From the Ask a Tech Teacher team: ideas on a student-run genius bar:

How to Help Students Run a Genius Bar

Modeled after Apple’s popular tech support stations, a Genius Bar in a school setting is a student-run help desk where peers provide tech support, advice on digital tools, and assistance with various tech-related issues. Teachers play a crucial role in guiding students to run this service effectively, ensuring it becomes a valuable resource for the entire school community.

By providing the necessary support and structure, teachers can help students develop leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills through the Genius Bar. (more…)

June is National Internet Safety Month, thanks to a resolution passed in 2005 by the U.S. Senate. The goal is to raise awareness about online safety for all, with a special focus on kids ranging from tots to teens.

Here’s a short list of internet cautions I got from an online efriend a few years ago. I reprint it every year because it covers all the basics, avoids boring details, and gives kids (and adults) rules to live by:

Not everything you read online is true

It used to be anything we read in print was true. We could trust newspapers, magazines and books as reliable sources of information. It’s not the same with the web. Since anyone can become published, some of the stuff you’re reading online isn’t true. Even worse, some people are just rewriting stuff they read from other people online, so you might be reading the same false information over and over again. Even Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a reliable source. If you’re researching something online, consider the source. Some poorly written, random web page, isn’t necessarily a good source. However, if you find a .gov or .org site, the information has a better chance of being true. Always look at who owns the website and whether or not they have an agenda before considering whether or not certain information is true.

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Creating animations for the web can be achieved using various tools, ranging from beginner to advanced, depending on your needs and expertise. Here are some webtools and tips to get you started:

Webtools

Beginner (more…)

It’s graduation time for High School seniors, that moment when they take over their own bills, budgets, and balancing income with outcomes. The Ask a Tech Teacher crew has some great times from Harley Wade on that subject:

Harley Wade from State of Writing created 7 Tips for Creating a Budget in High School

High school is the best time to start learning responsible financial management. If you get a grip on your financial literacy early, you will be able to handle your money more efficiently throughout your life. Financial literacy is defined as the ability to understand how to use financial tools, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. The following seven tips by Harley Wade from State of Writing will help high school students learn how to budget properly.

1. Understand Your Income Sources

The first step is figuring out how much money you’re bringing in. What does your parent(s) give you for allowance? How much money do you make from a job or a weekly babysitting or lawn mowing gig? Whenever you have a source of income, it’s good to know exactly how much you’re getting each month. This puts a strict limit on what you have to spend and what you realistically expect to save.

2. List Your Necessary Expenses

A famous Swedish proverb says, “He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself”. To avoid this scenario, list any and all of your regular expenses (phone bill, transportation, school fees, etc), separating wants from needs. Harley Wade from State of Writing suggests that you allocate some funds towards writing services for when you’re too tired or stressed by Googling “Who can write my coursework?”. This will help you find a budget-friendly writing service. Listing all your necessary expenses not only forces you to pay more attention to your priorities, but you’ll also notice where most of your money goes. It also forces you to be prepared for higher-than-normal expenses without your typical budget getting derailed.

3. Set Savings Goals

To get there, it’s essential to set goals about what you will want for yourself down the line. Here’s how you can do it:

4. Allow for Leisure Spending

There is nothing wrong with spending money on things you like! Set aside a portion of your money for entertainment and hobbies. This money can be for movies, games, or eating out with friends. Keeping money for leisure within a certain limit will ensure that you enjoy your money guilt-free rather than feeling like you are wasting it or that you are missing out on something.

5. Track Your Spending

Track everything. Here’s a simple guide on how to track your spending:

• Use a Budgeting App. Install a budgeting app on your phone to log expenses easily. Apps like Mint or YNAB automatically categorize your spending, making it easy to see where your money goes.

• Keep Receipts. Save receipts from purchases and log them weekly into a spreadsheet or notebook. This can help you remember cash transactions or small purchases that add up over time.

• Set Spending Alerts. Many banking apps allow you to set alerts for when you spend money. This can help you stay aware of your spending habits and avoid overspending.

• Review Bank Statements. Regularly check your bank statements to ensure all transactions are correct and to keep track of your spending patterns over time.

• Reflect Weekly. Set aside time each week to review what you’ve spent and compare it to your budget. Adjust your spending as needed to stay on track with your financial goals.

By consistently monitoring where your money goes, you can gain better control over your finances and make more informed decisions about your spending.

6. Review and Adjust Regularly

Plan your budget now, but leave it open for review. Every month, go back and look at your budget and ask yourself: would this budget still work for me right now? Maybe your side hustle gave you a raise. Maybe it wasn’t realistic to budget $25 per week for dinner out with friends. Maybe rent money was more flexible than expected. Regular reviews allow you to tweak your savings and spending to adapt to change.

7. Learn from Mistakes

If you go over your budget, know that you’re not alone – statistics show that over 80% of Americans exceed their monthly budget. We all blow budgets from time to time – maybe we went over our food budget last month because our cousin visited and we felt like treating her, or we didn’t manage to transfer any money into our savings account because we got caught up with something else. Rather than beating yourself up, use these as learning experiences. Work out what you did and why you did it, and try not to do it again in the future. This can make your budgeting skills a lot stronger in the long run.

Building Financial Confidence

Juggling a budget and sticking to it in high school isn’t just about the money, it is also about helping develop the confidence to become more independent. The seven tips will help you fully engage in the present while paving the road to a secure financial future. Budgeting isn’t easy, but you can move towards your financial goals one smart decision at a time.

Author: Philip Richardson

Philip is an article writer and a financial advisor. He loves sharing tips on how people can budget and manage their money. His goal is to help his readers achieve financial literacy.

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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.

Effective time management will not only lead to success in achieving your goals, but also help you maintain your mental well-being. So, let’s learn more about it from the Ask a Tech Teacher team. Some of these tips you may already know, but others–never a bad time to save time. 

10 Tips of Mastering Time Management as a Student

Introduction

Finding a proper balance between extracurricular activities, academics, social life, and personal interests can feel overwhelming.

And as human beings, most of us always want to make space for our loved ones too. However, unfortunately, we usually can’t achieve this because of not having enough time or not organizing our schedules properly. This is why effective time management is crucial for students.

It will not only lead to success and happiness in achieving your goals, but also help you maintain your mental well-being. So, let’s learn more about it. (more…)

Summer is a great time to reset your personal pedagogy to an education-friendly mindset and catch up on what’s been changing in the ed world while you were teaching eight ten hours a day. My Twitter friends gave me great suggestions, but first:

A comment on the selections: I did get more suggestions than I could possibly list so I avoided books that involved politics or hot-button subjects that teachers are divided on and focused on positive and uplifting reading. Yes, there is a lot wrong with education around the world but I wanted a selection of books that would send me — and you —  back to teaching in the fall with a can-do attitude for how to accomplish miracles with your next class of students.

Having said that, here’s a granular list of teacher-approved books to keep you busy this summer:

Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times

by Eric C. Sheninger

Digital Leadership defines a strategic mindset and set of behaviors that leverage resources to create a meaningful, transparent, and engaging school culture. It takes into account recent changes such as connectivity, open-source technology, mobile devices, and personalization of learning to dramatically shift how schools have been run for over a century.

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

by Clayton M. Christensen

Selected as one of Business Week’s Best Books on Innovation in 2008, Disrupting Class remains a worthy read. It is filled with fascinating case studies, scientific findings, and insights into how managed innovation can unleash education. Disrupting Class will open your eyes to new possibilities and evolve your thinking. For more detail, read my review, Disrupting Class.

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I’m taking Memorial Day to honor our soldiers. Hang the American flag and call my two soldier children. Say hi, how are you. When are you coming home to visit? (more…)

AI has the potential to revolutionize education for better or worse–jury’s still out on that. No one denies it can make student testing more efficient, faster, possibly leading to better educational outcomes for all learners. Key positives:

1. Tailor personalized learning paths
2. Adapt testing to challenge students at their appropriate level of knowledge 
3. Provide instant feedback
4. Reduce bias
5. Analyze data quickly to find learning patterns and trends.
6. Identify plagiarism or cheating

But there are drawbacks educators must watch for and may take time to resolve. Check out these concerns:

1. Bias and fairness
2. Privacy and data security
3. Reliability and accuracy
4. Dependency on technology
5. Digital divide
6. Loss of human connection
7. Ethical considerations

Here’s a good article from The Hechinger Report that offers an overview of current thinking on how AI is likely to reshape student testing options:

AI has potential to upend student testing

As AI advances, student testing could become highly personalized and dynamic, offering scenarios like empathetic avatar interactions and adaptive questions. While experts acknowledge risks such as bias and access disparities, they foresee AI-driven assessments reshaping education by tailoring tests to individual needs and promoting deeper learning. (more…)

Would you like innovative tech apps, DIY classroom materials, and budget-friendly solutions that save time and cut costs? Here are three from the Ask a Tech Teacher team:

3 Creative Teaching Resources That Save You Time and Money

Educators are increasingly expected to do more with less – ensuring that the next generation gets the quality of teaching they deserve while keeping budgets in check and making up for shortfalls in classroom resource availability.

This less-than-ideal scenario can be dealt with successfully if you’re savvy about how you approach it – so here are a few creative ways to reduce costs, free up more of your time, and still do your best for the youngsters you’re responsible for schooling. (more…)