Fresh Takes 4 Teachers
Add Audio to Images In SeeSaw Digital Portfolios
SeeSaw is a great platform for creating digital portfolios. Whether students use the free SeeSaw iPad app, the Android app, the Chrome app, or just
How to Include Video Feedback in Google Forms
Google Forms is a great platform for creating all kinds of simple quiz and review activities. One of the features of Google Forms that is
21 TED-Ed Lessons About Animals
Writing yesterday’s post about how animals see in the dark inspired me to look through the TED-Ed catalog for more interesting lessons about animals. As
Time Is Money – And Other Short Lessons on Money
The majority of the high school students that I’ve had over the years has been engaged by personal finance lessons. This is probably due in
An Easy Way to Distribute Contact Info During an Open House
At back-to-school night parents usually end up with collection of papers that they may or may not be saved for reference throughout the school year.
How Do Animals See In the Dark?
How Do Animals See In the Dark? is a TED-Ed lesson that can help your students understand why their pet cats and other animals are
5 Dice – An App to Help Students Learn the Order of Operations
5 Dice is a nice iPad app that provides students with a place to practice and develop their understanding of the order of operations. The 5
A Good App to Help Students Pace Presentations
PaceRecorder is a simple Android app that records your voice and gives you instant feedback about the pace with which you are speaking. The feedback
TinEye – Conduct Reverse Image Searches
TinEye is a reverse image search engine. What that means is that instead of searching for images by keyword you search for images by uploading an image
Otter & Sqworl – Two Helpful Tools for Teachers
Scurry Labs is a small company that develops helpful web applications for teachers. Two their best products for teachers are called Otter and Sqworl. Otter is
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good afternoon from Connecticut where I’m getting ready for my youngest brother’s wedding. That’s him in the picture to the left. He’s a high school
Three Google Forms Add-ons To Help You Manage Parent Volunteers
Google Forms offers a great way to collection information from parents when you’re seeking parents to volunteer to chaperone a field trip, help out in
My Go-to Google Tools for Social Studies Classrooms
Over the years I’ve used a lot of Google tools in my social studies classes. Some of those tools, like Wonder Wheel and Notebook, no
Smarthistory Offers a Crash Course in Art History
Smarthistory offers is a free online alternative to expensive art history textbooks. Smarthistory features more than just images of notable works of art. The combination of video
Students Can Collaboratively Create Timelines on HSTRY
HSTRY is a neat timeline creation tool that I’ve been a fan of since it launched a couple of years ago. One of the features
Try Math Landing for K-6 Mathematics Resources
Math Landing is a database of mathematics lessons and interactive resources for use in elementary school. You can search for lessons and interactive resources by grade
A Couple of Short Lessons About Labor Day
Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer in North America. Schools that started in August had a long weekend and the rest will start
Reminder – Update Your Browser for Maximum Performance and Security
A couple of times this week I have had people contact me about web tools not working the same way on their computers as they
A Variety of Ways for Students to Explore National Parks Online
Last week the edublog-o-sphere was buzzing with the news of Google’s publication of new National Parks virtual tours available in the Google Arts & Culture
Timers, Word Clouds, and Kahoot
At the end of every month I like to take a look at the search terms visitors frequently use on Free Technology for Teachers. It
The Month in Review – The Most Popular Posts
It’s the end of a busy month for me and I’m sure a busy month for everyone reading this blog who started the new school
6000+ Children’s Books Available for Free
The University of Florida’s Digital Collections offers a huge library of digitized children’s books. Thanks to Open Culture I discovered this collection this afternoon and
CNN Student News Is Back for 2016-17
For many years CNN Student News has been my go-to resource for current events lessons for middle school and high school students. Every summer CNN Student
Two Ways to Visually Show Classroom Noise
Bouncy Balls is a free online noise meter that shows students the volume of the noise in your classroom. Bouncy Balls does this by displaying a set
Three Tools That Help Students Take Notes While Watching Videos
Creating flipped lessons in which students answer questions about a video that you make them watch can be one way to check whether or not
6 Tools That Can Help Students Keep Track of Tasks
Services like Cel.ly and Remind are great for sending reminders about important school and classroom events to parents and students. That said, students shouldn’t rely
Khan Academy Adds 21 Free iPad Apps to Their Offerings
In what looks like a clear move to try to reach the elementary school market, Khan Academy has acquired Duck Duck Moose. Duck Duck Moose
Download Your Videos – Knowmia and ScreenChomp Close In Three Days
Earlier this summer TechSmith announced that they were closing some of their free apps that teachers loved. That list includes the whiteboard video creation apps
Remind Introduces a New Way to Coordinate Activities
Remind is one of my favorite tools for keeping parents informed about what’s happening in your school. Last week Remind released a new feature that
Padlet’s Remake Feature Lets You Use & Create Templates
Last week the folks at Padlet introduced their fourth update of the summer. In June they overhauled the user interface and published a best of
The Week in Review – A New Team Member
Good morning from Maine where I’m writing my first blog post since Tuesday morning (yes, I write and schedule posts in advance). I haven’t written
How to Import and Convert PowerPoint to Google Slides
One of the questions that I often receive when I conduct Google Apps workshops for schools goes something like this, “what do I do with
A Good Way to Refine YouTube Search Results
When you search on YouTube the results will be a mix of current videos along with videos that could be many years old and no
How to Use Simplenote to Take Notes
Simplenote is a free service for taking notes on just about any device. You can use it in your web browser, on an Android device, on
Cite This For Me – Cite Websites In One Click
Cite This For Me is a free service designed to help students keep track of the resources that they use in their research work. Cite
5 Handy Google Slides Features You Should Know – Here’s How to Use Them
This is the time of year when many teachers and students start to use Google Apps for Education for the first time. It’s also the
4 Ways to Create Image-based Quizzes
Whether it is a graph for a math class, a diagram for a science class, or a map for a geography class there are plenty
5 Tools to Help Keep Your Students and Yourself Active & Healthy
The new school year always feels like a new calendar year to me as many students and teachers have “resolutions” for the new school year.
Wonderville – Science and Technology Games for Kids
Wonderville is a great website for kids on which students can find games, videos, comics, and hands-on activities for learning about science and technology. The gallery of
A Cautionary Note About Using Public Cloud Printers
A couple of weeks ago I went to a national office supply store to print sixty documents in color in high resolution. I only need
A Simple Way to Make Your Own Google Maps Street View Game
Earlier this week I stumbled upon a local radio station’s blog in which they had posted a little game called How Well Do You Know
11 Google Apps Updates You Might Have Missed This Summer – PDF
Over the summer Google released a bunch of updates to teachers’ and students’ favorite Google Apps. If you took a little break from your school
How to Create a Map and Timeline Mashup
myHistro is a free multimedia timeline creation tool. When you create a timeline on myHistro each event that you add can be simultaneously displayed on
TurboNote – Take & Share Notes While Watching Videos
TurboNote is a great Chrome extension that enables you to take notes while watching a video in the same web browser window. Unlike some similar
A Google Apps Guidebook Published by Students
My friend Kern Kelley and his students at Nokomis High School in Newport, Maine have spent most of this year putting together The Google Apps
Mac Users Can Now Quickly Move From Evernote to OneNote
If you’re one of the many people considering leaving Evernote after the latest round of “updates” made its free plan almost worthless, Microsoft has something
Google Expeditions Will Soon Be Available to iPad Users
Last week Google released another round of updates to their Expeditions program. Expeditions is the virtual reality program that lets students experience immersive views of
How to Impose Time Limits on Google Forms
Google Forms is a great tool for creating and delivering online quizzes and surveys. Like with any quiz or survey, you may find yourself needing
Remember to Sleep – A Lesson for Students
As the new school year gets going there will be plenty of students and teachers who are adjusting to a new sleeping schedule. It can
50 for 50 Writing Contest for Students
Middle school and high school social studies teachers in the U.S. who are looking for a writing project to start the year, should take a
15 Google Forms Tutorial Videos
On Friday I published a new video guide to using Google Forms for new users. As I noted when I published that video, there are
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from Maine where we’re still enjoying summer even if there are a few leaves starting to change. One of the hallmarks of late
5 Google Apps Updates You Might Have Missed This Week
This week Google released a bunch of updates to many of their tools that are popular with teachers. Here’s a short overview of those updates.
Padlet Adds a New Post Attribution Feature
It is a not a secret that Padlet is one of my favorite ed tech tools for all classrooms. From creating KWL charts to simple
How to Get Started Using Google Forms for Classroom Quizzes
Google Forms can be a powerful tool for creating and delivering quizzes to your students. It also has a bunch of great features for gathering
Science Bob Helps Students Start Science Fair Projects
Science Bob is a good resource for elementary school and middle school students in search of ideas for science fair projects. Science Bob has dozens of suggestions for
Two Graphing Tools for Google Docs
The question that I often hear from mathematics teachers about Google Documents is, “are there any features for me?” The answer is, “yes, but they
Create Beautiful Presentations in Haiku Deck Classroom
Disclosure: Haiku Deck is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Haiku Deck is a great visual storytelling tool that I have raved about since the first time
How to Use Images as Answer Choices in Google Forms
In addition to the exciting updates to Google Classroom that were released yesterday, Google also released a great update to Google Forms. You can now
Wild Music – Songs and Sounds of Wildlife
Wild Music is a fun and educational website on which students can learn about sounds commonly heard in nature. On Wild Music students can listen
Try Lucidpress for Editing a School Newspaper
On Wednesday afternoon I received the following question from a reader: One thing I struggle with is a user friendly online newspaper/magazine creator that kids
YouTube Live Will Replace Google Hangouts On Air
Teachers and students who have been using Google+ Hangouts on Air to host tutoring sessions or to host virtual guests in their classrooms will want
Annotate Documents In the Updated Google Classroom Apps
Earlier I shared the exciting news that Google Classroom now lets you share daily and weekly activity summaries with parents. That wasn’t the only exciting
Finally! Google Classroom Lets You Share With Parents
The complaint about Google Classroom that I’ve heard more than any other over the last couple of years has been, “parents can’t see what’s happening.”
How to Use the Lesson Plan Add-on In Google Docs
Update June 2020: OpenEd was acquired by ACT and is no longer online. This add-on no longer exists. Last month OpenEd released a new Google
Six Good Places to Find Free Music and Sound Effects
In my post earlier today about tools for creating book trailer videos I mentioned a couple of sources of free sound effects and music. Picking
The Four Things Students Need to Create Good Book Trailers
Creating book trailer videos is a great alternative to a traditional written book report assignment. In a book trailer video students highlight their favorite elements
Keep Kids Active With GoNoodle or Sworkit Kids
GoNoodle is a free service that is designed to promote physical fitness in a fun environment. GoNoodle features tons of free videos that lead students
The Threat of Invasive Species
When you drive into my home state of Maine two of the first signs you’ll notice are a sign to watch for moose and a
A Good Lesson on Hurricanes
The Atlantic hurricane season season is here and It’s Okay To Be Smart (produced by PBS) has a new video lesson about hurricanes. By watching
Six Audio Recording Tools That Work In Your Web Browser
As I have mentioned over the last couple of days, last week someone rightly pointed out to me that the Practical Ed Tech Tips playlist on my YouTube
GPlates Portal – Visualizations of Geophysical and Geological Data
GPlates Portal is a resource that teachers of geology and geography will want to spend some time exploring. GPlates Portal is produced by the School
Next Vista Launches New Selection of ELL Videos
Next Vista for Learning is a video sharing that I’ve featured dozens of times over the years. Next Vista for Learning is different from other
16 Student Feedback Tools Tutorials
As I mentioned yesterday, last week someone rightly pointed out to me that the Practical Ed Tech Tips playlist on my YouTube channel was getting a bit too long
PBS Election Central Offers Debate Kits for Classrooms
Earlier this year PBS launched a new version of Election Central. That website is dedicated to helping teachers help students understand the process of choosing
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from Maine where despite some rain it’s a nice weekend. Looking over the valley from my house I can start to see some
15 Videos About Making Videos
Earlier this week someone rightly pointed out to me that the Practical Ed Tech Tips playlist on my YouTube channel was getting a bit too
FreshGrade Offers Free Webinars About Digital Portfolios
FreshGrade is a digital portfolio platform that has quickly risen in popularity over the last eighteen months. The learning slideshow feature in FreshGrade is one
Displaying YouTube Without Distractions
In my previous post I shared the idea of using extended display mode to choose what is and isn’t displayed on the projector in your
Control What’s Projected With Chromecast or Extended Display
Whether it is to quickly search for a video, find a bookmark on Pinterest, or dig-up a file in your Google Drive there are times
HipHughes History Celebrates 300 Video Lessons
This week Keith Hughes celebrated the publication of the 300th video on his massively popular HipHughes History channel. His latest video is a short explanation
Storyboard That Offers Four School Year Starter Projects
On Wednesday I published a post about using pictures to get students to tell stories about themselves to help you and their classmates get to
How to Conduct an Online Poll and Gather Image Responses Instantly
PingPong is a free online polling system that lets you collect feedback in the form of multiple choice, text, or image-based responses. In the short
Summer Stories – Back-to-School Activities
The new school year is here for many and will be here soon for the rest of us. The first days of school are always
Looking for Errors – A Lesson in Website Accuracy
In Saturday’s week-in-review I mentioned that NBC’s webpage about Olympic archery contains quite a few errors. I’ve been thinking about that a lot as I’ve
Two Ways to Use Data Validation in Google Forms
If you’ve ever seen the data validation option in Google Forms and wondered what it does, you’re not alone. I get asked about it every
Free Printable Maps from the USGS and National Geographic
The United States Geological Survey creates topographical maps of the United States. The USGS maps can be downloaded for free from the USGS website. The
10 Good Tools for Creating Digital Portfolios – A PDF Handout
As the new school year gets started you may find yourself thinking about how you and your students can keep track of the great work
Simplenote – A Simple Tool for Organizing Notes
Over the weekend I received an email from a reader who was looking for an alternative to Evernote that she could use to take notes
Student Stories – Student-led Portfolios on ClassDojo
Over the last few years ClassDojo has become known as a platform for keeping track of your students’ habits and behaviors. Originally, it appealed to
The Physics of Olympic Sports
The 2016 Olympics got underway over the weekend. I was thrilled to see the U.S. men win a second consecutive silver medal in archery on
How to Create Your Own Custom Search Engine
This morning someone sent me an email asking how I had created the search on my alternatives to YouTube page. The answer is that I
Develop Mobile Language Lessons With QR Voice
QR Voice is a free tool that allows you to create QR codes that when scanned will play a short audio message. To create your message
PAT – Free, Open Source, Portable Atlas
PAT is a free collection of maps developed by Ian Macky. The collection includes maps of every country in the world.The collection also includes maps of U.S. states,
Exploring Marine Science in Google Earth
Google Earth is a great tool for exploring many aspects of geography. One of the features of Google Earth that seems to be frequently overlooked
PrepFactory – Free SAT & ACT Prep Activities
As autumn approaches many high school students in the United States will turn their attention to college applications and the SAT or ACT exams. Some
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from Maine where I’m having a relaxing morning while watching the Olympic cycling road race. I’m looking forward to watching the archery team
How to Create Video Quizzes on Vizia
Last week I shared some information about a new video quiz creation tool called Vizia. Since then I’ve received some questions about how it actually
The Value of Add-ons and Systems
Back in June when Google launched the new quizzes feature in Google Forms I saw plenty of people Tweeting things about the evils of multiple