Category: Class News

These blogs are directly concerning my Science classes. These could be class news, announcements, or news for parents.

My First Guest Blog Post!

Jason T. Bedell's Blog

I just finished posting my first guest blog post on Jason T. Bedell’s blog! Jason was asking for guest posts on his blog about grading and assessment so I wrote a post titled, “Why Grade to Assess?” It was great to be able to reflect some more on the changes I’ve made to my grading …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/07/22/my-first-guest-blog-post/

Goals for my Students

Stream table exploration to see how to save homes.

After July 20th’s #edchat on the Goal of Education (see archive here) I got to thinking about my goals for the children I help educate. It helped me, with my thinking, to read “Backwards Design and Integrating New Technology” because I integrate technology whenever I can. I need to continually ask myself if what I …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/07/21/goals-for-my-students/

Presentation Skills – Contamination!

Classroom Layout with Presentation Spots Labeled

From a few of the North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership (NCOSP) Learning Community Forums on the “Four Hats of Leadership” based on The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups by Garmston and Wellman we learned about the following: •Facilitating (directs processes, maintains focus, supports group dialogue, planning, decision-making, or problem-solving) •Presenting (extend …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/07/12/presentation-skills/

Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Assessment is the latest educational buzz topic. As is customary in a profession in order to become proficient at something we must take it out of the realm of hit or miss and become mindful of what we do so that we can put into effect what needs to be done when it needs to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/07/10/assessment_for_learning/

iPads in Science

iPad third screen.

[See iPads in Science 2 to see what I learned a year later.] I am very fortunate. Of the 19 years I’ve been teaching I’ve gotten at least one grant for 12 of those years; 10 of them have been the last 10 consecutive years. Four years ago I received a couple of Best Buy …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/06/30/ipads-in-science/

Reflections of 2009-10

Mr. G's sample progress report for standards based reporting.

This year I taught three 6th grade Science classes, which means I had all 90 of my middle school’s 6th graders, and two 7/8 mixed Earth Science classes. Being able to teach 7th and 8th grade Science is wonderful because that means that I get to have some of my former 6th grade students again! …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/06/30/reflections-of-2009-10/

15 Things About the Human Body

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/05/16/15-things-about-the-human-body/

Dan Pink on Motivation

Dan Pink has some great research to share on motivation. Dan is a great speaker and his talks verify what Alfie Kohn has been writing about for years (here’s another great blog post on the problems with rewards: Classroom Leadership: Rewards Are Like Crack). This youtube video is pretty fascinating to watch as this incredible …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/05/15/dan-pink-on-motivation/

Standardized Tests

I was reading Larry Ferlazzo’s post on standardized testing and I thought I’d share it here. He asked his students to let him know their impressions of the test and I must say their feedback is very telling. We all know that one size fits all testing is not an effective way to measure what …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/05/15/standardized-tests/

Odssey 2010

We are almost ready for our week-long field trip to gorgeous Lake Crescent for the 8th grade Olympic Odyssey! In case your child has lost or misplaced some of the most recent paperwork here is a link to a copy of the packing list: Odyssey2010FinalRemindLetter And here is a link to the Final Reminder letter …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/05/13/odssey-2010/

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