Mar 15
Updated 3/15/20 at 3:15 pm PDTSchool Closure PlanningWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10Week 11Week 12Week 13 My school district was being proactive. Seeing how the spread of COVID-19 was causing many schools around us to shut down, we started to meet to discuss what we would do in the case …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/03/15/school-closure-planning/
Mar 02
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) separate the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) from the Cross Cutting Concepts (CCCs) and from the Science content known as the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs). Those three distinctions, the DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs are what the NGSS refer to as the three dimensions of Science. It is our job …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/03/02/science-or-engineering/
Feb 23
We had SO much FUN! Friday, Feb 21, at 7:30 am Chimacum, WA, time 10 Chimacum Elementary School students logged in to their school-issued Minecraft Java Edition eSports accounts. They then joined a Minecraft server hosted by the Club Minecraft UK (Club Minecraft Twitter) group located in Surrey, England! The US and UK kids played …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/23/wa-state-and-surrey-uk-minecraft-games/
Feb 21
I was able to start a Minecraft Esports Club for my 6th graders even though I know nothing about what I’m doing and I’m learning as I go along and I’m learning by trying and failing. Why would I also try live streaming when I don’t know anything about that, either? To offer students the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/21/broadcasting-esports-games/
Feb 20
In my last post, I reflected on my course gamification efforts so far this year. In this post, I will share my game-based learning (GBL) plans. Ever Since I started gamifying my classes I knew that the real power of engagement wasn’t in making my normal course more game-like only, but in having kids play …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/20/game-based-learning-planning-gbl/
Feb 19
To make learning in school more playful and game-like, I’ve been working with Gamification for years. By gamifying my courses I continue to teach what I have always taught but more like a game than a school course. Running my class like a game makes it more exciting than just learning Science (or learning how …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/19/gamification-update/
Feb 18
The Pacific Education Institute (PEI) has an amazing website full of fantastic resources. Just mousing over the Our Work menu item displays various resources for any Science, STEM, or Elementary teacher looking for environmental ideas for their curriculum. And if you are a grant writer or considering writing grants to get materials or equipment for …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/18/amazing-environmental-performance-tasks/
Feb 17
The STEM Teaching Tools website has some great briefs that I’ve seen at several NGSS workshops I’ve attended in the past bunch of years. I’ve even shared some in workshops I co-facilitate because they’re so cool so I thought I’d share the resource here. Clicking on the PD Modules link in the menu shows some …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/17/helpful-stem-tools/
Feb 16
In my last post on Esports with Minecraft, I shared resources that helped me get a Minecraft Esports Club started for my 6th graders. I got as far as having everything I needed to get started in that post, and now I’m going to show what happened after that. In that post I shared a …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/16/esports-with-minecraft-getting-started/
Feb 16
Yesterday I wrote a post about a game that some of my 6th-grade students played with kids in Surrey, England, Friday, Feb 21, 2020. In this post, I’m going to share how I got this going for my school. I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you know what esports are. If you …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/16/esports-with-minecraft/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
