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.
Jul 22
We talk about failure being important. We also are warned to not make failure okay, in and of itself, because what we want for our children is to see that failure is part of success. The most successful people fail a lot! I know failure. I’ve failed a lot, at a lot of things. I …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/22/failure-at-finances/
Jul 21
Wednesday, July 20, the WA state Olympic STEM Pathways Partnership (OSPP) teacher leaders were able to attend an awesome event at the Galaxy Uptown Theater in Gig Harbor to review our first year of work, our second summer of training, and to look forward to our second year working with collaborating teachers in our schools! …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/21/imagine-inspire-innovate-waospp/
Jul 08
The Common Core English Language Arts (CCSS ELA) standards were developed to provide our kids a relevant, engaging, rigorous education. At the heart of the standards are three major shifts to the way we teach our students. This year I have been fortunate enough to have one of the bloggers on our state’s CoreLaborate blog. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/08/the-core-shifts-the-way-we-teach/
Jul 07
Chimacum, WA is home to a lovely lake that for a few months of the year, late spring and early summer, becomes toxic, deadly toxic! Some of my 6th graders researched our deadly lake and wrote about it. Here’s a great blog post written by one 6th grader about our deadly lake!
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/07/6th-grader-writes-about-our-own-deadly-lake/
Jul 06
This 6th grader wrote a nice piece for a water pollution Public Service Announcement (PSA) activity we did in class. Check out her blog post and see what you think!
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/06/6th-grade-ocean-pollution-public-service-announcement/
Jul 05
Here’s another of my 6th grade blog posts. This one on the topic of social media and cyberbullying. Check it out and see what this student has to say!
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/05/social-media-and-cyberbullying-6th-grade-post/
Jul 04
Yes, I admit it, I don’t teach digital citizenship. Well, not directly anyway. I do not teach direct digital citizenship lessons, I just haven’t had the need. I’ve looked into resources such as Common Sense Media and they have some great lessons. I’ve even set them aside and planned to use them. I just never …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/04/i-dont-teach-digital-citizenship/
Jul 01
Wednesday and Thursday, June 29 and 30, we got to revisit the work we started last summer with the Olympic STEM Pathways Partnership (OSPP) using sensors to collect temperature data with our students. Last year we used these Raspberry Pi-like computers called Odroids with a temperature sensor. They were clunky and difficult to work with …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/01/temperature-data-portage-bay-waospp/
Jun 30
Last year I joined the Olympic STEM Pathways Partnership (OSPP) and got to do some great work as part of that partnership working with some great professors and Math and Science educators from all over our region. So far this summer I’ve been in Seattle (about two hours from where I live in Chimacum, depending …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/06/30/rocketry-for-newtons-laws-wa-ospp/
Jun 21
Nice article in the Kitsap Sun about the Environmental Youth Summit my 6th graders attended in early June. Pictured in the article is one of my students! 🙂 Anything written about Chimacum or Chimacum Creek is what my 6th grader’s worked on! Check it out.
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/06/21/environmental-youth-summit/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
