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 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/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/06/08/6th-grade-blog-post-about-the-problem-with-cows/
Jun 07
Here’s a blog post one of my 6th graders wrote for our World Solutions blog about the chicken industry. Warning: the video on this post, suggested by another one of my students who read her blog post, is very disturbing. Check it out and leave her a comment!
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/06/07/6th-post-about-the-chicken-industry/
Jun 06
I’m re-publishing this post here because I have some of my best grant examples for people to see linked below. And go here to see my advice on Getting Even More Money. I have learned the benefits of grant writing. In my 31 year career, I have gotten grants for 26 of those 31 years. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/06/06/sample-grant-proposals-reboot/
Jun 01
CCSS-ELA Shift 3 states that students need to be, “building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction.” Is this shift making a case for an integrated approach to teaching? It sure seems like it. I mean, in a Science or History classroom using content-rich nonfiction to have students learn Science and History makes sense. Using fiction in those …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/06/01/building-knowledge/
May 23
Two weeks ago I wrote about a failed grant opportunity. I had written and submitted a proposal to CenturyLink for their CenturyLink Teachers and Technology program back in January. We were supposed to find out if we got the grant by April. When April came and was quickly becoming May I started to panic. Was …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/05/23/perseverance-and-obsession/
May 10
This is my 25th year teaching. In that time I’ve gotten 38 grants. I have been getting at least one grant a year for the last 17 years straight. I’m working on making that 18 years straight. Of those 38 grants, 17 were awarded for one project, my environmental stewardship project. I’ve learned that there …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/05/10/perseverance-or-obsession/
May 05
In my last post I shared learnings and takeaways from some Common Core ELA trainings I’ve attended around the CCSS-ELA Shift 2 (students need to engage in, “reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational”). This post continues with more about Shift 2. Questioning!Now that you’ve selected the perfect complex …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/05/05/backing-up-claims/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
Jun 08
6th Grade Blog Post about the Problem with Cows
June 8, 2016
Another post written by one of my 6th graders for our World Solutions Blog about The Problem with Cows. She did some great research and takes an environmental look at the impact of cows on our planet. Check out her post and leave her a comment if you get a chance!