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.
Oct 29
Last week we had our parent/teacher/student conferences in an “arena style” format. What that means is that all the middle school teachers set up shop in the commons. Families come in, get their child’s progress report and visit each teacher in turn. In about half an hour or so a family could meet with all …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/29/how-valuable-is-my-time/
Oct 20
I’m participating in this year’s Seattle EDU Startup Weekend (follow at #SWSeaEDU) and I’ve joined a group working on a solution to get more girls into STEM by catching them early and getting them excited about learning programming basics. We need your help. Please answer a few questions to help validate our idea. What we’re …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/20/getting-more-girls-into-stem/
Oct 15
Diane Ravitch writes, speaks and blogs about education reform. Not the kind of reform that jeopardizes education but the kind of reform that will make education a priority for all children (click on my education reform tab for more info). Ravitch is coordinating a Campaign for our Public Schools on her blog. She’s urging us …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/15/letter-to-the-president/
Oct 04
Homework is a tough one. We all have our opinions about it. Reading Alfie Kohn’s work on the subject reveals that the research can’t really agree on whether homework is valuable or not for young kids. For my son, who is 15, homework is not pleasant but with prodding he’ll do it. We make sure …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/04/the-homework-dilemma/
Oct 01
Last week we took 6th graders to Camp Cispus. I wrote about an unexpected change of plans where one of our 6th graders noticed that the road we normally take to Windy Ridge and Spirit Lake to see Mt Saint Helens was closed. Luckily, the Johnston Ridge Observatory, facing the horse shoe shaped crater and …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/01/mt-saint-helens-2012/
Sep 20
My last post included the big trip we got coming up next week. We’re taking about 80 6th graders along with 14 high school camp counselors to Camp Cispus, about fours on bus from here. One of the highlights of the trip, from a Science teacher perspective, is getting to take the kids to Mt …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/20/funny-story-serious-problem/
Sep 17
I teach 6th and 8th grade Science. I have all three of our school’s 6th grade Science classes and two of the three 8th grade Science classes. I’ve been teaching 6th and 8th grade Science for a few years now and I really enjoy getting kids as they enter the middle school and getting many …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/17/beginning-of-year/
Sep 13
Check out a blog I wrote sharing iPad apps and other assorted tech resources I use with students in my Science classes on Digitizd (@digitizd): A Science Teacher Shares Tech Resources For Teachers, Parents & Students
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/13/ipad-and-tech-resources-for-science/
Sep 03
One of the activities I did during August, Connected Educator Month, was take part in a free Response to Intervention (RTI) workshop by eLearning Innovation, Struggling Readers, Differentiated Instruction and RTI. RTI is one of those things that we hear about but that I couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is. Sure, …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/03/response-to-intervention/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/08/13/vote-for-me/
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2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
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Aug 13
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August 13, 2012
My Awards, Grades and Competition blog post has been nominated for an award! My first nomination (well, 1st and 2nd nomination it seems as my blog was also nominated for a Middle School Teacher award)! (For more information on who sponsors this award please read the comments section of this blog post.) Here’s the reason they …
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