From our newsletter: Create a Digital Sub • Checking for understanding • PhET Simulates Science • Videos Build Math Engagement • Inquiry-Based Punctuation Lessons • Report Shows Principals Matter • The 2012 Election across the Curriculum • Quick Links (free subscription)
Create a Digital Sub
When Scholastic blogger Jeremy Rinkel has to be away from his secondary classroom, he
keeps students engaged through the digital substitutes he creates. Rather than pile on the worksheets he recalls with disdain, Rinkel uses technology to provide lessons via PowerPoint, audio, and video that are followed by writing activities. Read his
suggestions for content and his
recommended gadgets. ALSO visit Brent Vasicek’s post for a day’s worth of activities for the
upper elementary substitute. 21st-centurizing is optional.
from Stenhouse Publishers
See how to make formative assessments a powerful part of your everyday instruction. In So What Do They Really Know?, best-selling author and English teacher Cris Tovani shares successful lessons and strategies for getting to know your students well, differentiating instruction, giving feedback, grading, and more. Preview the entire book online.
PhET Simulates Science
There's nothing like a cannon firing weird projectiles (a Buick coupe?) to interest middle level kids in physical phenomena. PhET interactive simulations from UC-Boulder offer insights across physics and other science subjects. They're searchable by age and reinforced by activities submitted by teachers. Try clicking to “Build an Atom” and visit the “Energy Skate Park.” PhET’s goal is to help students "make connections between real-life phenomena and the underlying science.”
Videos = Math Engagement
Intriguing videos can build kids’ engagement in math, as Australian educator Neville Barnard demonstrates at his Exploring Education blog. Your students may need Google to find out who Ma and Pa Kettle are, but they'll likely be intrigued by an old movie clip of their mangled math manipulations. Also featured: Pattern blocks and tessellations. Elsewhere, Barnard puts the "Ah!" back in arithmetic with clips showing the patterns underlying prime numbers and spirals.
Inquiry Meets Punctuation
As teacher Elizabeth Schlessman watched her upper elementary students learn about mosses by close observation and inquiry, she wondered: Could you do the same when studying punctuation? Getting beyond the stultifying application of rules, she guided her students to see the verbal patterns into which punctuation fits. In this article from Rethinking Schools, Schlessman details her methods and her students' discoveries.
Report Shows Principals Matter 
A recent study in Texas finds that
good principals have a significant effect on student success, especially in high poverty schools. The study, which looked at data collected on 7,400 school leaders, is summarized at the Ed Week blog
Inside School Research. MORE: Education Trust writer Karin Chenoweth cites the
Texas study and other recent research on principal effectiveness in
a Huffington Post piece.
The Cross-Curricular 2012 Election
The New York Times Learning Network makes the 2012 election engaging for students with some recent posts packed with lesson ideas and resources.
In this post, learn to create profiles of this year’s candidates, develop
stump speeches, and examine
political caricatures. A second post offers a long list of activities to involve students in
the math of the election, from delegate counts to fundraising. For a look at
history’s impact on the current election, NYTLN offers a story on the passage of the 19
th Amendment, when women’s votes began to impact political outcomes.
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MiddleWeb's Quick Links
Didn't find quite what you need? Here's a quick look at some other resources of interest.
• Go beyond pie to celebrate Pi Day Mar 14 (3.14). Look through this wikiHow article for educational options.
• If kids have questions about St. Patrick’s Day (Mar 17), get the cultural basics from around the world and in the U.S.
• Day and night aren’t really equal on the Vernal Equinox (Mar 20). NatGeo tells you why.
• Celebrate National Poetry Day (Mar 21) with ReadWriteThink.
• Whether studying WWII or the US/Soviet space race, remember Wernher von Braun on his 100th birthday (Mar 23).
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