Tag: blogs

Student Survey Time

Midterm is upon us and I reminded my students of how things are different at this time in an ungraded classroom. I hear them talking about what grades they are getting in their other classes because at midterm teachers prepare progress reports for families to see how their child is doing halfway through the trimester. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/25/student-survey-time/

Gamified Classroom?

Not so much actually. I started the year all hopeful to gamify my classes. After reading Lee Sheldon’s book, The Multiplayer Classroom this past summer I was all ready to jump in with all my classes. I had badges all prepared for my students to place on their blogs as they showed evidence of understanding …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/01/02/gamified-classroom/

WordPress Troubles

I’ve been using WordPress for over six years now. I have a WordPress database on my hosting service. I also have a couple of blogger blogs and although I like them both I prefer my main, professional blog on WordPress (mainly because I’ve been using it so long and customizing it, and I’m used to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/12/18/wordpress-troubles/

Beginning of Year

I teach 6th and 8th grade Science. I have all three of our school’s 6th grade Science classes and two of the three 8th grade Science classes. I’ve been teaching 6th and 8th grade Science for a few years now and I really enjoy getting kids as they enter the middle school and getting many …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/17/beginning-of-year/

Vote for Me!

My Awards, Grades and Competition blog post has been nominated for an award! My first nomination (well, 1st and 2nd nomination it seems as my blog was also nominated for a Middle School Teacher award)! (For more information on who sponsors this award please read the comments section of this blog post.) Here’s the reason they …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/08/13/vote-for-me/

How to Make Social Networking Work

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/05/08/how-to-make-social-networking-work/

Grades and Feedback

Just a couple of years ago this is what my progress reports looked like. This is what I would give students every three to four weeks for the whole school year. This was what I thought would motivate my students. A majority of them were never motivated by this. And those who got “good” grades? …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/03/27/grades-and-feedback/

Student Engagement

Student work.

I think about student engagement, what we call on-task behavior, a lot. All the time it seems. I’ve written a few blogs on the subject. I wrote What is On Task back in April of 2011, I wrote How Much Socializing Can You Put Up With on August of 2011, I wrote, I’m Bored, So …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/03/12/student-engagement/

Lessons from Student Bloggers

It was about this time last year that I wrote a blog on some lessons I was learning from my students with regards to blogging and their blogs. I was getting the clue that assigning blog assignments as homework didn’t work. Merely having a tech component wasn’t enticing enough for kids to do school work …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/02/25/lessons-from-student-bloggers/

Blogging and Tweeting – WA STEM Follow-Up

WA Stem Grant Meeting

Our WA STEM grant work is coming to an end. My Math and Science middle and high school PLC team has been immersing themselves in the world of social networking by blogging and tweeting for the past year. For some it’s been toe dipping that is becoming a walk up to the hip while other …

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Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/01/09/blogging-tweeting-wa-stem/

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