Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Eileen Award:

Advisory:

You are Predictable

Make the board ahead of time, or put it on a Promethean Board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DaWcL3oOd-E

Business Cards

Have the kids design business cards for famous people, fictional characters, historical figures, etc.

http://thisisnthappiness.com/post/35780275184/business-cards

10 Bets that you can win

Use these to create a challenge for students. Encourage them to think together. This can help prime the thinking. These are really just problem solving opportunities.

http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2012/11/another-10-bets-you-will-always-win.html

Perceptives

On the cover of American Prospect, Joel Sternfeld’s ode to roadside America, was a ghoulish photo. A fireman shops for a pumpkin as the farmhouse — whose fire presumably brought him to this very acres — burns in the background. Its fiery destruction perfectly complemented the wintry leaves, the spoilt pumpkins, and from the foreground, with his hands tightly clasped upon a prized possession, the orange-clad firefighter: an American Nero.

http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/joel-sternfeld-mclean-virginia-december-1978/

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or [email protected])

Reflecting on Data

Recently I gave a talk at a new teacher orientation for the Rouge Education Project, a water quality monitoring project on the Rouge River, in the Michigan counties of Wayne and Oakland. The purpose of the talk was to share ideas on curriculum. The two areas I focused in on were:

1. Inquiry Analysis and Communication

2. Reflection and Social Implication

To learn more about the Rouge Education Project, please visit:

http://www.therouge.org

From the Twitterverse:

Save the date 2/6/13 Digital Learning Day @sjhayes8 #ncte12

#mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Resources:

Circuits

http://www.circuits.io/

8 GREAT GRADING APPS FOR IPAD

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/11/8-great-grading-apps-for-ipad.html

Web Spotlight:

A Cure for the Mania of Multiple Drafts, Multiple Formats, X 100

By Ariel Sacks

In my last post, I described my utter failure to effectively organize and manage my students' drafting process for writing projects. This job has become much more complicated over the years with the availability of various technological tools for writing. New, clear parameters are definitely necessary.

http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/shoulders-giants/11-2012/cure-mania-multiple-drafts-multiple-formats-x-100

Everything That Will Go Extinct In The Next 40 Years

Futurist website nowandnext.com put together this awesome infographic predicting all of the technologies, behaviors, and ideas that will probably be distant memories by 2050.

Among their predictions: no more retirement four years from now, no more secretaries six years from now, and no more free parking or sit-down breakfasts by 2019.

The European Union is seen as surviving the current crisis before extinct in 2039.

http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-that-will-go-extinct-in-the-next-40-years-2012-8#ixzz29zsNrc6U

News:

The [editor of Phi Delta Kappan] concludes by asserting that “every classroom should have excellent teaching every hour of every day.” I would add that every child should also have an excellent parent who serves them excellent food and provides them with an excellent home in an excellent neighborhood. Let’s also add excellent healthcare and excellent supervision every hour of every day as well. If we could accomplish all of that, we would have the highest achieving students on earth.

http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2012/11/while-we-wait-for-wise-lawmakers-to-emerge.html

AMLE Annual Conference Sessions:

Dr. Debbie Silver, paid session.