I’ve been reading some great blogs and comments challenging some of schools most treasured traditions. Within my classroom and with the support of my principal I was able to abolish grades in an effort to support student learning. I try to foster cooperation in my classes because we are, after all, learning the same things. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/15/awards-grades-and-competition/
Jan 04
Time Well Spent
Yesterday I was getting some materials ready for my 6th grade Science classes and I noticed how much I enjoyed doing that instead of grading. Had I spent that time reading student work to give them points or a letter grade then I would have postponed replacing the batteries in our 10 LabQuest handheld probe …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/04/time-well-spent/
Dec 30
Teacher’s Students, Parent’s Children
Something has been bugging me and the more it bugs the more I started to think, “why does that bug me so much?” I’ve been quiet about it but it drives me crazy when teachers are talking to parents and call their children their students. When that happens I think to myself the kids are …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/30/teachers-students-parents-children/
Dec 30
Best of 2010
I’ve seen many of my favorite bloggers putting together a list of their top blogs from 2010 so I thought I’d do the same. I use the WordPress plugin Counterize II and here are the top blog posts from most hits to the least hits: iPads in Science Avatars Assessment for Learning iPads Promise and …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/30/best-of-2010/
Dec 21
Project Based Learning
I saw this on a Free Technology for Teachers blog, Video – Project Based Learning Explained, and I loved it! Check it out:
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/21/project-based-learning/
Dec 18
WA STEM Grant Proposal
My awesome PLC has accepted the challenge of social networking. I shared the WA STEM grant idea and they all jumped on board. So I wrote a proposal and sent it in! I sure hope we get the grant because I think it’s a great project for us to work on. (If you want to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/18/wa-stem-grant-proposal/
Dec 18
Small Successes
It’s nice to celebrate the small successes, it keeps us sane. 🙂 In my post about microorganisms I shared some of, what I thought, were wonderful critters. A bunch of students in both of my 8th grade classes were right there with me, finding great critters, identifying them and drawing them. Maybe it was because …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/18/small-successes/
Dec 13
Social Networking Opportunity
So last Thursday I got a call from the project director of the North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership (NCOSP), Dr. Carolyn Landel. I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in the NCOSP trainings and summer academies from 2004 to 2007. It was an incredible boost to my learning about Science and how …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/13/social-networking-opportunity/
Dec 12
Finding Microorganisms
This year in 8th grade Life Science we started a unit on diversity of life by learning what it means to be considered a living thing. One criterion for organisms to be considered living that students came up with was made of cells. So we’ve been looking for microorganisms. We collected samples of water from …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/12/finding-microorganisms/
Dec 06
Formative Process
We read another excellent article at my teacher leader training, Next-Generation Assessment Systems: Are We Losing an Opportunity? by Margaret Heritage (this one is a pdf file). One thing I took away from the article is how easy it is to think we’re doing formative assessment when we’re not because of the word assessment. After …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/12/06/formative-process/
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I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
Mr. G’s Hobbies
