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: