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 03
With the help and support of a member of our middle and high school Science PLC, Maren Johnson, I invited one of my state’s congressmen, WA State Representative Steve Tharinger, to visit my Science classes to co-teach with me and see what’s going on in Washington’s schools. And he took me up on it and …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/12/03/state-rep-invited-to-co-teach/
Dec 03
Today went much more smoothly. Kids were able to sign in to their accounts much quicker, everyone made sure they were on the Sisters of Elune server or realm, and questing began! Most kids got to about level 3 with some experienced players getting beyond that (especially if they got to play some yesterday and …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/12/03/day-2-wow-in-science/
Dec 02
I had both 8th grade classes decide on whether they wanted to play for the Alliance or for the Horde by straight majority rule. My 2nd period class is playing Horde and my 4th period class is playing Alliance! Pretty cool and provides an opportunity to have them share their experiences. Then I gave students …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/12/02/day-1-wow-in-science/
Dec 02
As part of our state teacher evaluation program, Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project (TPEP), we have to have our learning targets and success criteria clearly posted. Learning targets are to come from our standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and for Science the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Clearly posting learning targets is supposed to be …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/12/02/learning-targets/
Dec 01
I’ve never been intrinsically motivated to exercise. We talk a lot about instilling an intrinsic desire to learn in our students. Extrinsic motivators like candy, class money, certificates, prizes, badges, points, grades, any incentives are seen as counter-productive to fostering intrinsic motivation. I see that. I’ve read some of Alfie Kohn’s work and I totally …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/12/01/gaming-and-motivation/
Nov 30
Last year I attempted to gamify my Science courses. My reason for wanting to gamfiy my courses was to increase student engagement. I wanted to see more students working and learning Science. I started by using gaming language, such as calling assignments quests and calling independent work soloing, for example, and by offering students badges …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/11/30/gamified-science-courses/
Nov 27
I’ve been using 3D GameLab (3DGL) to gamify my classes. It has been great! 3DGL was exactly what I needed to successfully gamify my classes after failing at my first attempts. I’ll be sharing more about how great it’s been in future posts. This post is to celebrate something I’ve been wanting to do forever …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/11/27/wow-in-science-gbl/
Nov 27
I’ve been using the terms gamification and game-based learning (gbl) interchangeably. It wasn’t until the Reform Symposium 4 that Shelly Terrell made a comment that brought to my attention the difference between the two. Now I’m still new at all this stuff but here’s what my new understanding is regarding gamification and gbl. Gamification is …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/11/27/gamification-vs-game-based-learning/
Oct 16
I’ve written a post about Talk Moves, called Teacher Moves actually, mostly with regards to Math teaching. Talk Moves, refer to graphic, is actually a set of techniques that can benefit class discussions in any content or grade level, making it an awesome thing to know. I wanted to write down more Talk Moves than …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/10/16/talk-moves/
Oct 15
On September 24 we took a four hour bus drive from Chimacum, WA to Randle, WA with 65 excited 6th graders, 11 eager high school counselors and eight experienced staff. At Randle we took a turn into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Nestled in that grand expanse of nature lies a little camp. Cispus it’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/10/15/camp-cispus/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
