How Low-Carb Diets Fuel High-Achieving Students Have you ever considered that your diet could be the secret weapon in your quest for academic success? It’s not just about fueling late-night study sessions or grabbing a quick bite between classes. What if the foods you choose could directly enhance focus and memory retention?  Low-carb diets are more than just a trend; they’re transforming high-achievers into unstoppable forces in classrooms and beyond. From stabilizing mood to managing weight effectively, let’s delve into how cutting down on carbs can ignite your educational journey. 5 W ..read more

The psychology of motivation: Strategies for engaging students Motivation plays a role not only in people’s choice to get involved in their goals but also in their behavior, persistence, and, ultimately, success. It is imperative for educators to be aware of the essence of motivation in education in order to create a stimulating environment where students can learn and develop. Through understanding motivation, educators will discover various sophisticated techniques to attract attention and instill a love for learning among students for life. What does motivation entail? Motivation is a phen ..read more

Here are popular online resources to teach about news sources for kids (click here for updates to this list): Allsides (news stories compared across multiple political perspectives) Breaking News–from Class Tools, create your own screen BBC News (app) C News for kids Kids News – Current Events Listenwise Newsela–news for kids, reformatted at different reading levels News-o-matic for kids (app) NewseumEd News for Kids–free Newspaper Navigator–from the Library of Congress; search endless newspapers PBS Newshour Extra–for grades 7-12 Scholastic TeachingKidsNews TweenTribune–by Sm ..read more

Every year, the United Nations recognizes April 22nd as International Mother Earth Day. It is a day we can all participate in making our air clean, our water fresh and our land unlittered rather than accepting the trash-filled oceans, the smoggy skies, and the debris-laden land that is becoming the norm. Despite the questionable health of our world, we have made progress. Back in 1970, when Earth Day was first celebrated, trucks spewed black smoke as they drove down the highways, toxic waste was dumped into oceans with no repercussions, and the general opinion was that the Earth took care of ..read more

Generative AI is an exploding influence in education with lots of potential but unknown outcomes. Most people focus on its impact on school research, lesson plans–that sort–but another piece isn’t considered often enough: its impact on student mental health. This next article from but we’ll do in this article from Education Week does Educators, teens differ on AI’s mental health effects Teens and educators hold divergent views on its mental health effects of AI, with educators expressing more concern about negative impacts, including cyberbullying and the ability of algorithms to create addic ..read more

Cybersecurity threats in K-12 schools are a growing concern as educational institutions increasingly rely on technology for teaching, learning, and administrative purposes. Some common cybersecurity threats faced by K-12 schools include data breaches, BYOD policies, unsecured WiFi networks, insider threats, and lack of security awareness training. It’s this last that’s addressed by this article from Smartbrief: Program teaches cybersecurity to K-12 administrators Ohio’s Sinclair Community College, in collaboration with D2L, a learning technology company, has introduced a free cybersecurity co ..read more

The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘essay’ as” a short piece of writing on a particular subject Most students write their first essay by third grade, probably enjoy the process because of its non-threatening narrative exploration of their thoughts, but by Middle School, the rules and requirements that made essay writing fun change: In a school test, an essay is a written answer that includes information and discussion, usually to test how well the student understands the subject. The Ask a Tech Tea ..read more

I–like many teachers–do a lot of prep for my teaching, often requiring digital desktop publishing platforms. Between newsletters for parents, announcements on social media, communications for students and parents, and more, it became a challenge to demonstrate the excitement and engagement of learning through what could be boring tools. Then I got an email from the folks at Creative Fabrica. My norm with these sorts of solicitations (I get about a dozen a week) is give the website ten seconds to grab me or lose me. With Creative Fabrica–I was sold faster. How had I never seen this amazing web ..read more

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from previous months:  I’ve been blogging for about sixteen years, some professionally (for my tech ed career) and others on topics of interest to me (writing, USNA, and science). That first post– The Edit Block (don’t bother to click through. It’s boring) putting myself on the line, ignoring that I had no hits, wanting to approve comments from spammers because that would look like someone loved me–I thought that was the hard part. The second post was easier and so it went. But somewh ..read more

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy! Q: Some kids are hard workers, but they just don’t get computers. Their effort deserves a good grade, but their product is nowhere near class requirements. What can I do? A: Don’t be afraid to give students a Mulligan–a do-over for you non-golfers. Some students don’t perform well under the pressure of a deadline. Some are so sure they’re no good at technology ..read more