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.
Dec 10
This past May and just recently in November I was fortunate to be able to present a session at two wonderful leadership conferences for newly certified National Board Certified Teachers or NBCTs. Washington state’s Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession or CSTP invited me to show some of the ways that I was sharing what …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/10/navigating-systems-for-students/
Dec 09
Our class ship, the USS Equinox, was dispatched to investigate the mystery of the destruction of the Bombay when they discovered another destroyed ship, the Tholian Aen’q Tholis. Unlike the Bombay, the Aen’q Tholis was destroyed by what appears to be phaser fire from another starship. Whatever destroyed the Bombay was not responsible for destroying …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/09/rule-out-the-klingons/
Dec 08
I found this cool infographic on personalized learning: Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/08/personalized-learning/
Nov 17
I read this article in the Instructional Leader on Text-Dependent Questions. As part of the WA STEM PD grant that my school got we are working in our grade level PLC (Professional Learning Community) for one cycle followed by departmental PLC. There’s a different dynamic to PLC work when you meet with your grade level …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/17/text-dependent-questions/
Nov 14
I had a most enlightening conversation with my advisory group about rewarding, I mean acknowledging, students. Our school is now a PBIS school and part of our efforts to reward positive behavior includes teachers giving slips of paper to students when we catch them engaging in positive behaviors. The slips of paper have the traits …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/14/pbis-acknowledging-students/
Nov 13
After last year’s failed attempt at using World of Warcraft in Science to have students learn about classifying living things I finally get a chance to try using World of Warcraft to explore the journey of a hero! I thought the Science angle was a good idea but my 8th graders didn’t really take to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/13/literacy-with-wow/
Nov 12
The crew of the Starship Equinox had to decide whether or not to follow the energy trail from the massive weapon that destroyed the Bombay. After a quick deliberation they recommended to the Captain that he follow the energy trail back to its source to see if they could find what can wield such power. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/12/following-an-energy-trail/
Oct 23
At a summer institute NGSS workshop I heard the presenter say that we could modify the Next Generation Science Standards to meet the needs of our students. So I did just that! We get to visit Mt Saint Helens as part of our 6th grade outdoor education experience to Camp Cispus. Because of that 6th …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/10/23/i-modified-ngss/
Oct 22
After wondering if I was being hypocritical for denouncing the use of rewards systems to encourage positive behaviors from kids yet using experience points and badges in my gamified classroom I had the following Twitter conversation helping me think through PBIS and the use of rewards. This issue, which researchers like Alfie Kohn, make seem …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/10/22/pbis-and-rewards/
Oct 21
I am using this butcher paper poster to collect our room 410 continuing story of the Starship Equinox. I have been adding a story element to my gamified Science course and the story continues. On this poster I am storing all the QR codes that have appeared so far in our classroom in case students …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/10/21/next-episode-in-the-voyages-of-the-starship-equinox/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
