I keep a list of themed websites that are easy-in easy-out for students. They must be activities that can be accomplished enjoyably in less than ten minutes. In the parlance, these are called “sponges”. Here are 19 I think you’ll like:

Language Arts

• Contraction Games
• Contraction Crossword
• Contraction Practice
• Feast of Homonyms
• Grammar Gorillas
• Grammaropolis
• Plural Nouns
• Suffix Match

Math

• Math and Virtual Manipulatives
• Math—by Grade Level
• Math—game-oriented

Problem solving

1. The Crossing–attempts to cross a gorge; some fail; all result in success
2. Math Pickle–put student in a choatic situation and see how they solve the problem

Science

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Here are the most-read posts for the month of August

1. Why Music Education is Important for Children To Learn
2. 15 Back to School Resources
3. 5 Tips for Helping Children with Homework
4. 12 Websites for High School Drivers Ed
5. How Parents Can Protect Kid’s Privacy and Safety Online
6. Technology is Here to Stay: Now What?
7. Create a Macro
8. 6 Ways Teacher-authors Protect Their Online Privacy
9. Online Classes! On Your Schedule
10. How to Add Zip to a Slow Computer

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Here’s a preview of what’s coming up on Ask a Tech Teacher in August:

1. Why Music Education is Important
2. Subscriber Special
3. Back to School Resources
4. Grading Apps, Tools, Resources
5. Tech Tip: Create a Macro
6. Lessons Learned my First 5 Years of Teaching
7. Websites for HS Drivers Ed
8. Must-have Apps for Curious Students
9. 5 Steps to Personal Privacy
10. Genius Hour–Why You Should Love it

Please note: Schedules change so these articles may be moved to the next month.

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Every month, we’ll share five themed posters that you can share on your website (with attribution), post on your walls, or simply be inspired.

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Here are the most-read posts for the month of June:

1. Websites that add sparkle to spring
2. Internet Safety Month–Rules to Live By
3. Here’s How to Motivate Summer School Students
4. Teacher-Authors–Help me launch my latest prehistoric fiction
5.  Coding Words You Need To Know 
6. Most Common Tech Problems You-all Face
7. 5 (free) Posters on College and Career
8. Tech Ed Resources for your Class–K-8 Keyboard Curriculum
9. Be Featured on Ask a Tech Teacher
10. Tech Tips for Everyday Life

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Every month, we’ll share five themed posters that you can share on your website (with attribution), post on your walls, or simply be inspired.

This month: College and Career

–for the entire collection of 65 posters, click here

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, an Amazon Vine Voice, 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.

Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Jeremy Keeshin, is the CEO and co-founder of CodeHS, a leading coding education platform for schools, used by millions of students. He believes educators must focus on teaching students the building blocks of technology–coding, problem-solving, and the vocabulary that clarifies both. Here are a few of the essential tech words that should be part of a students’ daily conversation not just in a tech class but in all learning. OK, maybe not ‘Assembly Language’ but definitely ‘coding’, ‘bits’, ‘debugging’, and ‘apps’ with all of its cousins:

Your Coding Vocab Lesson: 7 Words You Need To Know 

There’s a lot of new vocabulary to pick up as you enter the world of coding. Here’s a few words to help you get started navigating code.

1. Code and Coding 

Let’s start at the beginning: What is code? What is coding?

Coding is giving instructions to a computer. Code is the instructions for the computer.

Your first line of code might look something like this:

print("Hello")

This prints “Hello” out to the screen. When you type an email and hit send, someone has written code to make that work. When you open your phone, hit an icon that looks like a camera, take a photo, and it saves to the cloud—that is code. Code is what powers any technology or software you use.

2. Programming Language

Code is written in a particular programming language, which is the set of rules, or language, for giving instructions to the computer. The language may have some specific syntax about what code you can write.

There are many different programming languages used for different things. A few popular programming languages include JavaScript, Python, C++, and Java. They are built for different use cases and have different tradeoffs.

Just like foreign languages, programming languages are often related to each other; they have different histories and taxonomies; and they evolve over time.

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Here’s a preview of what’s coming up on Ask a Tech Teacher in June:

• What is Genius Hour and Why Should I Love it?
• Internet Safety Month
• How to Motivate Summer School Students
• Tech Tips
• Coding Vocabulary
• Online PD
• 5 Steps to Personal Privacy
• Free Posters
• What’s the hardest tech problem?
• K-8 Tech Curriculum

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Here are the most-read posts for the month of May

1. Teacher Appreciation Week–Gifts for the Tech Teacher
2. Kids’ Computer Posture Explored
3. 10 Digital Platforms to Teach Remotely
4. 5 (free) Posters to Mainstream Tech Ed
5. What to Know Before Moving From High School Teacher to College Professor
6. 12 Websites for Digital Books Summer Reading
7. Is It Worth Teaching School Kids SQL?
8. 12 Tech Tasks To End the School Year
9. How To Move To Canada To Be A Teacher
10. World Password Day — It’s Today!

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, an Amazon Vine Voice, 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.

There are more options for digital learning than Zoom. Check out these:

1. Big Blue Button–great conference app but embedded in LMS (not standalone)
2. Canvas–with their Conference option (Big Blue Button)
3. Draw Chat–virtual meeting with a whiteboard
4. FaceTime–from Apple
5. Google Meet–through Google Classroom or not; must use Google account and Chrome browser
6. Microsoft Teams
7. Skype
8. Webex–from Cisco
9. Webroom.net — virtual conference or meeting room
10. Zoom

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