Tired of Paperwork? The Easiest Ways to Requisition School Supplies Online

Back-to-school season brings a long to-do list for educators and administrators. Between preparing classrooms, coordinating with staff and ensuring students have the resources they need, paperwork shouldn’t slow you down. The last thing you want is to spend hours navigating forms just to order basic supplies. Online school supply requisition systems offer a faster, more organized way to manage purchasing and free up time for what matters most.

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The Hidden Costs of Paper-Based Procurement

Many schools still depend on paper-based workflows or disconnected systems for ordering classroom supplies, and while these methods may feel familiar, they often create unnecessary holdups and frustration. The traditional procurement process involves multiple handoffs, manual signatures and physical forms that can easily get lost between departments.

Common challenges include tracking down missing approval forms and deciphering unclear handwriting on requisition sheets. Orders can sit for days or weeks waiting to move through the approval chain. Paper-based systems also make it difficult to maintain accurate budget records or ensure compliance with district purchasing policies. The result is wasted time and energy that could otherwise support student learning and engaging classroom environments. (more…)

10 Everyday Fun Moments That Teach Math Concepts Naturally

Your child tells you math is boring, or pointless, or asks when they’ll ever use it. You know that’s wrong, but with a worksheet on the table it’s hard to say why.

Math is the one subject that never announces itself. Language is how your child talks to friends, history is stories, art is on the wall. Math just looks like symbols on a page.

It’s actually the most applicable subject they study. In a late 2025 Education Week survey, top executives said the skills young workers most lack are complex problem-solving, adaptability, and making sense of complex information. All of that is math.

You don’t have to teach it, just point at it. Below are 10 everyday moments, each with a question to ask and the answer to expect, pitched at elementary and early middle school and tagged 2–4 or 5–7. (more…)

A lot of teacher-authors read both my Ask a Tech Teacher education blog and my writer’s blog, WordDreams. In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month: 

My last trilogy–Savage Land–dealt with a time 75,000 years ago when Neanderthals survived a natural disaster that should have wiped them off the planet. They found safe places around the planet, one of which was Gibraltar where Savage Land concentrates.

My next trilogy–In the Shadow of Giants–addresses their disappearance, when they became so few in number they could no longer sustain themselves as a species. Each book will deal with one way they attempted to cope with that inevitable end, when they were forced to find their future in the shadow of much more powerful human species. (more…)

The proliferation of tech tools and digital devices has dramatically changed how students prepare for testing. The Ask a Tech Teacher team looked into this hot topic with a focus on language exams. Here’s an overview:

How Technology Reshaped the Way Students Prepare for Language Exams

Any teacher who prepared students for a language proficiency exam a decade ago remembers the routine: a textbook, a stack of photocopied practice papers, a cassette or CD for the listening section, and very little way of knowing how a student was actually doing until the results arrived. The materials were fine. The feedback loop was terrible. What has changed since then is less about the exams themselves, which remain fairly stable, and more about the tools available for getting a student ready and for knowing whether it is working. (more…)

Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching.

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I love sharing the personal experiences of educators. We all do things differently, in good ways, providing lots of options for diversity among students who don’t get the first or second way we teach a lesson. Brandon Collis, electrical engineer turned private tutor, founder of ClassQuill (https://classquill.com) has ideas on tutoring using AI.

How to Teach Middle School Students to Spot Deepfakes

An artificial intelligence deepfake is a highly realistic image, video or audio that can depict people, places and events. Advances in AI have made these creations increasingly realistic, making it difficult to distinguish between authentic and manipulated content.

Even if middle school students have seen deepfakes, they may not understand the dangers these creations pose. Teachers are uniquely positioned to educate them about algorithmic manipulation and improve their AI media literacy. (more…)

For career changers, college students nearing graduation, and aspiring teachers drawn to meaningful work, the teaching profession can look like a clear way to make a difference. The hard part is that a career in education brings real tradeoffs alongside the rewards: daily responsibility for students, constant decision-making, and a role that doesn’t end when the school day does. Early choices, such as where to teach, what age group to serve, and how to shape long-term educational career paths, can open doors or create friction. Clarity on teaching motivation makes every next decision easier.

Jenny Wise, idea maker behind Special Home Educator and Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, can help with that:

Map Your Path From Degree to Teacher License

This process helps you go from “I want to teach” to a clear, workable route through education degree requirements, teacher certification requirements, and a realistic grade and subject focus. For general readers, it reduces guesswork and helps you avoid detours that cost time and money. (more…)

• Online sites to build a resume
• What to include in your resume
• Formatting tips
• Additional tips

Digital portfolio sites

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to place foot on the moon. Commemorate that this year with an exciting collection of websites and apps that take your students to the Moon (click for updates to the list):

1. Apollo 11: Countdown to Launch via Google Earth
2. Google Moon–see the Moon in 3D with your Google Earth app
3. How we are going to the Moon–video
4. If the Moon Were Only One Pixel…
5. JFK Challenge — takes kids to the Apollo 11
6. NASA’s Musical Playlist–88 million viewers of 188 songs
7. Moon Phase Simulation Viewed from Earth and Space (interactive, elementary and middle school)—and associated Lesson Plan
8. Observing the Moon in the Sky (interactive, elementary)
9. Moonrise to Moonset (media gallery, elementary)

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