The Month in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good evening from Maine where the sun has set on the month of July. Mason and I sat out on the deck enjoying the last rays of sunshine then came inside to write this review of the month. This was a busy month as I spoke at the Upstate Technology Conference in South Carolina then came home to run two Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps. Please get in touch with me to learn more about bringing me to your school or conference.

As I do at the end of every month, I have put together a list of the most popular posts of the previous 30 days.

Here are the most popular posts in July, 2017:
1. The Periodic Table in Pictures and Words
2. 5 New Google Forms Features
3. Students Can Now Guide Themselves In Google Expeditions
4. Try Book Creator In Chrome to Create Multimedia Books
5. Tutorials to Help You Get Started Creating Apps in Your Classroom
6. Tips for Accessing Sites Blocked by Your School
7. How to Create a Multiple Part Test in Google Forms
8. Save Time by Using JoeZoo Express to Give Feedback in Google Docs
9. A Good Tool for Quickly Creating Comics
10. How to Use Unio to Deliver Lessons to Students' Screens

I'm offering three online professional development courses in August. Join me for a few hours in August and you'll gain new skills and ideas to use in your classroom this fall.

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

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

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

Beyond Tech Ed is hosting a great Chromebook training in Palm Springs. 

University of Maryland Baltimore County offers a great program on instructional design.

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.

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

My Simpleshow provides a great way to create explanatory videos.

Create Formative Labeling Activities

Back in June Formative released an overhauled user interface for creating digital formative assessments. One of the things that you can do in the updated interface is change the background on a "show your work" question. Changing the background lets you create a labeling activity for your students to complete. Watch my video embedded below to see learn how to create a labeling activity on GoFormative.com. The video also includes a view of the assessment from a student's perspective.

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good evening from Maine where we enjoyed a beautiful summer day. These are the kind of summer days that you want to bottle and save to re-use on dreary day in January. We took advantage of the beautiful weather by going for a hike with our dogs. Wherever you are this weekend, I hope that you're enjoying it too.

This week I wrapped up the second of two Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps that I hosted this year. And now I'm turning my full attention to back-to-school activities. To that end, on Tuesday I'm hosting a webinar titled Search Strategies Students Need to Know.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Ignite Teaching is Shutting Down Next Week
2. Warning! The Default Order of Icons in G Suite Launcher is Changing
3. Historical Patterns Animated
4. A Virtual Amusement Park About Molecules
5. A TED-Ed Lesson on the Bill of Rights
6. View and Print in 3D More Than 200 Objects from The British Museum
7. The Half-life of Links and School Social Media Plans

I'm offering three online professional development courses in August. Join me for a few hours in August and you'll gain new skills and ideas to use in your classroom this fall.

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

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

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

Beyond Tech Ed is hosting a great Chromebook training in Palm Springs. 

University of Maryland Baltimore County offers a great program on instructional design.

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.

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

My Simpleshow provides a great way to create explanatory videos.

Digital Storytelling With Comics - Free Ebook

Disclosure: Storyboard That is a long-running advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers. 

A few years ago I put together a PDF of five projects that your students can complete with Storyboard That. The projects outlined include creative storytelling, retelling of history, using comics in videos, crafting book reviews with comics, and creating multimedia ebooks. While the document focuses on using Storyboard That (they sponsored it) the concepts can be applied to many other other digital storytelling tool. The PDF is embedded below.

A Game for Learning About International Trade

This post contains content that I originally published a couple of years ago. An email from a reader who was looking for suggestions on activities for teaching global trade prompted me to pull these resources from my archive.

The multimedia library on The Economist contains a set of cartoon videos explaining some big concepts in economics. Of the six cartoons, the cartoon on international trade has the broadest appeal. The video is appropriate as an introduction to the topic for middle school and high school students.



After watching the video on international trade have your students put their new knowledge to use in Trading Around the World from the International Monetary Fund. The object of the game is to provide students with knowledge of the variables affecting international trade. Students experience the impact of each variable by playing the game as a representative of a country or region that is trying to buy or sell resources. The overall object of the game is to accumulate cash through buying and selling natural resources.