Feb 09
My school district, Chimacum School District (CSD), has been experiencing an unprecedented decline in enrollment for the past bunch of years. When I started teaching at Chimacum Middle School (CMS) in 1997 there were about 370 students in grades 6 through 8. We had four classes at each grade level with approximately 120 students at …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/02/09/im-drawing-a-blank/
May 29
If you subscribe to Dan Pink’s email updates, his From the Desk on Daniel Pink, then you came across this Jeff Bezos memo that Dan shared on May 15. (Jeff Bezos is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon in case you didn’t know.) I agreed with Dan that Jeff’s memo was totally worth reading. …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2018/05/29/success-secrets/
Mar 27
This is my 4th straight year of getting to attend the Northwest Council for Computer Education or NCCE’s three-day conference (although last year I was only able to attend for one day)! This year it was in Portland, OR. NCCE goes back and forth between Seattle and Portland and this year it was Portland’s turn …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/27/my-ncce17-takeaways/
Oct 20
I’ve watched these two powerful videos, which seem to be meant to go together or at least were inspired by the same problem. The problem? Modern day schooling, which hasn’t changed enough to do right by our modern day students. It’s no secret that education, as a system, is slow to change. That even with …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/10/20/how-much-change-is-enough/
Jul 22
We talk about failure being important. We also are warned to not make failure okay, in and of itself, because what we want for our children is to see that failure is part of success. The most successful people fail a lot! I know failure. I’ve failed a lot, at a lot of things. I …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/07/22/failure-at-finances/
May 04
Our middle school’s second year participating in a WA STEM PD grant project is coming to an end. One thing I can see clearly is the time it takes to do PLC work right. Our plan has been to engage in professional development together in our teacher teams. PLC teams in schools are the best …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/05/04/plc-work-takes-time/
May 03
I’ve heard this argument before. Teachers shouldn’t complain about having to work extra hours to get their work done. Other professionals get paid to get their job done whether they work a 60 hour week or a 100 hour week. Some of them work endless hours when getting a project done. So why do teachers …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/05/03/salary-versus-hourly-wages/
Feb 17
What Made Standards Evil? I get it. Ever since No Child Left Behind, education reform has taken a turn for the worst. The mere mention of privatization, vouchers clouded under the guise of choice, charter schools, testing every kid, in every grade level, multiple times, and then making curriculum to prepare kids for the tests …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2016/02/17/are-standards-bad/
May 15
This morning instead of having a half day of school Chimacum teachers unanimously voted to ask our district to cancel school so that we could participate in our state’s school walkouts urging our legislature to fulfill their paramount duty to fully fund education. My last post explains why we chose to walk out and protest …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2015/05/15/chimacums-walkout-for-education/
May 11
The short answer was best said by Malala Yousafzai, “Education for EVERY child.” [Emphasis my own.] Friday, May 15, Chimacum School District educators voted unanimously to join many other schools in Washington state in what are being called rolling walkouts. (See this article in a local WA newspaper, the Peninsula Daily News.) Schools all over …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2015/05/11/why-are-chimacum-schools-having-a-1-day-strike/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
