Alfonso Gonzalez

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.

Most commented posts

  1. iPads in Science — 22 comments
  2. Awards, Grades and Competition — 18 comments
  3. My ClamCase Experience — 15 comments
  4. Innovative Schooling? — 10 comments
  5. What is On-Task? — 10 comments

Author's posts

Gamification of Online Teaching

I’ve written and shared quite a bit about Classcraft as not only a full-fledged Learning Management System (LMS) but also as a way to easily gamify any class and content for students. I’ve mentioned before and it’s worth mentioning again that of all the edtech tools I use with students this is the only tool …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/26/gamification-of-online-teaching/

Fully Remote Again

School Teaching Station Photo

Friday, December 18, our last school day before winter break concluded our third week of having school 100% online for everyone. Well, almost everyone. Special Education programs were able to support kids coming back to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:45 am to 12 pm. There were enough Educational Aides (EA’s) available to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/24/fully-remote-again/

Blended Learning EdWeek Post

I had the pleasure of being one of three contributors to part 1 of a Larry Ferlazzo two part series on Blended Learning titled Blended Learning in the Age of COVID-19. Click on the image below to read the entire post:

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/08/19/blended-learning-edweek-post/

Planning for a COVID Fall 2020

Added on July 28, 2020 – From the Washington Post, One teacher’s experience teaching a summer camp with kids who are required to be socially distant and wearing masks. This teacher confirms what I feared as I wrote my thoughts below, any kind of teamwork or small group work is most likely just not going …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/07/25/planning-for-a-covid-fall-2020/

COVID-19 School Learning Models Glossary

I started a short glossary of terms that will help our district and school re-opening planning teams communicate more easily. What am I missing? What would you add? Please leave a comment if you see something that needs to be added. (Updated on July 24, 2020.) Face-to-Face Learning What we consider the traditional teaching model …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/07/15/covid-19-school-learning-models-glossary/

Racism Felt

I take things personally. Logically, I know I shouldn’t. Logically, I know it’s not always about me, maybe the kid or the parent, or the person is just having a bad day and they are taking out their frustrations on whoever is right in front of them. Emotionally though, I feel what I feel. I’m …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/06/20/racism-felt/

13th and Final Week for Chimacum

Week 13 (Last Week) – June 15 to June 19:School Closure PlanningWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10Week 11Week 12Week 13 Recap of Week 12 My top five 6th grade Science students, who completed the most assignments while at home, completed an average of 16 assignments of the 21 I had …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/06/15/13th-and-final-week-for-chimacum/

10 Things To Do for 20-21

A Stay Healthy Bitmoji Image.

1. Make Connections The BIG #1 thing to do with any face time we get is to hit the ground running on making relationships and strong connections! One way is to have regular, weekly or even twice weekly class meetings. We used to do that when we were a middle school and had a strong …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/06/15/10-things-to-do-for-20-21/

Blended and Flipped the New Norm?

I’m trying to think through some ideas from blog posts I’ve read and online courses I’ve been taking and conversations with people. I’ve got questions because I need to talk with others before I can fully figure things out. I’m a social learner after all. Not sure if this can work for grades 7-12, because …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/06/12/blended-and-flipped-the-new-norm/

12th Week of School Closure

Week 12 – June 8 to June 12:School Closure PlanningWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10Week 11Week 12Week 13 Recap of Week 11: With two weeks left to go in our school year and having THREE FULL MONTHS of this year be forced at-home distance learning, I’m just trying to make …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/06/08/12th-week-of-school-closure/

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