Fresh Takes 4 Teachers
Visme – Great Tools for Making Flowcharts and Mind Maps
Visme is a graphic design tool that I’ve been using off and on for the last five years. Back when I started using Visme it
Parts of Speech Quest
ABCya offers hundreds of fun and educational games for elementary school kids. Parts of Speech Quest is one of the games that was recently featured
Five Places to Find Free Music and Sounds for Multimedia Projects
From adding music to a slideshow to adding sound effects to videos to bumper music for podcasts, there are plenty of classroom projects that require
A New and Easy ClassDojo Login for Students
Earlier this fall ClassDojo added new features to their digital portfolio tools for students and teachers. The highlight of those was the option for students
WWF Together – Revisiting a Favorite App
The World Wildlife Fund’s Together app has been one of my favorite iPad apps since the first day that I saw it more than five
MyBib is Back
The last time that I wrote about MyBib it was to report that I didn’t have any information about when it would be back online,
4 Ways to Play Seterra’s Online Geography Games
Geography Awareness Week is a coming up later this month. If you find yourself looking for some geography games for your students to play, take
Writing Checkers, Images, and Rain – The Week in Review
Good morning from soggy Maine where the deluge of rain has canceled my plans for playing outside this morning. So I’ll settle for riding my
How to Use QR Codes to Share Animated Videos
Earlier this week I answered an email from a reader who had heard someone talk about using QR codes so that people could watch animations
Two Online Primary Source Document Activities for High School Students
Earlier this week the Library of Congress launched a new crowdsourcing project called Crowd. The project seeks volunteers to transcribe primary source documents that are
Last Call for Guest Bloggers
Earlier this week I put out my annual call for guest bloggers. Tonight at midnight (Eastern time) is the deadline to apply to guest post
LOC Crowd – Crowdsourcing the Transcription of Primary Sources
The Library of Congress has launched a new crowdsourcing initiative to transcribe primary source documents. The new initiative simply called Crowd has contains collections of
What are Spices and Herbs? – And What is Pumpkin Spice?
We are in full-blown pumpkin spice season here in New England. Everywhere you look stores are selling pumpkin spice coffee, donuts, cakes, candles, and anything
Three Thanksgiving-Themed Activities To Do This Month
Now that it is November it’s time to start sharing some resources and ideas for Thanksgiving-themed lessons (apologies to readers outside of the U.S. who
It’s Time to Change the Clocks
I’m one of those rare people who actually likes turning the clocks back in the fall. Sure, it means that it gets dark earlier, but
Supercharge Student Self-Editing Skills with this Writing Checker for Google Docs
Analyzing your own writing with a critical eye can be hard to do. I know, I try to do it every day and I still
5 Good Places to Find Public Domain Video Clips
There are plenty of places to find public domain images online. But finding public domain video clips isn’t quite as easy as finding public domain
Captions, Dice, and Ninjas – The Month in Review
Good morning from Maine where we’re ready for some Halloween fun. Last year we had more than 600 trick o’ treaters come to our house!
How to Insert Equations and Special Characters Into Google Documents
Here’s a question that I get a lot when I conduct on-site G Suite for Education training, “is there an easy way to add math
700 More Writing Prompts from Make Beliefs Comix
Last week I shared an ebook of writing prompts from Make Beliefs Comix. That ebook is just one of many free writing prompt resources offered
How to Change the Color of Google Calendar Events
This week I answered an email from a reader who was looking for a way to add background images in the new (current) version of
Video Projects for Every Classroom – PD Webinar
On Sunday on Practical Ed Tech I posted a reminder about the three online PD opportunities that I’m hosting in November. One of those is
Two Good Video Explanations of Fair Use
Less than an hour after I posted this chart of alternatives to Google Image search I had two emails and one Facebook message with questions
Guest Bloggers Wanted
Once a year I host guest bloggers for a week. This year I’m doing that during the week of November 11th. In past years I
13 Alternatives to Google Image Search – Chart
I’ve seen and you’ve seen it too many times; a student or colleague needs a picture for a project so goes to Google Images and
11 Halloween Lesson Resources
Halloween is just two days away. If you’re looking for some Halloween-themed lessons, take a look at the following resources that I featured earlier this
A Handy New Way to Create New Google Docs
A few weeks ago I published a chart of G Suite for Education shortcuts that included directions on how to quickly access the various tools
Storyboards, Pictures, and Classics – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where it should be a nice morning for playing in leaf piles before the snow flies this evening. But before we
An Easy Way to Create Your Own Captioned Flipped Video Lessons
Two weeks ago I published a video about how to use the automatic captioning feature in Google Slides. A lot of people have asked if
Can You Trust YouTube “Influencers?” – A Media Literacy Lesson
Talk to almost any teenager and you’ll quickly learn that they spend more time watching YouTube videos than they do watching traditional television programming. And
Storybird – Fantastic Art to Inspire Writing
Earlier this week I was browsing for new Chrome extensions to try when I stumbled upon the Chrome extension for Storybird. The extension itself doesn’t
How to Format Tables in Google Docs
Last week Google added new ruler and margin tools to Google Docs. The new ruler that appears on the left edge of your screen can
Scrible Helps Students Organize and Use Research
Scrible is a service that helps students organize their online and offline research findings. That is done through the Scrible’s website and Chrome extension. Scrible’s
GeoGreeting – Send Messages Using Google Earth Imagery
Years ago I wrote about a service called GeoGreeting. This morning I got an email that reminded me of the service so I decided to
Let’s Talk Politics – An Alexa Game for Learning About U.S. Civics
Let’s Talk Politics is a new Alexa app designed for reviewing and learning about U.S. government. Let’s Talk Politics is an interactive game in which
Your Life in Comics – 100 Writing Prompts from Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a nice service on which students can create their own comics. But there is more to Make Beliefs Comix than just
Kids Health in the Classroom – Guides & Resources for K-12
Kids Health in the Classroom is a great place to find lesson plans, videos, and games for teaching personal health topics to students of all ages.
Create Digital Scavenger Hunts With Flippity’s New Google Sheets Template
Flippity is a site that offers great Google Sheets templates that you can use to make flashcards, timelines, and games. The latest game template added
How to Find and Modify Halloween Games in Kahoot
Halloween is only seven days away. If you’re an elementary school teacher, you might be planning to do some trick o’ treating safety reviews with
Unhangout – Video Conferencing With Break-out Groups
We’ve had “unconferences” in the form of EdCamps for years. Now we have Unhangout for “unwebinars.” Unhangout is a free video conferencing service developed by
Create Fillable PDFs and Online Forms With JotForm
JotForm is a great tool for creating fillable PDFs and online forms for things like course registration, permission slips, and course evaluations. Last week I
GoTalk – Simple Video Conferencing for Small Groups
GoTalk is a new video conferencing system designed for small groups. The GoTalk system is easy to use. Part of the reason why GoTalk is
Two New Ways for Kids to Create Stories on WriteReader
WriteReader is one of my favorite tools for elementary school students to use to create multimedia stories. The outstanding feature of the service is the
PicLits – Using Pictures to Inspire Creative Writing
PicLits is an excellent site for finding creative writing prompts. PicLits aims to provide inspiration for writing short stories. PicLits tries to reach this goal by providing users with
ClassTools SMS Generator – Text Messages Between Historical Figures
Last week I wrote about three ways that students can create social media profiles for historical and literary characters. Writing that post reminded me of
Slides from my CECA/CASL Presentations
Yesterday and today I had the privilege to speak at the CECA/CASL conference in Connecticut. It was an honor to be invited back to speak
VR, Certificates, and Google Earth – The Week in Review
Moose Tracks Good evening from Maine where it was a beautiful fall day. It was a perfect day for playing outside which is what we
TED-Ed Explains Why Students Should Read Classics
A few weeks ago TED-Ed published a lesson titled Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe? It now appears that lesson was the first in
Three Ways to Make Social Media Profiles for Historical and Literary Characters
Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who was looking for a way that her students could create fake Facebook and other
How to Create Storyboard Templates in Google Slides or PowerPoint
Creating a storyboard is an excellent way for students to plan video projects. Storyboards provide a frame-by-frame outline of the plot of a video. Even
How to Set Start and End Times for Videos in Google Slides
This morning I answered an email from a reader who had a question about ytCropper. The link ytCropper link for her cropped video wasn’t working
The Curse of Knowledge
Earlier this week I shared the 101st explanatory video published by Common Craft. More than a decade ago Common Craft pioneered using simple paper cutouts
Why Have Students Make Simple Animations?
Last week I wrote about having middle school students create presentations from a combination of illustrations and videos that they made. In that post I
Plickers Brings Back Individual Student Reports!
Back in September the folks at Plickers, a popular student-response service, released a bunch of updates to their mobile apps and website. Some of those
EDU in 90 – Short Overviews of Google’s Education Products
I have published more than 250 Google tools tutorial videos over the last few years. But if my dry screencasts aren’t your style, try Google’s
JotForm – A Better Way to Create Online Forms
Disclosure: JotForm is an advertiser on FreeTech4teachers.com If you have ever looked at a form on a web page and thought, “I’d like my forms
A New LOC Online Collection – Theodore Roosevelt’s Papers
I have always found Theodore Roosevelt to be one of the most fascinating characters in U.S. History. That is why I was excited this morning
New Accessibility Options in Flipgrid and Other Microsoft Products
This week Microsoft unveiled a slew of new accessibility options for the services that teachers and students use most. One of those features is the
Common Craft Releases Its 101st Explainer Video
This week Common Craft published their 101st explainer video. The latest video is about understanding terms of service agreements on websites and apps. Like nearly
Wakelet Makes it Easier to Organize Bookmarks
Wakelet is quickly becoming a popular choice amongst teachers who want to create collections of notes that can include text, videos, links, and pictures. Students
How to Design a Custom Certificate in Google Slides
On Monday I shared tutorials for two ways to send personalized certificates via Google Forms and Google Sheets. What I didn’t include in those tutorials
Case Maker – Civics Lessons Built on Primary Sources
Case Maker is a free service designed for middle school social studies teachers and their students. Case Maker uses primary sources from the Library of
A Science, Math, and History Lesson in One Short Video
Reactions is a YouTube channel produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. The videos in the channel focus on explaining how chemistry
A New Vertical Ruler and New Margin Settings in Google Docs
Google has added two new formatting features to Google Docs. First, there is now a vertical ruler that you can use to evenly space the
Halloween Articles for ELA Lessons
ReadWorks is a popular service that offers a huge library of standards-aligned ELA lesson plans for K-12. You can search the ReadWorks library according to
How to Import Files Into Google Earth
In my previous post I shared the steps that I took to find a Google Earth file that contains more than 550 ancient locations in
How I Found a Google Earth File of 550+ Ancient Greek Places
Last night on Twitter Wes Fryer asked me if I knew of any Google Earth files that displayed ancient Greek locations. I didn’t have anything
For the Love of Lit – Four Free Webinars for ELA Teachers
This week PBS Education is hosting the first webinar in a four part virtual professional development series called For the Love of Lit. This series
Why You Need a Flu Shot Every Year – A TED-Ed Science Lesson
This morning Lifehacker ran an article encouraging people to get a flu shot (the title of the article is not school-appropriate so I won’t link
How to Send Personalized Certificates via Google Forms or Google Sheets
From perfect attendance to volunteerism to honor roll there are lots of occasions during the school year for schools to issue certificates to students. It
New Ways to Personalize Certificates in the Certify’em Google Forms Add-on
Certify’em is a Google Forms Add-on that I have been using all year to issue certificates when people complete one of my professional development webinars
Join 16,000+ Who Get Their Ed Tech Tips This Way
Every Sunday evening I send out the Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week. I started doing that four years ago as a way to
Animations, Screencasts, and Podcasts – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where I’m home for a while after nearly four weeks of speaking at conferences and consulting with schools. When I started
One Click Provides More Room to Work in Google Docs
I just spent the last three weeks working with students and teachers who had Chromebooks as their primary computers throughout the school day. One of
Answers to FAQs About Automatic Captioning of Google Slides
Last night I published a video demonstration of the new automatic captioning feature in Google Slides. Today, I’ve received eight emails from readers asking questions
Kindness Bookmarks and Kindness Bingo
This week I had the opportunity to observe a great teacher-librarian in action at Sigsbee Charter School in Key West, Florida. One of the activities
How to Use Automatic Captioning in Google Slides
Earlier this week Google announced a new automatic captioning feature for Google Slides. That feature is slowing rolling-out to users over the next couple of
60 Second Adventures in Religion – Animated Explanations
Some days I scroll through Feedly or Facebook and come across things that immediately make me think of a current or former colleague. That is
A Halloween Writing Activity for Elementary and Middle School Students
Earlier this week I shared a bunch of Halloween-themed math and science resources. If you’re looking for a writing activity that has a Halloween theme,
How to Create Personalized Certificates in Bulk Through Google Sheets
Creating a certificate for one or a few students is a fairly straight forward process. You can use Google Slides, Canva, or any number of
Using Brush Ninja and Screencastify to Make Science Presentations
This week I had the opportunity to work in an eighth grade science class. I was there to help their teacher help them learn new
Recap is Shutting Down
Swivl has announced that they are shutting down their Recap service and replacing it with a new podcasting service called Synth. Once a competitor to
Synth – Quickly Record Short, Interactive Podcasts
Synth is a new service from Swivl. Synth is a free service that you can use to record short podcast episodes that are up to
More Halloween Science and Math Lessons
Last week I shared a handful of Halloween-themed math and science activities. PBS Learning Media also has a collection of Halloween-themed science and mathematics lessons.
Eight Options for Creating Screencasts on Chromebooks
Recording screencasts is one relatively easy way to get started making videos in your classroom. Today, I helped some middle school students make screencasts in
Google Classroom Now Has a Random Name Selector
Google Classroom has a new random name selector tool available in the Google Classroom Android app. As announced by Google earlier today the random name
Two Detailed Presentations About Copyright for Educators
Earlier this evening I answered an email from a teacher who was looking for some resources about copyright that she could share with colleagues in
The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival – Videos Based on Newbery Winning Books
Thanks to one of the great teachers that I am working with at Sigsbee Charter School I learned about the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. The
Google Is Shutting Down Google+
This afternoon Google published an official blog post about their Project Strobe data and privacy audit project. The leading portion of that Google announced that the
Google Has Added a Captioning System to Google Slides
Today, Google announced a new Google Slides feature that some teachers are going to love. Google Slides now has a real-time captioning system. This system
Good Reminders About Password Security
The mot recent Facebook hoax making its rounds has prompted me to remind everyone about the importance of using strong and varied passwords (don’t use
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada. As an American I was relatively ignorant of this holiday until about six years ago. If you’re an American or
YouTube, Math, and Media – The Week in Review
Good evening from Maine where I was home for the day before having to fly back to Florida tomorrow morning. Next week I’ll be finishing
ytCropper – Share a Section of a YouTube Video
This week I answered an email from someone who had read my article 10 Tools for Teaching With YouTube Videos and wanted to know if
VR, AR, Video, and the Best of the Web – Slides from Today’s Presentations
Good evening from the Pittsburgh International Airport where I’m about to board a flight home after a great day presenting in Morgantown, West Virginia at
What Happened to MyBib? – An Update
Back in August I wrote a blog post and made a video about a promising new bibliography tool called MyBib. Judging by the number of
Add Custom Covers to Podcasts You Make on Anchor
Anchor has become my favorite tool for creating podcasts. In a matter of minutes you can have your first podcast episode recorded, edited, and published
Wakelet Has a New Sections Option
Wakelet is a free bookmarking and note-sharing service that I first tried back in April when I started to look for new alternatives to Padlet.
Virtual Dice and Random Number Generators
On Wednesday morning I was looking for an online tool that would roll virtual dice for a game that I had designed for a faculty