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.
Apr 14
Sixth graders have some field trips coming up so I’m writing this to let parents know what to expect. Each 6th grader and each parent needs to fill out, sign and return two field trip permission slips to me. Mr. Olafson’s class will be the first to go to the Hood Canal on Wednesday, April …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/04/14/water-quality-field-trip-information/
Apr 05
As Spring Break comes to an end we get ready to finish this year with a bang! The 6th grade Water Quality project is well underway and will take us through to the end of the year. The 7th grade is coming to the end of the Earth Movement project and will be moving on …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/04/05/3rd-trimester-under-way/
Mar 21
I just finished grading all the science notebooks and I’ve printed updated progress reports for all my classes! Thursday, March 22, is the last day of the 2nd trimester and it’s the last day my 8th graders get to work on their websites. See the Computer Class Website for links to the students’ work. For …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/03/21/end-of-2nd-trimester-student-led-conferences/
Mar 09
The 6th grade has officially started Chimacum Middle School’s Water Quality Project! The trimester ends on March 22 even though we are having our trimester break on March 16 (we never changed the date of the break even though the trimester end day was moved back due to the snow week). The 7th graders are …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/03/09/the-water-quality-project-has-begun/
Mar 01
March is upon us and we are working hard to complete the Energy, Machines, and Motion kit work. We got farther this year than in previous years because I started this kit earlier than ever before. It paid off because we got to the second unit and students have been learning about inclined planes, pulleys, …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/03/01/energy-machines-and-motion-almost-over/
Feb 08
I finally got all the tests and notebooks graded! I just printed out progress reports for the midterm (Thursday, 2/8 at 7pm!) and I will hand them out to students on Friday, 2/9. Please ask your child to show you his or her science progress report (or Computer Graphics and Web Design). Students have had …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/02/08/progress-reports-done/
Jan 31
I’ve been letting students know what my schedule is this midterm for having progress reports ready and printed. February 5th is the midterm and that week is when I am striving to have progress reports ready to go home with students. I will hand them to the office to be mailed home on Feb 12. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/01/31/midterm/
Jan 08
[Updated 1/18/07] We have about two weeks until the midterm so I thought I’d update parents and students on what should be done up to this point, week 5. In 6th grade science students should have Energy, Machines, and Motion (EMM) lessons 6, 7, and 8 complete. I have gone over those lessons in class …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2007/01/08/update/
Dec 13
All my science students, 6th and 7th grade, received progress reports with final grades for the 1st trimester on Monday, Dec 11. They were supposed to show their parents (6th graders got $20 class money for showing me a signed progress report and 7th graders got five extra credit points for doing the same). Report …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2006/12/13/winter-break/
Dec 03
Wow, I still can’t believe that we’ve had so much snow and that it’s still so cold that the snow is not melting! The first trimester has been extended to Wednesday, December 6. Students in my classes that are still making up work can turn it in as late as Wednesday. In my 6th grade …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2006/12/03/snow-news/
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I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
