I teach 6th grade Math, Science, STEM, Robotics, and Esports 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.
Jan 22
 Coming up on three years ago, after 19 years of teaching, I began to question grading. I wrote a blog post titled, Do Grades Help or Hinder Learning? I knew that grading, the ways I had tried it until then, was not working. Grades were not motivating all of my students, it was the focus …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/22/why-go-gradeless/
Jan 14
I wrote Shift Happens just a bit too soon. I was celebrating the fact that we started our year without achievement awards or student of the month awards. Then I noticed that PBIS was on the agenda of our upcoming faculty meeting. When the topic came up it was mentioned that nearly half the year …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/14/i-celebrated-too-soon/
Jan 09
Very close to two years ago I wrote a post and one of the main topics was school awards ceremonies. That spurred some conversation with kids in my classes and with kids in my advisory. You see, our student advisory groups, each led by an adult staff member, are the ones mostly responsible for putting …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/09/shift-does-happen/
Jan 06
Thinking about homework again I’ve heard some of the reasons for giving homework and it boils down to trust. It seems, by the way some teachers talk, that they don’t trust that parents are properly preparing their children. Some teachers worry that parents don’t read to their kids or don’t encourage their kids to read …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/06/hw-and-trust/
Jan 04
I’ve written about some of the great training I’ve had on Assessment for Learning (AfL) also known as formative assessment. I’ve gotten some great resources but frankly there is way too much. It’s quite overwhelming to keep up with my everyday work of guiding students along the learning experiences that I’m preparing for them AND …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/04/mass-production-feedback/
Jan 02
Not so much actually. I started the year all hopeful to gamify my classes. After reading Lee Sheldon’s book, The Multiplayer Classroom this past summer I was all ready to jump in with all my classes. I had badges all prepared for my students to place on their blogs as they showed evidence of understanding …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/02/gamified-classroom/
Dec 27
In Chimacum 8th graders get a full year of Life Science learning experiences. As 6th graders they learned about our neighborhood creek, Chimacum Creek, and tested the water quality. Learning about and taking care of our creek has been a great Science learning experience as well as a service learning project for Chimacum Middle School …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/27/fish-trapping/
Dec 26
I saw this video again and thought I’d post it. We need to see this often, at least until the test craze ends. Sir Ken Robinson’s Changing Education Paradigm animated by RSA (It’s only about 11 mins).
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/26/testing-or-arts/
Dec 18
I’ve been using WordPress for over six years now. I have a WordPress database on my hosting service. I also have a couple of blogger blogs and although I like them both I prefer my main, professional blog on WordPress (mainly because I’ve been using it so long and customizing it, and I’m used to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/18/wordpress-troubles/
Dec 01
Working in a small school district I get to actually work with our superintendent! After starting my career in the Los Angeles Unified School District this is just awesome. I’m part of our district technology committee so that’s one way I get to work with our superintendent. So what do you do when your superintendent …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/01/moving-to-1to1/
Cohort 7!
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
