January marks Braille Literacy Month (January 4th is Braille Day) and a remarkable milestone: 200 years since Louis Braille developed his revolutionary code that continues to impact lives today. In 1824, at just 15 years old, Louis Braille created a tactile code that would open new worlds of literacy and learning.

Braille uses 63 combinations of raised dots to represent letters, numbers, punctuation, and contractions. Each cell has two columns of three dots. The left column is numbered 1, 2, 3 from top to bottom, and the right column is numbered 4, 5, 6. Each dot has a unique number.

Braille literacy websites (click for updated list of special needs websites for the vision challenged):

1. HumanWare–various writing/reading tools for the blind
2. JAWS
3. National Library Service for the Blind–free, from the Library of Congress
4. Natural reader–paste text into the dialogue box and the site reads it to you
5. Panopreter–text-to-speech
6. Snap n Read–select text and click speaker icon on the toolbar.

–image credit DepositPhotos

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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“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.”

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, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

As children return to educational pursuits from the holidays, it’s a perfect time to reinforce routines that make learning fun and easy. The Ask a Tech Teacher crew has ideas on how to make this manageable and enjoyable for students and those who teach them:

How to Create a Balanced Learning Schedule for Kids

Creating a balanced learning schedule for kids is one of the most meaningful ways to support their growth, confidence, and curiosity. A well-planned routine helps children feel secure while allowing them enough flexibility to explore interests, rest their minds, and enjoy family time. Balance does not mean filling every hour with lessons. It means shaping a day that respects a child’s energy, attention span, and need for variety. When learning feels organized yet flexible, children are more likely to stay engaged and develop positive learning habits that last.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

A thoughtful schedule also reduces stress for parents and caregivers. Instead of reacting to each day as it comes, you can guide learning with purpose. The goal is not perfection but consistency, clarity, and room for adjustment as your child grows and changes. (more…)

Also on January 1st: It’s Public Domain Day! This is an observance of when copyrights expire and works enter into the public domain–free for all to use. According to Public Domain Review, here are some of the newly available artistic works you might like a/o January 1, 2026:

The picture above is interactive on the website. If you click it, you enter Public Domain Review’s website and can then explore each of these new sources of inspiration, free to use.

A few recently released that caught my attention: (more…)

–image credit Deposit Photo

I’ll be taking a few weeks off to edit/format my website, work on projects with a deadline, prioritize life, and wish my two adult military children could come home to visit. I may drop in on you-all as you enjoy holidays, but mostly I’ll be regenerating.

I wish you a wonderful season, safe and filled with family.

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KidzType is a free comprehensive approach to learning keyboarding. The ad- and distraction-free interface provides not only practice drills but quick links to grade-appropriate keyboarding games (including the popular ones from DanceMat Typing). It’s easy to get started and just as easy to use making it the perfect tool for busy teachers and students who have lots to do besides keyboarding.

But in the crowded field of online keyboarding, KidzType will become your favorite for one other simple reason: It multitasks. It has tons of wordlists for many subjects so students learn while practicing keyboarding. For example, if you’re working on geography, students can keyboard with the Geography word list or Marzano Science. If you’re studying literacy, use wordlists for Dolch/Fry/Sight words, Compound Words, or Phrases. Activities present as a timed test (between one and five minutes) that are selected by grade and topic. When completed, students get a certificate that can be printed or simply saved in their personal file.

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Here’s the outline for a seminar I teach in schools before the holiday break, to excite teachers about what they can accomplish “the second half” of the school year. Because it’s about the mental side of teaching, you may find similarities to last year’s post:

Every year, I make New Year resolutions and ignore them. I don’t promise to fulfill them. I don’t even check my progress and revise as needed. I make-and-forget, check it off the New Year’s To Do list and move on.

This year, like last year, I’m making resolutions that aren’t quantified, that won’t take extra time from my too-busy schedule, resolutions about my teaching mindset. Here’s my list:

I will learn one new tech tool a month

There are so many. I get massive lists of webtools, websites, apps, extensions, and links in my inbox, mostly proclaimed as “the tool I can’t do without”. Every month, I’ll pick one and try it.

Just to be clear: Today’s tech ed tools aren’t like they used to be. The ones I’m interested in are easy-to-use, intuitive, easily differentiated for varied student needs, and free or inexpensive. Anything that requires a time commitment to learn and buckets of creativity to use is off the list. My schedule is too packed for that sort of commitment. And, I’ll unpack them with the students, authentically, as part of a project we do.

To get me started, add a comment with your favorite tool — the one I should start in January.

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Ask a Tech Teacher is a small group of tech-ed teachers with a big goal: provide free and affordable resources and insight to anyone, anywhere on how to integrate technology into education. It’s an ambitious goal and we rely on donations from readers like you to make that happen.

About this time of each year, when several of our larger bills come due, we give a shout out for help. This year, we thought we’d share some of the costs of running Ask a Tech Teacher:

• Site hosting–we use GoDaddy–an excellent company that keeps the site up and running over 99% of the time.
• Domain name hosting--for that, we also use GoDaddy. They always take my calls, walk us through how to fix problems in terms we understand. we’re teachers, not network geeks, but they don’t hold that against us.
• Legal images–to avoid problems with illegal images, we buy ours through a service.
• Constant and chronic techie problems–such as IPNs and plug-in updates and so much more. Again, we’re teachers. This double geek stuff makes our heads hurt. We have a monthly maintenance service for that who can solve 99% of the problems we face.
• Plan B–problem solvers for techie stuff beyond the monthly stuff, including hardware issues
• The geeky tools and programs that deliver content–like the apps we review and the programs we use for webinars.

We could sell ads (like Google does), but clutter on the pages distracts readers from why they arrive at our destination–to search out resources for your classroom. We rely on donations. Any amount you can contribute–$5… $10… using the PayPal Donate button below or in the sidebar, would be appreciated.

BTW, we love sponsors!  If you’re an edtech company interested in helping spread Ask a Tech Teacher resources to everyone, contact us at askatechteacher@gmail.com. We can add you to the sidebar, review your product, or another sponsor sort of activity.

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Need a few websites to fill in free minutes? Here are holiday websites that will keep students busy while teaching them (click for updates to list):

1. 12 Days of Christmas
2. Christmas Celebrations Across the World (video)
3. Christmas puzzles and games
4. Christmas—history—fun video
5. Christmas Traditions Around the World (video)
6. Gift Hunt–updated version of 12 Days of Christmas–just as much fun
7. Holiday Crossword
8. Holiday Elf Games
9. Holiday—Math Facts
10. Holiday—North Pole Academy
11. Phone call from Santa
12. Santa Tracker

(more…)