the network for middle school math and science teachers

Mary Henton's Blog (11)

One thing leads to another

The Picture of the Day from Science 360News Service today, March 22, is about the Asian tamarisk leaf beetle. The picture, as all the Science 360News Pictures of the Day, is lovely. Beautiful colors, succinct description.

The beetle (…

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Added by Mary Henton on March 22, 2011 at 11:31am — 3 Comments

QR codes - implication for education?

My colleague Kim Lightle forwarded me an article about Quick Response (QR) codes. This was the first I'd heard about QRs. Thank you, Kim!

As often happens with these kinds of articles, I followed my interests and found some fascinating and entrepreneurial…

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Added by Mary Henton on February 21, 2011 at 10:58am — 5 Comments

Social media tools turn things around for a middle school

Interesting article in the October 2010 issue of Middle Ground. An urban middle school with huge challenges and great programs still hadn't figured out how to touch that desire-to-learn nerve in their kids."Grabbing Students with Social…

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Added by Mary Henton on January 25, 2011 at 2:58pm — No Comments

Some lessons from online mentoring of English language learners

I just read "Sheltered Instruction for Teachers of English Language Learners: The Promise of Online Mentoring" in the January 2011 issue of Middle School Journal.The article caught my attention for personal and professional…

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Added by Mary Henton on January 25, 2011 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Service learning and STEM

There have been a couple of posts on MSP2 about service learning and STEM. Eric Biederbeck shared information and his thoughts from a conference session entitled Teaching STEM through Service Learning. Tom Jenkins shared posed the question, "Service Learning-Why not it Math, Science and STEM?" after attending a workshop.

It's safe to say that Eric, Tom, and… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on June 24, 2010 at 5:19pm — 5 Comments

The trail from Glogster to drawing and mapping tools

The following is cross-posted to a discussion on the Integrating Technology Group

I was exploring Glogster this morning, wondering, "How can Glogster help in a learning and teaching setting?" My search for "education" on the Glogster site turned up a glog about Web… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on February 18, 2010 at 10:30am — 3 Comments

The Future of Teaching (a borrowed title)

One of the messages in my inbox this morning came from the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ). The item announced the inauguration of TeacherSolutions 2030--an initiative to explore and help shape teaching as a "student-centered profession." There were references and links to the most recent blog posts at the Future of Teaching blog. Two that caught my eye were… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on October 1, 2009 at 9:16am — No Comments

The Edible Schoolyard

Somewhere in the email and blogposting universe, I tripped over a link to an Edutopia story about the Edible Schoolyard.

Martin Luther King Middle School, in Berkley, CA, has a one-acre garden where students grow food, raise chickens, learn about soil, pollination, water cycle, and all the other good stuff that is part of life. They also learn… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on August 18, 2009 at 4:43pm — 2 Comments

Problem Based Learning Meets Needs?

Two interactions with members of MSP2 a couple of weeks ago (I know, not good Web 2.0 response time!) prompted me to go looking in NMSA's resources. Both interactions were with MSP2 members: Carla Watts, a teacher in Illinois, and Bernardo Leon De La Barra, lecturer in engineering at University of Tasmania. Carla posted a question to the… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on July 2, 2009 at 9:30am — 21 Comments

The Middle Grades ARE Important!

Well...you already know that. After all, you're a middle grades educator. But are you aware that the middle grades hold the key for high school graduation? Or, put another way, at a time when the U.S. has a dropout crisis (7000 students drop out of school EVERY DAY) indicators of students most at risk AND opportunities to prevent this personal disaster occur in the middle grades. In fact, "Sixth graders… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on June 1, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Literacy learning in context

The stars aligned? Karma? According to my favorite TV character, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, "There are no coincidences." BUT I just read Jeffrey Wilhelm's article in the April, 2009 edition of Middle Ground, "Change We Can Believe in: Real Literacy for Real Learning," and… Continue

Added by Mary Henton on April 30, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments