Librarians, Logic, and Learning - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where we're excited for the first day of Tinkergarten even though the weather forecast has some rain in it. Tinkergarten is a fun program for little kids like mine to have some fun outdoor learning experiences. Classes happen regardless of the weather which is fine because part of being a Mainer is being able to have fun outside in all kinds of conditions. I hope that wherever you are this weekend that you have something fun to look forward to like we do. 

This week I joined my pal Rushton Hurley to host another episode of Two EdTech Guys Take Questions. The recording can be seen here. This week I also put together an update to one of my all-time favorite social studies lessons plans. And I answered a bunch of questions from readers like you. If you have a question for me, don't hesitate to send me an email. I do my best to answer all questions. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Thank Your School Librarians! And Ask Them for Help!
2. A Calendar of Social Emotional Learning Activities
3. Using Branching Logic in Microsoft Forms to Provide Directions
4. My Five Favorite Flipgrid Video Features
5. Annotate PDFs With Lumin PDF - Free for Teachers
6. A Few Good Resources for Learning How Blockchain Works
7. Five Helpful WriteReader Features for Teachers and Students

Summer Workshops for Your School!
I'm going back on the road this summer to host professional development workshops in-person! If you'd like to have me come to your school, please get in touch with me soon.

Spring and Summer Webinars
I conduct professional development webinars throughout the year. I'll host a free one-hour webinar for any school or group that purchases ten or more copies of 50 Tech Tuesday Tips.

On-demand Professional Development

• Search Strategies Students Need to Know
• A Crash Course in Making & Teaching With Video
• A Crash Course in Google Earth & Maps for Social Studies

Thanks to This Month's Banner Advertisers!

• Kikori App offers a huge library of SEL activities for all ages. 
• WriteReader is a great tool for multimedia writing. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 40,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Instagram or Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne's) work include Icons Daily and Daily Dose. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Three Ways to Create Simple Portfolio Websites

We're nearing the point in the school year that many of us start to think about activities for students to do to summarize their highlights of the school year. One way to do that is to create simple portfolio websites. These are sites that have just one page that features only the best work that students are proud to share. 

In this short video I demonstrate how to use three different platforms to create simple portfolio websites. In the video you'll see me use Carrd.co, Adobe Creative Cloud Express, and Canva to create simple websites. 

Applications for Education

Some examples of the things you might have students include in a simple portfolio website are pictures (either of their work or as examples of their work), videos they've made in your class, slide presentations, and documents they've written.