Author: Jacqui
#29: A Slideshow for Third Graders
By fourth grade, my students are so good at PowerPoint, I don’t even teach it in fifth grade (I move on to Photoshop). They’ve learned enough to get them through school. Here’s how I do that: (more…)
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Tech Tips to End the School Year
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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Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day in the United States is annually held on the second Sunday of May. This year, that’s May 11th. It celebrates motherhood and it is a time to appreciate mothers and mother figures. Many people give gifts, cards, flowers, candy, a meal in a restaurant or other treats to their mother and mother figures, including grandmothers, great-grandmothers, stepmothers, and foster mothers (click for updates to the list):.
- Mother’s Day activities
- Mother’s Day Activities from
- Mother’s Day cards
- Mother in different languages
- Mother’s Day Quotes
- Mother’s Day Sayings
- Mother’s Day Templates from Canva
Anyone have some favorite websites to share? My list isn’t terribly robust.
Enjoy your day with your children! (more…)
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Tech Teacher Appreciation Week
Tech Teacher Appreciation Week
If you wonder what’s so hard about being a teacher, look at this list of challenges they faced the last few years: (more…)
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What You Might Have Missed in April–What’s up in May
Here are the most-read posts for the past month:
- National Library Week–Resources, Links, Ideas
- 17 K-8 Digital Citizenship Topics
- April is Financial Literacy Month
- 15 Best Technology Careers for the Future in 2025
- Basics in Every Lesson Plan
- Join me to launch my Indie Book
- Easter Classroom Resources
- Great App to Teach Spelling
- Summer STEM at USNA
- Earth Day Class Activities
Here’s a preview of what’s coming up: (more…)
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Earth Day Class Activities
Every year, the United Nations recognizes April 22nd as International Mother Earth Day. It is a day we can all participate in making our air clean, water fresh and land unlittered rather than accepting the trash-filled oceans, the smoggy skies, and the debris-laden land that is becoming the norm.
Despite the questionable health of our world, we have made progress. Back in 1970, when Earth Day was first celebrated, trucks spewed black smoke as they drove down the highways, toxic waste was dumped into oceans with no repercussions, and the general opinion was that the Earth took care of itself. That changed when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day’s founder, witnessed the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara California and decided it was time to do something. He started with a “national teach-in on the environment” with a simple goal: Encourage people to recognize the importance of protecting the Earth:
“It was on that day [Earth Day] that Americans made it clear they understood and were deeply concerned over the deterioration of our environment and the mindless dissipation of our resources.”
Before I go any further, listen to Earth’s song, recorded by NASA in space. It is stunning: (more…)
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Easter Classroom Resources
Many Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. To non-Christians (or non-traditional Christians), that event signifies a rebirth of spring that is filled with joy and gifts — and chocolate! Overall, it is America’s most-popular holiday with Christmas a close second. Here’s a good mixture of games, lesson plans, stories, and songs that can be blended into many academic subjects (for updates on Easter-themed websites, click here):
18+ Interactive Easter websites
Preschool-2
This website includes a colorful collection of Easter (and Spring) games and information that is visual and enticing to youngers. Games are Easter Math, Easter Egg Hunt, Easter Egg Dress-up, Easter Word hunt, complete-the-sentence, and more. Also, viewers will find websites about the history of Easter around the world.
ABCYa Easter Egg Hunt
Preschool-Kindergarten
Like all of ABCYa’s games and activities, Easter Egg Hunt is a colorful and intuitive educational game for young children. It is easy-to-understand, playful, with favorite Easter symbols and energetic music that will engage children. The five Easter-themed games are easy-to-understand (no directions required) with a countdown clock to motivate activity. Nicely, it also aligns gameplay with the national standards met.
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What You Might Have Missed in March–What’s up in April
Here are the most-read posts for last month:
- How to Leverage AI Tutors for Effective Learning Tips for Parents, Educators, and Students
- Subscriber Special: 50% Off Sidebar Sponsors
- Didn’t Get in College? Interested in the Military? Try NAPS
- 11 Ways X/Twitter Improves Education
- LOTS of Resources for Kids’ Online Research
- Celebrate Pi Day and Maths Day
- 9 St. Patrick’s Day Resources For Your Class
- Minecraft Builds Coding Skills
- Invention Convention 2025 is coming
- Websites that add sparkle (and learning) to Spring
Here’s what’s coming up next month: (more…)
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Subscriber Special: Discounted Curricula School License
Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching. Not a subscriber? Click the button below.
20% discount on school curricula
Code: KZJ8MBNV
4-2-23 through 4-7-23
What’s a School License?
Purchase a School License for:
Who needs this
Benefits of a School License for Teachers:
- Access to full text PDF from every recognized desktop, 24 hours a day
- Student workbooks are available in the computer lab, the library, the classroom, the laptop carts, the student’s home, and the District server for the same low fee
- Because they’re PDFs, they require no internet, no WiFi (once downloaded)
- License includes a digital copy of the teacher manual for each grade level selected
Benefits of School License for Students:
- Easy access to monthly lessons, how-tos, rubrics, project samples, practice quizzes, grade-level expectations, homework, check lists (like Ready to Move On)
- Convenient place to take notes
- Because they’re PDFs, they require no internet, no WiFi (once downloaded)
- Encourages students to be independent and self-directed, work at their own pace. This is great both for students who need more time on a topic and for those who ‘get it’ fast and want to move on
- Quick way to spiral up to the next grade level for quick learners or back to earlier resources for student needing to fill holes in their learning
How to get started
- Select whether you want one grade or all, whether you are interested in the technology or keyboarding curriculum.
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Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:
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.
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