I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take time this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found, are well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, offering inclusive solutions to the issue of tech tools–taking into account the perspectives of stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to ensure learning is organic and granular.

Today: K-12 Technology Curriculum

Overview

The K-12 Technology Curriculum is Common Core and ISTE aligned, and outlines what should be taught when so students have the necessary scaffolding to use tech for grade level state standards and school curriculum. You can purchase just the teacher manuals or student workbooks to serve a 1:1 environment, Google Classroom, and hybrid teaching situations.

Each grade-level PDF or print book (both are available) is between 175 and 252 pages and includes lesson plans, assessments, domain-specific vocabulary, problem-solving tips, Big Idea, Essential Question,  options if primary tech tools not available, posters, reproducibles, samples, tips, enrichments, entry and exit tickets, and teacher preparation. Lessons build on each other kindergarten through 5th grade. Middle School and High School are designed for semester or quarter grading periods typical of those grade levels with topics like programming, robotics, writing an ebook, and community service with tech.

Most (all?) grade levels include keyboarding, digital citizenship, problem solving, digital tools for the classroom, and coding.

The curriculum is used worldwide by public and private schools and homeschoolers.

Who needs this

Tech teachers, tech coordinators, library media specialists, curriculum specialists

Classroom grade level teachers if your tech teacher doesn’t cover basic tech skills.

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

1. Step-by-Step Guide to Edit a Video
2. 3 Fun Tech Classroom Projects for Summer
3. The Influence of Literature on the Formation of the Personalities of Students
4. How to Become a Citizen Scientist
5. Tech Tip #108: Three-click Rule
6. We Landed on the Moon July 20 1969
7. 27 Online Resources About Civics and Government
8. #75: Tessellations in Excel

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

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing details on our blog (Ask a Tech Teacher) about Structured Learning resources to get your new school year started. Find one you like. Purchase it with this coupon code:

3xar9wzu

Get 15% off the listed price.

Offer expires August 29, 2023 so don’t waste time! (more…)

Tessellations are repetitive patterns of shapes that cover a surface without overlapping. With Excel (or another spreadsheet program), you can create tessellations by arranging shapes in a grid and using formulas and formatting options to make the patterns visually appealing. Here’s a step-by-step lesson plan to use Excel or another spreadsheet program to teach tessellations:
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Here are popular online resources to teach about Civics and Government. Click here for updates on this list:

1. Argument Wars
2. CaseMaker–for 6th-8th grade
3. Civics games
4. Congress
5. Court Quest
6. C-Span–Congress at work in video
7. Electoral College—humourous video
8. Executive Command
9. How Laws are Made
10. Law Craft
11. Legislative and Executive Branch Quiz
12. Legislative Branch Qualifications
13. Legislative Branch Quiz
14. Legislative Branch Vocabulary
15. Powers of Congress
16. Public Policy and the Executive and Legislative Branches Quiz
17. Public Policy Flashcards
18. Three Branches of Government Review
19. What’s inside Buckingham Palace
20. Win the White House

Constitution

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As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Some websites/blogs are confusing. I have to click through from one site to the next to get the information I wanted until I’m nowhere near where I started. That’s annoying!

A: I agree! It’s called the 3-click rule made popular by Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman in his book, “Taking Your Talent to the Web.”. Oft-debunked-but-just-as-oft-followed, this  apocryphal rule claims ‘that no product or piece of content should ever be more than three clicks away from your Web site’s main page’.

This is true with not just programming a website, but teaching tech to students. During my one-score-and-seven-years of teaching, I’ve discovered if I keep the geeky stuff to a max of 2-3 steps, students remember it, embrace it, and use it. More than three steps, I hear the sound of eyes glazing over.

What you want to remember from this rule: Make information easy to access, quick to find. Readers and students have a short attention span.

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In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month on my writing blog, WordDreams: 

Reasons Why Readers Quit a Book

It used to be I almost always finished any book I started. I’d think about all the work the author put into writing it, figure it was my personal lens not their skill, and continue in the hope I’d learn a different way of thinking. Over the years, I’ve changed. With Kindle Unlimited, I can borrow a book, read a few chapters, and then return it with no muss or fuss. Now, I quit about 10% of the books I start even after spending the time to preview, read the blurbs, and explore reader comments.

Why? There are good reasons to not invest the time required to finish a book:

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

1. June is Internet Safety Month
2. 23 SAT/ACT Prep Online Resources
3. What is a Growth Mindset?
4. How to Clean Up Google Classroom for the Summer
5. How to Teach Digital Citizenship in Kindergarten and 1st Grade
6. When is Typing Faster Than Handwriting?
7. Are you as Tech-Smart as a Fifth Grader?
8. #3: Make Your Own Wallpaper
9. The Supreme Court in America
10. 13 Online Bridge Building Resources

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Like every year, I exuberantly celebrate America’s birthday. I’d say times are tough here in the US, but that seems to be true everywhere in the world. So, I won’t complain. I will enjoy the love of America as all of my international friends love their homeland.

This one–Chris Stapleton–4 Million views since Super Bowl 2023:

I was going to replace this next one but it’s been viewed by

30 million+ people!

I couldn’t find a better celebratory song.

And this blockbuster with 32 million+ viewers:

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

K-5 New Teacher Survival Kit

9 ebooks, 65 digital posters 

$222.95  Marked down to $178.95

July 4th, 2023

• K-5 tech curriculum textbooks (Common Core aligned)–a year’s worth of skills-based, project-based learning that ties into class units. 
• Ultimate Guide to Keyboarding: K-5–K-5 keyboard curriculum–essentials of keyboarding in 45-minutes a week
• K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum–click for more information
• 169 Real-World Ways to Put Tech into Your Class you’ll be expected to know how to solve common computer problems. Click for more information
• 65 ePosters to share most-important tech details with students

Click here to purchase

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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, an Amazon Vine Voice, 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.