Author: Jacqui

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, an Amazon Vine Voice, 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.

How to Stand Out in Your Journalism Career

One post-high school career that is equal amounts challenging, exciting, and rewarding is journalism. It’s not an 8-5 job that you can call in. You work hard, leave everything on the table, and have an opportunity to feel like you’ve made a difference.

One of our Ask a Tech Teacher contributors has these suggestions for how to stand out in journalism, make it a career you’ll be proud of:

How to Stand Out in Your Journalism Career

Whether you’re a newbie looking to get started in the journalism industry or an experienced professional hoping to advance, it can be challenging to stand out. No matter where you are on your journalistic journey, an effective technique for making yourself known is essential! In this blog post, we’ll be delving into tried and tested methods of marketing yourself and your work so that editors take notice of your skills, passion, and knowledge. From networking at conferences to ensuring that your online portfolio stands out, read on for our top tips on how to stand out in print media.

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5 Skills Graduates Need to Be Successful

The skills required to succeed in your post-High School life, be it college, a vocational training program, the military, or a job, are surprisingly similar. Commitment to the task at hand by doing your best all the time is a great start, but it isn’t all you need. One of our Ask a Tech Teacher contributors came up with a short list of five skills that will make a big difference in whether you succeed or fail in your post-High School endeavors:

  1. Communication
  2. Adaptability and Flexibility
  3. Leadership
  4. Time management
  5. Technical skills

Here’s what you need to know:

5 Skills Graduates Need to Be Successful 

The job market is competitive, and having the right skills and the courage to use them can be the difference between success and stagnation. Graduates looking to hit the ground running should be sure to cultivate a good balance of soft and hard skills. Creativity and problem-solving will come in handy in brainstorming solutions and revolution steps for projects, while communication and networking are invaluable when interacting with team members or potential clients. Below are five of the most critical skills that graduates should possess to make their mark on the job market:

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Math+Tech–a Good Partnership

Technology has been part of math education for decades, mostly as rote drills and a replacement for worksheets, often to assist in memorizing tables. But it’s grown up since those early days. Check out this article from one of our Ask a Tech Teacher contributors addressing why tech+math are good partners and where that will go in the future:

The Future of Math Education: Integrating Technology in the Classroom

Introduction

In today’s digital age, it is increasingly necessary to integrate technology into the classroom. This inevitable change is particularly true for math education, as interactive math lessons for kids are becoming more commonplace online. Therefore, traditional schools should change their mindsets, adopt tech and adapt it for the classroom or risk getting left behind in the race to enhance students’ math learning experience. But to encourage school administration boards to make this integration, they must first know the advantages of tech in math education.

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Does Flipped Classroom Work? Check out this Article

I’ve used flipped classrooms in my Middle School classes. After the initial excitement that something changed, it fell into a routine with not much better results than any other teaching method. But not worse, either. I tossed it into the category of something to try when whatever I was using didn’t work.

That’s why this article from EdSurge caught my attention:

Does ‘Flipped Learning’ Work? A New Analysis Dives Into the Research

A new meta-analysis looked at the effectiveness of flipped learning, a model that asks students to watch lecture videos before class so that class time can be used for active learning. The authors argue that while the approach can be done well, there’s lots of hype and failed attempts.

Read more…

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Celebrate Pi Day and Maths Day

Two math celebrations are coming up on March 14th: Pi Day and World Maths Day

Pi Day

Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on 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, holds the European record for reciting pi from memory to 22,514 digits in five hours and nine minutes.

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AI and ChatGPT in Education

This is a topic every teacher I know is talking about. BAM Radio has a couple of podcasts you’ll enjoy:

Why Some Educators Are Convinced Artificial Intelligence Can Make Teaching Less Stressful

Millions of schoolchildren walked into their classrooms at the start of the academic year missing one crucial element that should have set them up for success: the prior knowledge they needed to take on a new grade level.  In search of answers,  we asked education psychologists, technologists, and teachers how artificial intelligence help make learning recovery more effective and less stressful.

9 Creative Ways to Engage Teen Students With ChatGPT: The More We Use It, the More Possibilities We Discover 

We are discovering many engaging ways to use ChatGPT to engage teenage students in the classroom.  My guests agree that once you begin to experiment with the platform, the more your mind begins to find additional possibilities.

–image credit Deposit Photos
Copyright ©2023 Askatechteacher.com– All rights reserved.

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19 Tech Problems Every Student Can Fix

tech tipsIn these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: 19 Tech Problems Every Student Can Fix

Category: Problem-solving

Here are the nineteen problems that cause eighty percent of the tech stoppages in your classrooms. Review these authentically with students and expect them to master all nineteen before graduating from fifth grade:

Deleted a file

Open Recycle Bin (or Trash) and restore.

 

Can’t exit a program                                      

Alt+F4 works 95% of the time.

 

Can’t find MS Word                                             

PC: Right-click on desktop—select ‘New>Word Document’.

 

Keyboard doesn’t work                                 

Push ‘Num Lock’ to see if it lights up. If it does, the problem is other than the keyboard. If it doesn’t, re-plug cord into digital device and reboot.

 

Mouse doesn’t work                                       

Move it around to see if the cursor moves. If it doesn’t, re-plug cord into digital device and reboot.

 

Start button is gone                                        

PC: Push Windows button.

 

No sound        

Unmute the sound or turn it up from the lower right corner of the screen; plug headphones in (or unplug); reboot.

 

Can’t find a file                                              

PC: Start>Search; when you find the file, notice where it is and/or resave to a location you’ll remember.

iPad: Open the app it was created in or go to the Cloud storage associated with the device.

Chromebooks: Push Alt+Shift+M to access File Manager.

 

Menu command grayed out                           

Push escape 3 times. This gets you out of wherever you were and activates the command you’d like to use.

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Tech Tip #168: Software vs. Online Tools

tech tipsIn these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: Software vs. Online Tools

Category: Pedagogy

Here are relevant criteria for evaluating software vs. online tools in your classroom:

For more detail on comparing software and online tools, visit “8 Reasons For and 8 Against Revisiting Software in Your Classroom” on Ask a Tech Teacher.

Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.

What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.

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