25 Topics for Whiteboard Videos

Apps like ShowMe and Educreations make creating whiteboard-style instructional videos a relatively simple process. These apps let you draw on a white screen on your iPad or Android tablet while talking at the same time. Often teachers make whiteboard videos to use as lessons for their students to watch independently. But having students make videos can be a great way to learn what they know about a topic and how they think about a topic. Here are twenty five topics that you could have your students make whiteboard videos about.

Science

• Why volcanoes erupt
• The water cycle
• Ocean tides
• Tectonic plates
• Inertia

Math

• Adding and subtracting fractions
• The Pythagorean theorem
• Slope intercept form
• Compound interest
• Long division

Social Studies

• Ranked choice voting
• Branches of government
• Latitude and longitude
• Map projections
• Gerrymandering 

Language Arts

• Parts of speech
• Phonics lessons
• Plot structure
• Prefixes and suffixes
• Types and structures of poems

Other

• Rules of various sports
• Bass clef and treble clef
• How to read a clock
• Verb conjugation
• How wi-fi networks work

110 Videos About Careers

For nearly a decade I have been referring folks to Next Vista for Learning as a place to find and to share educational videos made by students and teachers. The Light Bulbs section of Next Vista is where you will find most of the videos on the site. The videos within the Light Bulbs section are divided into eleven topics. One of those topics is Careers.

The Careers topic on Next Vista for Learning contains 110 videos of people talking about their jobs and career fields. Students watching the videos can gain a little bit of insight into jobs in a wide variety of fields including engineering, hospitality, retail management, real estate, and medicine. All Next Vista for Learning videos are Creative Commons licensed and available to download for use in your classroom.

MathsLinks - A Good Place to Find Resources for Math Lessons

MathsLinks.net is a great site created by a mathematics teacher for mathematics teachers. On the site you will find collections of games, interactive demonstrations, and lesson ideas for use in elementary, middle, and high school mathematics lessons.

The best way to get started on MathsLinks is to head to the Links section of MathsLinks and select a topic and subtopic. You chosen subtopic will display resources like games, interactive displays, and PDFs that contain lesson ideas. Speaking of lesson ideas, the Starters section of MathsLinks offers plenty of quick "do-now" types of activities that you can use in your classroom. And if you just need some simple graph paper, lined paper, or blank pie chart templates, head to the Essentials section of MathsLinks.

Applications for Education
MathsLinks is a good site for anyone who teaches math to keep bookmarked. Whether you need simply need to print a graph or you're looking for a great interactive demonstration to use in your geometry lesson, MathsLinks has something for you. And if you want to get involved in making MathsLinks better, you can submit your own resources for sharing.

How to Use the New Google Forms Customization Options

A couple of weeks ago Google announced that new customization options would be added to Google Forms. Those new options appeared in my accounts over the weekend. If you haven't seen the new features, take a look at my new tutorial video to see the new ways that you can customize the look of your Google Forms.

June's Most Popular Posts on Free Technology for Teachers

Good morning from hot and steamy South Paris, Maine. As the calendar flips from June to July the weather flips from pleasantly warm to hot! Fortunately, "hot" in Maine doesn't last too long and is still not all that hot compared to many places. For example, it was much hotter when I visited South Carolina a couple of weeks ago and I'm sure it will be hotter when I'm in Virginia in a couple of weeks. Those are just a couple of the hot spots that I'm going to this summer to lead professional development workshops. If you're interest in having me come to your school too, please get in touch.

As I do every month, I've put together a list of the most popular posts of the previous thirty days. Take a look and see if there is anything that you missed in June.

These were the most popular posts in June:
1. Five Google Classroom Improvements Announced During ISTE
2. Huge Flipgrid News! - All Features Now Free
3. New Google Forms Customization Options
4. Quizalize Introduces New Differentiation Tools
5. How to Use Flipgrid to Publish Instructional Videos
6. An Easy Speech-to-Text Option for Word, OneNote, and PowerPoint
7. Lessons to Help You and Your Students Become Better Researchers
8. 82 Math in Real Life Lessons
9. Changes Coming to the Google Sign-in Screen
10. Educational Games for Elementary School Science Lessons

Bring Me to Your School

My fall calendar is almost full! If you would like to bring me to your school for a professional development day, please get in touch. I offer professional development workshops on G Suite for Education, Teaching History With Technology, and many other topics. Click here to learn more or send an email to richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com to book me today.

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. Send an email to richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com book me today.

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.

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.