The Belated Monday Minute

Over 55 Shelby County community leaders - from the County Council President, a retired judge, and a retired principal to current non-profit executives - were eager to return to Shelbyville Middle School for another Shelby Shake on Oct. 1. The event, which had been held annually before the pandemic, gives students the opportunity to respond to customer service scenarios, give extemporaneous speeches and ask local politicians and business leaders questions.

Major Health Partners Vice President Heather Ross said she was impressed with students' ability to give their own off-the-cuff retirement speech at a reception featuring balloons and "retirement" party favors. "I was pleasantly surprised at how specific they were in what career they were 'retiring' from," Ross said. "At least half said that after retirement, they would stay busy by giving back to the community. Many of them did such a great job of maintaining eye contact and spoke confidently. It was very rejuvenating getting to interact with them and to leave with such a positive impression."

This year's Shelby Shake included 47 seventh-grade English Language Arts Honors students. Seventh-grader Luke Coomes told local media that his favorite part was connecting each scenario to his planned career in meteorology. "I loved meeting new people, learning what they do and how that connects to what I want to do in the future."

Thank you to Kristiaan Rawlings who coordinated the event and wrote this narrative, and principal Ryan Mikus, who shared it with us.

While Digitial Citizenship Week started on Monday, there are still several events going on, and many resources that can be integrated into instruction throughout the year.

Resources from the Indiana Learning Lab

Be Internet Awesome Lessons from Google

Keep Indiana Learning Resources

Free DigCit Lessons from Nearpod

Free Lessons from Common Sense Education

Would You Rather DigCit Questions from Dr. Kristen Mattson (can lead to great discussions)

K-12 #DigCitWeek Ideas from Michelle Green (formerly of IDOE, now a Virtual School P)

And if you're not already on overload, the Texas Computer Education Association has this list.

Even if your school does not "celebrate" Halloween, there are many resources for this time of year that you might find helpful, even if it's just including some spooky stories. Here are some of the best I've found:

• Richard Byrne's Updated List of Halloween-themed Activities and Resources
• Frightful Fun: Halloween Podcasts for Middle Schoolers
• Halloween Podcast Lists from Jeff Glade
• Scared Out of Your Mind: Halloween, Fear, and the Brain-Free Stories from Actively Learn
  
• Halloween Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings
• 20 Halloween Ideas for Spooky Science Fun
• Spookiest Children's Books of 2021
• ELA Halloween Activities for Middle & High School

Photo by Taylor Rooney on Unsplash

On Saturday, November 6, I will be at the IASP office (11025 E. 25th, Indianapolis) to watch the AMLE virtual conference. If you are in the area and would like to join in, please let me know. (I'll bring snacks!) Sessions on Saturday run from 8 am to 5:05 pm, but you could come for any part of it. You do need to be registered for the conference to attend. You can find out more about the main tracks and sessions here.

Dr. Frank Buck, who writes frequently for MiddleWeb and has presented at AMLE, describes this as one of his favorite posts ever. (But I don't think there's any hope for me!)

Through this website, students can track sea turtles, make hypotheses, improve their geography knowledge, and more. Of course, the organization would welcome donations, but it is not necessary.

This piece from Michael Shaffer, Assistant Clinical Professor of Educational Leadership at Ball State, really struck me. It relates the lesson he learned from observing an ED class many years ago, something that has always stayed with him. Perhaps some of you know him from his many experiences in education. He also has a book coming out in January, From Push-ups to Angel's Wings: Great Things Happen When Boys Read.

The biannual national convention for the American Association of School Librarians runs October 21-23 in Salt Lake City. While several from Indiana will be there, this in-person conference also has a great group of people who share out resources for those who are unable to attend. Your librarian may already know about it, but just in case, you can follow the hashtag #NOTatAASL on Twitter and access a LiveBinder full of resources that will grow throughout the conference (and has already started). As you can imagine, digital literacy is a popular topic.

EduMatch began as a dream of Dr. Sarah Thomas, a tech integration specialist from Maryland. Dr. Thomas has spearheaded efforts in podcasting, publishing, and more. EduMatch is one of my most active Voxer groups. You can apply for a grant up to $1500 for a classroom project. Deadline: November 1.

Middle School Journal highlights the voices and perspectives of young adolescents through a student column each issue. They can respond in a written or artistic format of their choosing (e.g., written narrative; poetic; story map; drawing/sketch) to one of the prompts found here. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

Please connect with us on Twitter and Facebook. We follow Indiana middle level schools & retweet/share what we can. It's a great source of ideas!

October 21: Fall into DigCit LiveStream Mini-Summit, 1-4 pm

October 21-24: Teacher Summit (quite a lineup!)

October 22: Dr. Drew & Dr. Lisa-How Are Kids Doing? 1 pm

October 26-28: Adobe MAX: The Creativity Conferencer

October 28: KIL-How to Build Equity-Focused Family Engagement, 4 pm

October 28: Make Learning Magical: Innovative Strategies to Inspire, Immerse, and Empower with Tisha Richmond, 7 pm

November 1: Summer of Learning Grant Application Due

November 1: EduMatch Foundation Grant Application Due

Nov. 3: Future Reading Schools- Addressing Systemic Trauma w/ Jimmy Casas & Tom Murray, 12-2 pm

November 4-7: AMLE Virtual Conference

ONGOING EVENTS

Keep Indiana Learning Live Events (many free) Archived Events

edWeb.net Webinars

PATINS Trainings for Accessibility for All

Teachers First/OK2Ask Virtual Workshops

AMLE Podcast Series

IN LearningPartnership

Please note: Webinars and events mentioned in this space are not an endorsement of commercial products; on the contrary, we try to avoid listing events that appear to be commercial in nature. Every effort is made to strip social media/tracking data from provided URLs. In many cases you can register and receive a recording later.

INSPIRE3 philanthropy education and service-learning projects are available on our website as well as IASP. You can also go direction to Learning to Give for current ideas, including standards-based lessons.

You can access past Monday Minutes via this link on our webpage Principals and others: Feel free to forward this newsletter to your staff, and email us at any time.

And don't forget, you can join both IMLEA and AMLE in a joint membership!

Join Us! Membership Benefits & Application

Susie Highley, Executive Director

Shirley Wright, Schools to Watch State Director

Email: shighleyimlea@iasp.org
Website: https://www.imlea.org/
Location: 11025 East 25th Street, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Phone: 317.894.2937
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IMLEA-Indiana-Middle-Level-Education-Association-170748717595/
Twitter: @IMLEAorg