Dec 12
This week I had all my 6th grade classes try their hand at coding and programming using the great Hour of Code resources. I could have just pointed kids to the part of the Hour Code website with all the tutorials but I decided to make myself an account and add all my 80 students …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/12/hour-of-code-week/
Dec 11
I struggle with this every, single year. The balance between being a taskmaster and building relationships with students. One way to think of classroom management, according to Lee Canter (Assertive Discipline) is that dealing with kids is like working with your bank account. Building relationships with kids can be seen as depositing money into your …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/11/relationships-or-taskmaster/
Dec 10
This past May and just recently in November I was fortunate to be able to present a session at two wonderful leadership conferences for newly certified National Board Certified Teachers or NBCTs. Washington state’s Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession or CSTP invited me to show some of the ways that I was sharing what …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/10/navigating-systems-for-students/
Dec 09
Our class ship, the USS Equinox, was dispatched to investigate the mystery of the destruction of the Bombay when they discovered another destroyed ship, the Tholian Aen’q Tholis. Unlike the Bombay, the Aen’q Tholis was destroyed by what appears to be phaser fire from another starship. Whatever destroyed the Bombay was not responsible for destroying …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/09/rule-out-the-klingons/
Dec 08
I found this cool infographic on personalized learning: Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/12/08/personalized-learning/
Nov 17
I read this article in the Instructional Leader on Text-Dependent Questions. As part of the WA STEM PD grant that my school got we are working in our grade level PLC (Professional Learning Community) for one cycle followed by departmental PLC. There’s a different dynamic to PLC work when you meet with your grade level …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/17/text-dependent-questions/
Nov 14
I had a most enlightening conversation with my advisory group about rewarding, I mean acknowledging, students. Our school is now a PBIS school and part of our efforts to reward positive behavior includes teachers giving slips of paper to students when we catch them engaging in positive behaviors. The slips of paper have the traits …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/14/pbis-acknowledging-students/
Nov 13
After last year’s failed attempt at using World of Warcraft in Science to have students learn about classifying living things I finally get a chance to try using World of Warcraft to explore the journey of a hero! I thought the Science angle was a good idea but my 8th graders didn’t really take to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/13/literacy-with-wow/
Nov 12
The crew of the Starship Equinox had to decide whether or not to follow the energy trail from the massive weapon that destroyed the Bombay. After a quick deliberation they recommended to the Captain that he follow the energy trail back to its source to see if they could find what can wield such power. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/11/12/following-an-energy-trail/
Oct 23
At a summer institute NGSS workshop I heard the presenter say that we could modify the Next Generation Science Standards to meet the needs of our students. So I did just that! We get to visit Mt Saint Helens as part of our 6th grade outdoor education experience to Camp Cispus. Because of that 6th …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/10/23/i-modified-ngss/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
