Fresh Tech for Teachers
5 Online Activities for Teaching With Primary Sources
As a history teacher one of my favorite yet challenging things to do was introduce my students to primary sources. It’s great because it reveals
How to Distribute Add-ons to an Entire Google Apps Domain
Add-ons for Google Sheets, Docs, and Forms can dramatically increase the features and utility of those tools. A domain administrator has the power to push
Set and Track Goals in Google Calendar
The Google Calendar app on your iPhone or Android phone had a great new feature added to it this week. Google Calendar now helps you
How to Add Accessibility Options to Google Chrome
I was setting up a new Chromebook today with a brand new Google Account. One of the things that I did on that Chromebook was
How to Change Your Google Profile Image & Why You Should
When your school issues you a new Google Apps for Education account your profile picture will just be a simple letter icon featuring your first
A Short Overview of Workflow in Google Classroom
This week I wrapped up a series of workshops that I facilitated for a local school district that is transitioning to Google Apps for Education.
Scribeasy Offers Great Visual Prompts for Creating Short Stories
Scribeasy is a free iPad app that offers a fun environment in which students can write short stories. Students create stories on Scribeasy by first
How to Create a Vocabulary Sorting Game on Classtools
Classtools.net, developed and maintained by history teacher Russel Tarr, offers lots of great templates that you can use to create review activities for your students.
Why Are Airplane Engines So Big? – How Jet Engines Work #STEM
Minute Physics recently published a great new video about jet engines. In Why Are Airplane Engines So Big? viewers can learn why jet engines have
How to Use Facebook to Bookmark Links
Almost every day I see a Facebook friend or two tag herself/ himself in the comments on a Facebook post purely for the purpose of
Animal Migrations in Yellowstone National Park
National Geographic recently published a great video containing remarkable footage of elk, pronghorn antelope, and mule deer migrations in Yellowstone National Park. The short video
Three Good Places to Learn HTML & CSS Skills
Visual editors in blog and website platforms like Blogger, WordPress, and Weebly make it easy for anyone to create a webpage in relatively little time.
Collaborating with RealtimeBoard
EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site, has launched a new FREE video series called #ETTchat. Each week, one of their instructors posts a new video
An Interactive Build a Body Lesson
A few years ago Sponge Lab Biology won a National Science Foundation award for its interactive Build a Body activity. Spend a few minutes using Build a Body and
30 Days of Shakespeare Presented by the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death by publishing 30 recordings of NYPL staff members reading their favorite Shakespeare
Three Google Apps Updates You Might Have Missed Last Week
Last week Google added a convenient polling option to Google Classroom. That update proved to be a huge hit as comments that I saw about
Poetry Vocabulary Sheets Containing Examples
Disclosure: BoomWriter is an advertiser on this blog. April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. BoomWriter offers a good resource for those teaching poetry
The Week in Review – A Walk in the Woods
Good morning from the Free Technology for Teachers world headquarters in Woodstock, Maine. It’s a beautiful early spring morning for walking in the woods with
Another Great Resource for Learning About Mount Everest
On Wednesday I shared my list of resources for teaching and learning about Mount Everest. This afternoon, thanks to Larry Ferlazzo, I learned about another
Mozilla Releases an Interactive Web Literacy Map
I was recently contacted by the Mozilla Foundation with news about their recently released interactive guide to teaching web literacy. Mozilla’s interactive web literacy map
Snapchat Explained by Students to Teachers
Jenn Scheffer and her students at Burlington Public High School run a great tech help desk blog for teachers and students. This week they tackled
Search Strategies for Students – Webinar Recording
Yesterday afternoon I hosted a free webinar, sponsored by Choosito, all about search strategies that all students can employ. The webinar was recorded for people
New Polling Feature Added to Google Classroom
Google Classroom has offered options for asking questions for quite a while. Today, Google released a new way to ask questions. You can now post
Riddle Me This – 7 TED-Ed Lessons Based on Riddles
Earlier this week I shared a playlist of TED-Ed lessons about how the human body works. In responses to that playlist Lisa Winer sent me
How to Make a Copy of a Public Google Drive File
Seesaw, a free digital portfolio platform, offers a handy instruction sheet to distribute to students to guide them in the process of joining your Seesaw
Create QR Codes for Any Item in a Seesaw Digital Portfolio
Seesaw is a fantastic tool for creating digital portfolios and blogs with your students. With the Seesaw mobile apps and web app students can upload
Three Things That Get People to Read Your School or Classroom Blog
I run a lot of workshops for teachers and school administrators about using blogs and social media to connect with students and their parents. At
Exploring Mount Everest – Street View and More
The spring climbing season on Mount Everest and the surrounding peaks of the Himalaya is now upon us. As long-time readers of this blog may
How to Change Access Settings in the New Version of Google Forms
If your Google Apps for Education domain has recently switched to the new version of Google Forms, you might find yourself needing some time to
Top Tips for Teaching Search Strategies – Free Webinar Tomorrow
Tomorrow at 4pm Eastern Time I will be leading a free webinar on the topic of teaching search strategies to students. The webinar, sponsored by
Google Calendar Reminders Coming Soon to a Browser Near You
The Google Calendar Android and iOS apps have offered task reminder alerts for quite a while now. I certainly appreciate most of the reminders that
How to Clip and Share a Portion of a YouTube Video
Online videos can be quite useful for reiterating a lesson to your students, for inspiring thought and conversation, and for introducing a new concept to
ClassDojo Presents a New Series of Videos on Growth Mindset
A few months ago ClassDojo published a series of videos about growth mindset. Those video, produced in association with Stanford University’s Project for Education Research
Earn PD Hours and Graduate Credit While Learning About Google Apps
Starting tonight and throughout the next few months I will be teaching three sections my online course Getting Going With GAFE. This five week course
Poetica is Shutting Down – Try These Alternatives for Delivering Document Feedback
When it launched in 2014, I raved about Poetica’s capacity to help you give feedback on digital documents in a manner very similar to writing
What Would Happen if You Didn’t Drink Water? – And 12 Other TED-Ed Lessons About the Human Body
What Would Happen if You Didn’t Drink Water? is the title of latest TED-Ed lesson. The lesson addresses items like how much water should a
How to Create Self-paced Review Quizzes on Quizzy
Quizzy is a free tool that allows you to quickly create and publish self-paced review quizzes for your students. After I reviewed it last week
Capture Student Ideas with VideoNot.es & Google Classroom
This is a guest post from Avra Robinson (@AvraRachel) of EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site. If you’ve used VideoNot.es, you know that it is
Highlights from the Practical Ed Tech Handbook – Download Your Free Copy
Last summer I published The Practical Ed Tech Handbook. Since its initial release more than 10,000 educators have downloaded it for free. If you haven’t
Spring & Summer Online PD Opportunities With Me
As spring arrives in North America many of us are thinking about summer professional development opportunities. If you’re looking for a great hands-on professional development
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good evening from Woodstock, Maine where the last of the ice is melting from the pond near my house. My dogs and I had a
Try the Google Newspaper Archive to Locate Old Articles and Images
Earlier this week I shared the U.S. News Map which is a database of newspapers that displays search results on a map of the United
XtraMath Helps Teachers Help Students Learn Math in ASL
XtraMath is a free service designed to help teachers and parents help their students learn basic mathematics skills. The service provides an online environment in
Storyboard That Offers Earth Day Lesson Plans
Disclosure: Storyboard That is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Earth Day 2016 is three weeks away. If you’re trying to develop a lesson plan to correspond
The Month in Review – #Masonshome
Good evening from Maine where the sun is setting on the month of March. The highlight of the month for me was bringing home a
OpenDNS Family Shield – A Good Option for Home Network Monitoring
Family Shield, powered by OpenDNS, is a service that can be used to filter the content accessed by anyone on your home network. Family Shield is designed
Three Things to Consider Before Flipping Your Classroom
Flipping your classroom with video lessons can be a good thing in the right situation. Before you decide to completely flip your classroom there are
Ten Things You Can Learn at the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp
Chromebooks are quickly becoming the preferred choice of computer for 1:1 programs in schools. Chromebooks are reliable, inexpensive, and versatile tools. That said, teaching with
A Mapped & Searchable Archive of American Newspapers
The U.S. News Map is a great resource produced by Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia. The U.S. New Map is an archive of
Three Ways to Generate Topics for Your School’s Blog
Posting new content on a regular basis is one of the best ways to get parents to frequently check your school, library, or classroom blog.
Try the New Padlet Android App
Just a little more than twelve hours ago I received an exciting email from Padlet in which they announced the launch of their new Android
By Search Request – Bibliography Tools for Students
Over the weekend I was looking at the Google Analytics for FreeTech4Teachers.com and noticed that last week one of the most frequently searched terms that
Zaption Expands Free Options for Creating Flipped Lessons
Zaption is a popular tool for creating video-based lessons and quizzes. The service operates on a freemium model in which they offer a mix of
Skip the Spreadsheet, Use This Add-on to Create Google Docs Word Clouds
This morning I received an email from a reader who had heard that there was a way to create word clouds in a Google Spreadsheet,
Tap to Learn Grammar
Tap to Learn produces a bunch of educational apps for Android and iOS. The Tap to Learn Grammar app for Android offers more than 200 self-paced grammar lessons.
Collaborative, Crowd-Sourced Reading with Prism Scholar Lab
EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site, has launched a new FREE video series called #ETTchat. Each week, one of their instructors posts a new video
ClassTag Streamlines Scheduling of Parent Teacher Conferences
ClassTag is a new service that aims to help you organize parent-teacher conference, classroom volunteer requests, and school events. The highlight of ClassTag is the
Quizzy Offers a Quick Way to Create Online Quizzes
Quizzy is a free service that enables you to quickly make and publish online quizzes. To get started simply register for a Quizzy account then
Need a Metronome or Timer – Just Google It
Whenever I run a workshop that is longer than an hour I use Google’s built-in timer function to time breaks. All I have to do
Now You Can Sync Your Google Classroom Roster With Quick Key
Quick Key is a free app that turns your iPhone or Android phone into a bubble sheet scanner. It has two parts to it that
How to Use Google Slides to Crop and Filter Images
This week Google made the Nik collection free to all users. The Nik collection is a set of plug-ins for desktop editing tools like Photoshop and
The Week in Review – 50 Million Page Views
Good afternoon from sunny Woodstock, Maine where my dogs and I have just returned from a great morning of walking in the woods. The end
StoryTop Story Maker – Create Simple Image Based Stories
StoryTop is a good web-based tool for creating digital stories and comics. StoryTop features an easy-to-use drag and drop tool for creating your story. To use Story Top simply select
Three TED-Ed Lessons About Stress
The weekend is here and hopefully you have some relaxing things planned for yourself. Taking time to reduce stress has many benefits to our health.
3 Tools for Creating Comics on iPads
This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for suggestions for tools that her students can use to create comics on
Buncee Buddies Connects Classrooms for Earth Day
Earth Day is a little less than a month away. This year Buncee wants to see what you and your students are doing to recognize Earth
Join Me at a Free PD & Networking Event in Chicago
A few months ago the folks at Otus reached out to me about speaking at a professional development and networking event in Chicago. I’m happy
TinyTap Partners With Oxford University Press to Create Interactive Picture Dictionaries
TinyTap is a great tool for creating games and other interactive activities for students to play online, on their iPads, or on their laptops. Back
JoeZoo Express Makes It Easy to Grade in Google Docs
JoeZoo Express is a free Google Docs Add-on that could change the way that you grade students’ work in Google Documents. JoeZoo enables you to
MoveIt – A Chrome Extension to Keep You Active
MoveIt is a free Chrome extension that aims to help you avoid sitting in front of your computer for too long. At intervals of your
An Interactive Cartogram of News
Unfiltered News is a new site that uses an interactive cartogram to help you find trending news stories from around the world. To find stories
5 Settings You Should Know for School or Classroom Facebook Pages
As I mentioned yesterday, maintaining a Facebook fan page for your school or classroom can be a good way to keep parents informed of upcoming
10 Somewhat Interesting Things About Me and Free Technology for Teachers
Over the last few months there have been a lot of new visitors and subscribers to FreeTech4Teachers.com and the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page.
Gauging Your Distraction – A Game to Show Students the Dangers of Texting While Driving
Update November 2020: This game was Flash-based. Flash is a standard that will be deprecated in December 2020. The game is no longer available. The
Six Tools for Creating Videos on Chromebooks
As I’ve written many times over the years, creating videos is one of my favorite classroom projects. Recently, I shared some of my tips for
How to Use Canva to Promote School Events
One of the things that I always talk about in my workshop on Blog & Social Media for Teachers and School Leaders is using regular
A Nice Set of Animated Science Lessons for Children
The Children’s University of Manchester has great collections of animated lessons covering seven science subjects for students of early elementary/ primary school age. The lessons
5 Great Writing Activities from Read Write Think
Over the years Read Write Think has published dozens of excellent templates and tools for elementary school language arts lessons. Five of my favorite Read
Vibby – Annotate YouTube & Vimeo Videos on Your Own Site
Last fall I wrote a couple of posts about a new video annotation tool called Vibby. Over the last few months the Vibby developers have
What is BYOD? And Why Do Schools Opt for It?
Last week I wrote a post about some of the things that will be taught during the Practical Ed Tech BYOD Camp on July 11th
FreshGrade Now Offers an Android App for Teachers
FreshGrade is a free digital portfolio service that launched last year and has quickly become popular in some schools. The service allows teachers and students
5 Ideas for Using Google Sites in Your Classroom
Google Sites is a versatile and core aspect of Google Apps for Education. At first glance you might think that it is just a website
Three Ways to Save Ink & Paper When You Print
Take a look around a network printer in most schools and you’ll find a pile of discarded paper. That discarded paper is often the result
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts of the Week
Good morning from the FreeTech4Teachers.com World Headquarters in Woodstock, Maine. A week of 50f weather had me thinking about the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps.
More Than 40 Alternatives to YouTube
3 Tips for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom was one of the most popular posts of the week on FreeTech4Teachers.com. Those tips are all
9,500 Teachers Get Their Ed Tech Tips This Way
Every month I hear nice compliments from readers of FreeTech4Teachers.com and the FreeTech4Teachers Facebook page followed by, “I don’t always have time keep up with
Three Tips for Planning Video Projects
I love video projects because the entire process of developing project ideas, creating the video, and sharing the video engages almost all students. Over the
Three Ways to Share Your Screen and Lend Tech Help
From time to time you may find yourself in need of a quick way to share your screen remotely. Sharing your screen with students can
Who Owns Antarctica? – A Political Geography Lesson
Who owns Antarctica? That’s an interesting question that many of my geography students wondered and asked over the years. The answer to that question is
Liberty – The Chronicle of the American Revolution
Liberty, The American Revolution is a feature on PBS.org. There are a couple of resources in this feature that are worth noting. First, and probably
Mapping the Emerald Isle – An Interactive Map of Surnames in Ireland
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today, is a perfect day to share a neat interactive story map produced by ESRI. Mapping the Emerald Isle: a geo-genealogy
Mushing Explained – Out on the Iditarod Trail
The Iditarod concluded this week with Dallas Seavey winning for the fourth time in five years. Before the race started I shared some resources for
Why My Dogs Have Email Addresses and Yours Should Too
People often get a kick out of learning that both of my dogs have their own email addresses. You can send them email at Max
10 Things You Can Learn at the Practical Ed Tech BYOD Camp
This summer I will be hosting two Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps in Portland, Maine. The first one on July 11th and 12th is designed
Three Google Drive Features That Impress New Users
I’m currently working with a school that is making the transition to Google Apps (click here for information on bringing me to your school). Last week
Origo One – One Minute Math Lessons
Origo One is a new YouTube channel offering one minute math lessons for teachers and students. The first few videos in the series seem to
Coming Soon! Expiration Dates for Shared Google Drive Files
One of the challenges of sharing Google Drive files is keeping track of who has access to your files. In some cases you might only
Add Videos to Your Dotstorming Collaborative Brainstorming Sessions
Dotstorming is a cool tool for hosting collaborative brainstorming sessions. The neat thing about Dotstorming is that you can have everyone contribute their ideas on
5 Tips to Improve Critical Thinking Skills – A TED-Ed Lesson
5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking is the latest TED-Ed lesson. The introduction to the lesson is a bit long for my liking but