National Middle School Association
October 30, 2008
Conference Insider
The 21st Century Classroom
Students participate in a high-tech learning environment
What is the first thing you
think of when you hear the word
future? For some it may mean
UFO’s, for others it may mean
the Jetsons, but for most middle
schools it means SmartBoard,
Smart Slate, iPods, laptops, and
yes, even the clickers. “These fun
utensils keep the students interacting and get them excited about
coming to school” said 8th grade
teacher Jennifer Henderson of
North Middle school in Aurora.
“Also, it improves the students’
attendance record because they
are more engaged and wondrous
of what is going on.” Henderson
said. In the 21st Century
Classrooms, the teachers and students are being observed by many curious attendees
wondering about all this new
by Kylee Jackson
technology that has been made
recently. “I have taught for thirty
years and I stand here today in
amazement knowing how much
technology has improved since
I started teaching. It is just so
mind boggling that we can design
and come up with all this stuff.,”
said Karen of Jasper Middle
school in Alabama. Karen also
said that, “I think seeing this
will make me more open to trying to make class more fun and
engaging.” All of the equipment
was donated by companies like:
Tandburg, CDWG, Media Logix,
Promethean, Inc, Adolfson and
Peterson Construction, Bennett,
Wagner, and Grody Architects
PC, Priority Networks, Inc.,
Tabula Digita, and Aurora and
Douglas County Schools.
Conference Insider Staff
Students from two Douglas County
Schools served as the Conference
Insider reporters for the NMSA 2008
Conference.
Students from Sierra Middle School
in Parker, Colorado conducted interviews, wrote articles and took pictures. The Thursday crew included:
Jed Palmer (teacher) Kylee Jackson,
Chelsea Herbertson, Jayla Gentile,
Robert Rothschild, Kyleigh Rees and
Maddie Weiman.
Students from Castle Rock Middle
School in Castle Rock, Colorado provided video coverage. The Thursday
crew included: John Veit (teacher),
Karissa Stark, Ashley Klos, Dacia
Farho, Ryan Johanns, and Lauren
McNeal
“These electronics will
better prepare the kids for their
real jobs and the real world. They
will be more in to the discussion
if they can be the ones interacting with it” said Mary Cathrine
of Maddox Middle School in
Alabama. One aspect that isn’t
visible is teacher training. “I
think the most important thing is
we have to integrate the technology in. I don’t think you should
just bring in SmartBoards, iPods,
and all this new technology. It
will all just be too overwhelming.
You must gradually import all this
stuff.” said Randy Wheldon, CIO
for Douglas County Schools.
This technology rich environment may be a glimpse into
the classrooms of the next ten
years.
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National Middle School Association
October 30, 2008
Sometimes Teachers Have To Be Taught
by Kyleigh Rees
The National Middle School Association convention teaches the teachers to teach. It helps the
teachers by giving them ideas to bring to their
class, making the classes different from 10 years
ago by using new technology. NMSA brings teachers from all around the country and helps them
make their classrooms better.
The professors just want to help the teachers understand that middle school students are
different. “Every student is unique. There is not a
cure all or a fix all for everybody. You have to look
at each student individually,” said Claudia Whitley.
NMSA feels that all teachers should come here.
“The NMSA is the only organization in the
United States, actually in the world, that particularly deals with the special needs of young adolescent learners and so classroom teachers and other
educators that deal with young adolescents need
opportunities to get resources, new ideas, practical suggestions, research, and other tools to help
them be the best educators they can be for middle
school students. It helps the teachers grow and
understand the age group that they are teaching”
said Nancy Doda, who has been with NMSA for
32 years.
Many new ideas for classrooms are presented every year, trying to grab the teachers’ eyes.
They have several inventions that are very useful
and that help the teachers in their classrooms like
the Smart Board and so many more. The kids get
to join in and try it out to see if it is useful and
what it is like. “Well I am interested in the communication with sister schools and sister classrooms for writing especially” said Jennifer Hepler.
NMSA agrees that teacherssometimes need to be
taught.
Video Insider: October 30, 2008
Students from Castle Rock Middle School
created a video of Day 1 of the NMSA
2008 Conference. Includes an introduction to the conference and highlights of
the 21st Century Classroom. Check the
NMSA website for more information.
http://www.nmsa.org/annual/
Full Sized Videos are available at http://www.schooltube.com/categories/244/NMSA-2008
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National Middle School Association
October 30, 2008
New Products to Support Young Learners
by Chelsea Herbertson
At the National Middle School Association (NMSA) conferences, hosted by the Denver
Convention Center on Thursday October 30th,
teachers come from all over the country to look at
how to improve their classrooms. Vendors who also
come from all over the country show their products
in their own vendor booths where they sell things
from textbooks to physical education equipment.
The Exhibit Hall was filled to the brim with
vendors wishing to show and educate the teachers
about their products. When I asked Genise Cushman, a yearbook representative for Herff Jones, why
she was here at the NMSA Conference she said,
“To help educate people on how to make award
winning yearbooks and help them make their yearbooks.” Cushman said, ”We can help middle school
kids learn about journalism, how to write stories,
and how to take pictures.”
One company at the convention was showing off Supa Cams. When I spoke to Mark Dowling
about why he was at the convention he said, “We
have a terrific camera, it’s a digital still shot camera
that also has a video camera. You can make a movie
with it, you can take a picture with it, you can store
information on it all in one unit.” This camera is
a really easy way to fit all this different technol-
ogy into one device. He said, ”We’re selling them
to teachers to help them with their business.” This
camera can help teach the students how to use still
shots, videos and other features on the camera.
I spoke with Bob Jesberg, a vendor in the
booth that was showing K’nex. I asked him what
his product does that is different from what middle
school kids learn from textbooks. He said, “Number
one is the things that they learn from the textbook
that they are supposed to imagine, they can actually build a model of it and make it operate.” K’nex
is a bunch of pieces that you can click and connect
together to make the boring textbook writing into
models that can function and move and you can observe better and learn more with physical hands on
learning thats fun. He said, ”The key is the things
actually operate and they can see how the science
works in a simulated situation.”
Each vendor at the NMSA conference is
trying to help students learn using new technologies
and products. They are doing this by educating all
the teachers who come to their booth about their
product. From the yearbooks at Herff Jones, the
high tech camera from Supa Cam, to the K’nex for
science, each product can help a middle school student and their teacher learn more high-tech education for the future.
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National Middle School Association
October 30, 2008
A Role-Reversal for Teachers at NMSA
by Maddie Weiman
For three days a year,
teachers have to go through the
whole middle school experience again. The NMSA conference will have them hustle from
class to class, occasionally to the
wrong one, wait in line for lunch
and read up on their studies. So
what’s the purpose of this mecca
of role reversal? Simple. To teach
teachers.
Different teachers come
for different reasons, but they all
want to do the same thing. “I’ve
spent my whole career working with middle school kids and
I love them and I think they’re
misunderstood. I want my “students” to understand them,” one
presenter said. As I sat in one of
the classes, I realized that stu-
dents and teachers aren’t that
different, they were chattering to
each other while scribbling notes
on what the teacher was saying
and making peace signs at the
sight of a camera.
“For students, it’s easier
to learn if they sit down and do
the activities themselves. Teachers learn the same way,” said Ms.
Hepler, a middle school teacher
from Tennessee. Will the teachers
take what they learn about being
back in school with them? The
students sure hope so. If every
teacher would put themselves
in our shoes, it might be easier
to understand why we don’t get
a math problem when it’s compared to paying a mortgage, or
why we are late to class because
we had to go to the bathroom.
As we hustle about our
daily routines with grace, the
teachers tend not to acknowledge
that we have major stress too.
Sometimes it’s hard to pay attention the next day when you were
up late perfecting an assignment
you weren’t given enough time to
complete. As teenagers, we are
always hungry, whether it’s third
period or fifth and we do like
junk food. It’s the way we are. It’s
the way we work.
“Every student is unique
there’s not a cure-all or a fix-all
for everybody. You have to look at
each individual,” Claudia Whitley
states. This could not be more
true. Some people need things to
be related to real-life scenarios,
others just need it explained with
different terms. Some students
blossom in front of an audience,
while some are terrified at the
thought of a presentation. One
thing that is the same between
every student is that no one likes
to be stuck in a boring lesson.
Nothing makes you want
to go to sleep more than a lecture
complete with a PowerPoint.
How are some ways that students want their teachers to keep
them entertained? Technology.
At the NMSA conference, there
is what’s called the “21st Century
Classroom” that’s chock full of
the latest and greatest teaching
skills. “We used a lot of computers and podcasts,” Kaitlin recalls
after learning in the classroom of
the future.
When sixth grader,
Naughdia was asked what her
favorite part of the day was she
responded, “It’s pretty cool. [I
like] using the technology and different ways we can learn with it.” Hopefully, the teachers visiting
the convention will take these
ideas back with them. Ideas like
understanding the kids’ situation.
NMSA has truly succeeded in
showing teachers what they need
to know to ensure their student’s
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National Middle School Association
October 30, 2008
Hands-on Learning for Teachers at NMSA
by Jayla Gentile
On October 30, the Denver Convention Center hosted the National Middle School Association
(NMSA). conference. The place was covered with
middle level teachers from all over the nation, vendors
selling products to make learning easier and more exciting, and other vendors that are letting the teachers try
their product. These stations are called Tech Sandboxes.
There were eight of these Tech Sandboxes from companies like Promethean, ePals, Tandberg, SchoolTube, and
Tabula Digita.
Tabula Digita is a very clever company that has
come up with a very successful tool to help kids with
mathematics. It is a video game called Evolver where you
have to know math to be able to play. Jeff Gallup, an instructional technology teacher said,” My school has this
program in the media center and kids love it so much
that they come in and play before school starts.” It truly
is a wonder for math teachers struggling to keep there
students focused enough to learn math.
Another booth was a company called PBS Teachers that has free online resources for teachers to help
educate kids from preschool to middle school. “We have
an online line community for teachers to communicate
through and it’s like a My Space or Facebook for teachers.” said the company’s representative that was at the
event, Jenny Bradbury. “We also provide lesson plans for
all subjects from science to math,” she said.
Lastly, a company called Tandberg brought an
amazing product to the conference that is basically a
Webcam on top of a television. It transports live action
and sound to any other one of these Webcams that you
wish. For example, if your kids are doing a project on art
museums throughout the country, you can set up a live
conference with people that work in museums in states
from New York to California. But it isn’t limited to the
United States, you can chat with people from half way
across the world!
Teachers from all over the nation have come
to the NMSA convention with their middle school
students in mind to help them grow to be successful
adults when they grow up. They learn about new techniques and test out new products on the market to help
improve their students’ minds and make learning fun
whether they are from Tabula Digita for math, PBS
Teachers for lesson plans, or Tandberg for around the
world communication.
Abraham Lincoln Traveling Museum
Conference attendees are
able to visit the Abraham Lincoln
mobile museum, a mini museum in
the back of a truck. This incredible
little museum has many exhibits, like
the Civil War in four minutes and a
virtual Lincoln giving an announcement. This museum travels around
the country in the back of a semi
with pictures of President Lincoln
on the side. There are articles from
Lincoln’s time and speeches such
as the Gettysburg address. On the
walls there are pictures and drawings
that are as interesting as the exhibits
themselves.
The Civil War in four minutes is a summary of the war that
has moving sides for the North and
South to show the land that each
byRobert Rothschild
Army controlled. The time increment is one second is equal to one
week. On the side there is a counter
for the number of casualties on both
sides. On the other side of the trailer
was a show of a projected Lincoln
giving a speech. This is set in the
back of a train.
On the walls there are many
articles, pictures, and speeches that
are about Lincoln. There are things
like the Gettysburg Address, and
pictures of battles.
This exhibit makes it’s home
in the history section. It supplies
Lincoln fans with information and
cool exhibits. This exhibit provides
valuable teaching resources that
would enrich a middle school classroom.
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