The Inaccuracy of Tests

I’m taking an online course, Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading, from the Marzano Research Laboratory, and it’s reinforcing what I’ve believed about how subjective it is to grade and score kids on their learning. As teachers we strive to assess our students’learning as accurately as possible. The truth is that an A in my class …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/07/21/the-inaccuracy-of-tests/

Sharing Learning Expectations

After retweeting this Science Teacher’s blog post on Twitter about sharing standards with Science students I had this conversation with David Grossman: Letting Students in on the Secret | Science Teacher In Training #scichat #afl http://t.co/ALfC9NqScC — Alfonso Gonzalez (@educatoral) June 21, 2014   @educatoral Sometimes I want students to discover the concept like a …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/07/20/sharing-learning-expectations-2/

#GBL with WoW

I’ve been reflecting on my first attempt at using a commercial off the shelf (CoTS) game in class for student learning, in this case World of Warcraft (WoW). I took a risk and tried to use the power of WoW to leverage some Science learning, in this case classification of living things. There are many …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/06/18/gbl-with-wow/

Alone in the Middle

The week of May 19th six of the ten middle school teachers from my school went to Camp David Jr with our 8th grade students for an Olympic Odyssey outdoor learning experience. It was a fantastic week! Part of our outdoor experience is some hiking. There are some incredibly beautiful places to hike in WA …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/06/05/alone-in-the-middle/

The Need for Technology

Source: CheapestColleges.org Use of the above infographic does not constitute endorsement of the authors/creators of the infographic. I was merely giving credit to the owners/creators.

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/05/17/the-need-for-technology/

The C’s of the 21st Century

I’m finding that the hallmark of 21st Century learning is a move away from the traditional, 19th and 20th century focus on the three R’s (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) and a move to the C’s. I say the C’s because when I first read about the 21st Century C’s there were three, Connect, Collaborate, Create. The …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/04/27/the-cs-of-the-21st-century/

Craving Acknowledgement

Last year our middle school staff agreed to stop choosing Student’s of the Month and to stop giving out monthly awards for behaviors in which we want our students to engage. My advisory students conducted a survey and we found out that a majority of students reported feeling left out and not appreciated by our …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/04/22/craving-acknowledgement/

Teacher Evaluation? No.

Evaluation

What is the purpose of teacher evaluation? The corporate, privatization, voucher, pseudo-reform movement would have us believe teacher evaluation is to get rid of those horrible teachers who ruined our lives so that we can keep only the best teachers, jam their classes with 100’s of students, and give them monetary incentives to teach those …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/04/21/teacher-evaluation-no/

What Am I Missing Here?

I need a fresh perspective on something I’ve been struggling with this school year. My reason for gamifying my courses was to motivate and engage more of my students whether they are gamers or not. Last week I reiterated something in blog post that I’ve learned in over 22 years of teaching, that no ONE …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/03/25/what-am-i-missing-here/

My #NCCE2014 Takeaways #csd49

I put together this Prezi with my thoughts and takeaways from this year’s NCCE Conference. I will be sharing this with my District Tech team as we work to make a new district tech plan. The conference was a great experience full of great learning and great people. Here’s a link in case the embed …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/03/24/my-ncce2014-takeaways-csd49/

Load more