Category: Teaching

5 Ways for Teachers to Streamline Their Workload

Streamlining teacher work means finding (more) efficient ways to manage tasks, improve productivity, and enhance the teaching experience. Here are strategies to achieve this from the Ask a Tech Teacher crew:

5 Ways for Teachers to Streamline Their Workload

It’s not easy being a teacher considering the amount of work you deal with every day. On the surface, you prepare lesson plans and determine the series of activities you will give for your next class. Underneath it all, there’s the overbearing workload that consists of endless paperwork and ad hoc responsibilities during on-campus events.

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How to Find Old Elementary School Teachers

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Need help finding an old elementary school teacher? Our Ask a Tech Teacher team has several ways to track down your favorite educators from years past:

How to Find Old Elementary School Teachers

Do you remember the teachers who shaped your educational journey? Whether it was the teacher who taught you how to multiply fractions or the one who fostered your love for literature, many of us can still recall some of our favorite elementary school educators.

There are various reasons why one would want to find their old teachers. You might want to express gratitude, reminisce about the past, or catch up. But it’s not always straightforward to find someone you knew years ago. They might have left the school, moved to another place, or changed their contact information.

That’s why we’ve compiled this guide of five ways you can track down your old elementary school teachers.

5 Ways to Find Your Old Elementary School Teachers

Here are five easy and effective ways to find your school teacher.

1. Check Your Alma Mater

If you attended elementary school between the mid-1900s and today, chances are there’s an online database of alumni from your school. Some of your former teachers may still be listed on the alumni page of your school’s website.

The official name or other contact details of each teacher may not be listed, but you can find out which teachers taught during your time at school. You can then use that information to search for them online or contact the school office and ask if they have any additional details on the person.

2. Search Social Media

Searching directories, waiting by the phone for hours, and swinging by the last known address were all the old ways of tracking someone down. But now, with the advent of social media, tracking down an old teacher is easier than ever. While social media is most popular among people aged 18-29, Facebook is the most suitable social platform where you have a high chance of finding your teacher, with 72% of users aged 50 or above on the popular platform.

You can search for your teacher’s name in Facebook’s search bar, identify them through their profile picture, and send them a friend request. If not, try reaching out to friends from elementary school who might be connected with your teacher or at least remember their names.

3. Use Online Information Sites

Leveraging an online reverse lookup site to locate your elementary school teacher is one of the quickest ways. With some basic information about your teacher, such as name or email, you can quickly get results with an overview of their current whereabouts and contact details. For instance, with just your former teacher’s name, you can find all of their contact info on Information.com, which is the lookup site we found to be the most accurate.

These lookup tools use information and directories from around the web, giving you access to personal data in minutes.

4. Check Your Local Teachers’ Association

If you can’t find your former teacher by searching online, consider contacting the local teachers’ association. A member of the association may know where your elementary school teacher is now. Many associations keep extensive databases of teachers, so it might be worth contacting them to see if they can give any useful information.

You can also search the association’s archives, as they might have stored information about past and present teachers. You might even find a picture of your teacher from their teaching days.

5. Ask Around

If nothing works, you can always try your luck and ask around. Talk to old classmates, school employees, nearby neighbors, family members, or friends. That’s the simplest way to go, as there must be someone who knows the latest update from your teacher. You may even get some interesting stories about your former teacher.

Final Thoughts on How to Find Old Elementary Teachers

Finding your elementary school teacher may take time and effort, but the rewards can be sweet. Reconnecting with someone you haven’t seen in years is a special feeling that can bring back old memories and happy times.

With these five tips, you should have no trouble finding your old elementary school teacher and reconnecting with them.

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

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

Tech Teacher Appreciation Week

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This article got lots of reads last year, so am republishing with updates. I’ve included information about:

How tech teachers are different than other teachers
Why tech and the teacher who manages it in your school has become more important than ever
How to talk to a tech teacher (hint: they’re a little different; heed these suggestions)
Gifts tech teachers will love

Tech Teacher Appreciation Week: The First Full Week of May (May 7-13, 2023)

There’s always been something mystically cerebral about people in technical professions like engineering, science, and mathematics. They talk animatedly about plate tectonics, debate the structure of atoms, even smile at the mention of calculus. The teaching profession has our own version of these nerdy individuals, called technology teachers. In your district, you may refer to them as IT specialists, Coordinators for Instructional Technology, Technology Facilitators, Curriculum Specialists, or something else that infers big brains, quick minds, and the ability to talk to digital devices. School lore probably says they can drop a pin through a straw without touching the sides. (more…)

What You Might Have Missed in April–What’s up in May

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

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New Teachers: Secrets to Getting Started

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This article from the Ask a Tech Teacher crew is for new teachers searching for what will be required of them as teachers, how to determine their style, the importance of a mentor, and more secrets to guide them in their new profession:

How to Choose Your Teaching Style and Level

It takes a certain kind of person to be a teacher. It’s one of the most noble professions you can choose, especially when you think about the powerful impact you can have on your students’ lives. However, before you get to that point, you need to decide which grade you want to teach and what kind of teacher you really want to be. Some people choose to work exclusively with younger children while others prefer to teach middle school students or in high schools. In this post, you’ll discover the different types of teaching approaches and decide which one matches most with your personal teaching style.

Teaching Requirements

Before getting into the types of teaching styles, you first need to earn your degree. Most teachers hold a master’s in education, so you’ll need at least four to five years to earn your degree. If paying for your education is an issue, you even consider asking your parents to cosign a loan. But what if they refuse because of their own financial problems? Since most young adults can have issues qualifying for loans on their own, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each type of financial options before choosing one. That said, there are different options to consider, so make sure you take time to research what they are and how repaying them can affect you.

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18 Things Teachers Do Before 8am

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This is inspired by Jennifer Cohen over at Forbes who wrote a wonderful article on “5 Things Super Successful People Do Before 8am” (few of which I do, though I can claim #5). She includes chores like exercise, eat a healthy breakfast, map out the day–all great ideas, but not pithy enough for the average teacher I know.

Here’s my list of what the average teacher accomplishes before her first class of children crosses the threshold of her domain. These are gathered from chatting with friends and efriends on how they start their days:

Research the answers to sixteen ‘why’ questions students asked during yesterday’s classes.
Figure out how to run that dang iPad app students want to use.
Wash Superman (or woman) cape.
Close eyes for three seconds to invoke the memory of Emma [replace ‘Emma’ with the name of the Poster Child for why you’re a teacher].
Accomplish the equivalent of stuffing twenty people in a phone booth–which means find son/daughter’s lost iPad which must be brought to school every day, get kids off to school with packed lunches and completed homework, arrange household repairs, sort dog and husband/wife, talk significant other down from an emotional cliff, and figure out how to make coffee by pouring hot water through yesterday’s grounds (oops–forgot to buy coffee).
Eat breakfast–real food, not leftovers or peanut butter from sandwiches.
Move what wasn’t accomplished yesterday to today’s To Do list, which is most everything.
Promise that today, unlike yesterday and the day before, and the day before that, you won’t say D*** five times before the first class arrives. Set a goal of only four times.
Do emergency morning yard duty instead of the project set up you’d planned to do this morning—and the reason you came in early.
While doing emergency morning yard duty, imitate someone being patient rather than someone chewing on their last nerve.
Keep an open mind to all nature of miracles, no matter the shape or size.
Answer parent email and voicemail from the prior day because you promised the Principal you would–again.
Paste on your Reasonable face when a parent drops in for an impromptu conference, shoehorned in after s/he dropped off her/his child and before the 8am start-of-day. Stow the one that says, ‘Leave me alone’.
Take a nap, especially if you’ve been up most of the night grading papers or preparing lesson plans.
Smile at the parent who always talks with that irritating tone reserved for women they consider delicate.
Solve the education problems of the world.
As Paul Harvey said in Broadcast, “In times like these, it is good to remember that there have always been times like these”.
Remember that–as Edwin Louis Cole once said, you don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.

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What You Might Have Missed in March–What’s up in April

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

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8+ Steps To A Speedier Computer

This week, I’ll post updated suggestions to get your computers and technology ready for the blitz of projects you’ll swear to accomplish in New Year resolutions. Here’s what you’ll get (links won’t be active until the post goes live):

8+ Ways to Speed Up Your Computer — December 13th
9 Ways to Update Your Online Presence — December 14th
Backup and Image your computer — December 15th

Regular readers of Ask a Tech Teacher know these are updated each December. New readers: Consider these body armor in the tech battle so you can jubilantly overcome rather than dramatically succumb.

Today: 8 Ways to Speed up Your Computer

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Exploring the Need for Education Consultants in a Digital World

Education has become a lot more complicated the last five years. Part of that is the impact of COVID on in-person and remote teaching. Another large part is the transparency now requested/required by parents as to what is going on in the classroom. The importance of education consultants, mentors, and teacher coaches has never been more pressing. Here’s a good article from the Ask a Tech Teacher crew on what that means and how you as an educator can confront the issues:

Exploring the Need for Education Consultants in a Digital World

There is no denying that we live in a vastly different world than we did just three years ago. Just as an increasing number of businesses have moved their operations totally online, so too have many students moved to online programs for their educational needs. All grade levels are now seeing an increase in the number of students who study online since the recent pandemic forced them to do so. Even though classrooms are once again open to student enrolment, many parents have opted to keep their children at home where they feel safer for a number of reasons.

A Myriad of Reasons for Online Education

Sadly, it isn’t only fear of contagions that has prompted this but also other factors such as the rising level of violence and bullying in schools, the fear of school shootings and various factors within family life. Parents who often struggled to get kids to and from school because of work hours, can now find ways to adjust everyone’s schedule so that no one needs to be late or miss days due to conflicts that occur far too often. Some parents simply like to monitor what their kids are learning and how they are being taught.

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