Generators, Animations, and Snow - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the wind is howling and the temperature is rapidly dropping. We had planned to ski today, but the wind and ice has altered our plans. So instead of skiing we'll putter around the house making sure everything is ready for Santa to visit tonight. I predict some cookie eating and hot cocoa drinking is also in our near future. I hope that you have something equally fun and relaxing to do today. 

There were two developments in my professional life this week. First, I got hired to be a part-time ski instructor at our local ski mountain. I've always said that I'd like to teach physical education, this is probably as close as I'll ever get to that. Second, this week I announced a new online course that I'll be teaching over the course of four weeks in January. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. How a Generator Works - And Other Short Lessons About Generating Electricity
2. 17 Tools for Collaboratively Creating Mind Maps and Flowcharts
3. How to Collect Pictures Through Google Forms
4. Slideator - Add Your Voice to Almost Any Type of Slideshow
5. How to Clip Sections of Your YouTube Videos
6. Some Thoughts About AI in Education
7. Create Animations from Audio in Adobe Express

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integrators, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

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 44,000 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 Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

All About Reindeer

My daughters are very excited for Santa and his reindeer to visit our house tonight. We'll be leaving out snacks for him and his reindeer. Last year they spent weeks asking if reindeer are real. Since then they've learned that reindeer are real, but only Santa's reindeer can fly. 

Last year I let my daughter watch this SciShow Kids video about reindeer. 4 Facts to Know About Reindeer explains why reindeer are called caribou in North America. The lesson also teaches students how reindeer have adapted to find food and stay warm in cold weather. The video concludes with an explanation of why reindeer migrate.

Older kids and adults who want to learn a bit more about reindeer should watch this clip from BBC Earth. The video explains how reindeer stay warm in the coldest of conditions.



Another part of the same BBC series about reindeer is this Magical Finland Sleigh Ride.