Wrapping up your school technology for the summer is as complicated as setting it up in September. There are endless backups, shares, cleanings, changed settings, and vacation messages that — if not done right — can mean big problems when you return from summer vacation. If you have a school device, a lot of the shutdown steps will be done by the IT folks as they backup, clean, reformat, and maybe re-image your device. If you have a personal device assigned by the school but yours to take home, the steps may be more numerous but really, not more complicated.

Here’s a list. Skip those that don’t apply to you and complete the rest. I won’t take time in this article for a how-to on each activity so if you don’t know how to complete one, check with your IT folks or DDG (Duck Duck Go) or Google it:

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Most-read posts last month:

1. May Is #Homeschool Awareness Month
2. How do I grade technology in my school?
3. National Personal Finance Challenge
4. 5 Favorite Activities to End the School Year
5. Successful USNA Graduates
6. National Spelling Bee Coming In May
7. Looking for Summer Activities? Try These
8.  Simple Ways Teachers Can Integrate AI Ethically in the Classroom

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up: (more…)

As you head into summer, the Ask a Tech Teacher team will post a variety of internationally-themed articles for those looking beyond English-speaking borders. Here’s one on learning and teaching Korean:

Best Online Korean Teacher Platforms for Speaking, Grammar, and TOPIK Practice

Most people assume any Korean tutor will do the job. But the best online Korean teacher platforms are built around something more specific: structured progression, native-speaker interaction, and real accountability. After reviewing dozens of options across lesson formats, pricing models, and learner responses, the gap between a frustrating experience and genuine fluency often comes down to platform fit. This guide covers the top five platforms worth your time, whether you’re chasing conversational skills, grammar depth, or a serious TOPIK score.

The shortlist methodology

Options were evaluated by pulling publicly available data from user reviews, official websites, language-learning directories, and feature breakdowns on trusted review platforms. Only platforms with a documented track record in language education made the cut.

→ See the full research breakdown (more…)

Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching.

May 28th-June 6th:

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For those already thinking about next year, Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Jenny Wise, has ideas on managing class projects without burning out. This time of year, we all feel on the edge. Jenny has great ideas to prepare for summer school classes if you teach them, or the new school year. She has navigated the complexities of raising a growing family, supporting her children through life’s difficulties, and finding strength through faith, resilience, and connection.

If you’re interesting in homeschool ideas, Jenny shares family homeschooling experiences, practical advice, encouragement, and resources for parents considering or navigating homeschooling through her platform, Special Home Educator. Her mission is to support and inspire other families by honestly sharing the ups and downs of creating a personalized education at home.

A Teacher’s Guide to Managing Creative Projects Without Burnout

For busy classroom teachers who also lead clubs, performances, showcases, or other creative work, the real strain isn’t the project itself, it’s the extra layer of coordination piled onto an already full day. Teacher workload challenges grow fast when student team coordination, shifting expectations, and last-minute questions keep spilling into planning periods and evenings. That pressure can make managing extracurricular projects feel like a personal endurance test instead of a normal part of the job. The good news is that stress management for teachers often starts with educational project planning that makes responsibilities, communication, and follow-through predictable. (more…)

June is National Internet Safety Month, thanks to a resolution passed in 2005 by the U.S. Senate. The goal is to raise awareness about online safety for all, with a special focus on kids ranging from tots to teens.

Here’s a short list of internet cautions I got from online efriends. I reprint it every year because it covers all the basics, avoids boring details, and gives kids (and adults) rules to live by:

Not everything you read online is true

It used to be anything we read in print was true. We could trust newspapers, magazines and books as reliable sources of information. It’s not the same with the web. Since anyone can become published, some of the stuff you’re reading online isn’t true. Even worse, some people are just rewriting stuff they read from other people online, so you might be reading the same false information over and over again. Even Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a reliable source. If you’re researching something online, consider the source. Some poorly written, random web page, isn’t necessarily a good source. However, if you find a .gov or .org site, the information has a better chance of being true. Always look at who owns the website and whether or not they have an agenda before considering whether or not certain information is true.

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Earlier, we posted books you might like to read this summer. Now, we’ll focus on what to accomplish with your summer. Here are popular AATT articles. Pick the ones that suit you:

How to Keep Learning Fresh Over the Summer

15 Skills To Learn this Summer and Use Next Year

6 Tech Activities for Your Summer School Program

12 Tech Tasks To End the School Year

Here’s How to Motivate Summer School Students

Seven Fun Math Activities for the Summer Break

How to Blend Learning with Play for a Kid-friendly Summer

6 Tech Activities for Your Summer School Program

15 Skills Teachers Can Learn this Summer and Use in Next Year’s Classroom

5 Apps to learn this summer

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The Ask a Tech Teacher International team has ideas on how digital writing tools help students plan, edit, cite, and polish essays without losing their own voice or thinking skills.

From Messy Drafts To Better Essays: How Digital Writing Tools Help Students Write Smarter

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/person-typing-on-laptop-computer-3GZNPBLImWc 

Once upon a time, essay writing was a lonely business. You opened a word processor, stared into the abyss, typed a sentence, erased it, and tried to make sense of your argument. Today’s students are certainly under the same pressures, yet the writing tools available to them have become very different.

Digital writing tools today offer outlining services, grammatical assistance, citation generators, clarification services, note-taking apps, and much more. This does not mean that students should entrust everything to the software. The smartest applications will function more like a partner in studying, pointing out weaknesses in the argument, suggesting ways to structure your ideas, and helping you improve your drafts without taking away your critical decision-making.

This is important because, under stress, students will compare sample essays, seek help in editing their work, or even try their luck looking for write my essay for me online services. One such service, called WriteMyEssay, could easily pop up among the results of your search; give it a try. (more…)

I’m taking Memorial Day (the last Monday in May here in the USA) to honor our soldiers, hang the American flag and call my two soldier children. Say hi, how are you.

Comments closed for the day

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