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"Of Particular Interest" Archives

HEALTH: PSA COMMERCIALS BY SEVENTH GRADERS
The poor nutritional habits of teens and their consequences have become headline news. But obesity and diabetes aren't the only health threats facing kids. Here are four 60-second public service announcements produced by New York City middle schoolers about pressing health concerns facing their neighborhood, including air pollution and asthma, domestic violence, and automobile injuries. The students are involved in the Lang Youth Medical Program, and their PSAs combine photography and audio that they composed, performed and edited. You'll find this example of students doing real work for a real audience at a special section of the What Kids Can Do website, part of a Youth Voices collection sponsored by Adobe. To see this particular entry, go to the link above and scroll down to the third entry, titled "Kids' Health Matters."

NASSP SURVEYS MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
Nine out of 10 middle school students say they'll likely attend college, but nearly 70 percent also say they have little information about how to choose high school classes that will PREPARE them for college, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Conducted in partnership with Phi Delta Kappa, the survey of students in grades seven and eight "reveals several stark contrasts between students' educational goals and their beliefs about how they will achieve them." In another disturbing finding, when asked how many teachers have been helpful to them in school, 72 percent indicated that throughout their school career only one to five teachers have been helpful. The weighted survey by Harris Interactive polled about 1,800 students in grades 7-8 across the U.S. Follow the link above for a press release and other links to downloads of the executive summary and complete report.

KEEPING MIDDLE SCHOOLERS ON A GRADUATION PATH
This research (small PDF file) by Doug Mac Iver and colleagues at Johns Hopkins seems a good companion to the NASSP survey item above. In a recent paper, the researchers offer "four simple predictive indicators that can be used to identify sixth graders who have high odds of falling off the graduation track." How high? Sixth-graders with one or more of these indicators had only a 29% chance of graduating. The reseachers base their findings on longitudinal analyses following all 13,000 students in Philadelphia who were sixth-graders in October 1996 until one and a quarter years past their expected graduation date. Mac Iver and his colleagues also share research about a variety of interventions that can help improve the odds. Here's a PowerPoint presentation of the data.

SCIENCE: ONLINE TELESCOPES INCREASE STUDENT LEARNING
The MicroObservatory network of five online telescopes has been used by middle and high school students, their teachers, and the public in all 50 states to carry out a wide variety of inquiry-driven projects, says this 10th anniversary study published in Astronomy Education Review. "From an analysis of 475 student projects and other data, we report substantial gains in students' conceptual understanding of what telescopes do, of core concepts in astronomy and physical science, of inquiry skills, and of how mathematics can be used to model nature." Good summer reading for science teachers with an astronomy bent. And if you'd like to play with the telescopes themselves, find out how (and peruse a set of activities including "Black Hole Search") at the MicroObservatory website.

MIDDLE SCHOOLERS WORK ON IMPORTANT ISSUES
Middle schoolers in Portland, Oregon are tackling local, national and international issues through a program in which students as young as fifth grade spend weeks studying a significant societal problem and forming responses. This May 2007 story in the Oregonian describes how 300 Portland-area middle grades students went to the state Capitol with their ideas about everything from neighborhood crosswalks to racial profiling and global warming. The impetus for all this activity is Project Citizen, a national program that teaches students about local government and how they can make a difference. To add to the fun, students participate in a national competition. Find out more about Project Citizen at the website of the Center for Civic Education.

COOL TECH TOOL: MIND MEISTER
Want to collaborate with colleagues this summer to do some serious brainstorming—but you'd like to do it from your sunny home deck? Check out MindMeister, a free website that lets you "mind map" with web-based software useable by any computer with a browser. MindMeister allows real-time collaboration—in fact, your team can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other's changes as they happen. Or you can take turns, if that's just a little TOO much collaboration for you! We love that Mind Meister integrates the free web-based phone service Skype. By quickly signing up for free Skype accounts, you and your planning team can talk while you look, juggling new ideas and putting them down on cyber-paper together. One mildly geeky group member should be enough to get you started. And imagine doing this with students at different computers in the same building, room or tech lab. Headphones recommended!

TEACHER-TO-TEACHER LESSON RESOURCES
Goodness, it doesn't get much better than this. Vetted teaching ideas and lesson plans from across the curriculum, nicely organized for easy searching. Follow this link to the presentation archive for the 2007 summer Teacher To Teacher workshops, sponsored at various sites around the nation by the U.S. Department of Education. This page lists all the presentations (K-12) in alpha-order, and by clicking in the left margin, you can examine presentation-clusters by subject area and theme. Click on a specific entry and you'll be taken to a page with a brief synoposis and two PDF downloads (presentation slides and handouts). Open the presentation PDF to find an email address for the teacher-author, if you'd like to query for more information.

SUPPORT THE STRIVING READERS ACT
National organizations are rallying support for the Striving Readers Act, a proposal now before Congress that would increase funding for literacy programs in middle and high school. On May 14, the International Reading Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Alliance for Excellent Education all issued statements in support of a bi-partisan bill. The details are included in the AEE press release (link above). For help contacting Congress in support of this bill, visit the IRA's blog, where you'll find a form letter you can easily adapt.

WEB RESOURCE: TEACHER-TUBE
Unless you've just returned from a long stay in a remote jungle, you've probably heard about YouTube, the website where many thousands of cybernauts (nuts?) have posted video clips featuring everything from particle physics to piano-playing cats. Enterprising 21st Century teachers were quick to seize on the potential of YouTube as a classroom resource, but frankly, you have to pan through a lot of muddy material to find the gold. Solution: A new website for educators called TeacherTube which "takes the sharing, production, and community-building aspects of YouTube and offers an educator's version," according to a recent story at Edutopia. The site's founders want to "fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners." You can browse what's already been posted and help this worthwhile project grow by sharing content created by yourself, your students and/or your colleagues!

MATH: EVERYDAY NUMB3RS
Here's a site with an unusual approach to promoting the usefulness of "everyday math." It's a joint project of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Texas Instruments, and CBS. Why CBS? It's built around the CBS series "NUMB3RS," which highlights mathematics in each episode, drawing on real FBI cases and featuring characters who use math to solve crimes. While the site's activities are said to be aimed at grades 9-12, we're betting savvy middle school math teachers can adapt activities like "The Janus List: Pack It In" for use in their classrooms.

GOOD GUIDE TO MIDDLE SCHOOL DEBATE
Because we love debate here at MiddleWeb, we were excited to see this practical and accessible article from NMSA's Middle School Journal, written by Elizabeth Martens, a middle grades speech and debate teacher. "I am frequently asked by peers how they might use debate in their own respective classrooms," writes Martens. By the time you finish Martens' resource-rich article, you'll be well-versed in the theory and practice of debate. And you'll appreciate getting your instruction from a middle school teacher who understands that "this age group does not want to take notes any more than they want to listen to others speak." And yet, Martens confidently states, they will.

SOCIAL STUDIES: EXPLORING DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFTS
A recent story in the New York Times reported that the number of nonwhite Americans has risen above 100 million for the first time, foreshadowing a racial "generation gap" between "an older, whiter electorate and a younger overall population that is more Hispanic, black and Asian and that presses sometimes competing agendas and priorities." The folks at the NYT Learning Network and Bank Street College decided to build a lesson plan around this story, titled "The People, They Are A Changin' -- Exploring Demographic Shifts in the American Population." The lesson is designed for both 6-8 and 9-12 classrooms, and helps students consider the impact of recent demographic changes by examining a graph and creating political cartoons. As always, the lesson plan suggests specific activities and provides resources, including free access to the original NYT story and a link to a great political cartoon site.

THE CRITICAL YEARS: SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Speaking of the New York Times, America's flagship newspaper has wrapped up its series on the nation's middle school "crisis"—titled The Critical Years—with a profile of Briarcliff Middle School in Briarcliff Manor, NY. The 6-8 school, the story says, "has emerged as a nationally recognized model of a middle school that gets things right, a place that goes beyond textbooks to focus on social and emotional development." The school relies heavily on the "Habits of Mind" program, developed by Arthur L. Costa, to "develop critical thinking, teach organizational skills, and instill social and moral values." The story highlights several other widely used programs that help middle schools integrate social and emotional learning into their programs.

SCIENCE: COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
While we frequently find Wikipedia to be a useful resource, we're a bit hesitant to recommend it as a tool for teachers, for fear that we'll bring down the wrath of middle school media specialists across the nation. At the same time, we're intrigued by all of the press coverage about "Colony Collapse Disorder" and the risk that the pollinating-bee population may be shrinking rapidly. Seems to us like a topic that will intrigue middle graders -- all the more because there's so much mystery surrounding it. We've looked around the Web and find this article at Wikipedia to be one of the better one-stop resources for exploring the topic–and perhaps developing a lesson plan. We'll trust the science teachers in our audience to sort out the honey from the comb!

RESEARCH: MIDDLE SCHOOL VS. K-8 ( Large PDF file)
Back in January, we shared a news story about a Johns Hopkins research project in Philadelphia that compared the performance of a group of K-8 schools with the performance of a set of middle schools with grades 6-8. Now we've come across a research paper detailing the findings of that comparison. It's a large scanned PDF file (about six megabytes) but if you'll willing to wait for it to download, you'll have a copy of "Comparing Achievement Between K-8 and Middle Schools: A Large-Scale Empirical Study." See page 39 for a summary of findings. The short version: The quality of the teaching, the curriculum and other factors matter just as much as grade configurations. The study will eventually appear in the American Journal of Education.

YOUR FAVORITE SITES: SERVICE LEARNING
OPI subscriber and middle grades English teacher Emily R. writes that she is "always interested in stories and ideas about engaging students in service learning projects." When she needs a fresh dose of inspiration or a renewed focus on What Kids Can Do, she visits the website of that name, where a group of remarkable adults are supporting and promoting the work of remarkable young people who want to make the world a better place. Currently, the home page of the newly redesigned WKCD website is featuring a group of teens who are fighting carcinogens in beauty products. There's also a story about Y-Press, an Indianapolis-based youth news bureau where the average reporter is 13 and can expect to see his or her work published in the daily Indianapolis Star. Check out WKCD and consider what your own students might do!

MIDDLE GRADES CHAT — ON YOUR iPOD!
"Today's Middle Level Educator," a podcast produced by National Middle School Association, offers conversations, interviews, and commentaries from middle level practitioners, leaders, and experts. Listen online or subscribe to the podcast and listen on your computer or MP3 player. There's even a clickable button that will add the podcast to your iTunes software. Tune into the first two podcasts, "Bloom's Taxonomy in the Classroom" with Sandra Schurr, and "Democratic Classroom" with teacher Mark Springer and two of his students, at the link above.

MIDDLE SCHOOL DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS
Trace Gaynor and Stephen Sotor first gained attention for their documentary film work back in 2005—when they were in sixth grade. National recognition came with the release of their second and third films, which they produced in seventh and eighth grade. As this story in Edutopia explains, the young teens from Illinois might be described as "poster boys" for project-based learning. Their most recent film, The Final Frontier: Explorers or Warriors?, includes interviews with prominent national figures who consider the implications of a potential arms race in outer space. It's been screened at several film exhibitions, including the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, where it won first place for child-produced films. Read the story at the link above, and if you'd like to see a brief excerpt from The Final Frontier, go to this link and drag the scroll bar down until you see the title, then click to start the clip.

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION? START HERE!
We see no reason why teachers from across the U.S. (or anywhere else) can't crib from the work of the Center for International Understanding at the University of North Carolina. The center's remarkable website, North Carolina in the World, serves as a portal to hundreds of websites and other resources that can help middle grades educators enrich the international aspects of their teaching. Why bother? As the site succinctly states: "International education is about preparing students—pre-kindergarten through college—to be citizens, workers and leaders in the global age." The annotated links can be searched by regions of the globe, by types of resources, by grade levels, or by media (image, audio, video).

RESEARCH: MS DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
Hey, it's not hammock or beach-chair reading, but we know those of you who will be hip-deep in graduate studies this summer may appreciate a new research summary developed by the National Middle School Association. Filled with those APA citations so loved by scholars, the article provides a snapshot of the characteristics of young adolescents and the research that influences successful school practices. The information is grouped by category (physical, intellectual, moral/ethical, emotional/psychological, and social) with a brief discussion of "implications for practice" for each category. As NMSA says, "For kids in the middle grades to succeed, educators must be keenly aware of their developmental needs."

READY FOR CLASSROOM 2.0?
Tired of waiting for those colleagues down the hall to get with the 21st Century? Here's the social network you may have been looking for—Classroom 2.0—started by web-based learning advocate Steve Hargadon. Think of it as MySpace for educators. Here's how the website is introduced: "(It is) the social networking site devoted to those interested in the practical application of computer technology (especially Web 2.0) in the classroom and in their own professional development. Especially we hope that those who feel they are 'beginners' will find this a comfortable place to start being a part of the community dialog and to learn more." The site, by the way, uses the free NING online tool, which allows anyone with a bit of adventure in their heart to develop a public or private social network. Lots of school applications!

THE PRINCIPAL AS "GEEK"
One of the first steps on the road to building a 21st Century school is putting a principal in place who's strongly committed to teaching with technology. In this interview with the ed-tech magazine T.H.E. Journal, principal Steve Bold describes how Kennedy Middle School in Germantown, WI makes the most of available technologies to engage and involve students and teachers in new ways of learning.

URGENT BUT OVERLOOKED — M.S. ELL LEARNERS
This issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education, titled "Urgent but Overlooked: The Literacy Crisis Among Adolescent English Language Learners," reviews the existing research on literacy instruction for America's roughly two million adolescent English language learners (ELLs) and examines the challenges that America's secondary schools face in educating them. This fastest-growing segment of the middle school population includes many of the country's lowest-performing students. If you're working to make this issue more visible in your school or district, you'll find useful data and some important questions (with helpful answers).

NELMS GOLD: PRE-SERVICE LEARNING COMMUNITIES
If collaboration and inquiry is good for practicing middle school teachers, it must be beneficial for preservice middle school teachers. That's the premise of an interesting article (p. 16) by Vermont teacher educator James Nagle, published in the journal of the New England League of Middle Schools. He offers us a "peephole" view of a college seminar in which preservice teachers learn to model inquiry-based discussions. This issue of the NELMS Journal also includes articles on the Middle School Archive Project; building and assessing quality advisory programs, and developing innovative student research topics (see below). And if that's not enough, there's also a research review on the best ways to structure middle schools! (PDF file)

ENGLISH & HISTORY: INNOVATIVE STUDENT RESEARCH PAPERS
This may be the first time we've ever included the same weblink under two different headings -- but we wanted to make sure you don't miss this useful article (p. 20) in the NELMS Journal about improving the reports and research papers of middle graders. One reason many students end up more or less copying information into their reports, posits author Jim Meyer, "is the kind of reading and writing we are asking students to do. If I ask students to read informational texts and then produce informational writing—the same kind of writing as the reading, on the same topic—am I not actually inviting them to copy?" Meyer goes on to describe in rich detail how he changed this direct genre-to-genre match in his combined English/history class—both by broadening the reading students did for their research and by asking for something beyond a simple report.

UNSTUCK IN THE MIDDLE
When education columnist Jay Mathews challenged readers to identify middle schools that are meeting both the academic and non-academic needs of young adolescents, he was surprised to get emails and letters "from more than 500 parents, students, educators and community members pointing out great teachers and wise principals making real progress with children at that itchy age." Mathews selected 30 recommended schools in the Washington D.C. area to briefly profile in this Washington Post Sunday Magazine article. Read the snapshots to discover which characteristics Mathews and his readers associated with stand-out middle schools.

YOUNG TEACHERS READY TO COLLABORATE
"Generation Y" (born 1977-86) has now reached adulthood and is dramatically changing the composition of today's teaching staffs, say Harry and Rosemary Wong in a smart article published in the ASCD Express newsletter. Loneliness and lack of support exacerbate the frustrations of beginning teachers and lead to early exits from the profession. The Wongs advocate for induction programs that foster collaborative work and are structured around learning communities that can mentor young teachers more inclined to collaborate than previous generations. "Most young teachers...crave the guidance of knowledgeable, confident administrators and coworkers. They also want their contributions appreciated and their ideas heard by expert listeners. The newest generation of teachers is perhaps the most intelligent, talented, competitive—and compulsive—group this country has seen. Let them work together." (PDF file)

INTERMATH — BUILD YOUR CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
InterMath is a professional development website designed to support teachers in becoming better mathematics educators. Funded by the National Science Foundation and housed at the University of Georgia, InterMath offers class-tested "mathematical investigations" to build content knowledge in algebra, geometry, number concept and data analysis. The site uses a self-paced workshop strategy and you can also browse lesson plans that meet Georgia (and many other states') math standards. Lots of idea-starters among the engaging and well-written activities. There's also an interactive math dictionary that covers everything from absolute value to z-score.

SCIENCE: STUDY THE FASTEST CREATURE ON EARTH
We are long-time fans of Falcon Flash, an e-newsletter with a sharp focus on a single issue: "When will the first chick hatch?" The chick in question this year will be the newest member of a peregrine falcon family headquartered in a nestbox on the 12th floor of "Tower City" in Cleveland, Ohio. This teacher-created project allows students to observe one peregrine falcon family during nesting season (late February into June). Students can catch up on this year's storyline by perusing the text and awesome photos at the "Raptors in the City" website, and also see live webcam shots sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The RIC site offers resource materials about peregrines (removed from the List of Endangered Species in 1999) and a free e-newsletter published during the nesting season.

LITERACY: UNLEASH OUR STUDENT WRITERS!
"The typical high school graduate of the 1870s, 1970s, or even 1990s couldn't have dreamed of a world as saturated with writing as now exists, both in the workplace and in private life, where email and instant messaging are becoming increasingly common forms of communication." So begins a new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education, aimed at extending a discussion begun in the 2006 report Writing Next. In that report, the Alliance highlighted 11 research-based techniques to help improve the writing abilities of young adolescents. In this follow-up, the Alliance identifies common barriers to good writing instruction (grading challenges, lack of interdisciplinary collaboration) and stresses the importance of moving beyond five-paragraph essays and formulaic approaches which encourage students to think of writing as a rote, unengaging activity. (PDF file) Curious about the 11 writing techniques? Click here.

HISTORY: USE STORYCORPS IN THE CLASSROOM
Do you ever hear those StoryCorps oral history segments on NPR? Maybe not, since they're presented Friday mornings on Morning Edition, and you're probably pretty busy around 8:30 a.m. These are stories collected by National Public Radio from mobile recording booths that travel around the nation. We're not quite sure how they might be used in the classroom, but we have faith in your inventiveness, and with hundreds to comb through, we're betting you'll be inspired. Whether or not you find an instructional use, you'll be deeply affected by what you hear. Visitors can click on the "Listen" section or browse the stories by subject headings, which include topics like "wisdom", "friendship", and "growing up." And be sure to check out the "do it yourself" area in the Participate section of the site, which offers a simple guide to help you (and your students!) record an oral history interview in your own community.

TECHNOLOGY: LEARN TO MAKE YOUR OWN PODCASTS!
Many teachers are now using the free Audacity software program to edit sound recordings for posting on their websites or sharing with parents and other audiences via email and CDs. This easy tutorial at the Education World website, written specifically with teachers in mind, can help you and your youngsters get started in "podcasting" -- an exciting way to create authentic audiences for student work. And if this sounds too daunting, check out the free Web service called VoiceThread, where you and your students can record audio and add visual images without any equipment at all!

NCLB: MIDDLE GRADES COALITION SPEAKS OUT
Fearing that the middle grades will be largely overlooked in the current NCLB reauthorization debate, a coalition of education groups recently sent recommendations to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that they believe can boost support to students in grades 5-8. Debby Kasak, executive director of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, told Education Daily that the original law paid scant attention to the critical role of middle level education. Click on the link above to download a PDF of the six-page memorandum.

HEALTH: GETTING FIT ON MONKEY BRAIN STEW
Monkey Brain Stew (chili and beans, with a little something extra!) is just one of the yummy recipes offered in the "Gross Out Delights" section of Kidnetics, a website devoted to helping early adolescents "eat well and get active." For the queasy, there are other recipe collections, including Smart Snacks and Brown Bag Specials. In the exercise portion of the site, you'll even find ideas for working out in front of a computer! And don't forget to top it all off with some Dirt Bowl Dessert (gummi worms optional). Parents and teachers—known for their seriousness—can visit the adult area of the site for expert advice, articles on food and fitness, and a lesson-based curriculum guide.

A TEACHER SOLUTION TO PERFORMANCE-PAY
A national team of expert teachers, including seven middle grades educators, have produced a first-of-its-kind report on performance pay, written in "the unique voice of classroom professionals." They describe a balanced approach to teacher incentives and awards that emphasizes both student growth and teacher development. Several of the ideas fit neatly into the middle grades philosophy, including "rewarding small teams of teachers who raise student achievement together." Download the report, Performance-Pay for Teachers: Designing a System that Students Deserve, at the Teacher Leaders Network website, where you can also browse blogs on the subject by middle school teachers Bill Ferriter and Nancy Flanagan, who were members of the TeacherSolutions team.

CIVICS: TRACK THE 2008 ELECTION
Tracking the 2008 presidential race with your students? C-SPAN has weekly video clips and related resources that aim to "meet the early demand from teachers for timely, primary resources on the next presidential election," says the vice president of C-SPAN's education relations. Register for a free educator membership and access LOTS of benefits, including a searchable database of video clips (civics and government), a feature that lets you rate clips and share ideas with other educators about how to use them, free posters, email updates, and unrestricted taping and viewing rights. There's also a Middle and High School Teacher Fellowship for teachers who have demonstrated creative use of C-SPAN in the classroom.

WRITING: BUILD STUDENT RESEARCH SKILLS
The Stenhouse newsletter pointed out this useful resource when teaching students in late elementary and early middle grades about research papers and "citing sources." The activity, located at NCTE's ReadWriteThink website, supports a research skills unit where the students complete a written report on a state symbol. By participating in an interactive bibliography, students learn first-hand the importance of citing sources, giving credit to authors, and avoiding plagiarism. Note the other links to "building block" lessons, midway down the page. Teachers could add another Web 2.0 twist by having students create their work in a wiki. One educator-friendly wiki site is PBWiki. It's free and easy to use—click on the Educators button.

A MIDDLE SCHOOL WHERE "CHILDREN ARE CHAMPS"
The 12-year old Stadium School serves 225 students in grades 4-8 under a public charter from the Baltimore City Public Schools. The school, says this article at Edutopia, "takes project-based learning to the extreme. Projects don't simply support the core academic subjects; they are their own subjects, offering students not just the chance find their strengths—as a hairstylist, an artist, or a scientist—but also the time to cultivate them. And in each class, there's a literal buzz as students clamor to talk about why they love their school." Stadium's strong service-learning focus produces many students "who want to change the world," says director Ronald Shelley, one of the school's original teachers. Starting in sixth grade, students choose from 13 project classes. Shelley describes a dual goal: Create a curriculum that both impacts the community and at the same time ties the students to their community.

QUICK RESOURCE: MATH TEACHER DATABASE
If you've visited the PBS Teachers website, you may have felt a bit overwhelmed by all the resources packed into this corner of cyberspace. Here's a link that will help math teachers go straight to the materials likely to most interest them. There's a search tool at the very top of the page where you can select grade range and topic. For the more visually oriented, there are featured lesson plans displayed just below the search tool...roll your cursor over the titles to see the graphics. And just below that, you'll find a clickable button that will lead you though the steps to customize the site for your own use.

SCIENCE & HISTORY: WHO KNEW SUE?
A few years back, the Scout Report tells us, "a team of intrepid paleontologists came across the bones of a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex in South Dakota. The dinosaur became known as 'Sue' and visitors to the Field Museum in Chicago have flocked to see her remains for the past seven years." This website allows visitors to learn about the other species roaming around South Dakota in Sue's era, some 67 million years ago. Using this interactive exhibit, visitors can explore the dig site where Sue was discovered and learn about some of her neighbors (and prey!), including several bird-footed dinosaurs. The visually stimulating experience requires Macromedia Flash Player. This is an excellent reason to install it, if you haven't already! See these Help tips.

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
As the homepage of Poets.org reminds us, April is National Poetry Month, and you'll find some great ideas here to promote poetry in your classroom (and not just in the "cruellest month"). Do an advanced search of the term "teaching" to pull up several essays on teaching poetry, including an excerpt from the Read-Aloud Handbook and an article, "How I Teach Poetry in the Schools." You might also visit the website PoetryClass, which promises to "take the fear out of teaching poetry," and a great PBS NewsHour "special" page with lots of poetry resources, including a link to "Rap, Hip Hop and Poetry Slams." Finally, we just came across this fascinating article at Edutopia, "Poetry in Motion," about an Internet project that attempts to capture the poet's creative process online.

TECHIE? WRITE FOR MERIDIAN!
Meridian, the online magazine focused on technology integration in the middle grades, is accepting submissions for the Summer 2007 issue (with a May 11 deadline). We're Meridian fans here at MiddleWeb—imagine, a magazine on 21st Century learning just for us! It's published at North Carolina State University and overseen by an interdisciplinary team of graduate students. You can sample the latest issue, which features articles like "The Girls Creating Games Program: An Innovative Approach to Integrating Technology into Middle School," by surfing over to this webpage.

SECOND LIFE FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
And speaking of technology: Second Life, the virtual online world that is catching the attention of universities for its educational possibilities, hasn't been an option for middle school use. Although most 12-year-old students would find the site's graphical elements and social possibilities intriguing, Second Life's policy bars anyone younger than 13 from the main site. However, using funds from the National Science Foundation, graduate students from Ohio University have developed a special protected island within the virtual world where only selected middle school students are allowed. They're now working with middle school science teachers to design interactive games that will help children grasp difficult science concepts. So far, they've developed four games, each with specific learning elements. This story in THE Journal has the details.

MIDDLE SCHOOL IS LIKE SCOTCH
This New York Times series on the "crisis" in the middle grades may get your dander up, but we think it's important to consider the perceptions in the public media about the state of middle grades education—perceptions that have a significant influence on school policy. This link leads to the third installment in the series, titled "For Teachers, Middle School Is a Test of Wills," in which education reporter Elissa Gootman examines both the teacher qualifications debate and the special demands placed upon the educators of young adolescents. A Brooklyn teacher offers this memorable quote: "Middle school is like Scotch. At first you try to get it down. Then you get used to it. Then it's all you order." At this page (left column), you'll find links to two earlier stories in The Critical Years series and a short video, "The Middle School Challenge," that's worth sharing with non-educators. Free registration may be required. Also see five teacher letters in response to the most recent article.

TEACH THE STORY OF MOVIES!
We're classic movie buffs here at MiddleWeb, so when we saw several middle school teachers talking about this program on the Turner Classic Movies channel, we perked up! The Story of Movies is an interdisciplinary curriculum introducing middle school students to classic cinema and the cultural, historical and artistic significance of film. Created by The Film Foundation in partnership with IBM and TCM, the program offers three films for in-depth study: To Kill a Mockingbird, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Foundation provides free DVDs, a Teacher's Guide, and a Student Activities Booklet—plus online resources, including a professional development area for teachers. Popcorn optional.

THE LIBRARIAN'S DILEMMA
Today's school librarians find themselves caught in an ideological conundrum. On the one side is the knowledge that attention spans have plummeted among young people, as has reading, and the culprits seem to be video games and the Internet. On the other side, the Internet and digital media are touted as the salvation for an otherwise obsolete, increasingly irrelevant system of public schooling. What to do? This thoughtful article at the Edutopia website, "Dewey, or Don't We?", liberally quotes school librarians, points to useful resources, and seeks to define a balanced approach to the librarian's traditional role as "the interface between the information and the user."

GIFTED EDUCATION: THE DOCUMENTARY
Speaking of movies, an award-winning documentary that first appeared on PBS's The Merrow Report is now available on DVD at a price that's hard to resist ($8.95 including shipping). If you prefer, you can watch the 12-minute video online at no cost by following the link above. Education journalist John Merrow says "Gifted Education" is one of his most requested reports. "Programs for the gifted are disappearing in districts across the country because of budget cuts (and) shifting priorities," Merrow says. "Critics of No Child Left Behind claim that the law's emphasis on the lowest performing students is leading districts to ignore gifted children. NCLB's defenders say that schools are making excuses for not helping all children. We take a look at one district in rural Illinois that has cut its gifted program and the community is fighting to get it back."

ALL CONTENT AREAS! NEW APPLE LEARNING INTERCHANGE
Apple Computer has refreshed and redesigned the Apple Learning Interchange website to create something closer to a social network for educators. There's LOTS of content, searchable by topic, subject area and grade level, and a rating system that allows teachers to indicate their opinion about the usefulness of the resources. Of course, you'll also find activities designed around Apple software (iMovie, iLife, etc.) but you don't have to have a Mac to mine this site for video, audio, lesson ideas, curriculum units and more. We found over 500 middle grades resources, including a little video clip on European toilets. Really! Accounts are free, and you can also subscribe to an RSS link to keep up with new content. Here's a direct link to the MS content list.

THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST HOMEWORK
The March issue of Educational Leadership offers free online access to an article on a teaching topic that is endlessly debated, with fierce defenders on both sides. Robert Marzano, well know for his research-based "What Works" book series, joins colleague Debra Pickering in analyzing (and bringing more clarity to) "The Case For and Against Homework." You won't be too surprised to learn that the authors are "for" homework, but only homework that "benefits student achievement." The article includes an analysis of the major research on homework and uses the research to devise four guidelines for teachers who want to make sure the work they send home is appropriate and effective. An important article to share around your school!

PD ON YOUR iPOD
An email from David Kreisberg, an instructional specialist for the Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools, caught our attention, since we're fans of the iPod (and other MP3 devices). David and his colleague Andrew Miller are hosting a podcast series called "Best Practices: Staff Development on the Go" that's available to anyone with a web browser. David writes that each episode "typically contains three interviews with experts who discuss research, conferences, and best practices in education related to improving teaching and learning." The intent he says, is to offer classroom teachers "a non-traditional delivery method to keep up with best teaching practices and conference happenings in an informal, conversational podcast." Grow professionally while you walk your dog! Perhaps this innovation will inspire more of the same in other district staff development offices.

ANNENBURG'S NEW EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE WEBSITE
The goal of this new web-based resource from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform is to help educators understand "educational excellence and equity at scale." The website supports an examination of the assumptions behind these different—and sometimes competing—strategies to achieve equity and excellence at scale and promotes collaborative work across strategies. It provides text-based, audio, and video resources from important voices in education reform to support an ongoing conversation. If this is an important conversation in your school, the resources here are sure to push the dialogue deeper.