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