Author: Jacqui

Presidents’ Day is an American federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February–this year, February 17, 2025. It was originally established to honor George Washington, the first President of the United States, and expanded to also celebrate the birthdays and legacies of other U.S. Presidents, particularly Abraham Lincoln whose birthday is February 12th.

Here are great ways to celebrate in your classroom including websites, games, activities, printables, quizzes, audios, songs, interactive maps,  crafts, flashcards, videos, webquests, books, posters, trading cards, lesson plans, word searches, puzzles, speeches, articles, animations, biographies, and more (click the titles for the link): (more…)

Here are fun Valentine sites to fill those few minutes betwixt and between lessons, projects, bathroom breaks, lunch, and everything else (click here for updates on this list):

1. Drag-and-drop games
2. Google Drawings Magnetic Poetry from Ctrl Alt Achieve
3. Games and puzzles
4. ‘I love you’ in languages Afrikaans to Zulu
5. Match
6. Puppy jigsaw
7. Rebus game
8. Sudoku
9. Tic-tac-toe
10. Typing
11. Write in a heart

Do you use any I missed? If you’re looking for more, here’s my collection of holiday lesson plans, easily adaptable to Valentine’s Day.

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

February 5th:

Group Professional Development

Pick a topic:

Tech infused Teacher/Classroom

Writing With Tech

Building Digital Citizens

20 Webtools in 20 Days

Differentiation

There is limited availability so sign up fast!

Here are general guidelines:

• up to 10 people per class (same low price–$750)
• delivered via Google Classroom
• each class is about four weeks

Normally, we charge $750 for five people. For three days, get up to 10 people–your entire team–for the same price. We take POs, PayPal, or we’ll invoice you.

We wrote the books. We’ll help you integrate tech into your curriculum, teach digital citizenship, differentiate for your learners, and more. Questions? Ask Jacqui Murray at askatechteacher at gmail dot com.

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Here are some activities for Groundhog Day–February 2nd (click here for updates to list):

1. Fun Facts About Groundhogs–video
2. Groundhog Day Digital Activities–grades 3-5
3. Groundhog Day for Kids–a video
4. Groundhog Day Games
5. Groundhog Day Teaching Resources
6. History of Groundhog Day–from History.com
7. Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Website
8. Why Groundhogs Supposedly Predict the Weather–video

For the 100th day of school, here are resources (if these sound familiar, we updated last year’s list):

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National Handwriting Day is celebrated on January 23rd each year. It is a day dedicated to promoting the importance of handwriting and encouraging people to embrace the art of writing by hand. This day was established to honor the birthday of John Hancock, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, known for his prominent and stylish signature on the Declaration of Independence. Handwriting is considered a personal and unique form of expression, and National Handwriting Day aims to celebrate and preserve this traditional skill.

Articles on handwriting from Ask a Tech Teacher:

Check these out:

Is Handwriting So Last Generation

Is Handwriting So Last Generation–Redux

How to Create a Handwriting Workbook to Help Improve Penmanship

Handwriting vs. Keyboarding–from a Student’s Perspective

When is Typing Faster Than Handwriting? (more…)

Here are some Winter activities to share the joy of winter (click here for updates to list):

1. 5 Videos to teach about winter
2. Winter Facts and Worksheets
3. The Winter Solstice, from PBS–a video for youngers
4. Winter Vocabulary–a video
5. What is a Solstice, from National Geographic–a video
6. What is the Winter Season–a video
7. Winter Coloring Pages, Printables, and more
8. Winter Games–digital

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Since we started Ask a Tech Teacher fifteen years ago, we’ve had almost 6.3 million views and 3300 comments from about 11,500 followers who read some or all of our 2,454 articles on integrating technology into the classroom. This includes tech tips, website/app reviews, tech-in-ed pedagogy, how-tos, videos, and more. We have regular features like:

• • Weekly Websites and Tech Tips (sign up for the newsletter)
  • Edtech Reviews
  • Lesson plans

If you’ve just arrived at Ask a Tech Teacher, start here.

Here are our top 10 lists of most popular posts and tips for 2024:

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Here are the most-read posts for the month of December:

1. Three Projects to Kick Off the Holidays
2. 7 Online Resources About Creating a #MakerSpace
3. Five Must-Do Skills to Accomplish During High School
4. Holiday Gifts for Teachers
5. 14 Holiday Websites and 5 Projects
6. Where did Christmas Come From?
7. A Shout Out for My Donate Button
8. New Year, New Mindset
9. Happy Holiday! See You Jan. 2nd!

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

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

January 8th-11th

the 53-page PDF, “25 Digital Tools for the Classroom”

for free!

“25 Digital Tools for the Classroom” is a thorough discussion on which are the most useful tools in a K-8 classroom. This includes popular digital tools such as blogs, backchannel devices, vocabulary decoding tools, avatars, digital portfolios, digital notetaking, as well as others you may not have thought of. Here’s what you do:

• Sign up for our newsletter, Weekly Websites, Tech Tips, and Tech Ed News. If you already subscribe, qualify by purchasing one of our resources on the Structured Learning website. Any product, any price qualifies.
• Email us the welcome message or receipt you receive (we’re at askatechteacher at gmail dot com). Make the subject line read, “Please send free ’25 Digital Tools for the Classroom'”.
• We’ll send you the collection.
• If the newsletter doesn’t work for you, there’s an ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of each email.

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Also on January 1st: It’s Public Domain Day! Every year, January 1st is Public Domain Day. This is an observance of when copyrights expire and works enter into the public domain–free for all to use. According to Public Domain Review, here are some of the newly-available artistic works you might like a/o January 1, 2025:

The picture above is interactive on the website. If you click it, you enter Public Domain Review’s website and can then explore each of these new sources of inspiration, free to use.

A few recently released that caught my attention:

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https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

“The content presented in this blog are the result of creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.