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.
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/01/03/wa-stem-1-5-12-agenda/
Jan 02
It’s that time of year again. Where people look back and reflect on their top posts. I was reading Pernille Ripp’s top blog post and she made a great point. Instead of listing the posts that got the most hits list the ones that mean the most to you! I love it. And actually I …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/01/02/my-fave-11-of-2011/
Jan 02
This year my Science PLC is focusing on using learning progressions. We’ve worked for years on eliciting evidence so we moved on to a new focus, namely sharing learning expectations. [Disclaimer: I’ve read some bloggers who raise some great points about sharing learning expectations and using rubrics with our students so I’d like to note …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/01/02/learning-about-cells/
Dec 28
When I began teaching in 1991 I brought in my Tandy laptop to have my students word process their writings. Then I’d print them out to put on our bulletin board. My next year I got a grant to purchase a Mac LC 520. With that Mac I used my AOL account to bring the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/12/28/evolution-of-1to1/
Dec 21
This is a guest post by Elaine Hirsch. Movements for change and reform in the US educational system challenge nearly every aspect of the student’s experience, and grading systems are certainly not exempt from this. In an ongoing struggle to best measure the effectiveness of our education system, traditional and alternative grading systems have been …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/12/21/comparing-traditional-and-alternative-grading-schemes/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/12/12/unstructured-ipad-time/
Dec 05
Through my work with the Olympic Math and Science Partnership (OMSP) I have been learning a lot about the formative process. One aspect of formative assessment or assessment for learning that is of extra interest to me has been questioning. Questioning used to be one of the five key strategies of assessment for learning but …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/12/05/questioning/
Dec 04
Recently I gave all my 6th graders a reflection survey to have them share with me their thoughts on what they’ve learned from some of the projects we’ve completed. I also asked them to share with me their thoughts on how well they have been working independently and in their teams. I always end the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/12/04/freedom/
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/11/29/what-is-stem/
Nov 28
Associate Professor Steve Wheeler wrote a blog recently about learning styles titled A Convenient Untruth. In his blog Steve writes about the dangers of using the idea of learning styles to brand kids as one type of learner. It’s a good read and definitely something all teachers should be aware of so they don’t use …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/11/28/learning-styles/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
