Author: Jacqui

Can a high school freshman be goal-oriented?  Should they—or is this too early?  Though many deliberate, no one yet has invented a time machine to unring the proverbial bell. And high school requires the ringing of many academic, social and economic bells. Many future-shaping decisions become final based on these four years.

Zoe, like your sons and daughters, is thinking about which college she wants to attend. Some value just academics, and others academics and sports/fine arts/community service/a passionate involvement in something. Often contradictory, choices must be made early in the high school regarding ambitions, focus, and intents.

‘No goals’ means decisions are made for you. If you don’t commit yourself to “do” high school (work hard, take challenging classes, never never never give up even one extra-credit point on a test), then you have made a choice. It’s passive, but effective. Each time you make the decision to skip studying for one test, or make the decision to not put the extra time into one project, you shorten the height of your grasp on the future.  Too many compromises, and goals become dreams for someone ‘luckier’ than you.

To paraphrase Dylan Thomas: Never go gently into that good night. Rage against any grasp-shortening decision, any course of action that leads away from your dreams, or any choice that compromises your ability to accomplish. My daughter is trying to make a habit of completing tasks, not making excuses for inaction. It’s hard the summer before high school, but she’s trying.

Without a plan, you will be forced to react to circumstances, rather than act aggressively and passionately in your best interests. Never a good plan when you’re talking about eternity. No one cares about your future as much as you do.

And if she does care, if she takes those first and second and third steps toward being the captain of her ship, he has empowered her future.

–image credit Deposit Photos

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“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 is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy as well as the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. She is an Amazon Vine Voice reviewer, has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years, 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 and a Master Teacher. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my writer’s blog, WordDreams:

No one disagrees with the importance of the visual in communicating. The problem usually is creating it. Most teachers aren’t adept at matching colors, picking fonts and font sizes, and then laying everything out artistically. It’s much easier to use text with a few pictures tossed in and leave the artistry for the art teacher. When Microsoft Publisher came out a lifetime ago, it was the first major desktop publishing effort to blend layout, colors, and multimedia that was accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, it was (and continues to be) an expensive piece of software not traditionally included in Microsoft’s Office Suite (though that changed with Office 365). That meant MS Publisher skills learned at school were rarely transferrable to a home environment.

Canva changes that. It’s web-based (including apps available for iPads and Chromebooks) with a drag-and-drop functionality that makes the design process simple and intuitive. You can create professional presentations, posters, multi-page documents, marketing materials, social media graphics, and more using Canva’s more than 1 million photos, icons, and layouts, each with colors and fonts coordinated into attractive schema easily accessed by both beginners and reluctant designers. There’s no cost for basic (a yearly cost for premium) to use the thousands of free illustrations and images in the Canva library or uploading your own. For a small fee (usually $1.00), more than one million professional stock images and graphics can be used on a pay-per-use basis (most free with premium). (more…)

Teach Speaking and Listening Skills with Student Presentations

This video is from a series I taught for school districts. It is now available for free to Ask a Tech Teacher subscribers:

Summary

This video discusses using student presentations to enhance speaking and listening skills, aligning with Common Core standards. (more…)

Education has changed. No longer is it contained within four classroom walls or the physical site of a school building. Students aren’t confined by the eight hours between school bells or the struggling budget of an underfunded program. Now, education can be found anywhere — teaming up with students in Kenya, Skyping with an author in Sweden, or chatting with an astrophysicist on the International Space Station. Students can use Google Earth to take a virtual tour of a zoo or a blog to collaborate on class research. Learning has no temporal or geographic borders and is available wherever students and teachers find an Internet connection. This vast landscape of resources is offered digitally, often free, but to take that cerebral trek through the online world, children must know how to do it safely, securely, and responsibly. This used to mean limiting access to the Internet, blocking websites, and layering rules upon rules hoping (vainly) to discourage students from using an infinite and fascinating resource. It didn’t work. Best practices now suggest that instead of cocooning students, we teach them to be good digital citizens, confident and competent. Here are eleven projects to teach kids authentically, blended with your regular lessons, the often complicated topic of becoming good digital citizens, knowledgeable about their responsibilities in an Internet world. (more…)

Ask a Tech Teacher has a passel of online resources to help you introduce, teach, and reinforce digital citizenship to your students. Here’s our long list–and click here for updates if you arrive at this page late: (more…)

Digital Citizenship Week — October 14–18, 2024

You can get a lot of great ideas from Common Sense Education on their Digital Citizenship Week page:

• Digital Citizenship Week calendars, with fun activities and suggested lessons for each day
• AI literacy resources, like AI foundations course for educators, and AI literacy lesson collection for students
• Webinars and events to help build your teaching practice and implement digital citizenship in your classroom
• Family engagement resources to share in your community

Here at Ask a Tech Teacher, we invite you to watch a great video (40 minutes) we use in training, available for free today to Ask a Tech Teacher readers–

Digital Citizenship: What to Teach When

Summary

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Here are popular online resources to teach about using games in education (click here for updates to the list):

1. Battleship on Google Sheets
2. Breakouts by BreakoutEdu.com — a bit like Webquests but more comprehensive
3. Breakout Room Template
4. Game Show Templates–Frazzle, Jeopardy, Family Feud, Price is Right, more
5. Gamified Syllabus–a template to create games
6. A Google A Day

Economics and Finance

1. BizKids–games to teach business and finance

History

1. Beat the Bard–using Shakespearean characters
2. Classtools History Timeline Game–read here for directions
3. Oregon Trail–a browser-based edition
4. Digital Breakouts–review or assessment in a gamelike format; includes mostly history, but other topics; high school

Math

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Here are resources to help you teach about letters (click here for updates to list):

1. Alphabetimals–learn the alphabet with animal sounds
2. Find the letter–easy, medium, hard
3. Hands on Learning--20 letter websites
4. Learn Letters with Max (video)
5. Owl and Mouse Learn Letters
6. Starfall Letters

Copyright ©2024 askatechteacher.com – All rights reserved.

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, webmaster for four blogs, 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.

Warm-ups

This video is from a series I taught for school districts. It is now available for free, here on Ask a Tech Teacher:

–summarized by NoteGPT

Highlights

• 🖥️ Engaging with technology enhances student learning and excitement.
• 📅 Class warm-ups help transition students into learning mode efficiently.
• ⏱️ Student independence during warm-ups allows teachers to manage other tasks.
• 🎨 Utilizing tools like Smore for creating engaging class materials.
• 📚 Presentation boards encourage student collaboration and sharing.
• 💻 Blogging fosters communication and feedback among classmates.
• 🔄 Responsive classroom activities can be adapted for technology use.

Key Insights

• 🧑‍🏫 Technology Integration: Effectively using technology in education not only captivates students but also promotes a deeper understanding of the material. Encouraging tech-related engagement can transform traditional lessons into interactive experiences.
• 🎯 Purposeful Warm-Ups: Implementing structured class warm-ups minimizes downtime and maximizes learning. These activities set the tone for the lesson and help students focus as they transition into the learning environment.
• 🤝 Student Empowerment: Allowing students to take charge of their warm-up activities fosters independence. This approach not only builds responsibility but also encourages them to become active participants in their learning journey.
• 📊 Creative Teaching Tools: Utilizing platforms like Smore helps educators design visually appealing and informative materials that enhance communication with students and parents, making learning more accessible.
• 👥 Collaborative Learning: Activities such as presentation boards and blogging promote peer-to-peer learning. This collaboration strengthens their understanding and retention of the material while building a supportive classroom community.
• 🔄 Feedback Mechanisms: Incorporating blog comments or discussion forum posts enables meaningful interaction. This feedback loop enhances the learning process and encourages critical thinking among students.
• 🏫 Responsive Classroom Strategies: Integrating responsive classroom techniques with technology can create an inclusive and engaging learning environment. These strategies help maintain student interest and facilitate smooth transitions during lessons.

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