Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and Teacher Day on May 5. One week, one day, one month is not enough to thank you for all you do for your students, your community, and each other.

You will undoubtedly see various lists of freebies and discounts for educators next week; here is one example.

We used Google's Flow Music to create a Teacher Appreciation Song. To be authentic (how did "it" come up with some of those lines?), we did not "fix" all of the lyrics, but you can see what can be created in a matter of minutes. This link is supposed to let you create up to 500 songs/music videos. Create a fun song or video to help students review information, look back over the school year, or other event to celebrate!

EDITED: We have postponed this visit until September. Northview Middle School, featured in Dr. Jenner's May 1 newsletter, will host a site visit in September. Principal Thomas Hakim will share what they have done to create a positive school culture/climate, as well as talk about the school and progress over the past few years. A tour of the building (new in Fall, 2024) classroom visits, and lunch will be included. The visit will be free for IMLEA members, $20 for nonmembers (you can be invoiced afterwards or pay then). You can sign up here. Northview is at 9020 N. College Avenue in Indianapolis. You can read more about Northview in our previous newsletter. All educators are welcome! You can indicate interest via this form, and we will follow up with you in the fall.

The Schools to Watch® Program is administered by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. The program focuses on school improvement efforts characterized by a continuous trajectory toward success. The Self Study and Rating Rubric© may now be used freely by any middle grades or secondary school to study and rate its practices. This toolkit provides a nice explanation of the entire process.

There is no cost to apply to be a School to Watch other than being an IMLEA member and the requirement to send representatives to the summer conference to accept your reward if you are designated. The conference in June, 2027 will be in Anaheim, CA. For any questions, please contact Susie Highley.

KINLCon Coming Up in June

It would be hard to beat the opportunities to learn and share at CIESC's KINLCon, to be held at Plainfield HS on June 9-10. In addition to outstanding keynotes Katie Powell and Matt Miller (both middle school favorites and Hoosiers!), the conference is very reasonably priced at only $99 for two days (and even lunch included!) In addtion, if you send 5 or more members from your school, you will have a room dedicated for your use for planning, sharing, etc. so that you can begin to act immediately together on what you've learned. Several schools took advantage of this last year.

To learn more and register, visit the KINLCon page.

And yes, IMLEA will have a session, "Middle School Mania," with a chance for you to share with others at the middle level on a variety of topics. As a presenter, I have two discounts for $15 for the first two people to contact me.

POPULAR YOUTUBE CHANNELS WITH WAYGROUND (QUIZIZZ) CONNECTIONS

This spreadsheet from Wayground purports to list the most popular Youtube channels used by teachers, along with accompanying activities. Each video is matched with a formative assessment, an interactive version of the video, and a printable worksheet. So far, there are over 70 Youtube channels, many with hundreds of videos. It might be worth investigating over the summer as well. Wayground has added many capabilities, including allowing you to create these activities using AI for other videos, websites, or resources.

LATE ADDITION: At the "National Tech Coach EdCamp" on April 30, the following links were shared by participants as "One Best Thing" on the web.

MIDDLE GRADES CIVIL DISCOURSE CURRICULUM

Written as a partnership project between AMLE and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, this non-partisan curriculum helps middle school students build the skills of civil discourse—listening to understand, disagreeing respectfully, and engaging in constructive dialogue.

Designed for the advisory setting, it uses interactive, relationship-centered activities to foster empathy, strengthen communication, and prepare students to navigate diverse perspectives as engaged, thoughtful citizens. It includes a special segment on America 250.

All materials can be accessed free of charge through this AMLE page, or the Reagan Education portal.

FIND YOUR NAME IN THE WORLD (CAN YOU TELL THAT'S IMLEA?)

NASA and Landsat have joined forces to help you find your name in the world. Go to this website, type in your name, and hit enter. Better yet, you can hover over each letter to find out where in the world each letter is found. And, if you don't like the particular combination, keep hitting enter until you find one you like. This could be an interesting way for students to examine different landforms.

SAMPLE ACTIVITIES FOR STAR WARS DAY

This blog post from TCEA's Peggy Reimers has activities you can use as is, or modify for your own use. The post also has some of her ideas from past years.
Although this Scholastic article is from a few years ago, it's still interesting because it shows locations used in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" and has students plot them on a world map.
Students can summarize a story, Star Wars Crawler Style, using this website.

LEGOS & AI COME TOGETHER AT PURDUE WORKSHOP

Purdue is offering a one-day STEM workshop for middle school teachers on July 23. It will explore practical applications of artificial intelligence, coding and robotics through classroom-ready lessons designed to spark curiosity and innovation. Each educator will receive a LEGO kit to use for the day and in the classroom. Learn more here, and register here.:

TEACHINGBOOKS.NET: A VALUABLE RESOURCE FOR LITERACY AND MORE

Through the Indiana State Library, all residents have access to a great resource, TeachingBooks.net You can look up nearly any book, K-12, and find multiple resources. There are lesson plans, links to original content videos from some authors and illustrators, and more. You can even look up "Book Resumes" that link to just about any online review, rating, and level of a book. NOTE: It is best to use your school address to create an account to access the book resumes, although TeachingBooks and INSPIRE can detect Indiana IP addresses for other areas. It's well worth it to explore their tutorials and help resources.

Quick Hits: Activities to Use with Students (Some AI Related)

Two Truths and AI is a part of Common Sense Media's Curriculum. In this particular example, students need to distinguish between real and AI-generated movie posters.
AI or Not? from the News Literacy Project
Odd One Out Guess the AI-Generated "Imposters" hidden among the artworks on Google Arts and Culture.

TIMES ARE EDT; FREE UNLESS NOTED

Many are available via recording, especially if you pre-register.

May 1- Deadline to Apply for AMLE's Successful Middle School Grant

May 4-8- Teacher Appreciation Week

May 7-Information Webinsar for Lilly Creativity Grants, 4:30 pm

May 8- Visit to Northview Middle School POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER

May 22- Webinar with Dr. Todd Bess of IASP on the New Accountability Model, 9 am. (Due to high demand, this session will now be available live on the KINL youtube channel)

June 4- SPARK Summit at Franklin Township Jr High

June 9-10-KINLCon at Plainfield Community High School $

June 11- InnovationFest at Columbus North HS

June 25-27- National Schools to Watch Conference, Washington, D.C. Area, $

July 15- Deadline to Nominate Someone for the AMLE Educator of the Year

August 4- Second, Limited Call for Presentations for AMLE

September 8-Lilly Teacher Creativity Grant Proposals Due, 6 pm

November 4-7- AMLE in Nashville, TN $

ONGOING EVENTS

Indiana Learning Lab Workshops (Requires Sign in for Registration, Also Access to Archived Events)

Teachers First OK2Ask Online Workshops ; (Past on-demand sessions)

Keep Indiana Learning (KINL); Live Events (some $) Past Recordings/Digital Content

edWeb.net Webinars (Can watch at later date; if sponsored, "commercials" are at the end)

Leslie Fisher Webinars

AMLE Podcasts: Walk and Talk & Research to Practice

AMLE Events (some free, some paid)

Corwin Webinars, Additional Free Corwin Resources, Including Past Webinars

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.

ABOUT IMLEA

The only organization in Indiana devoted to promoting, improving, and supporting middle level education. We are the Indiana affiliate of the national organization AMLE, and administer the Schools to Watch program for the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform.

Join us! Membership Benefits and Application

Joint Membership, AMLE/IMLEA

Susie Highley, Executive Director

FIND US:

11025 E. 25th Street, Indianapolis, IN. 46229 (Inside IASP)

(317) 759-4344

FACEBOOK X (Twitter) EMAIL LinkedIN

Horace Mann Celebrates Teacher Appreciation MONTH

A Message from Horace Mann (which thinks a week is not long enough to celebrate teachers)

Teacher Appreciation Month is HERE! We’re beyond grateful for educators like you. So, we’re celebrating with exciting prizes and special recognition for those who truly go above and beyond! Enter now for your chance to win daily, weekly and grand prizes including gift cards, a Cricut Maker, 3D Printer and more.

Know an educator who goes the extra mile? Nominate them for our Above and Beyond Educator Award by mentioning them in the comments on this Tweet OR this Instagram post. Each week, one educator and the educator who nominated them will win! How do they go above and beyond? Tell us!