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.
Mar 11
Oh I fall into the trap. I spend every morning and every evening checking my Feedly RSS feeds and reading many awesome blogs. Lately I’ve been reading a few who apologize for not having blogged in a while and I start to feel it. Holy cow! I haven’t blogged in a while! I need to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/03/11/the-tao-of-blogging/
Feb 10
In our last round of training on our new WA State evaluation system, Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project (TPEP), many of our small group discussions came back to the question of student learning (as it should!). I became fixated on one particular core idea from the CEL 1 Foundational Ideas Applied to Instructional Frameworks that read: “If …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/10/are-students-learning/
Feb 09
In response to my questions on the Inquiry Dry Spell post I wrote Edna (@whatedsaid) posed some questions to get me thinking about inquiry in my Science classes. She wrote the following on her post, Response to the dry spell… Inquiry encourages students to be actively involved in and to take responsibility for their own …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/09/inquiry-in-science/
Feb 09
I use Carolina’s STC/MS Energy, Machines, and Motion kit (EMM) with my 6th graders. The lessons in this kit are well structured to take advantage of how people learn by making sure every lesson starts by eliciting prior knowledge of students with questions that students investigate through different labs. The procedures are laid out, step …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/09/adding-inquiry/
Feb 07
I have question about standardized test remediation courses. I know the answer to my question but I still have a strong, almost masochistic, desire to ask it. So let me start with the answer to my question. “You’re right, Al, and I agree with everything you say but (yes, I, Al, know there is a …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/07/test-remediation/
Feb 04
I’ll be the first to admit it, I don’t seem to have much of a green thumb. I have to work hard (see the growth mindset there) at successfully growing plants, especially from seeds, even though in nature they seem to grow just fine. Something about me meddling or maybe over thinking it. I also …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/02/04/let-nature-take-its-course/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/01/30/another-problem-with-standardized-testing/
Jan 29
Cross-posted on Inquire Within. I wrote my first post for Inquire Within on Nov 29, 2010 and my last post was on Dec 5, 2011. I’ve gone two whole years without writing a post! Last school year, after many months of not writing a post for this blog, I asked Edna to keep me on …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/01/29/dry-spell/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/01/28/days-10-11-12-13-wow-in-science/
Jan 27
Peer and self assessment are both strategies used in Assessment for Learning (AfL). When it comes to assessment time, midterms and end of semester I survey all my students to get some insight into how they are learning, what they are learning, and if they need anything different from me. One thing I’ve learned over …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/01/27/1st-semester-assessment/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
