Author: Jacqui

There are great reasons to use online videos to learn math:

• Visual Learning: for many, this makes complex topics easier to understand 
• Flexibility: access content at their own pace 
• Engagement: engaging and interactive
• Review and Replay: revisit specific sections of a video as many times as needed to reinforce understanding.
• Supplementary Learning: complement traditional learning

Here are ten online resources for teaching math that I think you’ll like (for updates to this list, click here): (more…)

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

1. Top Ten Articles, Tips, and Reviews for 2023
2. Tech Tip #8–Print a selection off a webpage
3. Free MLK Lesson Plans
4. Tons of Online Resources About Classroom Management
5. Implementing Mindfulness Practices in Schools
6. 13 Websites to Learn Everything About Landforms
7. National Handwriting Day
8. 5 Internet Safety Tips for Teachers
9. What Happens When Technology Fails? 3 Work-Arounds
10. A Holiday Memory in Word or KidPix

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up:

1. Online resources about puzzles
2. Online video resources for math
3. How to check your math in a spreadsheet
4. Tech Tip: My keyboard doesn’t work
5. 100th Day of School
6. 16 Tech Problems every 5th grader can solve
7. Engineering Week
8. Online graphic resources
9. 13 tips to solve unusual problems
10. Dr. Seuss–Techie style

–image credit to Deposit Photo (more…)

National Puzzle Day is celebrated on January 29th each year. It’s a day dedicated to enjoying and solving puzzles of all kinds, including jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, Sudoku, and various other brain teasers. Puzzle enthusiasts often use this day to engage in their favorite puzzle-solving activities and share their passion with others. Whether it’s a solo endeavor or a group activity, National Puzzle Day encourages people to exercise their minds and have fun with the challenges that puzzles present. If you have any specific questions or if there’s anything else you’d like to know about National Puzzle Day, feel free to ask!

Puzzles are also a great way to practice keyboarding skills like drag-drop, click, and select.

Here are popular puzzles resources teachers are using to teach mouse skills, critical thinking, and more (for updates on this Puzzles list, click here): (more…)

In these 169 tech situations, you get practical strategies to address many classroom tech situations.

Today’s tip: Fix computer with system restore

Category: Problem-solving

Q:  My computer no longer runs right. I downloaded the auto-updates to my PC and it hasn’t worked right since. What do I do?

System Restore is a recovery tool for Windows that allows you to reverse certain kinds of changes made to the operating system. One way to think of it is as an “undo” feature for the most important parts of Windows.

Here’s how you use it:

• Type ‘system restore’ into the search bar at the bottom of the start menu.
• Select ‘system restore’ from the list.
• Follow the directions.

Note: The system restores to a point you created earlier so you have to have done that. If you need help with this concept, here’s a longish YT that covers it in depth: (more…)

National Handwriting Day is celebrated on January 23rd each year. It is a day dedicated to promoting the importance of handwriting and encouraging people to embrace the art of writing by hand. This day was established to honor the birthday of John Hancock, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, known for his prominent and stylish signature on the Declaration of Independence. Handwriting is considered a personal and unique form of expression, and National Handwriting Day aims to celebrate and preserve this traditional skill.

Articles on handwriting from Ask a Tech Teacher:

Check these out:

When is Typing Faster Than Handwriting?

Is Handwriting So Last Generation

Is Handwriting So Last Generation–Redux

How to Create a Handwriting Workbook to Help Improve Penmanship

Handwriting vs. Keyboarding–from a Student’s Perspective

When is Typing Faster Than Handwriting? (more…)

If your third grader has to write a report about landforms, try these websites:

1. Continents explained (with humor)
2. Explore the Colorado
3. Geography Games
4. Geography Quiz Game
5. Geologic movies–great and fun
6. Landforms—matching games, etc.
7. Mapping Game
8. Rainforest life—people, etc.
9. Rainforest tree house—virtual game
10. Rainforest—Enchanted Learning
11. Rainforests
12. The Colorado River
13. Virtual tour–undersea  

If any of these website links don’t work, please click here for an update. (more…)

In honor of Martin Luther King:

MLK Day in the US is the third Monday of January, this year, January 15, 2024.

Ask a Tech Teacher’s 19-page two-lesson plan bundle to teach about Martin Luther King (click for more information) is

66% off January 12, 2024 through Jan. 15, 2024.

Lesson plans include:

• • • • an Event Chain of Dr. King’s impact on American history (adaptable to other historical events)
      • interpreting his words with a visual organizer

(more…)

In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from my writer’s blog, WordDreams. Why? Because a lot of teachers are also authors. This one is from a while ago, but it’s about dogs. If you love these critters the way I do, you understand:

Today, Thomas Wikman,  proud owner of a Leonberger named Bronco, author of the definitive book on this breed, The Life and Times of Le Bronco, and I, soulmate to my fictional Canis-dog Ump, sometimes star of the Dawn of Humanity trilogy, will compare stories about our massive dogs. Despite that Ump passed on about 2 million years ago and Bronco more recently, the two huge furballs have gotten to know each other over the mythical Rainbow Bridge, the passage that carries pets to their Life Ever After. Though Ump is more wolf than domesticated dog (akin to the extinct Borophagus) and Bronco is a Leonberger, one of the largest dog breeds in the world, the two have a lot in common.

Here are the questions Thomas and I will answer:

1. Quick one-sentence intro to our dog friend
2. Tell about life with a large dog
3. How do they hunt?

I’m taking the first three. You’ll have to click through to Thomas’ blog for the last two! I do have a wonderful large dog named Casey…

but for the purposes of this blog, I’m focusing on the proto-wolf Ump (to the right below) who stars in my latest trilogy, Dawn of Humanity while Thomas is sharing his wonderful Leonberger, Bronco (on the left below). Here they are together;

One-sentence intro to our dogs

Ump: Ump is about 150 pounds, the feralness of his proto-wolf genetics blended perfectly with the loyalty of an animal who understands the human who saved his life. She is now Alpha and her tribe, Pack. Nuff said.

Bronco: A Leonberger, which is a very large rare working dog and companion dog originating from Germany. For a Leonberger, he lived an unusually long life.

Describe life with a large dog

Ump: Large is critical in the feral world of our ancestors. Lucy (the 1.8 myo female star of Ump’s trilogy, Dawn of Humanity) doesn’t view Ump as a pet, but as a tribe member responsible for hunting and protection, just like any other tribe member. In Lucy’s view, there is no difference.

Bronco: Leonbergers are very large dogs. A male Leonberger weighs between 120-170lbs. They are also very athletic and strong, and they are considered to be great carting dogs. Their pull is very large, in my estimate 2-3 times that of a German Shepherd. Therefore, they need to be well behaved and the person handling them need to be physically fit. When they stand on their back legs their paws can reach the shoulders of an average sized adult. That combined with their weight makes it important that they don’t jump up on people, which unfortunately Leonbergers love to do, just to be friendly.

They are intelligent enough to open cabinet doors, and their powerful jaws, reach and strength enables them to destroy furniture, doors, and wedding albums. If you can reach something in the kitchen, so can they, making them expert counter surfers. Therefore, training and taking precautions for their size are essential. They need a lot of space so if you live in an apartment a Leonberger may not be a good choice.

How do Ump and Bronco hunt?

Ump: Ump considers Lucy’s tribe his pack so he hunts exactly as he would if traveling with his proto-wolves. They hunt in a group, sniff out clues, communicate with each other with huffs and yips, and instinctively know who protects and who attacks. Because of Ump’s speed, developed senses of smell and hearing, tearing claws and teeth, he is a valuable addition to Lucy’s tribe.

Bronco: Bronco loved chasing rabbits and he wanted to chase cats and coyotes. However, we wouldn’t let him. It is too dangerous to have a 140lbs muscular dog running lose in the neighborhood. He was able to chase rabbits once when he got lose. He was fast but not as fast as the rabbit. What he was good at was sniffing out rodents, like hamsters. Leonbergers have a very good sense of smell. On a few occasions he sniffed out the location of our runaway hamsters. Bronco’s hamster rescue operations gave us some amazing tales to tell.

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

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Copyright ©2024 worddreams.wordpress.com – All rights reserved.

“The content presented in this blog is the result of my 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.”

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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.

–photo credit Deposit Photos

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: Print a selection off a Webpage

Category: Printing

Q: I only want to print part of the webpage, not the entire thing. How do I quickly print just a selection?

A: Another reason for printing only part of a page is that you might want to save paper. To print a portion of a page:

• highlight the desired text
• press Ctrl+P
• in the Print dialog box: in Print Range (or similar), click Selection, then OK

Now, only the selected portion of the Web page will print.

You can also print only the text, leaving out the ads etc. Compare the first inset below to the second, printed through a browser extension called Readability:

One final option: If you’re using software (like MS Word), you can use a variety of screenshot programs to grab just a piece of your page. Check Tech Tip #116 in 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom. for more on this.

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

(more…)

January 8th-11th

the 53-page PDF, “25 Digital Tools for the Classroom”

for free!

“25 Digital Tools for the Classroom” is a thorough discussion on which are the most useful tools in a K-8 classroom. This includes popular digital tools such as blogs, backchannel devices, vocabulary decoding tools, avatars, digital portfolios, digital notetaking, as well as others you may not have thought of. Here’s what you do:

• Sign up for our newsletter, Weekly Websites, Tech Tips, and Tech Ed News. If you already subscribe, qualify by purchasing one of our resources on the Structured Learning website. Any product, any price qualifies.
• Email us the welcome message or receipt you receive (we’re at askatechteacher at gmail dot com). Make the subject line read, “Please send free ’25 Digital Tools for the Classroom'”.
• We’ll send you the collection.
• If the newsletter doesn’t work for you, there’s an ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of each email.

(more…)