Fresh Takes 4 Teachers
A Thanksgiving Special!
As many of you know, the primary means of support for Free Technology for Teachers comes through the sales of my Practical Ed Tech courses
Copy Specific Pages in Google Sites
Google Sites (the new, current version) has a new feature that could be helpful to those people who make a lot of variations of the
How to Create Filters and Labels in Gmail
Last week I answered an email from a reader who wanted to make sure that email from specific senders always ended up in a priority
My Big List of Resources for Teaching & Learning About American Thanksgiving
American Thanksgiving is later this week. All month long I’ve been sharing Thanksgiving-themed resources and ideas. This post combines all of them into one place.
How to Create Re-usable Daily Check-in Forms
Last week a reader emailed me with a question about creating a form that could be used many times over for things like daily check-in
Three Updated Google Docs Features
Over the last month or so Google has added some handy new features to Google Docs. I’ve written about them as they were announced by
Hands-on Activities for Learning About Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
Like millions of other Americans the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will be on the television in my house this coming Thursday morning. Just like last year
Docs, Geography, and Videos – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where I’m home after a great trip to Nebraska earlier in the week. It was great to spend time with my
The Heimlich Manuever Saved My Life
Last Saturday my friend Kris Still saved my life by performing the Heimlich manuever when I was choking on an omelette in a lovely little
Scribble Maps – Draw on Google Maps and More Without an Account
To close out Geography Awareness Week 2021 I have one more cool tool to share. Scribble Maps is a tool that I’ve used and recommended
How to Blur Faces in Videos With Screencastify
Screencastify is an excellent tool for quickly creating screencast videos. What you might not know is that you can also use Screencastify’s free video editor
Five Helpful PowerPoint Features You Might Be Overlooking
PowerPoint isn’t the flashiest ed tech tool on the block and it certainly isn’t the newest. In fact, you might have read “PowerPoint” and thought
How to Create Digital Thankfulness Turkeys
Last fall the switch to online and hybrid classes presented lots of challenges and required changing the way that we have done some of our
Three Ways to Make Green Screen Videos
Making a green screen video can be a lot of fun for students and also a lot of fun for peers, parents, and teachers to
The Suprising Origins of Thanksgiving Foods
Yesterday morning I published blog post in which I shared an ESRI Story Map of where traditional Thanksgiving foods are grown today in the United
My Top Three Tools for Creating Audio Slideshow Videos
The audio slideshow style of video is probably the easiest of all video formats to create. It’s also one of the most misunderstood when it
Mapping Where Food Comes From
Where Does Your Thanksgiving Dinner Come From? is an interactive storymap that I’ve shared in the past and still find to be a neat resource. The
Seven Good Tools for Making Animations
Making animations is a great way for students to bring their written stories to life on screen. Depending upon the story, the animation could be
The Science of My Favorite Thanksgiving Foods
I don’t think there’s a meal I like better than a classic Thanksgiving turkey with potatoes, squash, stuffing and cranberry sauce from a can (my
My Big List of Activities and Resources for Geography Awareness Week
This week is Geography Awareness Week. It’s one of my favorite weeks of the year! Every year at this time I publish an updated list
Three Random Name Pickers
From picking a line leader, to calling on a student during a discussion, to drawing a prize-winner there are plenty of times when we all
How to Overlay Historical Maps on Current Maps
Next week is Geography Awareness Week. Google Earth is my favorite educational technology tool to use to teach history and geography lessons. And one of
PowerPoint, PBL, and Mountain Lions – The Week in Review
Good morning from Nebraska where I’m visiting my good friends Kris and Beth Still. Long-time readers of my blog will remember that Beth filled in
How to Use ClassPoint – Teacher and Student Views
Disclosure: ClassPoint is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Earlier this week I published a written overview of a new-to-me PowerPoint tool called ClassPoint. It’s a great
A Geography Awareness Week Special
Next week is my favorite academic week of the year. It’s Geography Awareness Week! On Sunday I’ll be publishing a big list of resources for
See What’s Behind a Bitly Link Without Clicking On It
Bitly is a convenient tool for creating short URLs to share in place of long URLs. I’ve used it for years to create customized URLs
How to Create Live, Subtitled Translations of Presentations
One of the questions we answered during this afternoon’s session of Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions was, “I want to be able to translate
Take a Look at Your Google Docs Activity Dashboard
The activity dashboard is one of the “hidden” or overlooked features of Google Docs that I use on a fairly regular basis. It’s a handy
How to Create Multimedia Maps in Padlet
Padlet is one of the most versatile ed tech tools you can put in your digital toolbox. Creating multimedia maps is one of the many
Solving Problems With Simple Machines
A couple of weeks ago one of the most popular posts of the week was A Cute Series of Videos About Engineering. That post was
Three Tools for Adding Must-Answer Questions to Videos
This post was inspired by an old colleague who sent me a note on a couple of days ago seeking some advice about getting his
Try Tract for PBL and Win Prizes
Disclosure: Tract is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com “Real world projects have to be projects that matter to kids” is something that I say whenever
Free Webinar This Thursday – Two EdTech Guys Take Questions
This Thursday at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT Rushton Hurley from Next Vista for Learning and I are hosting the fifth episode of the second season of Two Ed
Lumio – Connect With Your Class
Disclosure: Lumio is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Lumio is a new online learning platform that you can use to create and deliver engaging lessons
ClassPoint – Turn PowerPoint Into an Interactive Teaching Tool
Disclosure: ClassPoint is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com ClassPoint is a new-to-me PowerPoint tool that I’m excited to see used in online and in-person classroom and
How to Hyperlink PowerPoint Slides for Choose-Your-Own Adventure Stories
In this week’s Practical Ed Tech newsletter I shared five uses for PowerPoint and Google Slides besides making presentations. One of those uses is to
Resources for Teaching and Learning About Veterans Day
Veterans Day is this Thursday. If you find yourself looking for some quick lessons to review with your students, here’s a small collection for you.
How to Create a Random Name and Group Picker
Flippity has gone through some changes over the last few months that were frustrating for users (and the developer). Fortunately, it seems that almost all
Engineering, Games, and Puns – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where it’s a brisk 24F while I wait for the sun to rise. After the sun rises and it warms up
Questions from my Daughters – What is Frost?
On my phone I keep a list titled “Questions from my Daughters.” Whenever they ask a question that is interesting to them and is one
The 2021 Great Thanksgiving Listen
The Great Thanksgiving Listen hosted by StoryCorps is back for the seventh year in a row. This annual event is intended to get people to
Five Good Places to Find and Create Story Starters for Students
When it comes to creative writing assignments, the hardest step for many students is coming up with things to write about. Fortunately, there are many
Webinar Recording and Next Live Webinar – Two EdTech Guys Take Questions
Last week Rushton Hurley and I hosted the fourth fall installment of our Two EdTech Guys Take Questions series. In the episode we answered questions
NatGeo MapMaker – Create, Share, and Print Custom Maps
National Geographic MapMaker is a nice mapping tool that I’ve been using and recommending for years. It was recently updated with an improved user interface,
A Punny Explanation of Savings Bonds
Last weekend I was talking with a friend about Christmas presents for our kids when I sarcastically said, “just give them savings bonds, that’s what
Google Docs Gets an Improved Citation Option
For a few years I recommended EasyBib’s Google Docs add-on for creating citations and bibliographies in Google Documents. I got away from it when it
Reading Progress + ReadWorks in Microsoft Teams = Awesome!
This fall I’ve been seeing a lot of people Tweet about how much they like the new Reading Progress feature in Microsoft Teams. Not being
TinyTap – Create Your Own Educational Games in Your Browser
TinyTap is a company that is best known for its iPad app that lets teachers create educational games to share with their students. I’ve used
Certify’em – Send Personalized Certificates via Google Forms
Certify’em is a Google Forms add-on that I’ve been using for the last few years whenever I need to distribute personalized certificates. Certify’em will automatically
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow – Only Two Weeks Left to Enter
Disclosure: Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow contest is a STEM project contest that awards large educational technology
How to Use Google Books
Google Books is one of my favorite search tools. Unfortunately, students often overlook it as a research tool unless they’ve been shown how it works.
Embed Google Forms & Microsoft Forms into Canva Designs
It seem like every week I find something new and interesting that can be done with Canva. Last Friday I discovered that you can embed
The Most Popular Posts in October
Good evening from Maine where the sun has set on the month of October. Some of the colorful leaves of autumn are still clinging to
It’s That Time Again…
Daylight Saving Time ends today for many of my friends in Europe and it ends next Sunday for those of us in North American states
A Cute Series of Videos About Engineeering
SciShow Kids recently published series of three videos about engineering. You wouldn’t normally associate engineering with cute, but in this case it’s an appropriate match.
Widgets, Videos, and Maps – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where my kids are eagerly anticipating Halloween! They had a little celebration at their preschool on Friday and now they can’t
How to Use Canva’s Image Background Remover
It’s not a secret that I really like the many ways that Canva can be used to create graphics, videos, presentations, and simple websites. Within
A Short Lesson on the Long History of Electric Cars
The Surprisingly Long History of Electric Cars is a new TED-Ed lesson that should be of interest to anyone who is curious about electric vehicles.
A Good Source of Last-minute Halloween Games
I mentioned this in the list of Halloween-themed resources that I shared a few weeks ago, but I thought it would be worth reminding you
The Living Atlas of the World
The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is a collection of thousands of online, interactive maps representing all kinds of data. The contents of the
An Easy Way to Remove Things from Pictures
CleanUp.Pictures is a new online tool for quickly editing your pictures. With CleanUp.Pictures you can selectively remove objects and imperfections from your pictures. You can
How to Share Specific Google Earth Views and Turn Them Into Assignments
Google Earth has a lot of great little features that sometimes get overlooked. One of those features is the ability to share a specific location
Unfolding History – A New Library of Congress Blog
The Library of Congress has started a new blog called Unfolding History. The blog is written by the staff of the Manuscript Division of
Accessible Online Physics Simulations
PhET is a service that provides free interactive math and science simulations covering topics in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics. It has been
Practical Ed Tech Tips on Instagram
If you’re an Instagram user who likes to find new ideas for using technology in your classroom, I have a new Instagram account for you
Free Webinar on Thursday – Two EdTech Guys Take Questions
This Thursday at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT Rushton Hurley from Next Vista for Learning and I are hosting the second episode of the second season of Two Ed
BookWidgets – Create Unique Online Activities for Your Students
BookWidgets is a service for creating interactive online activities. It has been on my radar for a while and last week I finally gave it
How to Enter Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow Contest
Disclosure: Samsung is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com As I shared last week, Samsung’s 12th annual Solve for Tomorrow contest is now open for submissions. The
Accessibility in Google Docs and Slides
On Saturday morning I published a video about word art, fonts, and special characters in Google Docs and Slides. Later in the day someone Tweeted
A Video Project for the Week – Halloween Safety
Halloween is just seven days away. Ten days ago I shared my updated list of Halloween-themed activities and resources. In that list I included playing
Forms, Earth, and STEM – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where it is still dark as I draft this blog post. In fact, it will be dark for at least another
Tips on Word Art, Fonts, and Special Characters in Google Docs and Slides
Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who wanted some advice to pass along to colleagues about using custom fonts in Google
Create a Portfolio With Carrd.co
I often get asked for recommendations for simple website builders that teachers and students can use to create small websites. Google Sites is fine, but
A Helpful New Feature for Formatting Google Docs
Google Docs users who regularly create multiple page documents will be happy to learn that Google is adding a new page break feature to Google
Google Adds More Audio and Video Controls to Google Meet
This week Google announced a new feature that will be welcomed by any teacher who regularly uses Google Meet to host online classes. That feature
An Interactive Land Use Map
WorldCover Viewer is a new interactive land use map produced by the European Space Agency. The map lets visitors see how land is used worldwide
Reminder – Old Google Sites are Going Away!
After five years of warnings, Google is finally ending support for the old version of Google Sites on December 1st. If you’ve been clinging to
The United Nations Explained for Kids
A couple of weeks ago I discovered CBC Kids News and I shared a great video that explains what the word indigenous means when referring
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow – Timeline Extended
On Tuesday I published a blog post about Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow contest that is now open for entries. This afternoon it was brought to
I’m Feeling Lucky – A Google Earth Lesson
From voyages to games to simple measuring tools, the web version of Google Earth has a lot of neat features that can help students learn
Five Ways to Use Wakelet in Your Classroom
Yesterday’s blog post about using Wakelet to create instructional videos got me thinking about other ways that Wakelet can be used in classrooms. Here’s an
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow – A Great STEM Contest for Students!
Disclosure: this is a sponsored post about a topic I’ve covered in the past. The 12th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest is now open
How to Record an Instructional Video in Wakelet
Wakelet is an excellent tool for creating collections of bookmarks, notes, and files to share with your students. It has has a built-in video creation
An Easy Way to Make an Animated Video in Canva
Last week Canva launched a new online video editing studio. I gave it a try last week and recorded a short overview of the basics
An Overview of Google Forms Quiz Settings
Back in July I published a series of videos and blog posts detailing what you need to know to get started using Google Classroom, Drive,
How to Share Google Arts & Culture Experiences in Google Classroom
Last week Google Arts & Culture published a great online exhibit titled Walk the Great Wall. It’s a fantastic colleciton of Street View imagery and
Copyright, Handbooks, and Goals – The Week in Review
Good morning from Vermont where in a few hours I’ll be riding in my last bike race of the year, The Hibernator. I still have
Gary Paulsen Talks About Reading and Writing
Gary Paulsen’s book, Hatchet was the first book that I willingly and eagerly read from cover to cover when I was in elementary school. It
Self-Paced Professional Development
The primary means through which I am able to keep Free Technology for Teachers going is through consulting and speaking engagements along with the sales
Life on Minimum Wage – A Personal Economics Simulation Game
Almost twelve years ago I published a Google Document that outlines a personal economics simulation that I conducted in my classroom. For many years after
How to Create a Video in Canva
Yesterday, Canva released a new video editor. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about it, Canva has had some video creation tools for a couple
Fifteen Exit Ticket Questions for Almost Any Classroom
This is an excerpt from this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter. The newsletter is sent every Sunday evening (Eastern Time) and it includes my tip
A New Video Editing Tool from Canva
Over the years I’ve used Canva to create everything from simple social media graphics to websites and dozens of things in between including making short
Blackbird – Coding as a Conduit
Last spring I trialed a new learn-to-code platform called Blackbird. As I wrote in May, I liked it and most of my students liked it.
Tour the Great Wall of China – A New Google Arts & Culture Experience
After Google announced the closure of Google Expeditions earlier this year Google Arts & Culture became the place to go to find much of the virtual
Ten Skills Students Can Learn from Google’s Applied Digital Skills Lessons
Disclosure: this article was written as a paid partnership with Google for Education. Over the years I’ve always recommended creating your own lesson plans as
My Updated List of Halloween-themed Activities and Resources
Halloween is just a couple of weeks away. My daughters are getting excited to wear their costumes (they’re going to be Winnie the Pooh and
How to Combine Multiple Google Forms Questions in One New Form
One of my top time-savers when creating a new Google Form is to import questions from other forms that I’ve previously created. For example, if
How to Schedule Re-use of Google Forms
Earlier this week a reader sent me a question about re-using the same Google Form multiple times per week or month. The idea being that