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.
Sep 02
As I ponder how to begin this new school year amidst a more infectious strain of the coronavirus, I am thinking back to all the wonderful work my students did last year. I linked their different projects on the following Google Slide to share with the Ocean Guardian Schools program that we are a part …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/09/02/environmental-stewardship-student-projects/
Aug 27
I’ve been teaching at Chimacum Middle School for the past 24 of the 30 years I’ve been teaching. The last two years, it’s actually been Chimacum Elementary School because due to declining enrollment the middle school was closed and 6th grade was moved to elementary while grades 7 and 8 were moved to the high …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/27/how-to-start-the-2021-22-school-year/
Aug 27
They tell us there is no one silver bullet that will make our job as teachers easier. No one thing that will engage all our students so much that classroom management will no longer be necessary and every kid in our classroom will either pass all their tests or make one to two years of …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/27/looking-for-the-silver-bullet-keep-looking/
Aug 26
I am responsible for bringing Google Apps, now Google Edu, to my district by in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. I have my Google Educator Levels 1 and 2 badges because I have seen first hand the power of Google’s suite of excellent tools for educating our young people. My district is also a …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/26/google-for-edu-ramps-up-age-restrictions/
Aug 25
As summer comes to an end with one more week to go before we come back together to prepare for the first week of school, which starts the day after Labor Day, I thought I’d reflect on all the great things that I’ve done. I am grateful that this summer was so much better than …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/25/the-end-of-summer/
Aug 24
For the 2021 Martin Luther King, Jr Day LA Works hosted a virtual tour of Washington DC during Dr. King’s 1963 march on the capitol in Minecraft Java Edition. The world built by Mike Washburn (@misterwashburn) and Becky Lattof (@STEAMcultivator) is amazing! I wrote about the tour and shared the tour on this blog post. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/24/washington-dc-minecraft-tour/
Aug 23
Minecraft Education Edition (@PlayCraftLearn) has just rocked my esports world. Two year ago, when I started a 6th grade esports club at my school I chose Minecraft as our game because it’s loved by a LOT of kids, is completely inclusive, is age appropriate for the youngest of middle school aged kids, and can be …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/23/minecraft-education-edition-brings-esports-to-everyone/
Aug 22
On July 29, 2021, PocketLab hosted the ScIC6 Science is Cool Unconference that focused on esports and game-based learning (GBL)! On Dec 31, 2020 I wrote about a contest for teachers to submit lessons incorporating Fortnite Creative hosted by Epic Games and about the lesson plan that I submitted that got second place! Because of …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/22/fortnite-in-science-class/
Apr 24
Part of our outdoor science education program includes learning to identify benthic macroinvertebrates. Macros are good bioindicators of stream health because they can spend up to two years living in the water in their nymph and larval stage! The scud pictured here is a macro that has some tolerance to water pollution so even though …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/04/24/macro-identification/
Apr 24
Pivot #1 – We started this 2020-2021 school year with a hybrid schedule seeing a different small cohort of kids one full day per week. That schedule allowed for some decent outdoor education experiences. Pivot #2 – By December we switched to having all our kids learning remotely. Pivot #3 – By the end of …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/04/24/pivot-4/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
