Share Lesson Outlines in Google Calendar

I've done a lot of workshops about Google Apps over the years. In the section about Google Calendar I always share my favorite use of Google Calendar. That use is sharing lesson plan outlines in the events on a Google Calendar.

In my Google Calendar account I always create a calendar for each the classes that I teach. Then in those calendars I create events for each class meeting. In the event details I include a short outline of that day's lesson plan and or objectives. If I have hand-outs for that day, I include those as attachments. Click here for a sample of how the students will see those events. Click here to learn how to add attachments to a calendar event.

Popchrom Can Alleviate the Feeling of Dread When Your Inbox is Full

Popchrom is a Google Chrome extension that could change the way you feel about your email inbox. Popchrom is a Chrome extension that allows you to create keyboard shortcuts for inserting large chunks of text into an email. So instead of retyping a message you can simply hit your keyboard shortcut and insert a big chunk of text.

After you install the Popchrom extension enter chunks of frequently-used text into your Popchrom settings and assign a keyboard shortcut for those chunks. Then when you need to write a response to an email you can use those keyboard shortcuts to have your message created for you.

Applications for Education
If you find that you often type the same type of message to parents, students, or colleagues, Popchrom could save you tons of time.

The Black Death - A TED-Ed Lesson

One of my favorite examples of using video to teach short lessons is the Black Death in 90 Seconds. It's a simple video that demonstrates that you don't have to create a fancy video to deliver a quality lesson. While the video is good, it's not a complete lesson on its own. To extend the lesson take a look at this new TED-Ed video, The Past, Present, and Future of the Bubonic Plague.

Larry Ferlazzo's Hand-outs on Student Motivation Available for Free

Larry Ferlazzo has written two books on motivating students. The third book in his series will be out in 2015. I was not aware of this until Larry's reminder earlier today, you can download all of the student hand-outs from his books for free. You do not have to have purchased the ebook or the print book in order to access the hand-outs. Of course, you'll probably get more out of the hand-outs if you read the books. Click here for Larry's directions on downloading the hand-outs.

Global Schoolyard Bioblitz - A Global Nature Lesson from Project Noah

Project Noah is a global project to which anyone can contribute. On Project Noah you can share pictures and stories of the plants and the animals that you observe in your neighborhood. Project Noah has a section titled Missions in which you can find projects that you can contribute to. The Missions ask people to make contributions of images and observations about a specific animal, plant, or region.

Project Noah for Teachers allows you to create and manage Project Noah accounts for your students. You can also use Project Noah for Teachers to enroll your students in "missions" or projects on Project Noah. A great Project Noah mission for students that is currently running is the Global Schoolyard Bioblitz. The Global Schoolyard Bioblitz was created by the National Environmental Education Foundation and National Geographic Education. The mission is to have students collect and share wildlife observations from their schoolyards around the world. Contributions to the mission don't have to be exotic because what is normal to you is exotic to someone else.

Project Noah offers iOS and Android apps that you can use to record and share your observations on the go.