As a tech educator, it’s difficult to find a substitute teacher. Even if the sub is knowledgeable in the subject matter, s/he doesn’t have intimate knowledge of what this particular student group knows about software, websites, or problem solving which can be scaffolded for the current lesson. Nor does she know the level of independence and self-direction to expect during class. When I started teaching tech, my generic sub lesson plan looked like this:

• practice keyboarding for fifteen minutes
• visit inquiry-themed websites

That was fine–don’t get me wrong; it promotes student learning while avoiding a meltdown by the teacher–but I now have better options that keep momentum going while I am away for PD or recovering from an unexpected illness. These stand-alone lesson plans are designed to complete important techie learning tasks, assess existing knowledge, or integrate technology rigor into class inquiry. They require little domain-specific knowledge, asking primarily that the sub supervise activities and encourage critical thinking, problem solving, and transfer of knowledge on the part of students: (more…)

It’s hard to run an inquiry-based classroom. Don’t go into this teaching style thinking all you do is ask questions and observe answers. You have to listen with all of your senses, pause and respond to what you heard (not what you wanted to hear), keep your eye on the Big Ideas while stepping in when needed, aside when required. You aren’t a Teacher, rather a guide. You and the class find your way from question to knowledge together.

Because everyone learns differently.

You don’t use a textbook. Sure, it’s a map, showing how to get from here to there, but that’s the problem. It dictates how to get ‘there’. For an inquiry-based classroom, you may know where you’re going, but not quite how you’ll get there and that’s a good thing. You are no longer your mother’s teacher who stood in front of rows of students and pointed to the blackboard. You operate well outside your teaching comfort zone as you try out the flipped classroom and the gamification of education and are thrilled with the results.

And then there’s the issue of assessment. What your students have accomplished can’t neatly be summed up by a multiple choice test. When you review what you thought would assess learning (back when you designed the unit), none measure the organic conversations the class had about deep subjects, the risk-taking they engaged in to arrive at answers, the authentic knowledge transfer that popped up independently of your class time. You realize you must open your mind to learning that occurred that you never taught–never saw coming in the weeks you stood amongst your students guiding their education.

Let me digress. I visited the Soviet Union (back when it was a nation) and dropped in on a classroom where students were inculcated with how things must be done. It was a polite, respectful, ordered experience, but without cerebral energy, replete of enthusiasm for the joy of learning, and lacking the wow factor of students independently figuring out how to do something. Seeing the end of that powerful nation, I arrived at different conclusions than the politicians and the economists. I saw a nation starved for creativity. Without that ethereal trait, learning didn’t transfer. Without transfer, life required increasingly more scaffolding and prompting until it collapsed in on itself like a hollowed out orange.

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In an era when students spend hours each day staring at glowing screens, the simple act of making something with their hands offers a powerful antidote to digital overload. Hands-on crafts provide a restorative, screen-free break that reduces stress, sharpens focus, and reawakens creativity by engaging the senses in ways no device can match. Looking for the why and how? Ask a Tech Teacher has both for you. Read on:

Why Hands-On Crafts Are the Ultimate Screen-Free Break for Students

Take a quick look at any student’s desk today. You will almost certainly spot a screen—or three. Between school-issued Chromebooks, research tabs, online portals, and digital textbooks, screens have completely taken over learning. Edtech has brought plenty of perks, sure. But let’s be real: staring at a flat sheet of glowing glass for six hours straight is downright exhausting.

By the time study time rolls around, eyes are dry, shoulders are hunched, and brains feel completely fried. And what’s the go-to move when it’s finally time for a break? Most students pick up a phone, open TikTok or YouTube, or jump straight into a video game.

It feels like taking a breather, but here’s the problem: your brain isn’t actually getting a rest.

To feel genuinely refreshed, students need a break that switches gears entirely. That is where basic, hands-on crafting comes in. Stepping away to make something real with your hands isn’t just a fun pastime—it’s the single best way to clear out the mental cobwebs and reset your focus. (more…)

This is an update to a popular article from last year, to prepare you for the new school year. I think you’ll find it an interesting alternative to traditional teaching strategies:

It’s no secret many parents are frustrated with public schools. Are kids learning to think or just to pass tests? Are they spending classroom time wisely or just doing what’s always been done? Are we developing lifelong learners or simply kids who can’t wait to graduate?

If this describes you, you’re not alone in your concerns, but there’s hope. Consider a pedagogy that transcends rote memorization and the stock drills often found in today’s classrooms, one that expects critical thinking and teaches how to learn anything — not just school subjects. It’s called a “Growth Mindset”. In a 2016 Edsurge article by Rupa Gupta, former Redesign Administrator at Burnett Middle School in San Jose, Calif., she summarized the issue like this:

“In a recent national survey, 97 percent of teachers agreed that all students can and should have a growth mindset, and that same number said fostering a growth mindset is an important part of a teacher’s job. Yet only 50 percent said they have adequate solutions and strategies to shift mindset.”

So nearly everyone agrees this type of cerebral approach is important to real learning but few know how to make it happen.

Fast forward ten years. Here’s an article from Stanford discussing why it works and why you should try it. Their summation :

“Research has shown that when students have a growth mindset, they are more likely to challenge themselves, believe that they can achieve more, and become stronger, more resilient and creative problem solvers. Educators can have an enormous impact on the mindset of their students.”

Let’s review the basics:

What is Growth Mindset?

Let me back up a moment and define “Growth Mindset” more clearly. Most people believe basic human qualities like intelligence and talent are fixed traits: nature supersedes nurture. Kids are born with the characteristics that will mold their future. They are good at math or they aren’t. They can throw a football well or not. As kids grow, they figure out what they can and can’t do and adjust learning and life as needed to these truths. They come to believe that understanding and adapting to this process equates to success.

In a Growth Mindset, people believe ability can be developed through dedication and hard work. The cerebral and physical traits they were born with are just the starting point. Students are responsible for setting the patterns and strategies that allow them to succeed, by evaluating what they can do at any given point and making a plan for learning everything else.

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I first ran into Behaviorism in child psychology classes I took for my Early Childhood Education credential (ECE). It was developed by a renowned psychologist named John B. Watson and formed into the Theory of Behaviorism by another famous psychologist, B.F. Skinner. The technical definition they provide is:

“…scientific and objective methods of investigation concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviors; all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment.”

They used the infamous example of Pavlov’s Dogs. No surprise, with this gobbledegook definition that used dog training as the example, I laughed, rejected it, and forgot it.

Fast forward a decade, to a time I was studying for my teaching credential. One of my classes reviewed education pedagogies such as Purpose-driven Learning, the Socratic Method, Depth of Knowledge, Unschooling, and Behaviorism. Applied to education, Behaviorism focuses on:

“… conditioning student behavior with various types of reinforcements and consequences…”

I still cringe at words like “conditioning” and “consequences”, but in the fullness of the class, I came to understand that whether teachers know it or not, they use Behaviorism as an effective, reliable teaching tool. I’ll get back to that later but first, I want to deconstruct how a theory that started with training dogs is now a cornerstone in education pedagogy.

Note: I have posted about this before. If it sounds familiar, that’s why.

What is Behaviorism in Education?

Behaviorism in the classroom revolves around observable measurable behaviors. This is actions, not thoughts or feelings. Since its introduction to education in the 1950’s, it has become a teacher’s best friend in helping her/him to define classroom behaviors that shape order and enhance learning. It establishes boundaries for students, provides expectations that they can rely on, and offers a reliable way to self-assess student achievement of class goals:

According to Skinner, behavior is a learned response reinforced by the consequences resulting from that behavior. For instance, if students are rewarded for doing extra work, they’re more likely to repeat that behavior.

It accomplishes much of what B.F. Skinner predicted when he suggested it as an effective methodology for revolutionizing an education system that didn’t seem to work anymore. It has become popular in education theory by other names such as PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) and through the use of apps like Too Noisy or Hero K12.

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Why use Behaviorism Strategies in Teaching?

The short answer is, for many, Behaviorism works. Because of its clear guidelines and easy-to-understand cause-and-effect relationships, it improves student performance and discourages classroom behavior that interferes with education goals. It manages to quantify responses to notoriously subjective issues (like the student who needs to entertain classmates) and encourages objective and measurable metrics that provide a win-win in the difficult area of student assessment. Students appreciate an even-handed approach which favors no one and everyone at the same time. Teachers appreciate an unbiased framework that is defensible when discussing issues with parents, grade-level team members, and/or administrators. When stringently applied in an objective manner, students get more out of class lessons, get better grades, and classroom behavior is more conducive to everyone’s learning.

So, if you’ve tried other classroom management strategies to no avail, try this one for three months. In many cases, it will be exactly what you need.

How to use it

The application of Behaviorism relies on observable behavior, nothing else. It rewards the positive, punishes the negative, and in that way shapes student actions. It’s unbiased, without opinion, must be consistently enforced, and can’t be influenced by thoughts or emotions. Most teachers already use this strategy and appreciate the results without even knowing that’s what they’re doing. For example, when they thank students for sitting down quickly upon entering class or for starting a warm-up activity without being told to, the teacher is using a behavioral strategy. When homework is assigned with the expectation that students will return to class the next day with it completed, teachers are training student learning behavior. If your school uses positive reinforcement tools like Class Dojo, Empatico, Hero K12, or Sown to Grow, they are acknowledging the effectiveness in education ecosystems of Skinner’s Behaviorism.

There are four types of reinforcement:

1. Positive reinforcement concentrates on applauding good behavior
2. Negative reinforcement punishes the unacceptable
3. Presentation punishment applies a negative outcome in response to a behavior that is not desired
4. Removal reinforcement simply eliminates the negative stimuli.

Each of these can be equally effective in helping students achieve their learning goals.

How you already use it

Here are ways you already use it without thinking about it:

• grading papers and then accumulating the grades for a summative report (such as report cards)
• keeping kids in class instead of releasing them to recess to give them time to finish work they didn’t do
• providing treats for right answers
• applying consequences for the use of cellphones in class when they aren’t allowed
• setting classroom rules at the beginning of the school year
• using award systems like Classroom Dojo or Hero K12
• awarding badges for achievements and/or the completion of specific skills, tasks, or units
• timing a test or another classroom activity, expecting students to complete the task within the time parameters
• providing rubrics that spell out expectations for a project
• modeling appropriate behavior as an encouragement for students to do the same
• sharing samples of projects students will be completing as examples of what you expect
• expecting students who are late for class to get notes from parents or a teacher before being admitted to class
• expecting student athletes to maintain a C average (or whatever your school requires) to participate in sports

You can start the application of Behaviorism by applauding good behavior but include evidence to support it as well as making clear your willingness to use logical consequences that don’t embarrass the student if behavior is unacceptable.

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Conclusion

Applying Behaviorism to your classes could be one of the easiest changes you make to your classroom management with the greatest chance for success. I’d love to hear your experiences with this pedagogy.

Here’s the list of articles:

Constructivism

Depth of Knowledge (DoK)

Flipped Classroom

Frayer Model

Growth Mindset

Habits of Mind

Inquiry-based Teaching

Mastery-based Learning

Morning Meeting

Orton-Gillingham

Personalized Learning

Project-based Learning (PBL)

Purpose-driven Learning

SAMR Model

Socratic Method

Standards-based Grading

Understanding By Design

Unschool

VARK model

Visible Learning

Whole Brain Teaching

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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, 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.

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:

10 Books for Summer Reading for Educators 

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Wrapping up your school technology for the summer is as complicated as setting it up in September. There are endless backups, shares, cleanings, changed settings, and vacation messages that — if not done right — can mean big problems when you return from summer vacation. If you have a school device, a lot of the shutdown steps will be done by the IT folks as they backup, clean, reformat, and maybe re-image your device. If you have a personal device assigned by the school but yours to take home, the steps may be more numerous but really, not more complicated.

Here’s a list. Skip those that don’t apply to you and complete the rest. I won’t take time in this article for a how-to on each activity so if you don’t know how to complete one, check with your IT folks or DDG (Duck Duck Go) or Google it:

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No topic is more discussed in today’s education meetings than the impact of Artificial Intelligence–AI–on teaching and learning. Guest contributor to Ask a Tech Teacher, Tess Dodson, has fresh ideas on how to incorporate AI into your classroom in ways that are moral and principled:

Simple Ways Teachers Can Integrate AI Ethically in the Classroom

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already shaping modern education. From generating lesson ideas to helping students brainstorm essays, AI in the classroom is becoming increasingly common. For educators, this shift presents both exciting opportunities and important responsibilities. Teachers need a thoughtful approach and practical strategies to ethically integrate AI into everyday teaching.

Create Clear Guidelines for AI Use

Students are already using AI, and it is here to stay. A survey of more than 1,100 U.S. students found that 90% have used AI-driven tools in academic settings. As such, it is vital that the first step in using AI in the classroom is setting clear expectations. Students are already experimenting with AI tools, but they may not fully understand when or how to use them appropriately. Without guidance, misuse — intentional or not — becomes more likely.

Teachers should create a simple classroom policy around AI. It can include clear rules on when AI use is allowed for assignments and how students should acknowledge or cite AI use. For example, a teacher might allow AI for information gathering but not for generating final answers.  Students may also be required to include a short explanation of how the tool was used.

Strengthen Academic Integrity in an AI-Enabled Classroom

One of the main challenges of using AI in education is the concern that students may use these tools to plagiarize or cheat academically. With tools that can instantly generate essays and solve problems, it has become easier for students to submit work that is not their own. As such, teaching practices must adapt.

Teachers can take a proactive approach by clearly defining what constitutes original work. Instead of banning AI outright, educators can guide students on acceptable use. For example, AI might be allowed for outlining ideas or checking grammar, but not for producing complete work. Another effective strategy is requiring students to document their process by providing draft submissions that show revisions over time and reflection paragraphs explaining how they completed the task. (more…)

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. I’ll share these with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I’m afraid of getting slammed with viruses, malware, all that bad stuff that comes with visiting the internet. What can I do?

A: If you take reasonable precautions, the chances of being hit are minimized. Here’s what I do: (more…)

Classroom management tools are useful for teachers to create an organized, productive, and conducive learning environment. Some reasons why you may find these tools beneficial are:

1. Organization: organize lesson plans, assignments, and resources efficiently
2. Communication: between teachers, students, and parents to foster a collaborative relationship, keep everyone informed
3. Student Engagement: to make learning more interesting and interactive
4. Time Management: schedule reminders, notifications, and more
5. Assessment and Grading: create and grade assignments, quizzes, and exams, and provide quick feedback to students.
6. Behavior Management: set expectations, monitor conduct, and implement positive reinforcement strategies
7. Data Analysis: provide analytics, track student performance, identify areas that need additional attention
8. Remote Learning Support: coordinate virtual classrooms
9. Parental Involvement: allow parents to monitor child’s progress, access grades, and communicate with teachers

Here’s a wide collection of mostly online resources you can check out. Find what works for your classroom environment (click for updates to list): (more…)