I teach 6th grade Math, Science, STEM, Robotics, and Esports 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.
Feb 19
This year’s NCCE Conference starts February 26! I was fortunate enough to have two workshops accepted for this year’s conference. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Tammie Schrader again, which is always a bonus for me to get to benefit from her expertise. I do not seem to get innovative ideas on my own …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2025/02/19/my-ncce25-workshops/
Jan 22
[Added on May 5th, 2025: I recently came across this Common Sense Media article about Social Companions. Bottom line? They have rated social companions as an Unacceptable Risk and recommend that NO child under the age of 18 have access to a social companion! The rest of this post focuses on a specific “companion,” the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2025/01/22/ai-robots-as-companions/
Jan 21
I have always started class with music playing. As students walk in and get ready, while I’m taking attendance, music is playing. Before AI generated music, I played classical music, first from my CD collection and then from long YouTube Classical Music videos. Another way we have traditionally used music in my classes is for …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2025/01/21/new-music-by-ai/
Jan 20
Following my four-step Minecraft Education classroom integration plan, we just completed step 3, the build competitions! Here’s how to access the Build Battle Binary Builders world: Here’s how the game looks in class: While the two teams were competing, I had the rest of the class working on an individual game. I chose the Investigators …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2025/01/20/minecraft-education-build-competitions/
Dec 26
On our last day of 2024, the Friday before winter break, we ended each period with a Zen-like activity where students got to build a place that makes them happy in Minecraft Education. Students were already familiar with using Minecraft Education after participating in a few games during Computer Science Education Week. We started with …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/12/26/minecraft-education-free-build-activity-gbl/
Dec 26
If you use Pear Deck or Pear Assessment or Pear Tutor, you have got to try Pear Practice (formerly Giant Steps)! With Pear Practice you can take any quiz and turn it into an exciting game. Unlike Kahoot, Quizizz, Gimkit, Blooket, and other quiz-like games Pear Practice does its gaming differently. It begins by assigning …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/12/26/pear-practice-is-so-much-fun-gamification/
Oct 23
MirrorTalk AI, made by Swivl, has an amazing system built for consistent and regular reflection for both students and staff. When I first saw the app I was intrigued because it offered something no other EdTech tool or AI tool offered, a way for all kids to reflect and reflect quickly and easily on a …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/10/23/regular-reflection-with-mirrortalk-ai/
Oct 11
Five Student Profile Types of My Current Classes Generating the Profile Types Above Our district is having a few of us teachers, a principal, and our IT Director work with UnconstrainEd to learn how to leverage AI to work with student data. I have not done a lot with actual student data so this has …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/10/11/student-profile-cards-from-actual-data/
Oct 07
When I saw Eduguardians share this Jr. Eduguardians book on Twitter (x) I had to do it! After having to revamp my gamification plan for this year, I needed ways for students to engage more with their D&D style Star Trek characters from the Modiphius Star Trek adventures Tabletop rpg and this was a great …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/10/07/our-class-starship/
Sep 22
Note: There are two contenders that I’ve been following that look like replacements for Classcraft! Teach-QuestClassmana The 24-25 school year is under way and with the shutdown of Classcraft I am re-creating the gamification portion of my classes to continue to provide a layer of gameplay that can make the mundane more fun for kids. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/09/22/gamification-sans-classcraft/
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026!
Cohort 7!
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I presented at WSTA 2015!
