Mar 25
I need a fresh perspective on something I’ve been struggling with this school year. My reason for gamifying my courses was to motivate and engage more of my students whether they are gamers or not. Last week I reiterated something in blog post that I’ve learned in over 22 years of teaching, that no ONE …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2014/03/25/what-am-i-missing-here/
Feb 16
One of my 8th graders showed me this thought piece she wrote (this is what she decided to call it since it made the most sense, I called it a story and she said that it wasn’t exactly a story). It was just the kind of piece that I thought would fit perfectly in this …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/02/16/inspiring-our-students/
May 08
I’ve had mixed results using social networking media for class discussions. Because of that I haven’t even tried to have students use it for backchanneling. It’s hard enough to get them to listen as I give instructions and I don’t lecture all that much anyway. I’ve had this vision of engaging more students in class …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/05/08/how-to-make-social-networking-work/
Feb 25
Back in November I was reflecting on whether or not inquiry can be, or should be, structured. Overall my conclusion was that yes, it can and should, at times, be structured by the teacher. Even with my 8th graders I find that if I don’t structure the activity, project, or lab they don’t take it …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/02/25/when-is-structure-needed/
Jan 22
My Science PLC has a few concepts that we have been reviewing with our students in grades 6 – 12 for the past few years. One of those concepts was brought to us by one of our high school teachers because she noticed that her students were having difficulty with conceiving of air as having …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2011/01/22/sometimes-science-lessons-just-go-wrong/
Oct 04
My 8th graders found that BP could have used hay to clean up much of the oil spill without putting any dispersants or dispersed oil in the water. We saw the following YouTube video: Here is our class’ response video where we tested their idea for ourselves:
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/10/04/green-way-to-clean-up-oil-spill-3/
Sep 06
Can you believe that school has started! Today is our first day back to school and I’m very excited for this brand new school year. I have the great pleasure of getting to work with every 6th grader as they enter middle school for the first time. I’m also very fortunate to get to work …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/09/06/welcome-to-mr-gonzalezs-class/
Aug 22
[Note: I don’t use the consequences or document listed in this post anymore. I am striving to make learning for my students about information and NOT about rewards and punishments. A difficult endeavor worth doing!] I’ve been getting quite a few pointers from the Smart Classroom Management blog. If you don’t subscribe to it, do …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/08/22/classroom-management-communication/
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