I teach 5th and 6th grade STEM in the lovely Pacific Northwest in a small, rural town called Chimacum. My goal is to help students discover that all learning is life-long and that 21st century tools can be used for work as well as fun.
May 24
Originally published on the CORELaborate blog! Earlier this school year I volunteered to be part of our district’s Science Subject Area Committee (SAC) to come up with recommendations to the school board for a grades 6 through 12 Science adoption of new NGSS curriculum. The team was made up of two high school Science …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/05/24/what-about-robotics/
Apr 25
This post was originally published on the CORELaborate blog! Do kids already have grit?? A comment left on Kristen’s Movement in the Classroom post by Carina struck a chord with me. In her comment, Carina wrote, “If my students need a break from our learning every 10 minutes, what am I teaching? How can I …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/04/25/how-do-you-engage-your-students/
Apr 19
I was so happy to be asked by Larry Ferlazzo to be his Q and A BAM Radio show again! This time we tackled the topic of how to end a school year! I got to be on the show with Pernille Ripp, a teacher I’ve been learning from for years on Twitter and on …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/04/19/how-to-end-the-school-year-strong/
Mar 28
Chimacum Middle School 6th graders have been monitoring our neighborhood creek, Chimacum Creek, for the past 15 years! When asked to to develop an integrated STEM unit this year for our 6th graders I went to my fellow 6th grade teachers, the Humanities teacher, Ms. Langston, and the Math teacher, Mr. Meacham, and asked them …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/28/a-stewardship-stem-project/
Mar 27
This is my 4th straight year of getting to attend the Northwest Council for Computer Education or NCCE’s three-day conference (although last year I was only able to attend for one day)! This year it was in Portland, OR. NCCE goes back and forth between Seattle and Portland and this year it was Portland’s turn …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/27/my-ncce17-takeaways/
Mar 14
Thanks for Kae Novak, a true games master, I was interviewed by Classcraft about how I use Lucas Gillispie’s World of Warcraft in Schools curriculum with my 6th graders! While I gamify my Science classes, the class I teach where 6th graders play World of Warcraft is an example of Game-Based Learning or GBL as …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/14/world-of-warcraft-interview/
Mar 13
Thanks to my work with the Olympic STEM Pathways Partnership (OSPP), I was interviewed by WA STEM! They wrote a blog post about the work I am doing with my 6th grade Science students! Click on the graphic below to read it! What an honor! Thanks, OSPP and WA STEM! 🙂
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/13/wa-stem-interview/
Mar 09
Common Sense Media just published a report on how kids are responding to news. As an educator, I really appreciate seeing the perceptions of many kids to news and how media bombards us with stories that “sell” not to mention all the fake news and alternative facts that are dominating today. I also appreciate having …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/09/kids-take-on-fake-news/
Feb 28
This post was originally published on the WA CORELaborate site! In a way, school is already a game. Think about it. Think about your top performing or A students. They have figured out how to play the game of school. They know how to complete assignments, turn in their homework, do well on quizzes and …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/02/28/school-as-a-game/
Feb 16
Republishing this post to get new readers to our 6th grade blog. Here’s what one 6th grader has to say about trash: Trash Her thoughts are typical and they make sense. Yet how many people still toss trash out their car windows or decide to drop their trash on the ground instead of holding it …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/02/16/6th-graders-take-on-trash/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
