These are blogs I've written about integrating technology into my Science classes.
Jun 25
After COVID it was nice to start the school year like almost normal. Kids were in full classes of 24 or 25 giving us 75 students (14 5th graders and 61 6th graders) in three classes and they were coming to school all day, every day. I was teaching only Science, another teacher taught ELA …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/06/25/2022-2023-school-year-exhausting-confusing-rewarding/
Jun 24
As a kid I was a huge fan of science fiction. I remember going to the theater to watch Star Wars A New Hope when it first came out and at home I watched Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) and Battlestar Galactica (1978 version) and thoroughly enjoyed envisioning what the future could be. Of …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/06/24/using-ai-like-we-use-computers-star-trek-inspired/
Mar 26
The Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) puts on the best EdTech conference in the Pacific Northwest! The amazing sessions, workshops, and speakers are as high quality as the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE)! Educators from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and all over come to Washington state to attend NCCE’s annual conferences. I’ve been …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/03/26/best-edtech-conference-in-the-pacific-northwest/
Feb 19
My 5th and 6th grade STEM classes have been working on robotics using the Lego Mindstorm EV3 kits since December. Students built their first robot then took the Lego Mindstorms programming lesson tutorials before we began some activities and challenges. We still have two major challenges left in this unit before we transition to our …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/02/19/students-excited-by-robotics-and-ai/
Dec 29
I used Chat GPT to write a blog post so I thought I’d play around with it some more and try it out to help me lesson plan. I asked Chat GPT some questions about the unit we’re working on in my STEM classes to see what it knew. It surprised me because I didn’t …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2022/12/29/chat-gpt-for-lesson-planning/
Dec 14
My first ever blog post written with the help of an AI! I am adding my own commentary and adding to the blog post the AI wrote for me so from this point on anything you see italicized is written by me. Normal text was written by the AI! I have continued to be active …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2022/12/14/are-they-helpful-or-crutches/
Jul 05
I thought it was just me. Just my students. Then I read this EdSurge article, Students Got a Crash Course in Tech During the Pandemic. Now Some Want a Break. I had been experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance because I envisioned more and more teachers and students using tech in school because they experienced …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2022/07/05/do-your-students-have-tech-fatigue/
Jul 01
This was my setup for this year’s ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference. Due to circumstances, one of them being available funds from my school district – we get about $275/yr to spend on any PD that we want and we can bank our funds for a few years – I was able …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2022/07/01/is-live-better-than-virtual-istelive-nccechat/
Oct 29
I’ve been thinking about how we are working at leveling the playing field between our haves and have-nots. The pandemic has made extremely clear the advantages that our haves have over our have-nots. A couple of ways our district worked at leveling the playing field was to provide every student a laptop to take home …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/10/29/leveling-the-playing-field/
Aug 26
I am responsible for bringing Google Apps, now Google Edu, to my district by in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. I have my Google Educator Levels 1 and 2 badges because I have seen first hand the power of Google’s suite of excellent tools for educating our young people. My district is also a …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/26/google-for-edu-ramps-up-age-restrictions/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
