But you're in school so it's time to learn new stuff and the ajax basics really aren't that hard. You also would need such kind of technique because it makes it possible to do operations like uploading without the page refreshing. So just dive in and soon find out that although it sounds somewhat scary, it really can be quite simple and effective. Not even mentioning the credits you get at school by impressing your teachers and fellow students :-D
Just a link with some ajax basics but you sure have found some yourself :)
http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/index.html?whichTutorial=ajax-[
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Good luck!