Image credit: Jen Deyenberg

Good morning from Greenwood, Maine where the sun is shining and the snow is melting. It was a busy week here at the Free Technology for Teachers world headquarters. The week can be summarized in three parts; power outage, chicken bones, and Google Reader.

Power Outage
This week I started three new Practical Ed Tech webinars. The first one went off without a hitch. The second one hit a snag when the power went out all over my town just ten minutes before the start time. The outage even took out the cell tower nearest to me. I scrambled, drove 15 miles to the next town where I was able to finally get some Internet access on my phone to tell people what had happened. Thankfully, everyone was understanding.

Chicken Bones
While I was driving to the next town in the power outage my younger dog, Max, decided to help himself to chicken wing bones from the garbage. When I came back in the house the garbage bin was knocked over and all of the chicken bones were gone. So off to the emergency clinic we went for x-rays and doggie stomach pumping. He’s okay now, but it was a stressful evening that didn’t end until 2am.

Google Reader
The biggest news in the web technology world this week is that Google has decided to shut-down Google Reader effective July 1. There has been all kinds of panic and digital gnashing of teeth on Twitter and blogs about this. The closure of beloved services is part of the territory of the modern web. As I wrote this week, don’t panic, try Feedly instead.

Here are this week’s most popular posts:
1. 13 Good Chrome Apps and Extensions for Teachers and Students
2. Six Free Alternatives to PowerPoint and Keynote
3. Create a Text Message Exchange Between Fictional Characters
4. Three Tools Students Can Use to Create 3D Models Online
5. Google Announces the Closure of Google Reader – Don’t Panic, Use Feedly
6. A Map of Nearly 100,000 Historic Sites
7. Opus – Sample Math Problems Aligned to Common Core Standards

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