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 02
We’ve barely been out of school for two weeks and I’ve already had the first day of school nightmare! What the heck?! It’s probably because I’ve been obsessing with 3DGL and I’m so excited to use it that I’m jumping right in planning my year. I think it’s better to do it now, while I’m …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/02/planning-for-the-fall-already/
Jul 01
This past year I tried my hand at gamifying my classes after reading Lee Sheldon’s Multiplayer Classroom. It was quite a failure. The class didn’t feel like a game. Kids didn’t show the level of engagement I was after. After going gradeless and offering kids more and more choice to take charge of their learning …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/01/gamifying-take-2/
Jun 30
Okay I’m not a big fan of cockroaches. I grew up in Miami, FL and we had those big, flying cockroaches with the antennae that looked like human hair. My mother always screamed when she saw one so early on I picked up that fear. To this day when I see a black blur out …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/06/30/molting-roach/
Jun 29
One year we had a program that was rather successful in helping students. We called it Skill Builders but either that’s not it’s real name or it isn’t a program that others use. So there is a classroom designated as the Skill Builder’s room. A teacher works that room all year. As other classrooms went …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/06/29/time-out-or-intervention/
Jun 15
Yesterday, Friday the 14th, was our last day of school. It was a half day of fun for us at the middle school. We did start the day by giving out awards to the top academic kids but those were the only awards (besides honor roll and attendance) that we gave out all year! After …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/06/15/another_close/
Jun 01
Coming up on the last two weeks of school I started to reflect on something I’ve maybe been taking for granted. I’ve noticed that I offer my students variety. Variety in Science instruction (and curriculum to an extent), variety in integrated technology and variety in how students show what they are learning. Lately I’m wondering, …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/06/01/is-variety-better/
May 20
State testing is over! My 6th graders took a Math and Language Arts test and my 8th graders took a Math, Language Arts, and Science test. The Science test, the subject that I teach, has questions on Earth, Physical and Life Science. Our curriculum, for better or for worse, includes Physical and Environmental Science in …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/05/20/testing-is-over/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/04/29/awesome-webinar-on-feedback/
Apr 15
I haven’t been blogging much lately. I’ve been working on renewing my National Board Teaching Certification, I’m also applying for the Presidential Award for Science (I mean, why not?), and I’m trying to keep up with a great Games Based Learning MOOC that’s going on. Yeah, basically way more than I can chew since classes …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/04/15/ea-gen/
Mar 23
This infographic is helpful in choosing some good skills to help our students gain: Employers Identify Top 5 Job Skills infographic Source So how do we foster these skills in our classrooms?
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/03/23/skills-to-focus-on/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
