The Week in Review – Icebreakers, Cool Cats, and Pictures
Good morning from Maine where it is a beautiful start to Labor Day weekend. We have family visiting for the weekend so I’m going to quickly write this week’s week-in-review before they everyone wakes up. This week I had the privilege to work with teachers in Saint John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. We worked […]
How to Create and Distribute Google Docs Templates
At the beginning of the school year you might find yourself reviewing or introducing to your students the best way to take notes. You might also find yourself teaching them things like to how complete a science lab report. I was reminded of this yesterday when a former colleague asked if there was a way […]
Ten Google Product Updates for Teachers to Note
Every month Google rolls-out updates to many of the products that teachers and students use through G Suite for Education. Some of those updates happen in background on the administrative side of G Suite for Education. Those updates usually don’t have much impact on end-users. Then there are updates that directly affect teachers and students. […]
Practical Ed Tech Podcast Episode #4
This morning I hosted a new episode of Practical Ed Tech Live on my YouTube channel. For those who missed it, it is now available as the fourth episode of the Practical Ed Tech Podcast. The podcast can be found on Anchor.fm, on Google Podcasts, on Spotify, on RadioPublic, and on Pocket Casts. I’m working […]
These Cool Cats Will Teach You About Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal Verbs Friends is a fun YouTube channel that features cats explaining phrasal verbs. The videos use pictures of cats in green-screen settings to show and explain the various meanings of phrasal verbs like “warm up” and “take care.” Applications for Education Phrasal verbs can be tricky for students to understand. These cute cat videos […]
Wonderopolis Now Includes Immersive Reader
Wonderopolis is a great site for finding interesting articles to spark your students’ imaginations. I’ve been a fan of the site since I first discovered it more than six years ago. At its core Wonderopolis offers more than 2400 interesting articles for elementary school and middle school students. Each article covers a different topic that […]
Gmail Will Now Automatically Notify Senders When You’re Out of Office
This weekend is a Labor Day weekend here in the U.S. For many of us it is the symbolic end of the summer. And for many of us it’s the last time that we’ll unplug from work for a few months. Speaking of unplugging from work, yesterday Google announced a new Gmail feature that will […]
You’ve Got Questions, I’ve Got Answers (Some of Them)
Tomorrow I’m recording the next episode of my Practical Ed Tech Live series in which I answer batches of questions that readers like you send to me throughout the week. This school year I’m opening each broadcast with a recap of some ed tech news that you might have missed in the previous week. I’ll […]
International Podcast Day Stickers – How to Make a Podcast
International Podcast Day (I didn’t know that was a thing until today, either) is September 30th. Synth is one of the sponsors of International Podcast Day. Synth is a free service for recording and publishing short podcasts. I’ve been writing and talking about it since its launch last fall because it is so simple for […]
How to Make Stop Motion Movies – And The Apps You Need
It’s funny what you remember about students that you had ten or more years ago. Earlier this week I ran into an old student of mine while I was getting coffee at my favorite cafe. While I struggled to remember his name (it came to be eventually) I clearly remembered a stop motion video project […]
