Summer Reading, Portfolios, and Animations - The Week in Review

Good evening from sunny and windy Paris Hill, Maine. It was a great day for playing outside and that's exactly what my little family did today. I had a nice long bike ride through part of the White Mountain National Forest that ended with meeting my daughters at a playground besides the Androscoggin river. Wherever you are this weekend, I hope that you had a fun and relaxing day too.

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Ten Great Tech Tools for Social Studies Lessons
2. Rivet - A Reading App from Google
3. 5 Ways for Students of All Ages to Make Animated Videos
4. How to Use the New Version of Google Books
5. 5 Good Options for Making Digital Portfolios
6. ReadWorks Offers Free Summer Reading Packets
7. Easy Notecards and Flashcards

Thank You for Your Support!

• This week Fishbowl became an advertiser on this blog. Check them out and tell them you appreciate their support of Free Technology for Teachers. 
• More than 150 of you participated in a Practical Ed Tech webinar in April. Thank you!
• Only three seats remain for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp. Join us!
• Newlearn.io is a great site for finding standards-aligned resources. 
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County has been supporting this blog for many years. 

How to Make an Animated Timeline in Google Slides

Eighteen months ago I published a video about how to use Google Slides to create a timeline. Yesterday, that video hit 50,000 views. I watched the video again and realized that I could use the animation tools in Google Slides to add animations to my timeline. So yesterday I made a video about how to do that. In the following video I demonstrate how to create an animated timeline in Google Slides.


If you like this video, please take a look at my YouTube channel for hundreds of other tips on using educational technology tools.

How to Find Games & Quizzes in Google Earth

This week Google added a new round of Where in Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? The new game follows up on the popularity of the first Where in Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? that was launched in March. The new game has players help Carmen Sandiego find Tutankhamun’s Mask.



That's not the only game that you can find in the web, Android, and iOS versions of Google Earth. If you go into the Voyager mode in Google Earth you will find other games and quizzes to try. The quizzes are neat because when you answer a question correctly you automatically zoom to the Street View imagery of the location. Check it out in my video below.