Shift Does Happen!

Very close to two years ago I wrote a post and one of the main topics was school awards ceremonies. That spurred some conversation with kids in my classes and with kids in my advisory. You see, our student advisory groups, each led by an adult staff member, are the ones mostly responsible for putting …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/09/shift-does-happen/

HW and Trust

Thinking about homework again I’ve heard some of the reasons for giving homework and it boils down to trust. It seems, by the way some teachers talk, that they don’t trust that parents are properly preparing their children. Some teachers worry that parents don’t read to their kids or don’t encourage their kids to read …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/06/hw-and-trust/

Mass Production Feedback

I’ve written about some of the great training I’ve had on Assessment for Learning (AfL) also known as formative assessment. I’ve gotten some great resources but frankly there is way too much. It’s quite overwhelming to keep up with my everyday work of guiding students along the learning experiences that I’m preparing for them AND …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/04/mass-production-feedback/

Gamified Classroom?

Not so much actually. I started the year all hopeful to gamify my classes. After reading Lee Sheldon’s book, The Multiplayer Classroom this past summer I was all ready to jump in with all my classes. I had badges all prepared for my students to place on their blogs as they showed evidence of understanding …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/02/gamified-classroom/

Fish Trapping

In Chimacum 8th graders get a full year of Life Science learning experiences. As 6th graders they learned about our neighborhood creek, Chimacum Creek, and tested the water quality. Learning about and taking care of our creek has been a great Science learning experience as well as a service learning project for Chimacum Middle School …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/27/fish-trapping/

Testing or Arts?

I saw this video again and thought I’d post it. We need to see this often, at least until the test craze ends. Sir Ken Robinson’s Changing Education Paradigm animated by RSA (It’s only about 11 mins).

Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/26/testing-or-arts/

WordPress Troubles

I’ve been using WordPress for over six years now. I have a WordPress database on my hosting service. I also have a couple of blogger blogs and although I like them both I prefer my main, professional blog on WordPress (mainly because I’ve been using it so long and customizing it, and I’m used to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/18/wordpress-troubles/

Moving to 1to1

Working in a small school district I get to actually work with our superintendent! After starting my career in the Los Angeles Unified School District this is just awesome. I’m part of our district technology committee so that’s one way I get to work with our superintendent. So what do you do when your superintendent …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/01/moving-to-1to1/

Interview with Two Programmers

During the Seattle Startup EDU Weekend I had the chance to work with two programmers. In high school I studied Basic, then in I tried a little Pascal. I liked programming but didn’t major in it in school, following other interests instead. When I started teaching I learned html and tried to get back into …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/11/19/interview-with-two-programmers/

Alternative to Testing

I’ve read and heard how schools need to be held accountable. The politicians want some kind of proof that schools and teachers are educating children. Politicians try to convince the public that schools need to be held accountable to show that kids are achieving high standards of education. My goodness look at what newspapers publish! …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/11/18/alternative-to-testing/

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