Like every year, I exuberantly celebrate America’s birthday. I’d say times are tough here in the US, but that seems to be true everywhere in the world. So, I won’t complain. I will enjoy the love of America as all of my international friends love their homeland.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke4gRMowvQg]

 

This one–Chris Stapleton–4 Million views since Super Bowl 2023:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcs6HLKz_aQ]

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4OsP4BsATw]

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4kJ9sMDhaY]

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ds3MvMUdNk]

 

Here’s the feel-good video for all patriots. If you missed this viral video from the Navy Women’s Lacrosse team, enjoy!

https://youtube.com/shorts/u-dsWFOiOIg?si=cKUCB-4A082Uo4zb

 

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 There are a lot to digital tools people swear are essential to educators. Here’s a list of fourteen put together by the Ask a Tech Teacher team. I use about half of them. How about you?

14 Essential Digital Tools for Educators to Streamline Daily Activities

In 2024’s fast-paced educational environment, teachers and all those in the academe face the daily challenge of managing their school or course’s efficiency. From spanning out schedules and lesson planning to grading, the responsibilities seem a never-ending cycle and quite overwhelming. 

Thankfully, however, today’s advancements brought digital tools to help streamline all these school-related activities. They make educators’ lives a whole lot easier, aside from improving the learning experiences for their students. 

Today, you can count on these tools to make educators’ lives more seamless once you get them working through digital routines.

Top 14 Educators’ Tools in 2024

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Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing details on our blog (Ask a Tech Teacher) about Structured Learning resources to get your new school year started. These are often collected into back-to-school survival kits. Purchase one of those with the coupon code:

Back-to-school Special Survival Kits

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Get 20% off listed price.

Offer expires Sept. 15, 2024

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Here are the most-read posts for the past month:

1. The Future of Online Learning: Benefits and Strategies for Educators
2. How to Teach Financial Literacy Using Real-World Examples
3. How Virtual Information Sessions Are Changing K-12 Education
4. Incorporating Monthly Giving Projects into STEM Curriculum: Inspiring the Next Generation of Philanthropists
5. How Cloud Security Empowers Online Learning Platforms
6. How to Help Students Run a Genius Bar
7. June is Internet Safety Month
8. World Environment Day: Living Responsibly with Nature
9. 11 Online Resources About Animation

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up (these may change as scheduling adapts to reader needs): (more…)

Navigating the internet is akin to exploring a lively city with its exciting opportunities and hidden dangers, where good digital citizenship provides the legal guidelines that ensure safe and respectful interactions. Imagine if your child or students are trying to explore that glitz safely? Here are tried-and-true ideas from the Ask a Tech Teacher team that provide good starting points to develop habits of vigilance when using the internet:

• create strong passwords
• two-factor authentication
• secure devices
• antivirus software
• avoid phishing scams
• more

Top 13 Digital Citizenship Tips For Enhancing Online Safety

Navigating the internet can be a bit like wandering through a bustling city, exciting but full of potential pitfalls. Good digital citizenship is all about making smart, safe, and respectful choices online, helping you make the most of this incredible resource while allowing billions of others to do the same.

As such, there are a handful of universally agreed-upon principles and best practices for being a good digital citizen. Here are the top 13 tips from the same, mainly pertaining to enhancing your online safety and well-being. (more…)

It is important for children to know how to be safe while navigating the digital landscape. It’s easy when teachers present cybersecurity topics properly. Here are ideas from the  Ask a Tech Teacher team:

How to Explain Cybersecurity for Children

Cybersecurity plays a crucial role in our daily lives and will continue to gain importance. Educators can prepare students to protect themselves online. Of course, they should introduce online security topics in an age-appropriate manner.

Each successful teacher can make a big difference. Lousy cybersecurity practices or lack of knowledge about them often affect more than one person at a time. When they teach about safety online, they may affect not only the lives of their students but society as a whole.

Here is how to explain cybersecurity for children as an educator. (more…)

Essay writing is a crucial skill for academic and professional success because it teaches clear, logical, and persuasive communication. The Ask a Tech Teacher team has come up with 10 practical tips to enhance your essay writing abilities, covering aspects like thesis development, structure, evidence, transitions, and proper grammar:

Mastering the Art of Essay Writing

Do you find essay writing daunting? You’re not alone. Many students struggle with this essential academic task. But what if I told you there’s a way to make it easier and more enjoyable? In this blog post, we’ll unlock the secrets to successful essay writing and share 10 proven tips to help you level up your writing game.

Writing essays is an essential skill for both students and academic writers. Achieving high grades, personal development, and future professional success all hinge on strong essay writing abilities. This guide will delve into the elements that create an effective essay and offer 10 practical tips to sharpen your writing skills. Becoming a proficient Essay Writer can make a significant difference in your academic and professional life. By mastering these techniques, you can enhance your ability to produce compelling, well-structured essays. By the end of this post, you’ll possess the tools needed to excel in crafting essays that stand out. (more…)

How Digital Study Techniques Improve Exam Preparation

Studying for exams can often feel like this huge, monumental task that causes not only stress but existential anxiety. But it doesn’t have to be this way – yes, the pressure is real, and yes, you may have an immensely demanding study schedule, but with the right tools and strategies, you can turn this daunting challenge into a manageable experience. Maybe even a rewarding one (yes, you read that right).

Here are some of the best digital study techniques that can make your study sessions more effective and help you ace all your exams.

Use Time-Management Tools

Let’s start with the basics: time management. To make sure your every study session is as productive as it can be, you need to learn to manage your time effectively. Meaning, when it’s time to study, you need to make every minute count.

Digital tools like calendar apps like Google Calendar or even Outlook, as well as task managers like Trello or Todoist, can help you organize your study schedule. Likewise, apps like Pomodoro can help you get more focused when studying by splitting your study sessions into 25-minute stretches of work and 5-minute breaks.

Invest in Quality Online Study Resources

There’s no reason to study like a monk – the internet is full of diverse study materials that cater to different learning styles, including yours. Websites like Khan Academy or Quizlet provide access to lectures, practice tests, and flashcards among other things.

For example, with Quizlet, you can create digital flashcards and practice tests tailored to your syllabus. If you’re preparing for a really demanding exam, like the bar exam, online resources like Quimbee offer everything you need to pass it. 

Say you want to prepare effectively for the North Carolina bar test – they have multiple full-length practice MBEs and thousands of MBE practice questions, plus offer personalized feedback from an attorney for practice essays to help you succeed. Of course, all of the course material can be studied from your computer. (more…)

Sophia Birk, a digital nomad currently living in Poland, is an international member of the AATT team of educators and a math aficionado. Here are her thoughts on navigating key topics in GCSE Maths:

From Fractions to Functions: Navigating Key Topics in GCSE Maths

The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams are a major ordeal for students and teachers. For our learners, the issue revolves around earning the best marks  – the highest grades. For teachers, preparing students for GCSE success is the greatest concern.

Maths is one of two compulsory GCSE subjects. It’s also a life skill that, woefully, far too few are well-versed in, according to statistics. Maths teachers aim to ensure learners leave school with well-developed numeracy capabilities. The GCSE exam certifies their efforts.

These papers test students over everything they learned in maths classes, from primary school through secondary education. Thus, pupils have much to revise ahead of their exams. This article presents the six key topics that feature on the exam, and what each topic covers. (more…)

Writing a great research paper involves more than just retelling what you’ve read. The foundation of any good paper is solid research. Here are five essential research techniques Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Philip Richardson, suggests for college students that can also apply to high school research projects:

Top 5 Research Techniques for Your College Papers

Writing a killer college paper takes more than smashing your fingers on your keyboard until you get up to the required word count. At the center of any decent academic effort is a heaping pile of solid research. Wernher von Braun, a famous physicist and rocket engineer, once said: “Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing”, and he has a point!

Solid research lays a great foundation for any piece of writing. But to be able to research like a pro, you need to know basic research techniques – specific methods and strategies used to gather, analyze, and interpret data effectively for academic, scientific, or commercial purposes. Regardless of whether your paper explores the mating habits of night-flying insects or the socioeconomic implications of space tourism, your methods for research can make or break your paper. Here are five time-tested research secrets that can land you awesome grades, make your professors nod appreciatively, and maybe even bring a smile to your face while you are at it. (more…)