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.
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/
Mar 19
I work with amazing people. Teaching is a difficult job and during a pandemic, it’s more stressful than ever. Having colleagues that are caring and supportive will keep us from burning out. I wouldn’t have been able to stay at my district for 24 of the 30 years I’ve been teaching if I didn’t work …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/03/19/outstanding-tech-educator/
Feb 15
We started the school year with two-thirds of our 6th graders coming to school on a hybrid schedule with the other third fully remote. Our hybrid kids were placed into two cohorts, A and B, and each cohort was halved to make them small enough to keep kids six feet apart (Cohorts A1, A2, B1, …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/02/15/back-to-hybrid/
Jan 19
This was the favorite logo 6th graders drew and submitted last year for our 6th grade esports club. I think it’s a great looking drawing and wish I knew how to turn it into a logo! I just a photo of the drawing complete with the crease in the middle! LOL But that’s a problem …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/01/19/one-way-to-run-a-remote-esports-program/
Jan 18
January 18, 2021 LA Works hosted an incredible series of events in honor of this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Day of service. One of the events was a tour of Washington DC and Dr. King’s historic 1963 march to the Capitol, which ended with his awe-inspiring I Have A Dream speech in Minecraft! …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/01/18/2021-mlk-day-minecraft-march-on-the-capitol/
Dec 31
In my 30 years teaching I’ve gotten 48 grants in 24 years totaling just under $371,000. In the last 22 years straight I’ve gotten at least one grant per year every year. That’s quite the streak and the Ocean Guardian Schools project is one of those grant opportunities that I can apply for year after …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/31/grants-and-prizes/
Dec 30
Last year I started a 6th grade esports club and we got off to a great start before the pandemic closed our schools. A group of kids in the club remained active during the spring. I expected more to be able to participate because the nice thing about esports is that we don’t have to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/30/esports-thriving/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
