Fwd: Weekly e-mail blast from NELMS

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: January 30, 2014 at 11:13:25 AM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Weekly e-mail blast from NELMS
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

For more information and/or to register click here.

Keys to Literacy - The ANSWER KEY Routine for Extended Response

February 5, 2014
Holiday Inn Enfield/Springfield–Enfield, CT

For more information and/or to register click here.

Here is what attendees were saying after the "SOLD OUT" January 9 - Key Writing Routine event:

The quality of the presentation was excellent and provided clarification of many critical issues surrounding argument and its implementation.

This was the best PD I've ever attended. More "take-away" than I've ever experienced.

Plethora of strategies, usable templates, activities, and ideas I will definitely use. Shauna was an excellent presenter! Relevant examples and great analogies. Evident she is knowledgeable and in classrooms.

Shauna is the most effective presenter I have seen. She provides relevant examples and answers questions. She gave quality suggestions and has the ability to control a group well. She has made me interested in what else "Keys" has to offer.

Excellent support materials. This is the first PD where I am starting to understand argument writing.

Plans for Scheduling Workshop

NELMS is planning a Middle Level Scheduling Workshop for February. Interested in attending? Please email at mjfawcett@nelms.org.

Have you remembered to renew your NELMS Membership?

Whether you would like to renew your NELMS membership or join NELMS for the first time you can get the information you need by clicking here!

 

 

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

©2012 New England League of Middle Schools.. All Rights Reserved

 

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Tweet from AMLE (@AMLE)

	AMLE (@AMLE)
1/27/14, 10:05 AM AMLE Leadership Institutes offer in-depth training for middle grades leaders & help you build a community of practice ow.ly/sZiTf

Download the official Twitter app here

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Libraries

	Pew Internet (@pewinternet)
1/24/14, 8:02 AM 10 facts about Americans and public libraries: pewrsr.ch/1aPI3HN #alamw14

This wonderful tweet from the Pew researchers shows libraries are still an important part of life. The conclusions of these reports seem contrary to the unfortunate decisions I have seen school leaders making recently. 

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Fwd: Weekly blast from NELMS

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: January 23, 2014 at 10:50:02 AM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Weekly blast from NELMS
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

For more information and/or to register click here.

Keys to Literacy - The ANSWER KEY Routine for Extended Response

February 5, 2014
Holiday Inn Enfield/Springfield–Enfield, CT

For more information and/or to register click here.

Here is what attendees were saying after the "SOLD OUT" January 9 - Key Writing Routine event:

The quality of the presentation was excellent and provided clarification of many critical issues surrounding argument and its implementation.

This was the best PD I've ever attended. More "take-away" than I've ever experienced.

Plethora of strategies, usable templates, activities, and ideas I will definitely use. Shauna was an excellent presenter! Relevant examples and great analogies. Evident she is knowledgeable and in classrooms.

Shauna is the most effective presenter I have seen. She provides relevant examples and answers questions. She gave quality suggestions and has the ability to control a group well. She has made me interested in what else "Keys" has to offer.

Excellent support materials. This is the first PD where I am starting to understand argument writing.

Plans for Scheduling Workshop

NELMS is planning a Middle Level Scheduling Workshop for early February. Interested in attending? Please email at mjfawcett@nelms.org.

Have you remembered to renew your NELMS Membership?

Whether you would like to renew your NELMS membership or join NELMS for the first time you can get the information you need by clicking here!

 

 

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

©2012 New England League of Middle Schools.. All Rights Reserved

 

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

21 st Century "no photo list"

Educators have been taking pictures in their classrooms for generations. I still have a copy of the VHS tape my team made to share with incoming students more than 25 years ago!

For just as long, there has been "no photo" lists kept by school administrators, so that those students whose parents did not want their children photographed at school could express those desires. Whenever I prepare images for school web sites, I always consult the list when reviewing my pictures.

The issue of parents taking and posting images is becoming a problem that I am asked about with increased frequency. The scenario is consistent: parents are invited to the school for a "non-public" event (concerts, games, and similar events are different), and they take photos that are posted to FaceBook or other public sites. Students on the no-photo list may be in those pictures, and the problem may be made worse if they tag students who are in the photos.

Clearly the solution is not to prevent parents and other visitors from taking pictures. I am beginning to recommend teachers say "if you take and share pictures today, please respect students' privacy by not tagging any children in the photos other than your own."

This seems a lesson worth teaching students also: let others control their identity by not tagging.


-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

iPad becomes document camera

An art teacher colleague asked if I had a document camera available. She wanted to demonstrate to her students the day's project without the need to crowd around her (you can imagine the distractions).

Although I did not have a document camera, we did have an iPad with a VGA adapter and a projector. Over a weekend, my son and I made a trip to the hardware store and spent a couple of hours in the garage with a modest collection of power tools. The result if our brainstorming (and a failed prototype that I designed) was this:

Fwd: Events and news from NELMS

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: January 15, 2014 at 10:48:02 AM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Events and news from NELMS
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

Happy New Year!

For more information and/or to register click here.

Keys to Literacy - The ANSWER KEY Routine for Extended Response

February 5, 2014
Holiday Inn Enfield/Springfield–Enfield, CT

For more information and/or to register click here.

Here is what attendees were saying after the "SOLD OUT" January 9 - Key Writing Routine event:

The quality of the presentation was excellent and provided clarification of many critical issues surrounding argument and its implementation.

This was the best PD I've ever attended. More "take-away" than I've ever experienced.

Plethora of strategies, usable templates, activities, and ideas I will definitely use. Shauna was an excellent presenter! Relevant examples and great analogies. Evident she is knowledgeable and in classrooms.

Shauna is the most effective presenter I have seen. She provides relevant examples and answers questions. She gave quality suggestions and has the ability to control a group well. She has made me interested in what else "Keys" has to offer.

Excellent support materials. This is the first PD where I am starting to understand argument writing.

Plans for Scheduling Workshop

NELMS is planning a Middle Level Scheduling Workshop for early February. Interested in attending? Please email at mjfawcett@nelms.org.

Have you remembered to renew your NELMS Membership?

Whether you would like to renew your NELMS membership or join NELMS for the first time you can get the information you need by clicking here!

 

 

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

©2012 New England League of Middle Schools.. All Rights Reserved

 

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

Computing with empathy

m.wgbhnews.org/#mobile/19848?utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FjCfYsvqacZ

A computer solution to reducing cyber bullying. 

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Cyberbullying (@mmuir)

	Mike Muir (@mmuir)
1/11/14, 7:35 AM What teachers, parents, & students need to know about cyber bullying. edudemic.com/cyberbullying/

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Fwd: Happy New Year from NELMS!

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: January 9, 2014 at 8:48:26 AM EST
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Happy New Year from NELMS!
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

Happy New Year!

Brochures were mailed to schools last week so keep a lookout for them.
For more information and/or to register click here.

Plans for Scheduling Workshop

NELMS is planning a Middle Level Scheduling Workshop for early February. Interested in attending? Please email at mjfawcett@nelms.org.

 

Keys to Literacy - Keys to Argument Writing

Sold out! Thanks to all those attending.

January 9, 2014
Holiday Inn Enfield/Springfield–Enfield, CT

For more information and/or to register click here.

Keys to Literacy - The ANSWER KEY Routine for Extended Response

February 5, 2014
Holiday Inn Enfield/Springfield–Enfield, CT

For more information and/or to register click here.

Have you remembered to renew your NELMS Membership?

Whether you would like to renew your NELMS membership or join NELMS for the first time you can get the information you need by clicking here!

 

 

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

©2012 New England League of Middle Schools.. All Rights Reserved

 

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

Contemplating the future of school IT

An interesting conversation has been on-going in the last week among the IT coordinators in Vermont schools. For a generation, we have been installing increasingly sophisticated networks in our schools. Users are authenticated by server software that costs hundreds of dollars to obtain and a dedicated network administrator to maintain, we store and back-up gigabytes (now terabytes) of data, we manage software through the centralized servers, and otherwise manage access through these systems.

As cloud computing becomes more common and less expensive, many are finding that educational functions can be accomplished without the demands of incredibly expensive local infrastructure.

Several years ago, Nicholas Carr wrote The Big Switch in which he argued that computing would undergo a switch similar to that observed in electricity production. Originally, electricity was generated at local sites--if you owned a factory, you employed a technician to operate and manage your generator. Over time, electricity production was centralized in power plants and homes, businesses, and schools "plugged in" to the grid, pulling only that electricity that was necessary.

Conversations among my colleagues suggest this model of plugging in to centralized computing is coming closer to reality for many schools. Once it is accepted in schools, and cloud computing becomes a common experience, we an expect it to become the accepted way of computing for everyone.

Link from Twitter

www.eschoolnews.com/2014/01/01/future-of-education-493/2

Looks like real middle schools are the future of education!

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Tweet from AMLE (@AMLE)

	AMLE (@AMLE)
1/3/14, 2:06 PM Join AMLE and Carol Ann Tomlinson, 1/8, 3p ET for a free member webinar on differentiating instruction in the middle. ow.ly/sfyaM

Download the official Twitter app here

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

Tweet from WIRED Science (@wiredscience)

	WIRED Science (@wiredscience)
1/3/14, 12:00 PM These are the most mind-blowing space photos of 2013 wrd.cm/1hm18bM pic.twitter.com/1oSE06MLpH

I'm not sure this has anything to do with middle school other than understanding the value of Twitter content as a valuable teaching resource. 

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.

"Robs them of a well-rounded education...."

NPR has featured several well-done pieces on education recently. The January 2 Morning Edition included a five-minute story on the Common Core and the extreme focus on testing (begun under No Child Left Behind) as the sole measure of "success."

Critics Say Schools' Common Core Standards 

Rollout Is Rushed

A telling moment in the story is the statement by a superintendent from North Carolina who summarizes NCLB/ CCSS education: "You teach, you test. You re-teach, you test." The NPR reporter captures the criticism that many educators and parents level at that education: "a test-driven reform that stresses kids out and robs them of a well-rounded education."

Perhaps we can begin to be optimistic that this dark period in education is beginning to end. In the news we hear of push-back against the excessive testing. Educational scholars are building the case for assessment that is meaningful and that captures growth in a well-rounded education.

CREATING SYSTEMS OF ASSESSMENT FOR DEEPER LEARNING

Authenticity is what appears to be most missing form the NCLB/ CCSS and similar initiatives. If all curriculum is built upon contrived problems with no real connection to the outside world, then the learning will be context-specific. Students will learn in the isolation of the classroom, and that is not what our children need. School that gives them experience wrestling with complex problems will be preparing them for the unpredictable future.

To me learning is increasingly demonstrated by application and extension. The student who "passes" on a test or a contrived problem, but who then cannot successfully "pass" when the same skill or knowledge is needed (and ostensibly used) in another situation, has not learned. How do we encourage learning that is applicable and extendable?

• Teach skills in the context of a meaningful (to the student) project;
• Teach "why" as much as "how;"
• Value and honor learning that is demonstrated in real-life, not just tests.