I created something for you.

For my first few years of Back-to-School night, before we had projectors, before we had those large, unwieldy TVs strapped on top of carts, we had to stand behind our podiums and absorb the silent stares of all of those parents alone. For seven torturous minutes. I carefully scripted my every move, trying to figure … Continue reading I created something for you.

Create bookmark collections with your class – or just yourself!

I am newly in love. With Wakelet. You can create groups ("Politics" - "Differentiated Learning" - whatever you want!) and then, as you come across interesting articles or websites online, you can use the handy Wakelet extension to add them to your collection! But it's not only bookmarks you can save - here's a (partial?) … Continue reading Create bookmark collections with your class – or just yourself!

Hipster Google 2 has dropped!

  Hipster Google 2: More Google Tools You Probably Never Heard Of is the sequel to the popular-in-edtech-circles Hipster Google. There are twenty-two Google-based ideas in this post, but there's something for everyone! Music teachers! Science teachers! Math teachers! Humanities teachers! ALL THE TEACHERS. My two favorites are Just a Line, an augmented reality app for … Continue reading Hipster Google 2 has dropped!

Focus on the video…not the comments

We all know that the comments section under a YouTube video is a dangerous place. If you're showing a quick video in class, here are four ways to ensure that your students' attention is focused on what you want them to see - not words you don't want them to learn in your presence. Safe YouTube … Continue reading Focus on the video…not the comments

Join student Google Classroom for more tech tips!

Did you know that students have their own tech tips page? I also maintain a Google Classroom page for them, and send out weekly tips they might like. If you want to receive these tips too, please feel free to  join their Classroom page! (Join code: 7xykjq3) The info is mostly different than what I … Continue reading Join student Google Classroom for more tech tips!

An app for keeping students off phones during class – that gives reward$!

Pocket Points started as an app that encouraged college students to stay off their phones while on campus by offering incentives that grew in value the longer they stay phone-free. Now it's available for anyone - and it even has an entire team devoted to helping teachers use the app in their classroom, where the … Continue reading An app for keeping students off phones during class – that gives reward$!

How to add folders or documents that have been shared with you to your Google Drive

A lot of times, I create folders for my journalism students where they can submit miscellaneous documents that I don't want to collect through Google Classroom. I share the folder with these students by providing a link to it, and they are able to access it when they click the link, but when I ask … Continue reading How to add folders or documents that have been shared with you to your Google Drive

A challenger to Quizlet Live!

One of the (many) new websites I learned about at ICE this week is a game created by a high school student called Gimkit. It's very similar to Quizlet Live in that students compete on a leader board as they progress through the game, but it differs in that they can use strategies to place … Continue reading A challenger to Quizlet Live!

Give a locked-browser quiz through Google forms without using Hapara!

If you'd like students to take a quiz in Google forms, but would like to remove any temptations they may have to click away, use the new setting that Google just rolled out. No need to get Hapara involved for this - it's built right into the form creation! Read about it in this post from … Continue reading Give a locked-browser quiz through Google forms without using Hapara!