Shawn and I take a look at some of the upcoming conferences that one could attend. We also talk about the advantages of being a middle school teacher. Finally, we discuss some middle school blogs with a variety of points of view.

News & Information, Student Level Factors: The biggest question for educators is whether factors outside our control are determinate or can we, as educators, make a difference in the lives of children regardless of those issues? Links and more....

We talk about the news, a new way to search and spend most of our time talking about Marzano's work on What Works in schools.

Marzano - What works in schools:

School wide:

1. Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum-

1. Opportunity to Learn

2. Time

2. Challenging Goals & Effective Feedback -

1. Monitoring

2. Pressure to Achieve

3. Parental & Community Involvement

4. Safe & Orderly Environment

5. Collegiality & Professionalism

Teacher Level:

* Note that individual teachers have a great impact on student achievement

1. Instructional Strategies

1. Identifying similarities & differences (resource, lesson planner, Venn Diagram and Comparison Matrix, Frayer Model, )

2. Summarizing & Note taking (graphic organizer resource, note taking resource, SQ3R (not "leet speak"), Sticky Note Strategy, THIEVES+)

3. Reinforcing and providing recognition (post card home, Weekly logs of learning, reflections, Grade tracking)

4. Homework & practice (Podcast #5, Homework is your Friend ...)

5. Nonlinguistic representation (alternative assessment pieces, Foldables, step-by-step to a Flip Book creation)

6. Cooperative learning (resource,

7. Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback (Timely and specific, Rubrics )

8. Generating & testing hypothesis (simulations

9. Questions, cues and advance organizers (Q Tasks, Graphic Organizers or Graphic Organizers )

Middle School News & Information, Why do students lose enthusiasm?, Reeves Research, Long-Term Memory are all discussed.

Teaching Ambassador Fellowship, Teams that Make a Difference Award - NMSA, Advisory Idea: Teaching Moments - Educational Ownership - Homework Help (http://www.teachingmoments.com/), Transitions: Smoothing the Way for Students and Parents and Wisconsin moves to Avert Court Shutdown of Virtual Schools.