Subscriber Special: Discount on Teacher Survival Kits Extended
Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching.
September 4-8, 2025
We’re extending our offer of a 20% discount on any Survival Kit. Pick one from this link:
https://www.structuredlearning.net/product-category/all-in-one-resource-collections/
Use this code:
3XAR9WZU
[gallery size="medium" ids="63684,67428,73523,73524,73525,63675"]Click through for additional hidden discounts!
Questions? Email us at askatechteacher@gmail.com (more…)
What You Might Have Missed in August–What’s up in September
Here are the most-read posts for the month:
- 10 Unexpected Truths About Teaching
- Tech Ed Resources–Lesson Plans
- 22 Ways Any Teacher Can (and Should) Use Technology
- Fifth grade lesson plans in Photoshop (click on website for these)
- Gamification of Assessments: Fun or Flawed?
- How to teach the hard to teach class — the video.
- Tech Ed Resources for your Class–Digital Citizenship
- 10 Ways to Become a Better Geek
- Teacher-Authors–Long List of my Favorite Writing Websites
- Windows Skills: Make Your Own Wallpaper
Here’s what’s coming up: (more…)
Labor Day–How Teacher-Authors Do It
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is an American holiday (though celebrated world-wide by different names) dedicated to the achievements of workers. Take today to think about it. Me, I’ll take it literally–labor! I enjoy labor, the good feeling of finishing, meeting goals, working hard.
“I learned the value of hard work by working hard.” — Margaret Mead
“You always pass failure on your way to success.” — Mickey Rooney
“Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” — Helena Rubinstein
“Dedication, hard work all the time, and belief.” — Cristiano Ronaldo
If you’re devoting Labor Day to your writing (rather than teacher prep) but need a kick start, here are suggestions for favorite labor-saving tools for writers:
- Reedsy’s Best 23 Writing Tools of 2024
- 25 Top Tools for Writers to Crush it in 2024
- The 14 Best Writing Tools for Writers in 2024
- The 30 Best Tools for Writers
- Plot Generator
- AI Plot Generator
A few Labor Day websites to enjoy for teaching: (more…)
How to Teach a Tech Lesson–the Movie
How to Teach a Tech Lesson
This video is from a series I taught for school districts. It is now available for free to subscribers of Ask a Tech Teacher:
8: Fifth Grade Cloning in Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is kind of KidPix for grown-ups, as well as the default photo-editing program for anyone serious about graphics. This series of projects (available in the first volume of the book, 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom) introduces students to a traditionally-challenging program in an easy to understand way, each project scaffolding to the next, thus avoiding the frustration and confusion inherent in most Photoshop training.
Here are the skills fifth graders can learn in Photoshop if you’ve prepared them with basic computer skills. I’ve provided links. The bolded ones are published, unbolded coming soon:
- Photoshop artwork–live
- Photoshop actions–live
- Photoshop basics #5 live
- Photoshop filter and rendering tools
- Photoshop starters–auto-correct with the auto-correction — live quick fixes that make a photo look cleaner #6
- Photoshop crop tool–Live
- Photoshop clone tool– live
- Photoshop–change the background–live
- Photoshop tools–add custom shapes–live
- Photoshop–start with Word –live (a little dated but still useful)
Today: Cloning
The clone tool duplicates a hard to crop-and-copy image (like the flowers below) or deletes part of a background—a sign or a post in a nature scene—you don’t want there. You can clone within a picture (as with the flowers), (more…)
#3: Windows Skills: Make Your Own Wallpaper
One of the best ways to get students interested in technology is allow them to personalize their work area. That starts with placing wallpaper of their choice on their desktop. (more…)
Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog
A lot of teacher-authors read my writers blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month:
There are many unethical practices (much to my dismay), but one caught my attention recently. Wiley, a 217-year-old scientific publisher–arguably the gold standard for scientific researchers and one I’ve submitted to–retracted more than 11,300 compromised articles and closed 19 scientific journal because of fraudulent data and materials. They did this because leaving such false research out in the world as legitimate under cover of the well-respected Wiley name threatened not only their legitimacy but the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry.
Delving into Wiley’s problem unearthed many causes. One all agreed was a critical culprit was fake scientific papers from so-called “Paper Mills”, companies scientists use to appear reputable. Why is this so important? Money for one, but also a University requirement that their professors “publish or perish”.
When neuropsychologist Bernhard Sabel put his new fake-paper detector to work, he was “shocked” by what it found. After screening some 5000 papers, he estimates up to 34% of neuroscience papers published in 2020 were likely made up or plagiarized; in medicine, the figure was 24%. Science.org 2023
I’m not sure when it happened, but today, the questionable ethics of scientific publications has become “too big to ignore”. In fact, there’s an entire website devoted to tracking this. Check out Retraction Watch if you’re interested or just feeling too positive some day.
In this increasingly politicized world where everything comes down to “he said/she said”, I used to rely on science as my true north. I guess that changed.
Tech Tip #140: 10 Ways to Become a Better Geek
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
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If you’re the tech teacher, this is a must. If you’re a classroom teacher trying to infuse your class with technology, here are ten steps to help you geek out:
Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.
What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.
Teaching Digital Ethics Through Inclusive Medicaid Survey Simulations
Real world is the best way to teach digital citizenship and what is more real than paying bills. Check out this article from the Ask a Tech Teacher team on teaching digital ethics via their bills–in this case, family health issues:
Teaching Digital Ethics Through Inclusive Medicaid Survey Simulations
As digital citizenship and real-world simulations grow in popularity across classrooms, educators are looking for more meaningful ways to combine technical learning with civic responsibility. One innovative strategy is teaching students about digital ethics through the design of inclusive health survey simulations, specifically those inspired by Medicaid outreach.
This approach blends digital literacy, ethical data use, and healthcare equity into one dynamic learning experience that connects classroom learning with real-world impact. (more…)
