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"Of Particular Interest" Archives!

TEACHING SECRETS: CULTURAL COMPETENCY
What is the most effective path for working with students who come from backgrounds different than your own? Middle grades instructional coach Elena Aguilar offers her ideas in this recent Teacher Magazine article titled "When the Kids Don't Share Your Culture." Aguilar's 13 tips will be of interest not only to new teachers but to all who work with children in multi-cultural classrooms.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF WRITING
The second annual National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English, will be celebrated October 20, 2010. In preparation, NCTE is collecting a vast sample of writing from across America at the companion National Gallery of Writing, a virtual space "where people who perhaps have never thought of themselves as writers -- mothers, bus drivers, fathers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, sanitation workers, stockbrokers -- select and post writing that is important to them." The Gallery welcomes submissions of all types in many formats and includes a Local Partner Gallery with works from writers in classroom and schools, clubs, workplaces, cities, etc. Learn more about the Day on Writing.

USING TWITTER FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
For many people, the Twitter social networking software conjures up the worst of the Internet: trivial messages peppered with unrecognizable abbreviations, all packed into 140 characters. And yet, as this recent article at Edutopia reveals, many teachers are using "tweets" to extend their personal learning networks -- accessing and sharing resources in their subject or specialty areas. Author Betty Ray offers several examples of educationally focused chats and includes all the how-to you need to put Twitter to work for you. Also see this profile of a tweeting Oregon teacher.

DESIGNING A "WHOLE CHILD" MIDDLE SCHOOL
If a school were designed from the ground up with the whole child in mind, what would it look and feel like? This recent article in ASCD's Education Update newsletter tells of a rapidly growing Illinois community that seized the opportunity to create a second middle school that addresses "the unique challenges of grade 6-8 students' entire learning experience." From structural layout to instructional design, Carriel Junior High is doing things differently.

MATH: THE LEMONADE STAND
Students can apply math skills while they develop a bit of business acumen with the newest version of the Lemonade Stand Game, available at no charge from Coolmath. The goal is to make as much money as possible in a 7, 14 or 30-day period. Students make decisions about pricing, quality control, inventory management, and purchasing supplies. They also have to deal with a big variable -- the weather -- which influences customers' buying decisions. It's self-paced and just complicated enough to intrigue kids (and adults).

BLOG: THE LIBRARIAN'S GUIDE TO GAMING
Susie Highley, a middle grades media specialist in Indiana, alerted me to this blog resource developed by Chris Harris, a librarian in upstate New York. "There are some great resources as you go across the top menu bar," she says. Harris describes it as an "online toolkit for building gaming at your library" and offers a strong defense for "playing games" should critics appear. Look at Tools & Resources for lots of interesting links. How might school library folks leverage these ideas?

ADVICE FOR THE NEW SCIENCE TEACHER
If you're a new science teacher -- or know someone who is -- you'll benefit from the advice of expert Anne Jolly as she recalls her own puzzlement when she first started teaching in a middle school science classroom. Jolly, a former Alabama Teacher of the Year, emphasizes the importance of engaging middle schoolers through inquiry learning, which must begin by teaching them a critical skill: how to work effectively in small groups. Jolly even provides her email address for follow-up questions.

MEDIA LITERACY: INTERACTIVE RESOURCES
Media literacy guru Frank W. Baker offers some favorite interactive web resources that can help teachers engage students in becoming savvy travelers through the media avalanche that engulfs us each day. Among his intriguing choices is the high-concept Admongo video game, developed by Scholastic and the Federal Trade Commission to increase the advertising literacy of tweens. Who makes ads? How do they work? What do they want you to do? A series of graphically pleasing games helps students find answers.

LESSON PLANNING: THE SUMMER SPRUCE-UP
Marsha Ratzel, a National Board certified middle grades teacher, describes the process she uses to spruce up her lesson plans during summer break in this recent Teacher Magazine article. Her tweaks can include more student engagement, some technology tie-ins, better scaffolding or improved assessment -- but it all gets done "in two-hour chunks about once a week so I don't burn out." Subscribers will recognize Marsha as a frequent contributor to this newsletter. As usual, she provides the kind of detail about her thinking and processes that fellow teachers want to see.

ARE YOU A TECH-SAVVY TEACHER?
Edutopia's 10-question quiz promises to tell you whether tech tools are improving your teaching "or just a distraction" by ranking you on a technology integration scale. That's a lot to promise, but there's also the offer of "smart tips to extend your tech comfort zone." We tried it out and found the tips (which are really, resources you can follow up on) pretty useful if you're serious about getting beyond newbie or "old school" status.

COOL SITES: NOT JUST GREAT SCIENCE RESOURCES
Way back in the prehistoric days of the Internet (1995), the San Francisco Exploratorium began surfing for good websites in the learning museum's areas of interest (which are wide and deep). The monthly service, now known simply as "10 Cool Sites," includes a categorical archive that allows teachers and other curious human beings to browse well over a thousand selections. A sample of June's offerings hints at the diversity: SmartHistory (art); NASA JPL: Cassini Equinox Mission; a historical timeline of chemical science; a site created by precocious Genna where tweens contribute stories and story ideas; and a "computational knowledge engine" that will excite any math/science nerd. Even E/LA teachers can have fun. Try the phrase "tortoise and hare."

LEARNING WITH GAMES
If you're interested in the possibilities of games and learning, find time over the summer to check out this 10-minute interview with Katie Salen, a professor of design and technology interested in how play can empower kids to learn. Salen offers her rationale for investing classroom time to engage students in games (digital or old-fashioned) -- both as players and designers. She also has ideas about using games to help with assessments of learning. Salen is the founder of the Institute of Play, which operates a NYC public charter school built around gaming.

SHARING GOOD TEACHING IN THE "LAB" CLASSROOM
District curriculum leader Lisa Houk introduces her school system's "Lab Classroom" professional development model, which makes it possible for teachers to travel to each other's classrooms to observe and discuss best practices in action. It's brain-based adult learning that's job-embedded, collaborative and non-threatening. Read this article in the summer online issue of Educational Leadership to find out what Houk and her colleagues are learning about the essential ingredients of success in such a model.

ONLINE WAREHOUSE: STUDENT S.T.E.M. PROJECTS
Science educator Katie Klinger offers up a good middle grades science fair story in this Edutopia article introducing "STEMTube," a new website where students can share their project work in science, technology, engineering and math through photos and video clips. It's a grassroots effort to create a place where students, families and teachers can find new project inspiration and excitement.

SIX WAYS TO MAKE LEARNING TEAMS WORK
Here's a hot article from Education Week - it was the most-clicked resource in the ASCD SmartBrief daily newsletter for the week ending July 2. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future looked at lots of recent research on effective teaching and teacher retention and came to several conclusions: (1) Teachers' day to day work continues to be disconnected from their colleagues; (2) The young people we are counting on to teach for the future are leaving our obsolete schools at an alarming rate; and (3) Today's teachers want to team up to teach for the future. "In survey after survey, teachers who are most satisfied with their careers and the contributions they are making to their students' lives are more likely to work in schools with higher levels of professional collaboration."

HISTORY WORLD
The tagline for the History World website reads: "More than 1,000,000 words on world history in linked narratives." One of our favorite sources, The Internet Scout, brings back this report: "Have you ever wished you knew more about the American Revolution, Marco Polo, or sea warfare? Well if you have, this site makes it simple to find out. We appreciated how easy it was to navigate, and how accessible the information was to find and understand. One million words of history can seem a bit daunting, but not when it is divided into 300 narratives and 10,000 events. The site also offers a set of quizzes, which include a timer for a bit of extra drama." We love historical dramas.

SOME DISTRICTS GIVING UP M.S. IDEALS
A recent story in the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported on some nearby Illinois school districts that are "reverting to the junior-high model, rather than the middle-school model, in an effort to save money." Others, the newspaper says, are adopting hybrid models but abandoning enrichment programs, smaller class sizes and team teaching that were signatures of the middle school concept. The switch will allow districts to eliminate teaching positions in the face of state budget shortfalls. Says one district business manager: "Educationally that's a mistake, but financially this is a requirement. The state has no idea the damage they are doing to these kids."

OIL SPILL CRISIS: KIDS AT WORK
Many middle school students are deeply concerned about the Gulf oil spill crisis and are becoming acutely aware of the need to become environmental activists. Edutopia, the excellent education site supported by the George Lucas Foundation, has put together this page of resources, highlighting many ways that young people are (or can) get involved with scientists and others committed to protecting the environment. Lots of ideas for the next school year -- or summer programs.

THE TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP BALANCE
What is the relationship balance in a classroom? Where is that exact point at which students feel cared for but also know that they must respect the teacher and they are expected to learn? Middle grades educator Cindi Rigsbee, a 2009 national teacher of the year finalist, shares her insights about "The Relationship Balance" in the new summer edition of Educational Leadership. It's a web-only issue with the theme "Good Teaching in Action," that includes interesting articles for newbies and veterans alike. Another must-read: "The Best Teachers I Have Known."

ELL STUDENTS: WHAT PRINCIPALS NEED TO KNOW
"When schools are set up with teams, professional learning communities, and block scheduling, a great deal can be done to ensure the success of ELLs," says this article from a recent issue of NASSP's Middle Level Leader. Providing ELLs and their teachers with an effective program, writes teacher and clinician Courtney George, "requires that school leaders understand some of the basics about second language acquisition theory as well as how structural changes at the school level can provide teachers and kids with the support they need and deserve." George summarizes the current research and program approaches and offers two student scenarios to frame her message.

TEACHING SECRETS: HANG ON TO THE MAGIC
New teacher mentor Gail Tillery is an honorary Friend of MiddleWeb. She's high school-based, but her frequent writings about teacher practice and the teaching life contain wisdom for all secondary teachers (6-12). In this recent Teacher Magazine article, "Teaching Secrets: Hang on to the Magic," Gail offers novice teachers eight ideas about how they can -- in these difficult times for schools -- defy the odds and hang on to the excitement and enthusiasm for working with young people that first attracted them to teaching. Come to think of it, this bracing article might be just the thing for weary veterans, too.

STUDENTS AS "PATIENT PROBLEM SOLVERS"
Dan Meyer is a high school math teacher, but his presentation at a recent TED Talks event will resonate with middle grades math teachers as well -- and with many other educators who understand what Meyer means when he says we're breeding a generation "impatient with irresolution." Meyer urges us to help grow "patient problem solvers" in our classrooms by engaging kids more deeply in math and other content. In this 11-minute clip, Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think. Again, you don't need to be a math teacher to enjoy and learn from this video. Take it from an English major.

PLACE-BASED PODCASTING
Middle grades students at an Oregon school combined place-based learning with some 21st century skills development when they created podcasts as part of their study of a local streetcar line that used to operate near their school. The student recordings, says this news story, are posted on the website of the regional transportation planning agency, which is considering reviving the original line.

SUMMER SCHOOL MATH: CRIME SOLVING
It's tough enough to engage kids in math during the regular school year. But in the summer? Missouri fifth grade teacher Sharon Jacoby devised her own solution: a "Sherlock Holmes" math course that has her captive audience solving mysteries using math skills. Jacoby was inspired by the book "Using Math to Solve a Crime."

SCHOOLS STILL EXPLORING SINGLE-GENDER CLASSES
A Virginia school district will pilot single-gender classrooms in grades 6-8 during the coming school year. The focus will be on core academic classes. While some groups question whether such approaches "prepare students for the real, coed world of work and family," school and district leaders cite research evidence and their own experience in defending a practice they say can help some students flourish who might not otherwise.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET REALLY GOOD?
At the Fires in the Mind site, sponsored by What Kids Can Do, young people are sharing stories about their own efforts to get really good at something -- from ballroom dancing and skateboarding to developing mathematical thinking and good study habits. As always, WKCD provides the authentic voices of a diverse cross-section of American youth -- a precious commodity. And they've included mindful ideas for teachers and parents to start some fires of their own. The site asks: "Do kids have to be born with talent to shine at math or chess or debate or cello? What draws them in, and keeps them going when things get harder? What's happening at school--or not happening--to light the fires in young people's minds?"

ALL-STAR COLLECTION OF NEW-TEACHER RESOURCES
For the past five years and more, we've been collecting the best new-teacher web resources we can find in a special spot at the MiddleWeb site. Among the treasures to be found there are nearly two dozen "Teaching Secrets" articles written by middle school folks for Teacher Magazine. (It requires free registration to access these, but it's well worth the effort.) Some other recent additions to our collection include ideas for new math and science teachers; and real-life videos from a U.K. series for novices. There's even advice straight from a particularly insightful student.

SUMMER REJUVENATION GUIDE
Edutopia's "summer rejuvenation guide" for educators is a fun and potentially useful read. The "10 Tips to Help You Relax, Reflect, and Recharge for the Coming School Year" emphasize activities and resources available via the Internet. But you'll also find suggestions for good summer reading and even some professional get-away ideas (although most require advance planning. Start now for Summer 2011?)

FREE-READING MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
Donalyn Miller, known for her book and blog titled The Book Whisperer, was chosen a Smart Blogger by the ASCD SmartBrief e-newsletter last week. In the highlighted post, Miller reflected on the favorite books read by her middle schoolers over the past school year. "Miller's free-choice reading environment," the editors wrote, "helped propel students' reading growth as they selected longer, more complex titles and found themselves exploring and preferring new and more diverse books." Student favorites included two by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson & the Olympians series), an author who not too many years ago was (like Miller) a Texas middle school teacher. Other favorites among the sixth graders (who read an average of 57 books each) were The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

SOLUTIONS FOR THE ANTSY CLASSROOM
Not long ago we spotted a news story about an elementary school that replaced classroom chairs with fitness balls and found their youngsters were able to stay put long and concentrate better. Now comes a similar story about a solution for restless middle schoolers -- but this time, instead of bouncy balls, it's stand-up desks. In Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin (at least), some schools are replacing the standard classroom desk "with height-adjustable work stations that teachers hope will offer notorious fidgeters some relief for their antsy tendencies." Read this Associated Press story and click on the accompanying photos for a good look at the stand-up desks.

BLOG: MIDDLE SCHOOL 101
From time to time we feature a teacher blog that we think others will enjoy reading as much as we have. It's especially cool when teachers include details of their lessons and projects, as Megan Palevich does in her blog Middle School 101. She writes: "I've been teaching middle school for 15 years and am inspired every day by the students I teach. I am constantly seeking out meaningful and innovative ways to teach students to be better people and life-long learners." While her blog title might seem to suggest she has a novice audience in mind, there are plenty of good ideas for upperclassmen too.

MIDDLEWEB'S HOT LINKS
Summer is a great time to explore the MiddleWeb Hot Links archive. Each week we select an interesting item for the MiddleWeb homepage that doesn't appear here in the newsletter. You'll find an eclectic mix of topics and content areas, with an eye toward lesson planning. Recent entries include: the American History Image Collection; Money Math; Duke U's archive of TV advertising; historical children's books; secrets of an Egyptian tomb; a comprehensive kid-friendly site about the oceans, and ideas for better PowerPoints.

COLLECTIVE PRACTICE, QUALITY TEACHING
A 2009 study in North Carolina, looking at more than a decade of data, found that peer teacher collaboration has a notable effect on student achievement. So this latest issue of VUE magazine, published by the Annenberg Institute, is timely indeed. "Collective Practice, Quality Teaching" offers important articles by Susan Moore Johnson, Milbrey McLaughlin and others, including a trio of teachers from a K-8 charter in Rhode Island who describe a "pioneering collaboration" to grow student readers. Don't miss the thoughtful summary article about ways to sustain collaborative teacher practice. And if you'd like to check out that NC research, click here.

NEW TEACHERS: LET KIDS STRUGGLE
Veteran middle grades teacher Ellen Berg has sage advice for new and not-so-new teachers in this Teaching Secrets article at Teacher Magazine, "Don't Cripple with Compassion." Berg, an eighth grade language arts teacher in San Diego, had her personal aha moment about letting students struggle more with learning while attending a math conference, oddly enough. Berg offers a concrete example from her classroom describing how she's toughened up her teaching and the positive results she's seen.

WHAT WORKS: WRITING TO READ
A new report by Vanderbilt researchers summarizes key evidence that frequent, well-designed writing opportunities also help students improve their higher order reading skills. The authors of "Writing to Read," a project supported by Carnegie Corporation and the Alliance for Excellent Education, address three questions: Does writing about material students read enhance their reading comprehension? Does teaching writing strengthen students' reading skills? Does increasing how much students write improve how well they read? The report "comprehensively summarizes high-quality research using the powerful statistical method of meta-analysis (which) allows researchers to determine the consistency and strength of the effects of an instructional practice, and to highlight practices holding the most promise."

MIDDLEWEB BASICS: SCIENCE & MATH WEBSOURCE
The AMSER Science Reader Monthly is published in conjunction with the (very geekily named) Applied Math and Science Education Repository. It's a web service for teachers that collects online information about particular science and math topics. Recent issues have featured Food Chemistry, Nanotechnology Ethics, Forensic Science, Applied Mathematics, Meteorites & Geology, and Carbon Trading. It's an excellent and ever-growing collection from which we have been known to crib.

GIRLS & ADHD
Teacher referrals for attention deficit disorders overwhelming involve boys, says this short but fact-filled post at the ASCD Inservice blog. The reason, according to developmental pediatrician Patricia Quinn, is that "the model we use to describe and assess for ADHD doesn't really apply to girls." Quinn, the author of Attention Girls: A Guide to Learn All About Your ADHD, offers several clues to recognizing attention problems in the other half of the student population.

LITERATURE: MOCKINGBIRD ACTIVITIES
To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird, NCTE contributor and media literacy expert Frank Baker created this engaging "compare-and-contrast" activity, which invites students to analyze the images and text of paperback editions published over a half-century. And don't miss Baker's complete TKAM film study guide at his website.

THE SPIRIT OF ADVISORY ALL DAY LONG
Quality advisory programs consist "of much more than a period of time filled with activities," says veteran middle grades educator Theresa Hinkle in this recent article for NASSP's Middle Level Leader newsletter. As more middle schools abandon dedicated periods for "affective education," it's important for principal and teacher leaders to consider ways they can "incorporate the attitude of advisory" throughout the school day.

TEACHER CATALYSTS WANT YOU
Would you like to hang out at a place where "passionate educators challenge one another to propose sustainable solutions and structures for re-imagining schools and education, supporting one another to enact and refine the ideas"? If so, you're a perfect fit for Cooperative Catalyst, a new professional networking site created and led by teachers who are committed to creating schools that do not wound kids. Among the founders, interestingly, is Kirsten Olson, author of the 2009 best seller Wounded by School. The site is only three months old but there's already plenty of dialogue to sample and comment upon.

INNER-CITY MIDDLE SCHOOLS TO WATCH
Three inner-city Chicago schools were chosen as 2010 "Schools to Watch" by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, which uses stringent criteria to select programs around the nation deserving of attention and emulation. This link leads to a TV news report on the achievement. You can visit the National Forum website to find out more about the STW program - and about their June conference in Washington DC where these and other schools will share some of their strategies.

10 TO-DO's FOR NEW MIDDLE GRADES TEACHERS
Veteran middle school teacher Marsha Ratzel offers advice about things novice teachers should do BEFORE the first day with students. A math and science teacher in Blue Valley KS, Ratzel's article has already received more than 20,000 hits at the Teacher Magazine website. Her ideas range from the practical to the profound and are a must read – the sooner the better!

MAKE YOUR OWN COMICS
Here's a very clever no-cost website, designed specifically for students. The highly flexible, intuitive webtools make it easy to create 2-to-4 panel comic strips that might apply to most any content area, as well as to guidance activities (the site is called MakeBeliefsComixs). We had quite a bit of fun trying it out. It may feel a little 'young' for 8th graders but you'll be the judge of that. There are similar comix tools but this is one of the most versatile we've seen.

PD SOURCEBOOK: RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION
The spring issue of Professional Development Sourcebook is devoted to stories and resources about the Response to Intervention (RTI) model, which integrates assessment and intervention to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems. Among our favorite resources in this info-packed issue is the interview with middle grades teacher Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, and her Texas principal, describing how their school has implemented RTI. A good reference for general and special ed teachers alike.