Even after almost convincing my 8th graders that air had no mass I still moved them forward and hope that they remember all the different gasses that make up our air and how each gas has an atomic weight, which would lead to the reasonable connection that air does have mass. It is, after all, …
Category: Ed News
These blogs have to do with education as a whole. I write about different topics concerning ed reform and educating our 21st century youth.
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/28/whiteboarding-in-science/
Jan 28
6th grade Water Quality
Back in mid-November I wrote about how my students were using technology as tool in reference to the addition of iPads into my classroom. I was able to purchase 12 iPads with funds from Learn & Serve America. My 6th graders have been studying the water quality of our neighborhood creek, Chimacum Creek, for over …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/28/6th-grade-water-quality/
Jan 21
Making a Case Against High Stakes Testing
What if you had the chance to speak to your state’s legislators and help them understand some of the finer points of why high stakes standardized testing, especially when your state doesn’t even have a handle on which test are aligned to which set of standards, just isn’t a good idea? Well, one of our …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/21/making-a-case-against-high-stakes-testing/
Jan 21
Lessons I’ve learned from my Student’s Blogs
This is a post that I wrote when Joe Bower, who teaches middle school aged children in Alberta, Canada, asked me if I would write a guest post on his blog (see it here – Joe has an incredible blog where he writes often about changing education for the better). I jumped at the chance …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/21/lessons-ive-learned-from-my-students-blogs/
Jan 15
Awards, Grades and Competition
I’ve been reading some great blogs and comments challenging some of schools most treasured traditions. Within my classroom and with the support of my principal I was able to abolish grades in an effort to support student learning. I try to foster cooperation in my classes because we are, after all, learning the same things. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/15/awards-grades-and-competition/
Jan 04
Time Well Spent
Yesterday I was getting some materials ready for my 6th grade Science classes and I noticed how much I enjoyed doing that instead of grading. Had I spent that time reading student work to give them points or a letter grade then I would have postponed replacing the batteries in our 10 LabQuest handheld probe …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/04/time-well-spent/
Dec 30
Teacher’s Students, Parent’s Children
Something has been bugging me and the more it bugs the more I started to think, “why does that bug me so much?” I’ve been quiet about it but it drives me crazy when teachers are talking to parents and call their children their students. When that happens I think to myself the kids are …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/30/teachers-students-parents-children/
Dec 30
Best of 2010
I’ve seen many of my favorite bloggers putting together a list of their top blogs from 2010 so I thought I’d do the same. I use the WordPress plugin Counterize II and here are the top blog posts from most hits to the least hits: iPads in Science Avatars Assessment for Learning iPads Promise and …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/30/best-of-2010/
Dec 21
Project Based Learning
I saw this on a Free Technology for Teachers blog, Video – Project Based Learning Explained, and I loved it! Check it out:
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/21/project-based-learning/
Dec 18
WA STEM Grant Proposal
My awesome PLC has accepted the challenge of social networking. I shared the WA STEM grant idea and they all jumped on board. So I wrote a proposal and sent it in! I sure hope we get the grant because I think it’s a great project for us to work on. (If you want to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/18/wa-stem-grant-proposal/
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Mr. G’s Hobbies
