Writing, Typing, and Virtual Tours - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where fog and light rain are making for a less than ideal morning. We have our last Tinkergarten class of the season and we were hoping for some nice weather. We'll just have to wear our rain gear and have fun in the rain. I hope that you have a fun weekend wherever you are. 

This week I hosted the first meeting of my Teaching History With Technology course. I'll be hosting more classes later in the summer so keep an eye out for announcements about those. And if you want me to host a webinar or workshop for your school, please send me a note at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com.

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Two Ways to Quickly Turn Writing Into Videos
2. How to Archive Google Classroom
3. Videos for Teaching and Learning About Memorial Day
4. Games for Students to Play to Improve Their Typing Skills
5. Five Virtual Tour Creation Projects for Students
6. How to Quickly Remove and Replace Image Backgrounds
7. Use Google Drive to Comment on PDFs, Images, and Videos

Webinars for Your School
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.

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 41,000 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.

What Makes Us Itch? - A Science Lesson

Last weekend we had our first really nice summer-like day of the year. There was lots of sunshine, it was warm, and there was little wind. That little wind is a curse and a blessing in Maine at this time of year. It's nice because it makes for easier bike riding. It's bad because it's easier for the mosquitos and blackflies (gnats) to swarm you. I stopped on my bike to take this picture and got swarmed. And for a few days afterward my arms were covered in itchy bug bites. 

Scratching and trying to resist scratching my bug bites reminded me of the video Why Do We Itch? published a few years ago by Be Smart. What makes us itch? Is there any way to avoid itching? And how can you make those itchy feelings go away? Those questions and more are answered in the video.

Applications for Education
We've all heard of various home remedies for itchy skin and your students probably have too. Before watching this video have students share some of those home remedies. Then have them watch the video and see if the science matches what their home remedies are supposed to do.