Great Google Drive Add-ons for Teachers - A PDF Handout

Last week I presented three webinars on behalf of Simple K12 (the recordings will be available later this week). The third of those webinars was all about Google Drive Add-ons and Chrome extensions for teachers. If you couldn't attend the live webinar, you can still grab the handout here or view it as embedded below.

More Than 500,000 Historical Video Clips

This post comes from the "in case you missed it department." Last week the Associated Press announced the publication of more than one million minutes of archival footage on YouTube. That footage is being published in collaboration with British Movietone. A sample playlist is embedded below.


Applications for Education
Much of the footage in the AP and British Movietone archives is under two minutes. The short clips could be good as supporting material to add to a reference page for students. In general, students will need the larger historical context in order to appreciate the video clips.

How to Apply Custom Avatars to ClassDojo Profiles

Last week ClassDojo introduced the option to create student groups within your ClassDojo classrooms. This morning I received an email from someone who was curious about how to change the student avatar pictures within ClassDojo. That's a question that I often receive in my workshops too. To answer that question I created the short video that you see embedded below.

More Physics Lessons About Bikes

A few weeks ago I shared some educational resources related to the Tour de France. Tomorrow, the Tour de France concludes in Paris. To mark the tour's conclusion I have two more educational resources about bicycles to share.

Minute Physics offers two videos about the physics of bicycles. In How Do Bikes Stay Up? we learn how bikes stay upright, how design and weight influences balance, and why bicycles are difficult to balance in reverse.


The Counterintuitive Physics of Turning a Bike explains how we turn bicycles.


Applications for Education
Both videos provide physics lessons based around an activity with which most students are familiar. Before letting students watch the videos ask them to try to explain how bikes stay up and turn. The first of the two videos could also provide inspiration for an outdoor physics lesson.

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good evening from the FreeTech4Teachers.com world headquarters in Woodstock, Maine where the blueberries are ripe. Picking blueberries in my yard is one of my favorite things about living in Maine.

This week I was busy presenting six webinars including three for Simple K12. Thank you to everyone who participated in one or more of the webinars. The recordings of the Simple K12 webinar recordings will be available next week.

Next week  I'm hitting the road to speak in Mooresville, North Carolina. Professionally, there's nothing I enjoy more than visiting schools to work directly teachers.  If you would like to have me visit your school, send an email to richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Frequently Overlooked Useful YouTube Features - A PDF Handout
2. 50+ Google Tools Tutorial Videos
3. 7 Good Options for Building Digital Portfolios - A PDF Handout
4. ClassDojo Introduces Groups...More to Come
5. How to Create an Online Whiteboard Space
6. 5 Tools for Hosting Collaborative Brainstorming Sessions Online
7. Beyond Assessment: 3 Other Uses for Socrative

Please visit the official advertisers that help keep this blog going.

Practical Ed Tech is the brand through which I offer PD webinars.

BoomWriter provides a fantastic tool for creating writing lessons. 

Storyboard That is my go-to tool for creating storyboards and cartoon stories.

MidWest Teachers Institute offers online graduate courses for teachers.

HelloTalk is a mobile community for learning a new language.

Discovery Education & Wilkes University offer online courses for earning Master's degrees in Instructional Media.

PrepFactory offers a great place for students to prepare for SAT and ACT tests.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County offers graduate programs for teachers.

Boise State University offers a 100% online program in educational technology.

EdTechTeacher is hosting host workshops in six cities in the U.S. in the summer.

SeeSaw is a great iPad app for creating digital portfolios.