Thursday, February 28, 2013

Fwd: We are extending Early Registration!

Register now!

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.


Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: February 28, 2013, 12:05:43 PM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: We are extending Early Registration!
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

February 28, 2013-Early Reg Extended
nelms logo

32nd Annual Conference
April 4 & 5, 2013
Early Registration Period has been extended!!

You can now get the early registration rate until March 18th! Come and join us!

A sneak peek at some of the titles for the concurrent workshop session!

  • Student Led Conferencing: Putting Responsibility Where It Belongs
  • Confronting Bullying Through Music, Theatre and Dance
  • Digital Literacy and the Common Core
  • Minimizing the Risk of School Violence
  • STEM in Action: Robotics in the Classroom
  • Using iPad Apps in YOUR Classroom
  • STEM is Ecology! A Systems Based Approach to Education
  • Standards-based Grading in a Traditional School
  • Standards-based Grading: Making Students Accountable
  • What Are You Doing in Advisory Today?

2012 AC cover

For more information and registration form about this Annual Conference:

Click here.

 

 

Prices for the 2013 Annual Conference
Same price as last year! Early Registration Rate EXTENDING to March 18, 2013!

chart of ac 2013 costs

 

 

Pre π Day Workshop for Middle Level Math Teachers!
Birchland Park Middle Schook, East Longmeadow, MA
March 7, 2013

NHAMLE/NELMS 2013 Annual SummitPlymouth State University, Concord, NH
March 8, 2013

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

facebook logo


Quitting FaceBook

This link takes you to a very interesting article by author Douglas Rushkoff (interestingly his book Program or Be Programmed made a cameo appearance on this blog yesterday). Rushkoff writes about the work of managing an online presence and the decision that it costs (in his assessment) too much for him to continue. The costs are in terms other than financial, and he describes those in thus piece. In my estimation, this is a piece worthy of the attention of middle school populations as it illustrates a smart person who is a netizen reflecting on and taking control of his digital footprint. 


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Programming (@willrich45)

Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Hey @garystager (and others) Thoughts on this? What most schools don't teach - YouTube buff.ly/XFFK36 #edchat

Interesting chatter this morning about teaching programming. 

It seems a good idea ("program or be programmed" has been a theme on this blog before). No one should be surprised that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg hold programming to be an essential skill; their businesses are built upon programming. 

I become concerned, however, when we accept and perpetuate calls to "teach programming" (or creativity or writing or problem solving or any other cognitive activity that requires more than superficial understanding). In these situations, we (educators including leaders) adopt pre-packaged curriculum that provides a recipe for teaching whatever is the latest "thing."

I understand this approach. Many of us are uncomfortable with the discomfort that accompanies the call that we teach what we don't know. We look for easy solutions that can be implemented quickly- a reasonable approach for those who want to stay employed. 

Unless our curriculum reflects the complexity of the programming problem-solving, the cognitive benefits will not occur. Students following a programming recipe to get a cat to walk across a screen will not learn to think. Students who take the procedures they learn in those initial recipe-following lessons and create their own programs will. 

I am not convinced our data-obsessed and standards-crazy schooling culture is prepared to allow such learning to occur. 

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Tech skills for incoming students

Starting simple with formatting is a good way to go- also thus list indicates some if the first tier of underused word processing functions. 



-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Tweet from AMLE (@AMLE)

AMLE (@AMLE)
Present your fabulous middle grades ideas at AMLE2013 in November 2013. Hurry...apps due March 3 ow.ly/hXEJ9

Download the official Twitter app here


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Tweet from Marc Prensky (@marcprensky)

Marc Prensky (@marcprensky)
The Student Perspective: "In my life I make decisions. In school I follow directions."#generation #4change

This is a very intriguing quote that has come into my inbox from several sources recently. We must begin to wonder to what extent students will actively engage in school if this is an accurate description of their perceptions. 


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Tweet from AMLE (@AMLE)

AMLE (@AMLE)
Sanford Middle School turns itself around. Looping keeps students from slipping through the cracks ow.ly/hTLuJ via @StarTribune

Looking for evidence that good middle level practice supports meaningful learning? 


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

The World's Most Problematic Videogames

I suppose it is a sign of our times that video game addiction is becoming a topic for research. The differences in affinities based on gender and racial differences is intriguing. I suspect those arise in cultural exposure to those types of games in one's initial gaming experience. 

The World's Most Problematic Videogames
BEST OF SCIENCE | FEBRUARY 20, 2013
http://pulse.me/s/iJTJb


Is 'video game addiction' a useful concept? Some people certainly play an awful lot of games, and therefore have little of a life outside of them; bu... Read more

--
Sent via Pulse/


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Resource for middle lev (@RickWormeli)



Rick Wormeli (@RickWormeli)
middleweb.com I'm really impressed with this Website for its thoughtfulness, practicality, and high caliber thinkers. Visit!

Download the official Twitter app here


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

The Nature of Learning

Educators read and hear lots and lots of advice about what we should do, how we should do it, how we should assess it, and every other detail of teaching and learning.

Some comes from political and business leaders, some from parents and other laypeople... some from fellow teachers and educational leaders who are pandering to those others. While most of the advise is well-intentioned and given with sincere interest in doing what is best for kids, most of it is more damaging then the advocated know. While I tend to be understanding of non-experts who give advice, I am increasingly loosing patience with educators who ignore what we know about learning and spout the latest gobbledygook posing as educational reform.

Quite simply, education is about changing human brains. Humans brain are organs that with structure and function defined by biology.

Schools are designed to meet society's needs, but the design must accommodate brain structure and function.

Most of the individuals and groups who contribute to the deafening milieu of educational reform are ignorant of the basic principles of learning science.


is a publication from the Centre for Educational Research and Organization of The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Several ancillary materials, including an executive summary and a Practitioner's Guide are available on the web. In summary, this is the best brief summary of learning science I have encountered in recent years.

Be better prepared to give and interpret advice form educational reformers... read these:


Monday, February 18, 2013

Fwd: Today - Alan November on "Who Owns the Learning?"



- Dr. Gary Ackerman


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Classroom 2.0" <mail@classroom20.com>
Date: February 18, 2013, 1:12:31 PM EST
To: "gary@hackscience.net" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Today - Alan November on "Who Owns the Learning?"
Reply-To: do-not-reply@classroom20.com

Network Email
Join me tonight, Monday, February 18th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Alan November on his new book Who Owns the Learning?: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age. The book is a compelling argument for allowing students to take ownership of their learning, create their own learning tools and participate in meaningful work because, as Alan writes, "we are experiencing an essential change in the culture of teaching and learning."

The book was wonderfully frustrating for me. In a cover-quoted review Michael Wesch writes, and I agree, that there "is nothing like a great question to send you on a rich and meaningful quest for learning. A great question forces us to challenge our most taken for granted beliefs and threatens to uproot our most deeply rooted habits.Who owns the learning? is one of those great questions." At the same time, while Alan's thesis and his terrific stories are such powerful arguments for self-directed learning and agency-driven education, he would sometimes so weaken these ideas that I would find myself having to re-read sentences in the book to make sure I'd read them correctly. He talks about "the link between student achievement and ownership of the learning experience," but it turns out this is part of a description of students making Animoto videos. OK, yes, they "owned that," but I was expecting more. Or then he describes bringing students to staff development meeting to help implement new technologies. Yes, of course, this is great, but it's not students really owning their own learning.

I ask myself these same kinds of question when I hear people talk about "student voice" when what they mean is input into the existing system. That is participation, but it's participation in a certain constrained way that I'm not sure it qualifies as self-direction or even moving in that direction. I really do like Alan's "Digital Learning Farm" model described in the book, but while he claims that it represents a shift of control and that "the revolution has started," I think more accurately it represents a partial shift of control, and I'm not sure that's really a revolution. When he talks about purpose being "one of the most powerful motivators of high-quality work, " he follows that up by describing "the jobs we can create for our students."

These are quibbles, however, for a book that brings up peer and social learning and says things, in our day of test-driven accountability, like, "students want an equal voice in directing their own learning." Yes, hurrah, let's talk about this! I hope you'll join us for what promises to be a terrific conversation.

See you online!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
http://www.stevehargadon.com

Date: Monday, February 18th, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording and an audio mp3 recording will be available after the show here and at http://www.futureofeducation.com
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/23354.

(From NovemberLearning.com) Alan November is an international leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. While Alan was a computer science teacher in Lexington, MA, he was probably the first teacher in the world to have a student project on line in 1984, a database for the handicapped. He has been director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant and university lecturer. He has helped schools, governments and industry leaders improve the quality of education through technology.

Alan was named one of the nation's fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Technology and Learning Magazine. In 2001, he was listed one of eight educators to provide leadership into the future by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. In 2007 he was selected to speak at the Cisco Public Services Summit during the Nobel Prize Festivities in Stockholm, Sweden. His writing includes numerous articles and two best-selling books, Empowering Students with Technology and Web Literacy for Educators. Alan was co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology and is most proud of being selected as one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe Educators.

Each summer Alan leads the Building Learning Communities summer conference with world-class presenters and international participants. Visit http://novemberlearning.com/blc for more details.

Visit Classroom 2.0 at: http://www.classroom20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

 
To control which emails you receive on Classroom 2.0, click here

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Exercise and performance (@letstalkschool)

Let's Talk Schools (@letstalkschool)
Study links exercise to improved concentration in school. Forget test prep...ride a bike! bit.ly/VGvHPV fb.me/DwfB1s4d

This link has been well-documented in the last decade, now we need to be sure that policy-makers get the message. 


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Friday, February 15, 2013

Reading! (@slyssymarshall)

Shary Lyssy Marshall (@slyssymarshall)
Ten Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading in Students edut.to/Va1N6J via @edutopia #litchat #lieracy #edchat

This may seem new, but middle school educators have known (and lived) this for decades. 

- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Fwd: A fun and easy way to help out a Spotlight School!



From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: February 14, 2013, 10:14:31 AM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: A fun and easy way to help out a Spotlight School!
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

February 14, 2013 - NELMS Weekly Blast
nelms logo

Vote Daily Please!

John F. Kennedy Middle School in Natick, MA, one of our Spotlight Schools, has entered a contest and out of 1600 applicants they came in the top 15. Now the finalists are in the running for $70,000 in technology. We are asking that you:
1. Click on this link
2. Register your email address and vote DAILY
3. *** (Important) Go back to your email and click on the link from "no reply at samsung" to confirm your vote
They appreciate your vote. Samsung will award an additional $70,000 in technology to the top 4 schools based on merit. A lucky 5th school will be awarded $70,000 based on votes received. They have already won $40,000 for making it to the finals and need your votes daily.

Vote Now - Public Voting Closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, March 4, 2013!

Please don't forget to vote daily and send this link to any of your family and friends that would be willing to help us out.
Both the students and teachers at Kennedy Middle School put a lot of work into this project and we are really proud of them.

Upcoming Events

Examining Depth of Knowledge in Math with the Common Core
to Create Common Understanding

Birchland Park Middle School, East Longmeadow, MA

March 7, 2013 — 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Click here for more info and/or to register.

 

NHAMLE Annual Education Summit!
Connecting with Technology

March 8, 2013

Plymouth State University, Concord Campus

2 Pillsbury Street, Concord NH, 5th Floor

Click here for more information and/or to register

 

32nd Annual Conference
April 4 & 5, 2013
RI Convention Center, Providence, RI

Keynote speakers
Carol Ann Tomlinson & Tom Burton 2012 AC cover

Descriptions of Keynote Sessions

Click here to go to the keynote sessions page.

Descriptions of Ticketed Keynote Lunches

Click here to go to the keynote luncheons page.

Descriptions of Ticketed "Featured Topics" Sessions

You can find the codes for "Featured Topics" here. You will need these codes for completing your registration.
Click here to go to the ticketed sessions page.

Registration Forms

Click here for a static registration form. You will need to print this out and mail or fax it to NELMS. Use this form if you are paying by check or with a purchase order.

Online registration form will be here soon.

For an interactive pdf registration form click here. You can fill it out online and when you hit the submit button it will send an e-mail using your default e-mail application with a secure attachment containing your information. You will not be able to open the .fdf but we will match it to the form and register you for the conference. You can also save the pdf to retain a copy of the form for your records. If you are having problems submitting the form or want more information click here.

For the latest version of Acrobat Reader click here.

Prices for the 2013 Annual Conference
Same price as last year!

chart of ac 2013 costs

 

 

NHAMLE Annual Education Summit!
Connecting with Technology

March 8, 2013

Annual Conference
April 4 & 5, 2013

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

facebook logo


 

You are currently subscribed to nelms as: gary@hackscience.net
Add nelms@nelms.org to your email address book to ensure delivery
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Net Atlantic

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Tweet from AMLE (@AMLEnews)

AMLE (@AMLEnews)
Great tools for schools! Social Media in Education: Resource Roundup ow.ly/hGCcN via @edutopia #midleved

Download the official Twitter app here


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Tweet from Wesley Fryer, Ph.D. (@wfryer)

Wesley Fryer, Ph.D. (@wfryer)
The request for proposals for the @oksde summer conference (Jul 9-11) #vision2020 is open & due March 1st wfryer.me/2nn #fb

Download the official Twitter app here


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Tweet from Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne)

Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne)
Explore a Virtual Human Heart on Your iPad ow.ly/hDHXc

Download the official Twitter app here


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Monday, February 11, 2013

Writing.... (@Michelle_Mazur)

Michelle Mazur, Ph.D (@Michelle_Mazur)
The Art Of Writing For The Web goo.gl/xXwNq via @CarolLynnRivera

Hmmm... This makes me wonder about curriculum and instruction and communication. Do those who post on school web sites understand these points? Do we help our students develop strategies so these aspects of reading are in their radar and they accommodate their reading? Do we introduce these aspects of writing and differentiate writing for the page and writing for the display?


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Tweet from NYT Science (@nytimesscience)

NYT Science (@nytimesscience)
Television Review: 'Bang Goes the Theory' on BBC America nyti.ms/Yl4iy6

I don't have access to BBC America during the week... I wish I did so that I could check out thus program. 


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Fwd: Coming Events from NELMS and beyond



- Dr. Gary Ackerman


Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: February 7, 2013, 12:41:46 PM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Coming Events from NELMS and beyond
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

February 7, 2013 - NELMS Weekly Blast
nelms logo

Upcoming Events

Examining Depth of Knowledge in Math with the Common Core
to Create Common Understanding

March 7, 2013 — 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Birchland Park Middle School, East Longmeadow, MA

Click here for more info and/or to register.

 

NHAMLE Annual Education Summit!
Connecting with Technology

March 8, 2013

Plymouth State University, Concord Campus

2 Pillsbury Street, Concord NH, 5th Floor

Click here for more information and/or to register

 

32nd Annual Conference
April 4 & 5, 2013
RI Convention Center, Providence, RI

Keynote speakers
Carol Ann Tomlinson & Tom Burton 2012 AC cover

Descriptions of Keynote Sessions

Click here to go to the keynote sessions page.

Descriptions of Ticketed Keynote Lunches

Click here to go to the keynote luncheons page.

Descriptions of Ticketed "Featured Topics" Sessions

You can find the codes for "Featured Topics" here. You will need these codes for completing your registration.
Click here to go to the ticketed sessions page.

Registration Forms

Click here for a static registration form. You will need to print this out and mail or fax it to NELMS. Use this form if you are paying by check or with a purchase order.

Online registration form will be here soon.

For an interactive pdf registration form click here. You can fill it out online and when you hit the submit button it will send an e-mail using your default e-mail application with a secure attachment containing your information. You will not be able to open the .fdf but we will match it to the form and register you for the conference. You can also save the pdf to retain a copy of the form for your records. If you are having problems submitting the form or want more information click here.

For the latest version of Acrobat Reader click here.

 

 

Prices for the 2013 Annual Conference
Same price as last year!

chart of ac 2013 costs

 

 

NHAMLE Annual Education Summit!
Connecting with Technology

March 8, 2013

Annual Conference
April 4 & 5, 2013

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

facebook logo


 

You are currently subscribed to nelms as: gary@hackscience.net
Add nelms@nelms.org to your email address book to ensure delivery
Forward to a Friend  |  Manage Subscription  |   Subscribe  |   Unsubscribe
Net Atlantic

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Tweet from Chris Sousa (@csousanh)

Chris Sousa (@csousanh)
"@nhmidleveled: Great PD op in Concord NH. Learn to use & teach connective technologies! Connect you & your students nhamle.org/PDFs/2013%20su… #"

Download the official Twitter app here


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Tweet from Adobe Education Team (@AdobeEdu)

Adobe Education Team (@AdobeEdu)
Creativity isn't an elective, it's our future! adobe.ly/USafVA How do you better educate through creativity? #CreateNowEDU #Education

Apologies for ousting a commercial, but the message if this is spot-on. 

Given what we know about physical activity and the creative endeavors featured in this video, it is time that our students get up and active for their core courses and the traditional academic sit and listen and read and answer should be relegated to the few periods once reserved for PE and art and music. 


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tweet from edutopia (@edutopia)

edutopia (@edutopia)
New! Creating a Family Media Agreement: How to Have the Conversation edut.to/XgHX5H #DLD2013 #ptchat #parenting

This list of questions provides an excellent starting place for families in which the youngsters are beginning to take control of their media lives. This came across my inbox on the same day that I had a copier-room conversation with a colleague whose daughter (in fifth grade) had activated her first cell phone over the weekend. 

My colleague seems to be on the right track in her family as she described how she had had similar conversations with her daughter before they headed off to purchase the phone. 


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Fwd: New: The Best of Social Media

An interesting collection of links are contained here.

- Dr. Gary Ackerman


Begin forwarded message:

From: Powerful Learning Practice <sherylnbeach@gmail.com>
Date: February 5, 2013, 2:29:39 PM EST
To: Gary <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: New: The Best of Social Media
Reply-To: Powerful Learning Practice <sherylnbeach@gmail.com>

New: The Best of Social Media
The best of what's online this week.
View this email in your browser

Hi there!

We're trying a little something new, and we hope you'll like it! Each week we'll be sending out "The Best of Social Media" - a great way to catch up on things you might have missed on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or other places around the net. The content might be funny, poignant, informative, or just for fun.

Without further ado, here's what we liked this week.

Amanda KruegerAmanda Krueger
Social Media Strategist
Powerful Learning Practice

 



A Pep Talk From Kid President - "We were made to be awesome."


Everyone and their brother were sharing this fantastic video from SoulPancake (Rainn Wilson's - AKA Dwight from The Office - humanity project). 

A Pep Talk from Kid President to You
Watch the Video
***** 86851 ratings8,030,461 views


Be More Interested Than Interesting


 I have been reflecting a ton on the purpose of social media to me – both professionally and personally.  I have been thinking about HOW I read online (unfortunately, often just scan) and HOW I interact with others. I have been thinking about the purpose of social media as it pertains to my learning and my life.  I have altered the amount of time I spend learning from and with others online. Read more

Hat tip to @ L_Hilt for sharing this one.


Photo credit: Discovery Education on Facebook

How Can Teachers Prepare Kids for a Connected World?

One of the biggest challenges for teachers attempting to implement PLAY's pedagogy is letting go of some of the control that teachers are taught to maintain over their classrooms. A teacher-centered approach can stifle the creative, experimental, and sometimes accidental learning that can be transformative.

"What we hear a lot is teachers describing our approaches as messy, as getting out of control," Jenkins said. "But the teachers who let it get a little messy are finding something very powerful." Read more

Eight Things Skilled Teachers Think, Say, and Do


Even if we can't always think, say, and do the ideal thing to strengthen struggling students' motivation, there's always something we can do to meet them halfway. We can try our best. Read more

How Minecraft is Teaching a Generation About Teamwork & the Environment


minecraftIts building mechanic is simple – break a block, and most of the time, you'll get a block to place. Placing blocks becomes a LEGO-esque activity, and immediately the game's appeal to the world's youth is obvious. But it's not just about allowing them to put things together however they like – Minecraft has the potential to teach children quite a considerable amount about interacting with others, and how to treat their environment. Read more

New app to try: Vine


From the Vine blog: Vine is a new mobile service from Twitter that lets you create and share beautiful, short looping videos. With Vine, capturing life in motion is fun and easy.

Posts on Vine are about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger. They're little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life. They're quirky, and we think that's part of what makes them so special. Read more and see examples!

Think of it like Instagram for sharing short, looped videos. It's fun and easy to use! Plus, it's free, worldwide for the iPhone and iPod touch. Available in the app store. 

See you next week!

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