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"Of Particular Interest" Archives

MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN THE MIDDLE YEARS
This in-depth feature story in Education Week (March 18) reports on the progress of middle school improvement in the decade since the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform organized to "infuse higher academic standards into what critics deemed the touchy-feely world of middle schools." Ten years later, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo writes, "many teachers are still grappling with ways to motivate students to excel intellectually while helping them adapt to the dramatic physical and emotional changes that come with puberty." Manzo visits high poverty Rogers-Herr Middle School in Durham NC (chosen by the Forum as a "school to watch") to see how one school is meeting the challenge to provide a "mix of rigor, relevance, and responsiveness." (Free registration)

LISTEN AND LEARN -- BULLYING AND MORE
The National Middle School Association's new podcast feature continues to produce interesting interviews, which you can hear online or download to your MP3 device. (For that matter, you can burn a CD!) The latest audio offering features a 15-minute chat titled "The War Against Bullying," featuring Charlene Giannetti and Margaret Sagarese, who share their expertise about young adolescent behavior and discuss the new NMSA publication Keep Cliques and Bullies from Invading Your School. Another recent podcast explores relationship-building with parents and families. And there's an interview with second-year teacher Nick Toombs, who reflects on some of his experiences as a new middle grades educator. Listen while you drive to school.

TOP GEOGRAPHY SITES — OH, IT'S A BLOG
Larry Ferlazzo, the California teacher who identifies and organizes ELL-friendly teaching resources, recently posted his top 12 "Best Websites For Learning & Teaching Geography." Most are middle-school friendly too. Larry decided not to include Google Earth. His rationale: "It requires a download and, two, I just haven't found it particularly useful." The resources are posted on Larry's blog, so you're free to disagree and share your favorites. If your school system is still blocking ALL blogs, this is one more example of why that's a dumb policy. Blogs are tools to transmit content across the Web and include a mechanism that makes it easy to keep up with new material. In terms of content, they are not inherently better or worse than websites. Yet many IT folks continue to impose a blanket ban on blogs. Smart systems are more discriminating and give teachers routes by which they can get to blog-based materials that improve teaching and learning. Which brings us to...

ARE WE TEACHING IN THE DARK?
Marc Prensky, a leading advocate for technology-infused learning, is making the rounds of education conferences and large-district PD days, pushing his message that NetGen students actually have greater learning opportunities outside of school than in the classroom. In this recent article for Educational Leadership (03/08), Prensky uses a "light/dark" analogy to make his case that educators are failing to capitalize on digital tools and the Internet. School systems, he says, have somehow decided that "all the light that surrounds kids — that is, their electronic connections to the world -- is somehow detrimental to their education. So systematically, as kids enter our school buildings, we make them shut off all their connections." He has some ideas about how to turn on the lights for reluctant learners.

MOSTLY MEDIEVAL
While we suspect that many teachers who enjoy the opportunity to enchant students with goings-on in the Middle Ages already know about this site, it's a big Web out there. The Internet Scout describes Mostly Medieval as "a rather fine potpourri," originally created by novelist Susan Wallace for her own research. Sections include "Ballads," "Beasties," "Book of Days," "God and War," and "Heraldry." In "Ballads," for example, visitors can read (and perhaps sing) through such Top 10 medieval hits as "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" and (shiver) "The Unquiet Grave." Inside the "Book of Days," young researchers will learn more about holy days and celebrations. And there's an A-Z index to look up specific topics of interest.

SIXTH GRADERS ANALYZING EMILY DICKINSON??
Could your sixth graders make sense of these lines from poet Emily Dickinson? "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant- / Success in Circuit lies / Too bright for our infirm Delight / The Truth's superb surprise / As Lightning to the Children eased / With explanation kind / The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind-." You might not think so, but Terry Roberts and Laura Billings of the National Paideia Center want to convince you otherwise in their recent article "Thinking is Literacy, Literacy Thinking." They describe how two middle school teachers in North Carolina overcame their own doubts as they learned to coach a class of heterogeneous 6th graders through an examination of the poem. And it's not just about English — they offer examples in MATH AND HISTORY, too.

FOLLOW-UP: ZEROES ARE IRRESPONSIBLE
After reading an item in our last newsletter, it seems a bunch of you visited teacher Bill Ferriter's blog where he describes his "no zero" policy. Bill enjoyed your company and has posted a second blog in response. He writes: ""Since Middleweb ran my piece, I've gotten a ton of questions from teachers who are curious about what I'm doing and wondering how to make it work in their own settings. Here are some of the more common questions and my replies." Take advantage of Bill's generous gift of time — and if you missed the first blog, there's a link, of course!

MIDDLE SCHOOL BOOK CIRCLES
This delightful description of a sixth grade program at Blue Ridge Middle School in Virginia will interest language arts teachers (of course) and also anyone doing advisory, and perhaps readings in social studies and other subjects. With some prompting from teacher Alisa Gladstone, "Students meet in small groups based on themes and start talking." If the discussion veers off course, that's sort of the point: "Literature circles are designed to help students connect with the material." The circle strategy, if managed appropriately (teacher tips are included) works well with mixed ability groups, engages reluctant readers, and, Gladstone says, "teaches the art of conversation." Resources include other stories about reading circles and a video featuring a group of teachers who are practicing the process.

MIDDLE SCHOOL *VIRTUAL* BOOK CIRCLES (GRIN)
Like the book circle idea, but think it's a bit old-hat? How about holding your student discussion groups in the virtual world? Here's another article from Edutopia, describing just such an activity at Suffern (NY) Middle School - where students (after creating online avatars, complete with bios) are talking about books on the American Revolution, using the Teen Second Life web platform. Lots of tips and resources to help you get started. Here's a comment left by a teacher: "Thank you for a grounded article examining real life classroom applications of the metaverse."

MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH -- TEACHING STRATEGIES
Another great resource from the folks at Ohio State's Middle School Portal. Compiled by Dr. Terry Herrera, who taught math in both middle and high school, this online guide for teachers combines discussion, descriptions and weblinks "to provide resources that support your personal instructional style while, perhaps, introducing materials that encourage you to experiment with a wider range of teaching techniques." You'll find lesson ideas that reach out into the world beyond the classroom walls, and others than integrate technology and literature. You can add to your collection of "rich" problems and math games, and learn how to combine instruction and assessment in seamless ways. We'd bookmark this one!

NO ZEROES AND NO PLACE TO HIDE
Students at Glenpool (OK) Middle School can no longer take a zero and "opt out of an education," teachers say. This story from the Tulsa World describes the school's new "Zeroes Aren't Permitted" (ZAP) policy, created last fall to address a rising failure rate fed by students who did not earn passing grades because they did not complete assigned work. At lunchtime, students are sent to a special ZAP classroom "where their assignments await them." It's more work for teachers but most say the payoff is worth it. "We'll do it again next year without a doubt," says the principal. QUESTION: Would this strategy be embraced in your school? In a recent blog, middle school teacher Bill Ferriter reflected on his no-zero late-work policy and the criticism he receives from some teaching colleagues.

THE VIRTUAL BODY
Many biology teachers are likely familiar with this website, which offers interactive animated exhibits of the body. Others will be delighted to find it. The site includes four sections: Brain, Skeleton, Heart and Digestive Tract. There are narrated tours, information boxes that pop up when you mouse over them -- even a "Build a Skeleton" feature that will test students' knowledge of the human framework (and a similar "assembly challenge" for the digestive track/. Also available in Spanish. Requires Flash Player.

GETTING TO COMPREHENSION
This Teacher Magazine essay by middle grades literacy coach Kathie Marshall came close to setting a record for "page views" (more than 12,000) during the first week it was posted on the magazine's website. Clearly, the need to build comprehension is on the minds of many educators. Marshall describes an action research project in which she teaches a four-week unit titled "Understanding Ourselves: The Conflict Between the Need to Belong and the Need to Be Ourselves." Marshall's goal -- along with integrating many of the best comprehension strategies from recent research -- was to increase engagement and deepen student thinking via "a strong emphasis on learning through writing, and especially on student discussion." She cites research showing that eighth graders spend an average of 50 seconds per class in sustained conversation, (which is defined as three or more people speaking). There's some useful how-to information and interesting comments from readers.

AWESOME SITE MAP FOR SOCIAL STUDIES
Awesome Stories, that terrific website (free to teachers) offering engaging stories from history (supported by primary documents and visuals), now as an site map that makes hunting for specific stories (e.g., Paul Revere) easier than ever. The alphabetized map supplements another indexing feature, Sample Topics. From the Topics page, you can jump to themed pages that collect the links to everything on subjects like "medieval history" or "space and aviation." Try both!

RESEARCH - WHAT MAKES MIDDLE SCHOOLS WORK?
Researchers studied 10 of New York's higher performing middle schools "to get a better understanding of the factors that predict their success." Their overarching conclusion supports other research of the last two decades: "(I)n order to support their focus on academics, the studied schools consistently nurture a culture of trust that is shared mutually among administrators, teachers, students and parents." The study notes that "poverty levels in at least half of the higher-performing schools met or exceeded the state's average," and describes other steps that were taken to "look at schools that achieve, based on more than just resources and demographics." This link leads to a webpage where you can download the key findings on a single PDF page (4-pp summary) or browse the complete report, including case studies.

TEACHING MIDDLE SCHOOLERS TO THINK
More schools are asking, "How do we infuse thinking into the curriculum?" Not by simply adding "thinking" to the set of objectives for each disciplinary course, says Nel Noddings in this article from Educational Leadership (Feburary 2008). Thinking, she argues, "cannot be formulated as a lesson objective -- as something to teach, learn, and evaluate on Thursday morning." So how do we go about it? Noddings, who offers a number of suggestions, stresses the importance of engaging teachers in more deep thinking themselves. You'll find six other publicly available articles in this themed issue of Ed Leadership, including a piece co-authored by Howard Gardner, who says students "need more than a large information base to understand their ever-changing world;" they need what he calls "disciplinary thinking." Another article looks at the research behind project-based learning as a critical thinking strategy. Links to these and other stories. Also see this Washington Post report on thinking skills.

MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
A female colleague reasonably asks, "So, are the other 11 months for MEN's history?" With that thought in mind, feel free to use these resources at Barbara Feldman's Surfing the Net with Kids site throughout the year (smile). Feldman tells us that Women's History Month traces its beginnings to the first International Women's Day, held in March 1911. "In 1981, responding to the growing popularity of the event in schools across the states, Congress passed a resolution making Women's History Week a national American holiday. It was just six years later, 1987, when Congress legally expanded the celebration to a whole month."

EARTH SYSTEM RESOURCE LIBRARY
Another great NSF-supported resource for teachers and students, the The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is a clearinghouse for nearly 40 major databases for high-quality materials related to earth science and other aspects of the natural world. Start with the "Resource of Interest" at the homepage and look through the special tools and information for educators. Best of all, there's a search engine that will help you cut to the chase -- just choose your grade level and resource type (field activity, lesson plan, demo, etc.). You can also search by collection or by national standards. Users can contribute their own "teachable topic" links (e.g., tsunamis). Well worth bookmarking. Also, if you're reading this, you're likely a science teacher -- are you going to the National Science Teachers Conference on Science Education in late March?

HOW-TO MANUAL FOR STUDENT INTERVIEWING
Here's an interviewing guide developed for teachers and students by the What Kids Can Do organization. WKCD created the manual for a high school project about immigrant families. But it's full of great information that could be adapted for any project that has students interviewing adults. An elementary teacher we know is already re-purposing the information for a community history project in her small town. The manual includes tips on how to conduct and write up an interview, including questioning strategies -- plus info on taking good photos and getting photo releases. If you wonder about the educational benefits of a community history project, learn about an ongoing PBL experience in Libby, Montana where students have been capturing and preserving the logging town's history for more than a decade.

MIDDLE SCHOOLERS BULLISH ON THE MARKET
This 8-minute video at the Edutopia website describes a pretty amazing problem-based curriculum at the Ariel Community Academy in Chicago. Inner-city middle schoolers are highly engaged in learning as they invest real money in the U.S. stock market. Even if you lack their kind of cash (a $20,000 endowment per class), we predict you'll be captivated by this video, which includes the kids' visit to a McDonalds stockholder meeting, where they talk with the African-American president of McDonalds USA. The school's financial literacy curriculum, by the way, starts in kindergarten and "echoes across every subject in every grade." As one teacher says, "I never have to look for the real-world application." Bonus: test scores "have soared over the last five years," with 88% exceeding state standards in math.

TEACHING MEDIA & INFORMATION SKILLS
We learned about Nick Pernisco's website "Understand Media" while reading a blog post about the critical role of media specialists in a 21st Century curriculum. Nick mentioned his site in a comment and we stopped by for a visit. "Everyday we're bombarded with messages from different places," he explains. "It's important to not take these messages at face value, but rather analyze what these messages mean before accepting them." It's a teaching responsibility, he believes, and the site is designed with teacher resources in mind. "I've worked hard over the past several years," he told us, "to bring media literacy out of academia, and deliver it to the troops (teachers) on the ground (in classrooms)."

LEARNING OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL BOX
Middle school students spend more than a third of their time engaged in informal activities like game playing, talking on the phone, reading, writing email, using the Internet, etc. “If you define learning as acquiring any kind of knowledge, understanding, or skill, then many young people engage in at least as much informal learning as they do formal learning,” says Dennie Palmer Wolf, a senior scholar at the Annenberg Institute. “Despite this fact, what happens during these open, freechoice, and less structured stretches of time is largely unmapped--and unharvested.” In this article from Threshold (Winter 2008), Wolf describes ways students can expand and deepen math proficiency and understanding outside the formal classroom.

CYBERBULLYING — HOW BIG A THREAT?
In a list of Top Ten Tech Trends in education, TechLearning magazine identified concerns about cyberbullying as No. 2. “Google the term and see what pops up: more than 1000 entries attesting to the fact that misbehavior in chat rooms, e-mail, and instant messaging is the issue of the day internationally.” But, as TechLearning notes, conclusions about the extent of cyberbullying are mixed. A recent report in the Journal of Adolescent Health found 11 percent of middle school kids were victims of online bullying, and described cyberbullying as "an emerging public health problem." But another study by the National School Boards Association, Creating and Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social and Educational Networking, suggests the problem may be exaggerated and may result in overly restrictive school policies around Internet access. Peruse both and draw your own conclusions.

MAKING MEANING FROM HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
The latest issue of Middle Level Learning (Jan/Feb 2008), published by the National Council for the Social Studies, has several high-interest articles, including (p. 2) “Making Meaning from Historical Evidence” by Chris Edwards, a teacher with both a middle and high school portfolio. Edwards feels a responsibility to read books like the Pulitzer-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Jared Diamond) “and make its basic insights accessible to middle school students, to show how Diamond's thesis connects to aspects of history covered in the curriculum.” He calls this teaching strategy “connecting the dots" and the goal is to "make the study of history exciting.” What's exciting about the article is Edwards' step-by-step description of how he incorporated Diamond's provocative ideas into the required curriculum. Ssince you'll be downloading the complete magazine, browse other articles and resources about epidemics and World War I propaganda posters. If you're not an NCSS member, this magazine is reason enough to join!

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS: RESOLVING CONFLICTS
This 10-minute video documents a classroom conflict resolution program at O'Farrell Middle School in San Diego. It could be a great discussion starter for your school. Click in the right-hand margin to read some background about O'Farrell's community school approach, which balances the social, intellectual, psychological, and physical needs of 1,500 diverse students in grades 5-8 through a  process that includes a rigorous curriculum and a Family Support Services Center housed in the school.

ISSUING A "CEASE & DESIST" ORDER
Extending the theme of conflict resolution, here's an interesting blog entry at NASSP's MiddleView blog for middle grades leaders (and the rest of us). It describes how an Oregon middle school used a “cease and desist” document when harassment issues continued after initial interventions. “This simple form was surprisingly effective at stopping inappropriate behavior,” says Patti Kinney, a former national principal of the year who now works with the NASSP National Center for Middle Level Leadership. “Harassment behaviors were clearly defined and the harasser was required to sign a document acknowledging that if harassment continued, then he or she would face further, more serious consequences,” she explains. “A copy was then mailed home to the student's family.  Students took it very seriously — I think many of them thought it was an actually legal document!” You can download a sample document. 

WHEN THINKING SKILLS TRUMP READING SKILLS
 “Adolescents and back-to-basics reading programs rarely mix,” says the teaser on this useful article from the October 2006 issue of Educational Leadership. Authors Gay Ivey and Douglas Fisher offer four strategies to stimulate thinking while teens learn to read. We recalled the article recently, after we received a note from Betty, an 8th grade teacher worried about the high failure rate of her students on reading comprehension tests. Ivey and Fisher argue against the common assumption that “the basics must be learned before higher-level reading and writing work can begin.” They propose methods they believe can “simultaneously develop students' literacy skills and their higher-order cognitive skills" -- and higher rates of student engagement.

QUICK RESOURCE: SPELLING CITY
Here's a simple but useful site that can help students practice spelling. Teachers (or students and parents) can enter a list of spelling words and then go into “teaching” mode, where a human voice will pronounce and spell a word and use it in a sentence. Or gain more familiarity with the worlds by playing a couple of simple games. You can also tap into pre-prepared word lists grouped by grade level and sorted alphabetically. More word games are promised, and you can ask questions of the creators and suggest new features through a discussion forum.

TEACH COLLABORATIVE REVISION
In our last newsletter, we mentioned Google for Educators, a site where you'll find lots of tools and projects being developed by the Internet software giant that are useful to teachers. We saved this item for special attention, because we thought it deserved a spotlight of its own. Google is partnering with Weekly Reader's Writing for Teens to help educators teach the important skill of revision “in a meaningful and practical way.” You'll find suggestions about using Google Docs to encourage peer editing and student collaboration in the revision process, plus several free articles from Writing magazine “filled with student-friendly tips and techniques.” There's also a teacher's guide with suggestions for innovative lesson plans. Smart schools are promoting writing across the curriculum — and teachers in every subject will find these resources helpful in building writing skills.

PARENTS FROM MARS, TEACHERS FROM VENUS
This recent Teacher Magazine essay by sixth grade teacher Bill Ferriter has gotten lots of attention, including a mention in the goliath of education e-newsletters, ASCD SmartBrief. Ferriter begins with a tongue-in-cheek proposal to "make a mint" by explaining the complex relationship between parents and teachers. "I've never met a teacher who hasn't been mystified by the actions of a parent at least once a year, and I'm pretty sure that parents can say the same about teachers. Let's face it: We're two of the most complicated groups of people to understand -- and for $29.95, I'm willing to be your guide!" Bulging cheek aside, both parents and teachers will find some excellent pointers here (and a slew of thoughtful comments from previous readers. Leave one yourself!).

MIDDLE SCHOOL BLOG: BLUEBIRD'S CLASSROOM
Here's a teacher blog that bypasses "trenchant policy analysis" in favor of the opportunity to write about and discuss the trials and tribulations of teachers' day-to-day lives. Authored by a middle school science teacher, ASCD says Bluebird's Classroom "is a highly relatable, highly readable journal" that "connects readers to the human interest stories inherent in classroom communities." In a recent entry, the anonymous Mrs. Bluebird writes about a student "who I'll call Sharpie Boy because, among other things, he is constantly giving himself tattoos with Sharpie markers. He's fairly bright, reads well, and although he's identified as special ed with a severe case of ADHD, he tested proficient on all his Big Deal Government Mandated Tests, so he was put out into science and social studies this year." She goes on to say that "His mother, while agreeable enough on the telephone, has never graced us with her presence." Mars and Venus alert!

FROM CONCEPT TO CLASSROOM: INQUIRY LEARNING
There's a buzz out there about inquiry-based learning. Some teachers dream about it. Others are finding ways to integrate inquiry into the teaching of mandated curriculum content. Here's a friendly tutorial, made available at no cost by the folks at Concept to Classroom, a public television project underwritten by Disney Learning. Several teacher friends tell us the self-paced PD experience offers an excellent introduction to this deep-learning strategy. Click on the tabs to browse Explanations, Demonstrations, Explorations, and step-by-step plans for Implementation. Teachers using the inquiry approach, the authors suggest, might think of a "facilitation plan" (rather than a traditional lesson plan) that provides direction but leaves lots of room for creativity and personal responsibility.

THE THINKING DEBATE
And speaking of inquiry learning: As this story from the Baltimore Sun demonstrates, middle-school debate can teach students to research and think deeply about important topics. Two dozen Maryland middle grades students are debating various issues as part of a class developed to teach them the art of thinking critically and crafting reasoned arguments. "I just see it as a really powerful teaching tool," says teacher Nan Dove. "It makes them better students and better citizens."

FOR PRINCIPALS ONLY – LEADER TALK
We're intrigued by a new group blog "by school leaders for school leaders." It's called LeaderTalk, and its mission statement reads in part: "The time is ripe for a blog that is 'the place to go' for insightful, thoughtful, reflective commentary about what it means to be a P-12 administrator today. We are a vibrant, growing, online community (and) we welcome new voices." One interesting recent article/post titled "Calibrating Observations & Walk-Throughs" begins by describing the frustration many teachers feel with the visitation process, then offers ideas for improvement. Readers are invited to chime in. (Just kidding about "principals only." This is a great place for teachers to eavesdrop.)

GAMERS, YES. GOOGLERS, NO
We can't top the lead paragraph in this ArsTechnica story, so we'll just quote it: "A new UK report on the habits of the 'Google Generation' finds that kids born since 1993 aren't quite the Internet super-sleuths they're sometimes made out to be. For instance, are teens better with technology than older adults? Perhaps, but they also 'tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine.'" The report comes from the British Library, and the librarians (in defense of their usefulness in a world gone wired) make a good case that teachers and media specialists have an important role to play in converting Web "browsers" into effective web users. Here's a link to the report if you want to explore it further.

GOOGLE SERVICES FOR BUSY TEACHERS
Two Google-related items in one issue of MiddleWeb's OPI is proof of the company's ubiquitous presence on the Web. And if it isn't, then check out this feature at the Edutopia website, which describes a set of “user-friendly tools” that many teachers (or at least those who can reach the tools through their school district firewalls) are using daily with their students. They include Google Docs (a no-cost online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation editor that's easy to use and perfect for group or individual work), Google Maps (you can personalize a map of just about anything), and Google Book Search (an online library that provides complete books, excerpts, and reference details). Our favorite and one we use regularly is Google Groups. You create a private space where your group can use a word processor to create and edit documents, share files and participate in threaded discussion forums. Perfectly safe if you use the simple controls to limit access to those you invite and approve. Google has created a special site where you can find out more about all this.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
February is African-American Heritage Month in the United States. These three-dozen highly readable stories at the Awesome Stories website are embedded with many primary sources and period graphics and provide a huge resource for teachers planning activities for the month -- and for teaching American history year-round. You'll find material covering 300 years, from the earliest days of the slave trade through the challenges and accomplishments of African Americans in modern times. If you're new to Awesome Stories, please note that schools can gain no-cost access to all the site's contents by making a simple request.

HOW DO LOW- AND HIGH-PERFORMING MIDDLE SCHOOLS DIFFER?
In this study, published in the journal Research in Middle Level Education, investigators Ronald Styron and Terri Nyman set out to determine if low- and high-performing middle schools (based on AYP results) "differed in school climate and health, organizational structures, and instructional practices." The researchers predicted the high-performing schools would be more likely to have implemented middle school practices "as recommended in the literature." They found, instead, that low-performing schools scored slightly higher on a survey of organizational structures and instructional practices. One possible explanation: As low-performing middle schools struggle to make AYP under NCLB, they may now be implementing recommended structures and practices in an effort "to avoid federal and state sanctions." Of interest to PLC advocates: The researchers found significantly more collegiality among teachers in the high-performing schools. For more information about effective practices, see the new NMSA research summary "Characteristics of Exemplary Schools for Young Adolescents."

PAIRING POEMS AND SONGS
Here's another engaging lesson plan from the New York Times Learning Network — this one inspired by a recent feature story about a poetry and jazz night featuring poet laureates Charles Simic and Robert Pinsky. The lesson, co-scripted by Bank Street College, leads students to explore "the way poetry's unique rhythms can be further enhanced by musical accompaniment. By pairing selected music and poems, students discover new ways to listen, interpret and appreciate these art forms." The fun includes both beating out the rhythms with sticks and shakers, and eventually matching poems to harmonious songs of your students' own choosing.

DIFFERENTIATION: RICK WORMELI'S PODCASTS
Veteran middle grades teacher and popular PD presenter Rick Wormeli has recorded three short and engaging audio clips describing some of the most important steps in successfully differentiating instruction to meet the diverse learning needs of students. These friendly and relaxed chats are 5 to 6 minutes in length, and you can listen for free at his publisher's website (there's also a link to iTunes where you can  download the clips to your iPod or other MP3 device). If you like what you hear, you can browse the full text of Rick's new book Differentiation: From Planning to Practice, Grades 6-12.

MAXIMIZING A FEW COMPUTERS
Looking for ideas on how to help students make efficient use of Internet time when only a few computers are located in the classroom? This post by Chris O'Neal at Edutopia's Spiral Notebook blog has some good tips -- and this important aside from O'Neal: "I think there's a larger issue, of course, and that is, what are we really doing with computers in the classroom that speaks to higher-order use and advancing student learning?" For more thoughts on this question, read "The World at Your Fingertips."

PRAISE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONFIDENCE
Have we really taught our children to expect too much praise? And what should we be praising? It's a topic of vital interest to middle grades teachers, who work with students often looking for encouragement and validation. Psychologist and researcher Carol Dweck says the wrong kind of praise can create self-defeating behavior, but the right kind may be the trigger that motivates students to learn more. In this article from the October 2007 issue of Educational Leadership, "The Perils and Promises of Praise," Dweck describes the complex ways in which students view praise from adults -- and the resulting challenges teachers face in determining what kind of praise is appropriate, how much and when. Fascinating.

EIGHTH GRADERS MAKE MARS LANDING
After attending a NASA space camp for teachers, middle school teacher Kristi McAdams challenged her classes to build mock Mars landing vehicles out of popsicle sticks, garbage bags and string. Students were tasked with encasing a water balloon and safely landing it into a box of crystal rocks from about 20 feet above. The interesting twist: They had to purchase materials from a class "store" and the least-expensive successful landings were considered the winners. The kids, says this story from the Longview (TX) News Journal, found that "landing safely on Mars is no easy task - especially on a budget." Read how McAdams blended lessons in velocity, design and economics. And while we're on the topic, here's a lesson plan about Mars colonization from Discovery.

CURRICULUM RESOURCE: TEACHER TIDBYTES
This education resources site is being developed by a recently retired Ohio teacher with 37 years of experience across the K-12 spectrum. Like most home-grown sites, it has an informal look and feel. You might start with the links directory (a mix of subject areas and other topics of teacher interest) by clicking on "teacher web resources." There's also a growing collection of powerpoints in several subjects that can be used "as is" or adapted to your needs. A sister site called Kid Info has a large collection of homework and project links. All in all, a pair of sites well worth exploring! Linda, the teacher/webmaster, says all links are checked weekly for currency.

SPECIAL GIFTS
In her holiday essay for Teacher Magazine, middle school special education teacher Laurie Wasserman remembers some of the students who have inspired her teaching and enriched her life. Laurie's essay promoted members of the Teacher Leaders Network to share some of their own "special gifts" in the TLN Teacher Voices blog. Need a booster shot as the 2008 school year begins? Don't miss these teacher stories!

CONNECT AFTER-SCHOOL & IN-SCHOOL PROGRAMS
Over many years of writing about the middle grades, we've often been surprised (and a bit dismayed) by the frequent lack of communication between middle schools and the after-school programs that receive their students once the last bell of the day has rung. But McREL consultants Danette Parsley and Sarah LaBounty don't waste time with recriminations in this crisp summary of the "win-win" aspects of in-school/after-school cooperation. "School leaders can maximize after-school activities to support the development of the whole student by working closely with after-school program leaders to create a shared vision and cohesive plan for addressing student needs," they write. "Such a plan must capitalize on the strengths of the after-school environment-flexibility, longer blocks of time, and opportunities to build relationships and connect with families-and augment what is being done during the school day." The plan should stem from research about ways to positively affect student achievement, which they share. (Principal Leadership, December 2007)

NATURE'S CYCLES - A MAJOR SCIENCE RESOURCE
Three important cycles – nitrogen, water, and carbon – are examined in the online series "What Goes Around Comes Around," found on the NSDL Middle School Portal. For each cycle, introductory text offers an overview, stressing the human impact, then links to high-quality web-based lessons and activities as well as rich sources of content information for teachers. The goal of this series, developed by Kim Lightle and her colleagues at Ohio State University, is to move middle schoolers from awareness to deeper understanding. "Elementary students often successfully memorize and repeat back the stages in cycles, with no deep conceptual understanding of the complexities of the processes involved." These materials can help middle grades teachers tie the fundamental cycles of nature to real-world issues.