Making Maple Syrup - A Science and Math Lesson

The days are getting warmer here in Maine, the sun is shining a bit longer each day, and the snow is starting to melt. That means that two of a Mainer's favorite seasons are starting; mud season and maple syrup season. My friend Gardner Waldeier AKA Bus Huxley on YouTube collects maple sap to make maple syrup. He does it the old fashioned way and he made a video about the process.

Gardner's video shows viewers how he collects maple sap and turns it into maple syrup. In the video explains why maple sap is collected at this time of year, how much sap he'll collect from a large tree, and just how much sap it takes to make a gallon of maple syrup. You also get a nice tour of Gardner's woodlot and plenty of images of his helpful dog.


Applications for Education
I don't think that Gardner deliberately edited the video to have the ideal length and pacing for a flipped classroom lesson, but that's how it turned out. Try EDpuzzle or Vizia to make a flipped lesson with Making Maple Syrup by Bus Huxley.

ViewPure Now Offers Curated Playlists

ViewPure, a great tool for distraction-free YouTube viewing, has relatively new collections of videos for teachers. The collections are organized according to grade level and topic. Start here by choosing either high school, middle school, upper elementary, or pre-K through lower elementary. After choosing the grade range you can choose a subject area and then choose a topic. Some topics have multiple videos while others only have one. When you click on a video's title it launches on a ViewPure page that plays the YouTube video without any sidebar content like "related" videos or advertisements.

Applications for Education
ViewPure's curated collections could be a time-saver for teachers who need good educational videos to show or send to their students. All videos are displayed within ViewPure and all videos can be shared in their entirety or you can specify start and end times within the videos.

Why I Created "From Blog to Job"

A couple of weeks ago I released an on-demand course called From Blog to Job - A Teacherpreneur Jumpstart. I’d like to tell you a little bit about why I created the course.

A little over ten years ago I was where a lot of teachers find themselves. I loved my job, but I didn’t love that it was struggle to make ends meet. So I started to look for some ways that I could earn a little money through my blog. I had read about people making money by placing advertising on their blogs and thought to myself, “that sounds easy enough.” I was wrong. It wasn’t easy but I put in the time and effort to learn how to do it and after a few months I did start to make some money through my blog and a few years later my blog provided the equivalent of my teaching salary while I was still in the classroom.

This course is for those of you who might be where I was ten years ago. You’re hungry and you are ready to work to turn your blog into a source of income for you. This course doesn’t offer a get-rich-quick system, it’s not a “get 100,000 followers” system. It’s a course that walks you through the process of building a blog into an income stream. In the course I share what I’ve learned through a decade of earning money through blogging. I’ll also share the mistakes I’ve made along the way so that you can learn from my example. So if you’re ready to get started on building your business today, click here to get started this weekend! 

Here's a rundown of the lessons in the course:

• Lesson 1 - The Big Concepts 
• Lesson 2 - Planning to Help Others
• Lesson 3 - The Big Blog Action Plan 
• Lesson 4 - Content Creation & Distribution 
• Lesson 5 - Monetization With Advertising & Affiliates 
• Lesson 5a - Advertising FAQs 
• Lesson 6 - Product and Service Sales 
• Lesson 7 - Getting Gigs 
• Lesson 8 - Stuff No One Tells You 
• Lesson 9 - Putting It All Together

Get started this weekend!

Puzzles, Rockets, and Podcasts - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the rapidly shifting weather of March has arrived in full force. I helped my daughter learn to ride a bike in the driveway on a sunny Thursday afternoon and then yesterday it was too cold and windy to play outside. I hope the weather is better for playing outside wherever you are this weekend.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Ptable - Interactive Periodic Table of Elements
2. Solve Me Puzzles - Play or Create Math Puzzles
3. 5 Audio Recording & Editing Tools - Feature Comparison Chart
4. Aquation - A Game for Learning About Global Access to Clean Water
5. Ancient Rome 101 and Life as a Roman Teenager
6. Rocket Science 101 - Build and Launch Virtual Rockets
7. Distraction-free YouTube Viewing

Book Me for Your Conference

I’ve given keynotes at conferences from Australia to Alaska for groups of all sizes from 50 to 2,000+. My keynotes focus on providing teachers and school administrators with practical ways to use technology to create better learning experiences for all students. I like to shine the light on others and so I often share examples of great work done by others as well as my own. Click here to book me today.

On-demand Professional Development

PracticalEdTech.com is where I offer on-demand professional development courses and webinars. The sale of those courses and webinars helps to keep Free Technology for Teachers running. Click here to see all of the on-demand offerings. 

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.

MySimpleShow offers a great way to create animated videos for free.

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.
QuickKey provides an efficient way to conduct online and in-person formative assessments.

The Cat In That Hat Knows A Lot About That - Educational Activities Inspired By Dr. Seuss

Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss. If he was alive he'd be turning 114. Here's a set of fun, online activities that you could use to celebrate the work of Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That is produced by PBS Kids and features online games, videos, puzzles, and printable materials based on the stories of Dr. Seuss.

Applications for Education
If you're an elementary school teacher looking for some puzzles or games that your students can use both offline and online, take a look at The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. If you're an iPad user, you'll be happy to know that some of the activities are iOS-friendly.

Writing lessons inspired by Dr. Seuss:
The Seussville Story Maker helps kids write a Dr. Seuss style story. To create their stories students select backgrounds and characters then write their stories.

Read Write Think has a good lesson plan based on the book Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? The lesson plan is designed for K-2 students to practice observing sounds and creating words from what they hear.