I found this article in my mailbox the other day, from The Tech Edvocate. This has been such a trying time for parents, students, and our teachers. Check out these great ways to say thank you that anyone can do:

HOW TO SAY THANK YOU TO TEACHERS

No matter what you do for a career or how successful you are, chances are you would not be where you are today if you had not obtained a K-12 education. Without a question, great educators are important. However, in the last year or two, educators around the country have gone on strike and protested for better salaries and working conditions.

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If none of these resonate with you, check out these ideas on Ask a Tech Teacher:

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

1. 9 Ways to Add Tech to your Lessons Without Adding Time to Your Day
2. Tech Ed Resources–Lesson Plans
3. 25 Websites for Lesson Planning
4. Tech Ed Resources for your Class–K-8 Keyboard Curriculum
5. 40 Websites to Teach Keyboarding
6. EdTech’s Top Blogs to Follow–Yep, We’re On It
7. Tech Ed Resources for your Class–Digital Citizenship
8. We Landed on the Moon July 20 1969
9. HS Financial Training Classes
10. Here’s How to Get Started with Ask a Tech Teacher
11. The Case for PDFs in Class Revisited

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up in August:

• What to know before studying abroad in the US
• How to showcase your skills when applying for your first job
• Tech Ed Resources–online classes
• Tech Ed Resources–Mentoring and coaching
• Free posters
• Habits of Mind

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

1. June is Internet Safety Month
2. World Environment Day: Living Responsibly with Nature
3. Tech Tip #91: Rollback Windows Updates
4. What you Need to Know about Evaluating Apps
5. 6 Tech Activities for Your Summer School Program
6. Looking for Summer Activities? Try These
7. 15 Skills To Learn this Summer and Use Next Year
8. 6 Websites that Teach Letters
9. Need a New Job? Here’s What You Do
10. 9 Websites to Address Social Media

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up in July:

• 17 Ways to Add Tech to your Lessons Without Adding Time to Your Day
• Top PC Shortkeys
• Tech Ed Lesson Plans
• Free Posters
• Habits of Mind
• We Land on the Moon
• Mentoring
• How to get Started with Ask a Tech Teacher

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You’ve been teaching for five years and love what you’re doing. You consider yourself darn lucky to be working with colleagues that are friends and a boss who always puts your needs first. Most of the teachers at your school have been there years — even decades — and you have no doubt that, too, will be you. So, you don’t bother to keep your resume up-to-date or expand your teaching skills other than what is required for your position. In short, you found the square hole that fits your square peg.

Until the day that changes. There are dozens of reasons, from new bosses who want to shake things up to your husband gets a job in a different state. The only good news: Your boss told you already, giving you time to job hunt for the new school year. For many schools, if they’re going to make staffing changes, early Spring is when they start looking for the new people. For you as a job hunting educator, this becomes the best time of year to find a job.

Digital portfolio sites

Rather than a two-page printed document that can be lost and serves only one user, a digital portfolio posts your resume online, in an easy-to-understand format. This makes it more available, transparent, robust, and quickly updated. This is the modern resume, tells future bosses you can use technology as a tool, and can give you an edge in a competitive job market. It organizes your qualifications, evidence, and background in one easy-to-reach online location. Interested parties can check it without bothering you and decide if the fit is good. You do nothing — which can save the disappoint of sending out a resume and getting nothing but silence back.

Here are suggestions for digital portfolio sites:

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

1. Tech Teacher Appreciation Week
2. Encourage Creativity in the Classroom
3. #CUE22 and Trending Edtech
4. 12 Tech Tasks To End the School Year
5. 5 Ways to Involve Parents
6. 3 Websites on Architecture/Engineering
7. 13 Websites That Provide Lots of Digital Books for Summer Reading
8. Kiddom’s Newest Feature–Lesson Launch
9. How to Clean Up Google Classroom for the Summer
10. Memorial Day Websites and Projects

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up in June:

• Mindfulness in the Classroom
• Internet Safety Month
• Subscriber Special
• Tech Tips
• World Environment Day
• Apps for Curious Students
• Evaluating Apps
• Tech in your Summer School Program
• Summer Activities
• Need a New Job?

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

1. National Library Week April 3-9
2. Preparing for College or Career
3. Long-Term Benefits of Bilingual Education
4. How to Become a Tech Teacher
5. Tech Tools for Reading Fluency
6. Assistive Technology in Colleges
7. Resources to Teach Taxes
8. How to Make a Program Easy to Find
9. 18 Easter Websites and Apps
10. Earth Day Classroom Activities

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up in May:

• Kiddom’s New Lesson Launch
• Websites on Architecture and Engineering
• End of School Year Tasks
• 5 Tips to Involve Parents
• Does MS Word Have ‘Research’?
• Memorial Day Websites and Projects
• Must-have Apps for Curious Students
• Digital Reading for Summer

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I posted this article last year, got lots of reads, so am republishing with some 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

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.

When I started teaching K-8 technology, people like me were stuffed into a corner of the building where all other teachers could avoid us unless they had a computer emergency, pretending that what we did was for “some other educator in an alternate dimension”. Simply talking to us often made a colleague feel like a rock, only dumber. When my fellow teachers did seek me out — always to ask for help and rarely to request training — they’d come to my room, laptop in hand, and follow the noise of my fingers flying across the keyboard. It always amazed them I could make eye contact and say “Hi!” without stopping or slowing my typing.

That reticence to ask for help or request training changed about a decade ago when technology swept across the academic landscape like a firestorm:

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I know from personal experience that tech teachers are in short supply. It’s not unusual for a school to transfer the PE teacher or 2nd grade teacher into the Tech Teacher job because they can’t find anyone else for that position. ZDNet has a great article addressing the subject:

How to get into tech as a teacher

Tech careers are in high demand. The tech field attracts many career-changing professionals with strong salaries and diverse career paths. And teachers are uniquely positioned to move into tech.

If you’ve wondered how to get into tech as a teacher, you may think the field is intimidating. But while some tech careers require coding skills, many do not. By highlighting your transferable skills and educational strengths, you can move into careers like instructional designer, eLearning developer, training specialist, or technical writer. 

Read on…

More about teaching tech

• Teacher Appreciation Week–Gifts for the Tech Teacher (humorous)
• What’s a Tech Teacher Do With Their Summer Off?
• A Day in the Life of a Tech Teacher (humorous)

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

1. Social Media or COVID: Which is more dangerous to students?
2. 5 (free) Posters about Learning
3. Websites that add sparkle (and learning) to Spring
4. Guiding Students through the Crisis in Ukraine
5. A Lesson Plan for Addressing What’s in the News
6. Invention Convention is coming
7. Celebrate Pi Day and Maths Day
8. Using VR to Visualize Complex Information
9. 23 Websites on Biomes, Habitats, Landforms
10. 7+ Websites to Teach Financial Literacy

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up in April:

1. Preparing for College or Career
2. How to Become a Tech Teacher
3. Tech Tools for Reading Fluency
4. Resources to Teach Taxes
5. Easter Websites
6. Earth Day Activities
7. Digital Literacy
8. Create a Macro
9. Websites on Architecture/Engineering

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Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Christian Miraglia, wrote an interesting article on changes in teaching since the pandemic. I think you’ll find a lot to relate to:

Has Teaching Changed Since the Pandemic?

March 13, 2019, for many educators in California and nationwide, was a day that will forever be etched in their memories. It was the day that many school districts closed temporarily, or so they thought, due to the spread and uncertainty of COVID-19. What nobody could have seen was that these closures would become more permanent and reshape the educational landscape for years to come. Changes to daily instruction have become the norm as students were absent due to illness, teachers were absent due to COVID-19 exposure or their children having been infected or exposed, in-face instruction shifting to online and then back to face-to-face. 

Recently I listened to K-12 educators at a session hosted by a local university designed to have teachers meet and share their experiences from the past two years. The output of emotions from these brave educators who detailed what it is like to teach during this challenging time was gut-wrenching. 

The resiliency of these educators is to be commended as they navigated the daily challenges of policy changes, students coming and leaving, the caring for themselves and their children.  In listening to them, a common theme resonated from the group, the value of networking.

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