Author: Jacqui

A few spring websites, lesson plans, printables, activities:

1. 7 Science Experiments that Teach About Spring
2. Books from Scholastic about Spring
3. Spring Puzzle
4. Spring Garden–click to find flowers
5. Spring Games
6. Spring Vocabulary (video)
7. Spring Word Scramble
8. Spring Word Search
9. What Happens in Spring (video)
10. What Happens in Spring–PS (video)

Life Cycles

1. Life cycle of a snake
2. Life Cycle Lesson Plans
3. Life Cycle resources
4. Life Cycles
5. Life Cycle Symbaloo
6. Plant life cycle

Click for ideas from TeacherVision:

Printables

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities Booklet
2. Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet
3. Baseball Fun
4. May Day
5. Butterfly Facts and Questions
6. Butterfly Life Cycle Quiz
7. More Spring Printables

Lesson Plans

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Here’s what most educators and parents innately know as a truism of education:

“If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” –Albert Einstein

Peer-to-peer learning–acquiring knowledge from a peer group–has become a popular strategy as teachers move from a “teacher-lecturer” education model to “teacher-guide”.  Often, it is a less stressful way to develop lifelong learners. As a pedagogical strategy, it can be effective in reinforcing critical thinking, cooperation, creativity, and problem solving–traits that are difficult to teach but essential for students who want to become productive, happy adults.

What is Peer-to-peer Learning

Peer-to-peer learning is where individuals learn from and with each other rather than relying on a traditional teacher or instructor. It involves collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual support among peers—typically people at a similar level of expertise or experience—working together to achieve a common learning goal. Participants exchange ideas, explain concepts, ask questions, and provide feedback. The process fosters critical thinking, communication skills, and a deeper understanding of the subject matter, as teaching others reinforces one’s own knowledge. Examples include study groups, coding boot camps where participants critique each other’s work, or online communities where users share expertise. It’s built on the idea that collective learning can be just as effective, if not more so, than top-down instruction, leveraging diverse perspectives and real-world problem-solving.

How is it implemented

The Roman philosopher Seneca declared: “docendo discimus” (“by teaching, we learn”). So how is it done?

Implementing peer-to-peer learning effectively requires planning and structure to maximize benefits while minimizing potential drawbacks. Here are practical steps to set it up:

• Define Clear Objectives
• Identify Participants
• Establish Ground Rules
• Pick a structure that fits the group’s needs:
  • Study Groups: Divide topics and teach each other.
  • Workshops: Rotate leadership for hands-on practice.
  • Discussion Circles: Analyze material together.
  • Project-Based: Collaborate on a tangible outcome (e.g., coding a program).

• Monitor Progress
• Encourage Feedback
• Evaluate and Adapt

Advantages

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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, webmaster for four blogs, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Invention Convention Worldwide is a global K-12 curricular program mapped to national and state educational standards that teaches students problem identification, problem solving, entrepreneurship, creativity skills, and confidence. RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2025 runs June 4-6, 2025 at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI. (more…)

St. Patrick’s Day is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated in America on March 17th to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to the country. The day is marked by parades, wearing green clothing and accessories, traditional Irish music and dance, feasting, and the symbolic consumption of foods and beverages like corned beef, cabbage, and Irish stout. It has become a global celebration of Irish culture and heritage.

If you’re getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day, try these fun websites with activities for different grade levels (click for updates on this list):

1. Puzzle–St. Pat’s Puzzle
2. Puzzle–St. Pat’s drag-and-drop puzzle
3. Puzzle–St. Pat’s slide puzzle
4. Puzzles and games
5. St. Patrick’s Day history–video
6. St. Pat’s Day songs–video
7. Tic tac toe
8. Wordsearch

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Two math celebrations are coming up: Pi Day and World Maths Day

Pi Day

Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). It is observed March 14 since 3, 1, and 4 are the three most significant digits of π in the decimal form.

Daniel Tammet, a high-functioning autistic savant, held the European record for reciting pi from memory to 22,514 digits in five hours and nine minutes until 2015 when Rick de Jong of the Netherlands recited pi to 22,612 digits in five hours and 34 minutes. His record was then broken by Rajveer Meena of India, who recited 70,000 digits in 2015 blindfolded. It took over nine hours. That remains the world record to date.

. Here’s how you can memorize the first 100 digits of Pi:

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Here are quick, safe spots to send students for research (click here for updates to the list):

1. CoolKidFacts–kid-friendly videos, pictures, info, and quizzes–all 100% suitable for children
2. Dimensions–academic research geared for college-level
3. Fact Monster–help with homework and facts
4. Google Earth Timelapse–what changes to the planet over time
5. Google Trends–what’s trending in searches
6. History Channel–great speeches
7. How Stuff Works–the gold standard in explaining stuff to kids
8. Info Please–events cataloged year-by-year
9. National Geographic for Kids
10. Ngram Viewer–analyzes all words in all books on Google Books
11. TagGalaxy–search using a cloud
12. Wild Wordsmyth–picture dictionary for kids
13. World Book–requires membership

Citing Resources

1. BibMe
2. Citation Machine
3. EasyBib

Kids Search Engines

1. Kiddle–visual search engine for kids
2. Kidtopia

How to Research

1. A Google A Day
2. How to Search on Google
3. Power Searching (with Google)
4. Teaching students to search/research
5. Internet Search and Research–a lesson plan for K-8

Lesson Plans

1. Image Copyright Do’s and Don’ts
2. Internet Search and Research

Resources/Research

1. BrainPOP–Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP® Featured Movie app
2. Kids Picture Dictionary
3. Primary Source Documents
4. SparkVue–collect and display live data from iPhone etc to the iPad
5. Talk to Books–research your topic based on books
6. TED app–TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people

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Here are the most-read posts for the past month:

1. 13 Online Resources About Kids News Resources
2. Random Acts of Kindness Day is Coming. How Will You Celebrate?
3. Integrating Technology in Education for Modern Classrooms
4. 11 Valentine Sites For Students K-2
5. How to Make Learning Math More Interactive and Engaging
6. Engineers Week Feb. 16-22 2025
7. President’s Day Activities Feb. 17, 2025
8. Unlocking Learning Fun: How Educational Bini Games Foster Child Development
9. Tech Tip #107: Ways to Avoid Phishing
10. 25+ Video Collections

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

A lot of teacher-authors read my Ask a Tech teacher. In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month from my writing blog, WordDreams 

Good efriend Terri Webster Schrandt reminded me of National Love Your Pet Day last year on her blog, Sunday Stills. I’ve waited all year to add my own celebration!

According to National Today Calendar, February 20 is Love Your Pet Day. As if we need only one day to love our pets.

“On February 20, we celebrate National Love Your Pet Day, a day to embrace one special trait that makes us human: our love of our pets! There are many things that differentiate humans from the rest of the animal kingdom, but one of the more unusual behaviors is our longstanding tendency to keep other animals as pets. Gallup reports that sixty percent of Americans are current pet owners.”

To celebrate, here’s my slideshow of my dog, Casey. Feel free to attach links to your beautiful pets in the comments so we can visit!

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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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