Sometimes I think I’d be a much better educator if it weren’t for being stuck inside the four walls of my classroom. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. There are things that I wish I had done better or differently that just wouldn’t be issues if we weren’t all trapped inside these same …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/11/12/limited-by-four-walls/
Nov 12
Letter to WA State Superintendent of Public Schools
One of our high school teachers wrote a letter to our state’s superintendent of public schools sharing her concerns over the state’s decisions for testing Science this year and next year. I asked her if I could share her letter because the concerns that she raised are so blatant and Maren wrote such a great …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/11/12/letter-to-wa-state-superintendent-of-public-schools/
Nov 09
Quick (and dirty) Inquiry
So while my 8th graders were researching the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill a few teams found youtube videos showing how hay could be used to soak up the oil. Yeah, they saw it with own eyes on the video. That was somewhat convincing but they were still curious. Could hay really soak up oil …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/11/09/quick-and-dirty-inquiry/
Oct 17
Ed Reform? Okay.
I’ve never been a fan of teaching to a state test. I don’t mind assessing my students and I think it’s all right if students take common assessments to see how they’re doing. When I start teaching in South Central Los Angeles back in 1991 students were taking the CTBS multiple choice test. Knowing that …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/17/ed-reform-okay/
Oct 10
Office2 HD and Google Docs
My 6th graders are researching water pollution as part of our water quality project. I created a Google Doc for each team in each class for them to answer their questions and take notes. Each student in each team would type his or her notes into the Google Doc and once teams are ready the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/10/office2-hd-and-google-docs/
Oct 08
Save Icon Needs Updating
I enjoy learning things like this. Above is a screen shot of one of Office2 HD’s documents. Notice the floppy disk icon. I kept telling my 6th grade students to tap it to save their documents until I noticed that very few of them have ever even seen a floppy disk! Most didn’t know what …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/08/save-icon-needs-updating/
Oct 08
iPads Can Survive Fall
After the tragic fall and destruction of one our 13 iPads earlier this week, I’ve been very protective of the remaining 12. But yesterday I got confirmation of something I don’t ever want to see again. Another iPad fell. A student had her headphones connected to the iPad, she got up (forgetting the head phones …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/08/ipads-can-survive-fall/
Oct 06
Future of Ed Webinar
After Monday’s epic webinar, I sent this email out to all the MS and HS school teachers in my district: If you missed the Elevating the Education Reform Dialog webinar and want to know what happened here is a link to the event recording page: http://www.learncentral.org/event/106358 The rest of the links came up during the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/06/future-of-ed-webinar/
Oct 06
1st Email to Parents
[I sent this email yesterday to all the parents on of my current students, well all the parents whose email I have.] Hello Students and Families, You are getting this email because you have a child who has me for either 6th grade Science, 8th grade Science or Eagle Time or a combination of those. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/06/1st-email-to-parents/
Oct 04
The Need for Protecting Your iPad
So this is what can happen to an iPad. The backs are very slippery. I hadn’t planned to do it but it seems that purchasing some kind of silicone or rubber backing for the iPads would be a good investment. It just slipped from the student’s hand and just happened to land on the corner …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/04/the-need-for-protecting-your-ipad/
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I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
Mr. G’s Hobbies
