From the Twitterverse:

Advisory:

Bullying Awareness Project

Teacher Page:

http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/rpt/RPT_Zero_Tolerance/teacher.html

Student Page:

http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/rpt/RPT_Zero_Tolerance/student.html

Listeners:

Robert sent along the web site:

http://www.hippocampus.org/

Tech Tools:

Notalon

http://bitbucket.org/saketh/notalon/overview

Webspotlight:

UDL Discussion

http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-wont-more-teachers-set-up-udl.html?spref=fb

Rethinking Schools

As a special introduction to our new website, the text of the entire summer issue of Rethinking Schools is accessible here, free of charge. If you aren’t already a member of Rethinking Schools, we hope a look at the exciting and thought-provoking articles in this issue will inspire you to join.

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml

Will the iPad make kids smarter?

http://www.examiner.com/x-46117-Long-Island-iPad-Examiner~y2010m6d5-Will-the-Apple-iPad-make-kids-smarter?cid=channel-rss-Gadgets_and_Tech

News:

Districts' Financial Crisis Is Not the Time to Talk Reform

By Harold J. Kwalwasser

Financial chaos does not promote positive change. When districts’ funding is uncertain, administrators and school boards have no time to worry about innovation and transformation. All life is sucked from discussions of reform. The nitty-gritty of how to balance the budget, whether it is how many teachers to fire or which programs to cut, drowns out any consideration of real, long-term improvement.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/03/33kwalwasser.h29.html?tkn=XQQF13b3BxIwIjwm%2FHgRJ0uyoj6rmBYizVXS&cmp=clp-edweek

4 Day Weeks gain popularity

During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma's house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center.

Don't bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/04/358869usfourdayschoolweek_ap.html?tkn=WVTFdqIRlkDrbw0wXdYDRUmFzEFsRwCKamBh&cmp=clp-edweek

States' Fiscal Condition Still Dismal, New Report Finds

By Alyson Klein on June 3, 2010 10:30 AM

State finances remain as bad as they have been in decades, and the fiscal picture isn't likely to clear up anytime soon, according to a report released this morning by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/06/states_are_still_in_terrible_f.html

Events & Happenings: