Month: December 2025

URL Structure

I’ve been running Middle School Matters for since February of 2007. When I set the site up, the guidance was to use permalinks based on a plain URL structure (where post end up with a number). I had been thinking about switching to the much more modern structured URL (day and name). However, I wasn’t sure if I would break anything (like the podcast XML links).

However, I hit an issue where the RSS feed wasn’t resolving correctly. Basically, one should be able to add /feed/ to the base URL to get an RSS feed. Thus, https://middleschoolmatters.com/feed/ should’ve (and now does) result in an RSS feed. It didn’t.

After a bit of research and work, too much research and work, I’ve made the change. My original research took me into a couple of paths, it’s a theme issue, functions.php is not ended correctly. I reviewed those. Finally, I came across a post that suggested plain URL’s were the issue. TaDa! Switching to Day and name URL structure meant that everything magically starts working.

52Frames

I completed the 52Frames challenge again this year. I missed posting one week, I had an image, but had decided to wait to see if I could get something “better” during a Sunday hike. I then forgot to post on Sunday. Lesson learned. I also learned that you can “edit” (i.e. change) the image submitted. So, from now on, I’ll post an image that I have and replace if I like something better in the future.

This was the second year of 52Frames for me. Some weeks are definitely just “take a picture”, but the challenges do help me think about photography during the week.

I plan on participating again in 2026.

Web Host

I’m considering switching my web host. I’ve been with HostGator for many, many years. However, they have me stuck at MySQL 5. I need MySQL 8 for the latest version of Moodle. As a side benefit, it looks like a may save a few dollars for the first few years.

I’m looking at Bluehost. In the end, I would also end up with a bit of extra storage space as well.

Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werd (Ben Werdmuller) is one of my favorite follows. He always posts interesting stuff. If you are interested in news, deep thinking, and interesting writing, consider following him.

The Rise of the Lemmings

The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI ($) is a fascinating article. (Sorry, this one is behind a paywall. It’s important to support news gathering.)

The article starts with someone worried about the “Google Maps-ification” issue. That is, people don’t have a construct of the world or where they are. They simple plug in the directions to Google Maps and away they go. The same person fears becoming dependent upon AI. He uses it up to eight hours a day. He takes advice on marriage and parenting as well as just about everything else from the AI chatbots.

I fear that this will continue to grow. I’m especially concerned for our students. They currently are “growing up with AI” and it’s very much normalized for them. The real question will be how do they react/interact with the AI. Do they know how incredibly delusional it can be? Do they understand what is really happening (i.e. how AI actually works)? Will students forego the hard working of learning and cognition? Will Idiocracy become a prediction rather than just a satiric movie?

The article continues with an educator who teaches AI realizing that he had become “reliant” on ChatGPT. Instead of actually thinking, he had become reliant on ChatGPT. Another interviewee relates how she can’t start “meaningful work” without first consulting AI.

Yet another interviewee relates that while out with friends at a club and having not heard from them in a bit, she asked AI “What’s the probality that they are OK?”. She frequently asks AI questions that she knows it can’t possibly answer correctly, but she wants “reassurance”.

According to the article, ChatGPT is working on designing features that discourage the use of ChatGPT to outsource thinking. Yep, no conflict here (sarcasism).

AI isn’t going away. What it will become, and what impact that it will have will be up to us. I’m not really a doomday sayer. We’ve heard throughout history how one thing or another was going to destroy the world. (* One of my favorite sites is the Pessimists Archive).

Hall of Fame

Sorry, if Jeff Kent has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, they’ve only pointed out the agregiousness of not having elected Lou Whitaker.

Web Host

I’m considering switching my web host. I’ve been with HostGator for many, many years. However, they have me stuck at MySQL 5. I need MySQL 8 for the latest version of Moodle. As a side benefit, it looks like a may save a few dollars for the first few years.

Application Update

I use MacUpdater to keep my applications up to date. This is a great service that will, sadly, be coming to end at the end of this month. Thus, I figure it’s a good time to really go through all my applications. The idea is to make sure that each application is up to date. During this process, I either confirm that the application is up to date, update or delete each application.

I’ve found Latest which performs a similar function. It is open source.

Latest is a free and open source app for macOS that checks if all your apps are up to date. Get a quick overview of which apps changed and what changed and update them right away. Latest currently supports apps downloaded from the Mac App Store and apps that use Sparkle for updates, which covers most of the apps on the market.

It doesn’t look quite a full featured as MacUpdater, but I’m giving it a go.

Bronco

Time for the Bronco oil change and tire rotation. While rotating the tires, a nail was discovered in one of the tires. The nail is right along the edge of the tire, thus can’t be patched. Because of the wear on the tire, if the tire can’t be patched and has to be replaced, it means replacing all four tires. Fortunately, upon pulling the nail, it hadn’t breached the tire.

Curiosity Course

I signed up for the Now I Know Curiosity Course. Mostly, just to support Now I Know. If your aren’t subscribed, Now I Know is a great little newsletter. There is one interesting story per day (Monday through Friday).

America’s Declining Test Scores

Michael Pershan has An interesting write up on test scores – I Don’t Know What to Think About America’s Declining Test Scores and Neither Should You. Pershan points out the incongruity of the standard tests – some up, some down. Everybody talks about the effect of the pandemic on academic achievement, without the follow up of how important teachers are.

I honestly think that this is a huge issue right now. Apparently, not being school has a detrimental effect on students. We haven’t taken this opportunity to understand just hwo important teachers are. Nor have we taken the opportunity to celebrate what a difference teachers make. Rather, we just kind of skip through that part.

Back to Pershan. He makes some points about how the weakest students are impacted the most. He makes a few references to “No Child Left Behind”. He even brings in Social Studies and civics.

Pershan also brings up declining scores for adults. Literacy and numeracy declines were even seen in the 55-65 year old age group.

Maybe it’s the phones? Or maybe not. Maybe it’s just an America thing?

Head over and give it a read.