Jokes You Can Use:

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?

Because if they flew over the bay, they'd be baygulls (bagels, get it?).

At a Catholic school, there was a "meet the teacher" open house for the 2nd graders. After the meeting, a Nun announced that there would be a small reception afterwards in the cafeteria. All the children and parents filed in, and saw on a table a plate of apples, a plate of cookies, and some water bottles and juice. As the children went through the line, one boy saw that there was a sign on the plate of apples that said, "Take only one. God is watching." So, the boy took an apple and moved on to the cookies. He helped himself, and then took a small piece of paper, and wrote: "Take all you want”. God is watching the apples."

Q: What did the green grape say to the purple grape?

A: "BREATHE YOU IDIOT, BREATHE!"

On Our Mind:

What do you mean by learning?

http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/and-what-do-you-mean-by-learning/

Eileen Award

Erin. Thanks for the link.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/a-better-way-to-teach-math/

Advisory:

Taxes:

Where do taxes go?

http://datavizchallenge.org/viz/56

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or [email protected])

Foresenics: CSI for Middle School students. forensics.rice.edu

From the Twitterverse:

News:

A Trial Run for School Standards That Encourage Deeper Thought

The Common Core Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Can a 9-Hour School Day Prevent Students from Dropping Out?

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/can-a-9-hour-school-day-prevent-students-from-dropping-out/

Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet—It’s Higher Education

http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1860

IPS is meeting the challenge of teaching kids who don't speak English

Within five to seven years, they become "academically literate" -- not just able to get by linguistically but also able to navigate the language in more complicated school subjects.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110417/NEWS1003/104170395/IPS-meeting-challenge-teaching-kids-who-don-t-speak-English?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com

Pay Teachers for Performance?

By Bill Schechter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/performance-pay-at-schools-obama-duncan-picked-for-their-children/2011/04/12/AFNBuPTD_blog.html

Resources:

Free Documentaries Site.

Please preview first. You might be best using this for find videos and downloading rather than watching “live”. Many of the videos are hosted through YouTube. However, this can help with discovery.

http://www.freedocumentary.tv/

CinchCast

Cinch is a free and easy way to create and share audio, text and photo updates using your phone or computer. Cinch enables you to capture and report on your experiences in a way that simple text just can't do. Using a simple interface, you can make and broadcast your content creations through Facebook, Twitter, CinchCast.com and more.

Getting started is easy.

Step 1: Login to Cinch

Register for a Cinch account, or just login using your current Facebook or Twitter account, to begin creating content.

Step 2: Record and share

Create and share audio, text and photo updates all in one place using CinchCast.com, the Cinch iPhone App or by calling 1-646-200-0000.

Step 3: Organize and save

Organize and save all your favorite cinches in albums that people can easily follow.

Step 4: Search, find and connect

Find and follow your family, friends and colleagues, and albums on specific topics interest on CinchCast.com.

Step 5: Invite your friends to join

Can't find all the people you want to hear from? Invite them to join the conversation here.

http://www.cinchcast.com/

Online Physics Simulations

http://phet.colorado.edu/

Comic Book Maker

http://www.digmo.co.uk/apps/teaching-with-comic-life-2-free-ebook/

Convofy

Events & Happenings: