Alfonso Gonzalez

I teach 5th and 6th grade STEM in the lovely Pacific Northwest in a small, rural town called Chimacum. My goal is to help students discover that all learning is life-long and that 21st century tools can be used for work as well as fun.

Most commented posts

  1. iPads in Science — 22 comments
  2. Awards, Grades and Competition — 18 comments
  3. My ClamCase Experience — 15 comments
  4. Innovative Schooling? — 10 comments
  5. What is On-Task? — 10 comments

Author's posts

School AI is Absolutely Amazing – Rises to Top of My List

I started this school year with parent permission to use Bing Chat (now Copilot) with my 5th and 6th graders because being under 13 years of age they cannot access tools such at ChatGPT or Quillbot, which can be used with students ages 13 to 18 with parent permission (the then Google Bard, now Google …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/02/23/school-ai-is-absolutely-amazing-rises-to-top-of-my-list/

The End of the Best Student Engagement & Gamification Tool I’ve Ever Seen

David Mueller started a petition to let HMH know that there are those of us who would benefit and whose students would benefit if they could keep their current form of Classcraft running for us when they start their new version. Please take a moment to help us and sign this petition: Click Here It …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2024/02/22/the-end-of-the-best-student-engagement-gamification-tool-ive-ever-seen/

AI Detection or AI Proofing?

In a recent post by Larry Ferlazzo, Yet Another Nail-In-The-Coffin of AI Writing Detectors, he offers even more evidence dispelling the myth that AI detection software work. Even if AI detection can sometimes correctly identify whether or not a human wrote a piece of writing, they are so often wrong that they cannot be trusted. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/28/ai-detection-or-ai-proofing/

I’m Presenting at #NCCE24!

Tammie Schrader, with whom I’ve been co-presenting for many years now, and I submitted four proposals to the upcoming 2024 NCCE Conference, the Northwest USA’s premier educational technology conference and we got three of our proposals accepted! There is still time to register so click the image or link above to secure your spot. Click …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/28/im-presenting-at-ncce24/

WEA’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education Workshop Series

The Washington Education Association (WEA) is hosting an AI training for educators starting February 2024! This workshop series is open to anyone and if you are a certified teacher in WA state you will earn 15 STEM clock hours for attending all five two-hour sessions and for completing five hours of exploration of AI tools, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/28/weas-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education-workshop-series/

More AI Tools for Math Support for Students

I have been looking for tools that my students can use in class if they need help with Math. I’m especially hoping AI tools can help students when I am busy with another student or working with a small group of students and their peers are busy working on different tasks. Sometimes teammates are helpful …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/24/more-ai-tools-for-math-support-for-students/

More AI Tools for Kids Under 13

Since my last post sharing AI tools that teachers of students under 13 years of age can use with their students, I’ve found some more tools that we can use with our students! Once you’ve established a class AI policy then kids are ready to go and begin practicing. After finding out about CodeBreaker’s Byte …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/24/more-ai-tools-for-kids-under-13/

Sept 11, 2001 Class Book Published

After working on this class book in my Monday/Friday writing class since September 11 of this year, we finally finished it! You can snap a pic or click on the QR code below or click here to read our book online: Students researched their articles after we watched a 9/11 Memorial video to give them …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/24/sept-11-2001-class-book-published/

AI School Policy to Provide Guidance

Here’s what I’ve been sharing: A summary of AI in Teaching and Learning from the Office of Educational Technology. Ideas on areas to consider when developing an AI policy. AI Principles to Practical Strategies: How Schools Can Apply the National AI Framework Writing school AI policies? Use these 10+ resources How to develop AI policies …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/12/24/ai-school-policy-to-provide-guidance/

Students Requesting Photos of Earth From the ISS!

Screenshot of an EarthKAM test page to show students how to make their pages.

The Sally Ride EarthKAM website is a great website with amazing activities incorporating space science and the International Space Station (ISS)! Sally Ride was the first American woman in space and she has left a fabulous legacy with this NASA EarthKAM project. EarthKAM, which stands for Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, allows students …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2023/11/19/students-requesting-photos-of-earth-from-the-iss/

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