Friday Focus
It's 2019! Let's Start it off with Friday Focus!
I didn't know this!
One of blogs that I follow is called Free Technology for Teachers written by Richard Bryne . He has become one of the go to writers for technology in education. I wanted to share out his first post of 2019 for a couple reasons,. The first reason is that it is a great history and government lesson; no I couldn't resist a chance at sharing a good history story! The short version of the article is that 2019 will be the first year since 1998 that there has been new works entering public domain. In 1998 works from 1922 entered the public domain and now 20 years later the works from 1923 are entering the public domain! According to the Smithsonian, this large gap in release dates is due to the copyright laws changing and companies like Disney, ok mostly Disney, pushing for longer copyright protections; seems a bit self-serving doesn't it?
Why do we care? Well, there are a lot of reasons and this article in the Smithsonian Magazine explains why the public domain is important to artists of all types and how it can potentially impact classrooms. The great thing about following the Free Technology for Teachers blog is that you get handy cheat sheets like this one that are packed full of information and, probably most importantly, resources you can use right now. Bryne did a great job to round up the most user-friendly and legal places to find public domain works to use in the classroom!
Subscribe to this blog or one of the other noteworthy ones! If nothing else, go check out some of his old posts on technology. I promise you will find something you can use in the classroom!
Great Sports!
The winners are Mr. Haar, Mrs. Winter, and Mr. Norden. This is from December, but I thought it needed to be shared out! Thanks for being great sports about this! The kids enjoyed it!
Please Welcome
You may have seen Ms. Fair around the building in the Fall. She will be hanging out and taking over Mrs. Verhey's room for a bit this Spring. Let's welcome her and make her feel welcome. After her first full day she promised she is coming back tomorrow!
And this guy!
Recognize this face? Mr. Tate Schoenfelder will be student teaching with Mr. Dockweiler this Spring. If the name sounds familiar he walked these halls a number of years ago as a middle school student. Let's make him feel welcome too!
Ever wonder what Mr. C is up to?
He always has something up his sleeve. Most of the time he is working to make the library a better place for our students.
In Memory Of..
Over the holiday break Mr. C worked to label books that were selected by or recommended by Ms. Shippy and her students. Thanks, Mr. C.
If you get the chance
Swing down and watch our students sport some game on the court. The boys and girls basketball season is in full swing at MMS!
Did you hear?
Mr. and Mrs. Jamison welcomed a new little one over break. Baby Felix and crew are doing great so far!