Here are some activities for Groundhog Day–February 2nd:

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

If this is the 100th day of school, here are resources for that:

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Here are the most-read posts for the month of January

1. Public Domain Day and Happy New Year!
2. How to Change the Dynamics of Peer-to-peer Learning with Tract
3. Top 10 Hits and Misses for 2021
4. Ready To Go Back To School? 7 Fun Lesson Ideas To Start The New Year
5. 4 (free) Posters About Reading
6. Practices of Tech-savvy Teachers
7. 23+ Websites on Animals
8. 5 YouTube Features for Teachers
9. Google Earth Lesson Plans
10. How Minecraft Teaches Reading, Writing and Problem Solving

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up in February:

• Groundhog Day
• World Read Aloud Day
• Simulations as a Teaching Strategy
• Grading Practices
• 3D Printing Websites
• Tech Tips
• Valentine’s Day Online Resources
• Free Posters
• The Metaverse and Education
• President’s Day Activities
• Teacher Training: Model Teaching
• Random Acts of Kindness Day
• Instagram: A Student Vehicle for Social Change

Every lower-grade teacher I know has huge numbers of students who love math but the older they get, the more those numbers shrink until by Middle School, they’re anemic, at best. The solution according to some students, is to instill the cerebral skills that support math prior to kindergarten. Here’s a great article from ASCD and EdSource on that subject:

Math in early childhood is key, studies show

Studies show that mathematical reasoning ability is crucial in early education, and when children understand math before entering elementary school, they have higher achievement on both reading and math tests later in their school years. Carolyn Pfister, an education administrator for the California State Board of Education, said many adults have math anxiety that has been passed to children.

Read more…

For more on math, read these articles:

Need math resources? Have students try these

15+ Websites to Teach Financial Literacy

Math Games in the Classroom

Quick Review of 7 Popular Math Programs

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Tech Learning recently shared an excellent lesson plan by Dr. Stephanie Smith Budhai that incorporates the amazing Google Earth into learning. Here’s the beginning:

The 3D interactive online exploration platform Google Earth provides a pathway to endless learning adventures around the globe. For an overview of Google Earth and a breakdown of its unique features, check out How to Use Google Earth for Teaching. 

Below, is a sample Google Earth lesson plan geared toward elementary and middle school that is focused on teaching geography. It is important to note that while geography is a natural fit for leveraging Google Earth, other content areas and Google Earth tips and tricks for teaching can be used. 

Click for the complete lesson plan.

For more lesson plans using Google Earth, check out our resources:

• 8 Google Earth Tips and Resources You Don’t Want to Miss

• Google Earth Resources

• Google Earth Board: a Warm-up using Google Earth

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One of my favorite resources for explaining tech in the classroom is Richard Byrne. In this article, he discusses helpful YouTube Features for Teachers

Five Helpful YouTube Features for Teachers

YouTube offers a bunch of features that are sometimes overlooked or under-utilized despite being quite helpful when sharing videos in your classroom. In this new video I demonstrate five of those features. 

Read on…

Videos have become extremely popular in the classroom. Here are a few of the many articles Ask a Tech Teacher has published on this topic:

• What is the best video editing software?
• Multimedia content personalizes learning
• 9 Good Collections of Videos for Education
• Videos: Why, How, Options
• Ways to use a movie for language teaching

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In 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: Speed up MSO with Quick Access Toolbar

Category: MS Office

Q: I tend to do the same actions over and over in MS Office. How do I make that easier?

A: This one will improve the quality of your life immediately.

First, you need Office 2007 or later. Earlier versions don’t include the Quick Access toolbar. Click the drop down arrow (see inset) for the most popular actions–new, open, save, print, etc. Select those you want on the Quick Access toolbar. Toward the bottom is a choice to have the QA toolbar above or below the ribbon. I choose below.

You can also customize it: If there are tools not included that you use frequently (for example, I use strike through a lot), select ‘customize’ and go find it in the endless list.

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Here are some Winter activities to share the joy of winter:

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

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Student success depends mightily on three pieces: student, teacher, parent. But there are times as teachers we wonder if we are communicating effectively with parents. Teaching Channel addresses this in this fascinating article:

10 Ways to Manage Difficult Families

Middle School Math Teacher, Kelly Ann Ydrovo recently completed Learners Edge continuing education Course 859: Parent Trap: Achieving Success with Difficult Parents & Difficult Situations and outlined her top 10 strategies for dealing with difficult family members and difficult situations. Check out her tips below to help you establish positive, constructive relationships with the family members of your students.

Read on

Here are articles from Ask a Tech Teacher that our readers have found useful:

8 Ways Parents and Teachers Support Remote Teaching

Teaching Basic Cybersecurity Measures To Everyday People (For Parents of Digital Natives)

Questions Parents Ask

How to Run a Parent Class

How Do Non-Techie Parents Handle the Increasing Focus of Technology in Education?

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When testing moved online, it became painfully apparent to teachers how little students knew about using digital devices other than the internet, some apps, and iPads. The focus on online learning, thanks to COVID, has made that even more critical. IT Pro has an interesting article discussing the importance of digital literacy:

Digital literacy is as important as reading and writing, Vodafone claims

A study from the company found that half of 18-24-year olds have limited access to a laptop, tablet or PC

Digital literacy is becoming as important as reading and writing for young people’s future life prospects, a new report from Vodafone has found.

Limited access to an internet-connected device, or a lack of skills to use one, is preventing those entering the job market from attending online lessons or exams, applying for jobs, and gaining the necessary digital skills for many of today’s roles.

Read on…

Ask a Tech Teacher has several articles on this topic that you’ll find interesting:

• How to Assess Digital Literacy
• Digital Literacy–What is it?
• Beyond Digital Literacy: How EdTech Fosters Children’s Social-Emotional Development
• 5 Strategies to Assess Student Knowledge

If you need guidance understanding how to make your students good digital citizens, check out my upcoming online class, Building Digital Citizens. It’s for college credit and starts next Monday!

@ITPro #digcit

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It used to surprise me that it became the school’s job to teach empathy. Shouldn’t parents do that? The truth is it doesn’t always happen in homes. Since children spend much of their daylight hours in school, it is a logical place to reinforce empathy as a life skill.

Edsurge has an interesting article, How to build empathy among students, that shares one teacher’s experiences:

Lessons in empathy often are taught with a focus on the individual, rather than the collective community, writes Ka’ua Adams, a ninth-grade English teacher at Kealakehe High School in Kona, Hawaii. In this commentary, Adams suggests strengthening these lessons by shifting individual activities to collective ones and focusing on care instead of skills.

Read on… (may require a free membership)

Ask a Tech Teacher has covered this topic often in the past. Here are some articles you might like:

• How to Put Kindness in Your Classes
• The Importance of SEL to Education Success
• Comics–an underused tool to boost SEL skills
• 9 Ways to Teach Tolerance

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