FAQs About Working With Me

Last week I published a list of my ten most popular professional development workshop topics. That post generated a handful of emails from folks who asked good questions about the structure of my workshop days, how to book me for a day, and fee structure. Here are the answers to those questions and more.

How to Book Me
I try to make this part as easy as possible for everyone. If you're interested in having me come to your school or conference, send me an email richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com with the date(s) you have in mind and a little bit of information about your school/ conference. I'll get back to you right away to confirm availability and to schedule a quick call to talk about the needs of your school/ conference. Once we know we're a match for each other, I'll send you a simple contract that doesn't require a deposit to hold the date. That's it! I arrange all of the travel and lodging logistics for myself so that you don't have to worry about it.

Structure of a PD Day With Me
Just like students, every school faculty has different needs. That's why I always talk with you to identify your needs and desires for a workshop day with me. That said, a typical full-day workshop with me is six to seven hours that starts with a short overview of the day's goals followed by an introduction to the first hands-on activity of the day. Typically, there will be four or five hands-on activities that develop skills you can easily transfer to your classroom practice.

Fees
Like you, I have a mortgage to pay and kids to feed so I can't do this for free (yes, I appreciate the irony of having a site called Free Technology for Teachers but charging for workshops). That said, my fees are reasonable enough that past clients have told me that I should be charging more. For school-based professional development days I include all costs (travel, lodging, parking, etc.) in the quote that I provide because it makes it easier for you to budget and simpler for me to invoice.

Discounts
Professional development works best when it is on an on-going basis. That's why I extend significant discounts to schools and organizations who book me for two or more consecutive days or five or more total days in a school year.

Ready to Get Started?
Send me an email today at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com. Not the decision maker for your school's PD needs? Send this page to your department head, principal, tech director, or curriculum director.

This is Clickbait - A Lesson on Being a Discerning News Consumer

A couple of weeks ago TED-Ed released a video about spotting misleading headlines. I quickly added that lesson to my list of resources for helping students become discerning news consumers. This week TED-Ed released another video that I'm adding to that list of resources.

This One Weird Trick Will Help You Spot Clickbait is a TED-Ed video that teaches viewers how headlines are created to entice readers to click on an article. The video also explains how a small kernel of truth or a small and inconclusive study will be manipulated to create an article and clickbait headline.


Applications for Education
Extend this TED-Ed lesson by having students spend some time looking at a set of headlines and articles to spot the clickbait. Or have students try to create their own clickbait headlines based on short research studies that they find or that you provide to them.

Moving From Google Drive to OneDrive

In response to yesterday's post about moving files from one Google account to another, this morning I woke up to three emails from readers wondering about moving out of a Google (G Suite) environment and into a Microsoft environment. Fortunately, Google Takeout makes it relatively easy to move the contents of your Google Drive into Microsoft OneDrive. That process is demonstrated in my video that is embedded below.